From: lev0@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ron Levy (Armchair))
Subject: Re: SR Spell Locks
Reply-To: lev0@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Worshippers of Yig
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 15:31:30 GMT



>	I am currently GMing a SRI campaign (moving to SRII after the
>holidays) and have three mages in the party (one is an NPC).  One of
>the mages came up with a great idea for his character - lock a spell
>onto himself. 

In fact, this is exactly what Spell Locks are supposed to do.


> After consulting both the SR man and the Grimoire we
>found nothing that said that this could not be done, and so he locked
>"personal combat sence" to himself.  With the use of fetishes and
>elementals he was able to cast a pretty mean spell.  He now gets as many
>actions per turn as any of the wired sammies in the party.

Aha.  The use of fetishes and elementals to get a large number of
successes on the casting of a locked spell is the problem crock.

Most people I know of do not allow locked spells to 'bear' a number
of successes greater than their force.  So if he learned Personal
Combat Sense at force 4, (and that cost him 4 karma) the max successes
he can lock are 4.  Gives him a +4  to his reaction, which is sweet
but not overbalancing.

>	But that's not the worst part... I am just waiting for him to
>come to me wanting to cast "+4 every attribute" and lock it to himself.

Another rule you might find handy; you can only have your intelligence
or less in magical foci active.  Granted, for your average mage that's 
going to be 6, but it does start running them down especially when they like
to keep a weapon focus and a power focus and a few other such things.

>	I am trying to keep the balance by "charging" 1 point of karma
>a month per lock to keep the astral link secure.  If he doesn't pay the
>point, there is a chance that the link will unstailize and suck him into
>astral space; no hope of return.  Is this fair?  Am I missing something
>in the rules?  

What you're missing is Tactics.  A spell lock has an astral force of 1,
when engaged in astral combat it has 1 die to roll.  When hit, it usually
dies.  Then the spell drops.

Now, your basic force 3 or 4 spirit or elemental can take out a spell lock in
1 action in astral space.  (that means using the spirit's initiative of
10+1d6... the hard sammies should go before this).

Any mage could just whale on the spell lock with their sorcery dice
(he'd have to be astrally perceiving).  They could also cast a spell
at the spell lock.  Then the spell would attack the spell lock with
the spell's force, and do damage equal to its damage code.  If it wins,
then the spell lock dies and the spell 'grounds' into the target.  Here's
an example.

Bob has a force 5 Personal Combat Sense spell up, giving him +5 to his
reaction.  Luthiel, the elvish wizganger, takes a personal dislike to
Bob.  Driving by on her Harley Scorpion, she switches to astral
perception and looks at him, scoping out his mighty spell lock.  She's
now at +2 to everything because she's astrally perceiving.  Her
motorcycle skill is 6, though, so she doesn't crack up.  Luthiel goes
at 9 this round, and Bob goes at 15 and 8.  However, Bob doesn't know
what's about to go down, so he doesn't do anything.  Come 9, Luthiel
casts Lightning Bomb at force 4 (drain code d4) at Bob's spell lock.
They meet in Astral Combat.  Bob's spell lock rolls 1 die.  A 3.  No
successes.  Luthiel's Lightning Bomb rolls 4 dice, 4,3,6+2,1.  Two
successes.  The spell lock takes d4 damage.  Having only one die of
'body' it cannot possibly stage down the damage, and expires.
Suddenly, Bob doesn't feel quite so prescient.  Now, the Lightning
Bomb grounds into Bob.  Luthiel's sorcery is 6, and she used all of
it, and all the force, to roll 10 dice.  The target number is 4 for an
elemental spell like Lightning Bomb, and Luthiel gets 5 successes.
The first success starts the damage at L1, and the next four stage it
up to m1, s1, d1, d+1.  One point of Bob's armor is blown away.  His
Armor Clothing has 2 points, so his one remaining point stages the
damage to S1, then on his body roll he manages one 6 to bring it down
to moderate damage.

Luthiel, on the other hand, gets to resist d4 drain with her 5
willpower.  She rolls 3 successes, and fails.  She's unconscious on
her motorcycle going about 30 miles an hour, (the autopilot will
probably slow it to a stop) and now she's made Bob mad.  Looks like
there might be one less annoying elvish wizganger on the streets
tomorrow.  And Bob's gonna have to shell out more nuyen for a spell
lock, and another karma to get it locked.

This, by the way, is why someone might lose a spell lock every month,
not because the astral just swallows it up. :)

Another important thing to remember is that when the chips are down,
you might not have the time to waste taking out someone's spell locks.
When you have the choice of blowing everyone up with a spell, or
attacking someone's spell locks, it's very easy to take the 'I want to
hurt all of them' option as opposed to 'I want to cause the magician
some tactical harm'.  When the bad guys come ready with spirits, though,
those spell locks go down.

Masking your spell locks is a GOOD idea.

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