Enhanced Aim is hardly a reliable spell, what with a TN 6 to cast and all. Not to mention the benefits it grants is negated by the +2 penalty for sustaining a spell. That is, unless you choose to lock it in a sustaining focus, but that comes with its own drawbacks.

You'll rarely be getting a TN of 2 in a combat scenario unless you have an extremely lenient GM.

Soaking an EM, on the other hand...

I can see elemental manipulations becoming useful later in the game when you start encountering high level initiates with Shielding, but once you've reached that point, you usually have other options available anyway.

Edit: Actually, looking at the modifiers, it would be closer to a 1 in 2 chance. Which makes EMs a bit better, but still not worth it, IMO.

I'm not saying it's easy to do. Enhanced Aim is a gimped spell, but when it helps, it helps a ton (which is probably why it's gimped). Sustaining Foci are hardly a drawback anymore, now that Grounding is taken out of the game. Really, the thing you'll be hurting for the most is preventing other mages from simply dispelling it (although if they are doing that, then they are wasting actions that could be used to, say, chuck a fireball or call an elemental).

Just get multiple sustaining foci? That's not much of a drawback, IMHO. If you are going to use Enhanced Aim, then you need some way to prevent the +2 sustaining penalty. This can be done through:
1) Sustaining Foci
2) Anchoring Foci
3) Elementals
4) Quickening
5) Ritual Magic

All of those options have their own disadvantages, to be sure. For the Sustaining Focus, you have to bond it and specifically use it for Enhanced Aim, but this is similar to Quickening. Anchoring Foci, of course, can be used for pretty much anything up to their rating, but the Anchoring rules in SR3 are rather gimped. Ritual Magic is a fantastic way to go, but can only sustain for limited time (not much more than 2 or 3 days). Elementals are expensive, and not cost effective, but great in a pinch.

elementals, more sustaining foci (pretty easy to stay under foci addiction range), or just sustain the spell (which focused concentration edge helps with).

Edit: Ergh, foiled again Hahnsoo!

Even with a fetish, you'll have to suck 7D drain for a force 6 fireball at Deadly damage. That can seriously mess you up.

Regardless of what you use to sustain the spell, you're giving up the option of using that thing to sustain another spell. So it's pretty much a moot point.

You'll have to take note that I'm not saying that elemental manipulations are useless. Far from it. It's just that I prefer combat spells, since they're a lot less dangerous to yourself and equally useful under most circumstances.

If it's a predetermined choice to use such methods to sustain any particular spell, what exactly are you giving up? I guess I could have used my 400-600¥ in ritual materials to cast Combat Sense instead (for a more tangible benefit that doesn't affect Elemental Manipulation), but if I have the Enhanced Aim spell, and I'm using it specifically for the purpose of reducing ranged target numbers, then I don't think there's any sacrifice to choose to use something in the way you wanted to use it in the first place. The only waste would be if you picked a spell or spell-sustaining method that you never intended to use at all. I think it is a moot point, but not for the reason you stated.

From a resource standpoint, sure, you'll be spending money/Karma that you could never get back. But in at least one case, this cost is fairly negligable (ritual sorcery for detection magic costs 100¥ per point of force, and you can gather most of that less than 10 days).

Really?
MitS p51:

EDIT: From SR3, p196

It appears that it is based on the base damage level.

I don't know. I believe that the SR designers intended it so that only the Base Damage level determined secondary effects, even after MitS, but I can see it going either way. This is one of those nebulous areas that probably should be among the "house rule" crowd.

The drain would be a total of 5D damage (3 divided by 2, round down, equals 1, with a +4 due to being two levels above D damage). Not bad, but still not trivial.

The average target for secondary effects for a base S damage Fireball and Explosive Ammunition or Grenades would be a total of 7 on a 2d6 roll (6 base OR, -1 for being prone to exploding, and +2 for being a base S spell), better than 50% odds. This may vary depending on what your GM considers to be an appropriate OR for grenades/ammunition, but they are less complicated than production-line guns (OR of 7 in SOTA:2064), so I think 6 is a reasonable estimate. The drain for said Fireball (at Force 3) would be 3D, not bad at all.

I believe it's each and every single thing that is vulnerable to such secondary effects. In practice, I and other GMs in my group have simply done ammunition (as one lump, unless the dude was carrying a belt of assault cannon ammo or something ridiculous), grenades (edit: One roll for each grenade), then armor/clothing, in that order, with other effects at the GM's discretion.

I'm afraid I don't really understand what you're trying to say here. The karma you spent on learning Enhanced Aim could always have been spent learning something else instead, and the sustaining focus or whatever used to sustain it could've been used to sustain that spell. Unless you're wiz enough to learn and be able to sustain every spell in the book, you'll always be making a sacrifice, for a spell that really isn't that good to begin with.

We've always went with OR 8, since nothing worth blowing up really falls under the low-tech manufactured category.

EMs can still inflict secondary effects even if you stage it down to nothing, so it's definitely the base damage that's taken into account, not the effective damage.

I think you are underestimating the considerable impact the reduction of target numbers has on Shadowrun. Enhance Aim isn't a universally "bad spell", it's a spell you have to put a lot of resources into (Sorcery Dice, Elemental/Totem Assistance, etc.) to squeeze the cheese out of (compare to Manabolting a Willpower 6 person), but even two successes means a -1 to target numbers for all ranged attacks. It's an ideal candidate for Ritual Magic because ritual materials are dirt cheap for detection spells and it's one of those spells that you would want to prepare beforehand anyway (when you can soak the drain and focus all of your dice on casting the spell).

For guns, this isn't a big deal because it doesn't stack with most of the usual gun combat bonuses and the range is limited (you can always get extended range, I guess). For elemental manipulations, it's a huge difference, because there's simply no other way to lower target numbers for those spells. Another good candidate for Enhance Aim is throwing weapons (which, unless you've implemented SmartBall technology for your game, cannot be modified in any other way other than "Take Aim").

This is definitely debatable. That would put grenades and ammunition on par with High Tech Electronic equipment. The range between Low Tech Objects/Materials (5) and High Tech Objects/Materials (8) is so wide that it could be anything within that range. I'm prone to think that propellant/explosives is no more complicated than simple plastics (5), but I don't think it's as complicated as a average pocket secretary or other electronics (8). 6 sounds reasonable, simply because a production-line gun is a 7 (SOTA:2064), most of which have digital displays and electronics built into the design.

Regardless, if you make it an 8, that makes the roll 9 or above on 2d6, for every explosive item on a person. Unless the GM is a really (un)lucky roller, it is very likely that something is going to cook off, especially if there is more than one person in the radius.

It helps that I'm currently playing a Gunslinger Magician's Way adept who has cheesed out the spell. When you've seen how cheesy it can get, it's easier to believe that it's a useful spell.

Alloys are specifically listed in the Object Resistance table to be an 8.

Unless that person is halfway intelligent and carries his ammunition in fire/electricity resistant containers, or under armor specifically designed to negate such attacks.

There's also the easily overlooked, but nonetheless important consideration that exploding ammo and grenades don't differentiate between the target and the spellcaster.

As you've already said, a smartlink is far superior to Enhanced Aim when dealing with firearms, so I don't think the cheesiness is much of a problem in that respect.

Explosives are not alloys. Alloys are specifically combinations of metals, and I think they mean Alloys to be complex high-tech alloys like plasteel (otherwise, the production-line gun and modern katana would not have an OR of 7, and the hand-crafted knife made of steel would not have an OR of 5). Again, it's debatable.

And if you can show me the reference to fire/electricity resistant containers, I'll gladly buy a few. Just kidding. Seriously, I don't think that's a practical idea at all. For storage, sure, but for combat, it would take a Complex action to get the grenade/ammo out of the sealed container, and a Simple Action to ready it. That's one action too many... the grenades would be worn on a belt or some other easily accessible storage location, not a special fire/electricity-sealed container. I do think that you should add heat/electricity resistance from the armor to the OR roll. This also doesn't take into consideration the ammunition already in the gun (which cannot be made fireproof).

Yeah, he can't use a smartlink because he fires them akimbo and we don't use those house rules for adding any visual bonuses (like Smartlink, Opt Mag, and Laser sights) to dual-wielding pistols. It's one of the few ways to lower target numbers in that situation (Aptitude and Attunement are the others). As a side benefit, the Enhance Aim is helpful for his throwing skill and his Elemental Manipulations as well.

Alloys are alloys. Steel is an alloy. I don't know where you're getting those numbers from (probably from a book I don't have), but if they're true, then they directly contradict what's stated in the core book.

An extra complex action to guarantee that you don't get killed off by your own equipment is definitely not one too many.

Even if you wear it on a belt, you can still wear an armored jacket or something over it.

In which case you'll only get a single check for secondary effects, not the many that you've described before. The ammo inside a gun also doesn't qualify as "worn material," so, by the book, it doesn't do any damage to you even if it blows up.

Ew, pistols!

SOTA:2064, in case you are interested.

Actually, by the book, exploding ammo in your handgun DOES do damage to you, as indicated under the rules for Explosive ammo (which are pretty much identical to the exploding ammo rules for EMs).

As I said.

Not everyone uses Explosive ammo, and even if they did, exploding ammunition rules for EMs only take into consideration worn equipment. You can use a house rule to link the two together, which is what I would do, but it'll still be a bit less deadly than if the ammo you're wearing explodes on you, and notably less deadly than a 6D manabolt.

It doesn't have to be explosive ammo - any ammo, when cooked off, is considered a point blank weapon hit. Armor does not reduce this damage. (CC, page 98).

So that spare clip of regular Predator ammo you're carrying does 9M damage to you when it cooks off, armor does nothing to reduce this damage, (you can add Combat pool to your body for the purpose of resisting the damage). But chances are you already used some or all of it to resist the damage from the spell.

Some Elemental Spells also have Tertiary effects, not just secondary.

Toxic Wave adds +4 to all TN for anyone in the Area Effect for the rest of the Combat Turn, and the affected area is considered Trecherous Ground for the rest of the Combat Turn. (aka Difficult Ground), increasing TNs for Ranged Combat for characters walking (adds +1) and characters running (+2).

Lightning/Ball Lightning - Any Character with Cyber who takes a wound from these, at *least* one piece of Cyber is automatically damaged... and more than one piece can be affected. MM - 127.

Smoke Cloud adds +4 to all TNs in affected area for the rest for the Combat Turn (MITS)

Thunderclap - Causes Stun Damage, Characters must resist Knockdown, and are deafened for one combat turn for every two successes rolled on the spell. (MITS)

And if you use the spell design rules for Ice, Metal, Sand, Water, you get other lovely secondary effects.... such as vehicals must make an immedate Crash Test if they are caught in an Ice Area Effect. (MITS)

So a simple Force 4 sustaining focus for Enhance Aim, (Extended Sense) means your TNs are 2, Having some Expendable Spell Foci, and Totem advantages for Manipulation spells make for a nasty combination.

I've played a Sky Father Shaman(+2 to all Detection and Manipulation Spells), with several area effect spells, and a force 1 power focus. I didn't use elementals spells often, but if the situation called for it, like covering a retreat in firefight, they were awesome.

You may not care for the Enhance Aim spell, and prefer Stun/Mana/Powerbolt spells, but some of us know how to use EA and elemental Manipulations to great effect. They're useless for sneak or infiltration and stealth, but work wonders when you don't care how much noise you make.

Wrong. Read the passage again. Any ammo that you're wearing is considered a point blank weapon hit. I believe I've already mentioned that twice.

Most of these effects can be, with a little creativity, replicated by an assortment of other spells in the book. And as a bonus, these alternative spells are not nearly as easy to absorb by spell defense since you can cast them at a higher force without worrying about getting your ass kicked by the drain.

Yay for you if you enjoy using elemental manipulations in your game - don't let me rain on your parade. Like I said, they're definitely not worthless. It's just that I, and my group as a whole, didn't find the utility that they provide preferable to what can be done with spells that are much more drain-efficient to cast.

Hey, if they can't afford to fill the rest of the clip, what makes you think they can afford to purchase nonconductive, flame-retardant armor?

What I'd like to see are less spells which have been specifically designed to heat up propellants. Either that, or propellants for small arms which come even close to being as stable as the ones we have IRL.