Adept Power Questions. Options

[Manunancy]

In my opinion you should starts with defensive abilities - most corporate/law enforcement types tends toward guns rather than melee. First go for survivability, then improve effectiveness. You can't improve if you get killed...

[Dakka Dakka]

I was thinking about it, and wasn't sure on the significance of spending 1.5 PP's for Improved combat ability 3 (blades, archery) or being able to spend 1 PP and get Improved Physical ability 4 (gymastic dodge, dodge)

You can never have improved ability 4, not even with the aptitude quality. The augmented maximum of a skill is natural rating(not maximum) x 1.5. Thus a natural skill of 6 can be improved by 3 to 9 and a rating of 7 also by 3 to 10.

I also suggest only to take improved ability once the natural skill is maxed since karma expenditure for improving the skill is calculated with the augmented rating.

[Glyph]

So which is more suggested? Using the PP's for extra dice to hit (Improved Combat Ability, etc.) or for more defensive dice (Combat Sense, mystic armor, etc.) I was thinking about it, and wasn't sure on the significance of spending 1.5 PP's for Improved combat ability 3 (blades, archery) or being able to spend 1 PP and get Improved Physical ability 4 (gymastic dodge, dodge)

Dodge is a combat skill, so improving it costs about as much as getting combat sense - combat sense is usually the better buy, unless you use full melee dodge a lot (which you probably don't, if you have a melee combat skill to block with). Manunancy is right that ranged defense is more generally useful to have than melee effectiveness - although melee is one of those things where, if you specialize in it, you want to be really good in it.

A possible compromise between the two options - get 2 points of combat sense and 1 point of counterstrike. Counterstrike lets you add its level and any net successes from blocking to your counterattack, which makes it especially good combined with combat sense.

[Dakka Dakka]

They add as dice though.

[Umidori]

You can never have improved ability 4, not even with the aptitude quality. The augmented maximum of a skill is natural rating(not maximum) x 1.5. Thus a natural skill of 6 can be improved by 3 to 9 and a rating of 7 also by 3 to 10.

I also suggest only to take improved ability once the natural skill is maxed since karma expenditure for improving the skill is calculated with the augmented rating.

You are mistaken, I am afraid. The adept power of Improved Ability expressly states, "Improved Ability does not actually improve a skill’s rating, it only provides additional dice for tests involving the skill." <SR4, p.187> This means you can indeed have Improved Ability 4, even without the aptitude quality. The skill is not changed, so the rule of augmented maximum does not apply. It is true that "you cannot have more additional dice than your base skill rating", but that simply means you need a base skill of 4 to have Improved Ability of 4.

~Umidori

[Dragnar]

Has has been errata'd since the second or third printing. Improved Ability is a regular skill boost, not a dice pool bonus.

[Umidori]

*facepalm* Gorram errata. Disregard my ramblings.

~Umidori

[Brol_The_Mighty]

So, I've ended up going with Improved Reflexes 2, Combat Sense 3, Counterstrike 1. Figured that would be a good starting point.