Well, for the first time in one of my games, a player decided to play a full magician, a Cat shaman in this case. She chose some stealth/manipulation spells (Improved invis., Physical mask, control emotion, etc.), and got to work. Her first task was to scout out the second level of a Yakuza-contolled dance bar. She went into the bathroom, cast physical mask to look like a trusted patron, and headed out to the stairs (guarded by a low level soldier). The force of the spell was 5, his intelligence was 2. He got a 6, so he saw through the spell.

Is it just me, or is this a little underpowered? Did I misinterpet any rules?

I know it's a good roll, but still. Are there any canon modifiers I could add (will use house rules if I have to, but I'd rather stick to cannon)? Force 5 is pretty respectable, and har to resist for drain, yet anyone with an int or 3 has a sizable chance of pentrating the illusion.

How many successes did she get on the casting?

The target must get more successes than the caster to see through an illusion spell.

Kaneda nailed it. For a while, I misread the rules to think that just meeting the force of the spell on resistence was enough, and that made me think that illusions and spells with simillar mechanics were worthless. But that's just because I forgot about spellcasting successes.

Yup. you're right. That would explain a lot. Thanks guys