Shapeshifters, pain sponge? and other questions Options

[Red-ROM]

ok, gm'ing for my 1st shapeshifter.
regeneration seems less broken than 3rd, but I had a couple of questions...
if they take the phys ad quality, does that give them a total starting magic of 1 or 2(because they have one already)?

also, if they take empathetic healing, where they absorb damage from another person, can they regenerate said damage?

any other painfull surprises lurking in my future with this character?

[Ancient History]

ok, gm'ing for my 1st shapeshifter.
regeneration seems less broken than 3rd, but I had a couple of questions...
if they take the phys ad quality, does that give them a total starting magic of 1 or 2(because they have one already)?

Magic 1

also, if they take empathetic healing, where they absorb damage from another person, can they regenerate said damage?

Nope! It's from an adept power, so it's magical damage, which you can't regenerate.

any other painfull surprises lurking in my future with this character?

You might regenerate, but wound modifiers still apply for for whatever damage you haven't regenerated yet. Nasty little GM trick that, can be very important.

[Patrick the Gnom...]

The big advantage to regeneration is that most wounds between fights get healed, so players end up like the energizer bunny. Most fights in shadowrun are so quick anyway that healing at the end of a combat round *probably* isn't going to affect a fight's outcome that much. If you find, however, that your PCs are taking recklessness to a whole new level with their uber healing abilities, remember, regeneration has weaknesses. Headshots and magic damage can't be regen'd, plus I can think of a few industrial uses of silver that could be a major pain for a shapeshifting shadowrunner.