Value of essence Options

[Shortstraw]

Apart from its relations with healing and magic (and not being dead/a cyberzombie) does essence actually do anything?

[Dolanar]

gives you a limit on the amount of cyberware you can have

[Shortstraw]

I was looking at true drakes who have 8 essence but can't take cyber/bioware.

[Stingray]

..sometimes it also changes modifiers in social situations..

[Medicineman]

Apart from its relations with healing and magic (and not being dead/a cyberzombie) does essence actually do anything?

Nope, does nothin'
..... It helps to have a high essence when a vampire tries to suck You dry

Hough!
Medicineman

[Smirnov]

In case of Drakes it means they can raise Magic to 8 without Initiating.

[Shortstraw]

In case of Drakes it means they can raise Magic to 8 without Initiating.

Really.....

[Dolanar]

didn't feel the need to mention that since the OP said apart from its relation to magic.

[Shortstraw]

I was aware loosing essence reduced mag/max mag but I thought the 6 max for magic was just to keep it in line with the other human stats.

[Smirnov]

Now that you mention it, you may actually be right. I looked through the book, and it doesn't say that Magic is limited by Essence, it says it's limited by 6 and is downgraded if you lose Essence.

[Shortstraw]

Then again Perianwyr has 8 essence, initiate grade of 4 and 12 magic so it could be that max magic is supposed to be equal to essence + ini grade.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

I was aware loosing essence reduced mag/max mag but I thought the 6 max for magic was just to keep it in line with the other human stats.

However, you said the appropriate word here. Human. Drakes are Not Human.

[_Pax._]

Really.....

Yes.

Any being's Unaugmented Maximum for Magic equals "Essence plus Initiate Grade".

If your Essence is 4, and you aren't initiated ... max Magic 4.

Same Essence, Initiate Grade 3 ... mas Magic is 7.

[Lionhearted]

Interesting, you got a source for that?

@OP Essence is and always have been a balance measure to keep mages on somewhat even footing, nothing more, nothing less.

[BishopMcQ]

It's a combination of the info on SR4A p 177 (Magic) and p 198 (Increased Magic)

Magic is normally capped at 6, and Essence lost will reduce the current Magic Attribute and the cap. Initiations increase the cap.

[Lionhearted]

I'm tired, thought he argued that higher essence means a higher magic cap (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[_Pax._]

It's a combination of the info on SR4A p 177 (Magic) and p 198 (Increased Magic)

Magic is normally capped at 6, and Essence lost will reduce the current Magic Attribute and the cap. Initiations increase the cap.

And a logical inference from this passage, in the rules for Infected PCs (Companion, p77, emphasis mine):

"For Infected characters with Essence Loss, Magic loss does
not occur every time they lose or spend a point of Essence, and
their maximum Magic attribute is equal to their current Essence
+ Initiate grade."

Just seemed logical, that since for the first time it became possible to play something with a potential Essence score higher than 6, that this owuld be the first time the cap on Magic being worded that way was even necessary. *shrug* No reason the same wouldn't ro shouldn't hold true for other playable creatures who can have higher Essence scores.

[Dakka Dakka]

Nope, does nothin'
..... It helps to have a high essence when a vampire tries to suck You dry

Not really, as it becomes increasingly more difficult to suck your essence once the essence drops. The 0.x ESS street Sam actually has quie a good defence against Vampires:

Draining a point of Essence takes a Charisma + Magic (10 – target’s Essence, 1 minute) Extended Test. If the critter is disturbed or interrupted before this test ends, the Essence point is not drained.

even if the critter gets the 9 hits in one roll, the street sam still has 20 rounds to do something against it.

[Stahlseele]

High Essence helps Vampires with their Magic and Attributes.

[Umidori]

Not really, as it becomes increasingly more difficult to suck your essence once the essence drops. The 0.x ESS street Sam actually has quie a good defence against Vampires:even if the critter gets the 9 hits in one roll, the street sam still has 20 rounds to do something against it.

Except that a vampire's victim has to be helpless and immobile in order for the Essence to be drained. The sammy wouldn't be in a position to do anything by that point, they'd merely have a few more minutes at best for some external force to interrupt the feeding.

~Umi

[Kliko]

It makes magical healing a lot more easier (at least in sr3)

[Stahlseele]

Which means it does not work that well on the people most likely to need it.
The cybered up more machine than meat combat monsters that are supposed to keep the rest alive . .
And somehow, it's only healing, nothing else is affected by it . .

[thorya]

I frequently felt like you should get some sort of inherent resistance to magic with essence loss that applies to all magic, not just healing magic. As you become more machine than man, you're harder to effect. Like object resistance. Just another reason to go chrome, I suppose, so they didn't probably didn't want to go that route.

[Dakka Dakka]

Except that a vampire's victim has to be helpless and immobile in order for the Essence to be drained. The sammy wouldn't be in a position to do anything by that point, they'd merely have a few more minutes at best for some external force to interrupt the feeding.

True, but the helplessness usually is much more of a problem than the imminent death. Even with 8+ essence, what's to stop the vampire from simply draining more or otherwise disposing of the helpless critter? At a theshold of 2 the vampire is very likely to have an impact on the character's essence in the first minute, with a threshold of 9 the draining is much more likely to only have any impact on the character after 2 or 3 minutes. Also unconsciousness is not required for feeding so the victim could still call for help via the matrix.

[Lionhearted]

How would you define helpless other then unconscious? Seem like a fringe occurance where that wouldn't be the case