Just wondering if and how anyone has ever used the item attunement metamagic or analyze device spell. It seems like it is only good for a narrow window of adepts or magicians, respectively.

Item attunement seems at it's best for non-melee weapons (like guns for the gunslinger adept) and cars/bikes (for the driver adept). I've been trying to figure out the optimal item for an infiltration specialist to attune and nothing seems great: chameleon suit (does that even work?). Given that you can't use item attunement on magical items you can't attune your weapon focus and you can't attune items "controlled through an electronic interface" so that leaves out your commlink (too bad hacker adept).

I'd imagine the analyze device spell gets a lot more use, but it probably is just another tool in the enormous toolbox for mages. =)

Any relevant input is welcome.

Analyze Device is a whole lot of fun with, say, a hurley stick (or Louisville Slugger, or two by four, or other simple, largely natural, chunk of wood that you'd like to use as a club).

Honestly, it seems illogical and broken. Oh well, that's magic.

Analyze device: plank of wood.

This is a plank of wood.

Analysis complete.

Sweet, +6 dice to swing it at people!

Wait, what? O.o

It's pretty bad even for complex devices. You have to wonder what they were thinking.

Well it looks like people have found a use for analyze device. Has anyone had an adept get the item attunement metamagic?

Well, in the case of the plank of wood, the spell can tell you exactly where to hold it to get the best leverage, exactly where its balance point is, exactly where its "sweet spot" is to apply the maximum force to somebody's head... there's a lot to be learned even about apparently-simple objects. Besides, IT'S MAGIC.

And all of that combined might maybe almost give you a full extra die to hit with.

well everyone has a lot to say about analyze device, but does anyone have input on item attunement?

I thought it could work on commlink and make for great hacker adepts, but apparently not as it has an 'electronic interface'. So yeah, outside of guns and vehicles, I don't know that it has tons of use. Still, guns at least is a potentially potent advantage.

Ew, you use guns and vehicles without an electronic interface? Bleh.

Yeah, I know, hence the ' marks. Guns generally use smartlink as an electronic interface, and vehicles will have gridguide AR, power steering, and various other electronic gizmos.

Can't use a smartlink to shoot akimbo, and that's one of the best times to have modifiers around.

So it a pretty much useless metamagic? The line in SM is "controlled through an electronic interface", so perhaps that prevents the usage of nearly all items it would be worth attuning to from actually being used.

Like katanas?

Bye
Thanee

I don't know, plugging in an actual keyboard to your comlink and using only that for controllink means your not controlling it throught an electronic interface.
Neither are you doing that for a gun unless you use smartlink to shoot the gun with mental command instead of just pulling the trigger.

it was implied that this was for non vehicles and non melee weapons

Bye...




I dug up a really old thread that dealt with this that said the very same thing. Apparently keyboards are not electronic interfaces... I guess I was confused about what an electronic interface is for SR. I mean obviously if you were on a typewriter that wouldn't be electronic, but apparently people think keyboards are electronic so I'll roll with that.

Therefore using commlinks in non VR seems fine. Sorry for the confusion Karoline. It was confusing for me too, because commlinks are listed on the item attunement table. Thus item attunement of a commlink is a strict upgrade over a typical commlink in AR and not necessarily an upgrade for use of a commlink in VR. Is that right? So the hacker adept can have a lot of advantages.

Edit: Oh, but the mage wins again because analyze device on a commlink is too pro.

Edit: Meh turns out Udoshi figured this out in March. http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...mp;#entry906934

In a rather high powered Campaign i build "The Best Marksman In The World". Who was an Adept with some Delta-Ware and Attunement.
He could have shot with ~32 dice before Tacnet.
Sadly i never came to play him.

I see.

Bye
Thanee

The key to interpreting it is the interface between the adept's body and the object. It works if the adept is manipulating the object through physical means, even if said object is then translating those commands into electronic form. It's given that commlinks come with a basic physical interface included - which may be a tiny keyboard, a stylus, or what have you, even a touchscreen - which is an integral part of the object that "normal people" use to manipulate their commlinks. Basically, as long as the adept stays with AR, and isn't physically restrained from using the object, the bonus applies. Using a DNI, or a proxy object (sending commands via another commlink, AR gloves, etc) would negate the bonus.

Hmmm... I dunno. Talk to a baseball player about his favourite bat.

Yeah, well, talk to a baseball player about corking bats.

However, that's exactly my point: it's lame to control anything with anything other than DNI. Not that it's impossible. A keyboard with a commlink is like using a Blackberry's chiclet keys, times a million.