Some questions on Shock Gloves:

1) Can the Shock Gloves overcome Normal Weapon Immunity (such as an elemental would have)? Naturally, I mean the shock damage not the initial impact. If I read the book correctly, Shock attacks counts as electrical damage, which would be elemental and not "normal".

2) If it does, how would the attack work against spirits? Would it treat force as armor, half force, or none, or something else entirely?

3) If you have a power boost due to bone lacing (i.e. +4 from titanium), does that stack with the -1 from the gloves?

If I understand this correctly, and the shock effect ignores NW Immunity, why isn't it standard issue among shadowrunners (like form-fitting armor and the like)? It's sure a frell of a lot cheaper than a weapon focus.

Thanks

It sounds like the electricity damage would count, as long as you were able to attack the spirit physically. I doubt shock gloves count in astral combat.

A shock glove weapon focus? I wonder...

1) The shock damage would indeed count as elemental damage, which halves the effectiveness of the I:NW power

2) Against spirits, the power of the shock portion of the attack would be reduced by a number equal to the force of the spirit (half INW effectiveness). Against a force 7 (or greater) spirit, the shock would do no damage. The actual melee attack would not do damage as normal... read the spirit combat section in SR3 to figure out the effects of engaging a spirit in melee.

3) Normally, I would say yes, in that the (STR-1)M is referring to a slightly reduced punch damage... though against spirits this doesnt matter because spirit melee combat works differently.

I agree that they are handy things to have, but not all characters are skilled in melee combat and not all characters are aware of how to combat spirits. All characters, however, are aware that body armor is good, and body armor that doesnt restrict movement is better (hence FFBA being standard issue).

You know, it's sad that I've never thought of this.

Really, really sad.