so I am sure there is a thread... somewhere. in the huuuuuge black hole of threads on this site. about this. but I cannot find it. so I am asking in a new one. what is the general opinion on how to deal with combat magic. swap the drains for direct and indirect? just use the opt. rule for direct spells in the book. something I have not thought of? or if you know where to find the thread talking about this. give me a link and I would be very appreciative.

Use the rules for "Noticing Magic" (SR4A, p.179). Concentrate fire on the Mage. Done.

Indeed... we find that there are no real changes that NEED to be made, as long as you are using all the rules.
Caveat: We do not have players at our tables that try to break the system either, so Your Mileage May Vary on that one.

I agree with the previous posts. If you use all the limitations built into the game, you don't need to change it. This does require the GM to work at knowing the rules of magic and thinking through consequences of its use.

A prime example is the astral 'signature' left by the use of magic. If a character uses powerful magic and fails to take the time to clean up after himself, he will leave an identifier that is unique to himself for all investigators. And any use of magic over Force 3 without proper credentials is considered illegal. So, yeah, on the fly blasting away the opposition looks cool and overpowering, till both corp security personnel and the police come looking for you. And in the middle of a running fight, who has the time or opportunity to spend the better part of a minute cleaning up after each spell?

Source?
All combat spells are illegal, but this is the first time I've heard that casting spells over a certain Force is.

Holdover from previous Editions, I think.

I had overlooked the signature part. silly me. either way a force 3 fireball with as many dice as he has is going to hurt. specially with its after effect. most things die :/ till another mage pops up >:3

6DV can't kill anything...
(hit on spellcasting is limited to force)

yes. but at the start of enemy round. they are usually on fire. and take another 6DV that round if I read correctly.

That's 3 hits! not net hits which means that actually getting 6 DV on force 3 he needs to miss all his defense dice.

true enough. but they still are out of the fight. they either A. stop to put themselves out. B continue fighting while on fire at a -1 already then at more - modifiers due to well.. being on freaking fire lol. but yes I shouldn't say "dead" just incapacitated.

Well, instead of a fireball he could just throw a molotov cocktail for 5P fire damage or a white phosphorus grenade for 8P fire damage without any drain.

true but not many mojo users have the free karma handy at chargen to plop points into throwing skill. much less agi. to actually get close enough to the people to hit them. with the grenade.

Well, for 1 point of essence and 38.000 nY one could get Muscle Toner 2, a Datajack, Skillwire System 3, and Rtg. 2 Cybereyes w/ low-light, thermographic, vision magnification and an eye light system. (All cyberware is alphaware).

Now the mage can plop money into skills, and greatly reduces his vision penalties.

Bloody hell fire damage rules is a mess...
This is how it works out
Our hero! Bob the guard gets a fireball thrown at him! (which is resolved as a range attack so things like cover matters)
The mage get's three hits
Bob has a DP of 7 (4 from cover, 3 from reaction)
Bob got 2 hits!
the DV of the fireball is now 4P.
Bob rolls body+impact/2 (3+3) and gets 1 hit, Bob takes 3 boxes, yowtch!
However on a tie the defender wins so his armor didn't catch on fire. (DV didn't exceed modified armor value)
If it did he had until the end of the subsequent turn to influence the fire (stop,drop and roll!) before the Fire either increases, decreased or stayed the same.
Stopping and dropping was enough to drop the fires rating by 2, it's now deals 1P that Bob resists normally.

your assuming he even has half cover. also. fireball would not be used on a single target. thats what stunbolt/manabolt are for :3 usually the guard would be walking around in the open on patrol. or investigating a strange noise in the hall way. but indeed. he took a turn to drop and roll (if set fire) and next turn is prone and may or may not have a weapon drawn. i do like how you did that run through though lol. you just forgot to show the numbers he rolled XD.

In that scenario the fire suppression system would douse them when the carpet caught on fire.
and Bob would call for back up staying out of LoS (try hitting that fireball with -6 blindfire and cover)

Remember one thing:
Technically, there is NO place without AT LEAST Rating 2 Background Count.
And many places with BGC of 2. And still several with BGC3 and per plex still some dozend with BGC4.
Especially in Corporate Laboratories and other such places. Either "natural" or by geomancy shenanigans.
If you have electronic sensors everywhere, have BGC everywhere to level the field.