SR5

(1) A mage can quicken sustained spells.

But can he change the effect of a sustained spell after it has been quickened?

Say, a mage casts physical mask on himself to look like Harlequin. After a while he realized that he wants to look like someone else, so he wants to change the physical mask.

Can he just change the effect of the spell - his appearence - or will he have to cast Physical Mask again (and use karma to quicken it again)?

Our problem is Levitate: if a mage quickens it, can he change the effect of it at will? like move something up, down, left, right, change to a different object etc?

Or does the Quickening bind it so it can only do the thing it was doing at the time of the quickening and can't be told to do something else?

(2) Can a mage automatically drop a sustained spell, but then it is quickened, he no longer sustains it, so he can he still drop it automatically spell? or will he have to dispell it?

(3) Are there any limit to the amount of quickened spells or the combined force of the quickened spells that a mage has?

Thanks - we're apparently stretching SR5 to breaking point.

/A.

All AFAIK / IIRC because my Grimoire / core book is out of reach.

1) Depends on the spell and the spell description. Mask IIRC is that you choose your look when casting the spell - no change after that. Levitation gives you 3D movement without being restricted to "choose one direction and sustain it" so you would gain "flight" more or less (even it is rather slow).

2) Dispel. You have no direct control anymore about the "fuel" of the spell.

3) If there are limits they are mentioned in the power description. AFAIK there are no direct limitations, except roleplay, Karma and the world interaction.

SYL

No. You choose the appearance, when you cast the spell.



You can control the movement, but you cannot switch the target. When you cast the spell, you choose what you can levitate (like yourself).



Pretty much.

Bye
Thanee

As for changing the effects of a sustained spell that is quickened, it depends on the spell.

For Levitate, the direction can be changed but not the subject/target of the spell.

For Physical Mask, I would argue that the rules don't offer any firm guidelines. Personally, I take a more lenient approach than apple and Thanee. I don't want the player shifting appearances every three seconds like a T-1000, but if the spell is quickened then I don't force the player into the same appearance forevermore. If you didn't allow any changes, then the character could never change their clothes or cut their hair because the spell would override whatever physical changes were being made. Some would agree with that interpretation, which would greatly reduce the utility of quickening Physical Mask, but I don't take it to that extreme. If the player isn't abusing it, I allow them to update their appearance with a quickened version of the spell.