Idle thought here that any weapon foci that has a damage code of Light, should actualy function as a moderate damage code weapon on the astral.

Why this heresy?

Well a unarmed awakened individual or spirit can at base, inflict charisma moderate stun or physical at will. The entire point of taking a knife with you is to make you more, not less, dangerous.

The extra dice are nice and useful against barriers and foci but not much good if your punching under weight in the first place.

I believe here we enounter the rules simpification and the psychic vs dual natured mechanics of astral.

In the same manner than a mono filament whip wont work on the astral due to the physical nature of its advantage. A normal whip is not deficient on the astral due to the physical deficient nature of its attacks, as its the magic and force of being that forms it fuctions on the astral plane.

Thoughts?

(And just once more for the terminally stupid, SR3 thread.)

You could use the same argument to raise the damage code of knives in the meat world.

I agree more with your other reason, that things like monofilament and dikote shouldn't matter for an energy form that you are taking with you to a psychic plane.

But don't think this ruling would pimp mages up - quite the opposite. Rather than the mage with a knife focus going "Yay!", you'll have the mage with the dikoted katar focus going "Damn!"

Ah. But my players have already experienced the "Damn!"

They have grown inured to this inevitable ref cruelty, so time to unbalance them with kindness.

Except they they don't have weapon foci so the matter is all academic, which is how I like my kindness. All technical.



There is an arguement that all weapon foci should do the same damage code and range and force should be the only advantages due to the bonding mechanic.

Don't get me wrong the current rules work, this is just some fine polishing so they are smoother in operation.

So how would you rule on foci used by dual-natured beings (ghouls, astrally perceiving adepts, etc.) using a weapon focus on a purely astral being? Let them get the reach, but use the astral damage (Charisma M)?

Of course, dual-natured beings are screwed against most astral foes, anyways, since the astral being can just stay 20 feet above their head and manabolt them until they're well-done. They're still better off than they are in SR4, where they can't use their physical skill against astral enemies at all.

doesn't a weapon focus use the usual attack strength even on the astral plane?
well, at least as long as the owner is dual natured with only astral perception and not swinging the astral form of the focus instead of the real focus by going completely astral anyway?

I find the cost of weapon foci rather unbalanced since it's horribly expensive regardless of what weapons you choose. End result is that you take a very dangerous mundane weapon since the cost is insignificant as compared to the force of the foci.

"Your feeble weapon is insignificant compared to the power of the force"

Yea, sure...

Reach & Damage modifier should affect foci cost if not for balance then at least for the weapons construction complexity and design.

Knife: 20Y +10000Y
Katana: 1000Y +10000Y

Seriously - why choose the knife.

Suggestion:

Weapon Foci Cost
Weapon Foci: 2000,00 X Modifier (Minimum 1)
STR+AP+Reach= Modifier.
Fixed Damage= Modifier
1/ 2 AP= Fixed Damage

Example: Katana Str+2 / Ap-1 / Reach 1 Modifier: 4 X 2000 + Weapon Cost
Example: Shock Gloves 5S / AP (+5) / Reach 0 Modifier: 11 X 2000 + Weapon Cost

Katana: 8K + weapon= 9000Y
Knife: 2K + weapon= 2020Y
Shock Glove: 22K +weapon=22200Y (Hell, you get 1/2 armour & elemental attack against spirits)

Using the SR2 & SR3 melee rules...extra dice is the only thing that matters.

Fighting someone without a dice advantage sucks! You take damage coming and going.

Yes in essence and th reverse is also true of the astral opponent attacks the ghoul with a weapon focus. Shouldn't be any more complicated than dual natured combat already is.

You lose some of the "must have a [fill blank] particular weapon" but this can be balanced by making weapon foci rarer so they are damn grateful the have one at all. Or higher force if the already have one, ref manipulation 101 ensues etc

I prefer this than adding another layer of complexity to the system to represent the statistical advantage of a combat axe to a flick knife. It would also allow the skill in the weapon to replace sorcery in astral combat per normal rules and preserve the advantage of the active skill in astral combat.