In the shadows of the Sixth World, there is one universal law of combat that every runner and corp-sec rookie learns on day one: Geek the mage first.

… though it turns out this is easier said than done.

In general, there are three strategies to more safely take on spellslingers.

In the MUD (house-rule), spellcasting is limited to same-room targets. If you engage a mage at range, they are forced to move toward you before they can cast.

However, each room away from your target imposes a +2 Target Number (see: HELP TN) penalty to your attacks. When choosing a firearm for this approach, consider a sniper rifle (which counts one less room to determine range penalties) or something with enough power that you don't need to roll many successes (e.g., an automatic weapon accessorized to fire Full-Auto 10 without recoil penalties).

Spellcasting follows initiative (see: HELP INITIATIVE). If you can attack first and successfully deal damage, the mage will suffer wound penalties to their casting. Because spellcasters often buff themselves with Increase Reflexes, reliably going first requires some effort. See below (“Making the Kill”) about dealing damage.

Ways to directly boost your initiative (Reaction + Initiative):

Note: Increasing Quickness and Intelligence will indirectly increase Reaction.
Note: Many of these do not stack with each other, though drugs stack with everything.
Note: Maximum bonus initiative dice is capped at +5.

There are a wide range of spells, each with distinct mechanics.

Note: NPC spellcasters do also cast other spells, but these two categories are the big ones.

NPC spellcasters avoid casting Powerbolt against targets with high Body or Manabolt against those with high Willpower. If their target has both high Body and Willpower, they default to Stunbolt as the most drain efficient attack spell. For most characters, Stunbolt can easily become the only Direct Combat Spell that matters.

• Stunbolt is resisted with willpower, so consider:
  • Bioware: Pain Editor, Adrenal Pump
  • Drugs: Kamikaze, Nitro
  • Magic: Increase Willpower
• General magic defenses apply, though they're only available to Awakened characters:
  • Spell Defense, Spell Reflect, the Magic Resistance adept power
• There are several ways to mitigate Stunbolt damage:
  • An active Pain Editor prevents mental wound penalties entirely and keeps you awake at 0 mental boxes. This allows you to fight at maximum effectiveness despite taking a Stunbolt to the face.
  • A Trauma Damper reduces mental damage by one box per hit. However, you still suffer wound penalties, which reduce your odds to successfully attack and dodge.
  • A Damage Compensator reduces wound penalties (each rating is effectively one less box of damage in each of your physical and mental tracks).

Note: Increasing willpower from 6 to 7 isn't really meaningful. But increasing from 6 to 11 (e.g., pain editor + adrenal pump + kamikaze) is a very different story.
Note: When taking physical damage, a Trauma Damper will transfer one box of physical to mental.
Note: A Damage Compensator prevents a Trauma Damper from functioning unless the damage to be taken would cause you to exceed your compensator rating. But combining the two can allow for better wound penalty mitigation for single M or S hits.
Note: An active Pain Editor prevents a Trauma Damper from functioning. Combining the two is generally not recommended.
Note: If you are otherwise confident in your ability to avoid dying, a Pain Editor (so you can ignore your mental track) + Biotech first aid (to patch up your physical track, see: HELP TREAT) can reduce downtime between fights to near zero.

Because these spells have high drain, the strongest NPC spellcasters do not cast these above Force 10. Their power is reduced by half impact, so 16 impact armor will ensure you soak the damage with the minimum TN of 2. These spells also have secondary effects (e.g., acid fumes causing TN penalties, fire igniting you, or lightning frying your electronics) that apply if the spell hits you, even if you successfully resist the damage. You can avoid these effects with Dodge (or the rare few items that provide NBC immunity).

Spellcasters are typically harder to kill than their mundane colleagues due to their Invisibility, Armor, and Combat Sense spells.

• Invisibility: Countered by Thermographic vision.
• Improved Invisibility: Requires Ultrasound or Astral Perception.

Note: Unless you are Dual Natured, you will always take a TN penalty to hit an invisible target with physical attacks.
Note: The Silence and Stealth spells disable Ultrasound, but these spells are not available to NPC spellcasters.

• Sources of TN Penalties: room light conditions, wounds, range, recoil
• Sources of TN Bonuses: Smartlink-2 (requires both the cyberware and the weapon accessory), Reach (if using melee)
• Sources of Dice: Skill, Combat Pool, Enhanced Articulation (bioware), Reflex Recorder (bioware)
• Increasing Power: weapon choice, non-standard ammunition, firing modes, strength (if using non-monowhip melee)
• Increasing Damage Level: weapon choice, firing modes
• Penalizing Target's Dodge: firing modes

NPC spellcasters buff themselves:

1. Their first buff spell is always some form of invisibility (standard for weaker casters, Improved for stronger casters).
2. They cast additional buff spells with a randomized delay between each. The sooner you can engage after a mob spawns, the less buffs they will have.
3. They take drain from casting buffs (Khai: has this been tested?). It may be possible to luck into a fight where the spellcaster is already suffering wound penalties from a recent cast.
4. Dealing combat damage to the spellcaster can cause them to lose a buff. Even a single box of damage can cause the loss of a high force buff.
5. Buffs can be directly removed by player spellcasters (see: HELP DISPELL).

Casting spells inflicts drain, which is conceptually mental fatigue. If the mage fails to fully resist it, they take mental damage, thus wound penalties to dodge and melee. If you can survive long enough, this can build up to the point where they will refuse to cast more spells, or even knock themself unconscious.

This is a measure of unusual local mana levels and imposes casting and drain penalties to casters. In areas with high counts, NPC spellcasters will refuse to use magic.

1. Where there is no existing background count, physical combat sets it to 1.
2. Every death in a room temporarily increases the count by +1.
3. Astral perception can show the presence and type of background count. A mundane character can estimate the death-generated count by observing the amount of blood present in the room.
4. The Cleansing metamagic can be used to temporarily reduce a room's background count.

(Khai: how do temporary background counts decay?)