And it's actually quite difficult for anyone to one-shot a decent opponent in SR4. Against guns, full defense means that people have a pretty good chance to dodge anything super deadly like a narrow full burst. And with DV's of 6 or less, most single-shot weapons can't one-shot anyone without at least 4 net hits.
That's kinda funny - I once saw an NPC one-shot 3 force 8 spirits between two passes, open rolls - no fudging. Not a munched-out NPC either, just good rolls (assault rifle base damage 6, apds so -5AP total, so needed a mere 5 net hits to punch through the "immunity.") But of course, that's balanced...but when a mage does it vs a drone with a required 6 net hits it's overpowered, natch.
Mages don't have some kind of inalienable right to one-shot everyone. I think the change actually brings them more into line with most firearms. Of course, you have things like full auto assault rifles, grenades, rockets, and other super high damage things that will tend to shame mages, I understand that. But most of these things have the disadvantage of being extremely noisy, highly illegal, and almost impossible to conceal. Unlike magic which is silent and can't be discovered in a pat-down search or with a MAD detector. Combat spells can still one-shot people, it's just not quite as easy. I don't see the problem.
Sorry, but the new rules make it more likely for mages to one-shot people. For a set damage value, overcasting gives less total drain than casting low and needing multiple hits. Old rules, the mage would actually (gasp) hope to roll well! To do 10 damage with a stunbolt a mage can overcast at force 9 and need one net hit for 3P drain, or he could cast at force 5, need the target to utterly blow his resistance test, and suffer 6S drain. Which is more likely to result in no downside for the mage again?
And, by the way, mages also have the disadvantage of being easily spotted (by a mage or even a cheap watcher spirit, at least until they choose a specific metamagic in an initiation,) highly illegal (> force 3 is forbidden, remember?) and utterly impossible to conceal when they're actually doing something (to spot a caster = 6-force successes.) How loud the spells are is going to vary by GM. And of course, casting those big spells leave easily traceable signatures that point right back at the mage and last for hours...(oh, wait, that means the GM should occasionally use a mage too! Broken! Broken!)
Non-hackers are shut out from the matrix, and that's a very significant portion of the game.
Nope, except by intentional self-limitation. Even (gasp) mages can use the matrix just as much as "hackers." Assuming they can spare the nuyen and karma...guess that means they're even more overpowered.
Non-mages are shut out from the astral, and that's pretty significant too. Non-mages are also shut out from being able to hurt powerful spirits, while the same spirits have an armor of 0 against virtually any attack that a mage throws at them. Again, there's a team for a reason. Mages are being turned into meat masters, they can heal you, levitate you, they can control minds, and explode heads... But they need help when it comes to technology. How is that any different from a hacker, who is the master of technology but needs help when it comes to flying through the air? :/
And there's absolutely no cost whatsoever for these abilities that mundanes aren't required to pay too, right? Nope, none whatsoever. Free build points, nuyen and karma for all mages, apparently. It's not like a hacker could buy the pilot skill and an ultralight (or a flying drone big enough to pick him up) for a fraction of what a mage has to pay for the ability to do it with magic. Oh, wait - they could.
That's true, that was a mistatement on my part. Mundos can indeed use Edge to prove pretty resilient to magic. But of course, they can do the exact same thing to dodge dangerous gunfire, as well. And a mage who wants to deliver the knockout punch can add Edge as well... Edge is on all sides of the equation, so it cancels out. The point is, without taking Edge into account, direct combat spells are AMAZING. You're talking about rolling skill + attribute against an enemy's bare attribute. That's like firing a gun at someone and getting automatic surprise every time so they can never use full defense.
A mage who relies on edge for the knockout, is knocking himself out...+1 drain per net hit for damage, remember? What drawback does the gunbunny have again? Must be really nasty to be worse than that.
And apparently only munchkin GMs would give the other guys a mage too - an easy +4 or +6 on resistance tests, why that wouldn't even out the odds at all.