Assume for a moment you were starting a new game and playing a magician. What spells would you deem essential to pick up at CharGen?
If you've never made/used a magician, that's perfectly fine - just say what you'd choose if you DID happen to play one.
It's not necessary, but if you are willing, please explain why - and remember, this is for posterity - so please, be honest.
All right, I've made my geeky quote for the day.

For starting spells I'd go with five particular spells:

Stunbolt Good for knocking out an opponent and lower drain then a regular Manabolt. You might want to go with Stunball to hit more individuals but this also risks hitting fellow runners.

Manabolt As a direct combat spell its great for taking down corp goons who have low WIL and no magical talent. There armor offers no protection. NOTE: This spell being mana, will not phase physical objects. But is still good to have since it'll harm spirits and magicians totally on the astral.

Powerball As a direct area effect combat spell, it'll harm characters you cannot see--like hiding around a corner. Also works on a door or something non-magical. Might want to pick up fireball or ball lightning instead so you can get an elemental effect. Otherwise enemies get to use full armor to resist damage against you.

Heal You'll get shoot up...eventually. Or maybe your buddy. Nice not to die. Just saying is all.

Levitate Mines are no problem nor are trip wires or even laser sites if you lay flat and fly close to the ceiling (GMs never trap the ceiling!). This spell is great for getting out of an unseen jam.

One Detection Spell Pick something out that suits your characters intrest. Detect Magic helps you find other magicians; Detect Enemies lets you know where the baddies are; Analyze Device will give you a +2 dice to using an object even if you're defaulting and untrained (NOTE: if you make a sustaining spell foci built into a weapon you effectively get a weapon foci for a whole lot less karma then normal.).

Hope this helps!

Sign--

Wacky

Improved Invisibility -- great for when you really don't want to be seen by the corps... or their cameras

Mana Barrier -- for those times when you really don't want that spirit coming over and eating you. It's also great for taking out motorcycle riders.

Cure Disease -- if you fight anything that can cause disease... this is your friend.

Indirect Combat spells may affect targets that the caster cannot see if they are caught within the spell's area of effect.

Increased Reflexes is always good, especially if you buy a F3 sustaining focus. If you're a combat mage, that's two more IP, and if you're a support mage, you can sustain it a teammate who doesn't have any (or poor) initiative enhancements.

Improved Invisibility is also good, because if you can't be seen by regular vision or cameras, then you can get the job done that much easier.

I also like to take at least one indirect combat spell. It's like always having a grenade ready for action. Feel free to vary up the effects - I replaced one of the ones from the book with "Steam," which just generated a cloud of scalding hot water vapor.

Although it's not in the book, a mage I played had a spell called "Gravity." It did the exact opposite of Levitate, with each net hit adding 25 kilograms of weight to the target. It worked really well when I increased the mass of a spinning tire on a van, or a Lone-Star officer's helmet. It worked... less well when I added 75 kg to a person's arm and then he punched me with it.

I see.
Is there no love for the mental manipulations? Or is mind rapery just that taboo?
Oh, yeah, what do people in general have to say about the alternate elemental types in Street Magic? And anyone have names for the varied combinations of elements that can result from the 'Firewater' spell (Acid an Lightning? Fire and Lightning? Water and Lightning (Zap...)?)
People also seem to like Improved Invisibility. Any nice tactics or little stories you can tell about its use?
Actually, expand that to all spells. Any interesting stories you chaps have? This applies ot spells being USED on you too...

I just had a thought.

The team is outgunned and cornered on the roof of a multi story building. The friendly neighborhood spell slinger thinks about using levitate and finding a new team but instead decides that he's going to cast physical barrier on the exterior wall of the building so as to create a platform the party can use to jump down and break through a window to the floor below. So my friends, do they plummet to their deaths?

I myself would allow it.

On a side note, mana barrier doesn't restrict living beings or physical objects. Now if the motorcycle rider has armor cast on them...

Actually, you are wrong.

Mana barrier stops living creatures and does nothing against drones. That motorcycle rider is going to hit a mana barrier and it will be like he hit a brick wall. The bike on the other hand is going to keep on going.

Mana barrier (environmental, Area)
Type: M • Range: LOS (A) • Duration: S • DV: (F ÷ 2) + 1
Mana Barrier creates an invisible barrier of magical energy with a Force
equal to the net hits scored. This barrier does not restrict living beings
or physical objects, but it does impede spirits, foci, dual beings, and
spells. If cast on the astral plane, it also impedes astral forms and re-
stricts visibility. Any target of a spell that is on the other side of the
Mana Barrier receives a bonus to its spell resistance dice pool equal to
the barrier’s Force. If the target had no resistance dice pool, but instead
has an Object Resistance threshold, increase the threshold by 1 for
every increment of 3 Force in the Mana Barrier (round up). See p. 194
for more information on mana barriers.

Emphasis mine. Dunno what spell you were thinking of.

He was probably thinking of the way manabolt affects living things, but not drones, and how it's a mana spell.
Then he thought of powerbolt, and it's 'physical' designation, and how it affects drones and living things, though not spirits or wards.
That's my guess, anyways,

Alter Memory: Almost as good for intimidation as it is for covering your tracks. Replace the targets last ten seconds with an hour of torture.

Yes, the character that uses this is an absolute monster.

Orgy!

With the exclusion of Increased Reflexes (since its pretty much a metagame requirement) and possibly Heal, there aren't any standard spells I take. Nor should you. It's pretty God damned boring if every mage the world round was exactly the same.

Bones, my last Hougan of Ghede, took Increased Reflexes, Heal, Intoxication, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Orgy and Fashion.
Filthy Rich, my last Rat Street Shaman, took Increased Reflexes, Stink, Control Pack (restricted to rats for lower drain), Eyes of the Pack (same), Gecko Crawl, Improved Invisibility and Stealth.
Valentine, my last Former SFX Artist, took Increased Reflexes, Trid Phantasm, Trid Entertainment, Vehicle Mask, Control Emotions and Physical Mask.

etc. Be flavorable and interesting, and make up for your weak spots with mundane gear. Valentine, for instance, had a pretty impressive Pistols skill to make up for the lack of any directly offensive magic while Filthy Rich was a secondary hacker to make use of all the information he garnered from his. The were all just as effective as any other team member, too, but they were all vastly different characters from one another with vastly different skillsets. As they should be.

Trid Phantasm- a beautifully open ended spell with near infinite uses.
Physical Mask- cheaper version for one person. Mask that cyberware!
Deflection- Make that squirrelly sam/adept even harder to hit
Turn to goo- It's just awesome!

On a side note, mental manipulations are awesome,
but they are largely illegal and highly feared.
Using mental manipulations will earn you a rep,
and not necessarily the kind of notoriety you want.

The character who uses Alter Memory for intimidation goes by the handle Nietszche. (shame on anyone who doesn't get the reference) He got his start shadowrunning going up against Aztechnology. And yes, he has become a monster himself.

Hehe... the moster who fights monsters. is there any fluff reason for the mental manipulations leading to this sort of notoriety, or is it just a general thing that people know or follow that people who screww with others' heads are assnuts who need to be dealt with?

Force 4 focus; you need at least 4 hits on the spellcasting test to get 3 IP, hence, the spell needs to be Force 4. Unless you Edge it, of course.

EDIT: My list:

Levitate - For all your 3-D tactical needs! Combine with the spirit power of Movement and never need a vehicle again!

Stunbolt - Low drain, deals stun damage, based off of Willpower. If you don't want to kill the guy, drop him. If you want to kill him, keep casting when he's down.

Blast (Blast element LOS) - Add Force to damage dealt for knockdown. At force 6, even if they soak all the damage, chances are you knock them down.

Sonic Boom (Sonic AoE) - Very good AoE that most people only get their Willpower to resist.

Increased Reflexes - 4 IP? Thank you!

Increased Attribute (Willpower) - Helps with drain and resisting other spells. Put it in a Sustaining Focus or other method of having it sustained (Ally Spirit, Quickening...)

Heal - You know, I've only ever used heal like twice.... And both times it was on my first real mage. Since then, I don't really get hit any more. It was useful though; I went from Overflow to fully healed in 2 days, my DocWagon included.

Control Thoughts - So much better than Control Actions, and useful too. I once used it on 3 mages in a research facility that were studying things we needed, and then made them all need to go to the bathroom at the same time. We stole the items and were out before they got back. The best part: no one had to die for that.

Mob Mind Control (Or whatever its called) - Awsome Crowd Control spell.

Combat Sense - Trumps Deflection 9/10 times simply because it works for CQC and Ranged.

Physical Barrier - Useful for forcing Crash Tests on vehicles chasing you.

Shapechange - When your natural physical attributes simply aren't enough! A must for all Free Spirit PCs!

Shadow - Perception penalties apply to ranged combat as well, remember that.

Mist - See above.

Physical Chameleon - See Shadow.

Mana Static - Dropping enemy spellcasters has never been so fun!

Crank - Nice utility spell.

Nutrition - A must for the Infected. Which I play. A lot.

I've been wanting to get a Electricity/Fire spell made, but the thing holding me back is that Fire Protection and Nonconductivity are the two most common armor modifications, and I don't want to make a spell that'll drain the crap out of me and not do a thing to the enemy. It would look awsome though.

One idea is using a Blast/Sonic shot. I don't know exactly, but I think it would be resisted with Willpower (and Dampers, if any) only, deal Physical damage, and add the Force onto the damage for kockdown. Really freaking good.

Control Thoughts-Yeah but can they prove it in a court of law? And who is going to blab that they are a weak willed individual? Agreed if you start using on contacts, random people, and so forth you'll get a bad rap. But to defend yourself against a bunch of gangers, corp sec goons, or help infiltrate an installation not an issue.

A Detect (something useful) spell.

Trid Phantasm-wonderful spell, make that hole in the wall disappear and 1001 other uses.

Heal-Um-you will probably need this at some point.

Sterilize and astral static-good for cleaning up the crime scene.

Finally stunball-low drain, and provides you with talkative "guests" should you need the company.

Street Magic p.8-19 describes the relationship Awakened people have with Society.
Pages 8-9 discuss the fear the laymen have, and pages 13-14 discuss law / magic.

Then there is the simple bit that mind alteration is scary and vicious stuff.
It isn't called 'mind fuck' and 'mind rape' for no reason.

You may want to re-read that post and the spell. 4 hits will get you 3 additional IPs, not 3 total, and you only need 3 hits to get 2 additional IPs, as was stated. Better luck next time.

As for me, I always find myself drawn to manipulation spells, usually for flavor. You can find tons of both combat and non-combat uses for Physical Barrier, Ignite, and Magic Fingers (not to mention Shadow). And has been stated multiple times already, you can't go wrong with Physical Mask and Trid Phantasm.

Ahh, I missed that part of the text. When I see Increased Reflexes, I automatically expect the maximum effect. If you can, there's no reason to go lower.


That was unnecessary.

Manabolt, Levitate, Heal are the three I'd start with. One of the following three is also very handy - Mind Probe, Analyze Truth, Compel Truth.

And Phantasm is hugely useful. I had a team of NPCs ambush my PCs with it. The enemy magician created a Phantasm of an armored police SUV with a turret, and pulled it up next to the PCs parked vehicle. Then the NPCs attacked, and the PCs were very reluctant to do much fighting back, because of the police vehicle.

I usually only buy a F3 sustaining focus because bumping it up to a F4 makes it 16R, and requires the Restricted Gear quality.

How has no one mentioned the demolish spell? Want to give your team the advantage? Demolish gun. Want to take some heat off your rigger? Demolish drone, car, etc. Demolish gun was always my most useful spell because it made everyone but adepts and a few drones with missle launchers near useless. Favorite story with it. Our team was caught in a fire fight, I overcasted it to get the extra AoE. Everyone including my teams guns were destroyed because we were all to close to each other to avoid it. My gm laughed a bit cuz the enemy still had blades, hammers, and a mage but he forgot two things. A blade adept and a heavy weapons adept who still had his missles. That was straight overkill. I didn't even have to do anything. They were kinda ticked bout the destroyed guns but its better then being dead.

Yeah, if you're going restricted gear, then get a Power Focus 4. Much more useful and versatile.
Do you use first aid before heal, or after? I know that one of them can only work before the other's used (if you want it to work properly), but I'm not entirely sure which...
A Blast-Sonic spell WOULD be awesome, but I kind of forgot that those double-element spells have insane drain. I still think it's took much, but what to do.
Wouldn't Mana Static screw YOU up as well? I can see it as being an immensely powerful spell in certain situations, but wouldn't it generally be something you'd want to avoid?
And does anyone actually USE turn to goo, or is it just one of those things you have to say you have it? Same question with Orgasm...

I use those heavy drain spells after I got to intiate 5 with centering. 8 logic, 5 will, 5 centering. Those die took a lot of the hassle off and I could buy hits on most of my drain tests. I used lightning and sound, thunderclap.

Its first aid first if I remember correctly.

Yes but if your outgunned by a better mage then it may be best to weaken you both and then take him down with some good old fashioned burst fire.

I've never used it but its a great way to sneak in somewhere if someone has a bottle and is willing to carry you.

That's a good idea, and thanks. First aid first does make sense - went back and took a look at the rules. And centering is awesome.

Also remember to choose depending on the game. In one where we went after a lot of infected talk to your gm about light element attacks doing more damage to those with allergy sunlight. That light/fire Super Nova spell burned away a lot of vamps.

That's a one-trick-pony spell. A Powerbolt can do the same thing, plus kill people.


Only if you are in the AoE. If not, then you can still cast spells, and as long as you don't cast at that guy, you're good. This tactic is best used with a group (so they can geek the mage without fear of manabolts) or if you as a mage has a good gun and a decent skill.


How much karma did you have? Like 100?

The problem is that is simply Light, not Sunlight.

I have to agree, especially in the case of vampires it is the presence of UV that does the damage, not the actual light. Now, if you want to make a UV spell that causes penalties to normal people with exposed skin (due to intense feeling of heat from UV friction) and causes damage to those with sunlight allergies, I'd go all for that.

edit: also, in the name of mixing elements for fun spell effects. Flashbang, just mix one part light with one part sound and you've got a fun spell to disorient people with.

I know but by the time I was using it our GM had weapons hardened against magic and I got bonus die for using a spell specifically made to destroy that item. Don't ask how, thats what this mission is for. To help the characters figure it out. Actually less then 100 thanks to all the things you can do to lower the overall cost. I think it was...65? I m probably wrong but I dont have my sheet in front of me. Logic due to a cerebral booster since I am also the back up medic and mechanic. The will was from Chargen.

My gm ruled it as the same because every other element stayed the same. If something was weak to fire it was weak against a fireball so why shouldn't something weak against light be weak against a laser spell. He just houserules it as producing the effects of natural sunlight which is why I said talk to your gm.

Lightning bolt, forgot about that. Its my anti drone spell and I drop em like flies with it. Especially after dual casting them. I had a 11/11 split with combat, health, and manipulation spells. Two overcasted powerballs dropped a group of enemies in one pass with no one else on my team even firing a shot. The drain hurt a bit but it was worth it to hurry things along.

stupid double post

I thought in second edition that mana barrier stopped living things from going through. I just thought that the spell was kept the same.

Nah, if that was the case they changed it - probably so Physical Barrier had some use
I guess if all else fails, everything's susceptible to beng shot with a laser beam...
How'd you get a split 11-11 dice pool with THREE different spell types?

It varies...
I like turn to goo for the serious intimidation involved.
It's like turning someone into a newt.
Only they don't get better.

I know I wouldn't want to be poured into my grave at my funeral.

Also
Making this a great spell for separating
the wheat from the chaff when looting.

Orgasm also has it's uses
(aside from inspiring laughter from immature pranks).

Don't forget about being popular with ladies and gentlemen as well! Believe it or not though, it does have genuine uses that at first glance seem like immature pranks. If nothing else it makes a great distraction or you can use it to effectively disable someone... and they are far more likely to not report it. "Yeah... well... you see... the runners got past without me noticing because I was... uhh... debilitated... with pleasure... sir"

Heh, I was talking about 'what, besides said immature pranks'...
Isn't Turn to Goo a sustained spell,meaning once the mage releases the spell, they DO get better?

How did I get the 11 split?

Magic 5 + Spellcasting 5 = 10 which splits into 5/5. Add power focus 4, a spec for manipulation, and +2 combat/health from dark goddess I think it was and that means 11 split for 3 different spell types. I only used my power focus while splitting to avoid addiction tests and didn't split spells to many times but when we really needed help dual casting an overcasted decrease willpower and then a stunball would cut huge chunks out of the opposition. As a note I used arcana to make the decrease will with an AoE effect since I didn't notice one in the book but the last time I actually looked in the BBB it was before I was interested in magic so it may already exist.

Not really - look at the barrier rating of the goo. It'd be a LOT of work to separate anything. Calcify was better, because calcium carbonate is really quite easy to dissolve without affecting metals.

Of course, the spells break one of the fundemental Shadowrun metaphysics rules - if you paid for it with essence, it's part of your body and is affected as such.

Indeed! It is a sustained spell.
However, most mundanes will not know this,
hence the intimidation factor.
I would just turn them into a newt,
but SR lacks a baleful polymorph.

And if they are still alive when you pluck the cyber from the puddle of goo,
they will not get better per se.

It did, the original text even mentions the motorcycle scenario. I was tired and not even thinking about previous editions when I posted.

Since the cyberware is sort-of part of their body, wouldn't it be goo-ed as well? Or has that been asked and answered already?
I'm still withing fervently for some kind of forced-shapechange spell, because I REALLY want to turn some foe into a cat or a bunny or something, then expose everyone to massive nightmare fuel by killing it brutally. Or by hitting it at point blank with a Flamethrower spell or something. Mage can be sadistic...

It should be, Bugfoxmaster, but the developers have weird-ass ideas when it comes to any kind of shapechanging spells. It's one of those things that's a total non-issue balance wise, but they stick to their guns like nobody's business because it's always been that way. Regardless of how stupid and contrary to the other rules it is (in this case, the paid-for-Essence rules).

Nevermind that it makes Turn-to-Goo the ultimate surgical spell that should be a must-have in any emergency room in the world. Gunshot victim? Turn to Goo and pluck the bullet out. Also nevermind that it should be an instant-kill spell to boot for anyone with an important or massive implant. Turn to Good and all their gear and implants are in a pile at their feet. Release the spell and poof; its still a pile at their feet and now they no longer have a fully function heart/brain/othrevitalorgan.

That would be the trick...

Move-by-Wire comes out WAY easier than it goes in.

Dr. F, exactly my thoughts.
I think the silliness of turning them to goo
almost hides the sinister side of it.

I am actually thankful that we don't have to deal with the conundrum that is baleful polymorph from other games.

And really, it's probably easier to just cyber up a bunny, debilitate someone with orgasm, and watch the bunny tear it up.

Or just manifest your beast spirit as the vorpal bunny
and counterspell any holy-hand grenades.

Which reminds me to point out that a decent counter-spell skill
is easily worth the points and then some.

And here I was just WONDERING where the Monty Python references would start...
Is there any official word on the Turn to Goo phenomenon, or are we all just assuming (due to bad wording in the book) that it's possible to pluck all the victim's implants and cyberware and all out as they fall to the floor as a mushy heap.
It'd seem that genetech would stay in, but what about Nanotech and Bioware? Neither truly incorporates itself into the user's body (in terms of 'becoming PART of them'). Would they fall out too, or do people now have to worry about having their synthacardium ejected via gooeyness?

My post from way up the page quote from the book,
saying, "Non-living material - including clothing, gear, and cyberware - is not affected"
meaning that genetech and biowear would probably turn to goo.