Having just Good Cover (50% of your target obscured) means -4 dice right off the bat. Add in street lights or darkened corridors and even with thermal/low-light that goes up to -5 or -6. Throw in some fog or rain or alternately have some cast a mana barrier and it add ups (highest modifier I've hit a spellcasting magician with was -18, someone overcast a manabarrier in the right circumstances). In Ranged Combat its isn't unusual for me to deduct as much as -10 to -14 (factoring in movement and other modifiers) in a running firefight (yes, this means a lot more suppressive fire and holding actions/opportunity fire).

This is something I think a hell of a lot of GMs ignore; although I think more need to look at the modifiers and the situation people are putting their runners in before combat starts. Hell, I don't know if our current Missions GM even worries about range penelties.

I think an important factor here is "running firefight". None of the characters in my game are overly built, the most powerful throws a 10 dice pool in HTH, and yet still fights either last one round or very few rounds.

With the exception of Ambush, (separating this line for emphasis)
one way or the other, most of the fights start without cover, or smoke, and lighting problems (or they have been mitigated). The party acts to ensure that they eliminate the most threatening of targets first, and by that I mean they coordinate to make sure that attacks culminate in enemies down and not wounds. If one or more of the mages gets a good initiative roll, its sometimes over before the baddies get to react.

The problem I have found is that if I include too many enemy mages, its over all too soon. Adding capable shooters increases the amount of damage the party takes but does not lengthen the fight considerably. I could add dozens of chumps but thats just adding time and wasting ammo.

I am still having problems achieving balance, and I know its on me to adjust not the game. Maybe things would be so bad if I didnt have impulsive players who will just start a fight in the middle of a scene. But would I love them otherwise?

Yup, I'm definately too nice.

By running firefight I meant pretty much any typical firefight that isn't a noon duel or an ambush.

A 10 dice pool in HTH isn't bad by any stretch, HTH tends to have slightly lower dice pools than Ranged Combat but it also has less modifiers (same with Spellcasting). Melee combat artists (non-adepts) particularly those using the Martial Arts rules in Arsenal typically have pools in the 10 to 15 range. Adepts and other specialists with min-maxed builds can go as far as 20 (with a couple of hyperspecialists going higher).


Again this depends immensely on the situational modifiers. If both parties have some sort of cover then and we're talking average visibility modifiers your magician should be taking at least a -5 or -6 modifier to his dice pool ( If the targets have full cover they can't even be targeted by direct combat spells). If, as you mention, these are not optimized builds that's a pretty big hit for someone who's probably throwing between 10 and 14 dice. The PC's dice pool will probably be in the 5 to 8 range and his average successes come down to 1 or 2. That means that the NPCs need only 1 or 2 successes for the spell to fizz. Average Joe Security guard with 3 Willpower still stands a chance, if there's a mage present he gets to add that Counterspelling (don't forget each NPC adds the full amount), and there's always Group Edge to boost that spell resistance dice pool (Edge is there to be used by both sides like you used to use Combat Pool, don't forget to use it).


If you want to reduce the effects of magic have the NPC magician cast a protective mana barrier spell in front of his cohorts. It does wonders even without overcasting and can even hold off spirits.


In my experience fights in SR4 are quite fast, even if you make sure you apply all the modifiers. That said they take longer and tend to be more damaging to characters than firefights in SR3.


As I mention above, there are ways to slow things down a bit and tone down the impact of magic. My tips for you are (the first three of which are the root of most imbalance issues I've come across):

• Make sure you aren't skimping on the visibility and situational modifiers in either Spellcasting, HTH, or Ranged Combat.
• Don't be afraid to reduce pools to zero. All it means is that making the shot at that point would be a fluke (use of Edge) and most players will fall back on Hold Actions until they have better odds of making the shot.
• Make sure the enemies use cover and that they use Edge (or Group Edge as the case may be).
• Have an NPC try the mana barrier spell trick next time. Have him combine it with Counterspelling. That should keep the opposition on its feet a little longer.

An important part of balance is imbalance. How do I generate a baddy who is tough enough for a true boss style fight? The intent is to build things into the baddy that the characters cannot do themselves. As so many people have pointed out helpful prep, lets skill that aspect. Most importantly, the baddy has to be hard to take down.
So far, i can see

1. High levels of initiation
2. Insane cash on cyber( not just a little but truly insane)

I am still stymied by the ideas of old, capless skills, vampires who grow stronger, and so on. Any help appreciated.

I've always found in boss fights, it is easy to fall for the computer game solution: buff up the bad guy...
It's more planning to set up, but a guy without ware can still be a challenge if you use tactics...
Make him choose the staging area, that way he can rig the lighting so the players get penalties and he doesn't, have him take up position on a higher level looking down, place some remote detonated smoke grenades, give him cover and leave the players wide open, throw in some mild cybergoons and the players have their work cut out for them...
In a fair fight they would mop the floor with these guys, so why would these guys fight fair?
This way you can make it hard for them to kill the players (low damage weapons, low skill, whatever) but also make it hard for the players to kill them (because of all the penalties in ranged and obstacles that need to be overcome before they can melee...
You don't make long combats by upping the stakes, you fill your baddy with ware and it'll all be over even quicker...

Just my 2

Against "bosses" you should try to:
a) give them the home ground advantage. This means the PCs have to deal with security measures, terrain, booby traps, etc as well as fighting the bad guy while he has the advantage of knowing the lay of the land.
b) never have the bad guy stand alone. Always give him backup, even if it's just 4 or 5 grunts. This stops the PCs from concentrating on the one individual.
c) add a wild card. Something unexpected that puts the players off their game and distracts them. Give the oyabun two bullet-proof Mimic-equipped Tomino cyborgs and sic them on the players, or alternately a free spirit Dream Pact.

Two other options that simply avoid confrontation (which combined I like to call the Moriarty factor):
a) give him a high Logic and Intuition and keep him one step ahead of the players. Have him actively avoid personal confrontation and the risks associated.
b) keep the bad guy "faceless." Have him act through unwitting minions and pawns who do not know who he is. This makes him next to impossible to target.

If you don't want your game to be too cinematic, correct boss fights are really hard to have since all it takes is one lucky headshot to kill most opponents. So you've got different options to go around this:

1) Have an inhuman opponent: metahuman cybered to the max (or even cyberzombie/cyborg), cybered-adept with maxed-out dodge pool, paracritter (or biodrone)
2) Use the setting: volatile gaz in the air (so no shooting), moving/unstable platform, running fight (rooftop/train chase), maze-like environment, hostages...
3) Have the boss act "remotely": the kind of vilain who'll only appear on screens/holo display to taunt the PC. He'll attack with traps, drones, spirits and so on.
3) Don't make it a physical contest, you can even make it a non-combat situations: the boss can be a skilled lawyer the player will face at a trial, the showdown can be a poker game (with everyone cheating of course)...

Or you can have the boss die happily of old age right before the PC catch him...

Thanks for the suggestions. I had not thought of the Dream Pact. As a matter of fact, looking through the adventure, I forgot to give my bady any sort of magical threat. /me slaps his own wrist. I also like the a combination of the Moriarty effect and Blade's #3.

I think my error was to get caught up in the psychology of the baddy. Sometimes "alone" isn't the same to everyone.

Too many years spent playing other systems, and I've forgotten shadowrun, sheesh.

I'd like to thank everyone who posted here and helped me out. Not only am I finally starting to get a feel for Fourth Edition, but the hints helped me turn a one night adventure into a miniseries.

Thus far, I have run the first section and having the bad guy use others to achieve his goals really added to both the story and made the combat far more challenging.

Thanks.

/me mutters about how Combat Sense and Counterstrike allowed the Troll to fight off an entire gang. I'll get him next time.