If you keep beating on a mana barrier (doing damage every combat turn, allowing it no "rest"), you can get through it, then it reforms behind you. Is a magician aware of this? I don't believe they are. If you bring a mana barrier down completely (putting it in a "this/I fail or the barrier fails" position then winning the opposed test or by dispelling it), then as I understand it the magician is aware of this.

Nope, the only way to get through a ward unnoticed is to copy the creators aura with masking.



-CJ

i would say the alert only applies to wards, not to mana barriers in general.

so if you have a mana barrier spell cast, and someone destroys it, imo you won't know about it unless you have some obvious way (eg you are viewing it in the astral currently, or if the ghouls start to get past where you put the mana barrier, or if you set up some sort of complex electrical/FAB combined alarm system)

You don't think you would notice that the spell you were sustaining just vanished?

not necessarily. you might notice that you are no longer suffering the sustaining penalty (once you try to do something, and if you think about it), but you wouldn't notice the spell vanishing, imo. this particularly applies if you used a sustaining focus, or had a spirit sustaining it (though the spirit might notice... hopefully you haven't made it mad at you, otherwise you're going to have to make sure the service explicitly includes telling you if anything happens to the spell) or if the spell is quickened.

I thought that all magic you cast was mystically connected to you. It doesn't make sense that the way a mage knows he's sustaining something is a distraction penalty; instead, the distraction penalty is *because* he's busy being aware of sustaining it.

Even if a focus or spirit is handling the load, it still seems right that sustained magic is always tickling away in a mage's mind. They can, for example, always opt to drop any sustained spell, right?

Ok, so Street Magic says that. I hate how I have to go through multiple books in Shadowrun to get the full real story on any one topic (since the SR4A book says absolutely nothing about that). Urgh, so annoying.

How is this attuning oneself to a mana barrier accomplished or is it a remnant of a previous edition: http://www.shadowrun4.com/fiction/fiction9_frenchtouch.shtml

They do not have the word count to put every rule in a single book... as such, they create supplemental books for that purpose... fortunately, you only need a single other book for magical knowledge... this would be Street Magic...

Not sure why that is so particularly annoying, Pretty much every gaming company goes this route...

Keep the Faith

So, a barrier. Impossible to bypass by any means at all without alerting the mage(s) who cast the barrier? True or False? Am I missing anything, any metamagic technique, any spirit power, anything at all in 4th edition?

Are you talking about the Barrier spells, then? As quicker repliers than I have said, If you're talking about wards, you can use Masking metamagic to attempt to disguise your aura as one of the ones that's authorized to pass through the ward unhindered, provided that you've assensed that aura beforehand. It's in Street Magic. I'm AFB, so no page reference, sorry.

(Not being snarky-- seriously wondering which one you're referring to here.)

CeeJay mentioned it, but from his quote it looked like the creator would hear about the attempt. Street Magic does go into tracking the ward's creator astrally and copying his aura. Barrier spells work the same way that any other astral/physical ward does, right?

Yes, I'm sorry. I've broken out the books, and I was a bit turned around by the terminology. Yes, mana barriers created by spells are functionally the same as wards, my mistake. And to answer your question, no, the mage in question wouldn't be aware of you pressing through their ward if you had disguised your aura as theirs.