I am confused by the magical barrier rules and the apparent contradictions on how a barrier can be brought down.

e.g.

Mage casts a force 6 bullet barrier. opponent fires pistol at mage. Pistols force is reduced by barrier but not to zero so bullet go's through.

Now does the barrier collapse as it has been penetrated or by following the barrier rules does it require double the barrier rating to collapse it?

Your help with this question would be appreciated.

Actually, any attack who's power is equal or greater then 1/2 the adjusted barrier rating will bring the rating down 1 point, thus in the case of this spell, destroy the spell.

Since it says adjusted rating, I take it to mean the barrier has twice it's rating ves firearms. So half of twice is 1. So any attack greater then the Force of the spell will destroy the barrier. Sucks, neh?

I don't play that a Power 9 pistol shot destroys a Force 9 Bullet Barrier. Sorry, that just doesn't seem right to me. The 9M pistol can be purchased by any street punk, while the Force 9 bullet barrier might take a magician 6 months to learn. The Force 9 bullet barrier is an awesome defensive capability, and should not be easily destroyed.

No where do I see that lowering by 1 the barrier rating of a magical barrier would cause the destruction of the barrier. In addition, as a house rule, I play that magical barriers are restored to full barrier rating if they are left alone for a Combat Turn, the same as for astral barriers (bottom left p. 176).

Hmm, well:

p.198 SR3

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are we assuming that "firing through" a barrier is the same as "breaking through"? Best I can tell, "penetrating" a barrier is the same as "breaking through".

Maybe these terms have different in-game uses I'm unfamiliar with, but I fail to see how bullets can pass through a barrier without "penetrating" it.

IIRC the rules for Barriers have 3 options when you fire at it:
Power less then half the Barrier-Rating > no effect
Power equal or more then half the Barrier-Rating > Barrier Rating -1
Power equal or more then Barrier-Rating > "Break through", 1/2 meter gap in Barrier.

So I read this that way that you need to have an equal unmodified power rating to the barrier rating to have a "break through" and hence end the spell. Please note that the barrier rating is doubled for firearms.

BTW: The rules don't state that the "Armor spell" is treated equally to the "Barrier spell" but it says so for the "Shield spell". So I would argue that a bullet barrier does not suffer from a barrier rating reduction as the "normal" barrier. It is after all a different spell. Opinions?

I handle it that same was as cain or the spell is completely useless inless cast by an IE or Dragon.

You just have to cast it with a lot of dice. It's also pretty good versus EX and flechette ammo, because barrier ratings are doubled for them for purposes of firing through. I triple barrier ratings vs gel/capsule rounds too, but I don't think that's canon. Some GMs might even rule that stun bullets have no effect at all.

I've found layered (multiple castings with varied radii) bullet barriers to be handy things to stick in an anchor or focus for encounters with a Big Bad NPC. It usually gives him at least a turn or two of carte blanche actions if he gets shot at. PCs are able to use that tactic.


That's why I think they're not completely useless.

Yup. After re-reading some rules:

p.124 SR3

But "firing through" and "breaking through" are apparently two entirely separate things. You can "fire through" a barrier without doing appreciable damage to it, and you can "break through" a barrier without hurting people on the other side.

My understanding is that the "penetrate" in the spell description more properly fits "breaking through". So, you can't take down a Bullet barrier without an adjusted power of 2x the Force. However, you can still hurt people inside of it.