My party's mage is asking for clarification on the description for Physical Barrier.


Now, if we take that as written, the Force of the spell only effects how many Net Hits you get to use, which is pretty brutal. A Force 6 P.Barrier, for instance, is Drain 6 and will probably only create a Rating 3~4 barrier - not enough to stop a guard's 9mm. It would be an extra bit of armor, and the -1 for Visibility isn't terrible...but it's not a Drain 6 effect.

If we assume it was supposed to be Force+Net Hits, then that same Force 6 P.Barrier above is going to be essentially Hardened Armor 9, which is damned effective. Of course, I don't see anything that says the PCs get to shoot back without penetrating the barrier, so it will take some planning to make it work.

Speaking of penetrating the barrier, does simply getting a shot through pop it, or do you need to actually make an attack to destroy the barrier?

Yeah, Physical Barrier isn't the best spell to negate gunfire.

It is, however, a great spell to deflect grenades.

...or people running behind you/coming for you. or maybe you need a makeshift bridge etc

And if you most likely only get about 3-4 hits anyways, why are you casting at force 6 (apart from the obvious point of never casting at even force at all)?
If you want to defend yourself from gunfire, cast armor. You use physical barrier as a battlefield manipulation spell.
And yes, you usually need to grab centering before it's really worth it.

If you have enemies shooting at you, the most effective use of magic is to kill them, not try to tank up. Shadowrun is not a game where Attack and Defense are in balance with each other. In, for example D&D, they are because D&D wants two groups to have a fair fight and slug it out. In Shadowrun they are not, because Shadowrun wants you to betray your allies or sneak up on people, and get that critical first blow. He who strikes first, strikes last.

-K.

Chase combat is when Physical Barrier shines. Dropping force 1 barriers one after the other will pile on crash tests sufficient to cause mayhem. Also it seems like a bit of protection from indirect combat spells as well.

Here's one: co-ordinate with your samurai to drop a Barrier over your enemies just after he throws a grenade at their feet. As Nifft says, "it's a great way to deflect grenades".

K.

Mages need to research and create the "dome of chunky salsa" spell.

Oh shi-
I just realized, bouncing shockwaves on floors make every grenade blast nearly double damage. Do floors or ceilings count for blast reflection? That would be silly. Though, I suppose catching an HE grenade to the chest and taking a minimum of 14P -2AP sounds pretty reasonable. After all, it's a point blank grenade blast... Easily comparable to a 9 shot 9mm burst.

It's been raised before. Opinions as to how it should work differ as the RAW doesn't explicitly specify it. A strict technical reading allows for the possibility that grenades always do extra damage by bouncing off the floor. General sense suggests that it's probably just an oversight or that the writers didn't feel it necessary to specify this. As grenade battles seldom take place in mid-air, it would be a pain to always add an extra calculation to every grenade attack, or just say that the amount includes the effect of the floor and ceiling. I think most GMs just bring it in as an additional factor in exceptional circumstances, like if the PCs were pot-holing. But everyone has had differing stances on the matter. For the sake of your game, my personal recommendation is to keep things 2-dimensional unless you have a reason not to.

K.

might do double if you were directly above the grenade. the waves moving outwards in general are not moving downwards first though, they just move outwards.

So anyone have any idea how effective are grenade pits?

Definition (ordnance) A pit, usually at the bottom of an incline, to catch hand grenades and limit the effects of their explosion.

From pictures, I've seen they are around 2 feed wide and maybe three feed deep.

That would change the grenade in to a shot gun blast headed for the ceiling.

They would be used in a earthen bunker/entrenchment. I wonder what would happen if used in a concrete bunker. Wouldn't want to be the one actually finding out.