Heh. Yeah, that it would be.

Sorry to be such a newb. But I have a few questions.

What does BBB stand for?
What is Shadowrun 4A?

Because I don't see in my book where net hits are added to the drain value of a spell.

BBB Stands for the main book. Big Black Book, Big Blue Book, etc. The exact anacronym can be argued about, but who really cares. It's the shorthand way of saying main book.

Shadowrun 4A is the 20th Anniversary edition of Shadowrun. It is only out in PDF form right now as the printed version hasn't hit the shelves yet. A lot of the debates going on right now relate to a few rules changes printed in that book that will be released as an Errata for previous printings.

You'll also see it referred to as SR4.5. A list of common abbreviations can be found Here.

I just thought of something that goes with this that would help mitigate Overcasting. Keep the rule above as it is, but in the case of Overcasting (Force > Magic), the Drain is increased by Target's Hits x 2. It even makes sense conceptually because the Magician is channeling more Mana than they can safely handle in a spell, therefore they are more sensitive to the "push-back" that the Aura(s) give. What does everyone think?

EDIT: I should also add that ever since SR3 my games have had the house-rule that a Magician must remain conscious from the Drain in order for the spell to take effect. I never liked the idea of a Mage throwing a spell, dropping everyone, then falling unconscious. In my mind, Drain was representative of the mental and physical exertion it took in order to "ground" the mana into your body and shape it into the spell effect you want. So it made sense it my mind that if the Mage couldn't stay conscious through that effort, the spell would "fizzle."

You mean that isn't RAW?

That's the problem with having home rules to fix every edition, after a while you forget which ones you added.

I like magicians to be able to get their spell off and then fall over from the drain. It allows a PC to do that last heroic effort. I've seen it happen too and it was a great moment.

Obviously not going to work with Control Actions, though.

Hey everyone... I've got a question: How would a Power Focus work with the new rules with regards to drain? I mean in RAW a Power Focus is suppose to make magic easier... now it will most likely screw you over.

Not really. You get to choose your drain. You don't have to apply all of those hits to damage.

Alright, I'm sure that once upon a time someone probably came up with idea before. If they did, I apologize I simply missed it. Disclaimer aside, I've an idea for an overcasting solution.

Why not make Drain damage something that can only be healed by rest? No other form of healing can heal these boxes. Stun drain is basically already like this, why not physical? That this damage can't be healed by magic supports the idea that this damage is more than a bruise, but something more tied to a rift between your astral and physical self (or something along those lines).

Furthermore, I'd say that when resting, drain damage can not heal until other damage is healed (much as you can't rest and heal physical while you've got stun boxes marked). This just means you mark your drain damage with an X instead of a / (or whatever system works for you) kind of how White Wolf does their aggravated damage. With that being said, rest would heal you in the following order: regular stun boxes, drain stun boxes, regular physical, drain physical. In truth, this timing really only applies if you are doing something like resting the stun boxes away to better cast Heal on the non-drain physical damage.

With something like this, the risk of physical drain from overcasting is much more real. You no longer have the option to just pull out the 'Overcasters-R-Us' Rating 6 medkit and pretend like nothing happened. Seriously, doesn't the risk of physical drain go up dramatically if you have to worry about carrying it with you for the rest of the encounter, day, possibly run?

As I said in the beginning, this may have been brought up before, and if so I apologize. In either fashion, I'd love to get some feedback.

Thank you.

Someone pointed out that you CAN heal stun with First Aid per RAW. Which I certainly had missed.

That really doesn't change the idea though. What about requiring rest to heal drain damage? No magic, no medicine, etc.

Try the First Aid and Bleeding thread.