My goal is twofold: first, to make augmentation more attractive, and second, to curb the power of magic at least a little.

The rule would be as follows: for each point of lost Essence (round normally, i.e., 1.4 round to 1, 1.5 rounds to 2) apply a -1 penalty to all magic rolls targeting the character. The idea here is that because magic targets the aura, it has difficulty when there's less of an aura to target.

Yea? Nay? Game breaker?

Sounds good. Expanding out, a char with 0.1 Essence remaining would have all magic rolls targeting them at a -6. Seems ok and not too overpowered.

It used to do that with Health spells. Not sure if it still does.

I have had a similar idea several times before, but never actually implemented it in a game. Would love to hear how it goes. Sounds reasonable to me.

A variation of that has been floated in various forms throughout the editions. I've always been a fan of it in spirit, but I've always had some lingering concerns about how it would play out in practice.

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

It would probably nerf mages too hard. I think a return of Skinlink with limited connectivity as commlink/deck accessory and a return of the halve lower value rule from SR4 would help a good deal more. Deal with the problem itself, too, the nerf bat brought to cybered characters, raher than nerfing another type of character.

A level of Magic Resistance (SR4A, p. 91) for every point of Essence below 5 seems within the bounds of canon. But it's a bit of a double-edge sword considering how reliant many shadowrunner teams are on quick magical healing. As an alternative, at some threshold value the samurai may acquires the equivalent of Arcane Arrester (Runner's Companion, p. 111).

For mana spells, probably okay. Heal already takes this hit, anyway, and it is a mana spell.

It's a difficult one as your turning closer and closer to a machine, so one could argue you should not get to use willpower but have a threshold like object but that gets into all sort of mess.

I like Tzeentch's idea of for every full point of essence below 5 gives 1 pt magic resistance (ie +1 dice to your spell resistance, can NOT be turned off for spells you want to happen to you- may need to look at heal spells to see how this balanes or just use their rules already in place for the direct heal at least, if normal resist rolls do not apply then a -1 to caster roll could apply) and should not too breaking as you would end at +4 Resist at 1 - 0.01 Ess plus it keeps with current theme of limit of 4 for bonuses and stuff

So quick recap

Ess 6-4.01 : Normal (you don't get MR for moderate surgery, plus some mages will have this sort of ess due to fights/minor cyber )
Ess 4-3.01: +1 MR
Ess 3-2.01: +2 MR
Ess 2-1.01: +3 MR
Ess 1-0.01: +4 MR
Ess 0 : Dead, consult your local delta physician and ask if Cybermancy™ may be right for you.

So lets take Sam the Street Sam with a 1 Essence and a Body 5 and Will 3

Sam gets slammed by a manabolt so would get to roll 7 dice (will gives 3 plus 4 for having 1 Ess or less)

Sam is about to get shot by a troll wielding a .50 cal so the mage tries to throw an armor spell on him to provide extra defense. Normally there is no resist, its just the mages hits to provide armor. In this case the mage would take a -4 dice to his roll as Sam naturally reduces the effect of the spell, drain would be as normal. SO he will probably get 1-2 less armor from the spell, figuring on the average. Same would apply for any stat boosting spells.

It is a good thought without being too unbalancing, but it has to be remembered that it is a double edged sword and not just a free bonus.

Plus keep in mind it also means if your team is going up against heavily cybered foes it works for them the same way. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Think I will try this out in our campaign and see how it fares.

The big problem with such rules, for me, is that they introduce a wide gap between magic and technology.

In SR, magic and technology meet. Sometimes they merge well, sometimes they don't, but it's not a divide as in Arcanum where technology misbehaves when magic is there and where magic fails on technology.

I would point out that the rules give object a Resistance based on their technology level, and already give a modifier based on Essence for Health spells. Such rules may be widening the gap, but it does not introduce it.

Also, do not forget that Magic Resistant Individuals cannot be the target of spells that require a willing target.

A very good point so the stat boosting spells would be out as they do require a volunteer. Armor and Heal do not specify the target has to be voluntary so those could still be used. It is sort of inconsistent but I suppose there could be situations you might want to heal/protect someone who may be resisting your attempts to aid.

You can NOT die yet, at least not til we are done with ya.

OR as you are houseruling this anyway, take out the part about not being able to volunteer, so they could still accept a spell in that sense, BUT the casting would still lose the appropriate about of dice based on the essence regardless (can not lower this part ever) thus lessening the benefits they can gain. Remember we are trying to simulate the effect so it does not have to match 100% to the 'normal' version, it's about the weakened spirit being harder for spells to lock on and effect in the end.

That is my concern as well. Which the player part of me thinks is great(Give those twink $@# munchkins what they deserve!), but the GM part of me is hesitant to endorse.

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

Go on do it, then when they have screamed themselves blue, pull a Dallas and have them wake up telling them it was just a dream.

I don't have the new rules, so I don't know how much an issue the "cyberzombie" thing is- i.e. being so chromed out you lose your humanity. That said, what's the *disadvantage* for a player to be chromed out, given this change? I'd say it significantly incentivizes them to be as close to 0 essence as possible. I'm not sure that's a game design decision you've taken into account. If that's a tradeoff you're comfortable with, I'd say add it in if you feel mages are too powerful. But wouldn't the response by corps etc. to fill their wage-slaves with random crap to barely keep them human, just so they would avoid being influenced by magic? How many more cyberlimbs are going to show up in your average security guard? That'd be my concern.

Off the cuff, there are a number of built in disadvantages:

1) Social Penalties and/or Social Limit Penalties
2) Automatic resistance against friendly Magic
3) Automatic resistance against healing Magic

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

All the more for the team decker to hack Especially if they get +1 MR for having wireless on. *JOKING*

But yeah it will encourage the min/maxer to go for the low essence, but best hope you never run into anything that can drain essence or its a short run as you wont have any to spare.

You have to be either willing or incapacitated for that to happen, and at that point, you have a LOT more to be worried about.

Aye, but either of those two conditions leaves a bit of room to play with, as any female vamp will certainly attest to.

Though to be fair, with that low an essence, your just as likely to hit hydraulic fluid as easily as blood.

How 'bout, instead of Magic Resistance you create a threshold for everything magical = 3 - (essence/2) and round down. So, good or bad, if your essence is 3, you add 1 hit that must be made for any magic to affect you. If the spell already has a threshold, just add this.
I like this because light cybering won't have much of an effect, but heavy cyber would have a bigger effect.

While it sounds good, objects get threshold resist, players get dice to resist.

You normally have to choose one or the other or are you suggesting the cyber party gets to have threshold like an object AND still roll dice for resist? This combination of the two effects may be a bit much.

Still it is a different approach... any idea how the numbers average out on it?

Also the math seems to come out to a threshold of 1 or 2. Even at 0.01 ess you have the following 3 - (ess 0.01/2 = 0.005) = 2.995 which if you round down is still 2.

Was this the intended result or did you mean rounding the ess/2 portion first ?

this would raise threshold to 3 for someone with a 1.99 ess or less.

No, my suggestion is pretty much how you read it. I see your point, but I like the idea of the mechanic being more "mechanical"

>edit. I haven't done any math on it. The effect would probably be less until you hit 2 essence. A threshold of 2 is a big deal both for negative and positive magic.

So if it is rounded at the end, you have to have essence 4 to see the first threshold of 1 and essence 2 to see the threshold 2 which is your cap.

Sort of makes sense as threshold 3 would be an object made all out of advanced plastics and electronics and as there is still meat in this package it should be slightly lower in resistance.


If its a mana spell it is not so bad as it just is resisted by Will & defense so threshold would apply right then at the start.

But if the spell is physical and the target gets to use Reaction & Int to dodge the effect before it goes against threshold before it makes its way to the armor and body

For example if I score 4 hits and the sammie rolls 3 hits between his rea and int that knocks my hits down to 1, still enough to normally tag the target. If the target has a threshold of 1 he would still hit but if the threshold was 2, this reduced effect would bounce unless I am looking at this wrong.

So a sammie will not really benefit from this until he hits ess 2 unless the math is off.

I figured it would be a regular threshold, which reduces the number of hits no matter how many hits you get.

For simplicity's sake, I prefer to avoid needless math. At least one of my players is math-phobic.

Which is why I was recommending added dice for defense. This adds POSSIBLE defense in that you might roll it or not, sort of like extra body or will where as threshold is basically like hardened magic armor.

But just use what fits your concept best as it is your game.