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Message no. 1
From: Eric Lemme e-lemme@***.cso.uiuc.edu
Subject: newbie with some newbie questions
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 18:01:46 -0500
hi all, I have recently got back into shadowrun after a hiatus of a
couple years. I just picked up the shadowrun 3 and was wondering about
spell locks. My original gm played pretty fast and loose with the real
rules so I was never real clear on them in the first place.

so here are the questions.

1 you bond a sustaining spell focus for a specific spell and at a
specific force level correct?

ie sustaining spell focus for a force 3 improve willpower spell.

2 you can turn terminate the spell being sustained in the focus but to
reactive it you will need to recast it?

3 once it is bonded the turning on and off requires no additional karma.

4 can enemy mages still ground spell through spells locks or are they
fairly risk free now?

5 if you sustain an increased willpower spell with a spell lock can you
buy new skills based on the spell enhanced willpower?

ie mage with a 6 willpower and 6 sorcery increased his willpower with a
locked increased willpower spell and then buys sorcery 7 for 7*1.5 karma

btw is karma cost for things rounded up or down?

That all, thanks for your patience if these are stupid questions.

Eric
Message no. 2
From: 00DNA mcmanus@******.albany.edu
Subject: newbie with some newbie questions
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 21:24:31 -0400
At 06:01 PM 8/20/99 -0500, Eric Lemme wrote:
>so here are the questions.
>
>1 you bond a sustaining spell focus for a specific spell and at a
>specific force level correct?

Correct. But you can cast the spell into the focus at a lower force rating
if you want.

>2 you can turn terminate the spell being sustained in the focus but to
>reactive it you will need to recast it?

Yup, that's correct.

>3 once it is bonded the turning on and off requires no additional karma.

Correct again.

>4 can enemy mages still ground spell through spells locks or are they
>fairly risk free now?

there is no more grounding, however any mage can now dispell...but yeah,
that's not as bad as worrying about be grounded through.

>5 if you sustain an increased willpower spell with a spell lock can you
>buy new skills based on the spell enhanced willpower?

No, when you are raising skills it is based on your unaugmented Attribute.

>btw is karma cost for things rounded up or down?

I believe there is no universal round up or round down...but that the
description of the use of karma at the time will tell you round up or round
down...you might want to check out some of the Errata sheets as well (go to
FASA's page and then go to the SR3 page and you'll find a link to the errata).
For improving skills for example the text says Round Down.

>That all, thanks for your patience if these are stupid questions.

Hey...didn't you learn in school...no question is a stupid question... (:



--00DNA
"...connection terminated."
Message no. 3
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: newbie with some newbie questions
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 12:54:03 +0200
According to Eric Lemme, at 18:01 on 20 Aug 99, the word on
the street was...

> 1 you bond a sustaining spell focus for a specific spell and at a
> specific force level correct?
>
> ie sustaining spell focus for a force 3 improve willpower spell.

You bond it for a specific spell, and at a certain Force, but the spell
need not be of exactly that Force -- you can put a spell of a lower Force
into the focus, as long as it is of the right type and the spell's Force
is less than or equal to that of the focus.

So, in your Force 3 Improve Willpower sustaining focus, you could put a
Force 1, a Force 2, or a Force 3 Improve Willpower spell. The focus can't
handle spells of Force 4 or higher, though.

> 2 you can turn terminate the spell being sustained in the focus but to
> reactive it you will need to recast it?

Yes. Deactivating the focus costs a Simple Action, or you could remove the
focus from contact with its target; either of these "erases" the spell
from the focus. To activate it again, you need to spend a Complex Action
to cast the spell and put it into the focus again.

> 3 once it is bonded the turning on and off requires no additional karma.

Yes.

> 4 can enemy mages still ground spell through spells locks or are they
> fairly risk free now?

They cannot. Grounding has been done away with in SR3 (though some people,
including me, still allow it in their campaigns for continuity reasons).
What a magician can do, is attack the focus from astral space, or cast a
spell onto the focus to try and destroy it. Such attacks or spells will
never ground out into the physical plane, however.

> 5 if you sustain an increased willpower spell with a spell lock can you
> buy new skills based on the spell enhanced willpower?

All skill Karma costs are based on the natural Attribute value, not
adjusted for cyberware, magic, etc. This should be mentioned on page 244
of the newer printings of SR3, and it's certainly in the errata.

> btw is karma cost for things rounded up or down?

Down. Upgrading an active skill from 2 to 3 (with a corresponding
Attribute rating of 3 or higher) costs 4 Good Karma: 3 x 1.5 = 4.5,
rounding to 4.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
De plaag is terug...!
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 4
From: Rand Ratinac docwagon101@*****.com
Subject: newbie with some newbie questions
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 20:11:26 -0700 (PDT)
> According to Eric Lemme, at 18:01 on 20 Aug 99, the word on the
street was...
<BigSnip(TM)>
> > 5 if you sustain an increased willpower spell with a spell lock can
you buy new skills based on the spell enhanced willpower?
>
> All skill Karma costs are based on the natural Attribute value, not
adjusted for cyberware, magic, etc. This should be mentioned on page
244 of the newer printings of SR3, and it's certainly in the errata.
> Gurth@******.nl

With the following caveat - the improve attribute adept power counts as
a "natural" attribute, so it affects skill costs.

Little example. Adept A has strength 5. He has the Improved Strength
power at rating 2. And he's had his buddy Mage M cast the Increase
Strength spell on him with a result of +4 to strength. So for any game
application he has a strength of 5 + 2 + 4 = 11. For learning skills,
however, the spell doesn't count as natural, but the adept power does,
so he has an effective strength of 7.

*Doc' is afraid that steroid abuse does not increase the natural strength...*
==Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow)

.sig Sauer
__________________________________________________
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Message no. 5
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: newbie with some newbie questions
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 12:34:17 +0200
According to Rand Ratinac, at 20:11 on 22 Aug 99, the word on
the street was...

> > All skill Karma costs are based on the natural Attribute value, not
> > adjusted for cyberware, magic, etc. This should be mentioned on page
> > 244 of the newer printings of SR3, and it's certainly in the errata.
>
> With the following caveat - the improve attribute adept power counts as
> a "natural" attribute, so it affects skill costs.

Yes, true, and conveniently omitted from the text on page 244. In essence
what this means is that adept powers count as natural when it comes to
attributes (but apparently not in the case of skills), while
sustained/quickened/locked spells don't.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
De plaag is terug...!
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998

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