The SR mage, especially one equiped with invisibility and a stable of spirits, is incredibly powerful and easily game shattering. I'm running a three player game (1 GM, 2 players) and we've only been running easy mundane missions until the last game. We swapped out the characters for one sammy and one wizard.

That said, the mage did some "holy crap" things with his magic. Casting invisibility (5 hits) on the sammy and letting him go to town. Unexpected and terribly effective versus a bunch of toughs that didn't have a good way to deal with the situation. I don't think that they got to fire one round.

Spirits are haxorz. You can chain cast spirits to their doom. Summon a force 4 fire elemental from hiding and saying "Go manifest in the helicopter's cockpit and kill everyone in it" seems to be way too effective. It seems that all tanks in the future have to carry at least one mage for issues like this and even then it'll probably be too late when with a fire elemental pops into material form on his lap.

Spirit concealment. Wow. -5 dice to perception is crazy when you consider that some enemies don't even have the perception skill and those that do receive DPs of 5 or 6. It helped made the extraction a cake walk.

I've started many a Shadowrun games in the past and ended many due to burnout. Now I'm starting to remember why I burn out so fast. D&D time again? (j/k... I think)

Edit:
I understand that I can have guys carrying certain pieces of gear to counter these guys specifically but I want to see normal ways of countering them. I don't want to force changes where they wouldn't have existed otherwise. For instance, I know that I can have every guy using Ultrasound goggles (I think that's their name) but does EVERYONE have those? If so, why are none of the example runners or NPCs using these countermeasures?

In 3rd edition Control Thoughts was also pretty ridiculous.

The solution is that opposition always needs competently-played magical support who can counterspell, banish spirits, also has umpteen spirits at the ready, and so on.

Right, but mages are so freaking powerful how do you not instantly destroy the PCs? A few spirits can make crazy quick work of whatever they are set upon.

Everyone should. It does not only help against invisible mages, but also against mundane ninjas wearing chameleon suit.

But everyone doesn't. I don't think the sample runners or the NPCs have them listed. Honestly, there is so much crap that people need to counter runners and security I'm surprised there isn't a master gear list some where. Guess it's time I go hunt one down.

This game is becoming a full time job.

Always has been in my opinion...

Anyway, to truly compensate for a mage, the opposition must have magical support... there are some things that you can do to limit the Mage's power, but to truly compete, opposition MUST have support of their own...

Keep the Faith...

I'm trying but I'm getting close to meltdown.

It seems like it's very easy for mages to begin battles first with spirits. So far in my games someone is getting the drop on someone else and it's usually the PCs (through ambushes and good planning). When the PC mage goes Astral he can just dump spirits anywhere, right? So if he thinks the opposition is up around the corner or in a vehicle he can go there astrally to confirm and start summoning or pulling spirits from standby, correct?

Spirits are just crazy powerful and I'm finding that what I have to do to counter them unreasonable and out of sync with what should be. If spirits weren't so bloody unstoppable (Force 5 and above) I wouldn't be worrying as much but god, they are so game breaking. They are terribly damaging and their powers really cause me some headaches. I guess drones are the same way; glad we're staying away from hacking for now.

I've been having similar issues. There are some anti-mage tricks you can put into play at lower levels.

Gangers should have a good distribution of stat points. If the boss and his leutenant both have high will and charisma, they stand a chance of resisting spells and popping spirits. Electric damage doesn't count as 'normal' damage, and so tasers and stick'n'shock rounds are both recommended - remember that tasers are actually legal. I'd go with a nice heavy stun baton, or shock gloves, though - they seem tougher and more in line with the ganger image. As far as Invisibility, remember that they can still be heard, and the gangers can always guess with surpression fire (have them roll something to determine how close they get so the players don't think you're cheating) or grenades.

Low-security outfits can easily afford motion sensors - those automatic doors at the stuffer shack will open for mages under Improved Invisibility because they're Ultrasonic. They might even have a security company on speed dial, some kind of rent-a-mage, who will go astral at the first sign of shenanigans and zip in with a spirit or two. They might also have wards up, or just equip all their guards with biomonitors Arkham Asylum style so as soon as one guy goes down they sound the alarm. It's also reasonable to expect all the guards to have a 'less then lethal' electric backup weapon for legal reasons.

Corps might have a mage on site; they might have a bound spirit covering the place, or dual-natured paracritters on patrol. Regular guard dogs have good hearing and smell, so they might tip off the guards about invisible infiltrators. Don't forget about pressure sensors - they're cheap and hard to get around. If you trigger an alarm at a major facility, expect a security rigger to be on you as well - raildrones, gas dispensors, doors sealing you in and heavy response teams on speed dial are all at his virtual fingertips if the team blows just one infiltration roll.

Just a few ideas, hope they help.

Here is a tip from our game... Not everyone agrees with this, but I think it works wonders to control the ubiquitous use of spirits...

When your mage summons spirits of Force 4 or greater, have them spend edge to resist the summonings (we use rating 4 as the start for this as smaller spirits, though useful, are generally considered to be less useful, as they are less powerful)... this will cause them to roll 2xForce for the SUmmoning resistance test, which can be very painful, and has the added benefit of using up one of the spirit's edge points in the process... If they are going to Bind the spirit, spend another Edge to resist that as well (3xForce... Ouch)...

Now, why would you do this you ask? Because spirits are not just some amorphous energy just waiting in the deep metaplanes for you to summon them, they are intelligent creatures that have their own agendas and priorities. Now, good roleplaying and proper attitude towars your spirits can mitigate this edge expenditure, but it takes constant effort to keep your spirits appeased and happy. And it provides wonderful opportunities for roleplaying the interactions of you, your spirits and the Tradition that you espouse for your magic... it adds some depth and breadth to the character as well... and also shows that Spirits are not just a commodity to be used and abused (as most mages tend to treat them in game, at least in my experience)...

I hope that this might help...

keep the Faith

Security companies should have a Rent-A-Mage with a few Bound Spirits. If they're chasing you in a chopper already why don't they have magical assets on their own? The corps would be the first to snag Talent.

Invisibility 5 means they couldn't see the Street Sam with any reliability. But they can still hear the guy, still smell him, and still hit him. Now if the Sam was just shooting with a sound and thermal suppressor it'd be harder to spot him.

If it was melee there'd be Blind Fighting rules to take into account, but gangers are tough unless they're 300 BP. They're usually proficient in close combat, one Troll should've been there for subdual. Pin the sam down. It'd be hard but they could've been smart about it, as predators often are, and circle their foe.

You haven't even mentioned Mental Manipulations yet which just lets you do all sorts of crazy without even needing the Sam. Spirit Concealment is kinda nuts yes.

Good info, thanks Mike. I appreciate you providing counters that aren't over the top (like "Everyone has Ultrasound!"). It's a good start. Do the book have any sections on dealing with mages and their shenanigans? Thanks for "shenanigans" Mike; I'm going to use that for the remainder of this conversation.

Sure is. Invisibility is bad, but how about Shapechange, or Influence? Or Mind Probe, for crying out loud! A spellcaster can do more-or-less anything he pleases to a mundane from as far away as the limit of his sight, and there's really very little [beyond getting out of sight; smoke's nice, and is a pretty inexpensive solution to invisible sammies, too] that mundanes can do about it. Yes, there is specialized equipment, but if the mage is a mile in the air being a raven before he drops the Powerball on the gangers, why would they be using it?

Professional settings have it a bit easier, with the possibility of staff mages, astral wards, tasked spirits, ultrasound systems, and all the smoke they can pipe to your location, but you're still not wrong: magic is a huge gamebreaker, and ultimately the only real defense is another mage, and he'd better be good at what he does.

Really? I ask because in real life, ultrasonic motion sensors are generally paired with something like a passive infrared sensor or a microwave sensor, and the door won't open unless both show [the same] movement; this reduces false positives due to electronic noise, dark currents in CCDs, and so on. If they were just ultrasonic, the local grocery store wouldn't set off your [god-damned too-sensitive] radar detector [that you ended up getting rid of because it made you drive too fast...or is that just me?]. Anyway, if it's different in Shadowrun, it'd be good to know!

Grocery stores that I frequent don't even have any doors, they are just a portal during open business hours...

I believe that 3278 is correct in hi=s assesment above...

Of Course... YMMV

Keep the Faith

I didn't want to be "right" here. I wanted "you are so wrong because you forgot that" instead. One of those rare instances I suppose. Well... should I boot the mage and go back to a two sammy game? Sure, they could only do the lower level runs but we had buckets of fun. Although it's like Pandora's Box; we know what happens with magic now, I guess we just have to handle it.

So, what is a good tactic for an enemy mage? Here are some scenarios.

1) Someone, a gang of runners, is breaking into the building that me (the mage) and my security team are protecting. I'm the only mage and I've got 1 LVL5 spirit in standby and I'm a good summoner (Skill 4). What do I do? Go astral and search for the intruders? Summon a watcher? Summon an air elemental to locate them?

2) I'm in a helicopter with my strike team and we are hunting for the runners that extracted an employee. What should I be doing? Providing overwatch for my helicopter with astral perception? Go astral and zip around the outside of the heli? What should I be doing with my spirits (2 lvl 5s on standby, can easily summon a lvl 3-4)?

Mages are supposed to be powerful and good mages are worth many times their weight in gold. Remember, if you have a mage PC, he is supposed to be able to walk all over mundane opposition if he is smart about it. It helps if you keep the idea that well-built PCs should trump the example runners and NPCs firmly in mind. Most of the runs aren't anything to write home about, but when the shit hits the fan, well... that's when you don't get to write home.

Well Said Toturi...

Keep the Faith

Okay, I see where you're going here, and I kind of agree, but how do you make the games fun? If the run isn't anything to write home about then it sounds kind of boring. And your other option was basically party wipe. In fact, this is my other problem: Trying to create fun game sessions that won't insta-gib everyone while still providing challenges. Before I started including mages again things were going well. Now I only see cakewalks or dead PCs.

This is a tough concern... balancing is always a challenge when mages are involved... but generally, the mage needs to be concerned with defeating magical challenges rather than the mundane challenges that the Street Sam is concerned with, this will tend to keep the players on par... proper tools for proper tasks as it were...

Sorry that I cannot be of more direct help, but it is late...

Keep the Faith

You can vary the opposition type. One day it may be another mage. The next a meddlesome free spirit. Yet the next day, a storm comes in and screws everyone over with a Background Count.

For myself, when I GM, I stress the lethality of the game system. I tell my players that if they do it right, things are smooth sailing. They usually play games where the GM thinks like you, I must "challenge" my players else it would not be "fun". They never know when the other shoe is going to drop. They can go for 2-3 runs with everything going smoothly, then on the next run, things go to hell (or they could just keep sailing smoothly on). The key is you aren't doing anything to jack up the tension, they do it to themselves. They keep second guessing,"What is he up to?" when the answer is simply,"Nothing." I always point out,"All I need is for 1 of you to screw up on 1 important roll and you are all screwed."

Every roll during the run, whether it is the Athletics check to climb the fence or the hacker getting into the system or the mage dropping the guards with a Stunball, they know that if they screw up, things go south. That's enough excitement, I'd think.

Id say the mage has had his moment of fun, and its not unreasonable to think that most security teams have some degree of countermeasures against the most common spells. Magic is powerful, but its been around a while now and Lone star doesnt just crumple up like a cartoon roach in a Raid commercial

[MAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!?! *BooM].

At the same time, you dont want to point the Magic gun the other way. So you need some Mage-hunter type characters. Of course they have ultrasound! Its the best vision all around! Before you can get line of sight you will have to overcome their mundane Infiltration and camouflage. Willpower augmentation and Spell Resistance will be part of any smart merc's arsenal.

If you dont want Overkill VS Overkill, or a spirit boxing match, have your mage be a counter-mage. Load him up with tons of banishing and counterspelling, with some visibility reduction and a couple tricks to keep him alive. And dont be afraid to use the characters' MO to load a trap for them.

Drone support.

That explains your sensor needs without being too overpowered. It's a fact of life that security's mostly a matter of drones and they help out immensely. Security companies aren't dumb after all, and corpsec would have all sorts of toys.

Now some of this is a matter of perspective. Two PCs should've been able to kick the butt out of four-to-six Ganger NPCs, especially if they have a couple dozen karma under their belts. Where they drugged up? Tempo?

No, excellent post Tymeaus. I forgot the main rule of a fixer. Use the right runners for the right jobs. A group with a mage are going to used for jobs that necessitates a mage's skills. Be it spirit issues (ghostbusting), stealing artifacts or a number of other magic themed runs. That is going to create quite the perception change for me since I'm not as rooted in mage running work as I am in the mundane. Thanks!



It's the "where the GM thinks like you" line that I need to address. I think you have me pegged incorrectly. I do not create games to cause issues for the characters necessarily, I create a fully functional world that they interact with. Any challenge that comes from that world is legitimate and never stressed to be any other thing that something that may naturally happen in the course of events. The missions that these characters are presented with are considered "challenging" only by what they are asked to do and what they are capable of. If I say "challenging" it only means that a fixer would not ask these highly trained and specialized runners to go shoplifting from Target or swipe car radios. I mean that if a fixer is to pay these individuals they need to be performing tasks that are up to what the fixer believes these runners are capable of. The right tools for the right job. And that is where my problems begins.

Of course I think I understand, it's just going to take a lot of work and reading the more magical side of SR. I'm so firmly rooted in the mundane side of shadowrunning that I struggle with the magical side. I need to create magic based runs instead of my usual and I think I'm actually looking forward to this. Thanks again gang.

Actually, I'm fine with 2 PC's destroying dozens of gangers, if they are intelligent about it. It depends on the gang, I suppose, but gangers aren't usually very augmented or highly trained. The typical runner is usually a somewhat stealthy murder-machine.

OK, I can go with that. To me, the job offers really depend on the fixers. If the fixer is a cautious, careful guy who makes damn sure when he sends his runners in for a job, they will succeed, then this sort of imbalanced encounters would result.

Say I am the fixer. I want my runners to succeed because when they do, it adds to my rep. My guys don't fail. So I go for overkill, I am willing to pay a premium for success, I am willing to take a smaller cut because I am looking out for the long term. Maybe I am small time, but I am bed-rock-secure small time.

It is up to you what odds the fixer is willing to take or how much risk is acceptable. My players know that if they get a job from Fixer A, it is small potatoes but they won't go hungry or get dead. If Fixer B calls, it is lucrative but risky. Perhaps you can vary the fixers and Johnsons that give them the jobs. Risky jobs may have an enemy mage on tap or go up against paranormal critters.

Awesome, then we're on the same page. The fixer that the team is using thinks along those lines.

My issue is that Shadowrun is known for one thing : A run never goes as planned. I like to give the players this feeling, or I would like to give the players this feeling, but it has to be done carefully. I don't want to force something to just screw with the players but I'd like the world to naturally take care of this itself; perhaps in the form of traffic jams, gangers, enemy runners / corps, etc. Otherwise our games would be very bland.

Two games ago the players broke into a place, evaded security, and got the data without every being discovered. Cool, it was an impressive feat, but appeared to be a milk run due to it's ease (and excellent planning). But milk runs don't make for a good series of games, IMHO at least. And due to my gamers' intelligence every game can be a milk run if I don't toss in a monkey wrench occasionally.

The mage issue is going to cause me all sorts of new headaches though. A mage-centric monkey wrench can easily kill the PCs. Going to have to think about this one.

We found that being dual-natured or going astral was often very bad. Because all the astral crap that can't bother someone on the physical plane can kill you dead in a heartbeat. For example, Manabolts from an atacker inside a ward is hugely deadly on the astral, because your PC mage can't see through the opaque barrier that a ward is on the astral, while the mage or the spirit can see out. Without LOS mana spells don't affect you, and you can only cast mana spells when you are astral.

Do you mean, "When you are astral, you can only cast mana spells," or did you mean to say mana spells can't be cast when you're physical?

In SR4 mages get huge advantage for minimal cost. However it was a lot worse in SR3.

Anyhow, we started seeing PC teams made up completely of mages. The spell defense and astral stuff are independent of how many point of magic you have. Given the right spells you can do some very clever things without a lot of points of magic.

The former. Sorry for the confusion.

Duplicate.

Mages can be quite game-breaking. Must be why I love playing them, ahem.

Good news is that while it's not as easy as with Technomancers to deal with (turns power off, shuts down stuff) there are still ways of countering Magic, as a GM, without being too overt.

1) Background Counts
2) Wards, Barriers, and more Wards. Use the various tricky kinds in Street Magic, so just in case one goes Astral for a little recon...
3) Mundane use of Bio-fiber walls and so on can inhibit spirits.
4) A confluence of cheap cameras and drones. For added fun, these merely send reports back to a central node, checking in once an hour as they do their patrols. They're in constant contact, but they can't be hacked easily (in case you had a hacker nearby). This means OR5+ for multi-sense illusion spells, which is doable.
5) Corpsec should be mostly nonlethal, so they'd be all for the use of SnS ammo, which is great for (or rather against) Spirits. It may do diddly against your Nonconductive-wearing runners, but their drones and spirits will get a shock.
6) Grenades. Be liberal with them.

You can always ease off if your players start doing badly in a fight. But it's harder to escalate and then judge just how much extra force is necessary to scare them.

But Background Counts do wonders, as does Mana Static for your wagemages.

Also, don't neglect the magical investigation angle. Spell auras and spirits do linger and can be traced. Making life hell for the Mage when not on the run should be one of the GM's pastimes.

Damn it, I've been putting off Street Magic. Time to man up I guess, I just read so freakin slow. And thanks for the other suggestions. I'm a bit weak on wards and background counts so I'll start studying those.

There are a bunch of ways to nerf magic to some degree, but you have to have a pretty good idea what is possible using the rules before you want to do this.

First thing to think about is that the visibility mods ALSO affect magic. So if it's dark, raining, etc the mage loses dice on combat spells.

In terms of nerfing, here are a few ideas, there are many other ways to do this. But don't do this as a first recourse.
Direct combat spells are the obvious, you can allow regular damage resistance to them. You can increase the drain. You can make overcasting prohibited or much more dangerous.

You can make mana barriers much more effective. Instead of it adding force as a die modifier, have it provide threshold=force.

Spirits. Have powerful spirits be really annoyed that some puny mortal is summoning them. A force 12 spirit is smarter than any metahuman.... You can reduce the effectiveness of their armor. You can increase the drain done by summoning.

Most players that have read the fluff know that things go wrong on runs. They expect it and start to suspect things when things go smoothly.

Some less experienced players get complacent. After a few smooth flowing games, they assume they know it all, get bored and they get sloppy. They skip the legwork, or don't do a thorough research. Things then come apart. Happens to almost everyone new to my GMing style.

How about keeping him busy on the astral? When an enemy mage starts throwing spells at the players from the astral, it's the mage's duty to step up and duke it out... leaving him dead weight in the meanwhile.

As for spirits materializing inside vehicles I don't think it would always be as easy as it sounds. The spirit must obviously be able to move at the same speed as the vehicle, I would also be tempted to have the spirit make a skill roll in order to match the maneuvering of the vehicle.

A rigger cocoon with 20 armor would foil even a high force spirit and by the look of things renders the occupant more or less immune to LOS spells and critter abilities since it has a structure rating.

Any larger, expensive vehicle would probably have built-in extinguishers. Especially if the vehicle is expected to resist gunfire. For example the M1A2 battle tank has a built in halon extinguisher and most aircraft and boats have something similar even if it's just hand held extinguishers. No one wants to burn to death in a metal box after all. If a fire spirit materializes in such a vehicle and is struck by the extinguishers then it'll have to resist a powerful attack that counts as a severe allergy

When the spirit is on the astral vehicles can not move fast enough to evade them nor does the armor protect the spirit from flying inside. From there it can manifest and gut the vehicle and incinerate it's passengers. And if fire doesn't do it for you any other spirit can be almost as destructive. I wish it wasn't that easy, but for most vehicles, it is. There are ways of getting around it but I don't see it happening often.

Marwynn gave a good list.

Don't forget that drones should be much more important in security than most GM usually have them be. (They cost less, won't run away and hide, cause less problems when destroyed... and there are ways to reduce the probabilities of hacking). They can be quite problematic for a mage.

Also consider that even if there might not be a squad of patrolling mages in every place, a lot of places will have passive astral defense that can detect astral/magical intrusion and off-site astral backup can arrive very quickly with spirits and projected mages.

Finally, my way to deal with mages is to have them become toxic/crazy/twisted for or because of their powers. It doesn't prevent them from being very powerful, but it adds some side-effects to this power. A mage PC will often want to get more spells, more Magic... often this means more karma. But this can be done faster with some pacts, or by attuning yourself to that "violent death" background count that tend to be around when you fight, so that you get a +1 Magic modifier rather than a -1.
And when you can control minds, you don't just use that power during runs. Come on! You've got a way to cut the line, to get a discount, to get a date with that nova-hot girl, to have her remember your night together as the best of her life...

Is your mage using Invisibility, or Improved Invisibility?
If he is just using Invisibility, then having a Security drone
with the security team works..just have it on Autopilot, following
the guards on their route, and its dog-brain is set to alert the
buildings Spider on encountering muzzle flashes or anyone in
the facility who is not broadcasting correct credentials. Guards should
also have biomonitors that, again, upon death or unconsciousness,
alert the Rigger and appropriate other assets in the facility.

Also, does not attacking make invisibility get dropped?

Do the runners also remember to put their commlinks in Hidden Mode?
Does the Samurai have the wireless on his Cyberware disabled? Do
they make sure to run a Tag eraser over their clothes? It can be amusing
for them to be going through the building, the Sam invisible, except for
the AR broadcast of "Jacket bought at Weapons World! On sale until XXXX, only 300 Nuyen!"
around him

Even Gangers should have little "pet" drones. Drones are everywhere, and so are image links. Regular Invisibility should be no real problem to counter.

I've got to say that spirits using edge after force 4 is a good possibility. Force 4 means willpower 4 which makes for a willful being. I'd flip a coin to see if they fully resist at that force range (barring good roleplaying,) but 6 or more should always throw edge to resist summoning. A force 6 spirit has a genius intellect and a heroic will. It should not be content to be ordered around.

Here's another idea for messing up the mage if anyone ever gets a bead on him. Equip response teams and drones with strong spotlights or diffuse lasers designed to cause blindness/disorientation. Without flare compensation, directed light can cause huge vision penalties on anyone. Much in the same way, sonics can be used on anyone without dampers installed. For instance, give him negative modifiers to sustain spells with alarms blaring.

I think the question is how materialization works. It's a complex action isn't it? Can it be done smoothly in a maneuvering helicopter without appearing with your head inside the rotors by accident?

Also if any spirit can materialize anywhere while going at astral speeds then a mage could ask a spirit to materialize in front of an enemy while going at 100+ metres per second. I don't have the books with me, but if you count it as a ramming test then even a low force spirit could do something like 20DV...

What are the options for mundane characters when it comes to fighting spirits, manifest or otherwise? The Immunity to Normal Weapons on a high force spirit makes damaging it worse than attacking some vehicles. A spirit that doesn't manifest is essentially untouchable by a mundane. Are there weapons a mundane can use to fight the astral, or that are specifically targeted at manifest spirits without allergies? Our groups mage is running the next session, and we've lost all our magical backup...

Your best bet is either APDS ammo or Stick-n-Shock and various Tasers, but yes that requires manifestation.

If it's on the astral it can't really hurt you. It can't cast spells or attack your astral forms if you're not astrally perceiving or projecting. So don't, if you can. Now, those Possession spirits are something else.

There are various drugs that'll let you become dual-natured for a bit, if you really want to punch a spirit. I don't know if that's worth it.

AV Rounds and AZ-150 Stun baton handles the manifestation portion, I guess. Not pretty, but better than nothing.


Now THAT... is an awesome idea. Does it only allow for unarmed attacks, or can you use a weapon foci to attack astral while you're Under The Influence?.. Assume I have no Magic rating at all.

Weapon Foci have to be attuned to you, and only Awakened can use them.

I forget if the drugs let you use unarmed in place of astral combat.

Hrm. Ok, a related question... Magical Compounds are listed as being usable by Mundanes or Awakened (Street Magic p88). Most of them give Critter Powers. I cannot find a power rating for these compounds. Since critter powers are based on a critter's magic rating, does this mean a mundane is SoL? Or is there a clause somewhere I'm missing that specifies the power of the compound? The price listings for the Compounds don't specify a strength or rating either.

Edit: Drugs let you use unarmed or weapon foci. However, your stats are based on willpower and charisma, not your physical stats. It sounds like going astral or dual is a bad idea for a street sam. Best to keep things in the physical world for now. However, magical compounds used by mundanes would be just plain fun.

You can't toss spells at the mundanes from the astral. What we've seen is that when the mage does his astral perception bit he gets manabolted from the astral. We've been on both side of this. It pays to be the guy laying in wait....

Ayeohx, since you have two players you have an opportunity to create a very deep and detailed setting for your players. For my own games the way I deal with spirits is to treat them like NPCs.

I detail where the spirits are from, what their motivations are etc. For example, my Mage player likes to summon Fire Elementals (mainly because he has a binding focus for them). In my games all of the Fire Elementals are from the same Meta Plane, but from two different factions. Some are from the Bronze City others are from the Black Castle (yes I've clearly stolen ideas from Arabian Nights, and yes all the spirits have vaguely Arabian sounding names.

They also have a very strict caste system, so say a force one spirit may be a slave and a force nine spirit a powerful lord. Also they are all different sizes. The force nine spirit would stand eleven feet tall, have the head of an elephant and bright blue skin, with all sorts of gold jewelry and pierces, and perhaps a huge flaming scimitar.

Once you establish this kind of detail, you could play around with it. Spirits from the Bronze City will fight those from the Black Castle if given half the chance. They may refuse to work with each other or end up yelling insults at each other during a run. Also a spirit from a higher caste may treat other lower caste spirits badly, refuse to work with them, or attempt to command them to do things.

All of this the Mage must manage.

A powerful spirit may take its time materializing, coming into the material world in a flashy matter (a Fire Elemental may slowly materialize from a swirling smoke at first then glowing embers appear finally flames and then a huge roar as the ten foot tall monster is finally materialized screaming "Great Sulaiman I come to do your bidding!" Also may not fit in helicopters, or at the very least if it does it may tear the thing up, bring it down from the sky exploding and destroying the spirit as it does so.

The Concealment Power I like to tie somehow to the Spirit itself. For example an Air Elemental using the Concealment Power would conjure up a thick fog. It may take a few minutes for it to build up and it would move with you, concealing all within it. Useful in many circumstances, but if you are sneaking around inside a secure facility, a thick obscuring supernatural fog may not be all that subtle.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Ok, just skimmed the thread but it seems to me that you need to lower the general dicepools and start imposing things like background count and reasonable "anti-Runner" security setups such as turning out all of the lights, strobing flashpacks, blaring loud music, and in more secure facilities, venting in smoke and fugi spores to make everyone's life more miserable.

Really Mages are powerful but virtually everything they do with their mojo leaves an Astral fingerprint that can really screw them over, you aren't giving them all of the time in the world to clean up after themselves are ya?