| From: | "Like, dude, where's the firefight?" <MURRAYMD@******.BITNET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Mages -vs- Street Sams |
| Date: | Fri, 5 Feb 93 18:59:01 CET |
No problem.
>Somebody (I deleted the message and now I can't remember who) said something
>to the effect that "a street sam with 3 or 4 actions can use those actions
That was me.
>What the person who wrote this was forgetting is that yes, a mage can take
>out a group of targets with one well placed spell. But you are comparing
>that to street sam firing a weapon. What if said sam is using grenades, and
>is taking out groups of targets at a time for each of their actions? For
>that matter, what if the mage only has spells like firebolt and has to take
>out targets one at a time?
I wrote the example as a very quick and crude way of comparing the
very basic combat capabilities of different basic character types. It was
not intended as a treatise on SR combat which would encompass all of the
different weapon capabilities. Yes, you are correct in saying that a Sam
could do area attacks with grenades and s/he would do good damage. In a
worst case scenario though, the Sam has only so many grenades and will run
out while the mage could continue to cast area effect spells. The factor
that makes the magic user and the Sam running out of ammo equal is the
drain that a spell causes.
>I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the main power of a good mage
>is NOT combat! Now, don't get upset and think I mean they are wimps; I am
>saying that most of the mages in parties I have ran/played in have not used
>combat spells anywhere near as often as they use other spells or astrally
>perceive or something.
You're absolutely correct! The best thing for a magic user to do
is to use his/her wide range of magical talents in whatever way that will
benefit the party (Does that make the mage LN alignment? :) ). A magic
user that has a good cross section of spells in his personal grimoire and a
good cross section of skills can do *anything*.
>Basically, I don't see WHY anyone is trying to compare mages to street sams
>in the first place! Why not complain that a street sam cant drive a car as
>good as a rigger? Or that a rigger cant hack a system as good as the decker?
I had to focus upon the combat aspect of things because the
original poster drew his argument from the fact that magic users are a lot
slower than Sams unless you lock/quicken an appropriate spell. The idea
from there was roughly: spell locks and quickenings are too dangerous,
without spell locks mages go slow in combat, therefore lets let magic users
get bioware for no essence/magic loss by having them pay karma for it. It
about boils down to somebody wanting their cake and be able to eat it too.
>Remember folks: every character has ADVANTAGES and WEAKNESSES. Just like in
>real life, you can't do everything extremely well. You either do a few things
>very well, and others ok, or you do a lot of stuff not so good. Thats why you
>need teams of people in the first place, so they can support each other.
Here here! You have hit the nail on the head with this one.
BTW Dave Hoff, I like the quote in your sig.
**************************************************************************
* Matt: You shot him!!!! | Matt Murray at the University of Dayton *
* Chris: No I didn't. It | MURRAYMD@******.BITNET *
* was a gunfight. | MURRAYMD@******.OCA.UDAYTON.EDU *
* He forgot his gun.| "Like, dude, where's the firefight?" *
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