It states in the BBB that the Mana Barrier is permeable to the caster. Does this include spells? Can I throw up a mana barrier and then proceed to cast through it without suffering the force negative modifier? I know I as the caster can walk through it as it is attuned to me and any others I specify.

Can I mold the barrier into a bowl shape to evelope my target? My mage's Magic is a 5 so the max diameter is 5 meters, can I make this larger by withholding dice from my Spellcasting pool?

ManaStatic is an AOE spell with a diameter of Magic rating, can I make this smaller? Could I encapsulate lets say a 4 meter diameter mana static field inside a 6 meter diameter bowl shaped Mana Barrier?

thanks

- The barrier does not work against its caster at all.

- Barrier spells can make up a wall or a half-sphere, with size scaleable according to AoE-rules (as in "only smaller, 1m per dice withheld"). Note that wards use different rules.

Per SR4, 173, dice can be withheld to reduce OR expand the radius of an area spell at 1m per 1 die withheld. Bowl shapes (half-spheres) are permissible, and would work fine for surrounding a target.

I´ve re-read the german edition. It speaks of reducing the AoE only. Can you please give me an exact quote?

(The player of our retired combat mage will have some less-than-nice things to say)

Turn to page 173 in your hymnal.

I promise that I have done as written - the german edition speaks of reduction only, and I´d like to have the original rule.

Okay, quoting from BBB pg. 173:


Seems quite clear. That is from the first American printing of 4th Edition, copyright 2005. The errata have not changed that.

Yours,
Joel M. Halpern

Thank you!

So I could encapsulate an opposing mage in a mana static field of force 5 with a reduced field size of 4 meters, within a Mana Barrier force 5 with a diameter of 5 meters. This would effectively hamstring a mage with a -5 to his magic and then he could not penetrate the mana barrier with any spell unless he really really overcast to beat the Force of the mana barrier.

Man are my players really going to hate that. If I can slap the mage and the adept in that and watch the fun commence.

One question. How are you going to keep the target inside the field and barrier?

With a magic of 6, even if he "really really overcast" the best he could do would be force 2. (6 - 5 = 1 effective magic... max overcast = 2x magic)

The flaw, is as aaron pointed out, the mage can quite simply walk out of the area (since anyone can "walk" more than 5 meters on their turn) and then cast back at you. You sure can use a complex action to move the mana barrier around (and can argueably do so with mana static, but its P not S, so its unclear). What'd work better, would be a mana barrier and physical barrier. Make them small radius (1 meter) and it gets really fun.

I will try that then. I cannot wait and see the look on the faces of the mage and adept.

For more multicast goodness... just do a physical barrier and an area effect elemental manipulation spell. Such as acid wave. Since they both affect the same area, and you can choose which order they take, have the Acid wave affect a 2 meter spherical area, and immediately upon the acid showing up, the physical barrier arrive and contain it in that area. (Also works great for getting rid of bodies)

Your magicain's team mates could alway just pin the offending spellcaster down with firepower. Walking does not help if it takes you out of cover in a fire fight.

Or you could overlay two penalty-inducing spells. Lets see your targets figure out where they want to go...

@Ryu what kind of penalty spell overlay would you suggest?

@Pendaric You do not need to maintain line of site to sustain a spell if I recall, plus I was thinking of having two separate sustaining foci for the job. I just wanted to level the playing field for my mundane oposition.

All in all Thanks everyone for the help. Keep it coming.

Depends on the effect you are going for...

Mass Agony + the AoE version of stolen sense (sight)

Mass Agony + Chaotic World

Orgy + Chaotic World

Would some of those stack? A lot of those penalties are from distraction.

I think most of them would. There's a difference between being distracted by things looking funny, and being distracted because it feels like you're on fire.