My understanding is that a spellcaster piloting a mech has no line of effect to the outside and so can't use 90% of their spells. Given that the complaints that starship combat had nothing for spellcasters to do ultimately lead to mystical weapons and the magic officer position it seems odd that mechs have nothing equivalent.
I suppose you could add a riding saddle so you can throw spells from outside the mech.
I think more on target would be ways to feed spell slots into mech buffs with certain systems. There's already a power core that lets you add PP to a mech with spell slots.
Spellcasters couldn't use *100%* of their spells in starship combat, line of effect or not, because their spells would have no effect on ships, your own or others. Not having read the mech playtest rules yet, is there any reason to believe that character-scale magic would be any more useful against mechs than against ships?
Because they are creature scale that use standard rules for combat. Their magic functions just fine against targets that can easily overpower most mechs, like a Kyokor, if you want a logical in game reason.
Spellcasters couldn't use *100%* of their spells in starship combat, line of effect or not, because their spells would have no effect on ships, your own or others. Not having read the mech playtest rules yet, is there any reason to believe that character-scale magic would be any more useful against mechs than against ships?
I assume that typically you're using mechs to fight an enemy that would usually be a TPK for your party level. There are spells with useful effects even when your enemy's saving throws are godlike. I'm not sure quite how many there are, but I know they exist.
You guys are right... There's no option for spellcasters to cast their spells while piloting mechs, when I'm pretty sure some spells would work on them...
How about an auxillary system that would allow that?
Another question is, can the operator cast spells on the mech from the inside?You have a line of effect with the mech while in the mech. Do you believe there is a reason that it would not?
Do you have line of effect to other operators in the mech? Are you in touch range to other operators? Can you move to touch range, or is it impossible?