General Shadowrun Questions III: Ya like that, Chummer?

[Alberic Strein]

Hey guys!

So, my questions are probably mage 101 but I'm used to playing mundanes, or adepts so it's all new to me.

Edit: The questions are about 4A.

1. I read everywhere that indirect elemental spells were not worth it compared to direct spells. On which I agreed, but last game I had to murder a sentry (only one other player showed up, and he was after the other sentry and my influence spell failed) at which point I was thoroughly reminded that net hits added to the drain value of the spell. So, force 7 manabolt with 6 successes meant 9 drain, which I hadn't expected. I have no issue with that. If you want to have someone's head explode you use a gun. Or eat drain. But that got me thinking, there should be a point where having enough spellcasting dice would make indirect combat spells less drainy than direct ones, no?

Out of chargen a specialized combat mage could get around 18 spellcasting dice without sacrificing too much (wolf mentor spirit + magic 6 + spellcasting 6 + combat spell specialization + quality 2 power focus) and between 10 and 15 resist drain dice (5 in both relevant stats + rank 1 centering + quality 2 centering focus + specific spell fetish) so, if we take average, you'd get 6 hits on your spellcasting and between 3 and 5 hits for drain resistance. Let's compare manabolt and frost. A force 3 spell would incur the same drain value for both (manabolt: 1 base +3hits and 1 base +3 for frost) and for the same 6 boxes of damage. But since the spells work differently, manabolt will see its drain value lowered as enemies succeed their willpower test to resist the damage, meaning it's an average drain 3 for 5 boxes of physical damage. Frost's drain value will remain unchanged, but its damage will be resisted, first with reaction which has a way higher chance of being higher than 3 against most enemies, then with body which again tends to be higher than willpower and half impact armor, since for now our poor unwilling test subject has the stats of a lone star, let's go with their armor, for another box of damage shaved off (unless I missed the spell armor penetration rule somewhere, which is a very real possibility). So we end up with 3 boxes of damage for a drain of 4 for frost, and it wouldn't be that surprising, probability-wise for there to be only two boxes of damage.

Let's keep hitting lone stars but up the force of the spell: Manabolt force 7 Vs Frost force 7. Now manabolt has a drain value of 9 (3 base + 6 hits) and Frost has a drain value of 6 (3 base + 3), both should do the same 13 boxes of damage. Again, Manabolt will lose 1 box of damage but that will also knock 1 off the drain value, while frost will lose 3 to 4 damage and keep the same drain value. Meaning manabolt ends up with a drain value of 8 for 12 boxes of damage, while Frost gets a drain value of 6 for 9-10 damage, which will be further lowered by better enemies.

So to answer my own question, it seems that no matter what, direct combat spells will always overpower indirect combat spells. Also, is it possible to limit your spellcasting net hits? Like, if I roll 6 successes on a force 11 manabolt, can I say "I will keep only one net hit") then the victim opposes the spell and any hits left over are lowered to 1? For a whooping 12 damage and drain 6? Is that legit?

2. Did I miss something or is Ignite utterly useless? It does very limited damage, takes a long, long, long time to go off and needs me to cast it to a rather high force to affect items?

3. Is there an official confirmation that I can manifest a physical barrior horizontally or at an angle, making ramps, slides for children, bridges, and flipping cars over?

4. Is a bit complicated and I didn't expect to spend so much time on 1. so it will be coming later. But basically it's about avoiding being too overbearing as a mage, my examples of terrible, terrible shadowrun games came from the mage doing things and the rest of us just sitting back and waiting.

Anyway, thanks for reading that far!