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[Mardegun]

It seems to me that a starting mage can take out anyone, especially any other starting character.

It is a numbers game, a mundane or adept attacked by a mage only get their attribute to resist, while a mage has his skill + spell pool.

Most of the time a mage can take out any character without much trouble and still not take drain.

For example a mage with
quickness of 4
intelligence of 5
willpower of 6
Reaction of 4 (9)

Increase reaction sustain focus, force 6 (+5 to reaction)
Improve reflexes + 3 sustain focus, force 1 (+3d6 to initiative)
Mana bolt 5(D)

This mage on average can take out two of the street sams listed in SR3. Why? Because the street sam is a little slower and only has a willpower of 3.
Street Sam's reaction is 11 + 3d6 = 20, where the mage has 9+4d6 = 21, so on average the mage will win.

On take of that if the mage only uses their sorcery of 6 to cast the spell, they will still take out the Sam with ease. This is because the mage will get an average of 4 success and the Street Sam can only ever get 3 success ... it is unlikely that he would even get 1.

On top of this, the mage would take no drain at all if they use 3 dice from their mage pool. 2(D) with 9 dice mean you will get 8 successes ... which will take a Deadly Drain to nothing.

This mage is so powerful that they could take out TWO Street Sams in one action. Imagine the same example above expect add a +2 tn for the mage.

The mage would add 1 from their spell pool to roll 7 dice against the willpower of the Street Sam 3 + 2 = 5. A TN of 5 with 6 dice means that the mage will get about 2 success ... while the street sam still has to get 2 success with 3 dice with a tn of 5 ... very unlikely.

Now the mage rolls for drain, 2(D) with 6 dice from willpower + 2 from spell pool. On average the mage will get 4 which will give the mage a light stun ... they might even take no stun at all.

Now this is just a starting mage. This mage isn't initiated or even using limited spells. This mage would only become stronger where the Street Sam has almost hit their peek.

Heck, another type of mage could be created that only uses combat sense, armor and mana bolt. This mage could soak most of the damage from a Street sam and still survival ... and then blow the sam to bits. Am I missing something here?

Here is my solution ...
My thought is my not add a +1 modifier for ever 2 full essence a character has? This will make it more difficult for the mage to effect the average character, but they still can reduce drain to nothing. On top of that an initiated mage can use centering to reduce the modifier.

Also another thought is that any individual that has a magic rating, but no spell pool uses their magic rating instead of essence for this modifier. This way adepts who are masters of magic within their own bodies can better resist magic.

So for example a adept with willpower of 5, would possess an tn of 8 for any mage who wants to target them with a mana bolt ... assuming the adept's magic rating is 6.

Another version is instead of creating modifiers, you give the victim +1d6 for every point of essence they have to resist.