Adepts' Improved Reflexes power. Options

[emo samurai]

How much does it cost after the first level? Does it cost 3 magic after your initial 2 magic to level up to level 2, or does it just cost 3 magic total? Same for level 3.

[Ranneko]

3 total

[Orb]

Yup, just 3 total.

If you have improved reflexs (1) and you increase you magic rating by spending karma, you can spend that point to improve rating of the power by one.

Same goes for all adept powers, you can always improve thier rating by paying the difference.

[emo samurai]

HOOOOOOOOLLLLY shit. That is AWESOME. And that balances them out against samurai; if it took 10 magic to level it up to 3, samurai would DESTROY adepts.

[Akimbo]

Most cybered people can destroy an adept pretty easily anyway.

[emo samurai]

Why do people play adepts, then?

[emo samurai]

And is that considering skillsofts? Because those aren't supposed to automatically confer skill at its maximum rating anyway.

[RunnerPaul]

[Taki]

[Squinky]

I play Street Sams for the coolness factor, I love cyber. but once my essence is gone, I can't initiate it up like magic, I've gotta continually upgrade, which requires tons of money, and will eventually hit a wall.

I play Adepts for the long term viability. No matter what I can have an uncapped growth potential in my magic, being able to become much more powerful than a samuari in the long run. Magic also has a different feel.

There you go.

[Clyde]

Adepts can get a couple things with powers no Street Samurai can yet copy. Voice control, Kinesics and bonus social skill dice, for example. Also, consider the effect of buying just 2 points of mystic armor (1 power point) - it makes you as well armored as a guy in Full Security Armor with only an Armor Jacket on - pretty nice. Spend 2 power points and you suddenly become a lot more bulletproof. Combat sense is also neat - spend a couple power points on that and you'll be damn near impossible to surprise or hit, not to mention your own ambushes becoming that much more effective. Even at mid levels, adepts can walk through fire and come out smiling like Buddha - or Freddy Krueger.

[Gondor]

OK, this might not be the right thread for this, but I don't think this question warrants its own thread.
Is there a reason to cast the spell Increase Reflexes over force 4. According to the rules as I read them, you need 4 hits to achieve maximum results, and I can find no other uses for force in the spell. Am I right?

[Darkness]

The only thing i see is, that a stronger spell is not so "easily" dispelled.

[emo samurai]

Yeah, if you quicken it at force 6, add 6 extra karma, and have a magic of 6, that makes an opposed roll of 18 dice. That is fucking IMPOSSIBLE for anyone who isn't initiated at least 3 times.

[Fedifensor]

Well, I'm still reading through the book, but it seems like Adepts can hold their own.

Picture an elf adept with Exceptional Attribute (Reaction) and a maxed-out attribute, giving him a base Reaction of 8. Buy a Magic attribute of 6, then take Improved Reflexes 2 (+2 to Reaction) and Combat Sense 6 (+6 dice to defend against melee and ranged attacks). That's *16* dice to roll as a defense any time you're attacked, without counting Dodge. Who cares about Full Defense? Your base dice pool is probably double what most attackers are going to roll to hit you, and you can default to just taking 4 hits instead of rolling (meaning attackers need 5+ hits to tag you).

Or you can use 2 to 3 points of your Magic Attribute on Mystic Armor, making you nearly bulletproof when wearing armor - far more so than cyberware enhancements can offer.

Adepts can be quite powerful - in their area of specialization. Street samurai can be more powerful in general once they get enough cash together, as the bioware/cyberware combo can be tweaked out more than adept powers. But an adept who specializes in an area will be at leat on par with the samurai, if not better. Plus, once an Adept gets to Initiate for the first time, they can take Masking and appear to be an unaugmented mundane to nearly everyone.

[Squinky]

That elf would have a base reaction of 7....not 8.

And you can easily out do the armor aspect by getting cyber-limbs and getting armor for those, considering each limb can have 2 points of armor that stacks at char gen. If you have a full body replacement you can have 5 limbs with 2 armor ==10 armor. After chargen it can easily be upgraded to up to 4 points of armor per limb. Where adepts beat sams out on armor is that mystic armor is for everywhere, you can't target the unarmored part of em, cause even their eyeballs are considered armored.

Street sams will usaully start with higher stats also, because it's so cheap and easy to get muscle toner and augmentation, and aspets have to pay out the ass for those. !.5 magic per point usaully....

The uber powers of adepts in my opinion are boosted attributes (crazy powerful if you have a decent magic score) Combat sense, and of course they can out do everyone with improved ability. They also can get that elusive 4 combat turn right out of the box...

[emo samurai]

Also, I don't think skillsofts should be so awesome; they shouldn't stack with the character's skills. With skills, you use your own brain; with skillsofts, you use a processor that does not have anything to do with your brain.

[Squinky]

[RunnerPaul]

And use of skillsofts prevents spending of Edge.

[SpasticTeapot]

Adepts are different from samurai in many ways. They both have their pros and cons.
Street samurai can get their stuff added in at almost any time. Wheras an Adept might have to go on six runs plus an ordeal to initiate and gain a point of magic, a street samurai can get a similar benifit from going on three runs and paying a visit to the shadow doctor. They've also got a great deal of nifty functionality; a smart razorguy can wire his cybereyes into numerous cheap remote cameras, allowing him to switch to a different view at any time. (I'm not sure of the rules on this, but seeing how I can make one of these myself for 30$ a camera and a RadioShack RF switch, I can't say it would be hard.) As an added bonus, they can swap out obscure skills at their leisure.
Adepts, on the other hand, are both much more versatile and more likely to be one-trick ponies, so to speak. They can, and often have to focus all of their abilities on one area (the troll hand-to-hand monster or the pistol-wielding adept capable of dealing absurd damage), making them a bit weak in other areas. On the other hand, an Adept can learn some rather useful abilities not duplicated by any bit of cyberware or bio; a troll with smashing blow can simply bash through many walls with ease, and wallrunning, well, wallrunning is just plain fun.) They can also operate with a much lower profile; even the most non-invasive reflex enhancements will leave the user a little twitchy, and most cyberware shows up like a becon on a metal detector. On the other hand, an initiate Adept can use masking to conceal his or her abilities, making them appear totally mundane (until they start smashing through walls.)

[jago668]

Other than you can make a troll phys ad do something like 28P or 30S in unarmed combat as a begining character. So yeah if you pick one thing to be good at as a phys ad you will be better than nearly anyone else. However it takes alot of time and karma to be good at alot of things.

Or if you prefer stack everything into mystic armor and have a no armor soak of 12/12. Drop an armored jacket into the mix for a 20/18. Now just imagine that stuck onto a troll with a body of 10, or 11 if you can scrape the points for it with exceptional attribute. Then stack the toughness quality on there as well.

Or how about starting an elf with enhanced attribute agility, topping the stat. Then pushing aptitude onto blades, topping it out, and specializing in swords. Then take a force 2 katana. Then blow 3 points onto improved ability blades, and 3 points into improved reflexes. So you are rolling 27 dice to attack as a starting character, and you are going to roll it 3 times a round.

Or as pointed out earlier. Top out magic, and buy 12 levels of Combat Sense. Then top out Reaction. So you are rolling 18 dice of defense against ranged attacks, and you get to add even more dice in close combat.

The fun thing is, they are all by rules, and all out of the main book. Of course if your GM allows you to do this he/she should go and get an MRI and a CT scan.

[ThatSzechuan]

[Squinky]

[Vaevictis]

[Darkness]