Does it boost social rolls or something? Cuz there's nothing in the spell desc to suggest that it really does anything to the numbers.

Why should it have to have anything to do with numbers? It's a pure vanity spell, and one that I almost take as a free Force 2 Exclusive spell during creation. I know if I were a magician, it'd be one of the ones I'd definitely go out of my way to learn.

if your cat shaman just dragged herself (are there every any male cat shamen?) out of the sewer, Healthy Glow will have a numerical effect. otherwise, not so much.

Well, if you're in the sewers for a few days, then go on a date... Healthy Glow!

If you've been waist-deep in the suburbs for the last two days, and you're about to head to the most important interview of your life... Healthy Glow!

Granted, most runners won't take it (except that Cat Shaman), but it could be useful in different situations other than "I PUT A SPEELLLL, ON YOU!" (Oh, don't ever let me do that again...)

Edit: 'Ey, mfb, out of my head! *shakes fist*

It's also good for cleaning yourself, and at least in one player's opinion (not mine), good as a birth control method. I.E., cast after intercourse to remain disease and pregancy free.

She also had Fashion, and thusly could change clothes and clean herself at will basically.

In my game, Fashion, Makeover, and Healthy glow substitute for basic hygiene. If it wasn't for the sustaining time before they become permanent, my magician could be on the road 10 seconds after throwing on some clothes. Some mundanes spend 90 minutes in the bathroom before they are ready to see the world.

Plus, any time I want, I can get a job with a wedding planner doing housecalls to the family of the bride on the morning of the "big event". They are willing to pay more if my magician is male and adopts an openly gay outward manner.

I couldn't live without Fashion and Makeover, with Healthy Glow coming in a close third.

Average scroffy street monster to fashionable corporate high-flyer in under five minutes. Pretty damn good.

And I still remember getting great info from a teenage girl who was angsting over dyeing her hair the wrong colour when I used Makeover to set it just the way she wanted.

Definitely under-appreciated spells.

They are also great for the getaway, you can remove the gun shot residue from your clothing, alost with most other evidence, remove any rips, etc. and the cops are probably not going to bother the buy in the suit with the briefcase, when their perp was wearing gang colors...

Actually these spells have a huge benefit socially. Being clean, looking healthy, being perfectly groomed, and having the right clothes makes certain tasks so much simpler. Especially dealing with Corps, Cops, and the opposite sex.

My cat shaman casts this regularly, about once every two hours. It's his most used spell!

JaronK

Personally I more want makeover after I climb out of the sewers (my current character took it as a wuyen). He also took healthy glow and fashion as well all as free force 2 exclusive spells.

My opinion is that healthy glow only affects your body it wont give you a modifier for social tests but it may remove a penalty for being badly fatigued or similar. If you’re covered in bud nobody will even be able to tell and the sewage will still stink. And make you ill. Makeover is the spell you need to cover for the lack of basic ablutions.

Edward

Great for escorts with more than um...one appointment per night.

Actually one of the best uses for this is just before a run, becuase it sloughs off old dead skin cells. This means unless you bleed, get scrapped, or leave behind hair there is no DNA left behind.

I agree with what all of you have just said: Healthy Glow and the other "cosmetic" spells are great. As someone put it, everything should not always be translated in modifiers and suchlike. What about roleplaying?

As a matter of fact, almost every Awakened character in my campaign knows at least one of these spells...you were not born with Magic only to whack people with manabolts and fireballs...
if I were a magician, I guess I would like to learn these spells and others with an utilitarian slant to make life less the bitch it is...Magic Fingers, Heal, but also Reinforce (when I crash with my bike), Create Food (when I don't wanna lose 2 hrs at the supermarket) , Fast and Nutrition in order to get rid of those pesky pizza-induced excess kilos, Intoxication to go on a cheap binge and most of all...THE killer-spell :
Detect(Keys) which would save me at least 1 hour everyday, spent looking for my fragging bike keys before going to work !

In terms of roleplaying, I agree with you Ombre. But in terms of game-mechanics, this is very tough for a player to justify. Every new spell, even frivolous ones, costs Karma and significant amount of time to learn. Most magicians are already hard up on Karma as it is. Unless your game is Karma-rich, most players simply can't afford to blow wads of Karma on "life-useful" spells. And when you're in a game like my current campaign where the difficulty of the runs cranks up each and every week and D wounds are already near-constantly showing up, a char that isn't constantly improving (run-wise) is going to get splattered.

Time yes, Karma no. Not if you get these utilitarian spells at low Force with a limitation. Only house rules prevent you from doing that for free; canon rules allow it.

Most 'life useful' spells also make it possible to start getting those runs that aren't ultra deadly. if you look and act like you can get along in high society there is no reason you couldn't get job guard some mid level suit for a few weeks. Might be boring, might be exciting, but rarely are you ganna be scragged over.

Hasn't worked out that way lorth. One of my chars has maxed Char, several social skills, decent contacts, knowledge skills in High Society, Literature, etc. To date, we've not had a single run that hasn't involved getting dirty and suffering Deadly (or Serious at the minimum).

And my Gm has exactly those house rules that prevents learning spells w/o Karma, so that avenue is out.

Can't you get a lvl 3 exclusive spell for 1 karma?

So healthy glow 3, makeover 3, and fasion 5 (to affect things with OR 10), all exclusive for karma, would only be 5 karma total. That's not too bad

Don't get me wrong; I probably will get all 3 of these spells at some point. But right now, my GM's game is so lethal, burning a single Karma outside of power-gaming will get my char (and likely other party members) killed.

Never forget the fun of force 2 astral quests to help learn a spell. It doesn't even come with the restrictions exclusive and fetishing do.

Almost every magically-active character I play has Makeover and Healthy Glow (among a few other) at Force 2 [exclusive] for no Karma cost (or Spell Point cost at chargen]. This is a perfectly legitimate thing to do, and is quite in keeping with the way magic would be taught (or easily learned), in regards to legality at least. Fashion is different, in that it's Force is used to disguise armor, so that needs to be Force 5 [again exclusive].

During the game, it's not hard to pick up a wide variety of low-level spells in the down-times when others are healing/building decks or drones/whatever. Creative use os limitations makes it only a matter of a small time expendature (with no cost in Karma) to learn a wide variety of useful spells.

In my opinion, some spells like Oxygenate are worth getting at low level without the exclusive limitation, as they might be needed while sustaining another spell. Also, IIRC, an exclusive spell cannot be put into a Focus.