SR5: Not the Same Mana/Stunbolt

Believe I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I started playing Shadowrun and understanding the magic rules with Third Edition. Recently, I played my ninth session of Shadowrun using the fifth edition rules playing a magician.


The Fifth Edition stunbolt-manabolt-manaball-stunball isn't your daddy's stunbolt-manabolt-manaball-stunball!


Pardon the hyberbole but SR5 direct combat spells are not like the way they were in third (and probably previous) edition.


The magician isn't likely to drop a single opponent let alone a group of opponents with a powerful stunbolt or stunball. Part of that is because SR5 doesn't use damage codes so there's no deadly damage to resist. Granted, the silver lining is the magician doesn't have to worry about the drain of spell knocking the caster out!


However, a major reason the magician was dangerous in earlier editions was because the magician could cast a direct combat spell at a power level that most opponents couldn't resist most of the damage. In SR5, direct damage spells will at best deal the Force of the spell in damage with the advantage being that the defender has only body or willpower to resist. One nice thing about SR5 is that a spell's Force means more whereas in the editions I recall the Force really only affected the difficulty resist damage/drain.


Since I am referencing the direct combat spells that target Willpower, the SR5 equivalents are more effective against magicians than their 3rd edition counterparts. In SR3, a magician really didn't lop a stunbolt off against an opposing magician expecting much in success. SR5 magicians have as much of a reason to fear the manabolt as the Street Samurai.


While SR5 manabolts won't take out an opponent, it has a very good chance of damaging any opponent - magicians included. Instead of being the fearsome opponent of taking out opponents at the risk of knocking oneself out with a single spell, SR5 direct combat spells are virtual damage dealer. Unless of course, you don't receive enough hits, that is, chummer.


Till next time, happy gaming!