So my friends and I picked up an intro game in Shadowrun e5 and I played a street shaman. We were a bit stuck on the rules to casting spells. I'm reading some of the rules now and I'm stuck on where to go:
Ok so I have a spell manabolt [Damage P, Damage = to net hits, resisted by Willpower, no other damage resistance test allowed, Drain F -2].
My Mental Limit is 5, My magic is 5, and I have Sorcery skill of 9.
In a scenario where I am casting against a living target as a complex action, I first determine the spell force which can not be higher than magic x2, correct? So 12. Let's choose 6.
I then roll a dice pool of my magic (5) + sorcery (9) for a total of 14 die.
This is where I get lost; I'm told to take the lesser of my hits (I'm not sure what this is. Is this my 5 & 6 rolls from my 14 I just rolled? Or is this after a target counterspells and/or takes off die from a willpower roll?), the spell's force, and your mental limit. This will tell me my actual number of hits.
I'm just lost at this point. let's say I rolled a 4. So out of my numbers, I have 4, 5, and 6. The lesser number is 4 so this is my actual number of hits. I'm confused again by the spell force number because if I were to choose 12, and roll 10 hits, I'd still be knocked down to my mental limit of 5. I just don't get how this functions. Can someone take it from here and explain how this all works for me? Much appreciated.
Best Answer
I'm following the spellcasting instructions in page 281 of 5e.
Sorcery is a skill group that includes spellcasting, so this roll becomes 9 + 5 [6]. The interpretation is roll 9+5 = 14 dice and count up all the fives and 6s that show up, these are called hits. If the number of hits larger than 6 (the Force), it is limited to 6.
For example if you rolled: 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 = 7 hits.
Maximum number of hits is limited by the force of the spell, so 6 in this case.
Manabolt is a Direct Mana spell, so it is resisted by willpower (or counterspelling) The ganger rolls 3 dice and gets: 3 4 5 = 1 hit
Manabolt causes Physical damage The spellcasting hits (6) - the resistance hits (1) = 5 net hits causing 5 boxes of physical damage to the ganger.
Manabolt has a drain of Force(6) - 3 = 3 in this case. Shamans use Charisma + Willpower to resist drain. Note that the number of spellcasting hits (6) exceeds your magic rating (5), so this is physical drain. You need to roll 3 hits (fives or sixes) on your Charisma + Willpower number of dice or take physical damage.
Manabolt is instantaneous, there are no ongoing effects.