The way I understood the text about how mystic adepts work was like so...

You have your Magic attribute. We'll call that BASE_MAGIC.

You have your Magic devoted toward casting. We'll call that CAST_MAGIC.

You have your Magic devoted toward adept powers. We'll call that ADEPT_MAGIC.

This means that BM = CM + AM.

So far, so good.

====================

Now when you look at your maximum force castable, the text appears to state that it's based on your BM, not the portion devoted toward casting. But the actual casting is using your CM.

So in a 2 / 4 split of 6 Magic for Casting / Adept respectively, you'd be able to overcast up to Force 12 (due to Magic of 6) but you only got to roll 2 dice for the Magic attribute portion of the roll due to that amount being devoted toward casting magic.

Likewise, for the adept side, you'd have 4 points for adept powers and would be limited to a max level of 6 for the adept power(s) in question.

The wording in my Street Magic book (hard copy) does imply the above as well as what you stated. Would be nice if it was a bit more... clear.

I guess that clears that up. The FAQ is here for anyone who doesn't know.

So, if a full Mage begins with a 5 Magic attribute, they could drop Force 10 stunballs like they are nothing?

Considering you don't mind your head exploding from the overcast

Then maybe our mage made the character wrong, because they would be casting force 10 stunballs like they were nothing, seemed to be rolling almost 16 dice to resist drain and i think only once took the drain out of god knows how many castings.

His sheet may need a closer inspection...

Err... Resisting drain is Willpower + (Logic, Charisma, or Intuition). So unless he cheesed out those stats for the 12 dice (unless he used an edge point) I think you should take a look at it.

Furthermore, minimum drain is always 1. So overcasting to a 10 force stunball will always net him at least 1 physical damage point.

I'm foggy on the clear-cut rules. But I do remember that you can't spell-sling all day, you're going to pass out some time or later for abusing the manasphere.

Or used a focus. A dwarf of Elf could easily have 16 dice.

Granted, soaking 10 damage with 16 dice is still iffy, and probably won't happen on a regular basis, but 16 dice is easily doable for a starting character.

No offense, but got a page number on that? I can't find that rule anywhere.

Straight from the PDF.

Poop...

Damnable memory. I retract my previous statement.

You can't have a 0 DV, but you can soak the drain into nothingness.
Thanks DTF & Cain

Willpower and Logic are both augmentable with 'ware. With an Exceptional Attribute, Cerebral Booster 3, and Pain Editor, 15 dice are possible with room for 2 more. Take Bear as a mentor and thats +2 dice for physical drain. Make your bioware alpha grade and you can even fit in a Trauma Dampener for a single auto-soak against stun drain and a single box dropped down to stun for physical drain.

Of course, you shouldn't forget the brilliance of just using Increase [Attribute] to raise drain attributes.

Of course, my favorite trick is to initiate once and grab Sacrificing, self-sacrifice the drain on your combat spell down to nothing, and then cast Heal on while cutting yourself open to reduce the drain on the heal spell so that you can stage it down to nothing. And then repeat on your new wound. And repeat again until you are fully healed.

Which is almost as good as getting Sacrificing, Invoking, while being a member of a tradition that can summon Plant and GuardianSpirits. Invoke one of each at low force with enough successes to get the optional powers, order the Guardian Spirit to Endow the Plant Spirit with Endowment and then have the Plant Spirit use Endowment to Endow you with Regeneration. Then, while you have regeneration, just use Sacrificing on yourself instead of taking drain.

Suppliment with a Life Pact or a Power Pact: Regeneration as needed. And use endowed or Power Pacted Essence Drain to increase your magic attribute by 5 or 6 while you're at it.

Edit:Guardian, not guidance

Why not?

Look perfectly RAW to me.

An elf with 8 charisma and 6 willpower can have 14 dice in a drain resistance. Add in another 2 dice from a fetish and you have 16 dice. He can get even more if he wants to from a power focus or mentor spirit. The dice can be used in the spellcasting test or withheld for the drain resistance. So with a power focus 2 and a mentor spirit assisting with 2 dice, you could have 20 dice for drain resistance at chargen. This comes at a rather large cost of maxing out two attributes and purchasing a power focus 2. 20 drain resistance dice can allow you to cast some rather nasty spells though.

He's not soaking 10 damage, he's soaking the damage from a Force 10 Stunbolt, which is only 4. You're still going to fail sometimes with 16 dice, but nowhere near as often as if the DV was 10.

Power Foci cannot be used for Drain. Only for tests that include the Magic Attribute. Spellcasting Foci, on the other hand, are fine to use in the Drain test.

If you're going that route, just go for bloodzilla and be done with it.

If by "are fine to use" you mean, "cannot be used," then you have read what the errata has to say about page 191 of your hymnal.

Either you're wrong in your quoted text above or I missed what you were getting at.

Nothing in the errata indicates that spellcasting foci can't be used for drain tests.

Ok, let's spell it out for you. SR4 errata, page 2, column 2, indicates a correction to page 191, under Spellcasting Foci. Here are the results of the errata:

Note the removal of the "or withheld to help the magician with Drain."

edit: I don't know how that little square got in there, sorry for the funny character.

Now aside from the obviously missing "is" in the errata, the point that the text "or withheld to help the magician with Drain" is now specifically excluded by the errata, does give a pretty strong implication in Aaron's favor that spellcasting foci can't be used for drain anymore.

edit: yeah, what Malachi said!

The modified (for my games and all I have played in) is:

That is what I believe is intended.

James: The intent of the Errata is to point out the Spell Category limitation, which was not previously made clear.

Stun spells may be cheesy but so can AOE Indirect Combat spells. All you are doing is encouraging cheese in both areas instead of cheese in 1 area. Hey, but you'd call that a well rounded PC, won't you?

Do you mean to say that the language is unclear, or that you wish it wasn't that way? =i)

In all seriousness, the former. But you may take it any way you please.

I second this one. I believe the intent of the errata is to point out the spell category as well, not to remove the drain abilities.

Same letters, pronounced respectively "aw", "oo", "uh". Isn't English fun?

While I believe that is the intent as well, I have no proof and by the letter, drain resistance is removed.

What additional clarification was needed? Why was the errata written the way it was? The text already made it QUITE clear that a given type of spell foci had to be made for a given category of spells. As such, a spellcasting foci had to be for a certain group of spells. The rules already spelled that out.

The net result was that the Errata was NOT needed unless the purpose was to remove the ability to use spellcasting foci on the Drain Test or later printings really sporked up the text from the 1st Printing.

If a player was to just reference that section (which would be logical as that is where their function is described), then there is no mention that they apply only to their own category.

Questions were asked, and it would seem that clarification was in order.

There would be no reason to remove the Drain applications of Spellcasting Foci (and only Spellcasting Foci, leaving Summoning Foci free of this supposed limitation), as that makes them virtually useless pieces of junk.

They aren't seperate at all. In fact, the errataed text follows immediately after the text limitting all foci.

Prior to errata, the text looked like this.
"Spell Foci
Spell foci empower a magician's Sorcery skills. There are three types of spell foci: Spellcasting foci, Counterspelling foci, and Sustaining foci. Each spell focus must be attuned to a specific category of spells (Combat, Detection, Health, etc) when it is created, and this cannot be changed.
Spellcasting foci add their Force to a magician's Spellcasting and Ritual Spellcasting dice pools. These dice may be used to cast a spell more effectively or withheld to help the magician with Drain."

Post errata, the text would look like this.
"Spell Foci
Spell foci empower a magician's Sorcery skills. There are three types of spell foci: Spellcasting foci, Counterspelling foci, and Sustaining foci. Each spell focus must be attuned to a specific category of spells (Combat, Detection, Health, etc) when it is created, and this cannot be changed.
Spellcasting foci add their Force to a magician's Spellcasting and Ritual Spellcasting dice pools. These dice may be used to cast a spell more effectively as long as it is of the category appropriate to the focus."


I've gotta say, with the errata, it seems fairly redundant about the category limitation.