It is kinda arsey to stick sensors specifically designed to stymie the runners all over the place, since then they can't go anywhere.
Now you're pushing my argument to an extreme.
I didn't say that these sensors should be used everywhere. What I did say was that the use of the proper sensors in the proper places would counter this spell easily. If you have a problem with players walking around with heavy weapons in places that have little to no security because they actually have resources to be able to do that (a spell that counters the most basic of security) then my question remains, what effect would you like improved invisibility to have? If it can't let them get around security that isn't designed to find what they are trying to hide, what exactly should it do?
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The munchy PC was actually in an online game. My tabletop players are generally reasonable, although they do have their downsides. That being said, the mage can hit an OR4 more often than not, and he's little changed from chargen. Most of his karma has gone on new spells, and learning some small degree of skill in conjuring. The player is absurdly lucky though.
Really? Can you give an example of his die pools for a variety of spells? As I said, it's possible to be able to consistently (about 50% of the time or slightly more) hit OR4 on a select group of spells. But if the character is designed to do illusions they'll probably have a bit of a problem dealing with combat spells or manipulation spells that require that threshold. I, personally, don't have a problem with that. It's a lot of resources to spend to be good at something and spreading out your resources means you're significantly less likely to be able to handle that threshold in *any* area. After a bit of karma and some nuyen you can try to increase your chances in your weak areas through spellcasting foci, or make yourself stronger in your main area. The threshold still isn't easy, but at least it'd be possible. Again, I see nothing wrong with this.
People claim that this new OR means that these spells aren't "trivial" to cast successfully. My question has been, and remains, who are these characters that can "trivially" hit an OR4? Synner's example of a character with a rather large investment in illusion magic (a force 3 spellcasting focus) could do it 50% of the time and could only hit this new OR6 with Edge. Are there a lot of characters out there that can do that with illusions *and* with combat spells *and* with manipulation spells? And if not, if in fact they can only do so in one category after some specialization, is that really a problem?