From:	Eric Lemme e-lemme@***.cso.uiuc.edu
Subject:	Spells and Force Level
Date:	Tue, 31 Aug 1999 21:59:42 -0500

Lars Ericson wrote:
>
> Eric Lemme wrote:
> >
> > hi All, I have been trying to come up with a list of spells that you
> > would not mind having at force 1 here is what I have so far.
>
> I had a long discussion with another friend and shadowrun GM about this
> very topic. He thought that the Force should be related to the effect
> extensively while I was liberal in my need for rules and could usually
> come up with reasons to have higher force.
>
> *snip spell categories I agree with*
>
> > Health Spells
> > heathly glow :)
> > hibernate (needing 4 successes do you have to have this spell at a
> > minimum of force 4 for it to work?)
> > increased reflexes (why this one works at force one is beyond me,
> > seems a more reasonable spells would allow +1 initiative dice for
> > every 2 successes)
>
> While this does work at Force 1, remember the beauty of Dispelling.
> Dispelling is an option to magicians in SR3 that was not in SR2 and so a
> lot of players either forget they can do it or overlook it. An opponent
> spellcaster rolls Sorcery + Spell Pool against the Force of the spell.
> Each success cancels a success generated by the original casting.
> Extremely useful against spells that have high target numbers to cast
> and are sustained (Increased Reflexes, Armor, Barrier, etc...).

The plus side is that you can spell lock it for 1 karma. One thing
about dispelling is that if an enemy mage is taking an action to dispell
your spell he is not nuking the rest of the team, kinda like ablative
spell defense.

> Dispelling a magician's Increased Reflexes on the last pass of a Combat
> Turn is very nasty indeed.
>
> > Illusions
> > invisibility
> > improved invisibility
> > stealth
>
> (Mark Shieh adressed this and I respond in his post.)
>
> > Elemental
> > all (because you choose the damage level, anything that inflicts deadly
> > damage can hurt. Dont try it on trolls)
>
> A Force 1 Deadly Flamethrower would still have a drain of 3D (1/2
> rounded down = 0, +1 from the spell, plus +2 for staging the drain
> beyond Deadly p. 191). Last I checked, most magicians don't have a
> Willpower of 8. That means you'll be spending some of that precious
> Spell Pool to resist the drain and the big tough sammies are going to be
> able to shrug off the damage. Not my choice.
>
> Now let's look at a Force 5 Medium Flamethrower. The drain is going to
> be 3S and it's going to have a much better chance of injuring someone
> and you are going to have a much better chance of taking no drain.
> Sounds like I'd go for a higher force on the elemental spells.
>

The big reason I see for a 1D elemental attack would be for the
secondary effects that are directly related to its damage level. The
prime example that comes to mind is a 1D lightning ball attack to
pursade pursuers that risking the destruction of all their electronic
equipment is not worth the chase.