From: olds@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Angel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRun: Armor spells equal to dermal? Limits can be made...
Date: 27 Jul 92 14:48:59 GMT
Followup-To: was Re: SRUN: Upper limit on armor spells?
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

>
>I have a question to all of you Shadowrun gurus.  I am playing a mage and
>wanted to cast a spell locked armor spell on myself, after watching our
>big troll go down in one shot.  I have the spell at force 5, a magic pool
>at 6 and an elemental at force 4 and used him for 3 dice.  We used a
>target number of 3 and I rolled 14 dice, resulting in 10 successes.  The
>GM was not amused by the prospect of me having 10 points of dermal armor
>permanantly locked on.  He said that there _must_ be some kind of upper
>limit on these things but we couldn't find anything.  Are we missing
>something?
>
>Rick Hunt "Touch"
>rhunt@med.unc.edu

	Ok, I am not a guru, however I have an answer/suggestion...
	I know the book says to treat the armor spell like dermal,
	but something about a sam having to pay 45,000 for 3 points
	of dermal and loose 3 points of essence makes me think that
	this spell is *TOO MUCH*.  I think, since you don't need it
	from the looks of the number of dice you are throwing, you 
	shouldn't ask for help from that pretty elemental.  But that
	is your personal choice.  I, and everyone else in our campaign,
	use armor spell successes as dice for body, no autos.  Also,
	we make a mage/shaman who sustains a spell higher than the force
	(plus initiate grade if applicable) take dice out of their magic
	pool to sustain it.  For example, you have defense dice out and
	decide to throw this with aid from elemental.  You use 4 dice
	from elemental, 5 dice from force AND then use 2 from magic 
	pool, and you get 10 successes, you only have one die left for
	anything else from your magic pool, defense, other spells, etc.
	Unless of course you make your elemental hold it!  ;)  Good way
	to use one if you don't need it for anything else.  

	Also, keep in mind that mages/shamans are not suppose to be as
	tough and durable as sams...and if you are one that leads THEM
	instead of following, than maybe you should lock it.  But if you just
	want a few extra dice to add to that body of 2 or 3, than sustain
	or lock 4 or 5, but don't go overboard....there is no fun in the 
	game of fighting if a GM needs to pull out a panther cannon to give
	a mage a light wound.....not to mention if that same mage can
	withstand damage better than most vehicles! ;-) ( you may end up 
	making the others feel slightly unneeded with their body's of 6-9 as 
	well...they didn't put those points there JUST for looks.... ;) )

	It also does help to have some house rules on these kind of things...
	and since I play in the same group as Minotaur, I happen to like
	and agree with the house rules all of us came up with....it makes
	dermal something special...as well as gives the sam's back a slight
	edge that should never have been taken away.

			In the end, it is up to player/GM discretion,
			so, Good Luck with whatever you decide.
				Quick Silver, The Indian Princess
				  olds@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc