[X] My Assistant

[Fortune]

From what I remember you round down on both magic and essence, so if you have an essence of 6 and you buy a commlink with an essence cost of 0.2 you don't drop to 5.8 points essence (excluding the purchase of additional equipment) you round down to 5.

Not quite. Magic is always rounded down, but Essence is not. If you only implant a Datajack, you would be at 5.9 Essence.

[ArkonC]

From what I remember you round down on both magic and essence, so if you have an essence of 6 and you buy a commlink with an essence cost of 0.2 you don't drop to 5.8 points essence (excluding the purchase of additional equipment) you round down to 5.

Well that's just not true, if you lose 0.1 essence, and you has 6, you now have 5.9...

The same would apply to magic as well, so if you only have 1 magic point left and never bought that internal commlink and now you decide you want it you go from having 1 magic to 0 magic; meaning you are a burn out because you have to have at least have a full point of magic to cast a force 1 or higher spell, and since force 1 is the lowest force...

While this is true, your given explanation isn't an explanation, it's an effect of having 0 magic...

Now the essence plays a bit different in that you would keep track of your essence until it hits zero, and then you die.

It plays different in that you don't round down, like you do for magic, but you track both till you have 0...
In our above example, the mage would have lost a point of magic, but he could now install 0.9 essence worth of ware and not drop another point of magic...

I understand essence to be a person’s life force or their soul, so what I don't understand is how can you loose a part of your essence by having an item implanted into your body or having a cyber arm attached to your body because you lost yours due to a freak accident? Anyway ...

I think it's a game balance thing more than anything else...

EDIT: Damn fortune and those damn quick fix answers... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[masterofm]

Yes it's not true, but when you are dealing with things like healing? Yes then it is true. Your essence might only be 5.9, but when you try to cast magic on that character it does increase the threshold to succeed by 1. I think that might be where the wires are getting crossed.

[Tarantula]

Yes it's not true, but when you are dealing with things like healing? Yes then it is true. Your essence might only be 5.9, but when you try to cast magic on that character it does increase the threshold to succeed by 1. I think that might be where the wires are getting crossed.

Well, I'm curious to how you'd get a 1.9 threshold.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[masterofm]

When dealing with essence loss then you round down when dealing with things like healing a character. That was all I meant to say.

[HentaiZonga]

Not quite. Magic is always rounded down, but Essence is not. If you only implant a Datajack, you would be at 5.9 Essence.

A question on Essence Loss:

One of our 'harsher' GM's has expressed that *each time* you get cyberware or bioware, that counts as a seperate rounding. So, for example, if a mage gets a Datajack (0.25 Essence), his Essence drops from 6 to 5.75, and his Magic drops from 6 to 5. Then, if he later gets Cyber-ears (0.20 Essence), his Essence drops from 5.75 to 5.55, and his Magic drops from 5 to 4. Getting them installed as a 'package', though, would only drop Magic from 6 to 5, since the total Essence loss is only 0.45.

This doesn't seem right to me. It seems like all Magic loss from Essence should be calculated as a single lump sum, and then Magic loss from other sources should be applied.

[Tarantula]

This doesn't seem right to me. It seems like all Magic loss from Essence should be calculated as a single lump sum, and then Magic loss from other sources should be applied.

Thats because it isn't right.

It is by RAW calculated as one lump amount, and rounded then subtracted from magic that way. Not each individual implantation.

[ArkonC]

A question on Essence Loss:

One of our 'harsher' GM's has expressed that *each time* you get cyberware or bioware, that counts as a seperate rounding. So, for example, if a mage gets a Datajack (0.25 Essence), his Essence drops from 6 to 5.75, and his Magic drops from 6 to 5. Then, if he later gets Cyber-ears (0.20 Essence), his Essence drops from 5.75 to 5.55, and his Magic drops from 5 to 4. Getting them installed as a 'package', though, would only drop Magic from 6 to 5, since the total Essence loss is only 0.45.

This doesn't seem right to me. It seems like all Magic loss from Essence should be calculated as a single lump sum, and then Magic loss from other sources should be applied.

In our above example, the mage would have lost a point of magic, but he could now install 0.9 essence worth of ware and not drop another point of magic...

[hyzmarca]

Yes it's not true, but when you are dealing with things like healing? Yes then it is true. Your essence might only be 5.9, but when you try to cast magic on that character it does increase the threshold to succeed by 1. I think that might be where the wires are getting crossed.

You got that backwards. When you calculate modifiers for healing tests you use the Essence loss rounded down. A character with an Essence of 5.9 has an Essence loss of .1 which, rounded down, is 0. In SR4 you always round in favor of the character making the test.

[Fortune]

You got that backwards. When you calculate modifiers for healing tests you use the Essence loss rounded down. A character with an Essence of 5.9 has an Essence loss of .1 which, rounded down, is 0. In SR4 you always round in favor of the character making the test.

Yep. This is the same kind of wording as used in calculating the Karma reduction for Initiations which include a Group and/or Ordeals.

[Critias]

A question on Essence Loss:

One of our 'harsher' GM's has expressed that *each time* you get cyberware or bioware, that counts as a seperate rounding. So, for example, if a mage gets a Datajack (0.25 Essence), his Essence drops from 6 to 5.75, and his Magic drops from 6 to 5. Then, if he later gets Cyber-ears (0.20 Essence), his Essence drops from 5.75 to 5.55, and his Magic drops from 5 to 4. Getting them installed as a 'package', though, would only drop Magic from 6 to 5, since the total Essence loss is only 0.45.

This doesn't seem right to me. It seems like all Magic loss from Essence should be calculated as a single lump sum, and then Magic loss from other sources should be applied.

The next time you see that GM, squirt lemon juice in his eye and tell him "NO! BAD! That's from Critias!" and then kick him in the junk, if you want to.

[Cthulhudreams]

Yeah that GM obviously hates mages and the rules.

[weblife]

So it is no longer possible to take a Geas to protect a magic point from being lost?

[Fortune]

So it is no longer possible to take a Geas to protect a magic point from being lost?

According to Street Magic, you cannot take Geasa to offset Magic loss that is caused by Implantation, but Geasa can be used to offset some of the other causes of Magic loss.