Max Adept Powers?, How many can you use at once? Options

[Socinus]

Does the game set a max for how many Adept powers you can use at once?

I have a monk char who's super crazy good at hand-to-hand and most of his adept powers are for hand-to-hand and I havent seen any rules against using like FIVE powers at once. We made a house rule, three at once is the max.

[Stahlseele]

no such rule as far as i know of, but it would probably have something to do with magic . . maybe magic number of powers active at the same time?

[Shadow]

Some of the power are mutually exclusive, like Penetrating strike and elemental strike. They do say on a per power bases, which power you can use with wich. They are pretty good at it in both books.

[child of insanit...]

i'm fairly certain that if it doesn't say it can't be used, it can be used. ie. killing hands+distance strike+delayed dmg while using magical thermo/lowlight/UV/ultra sonic vision ect.

[ArkonC]

I'd like to add that I think putting a limit on the maximum number of active adept powers is cripling, especially one as low as 3...
Do you also limit the number of bonuses a character can receive from ware? It would be terribly unfair if you didn't...

[Shilaleagh]

IIRC, ther limit on how many powers an adept or mage can have running at once (provided that they can sustain them, and cast them without getting hit by the drain) is defined by your magic rating. i may be a lil confused here, that could be 3e rules instead, but im fairly sure that's the go.

Just had a quick flick through and it definately didn't say anything about it being limited by anything else.. nor do phys ad powers require drain rolls or anything.. so ArkonC seems to be on the money so far, in that if your going to stop the physad from using his abilities to the fullest, then you should really be putting a limiter on the cybers as well. After all, the physad does naturally what a cyber gets implanted...

[Shadow]

Ask your self this, was their a limit to how many people Bruce Lee could slap around. They point to him as an example of an adept pre-awakening (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[pbangarth]

Yeah, but he only used one Power, Open Can of Whupass ( 8 ).

Peter

[Glyph]

There is no limit on how many powers an adept can have active at once, although some of them can't be used together (such as elemental strike and distance strike), and some require an action to use. But an adept with, for example, improved reflexes, improved unarmed combat, killing hands, combat sense, and critical strike would have no problem using all of those powers in a fight. Adepts would be pretty pathetic, otherwise.

[Jhaiisiin]

Yeah, but he only used one Power, Open Can of Whupass ( 8 ).

Peter

That just proves his awesomeness, as that's 1.5pp per level, so he self-initiated 6 times before his death.

[HentaiZonga]

in 3rd Edition, you could only have a number of PP active equal to your Magic score. 4th Edition doesn't seem to have this, but it seems reasonable.

The caps we use:

Base Power Points - (Magic)
Extra Power Point Cost - 4 Karma per 0.25 PP (3 Karma with Geas)
Maximum Power Points - (Magic x2 + Initiation)
Maximum Power Points active at once - (Magic)

[Muspellsheimr]

4th Edition doesn't seem to have this, but it seems reasonable.

No, it isn't. Putting such a limit on the Adepts fucks them over; I, for one, would never play an Adept in such a campaign, & likely would not play in the campaign at all. They have a hard enough time as is.

[Fortune]

There is no need for an active Power cap for adepts in SR4.

[TheOOB]

The majority of adept powers are not something you activate, you just are simply better at something then non-awakened people. Many adepts are entirely unaware they are awakened until someone assenses their aura. You don't activate killing hands or critical strike, you just know that your punches really hurt. The powers you do activate(attribute boost, astral perception, ect) all come with their own drawbacks.

[The Jopp]

The only limitations for an adept is AFAIK as per SR4:

The maximum level an adept may have in any power is equal to the adept’s Magic attribute.

In addition you cannot have more power points than your magic.

There is no limit on the AMOUNT of powers an adept can have active at one time.

[WeaverMount]

in 3rd Edition, you could only have a number of PP active equal to your Magic score. 4th Edition doesn't seem to have this, but it seems reasonable.

The caps we use:

Base Power Points - (Magic)
Extra Power Point Cost - 4 Karma per 0.25 PP (3 Karma with Geas)
Maximum Power Points - (Magic x2 + Initiation)
Maximum Power Points active at once - (Magic)

Just curious what made you feel you like this was needed?

[Fortune]

In addition you cannot have more power points than your magic.

Technically, P.P. can actually exceed the Magic rating if the optional rule replacing Metamagic with an extra P.P. is used.

[TheOOB]

Technically, P.P. can actually exceed the Magic rating if the optional rule replacing Metamagic with an extra P.P. is used.

Which if they are willing to give up a metamagic for that it's perfectly fine. The whole point of being an adept over a magician is that you don't have to activate and sustain your powers or anything, you are just naturally superior to mundanes.

[HentaiZonga]

Just curious what made you feel you like this was needed?

Well, mostly precedent.

1) The "Maximum PP = Magic x 2 + Initiation" comes from the idea that an extra PP is equivalent to a Metamagic, and you can't have more Metamagic techniques than your (Magic + Initiation). Since you can have a maximum base PP equal to your Magic, (Magic x 2 + Initiation) made numerical sense. Of course, we allow that to track seperately.

2) 4 Karma per 0.25 PP comes from the idea that a Metamagic technique is 15 Karma, and getting a Power Point with a Geas is 75% of normal cost, and we wanted round numbers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) We also allow any Adept, Initiate or not, to purchase extra Power Points, and have experimented with splitting the "Mystical Adept" Magic PP into Sorcery (at 0.5 PP per point of Sorcery magic) and Conjuring (at 0.5 PP per point of Conjuring magic).

3) The "no more PP active at once than your Magic" is mostly a reflexive holdover from SR2/SR3, and helps figure out how power points are affected by mana ebbs and other "mana reducing" powers or phenomena. Although honestly, it's never really been an issue, as most of the time the powers that need to be shut off come right off the top (i.e., I have Magic 4 and Increase Agility 4. My Magic drops to 3, so I need to shut off 1 PP - but since my Magic just dropped to 3, of *course* the PP that gets shut off is my fourth level of Increase Agility).

So #3 is probably useless, but I think the rest work pretty well.

[wanderer_king]

Yeah, if your not playing with those rules (which are totally optional as I recall), it would be debilitating to limit the adepts power's active. They spend build points and magic to learn them (which is about on par with spending essence btw.) Do you limit mages from summoning spirits and spell casting at the same time? Do you limit cyberware for street sams? The adept can get sick dice pools or do extreme damage with their powers, but not really more than a street sam who is extremely focused, or a mage who is well prepared.