Just starting up a classic newbie thread here. Looking at the SR books, there are lots of spells that would be really cool for a character to have, but it's hard to figure out just which ones to get, and how high to empower it. I mean, obviously you want a good Stunbolt(5-6) on just about every character, but what else?

So I guess the question to ask the group is: what spells do you guys think are indispensible for any beginning character? For any character in general? What Force level should those spells be at? Or, if these questions are too general, what are the best, say, sneaking spells? Attack spells?

Try to at least include book if not page # for those of us who haven't memorized the whole grimore, thanx.

Magic Fingers Force 4 or 5. Just about the most handy (I kill myself) thing around. You can choke people a klick away or steal their keys. Open car doors or pinch your neighbor's... (SR3 I think, Telekinetic Manipulation)

Improved Invisibility Force 5. 'Nuff said (or nothin' seen). (SR3 or MitS, Indirect Illusion)

Barrier Force 6. Bridges, walls, domes and dams. (SR3 Transformation Manipulation?)

Everyone needs to know a mage with a force 6+ Heal spell. Preferably one that dosen't ask questions too.

Most people who think they'll get into combat take force 1 Increase Reflexes +3 and a force 1 sustaining focus so they can move at a similar speed to the gun-bunny.

It sounds like you're a mage then? If you're a shaman, I'd pull spells primarily from the one or two categories that you get bonuses in.

How many other people will be in your party? Will they also be magic users, and if so, will there be healers in your party?

The importance of a good "If I die, y'all are comin' with me" AoE Elemental Manipulation is very high.

I hate the generic "most useful spells". I've seen so many mage chars with the same old inviz, leviate, stunbolt combos, it's just so uninspiring.

Just like all sams pack wires, a smartlink, and a gun. There are some things you just need in that line of work.

In general, most mages will go for a single target combat spell (stunbolt or manabolt) at froce 5 or 6 and Heal/treat at at least force 4.

What spells you get after that is largely a matter of specialty. The archtypes show you some samples of different mage specialties, though their spell choices tend to be suboptimal.

but in general, you want your '1st choice' spells to be things that can not be duplicated by your gear. If you are going to be a gunbunny/mage then you might not need that combat spell...

You can't use both limitations for the same purpose. You can learn a force 3 spell that has the drain of a force 2 spell for 1 karma and the cost of a fetish.

Astral quests are the best option for those mages who can. A force 3 astral quest to the proper metaplane can reduce the karma cost by 3 if successful and gives 3 extra dice to learn.

My main choices are always:
Stunbolt. Area effect death, usually an elemental manip. Improved Invisibility. Heal.
Depending on the character I might throw in a few others Levitate was always a favorite of mine. Forces are up to you but I never go higher than 5 for combat spells so my base drain power is 2 instead of 3, Heal I like at force 4 but again thats my preference you have to get more successes on the test than the force of the spell for it to matter anyway.
Hope I've been helpfull

I usually have Stunbolt, Manabolt(for those things you just have to kill), Imp Invis, Treat(never had a firefight that lasted more than 5min, much less 1 hour). Armour, Levitate, an EM area effect, Magic Fingers, Clairvoyance/audience are all good secondary spells.

Generally, you want to take spells that are resisted at Force: 6 if at all possible. Remember, a Force: 5 spell is resisted if the target rolls a 5 or a 6, while a Force: 6 spell is only resisted on a 6 - that one extra point of Force makes it twice as hard to resist! Other spells can be taken a low force, such as Makeover, Levitate, Oxygenate (mainly to breathe underwater), etc. Be careful which ones you take at low Force, though, because some of them limit the number of successes to up to the spell's Force.

Spells not usually used in combat situations (such as Translate, Diagnose, etc.) can be taken as exclusive spells to reduce the cost. When using the fetish modification to reduce Drain, remember it affects the effective Force of the spell, which is rounded down (for Drain calculations) if it is an odd number. In other words, a Force: 6 spell with a fetish modifier for lower Drain is good, but a Force: 5 spell with a fetish modifier for Drain has the same Drain as a normal Force: 5 spell.

Shapechange, because nothing says "professional" like taking your pants off in the middle of a run. =)

Levitate because HELLO?!? I'm flying!!

Analyze or compel truth, because no one likes being lied to.

Armor because I'm soft and squishy and because if I cast it on the sam, he makes for great cover.

Heal/Treat, if I need to explain this one, you should be playing a decker.

You know, I could write a little blurb for almost every spell in the game come to think of it. Why don't we make a short list and name spells a mage DOESN'T want?

All the anti poison spells suck. The force needs to be higher than the toxin rating and rating 7-12 toxins are really common apparently, making the spell completely useless.

Anyone else have a really crappy spell they hate?

Kong

I generally don't give my mages Combat Spells; but if I do, I give them Stunball at medium to medium-high force. The increased drain for AoE is offset by the reduced drain for Stun spells. It's an easy way to take out large groups of weak guards-- in fact, it's the best way of doing so. The only other options are grenades or full-auto fire, which are effective, but loud.

Heal/treat is nearly essential. This is a good one to take as Exclusive, since you're not going to be casting it in a firefight.

Many players take Increase Reflexes 3 at force 1, and buy a spell lock. It's cheap, but effective.

The rest all depends on your character concept. I like to give my mages one big fragoff spell; generally an AoE Elemental Manip, designed to be a huge final attack before falling unconscious. Others prefer to give their characters manabolt and powerbolt, for more offensive damage. If your character concept allows for it, Control manips can be very effective; if you're going to be a spell lock junkie, then various detection spells (enhance aim, Combat Sense) as well as Increase Attribute spells, are your friend.

YMMV, of course.

What is the character's background? Who was his teacher, where did he learn magic?

Those questions should give you some ideas about which spells he could have learned (contrary to should have learned to be most effective).

My favourite spells are these (in no particular order). Assume Force 5 fetished for cost unless otherwise stated.

Mindprobe (SR3 Detection Spell) Gets you all the information you need, and if necessary blackmail material with it.
Combat Sense (SR3 Detection Spell) Force 2 or 3 is good since it's success based. Any addition to combat pool is welcome.
Physical Mask (SR3 Indirect Illusion) When you need to go somewhere without people knowing it's you.
Clairvoyance (SR3 Detection Spell) When you just can't quite see through that 28th story window.
Clairaudience (SR3 Detection Spell) When you want to hear that conversation across the street.
Treat (SR3 Health Spell) you only really need force 3 since it's success based, and anything above a Moderate wound is best taken care of with with a first aid kit first. Helpful when anyone other than the 0 essence sammie get's shot up.
Manabolt (SR3 Combat Spell) Kills individual people and spirits.
Manaball (SR3 Combat Spell) Mass killings of people and spirits
Powerbolt (SR3 Combat Spell) Blows people and stuff up.
powerball (SR3 Combat Spell) Blows groups of people and the room they're in up.
Magic Fingers (SR3 Telekinetic Manipulation) Force 2, keeps it legal and you're not likely to get that many successes to boost the strength much beyond that anyway. Good when you can't find your TV remote.
Levitate (SR3 Telekinetic Manipulation) Worth it at any force when you can't be bothered walking.
Influence (SR3 Control Manipulation) Because you want to take the influence spell.
Improved Invisibility (SR3 Indirect Illusion) Because your stealth skill will always suck.
Armour (SR3 Transformation Manipulation) Be very careful when and where you use it though, but it does keep you alive when the drek hits the fan.
Physical Barrier (SR3 Transformation Manipulation) Stops people, cars, bullets, materialised spirits, and keeps the rain off.
Transform (MitS Transformation Manipulation) Take at force 6 and fetish for drain, useful when you're a troll and need to squeeze through the vent shaft (just don't forget your clothes)
Mass Blindness (MitS Direct Illusion) This is brutal, as it effectively only allows your enemies a simple action, even then with vision modifiers
Trid Phantasm (SR3 Indirect Illusion) Look! A scary monster!
Increased Initiative +3 (SR3 Health) Houseruled by a lot of GMs, but you only need it at force 1 or 2. Be faster than the Adept and the Sammie
Analyze Device (MitS Detection) When you can't figure out what something is.
Fashion (MitS Transformation Manipulation) Force 3 Exclusive, so it's cheap but handy when your threads don't quite fit the scene
Makeover (MitS Transformation Manipulation) Force 3 Exclusive, adds flavour, and handy for the Face Mage to make sure they're always at their best
Healthy Glow (MitS Health) As above
Acid Stream (SR3 Elemental Manipulation) If you don't kill them, you can always leave them naked and horribly disfigured.
Ball Lightning (SR3 Elemental Manipulation) Because it gets into places a lightning bolt can't reach - which if you're a drone or vehicle isn't a pleasurable experience.

I'd urge you to consider taking force 6 spells rather than force 5 as they are twice as hard to resist (You get a 6 1/6th of the time and a 5 2/6ths of the time).

OK: So the drain might be higher, but in the case of combat spells it can easily make the difference between doing Deadly damage and doing Nothing. This mostly applies to Combat and Control Manipulations, and less-so to elemental manipulations that can still be dodged at TN4 and have the damage resistance TN reduced by wearing armor.

I would usually take Heal rather than Treat as it can be cast after any stun damage from drain has worn-off. Also: You aren't nessecarily going to be with your chummer when they take the wound. The advantage of using treat is that it's very slightly easier to take the drain from, but it probably won't even come into play at force 4 unless you're casting it whilst on damage modifiers yourself (By which time you're somewhat screwed anyway as it's harder to cast the spell in the first place).

Treat/Heal is for times when you don't have time to break out the medikit and do a Biotech check. Otherwise, Biotech is a far safer bet than a Heal spell, especially for the almost-0-essense sam.

To be diffferent, let's look at the spells for your average mage who isn't a psychotic combat junkie.

1) You don't want any spells at higher than force 3 - they're illegal without a permit.
2) You want to stay away from Heal or Treat at any force - The AMA has strong feelings about magical healing. Don't piss off the AMA.
3) Combat spells are totally useless for a well-adjusted person.
4) Mental manipulations are just icky.
5) Elemental manipulations are bad too. Just like #3, but messier.

Looks like low-force illusions, telekinetic manips, and detection spells are king. Luckily, you don't need to worry about drain much, so your spell pool is pretty much devoted to successes and spell defense. (Actually, if you look at the spells, they _aren't_ totally useless.)

(For those without a sense of satire - this post is supposed to be mildly funny, with a side order of thoughtfullness.)

It also depends on what you want to do with the character. An investigator/face type mage isn't going to need a Fireball: 6 most likely and would be better advised getting more detection spells. However, for a combat mage the package stays pretty much the same.

Heal/Treat (Depending on your tastes, I like Treat because if someone's hurt and you're sitting around for an hour before you get to heal them, they're in deep crap already.)
Stunball/Stunbolt (Remember, you can wake up sleeping guards to question. It's hard to question a corpse.)
Some other area effect combat spell (For those times when you aren't worried about questions and just want to get the hell out of there)
Levitate (Monowire-topped electric fence with pressure sensors and laser alarms on the grounds? Piece of cake!)
Imp. Invisibility (I don't see anyone, but footprints keep appearing in the snow!)

Single-target spells other than Stunbolt aren't advised because a silenced Browning Hi-Power is pretty much just as effective (If you took the skill for it...you DID take the skill for your weapon, didn't you?) and doesn't give you a nosebleed and a headache afterwards...well, unless the kick was a little too strong and you forgot your earplugs anyway...

Make sure to think carefully about which spells you make exclusive. Sure, it may seem like a no-brainer to make that combat spell (which already takes just a single complex action anyway) exclusive, but that also means you can't do it while sustaining any other spells. And Stunballing a group of guards while under an Imp. Invisibility spell is pretty handy sometimes.

Also, beware if your GM has MitS or Grimoir as Focus Addiction is a bitch if you go overboard on trying to reduce spell costs.

The Abstruse One

A fetish and a Force 6 spell is just as easy to resist drain for as a Force 5 spell, but is twice as hard to resist for your opponent just as others have mentioned. It's one of the best Forces to take for most direct-effect combat-oriented and control manipulation spells like Stunbolt or Control Thoughts.

I generally throw on a force 1 acid stream spell, because hey, who has never been in a situation where they really wanted to melt something? Something else worth pointing out, power bolt/power ball is the only combat spell in the BBB thats any good against vehicles. Those spells which target willpower won't work, and elemental manipulations are staged down and still won't work against hardened armor. Granted, powerball will be cast against a TN of 10-14 usually, but at least you've got a chance (and the vehicle can't stage it down). Alternatively, swap it out for a thrash vehicle spell. With one of those, you can make that mage a lot more potent against cars.

My favorite Spell is Petrify. There is nothing better than suddenly freezing the opponent into stone, "whelp, she was shooting at me... hmmm, what should we do now?"

It also works wonders against shapeshifters (can't regenerate if you are stone).

Force: 6 for a resisted spell is emphatically not a waste of time. As Rev and others have pointed out, you can either take a fetish modifier to get the Drain back down, or simply cast it at Force: 5 most of the time.

See, there are two things to remember about spells:

1. You can always cast a high-Force spell at a lower Force, but you can't cast a low-Force spell at a higher Force.

2. The only way to change the Force of a spell is to completely re-learn it. It costs 6 Karma to get a brand new Force: 6 spell, and it costs 6 Karma to get a Force: 6 version of a spell that you used to know at Force: 5.


My personal attitude is that you should only take low Force on spells that don't depend on high Force, which you will never need to increase. But any spell that you use a lot, where Force really matters, you should take at 6. It depends on how much difference it makes, though. For, say, Levitate, you could take Force: 5 and not worry too much. But for spells like Manabolt or Physical Mask, where the target is rolling to negate your successes, Force: 6 is the way to go.

Getting back on track here, let's look at a specific scenario so us newbies can get a better understanding of how to pick and choose spells. This is a character I dreamed up the other day for no apparent reason. Let's see how you guys pick his spells

Chiroptera (Tim Richards)
Human Decker/bat* shaman sorcery adept
B Q S C I W - E M
3 4 1 4 7 6 - 5.00 5(6 with Geas: Must indulge Matrix Addiction 4hrs)

Edges: Bonus Attribute (Int), Connected II (buying&selling), Tech School Education
Flaws: Matrix Addiction l (4hrs/day), Day job II (20hr/wk), Pacifist, Infirm II

Cyberware: Induction Datajack(A); Math SPU 3 (A); Encephalon 1 (A)
Total Essence Cost: 1.00
Bioware: none

Skills/Deck/Gear/Ect: presumably irrelevant, but if necessary I'll put up here.

Spells (so far):
Analyze Device (6) (Fetish for drain)
Analyze Truth (4) (Fetish for drain)
Lightning Bolt (6)
Increase Intelligence (6) (Ex-limited to learn, fetish for drain)
Increase Reflexes III (1) (Fetish-limited to learn, exclusive for drain) A *free* spell? Yikes!
Heal (6) (Ex-limited to learn, Fettish for drain)

Sustaining focus (Increase Intelligence) (Force 6)
Sustaining focus (Increase Reflexes III) (Force 1)
Spell points spent: 31
Spell points remaining: 4+5(from resources) = 9

Priorities: A - Resources -- B - Aspected Mage
C - Attributes -- D Skills -- E - Human

*Description: Around age 14 or so Tim was hit with VITAS. He didn't catch the disease, but it did leave him bedridden for months and scarred him pretty bad (Infirm -2). While in the hospital he became obsessed with the Matrix, as he could use it to get away from his sick and useless body. Even after getting out of the hospital he was a bit of a shut-in, staying at home spending hours jacked in. This was helped along by his rather light-sensetive eyes (maybe worth another Flaw, but probably not.)
Naturally his computer obsession helped get him into a decent tech school. It was there where he Awakened, experiencing his first contact with his totem while jacked in writing an Analyze utility for a class. Functionally his totem is fairly similar to the Bat totem, but the shamanistic mask looks more like a shimmering shadow than any animal, and the materials for his lodge/fettishes/foci are almost exclusively computer components (his Lodge is also his computer shop). Some deckers and otaku alike speculate that he may have experienced a strange form of the Deep Resonance, and use him as "proof" that the Deep Resonance is a magical phenomenon.
Chiroptera tried work as a corporate decker for some time, practicing magic mostly in his spare time. He never really took to being tied down, though, so was naturally drawn to private work and later to the freedom of the shadows. When not doing runs himself, he makes a little money on the side doing a little freelance deck construction and programming, as well as admining a Shadowland-based Matrix forum for buying/selling (hot) goods, an Ebay for shadowrunners. Most things are buyer-beware, but for a small premium Chiroptera will provide escrow services



Wow, that just went *on*, didn't it? I just kept typing and typing. Anway, do you guys agree that this is how this guy should spend his first spell points? And what do you think he should do with his remaining spell points?

(Edit): Added the Increase spells, along with sustaining foci for both. Wow, with that and a MPCP 6 with pure DNI I can get up to like 12+6d6 Matrix reaction as a starting character, and (theoretically) 13 hacking pool? Sweet! Jeez, and I thought this guy was going to be deliberately weak too.

@Eyeless Blond:
Firstly many GMs don't allow "free" spells.
Secondly you can't cast a spell into a fetish if it is exclusive
You're going to be having troubble casting that increase intelligence spell with the 12 successes at TN 7 needed to give the full bonus.
I'm not sure that increase Reflexes works in the matrix.
Aside from that he looks OK

I've got a shaman in my current game that loves 'Control Action'. Doesn't always work but he loves having a sacrificial lamb to run around with. Another nesecity with our mages is Imp. Invisibility. Keeps alot of trouble off your back. LAstly Armor especially when you team has a troll who can then play wall for other people. I know not terribly descriptive.

@Eyeless Blond:
As a GM, I wouldn't allow a character to use the same activity as both a Geas and a Flaw. You can't get two different benefits for the same thing in my book.

Secondly, I don't think doing illegal activities on your own time schedule has enough of a game penalty to count as a "day job" flaw. Working at a car wash would count. And you certainly can't count your 4 hours per day spent jacked in as the time working on your day job. You can't get three different benefits for the same activity.

Sorry, if you tried to bring this character to my table, I would hit you with a fish.

@Our Team
Do you really have a fish to hit people with? That would probably be more entertaining then using one of my PC's katana. Fresh or Rubber? more embarasing, or takes longer to start stinking? Hmmm

spells I can't do without:

shape earth. (spell that brought about the phrase 'toothpaste effect')
heal. (DUH)
manaball. (sit back and play awakened sniper with these suckers.)
gecko crawl (more fun than levitate, and really pisses off the character that gets 'adhesion' as an adept power when your character practically runs up the walls past them due to insanely good rolls)

don't mind me. i'm wondering why people don't seem to think of shape earth as a highly requisite spell....

The point everyone is making, though, is that those extra 2 dice can come in handy a lot, as well as the +1 TN to resist. Feel free to play however you want, but for the newbie, those extra dice on something he/she knows he/she is going to use would probably be better than getting another spell he/she may not ever use "just in case".

The Abstruse One

Well: I can understand striving for versatility if you're an aspected magician, aspected mages tend to work best when specialised. If you want magical versatility then very little beats the toolbox of a full shaman/mage.

[edit] Well: actually going aspected could be considered a choice to specialise the character magically, sacrificing some abilities but getting the rest cheaper, it all depends how you view it [/edit]

As for the 6th point of willpower, considering that: Conjuring and Sorcery are both Willpower linked, it's the attribute you roll to resist drain, it is a relevant attribute for the Spell, Combat, and astral combat pools, your willpower is what you roll to resist many different spells/critter powers, and that your willpower is often what other people use as a target number for the aforementioned spells; I have never been able to justify not taking it.

The actual effectiveness of having will 5/force 5 spells does depend on what your GM throws at you. If your GM often throws characters with willpower 6 at you, then your versatility goes to pot. If your GM targets you with a will-targeting spell then for more than half of the time that the Will 5 character would be toasted, the Will 6 character would be fine.

If you think Shadowland doesn't make money one way or another, you are almost certainly mistaken.

~J

Ok, this ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but some useful pointers on some spells:

Something to keep in mind with the toxic wave that makes it really useful: Even if it doesn't damage the target, it reduces both ballistic and impact armor by 1. While it doesn't list a minimum force needed to do this, there probably should be. As it is, you can go up to a tank and fire off one of these at force 1 every turn until its armor is low enough for you to crack. And despite the name, there is nothing toxic-shamanish about the spell. It's just an acid.

Fashion is an amazing spell if used right. Great for getting places you shouldn't be when there are other people around and you can't get matching gear before the run for some reason. Find their guards or maintance people and change your clothes to match.

Another character that I heard about that I thought was clever had a barkeep dayjob. Since she was a mage, she'd make some extra money with people who just wanted to get drunk quick by casting intoxicate on them. Then later she'd really rake in the money when people want to go home sober and she'd charge for casting detox on them. A good example of spells that might not have much combat use, but are a more realistic repitour.

If you're going with the rules as stated, decrease attribute can be devistating. Sure that troll may be impossible to take down, but what's his charisma? Drop it to zero and he's frozen stiff. Might pack a version for strength as well, to deal with other mages. We use a bit of house rules on this, as a charisma of zero shouldn't nesesarily mean vegetable, but that the character just attacks anything in sight. Int of zero is vegetable, will of zero is too much apathy to move. Str or Bod and you literaly can't move without breaking your arm off, and qui you are paralized.

Transform can be cruel if used right. Go up to the guy and look at him and he changes into a fish of the same bod rating. Or into something equally useless and possibly painful. I had a charcter once who used this, the decrease attributes from above, pain and cripple limb. Needless to say, he was kind of hard to get along with.

Magic fingers and levitate go well with the quadraplegic flaw. Seen a monkey shaman with this, no arms or legs at all so we called him stumpy. Just put them on a sustaining focus when he woke up in the morning and he didn't need them.

Animate. I've probably seen the strangest use of this of anybody here. We had to get into an armored train car, but the people with the guns inside thought otherwise. Stumpy from above set about using animate on it. Took him forever to get the roll, but he kept making his drain so it was all right. When it finally took, he had the car get up and shake it's caboose. This caused many problems for the people inside.

If your going for uping a group's target numbers, try using mass blindness, stench, and mass agony. Get all three on a crowd and their not doing much of anything.

One deal that my old GM made and now I make as a GM is that as lond as nobody in the party had any telepathic manipulation spells, he wouldn't use any. I've heard about earlier campaigns of his that had such spells, and he can be truly sadistic with them. You might wnat to make the same deal.

About the character you had there, I'm not sure, but I don't think you can take a spell with a limit to its karma cost during character creation. If you can, I've got some work to do.

And I don't think magicly increased speed works in the matrix.

Regarding Increased Intelligence, I once examined ways to maximize the final intelligence, rolling 24 dice for successes (using Karma pool, expendable foci, higher sorcery skill, totem bonus, power focus, ally spirit, ritual team, whatever).

Start Int 8, final int 9, 3+ successes, need force 1 spell
Start Int 7, final int 9, 4 successes, need force 2 spell
Start Int 6, final int 8, 4 successes, need force 2 spell
Start Int 5, final int 9, 8 successes, need force 4 spell
Start Int 4, final int 10, 12 successes, need force 6 spell
Start Int 3, final int 11, 16 successes, need force 8 spell
Start Int 2, final int 12, 20 successes, need force 10 spell

The observation here is that the final intelligence is lowest when the target starts at Intelligence 6.

It takes 36 Karma to raise intelligence from 2 to 6 naturally. It takes 10 Karma to learn the spell, and 12 to Quicken it really well, so 22 Karma to raise Intelligence from 2 to 12 with a spell. This analysis is what led to the observation that it might take Years to learn a high-force Spell.

@Kanada Ten: yes.

*Imagines a cat with 11 dice for melee*

My players are going to love this... The target has only a house cat, that he calls Tiger, on guard...

That's the kind of spell you Quicken.