Spell Quickening, Is it as ridiculous as I think it is? Options

[Draxtier]

I'm still pretty new to SR4, and I'm just wondering if I understand the nature of the metamagic Quickening correctly. It seems like an incredibly cheap and efficient way to boost a characters power, duplicating some of the best augmentations in the game, but without any of the inherent drawbacks (high (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) cost, reduced essence, MAD scanners all over the place and issues with legality).

Is there a downside to loading a ton of enhancement magic on to your character and quickening it all? The cost in terms of karma seems negligible, relative to the potential gains.

The character I have now is an elf magician, of the shamanic tradition, made with the standard 400 BP creation rules. He started play with magic 5, charisma 6, willpower 5, spellcasting 6 and a force 4 power focus (gained with the restricted gear quality), and 2 points in the influence skill group. So, straight out of the gate I can roll 15 dice to cast spells and 11 dice to resist drain. I've been on a few runs and accumulated 20 karma. More than enough to initiate once.

My intention is to initiate and gain the quickening metamagic (which will cost 13 karma) then cast increase charisma on myself, at force 6, and quicken the spell (for 6 karma). The drain on Increase [Attribute] is (force/2)-2, so even though I have overcast it and the drain is physical, it's only a drain value of 1. I see no reason why I can't keep casting the spell until I manage to roll 6 hits on the spellcasting test with my 14 dice. I'm far more likely to get 6 hits than a glitch, and I can soak 1 drain with no trouble. Once quickened, I will be walking around with a charisma of 6(12), rolling 17 dice to resist drain, and 14 dice for any influence skills. That's a huge boost to the character's abilities, for 19 karma.

Another magician trying to dispell this effect needs to succeed in an opposed test, pitting their counterspelling + magic against the force of the spell + the magic it was cast at + karma used to render it permanent, which in this case is a total of 21 dice. It'd be a hell of a lot easier to just shoot me in the head, so dispelling isn't much of a concern.

The BBB states:

Spells cast upon an individual show up as a separate aura surrounding that person for the duration of the spell. Once a spell has been rendered permanent, the aura is no longer present. It is occasionally possible to see the traces that magic spells leave behind in a target’s aura; see Astral Signatures for more information.

So, while it's possible to perceive the spell with a high enough assensing roll, anyone managing to even detect it will also already know I'm a magician with a magic attribute of 5, making the quickened spell something of a non-issue.

After boosting charisma, I'll cast and quicken Increase Reflexes, to get 4 initiative passes, then I was thinking a force 9 Combat Sense would be useful. Quickening these two spells will cost another 13 karma, so I've spent a total of 32 karma and not a single (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) . Unlike cyberware and bioware, which has a built in limit, thanks to its essence cost, I can't find anything to limit quickened spells.

So why stop there? I can start casting quickened spells on the other runners in my team, giving them the best of cyber/bio enhancement and spells as well. Someone assensing my buddy might be able to detect the spell that's become part of his aura, and which bears my astral signature, but I doubt it's going to be as easy to spot, or as much of a concern, as the illegal cyberware and weapons strewn about his person.

Are there NPC magicians in the world that cast and quicken spells for a fee? If so, what's a reasonable price... and if you can get a permanent force 4 Increase Reflexes cast on your character in an afternoon, why would anyone ever get wired reflexes or a synaptic booster? Can I go in to business and subsidize my income this way? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Surely it can't be this good, and this easy to exploit. I have to be missing something... so, dumpshockers, what am I missing? Have these issues come up at your table, and how have you dealt with them?