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Union Jane
Greetings, all. Please read and edit the following NPC. I want to make sure (1) his dice pools are figured correctly and (2) the stat block itself is formatted properly. Thanks so much!

Yuphani
B Q S C I W E M R
3 3 2 4 7 6 6 9 4
Init: 4 + 4D6* (29 + 1D6 in Astral combat)
*Due to sustained Increase Reflexes (see below)
Dice Pools: Astral 3, Astral Combat 8, Combat 7, Spell 10
Karma Pool/Professional Rating: 4/4
Skills: Aura Reading 6, Conjuring 5 (Banishing 7), Edged Weapons 6, Motorboat 3, Motorboat B/R 6, Pistol 5, Sailboat 3, Sailboat B/R 6, Ship, Ship B/R 6, Sorcery 6 (Astral Combat cool.gif
Knowledge Skills: Arcane Matters 5, Carpentry 5, History 6, Shipmaking 6, Multiverse 5, Space-Time Continuum 6
Metamagic (Initiate Grade 3): Absorption, Masking, Possession
Spells: Armor 6, Astral Armor 6, Clairvoyance 9, Fix 5, Heal 5, Increase Reflexes +3 6, Manaball 9, Mind Probe 8, Stunbolt 7
Edges and Flaws: Astral Chameleon, Sensitive Neural Structure
Gear: Force 6 sustaining focus.
Kanada Ten
Combat Pool should be 8 (Q+I+W/2) unless the INT bonus doesn't count for some reason, and Spell Pool should be 7 (I+W+M/3).
Zeel De Mort
Also, Reaction should be 5 ((Q+I)/2), assuming those are his natural stats; and Astral Initiative should be 27+d6 (I+20+d6), I think..
Union Jane
Thanks, chaps!
Eyeless Blond
I think the sustaining focus still works on you while in astral form, so long as the focus itself is attached to your meatbod. As a side note, keeping that thing active's gonna be a pain: first, you can't mask it, and second you're having to resist 6D drain when you cast the spell.

As well, there's really no point in stunbolt 7 over stunbolt 6. I'd trade that spell point to Armor. There are other ways to "min-max" this NPC, or at least make it more efficient, but as it's an NPC you don't necessarily need to do that.
Jason Farlander
QUOTE (Eyeless Blond @ May 25 2004, 08:53 PM)
As well, there's really no point in stunbolt 7 over stunbolt 6.

Sure there is. If the target has any TN modifiers (such as from damage, pepper punch, a sustained Agony spell, or something similar) stunbolt 7 is significantly better than stunbolt 6. While the difference between the two is less significant, perhaps, than the difference between stunbolts 4 and 5, there is still an important difference.

Remember: as this is an NPC, there is no real concern over "trading points." If Union Jane wants him to have a higher-force armor spell, he gets it.

Random side-note concerning Manaball 9: damn
Ghoste
The reason stunbolt 7 is no better than stunbolt 6 is because of the rule of six.
To gain a success against stunbolt 6 you need to roll a six, natch. To gain a success against stunbolt 7 you need to roll a...er well, a six. You're going to re-roll that die and I'll put a lot of money on you getting at least a one. Stunbolt 6 should do the job nicely.
Diesel
Until we hit the aforementioned TN modifiers. When you have a +1, the six becomes a seven (ie, still a six) but the seven becomes an eight, which sucks a little bit harder.
Jason Farlander
I am well aware of the rule of six. For chrissakes, man, read my post and think about it for more than 2 seconds.

Here, I'll break it down for you: if you have light stun, a +1 TN modifier, that increases the difficulty to resist a spell by one. Following me so far? Ok... Now, normally, the difficulty to resist a force 6 spell is 6. if you have light stun, that target number is 7. Given the rule of 6, that is a meaningless change. But what happens to a force 7 spell? It becomes TN 8 to resist! Oh ho HO! Even considering the rule of 6, TN 8 is, say it with me, more difficult to resist than TN 7.

If youll notice, I already mentioned that the difference between a force 6 and a force 7 spell is
QUOTE (Jason Farlander)
less significant, perhaps, than the difference between stunbolts 4 and 5, there is still an important difference.


Edit: rock on with the simultaneous posting
Zazen
QUOTE (Jason Farlander)
Here, I'll break it down for you: if you have light stun, a +1 TN modifier, that increases the difficulty to resist a spell by one.

While I understand your position, things that affect your spell resistance TN are quite rare (damage mods like that light stun don't affect spell resistance, FYI). I can't think of anything, actually, but I'm sure there's some esoteric rule out there that I'm forgetting.

In my experience Force 7 is a waste.
Jason Farlander
Asscrackers... its not as cut-and-dry as I thought, but im not so sure I'm willing to accept Zazen's comment yet.

SR3 pg 183, concerning spell resistance: "No target modifiers apply to this test except where specifically noted."

SR3 pg 127, concering condition levels: "The Injury Modifier is a universal target number modifier that applies to nearly all Success Tests the injured character may attempt, except those for resisting or avoiding damage."

Resisting stunbolt *does* seem to be a test for "resisting or avoiding damage, " but does that mean that injury modifiers apply to non-damaging spells? Why the distinction? Can saying that something affects everything except X reasonably not be considered a specific notation of its affect against anything non-X?

Another wrinkle: the same spell resistance test section also makes a point to distinguish between ordinary spell resistance tests and elemental manipulation resistance tests, with the latter actually being a standard damage resistance test. While you could count combat spell resistance tests as being tests to "avoid damage," the term "avoid" implies dodging more than anything else.

Even if you discount injury modifiers (again, something I'm not quite willing to accept_, theres still the relatively common sustaining TN mod. Sustaining is noted as affecting "all tests, including Drain Resistance Tests (but not normal Damage Tesistance Tests" Again, does "all tests" in this case not include spell resistance?

If saying that a TN mod affects everything is not considered sufficient to rule that it affects spell resistance, what TN mods exist that do *explicitly* mention their effect on spell resistance tests?
Zazen
I think that "except where specifically noted" is pretty clear. It means to rule out TN mods except those that, well, specifically note that they apply to spell resistance.

But no, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but then again I just got home after a long grueling day and just sucked down a good portion of tequila. smile.gif
snowRaven
Practical Reasons for Stunbolt Force 7 instead of Force 6:

1 - Mana Surges: if your spell force is reduced by 1, your still at 6, and if it gets increased by 1 you are at 8 all of a sudden.

2 - Nimue's Salamanders: They can reduce the force of spells cast within E x 2 meters of them.

3 - Drain: If you have a magic of 6 and, for some reason, you wish to take physical drain instead of stun... (not viable in this case, but there are instances it can be). Or, if you use Exclusive to push the drain down, you get to the 'lowest' drain power while still keeping the limited enefits of a Force 7 stunbolt.

4 - Immunity to Magic power: if it happens to reduce force by 6, you might still affect the critter. (Not sure if any critter actually have this, but in theory it's viable).

For alot of other spells, Force plays a role to limit successes and matters when quickening, and then a Force 7 spell has additional benefits.

(I thought there was one other instance where a spell's Force can be reduced, or you have to roll the Force in an opposed test or something... must be memories of 2nd edition I think)
Namergon
QUOTE (Jason Farlander)
Resisting stunbolt *does* seem to be a test for "resisting or avoiding damage,

While I don't have my books at hand and so can't be sure about wound TN mods for spell resistance issue, I just wanted to point out that a spell resistance (at least in case of combat spells) is NOT a damage resistance test.
You resist the spell, not the damage of the stunbolt. If you get let's say 4 successes on your resistance test while the spellcaster got only 3 successes on his Sorcery test for a D damage level stunbolt, you take no damage at all becasue you resisted the spell.
kevyn668
So, one could say you "avoided" the damage then.
Jason Farlander
QUOTE (Zazen)
I think that "except where specifically noted" is pretty clear. It means to rule out TN mods except those that, well, specifically note that they apply to spell resistance.

But no, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but then again I just got home after a long grueling day and just sucked down a good portion of tequila. smile.gif

I understand your take on the matter, Zazen. However, unless someone can point out a single example of a target number modifier that specifically mentions its application to spell resistance tests, I find it likely that your interpretation is largely the result of a poor choice of words on the part of the writers. (Something that seems to rather commonly cause problems...)

Union Jane
Never meant to start such a discussion, gentlemen, but I appreciate your ardor!

This NPC is meant to be more of a "story starter" than an actual participant. He's really quite potent, to be sure. I wanted his statistics complete just because I am obsessive about such things. I'm sure you understand.

So . . . other than the debate over Force 6 vs. Force 7, we all agree that the numbers look proper?
Jason Farlander
Other than the things that have already been mentioned, and the fact tha cool.gif isnt a valid astral combat specialization value, everything seems to be in order. You might want to change "arcane matters" to, sixth world magic, sorcery background, or some other canon knowledge skill; on the other hand, you might not.

Oh... it wasnt specifically mentioned, but, since your reaction is actually 5, your initiative should be 5+4d6.

Nothing else on there is a derived statistic, so nothing else can be considered an error.
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