Er, I've just been thinking about a mage and looking at the spells and I have a question:

Is there any reason to take the Increased Reflexes spell at anything above Force 1?

To resist the dispelling effects of hostile wizards and wards, but insofar as I am aware, those are the only reasons.

-Siege

Takes at LEAST a Force 3 spell to get through a Force 5 Ward. At least a Force 5 to get through a Force 6 Ward.

Sphynx

And the drain is harsh so you don’t want to walk threw the ward and recast.

Edward

Might want to look at making that spell Caster Only to help with the drain.

Well, the drain code makes it a very good idea to take it at only force 1. That way, you're looking at a 2D drain code, which isn't a serious problem. At force 5 though, it's 4D, which is much more significant.

JaronK

3D at force 5 with SelfOnly.

If you're going to do Force 1 for the drain, might as well do Force 3 (same drain) and get past most Force 4 and lower wards. Force 1 drops when a spirit accidently sneezes in that general direction (exaggeration).

Sphynx

The drain code is +3(D). At force 3, that would be 6/2 = 3D, which is worse, I would say, than the 2D that you get at force 1 or 2.

JaronK

Jaron, +3 is after the division. (Force/2 + 3)Deadly.

Sphynx

When I GM Shadowrun, I limit the maximum result of the die roll of initiative increasing spells to the force of the spell. I.E. if you've got a spell at force 1 which grants +3d6 initiative, you're only getting 1's on those dice jack. I know it's totally a house rule, but smart alecks with force 1 spells who benefit from low force annoy me.

You know you can cast a spell at a lower Force than you know the spell at, right?

The Abstruse One

But taking it at a higher force costs more, so if you're barely going to use it at the higher force there's no reason to take it at that.

~J

Honestly I don't much see it as such a big deal. Mages in general spend a lot of time in meatspace combat, and without this spell they really don't have any other way of boosting their initiative. This way they at least have *some* chance of surviving to actually cast a spell, maybe even two if they're lucky, before someone geeks them. Without it they're going to be very bored, acting once for every three or four of the other people's actions and probably getting killed after they cast their first spell and everyone else spends their next four initiative passes turning them into sausage.

That's why everyone says a troll has a mage-shaped ass.

-Siege

What was the substance of that errata.

Last I cheeked if you have .01 essence loss and .01 bio index you loose 2 points of magic. How did they rework the formula to allow boosted refs and cynap acsel for only 1 point of magic loss.

Edward

You should find it here:

Errata

[edit]Nevermind, the direct link is better

I'd rather go with force 3, 6 karma and a tattoo. 4/8 and a bigger tattoo if I think the GM will try to take it away.

On the other hand, you don't even need a permit to get a force 2 version tattoo quickened with 4 karma resulting in an effective 8. 8 isn't as hard to beat as 12, so it may actually get dispelled instead of causing an accidental manslaughter in self defense, but it'll take some effort to dispel.

You know, I tried that once. Made a character with the spell at Force 3 so that I could do that. I even learned Tattooing, but the GM decided I couldn't tattoo myself without some serious penalties. So I try to find someone to do it for me, and months later I finally decide to give up finding someone and tattoo myself. Ended up with a beautiful tattoo, but missed rolling a 6 even with 2-rerolls and 18 dice per roll (imagine that, 54 dice and not a single 6) by tattooing my legs, and arms (as a dwarf, those are small extremities), and for nothing. Couldn't even re-tattoo them.

Although the chance of that happening a 2nd time is miniscul, I will stick to Force 6 Quickenings for as long as I make characters.

Sphynx