So, on Pg. 187 of the core book, it says that Improved Ability can add up to the base rating in dice to a skill. I.e., if I have Gymastics 5, I can buy Improved Gymastics 5, and get a total Gymnastics of 5 (+5) =10. However! Page 109 says that a modified skill cannot exceed 150% of the base skill rating, meaning I could only cap out at 7, meaning I could only buy two levels of Improved Gymastics before the rest do nothing. I seem to recall that several cyber- and bioware mods also give bonuses that can easily surpass a base skill; is there errata that explains the designers' intent, here? And is there any hard-and-fast rule as to when it's a "modified skill bonus" (subject to the 1.5x cap), and when it's merely a "dice bonus" (and thus uncappable)?

Alright, I'm no SR4 expert. And really, I've only looked over the books and never actually played... That being said, I think the difference is that Improved Ability (and things like reflex recorders and enhanced articulation) add extra dice to the skill, and do not actually modify the skill's rating.

So basically with you're Level 5 improved ability you would have dice as follows:

5 Skill + Some Agility + 5 Improved Ability pool + Any from cyberware.

I'm pretty sure that's how it works, becuase in another thread they were taking about improved ability for a sniper who ended up having 24 dice to shoot with. So yeah, you should be fine with your 5+5.

Improved Ability is limited to Skill being improved * .5 (round down). In the skills section of the book it say that the max skill you can have is 10 (aptitude + improved ability). I am not sure what version you have of the BBB, but it is definitely Skill * .5

Rereading your post I see that your main question is actually on DP mods vs Skill rating. Very few things modify the skill rating (Improved Ability is one), but there are many DP mods, or gear/ware that increases the number of dice in a specific type of pool without augmenting the attribute or skill. A good houserule is to limit DP mods to 1/2 (round up) of the skill rating. This gives adepts something of a bonus, but they cost too much anyways.

Chibu is totally wrong. Sorry Chibu The errata clarifies it. Improved Ability and Reflex Recorders add to the skill's base rating. The highest improvment you can ever get to a skill's base rating is 3, which is half of a skill of 6 (and 7 too, cuz it doesn't round up, and you can't add 3.5 dice). See the errata, then ask more questions if you're still confused

Aha! Thank you, all. So if I understand this, the highest I can get a Gymnastics dice pool is:

Elf w/Exceptional Agility: Agility (7) + Exceptional Attribute[Agility] (1) + Increased Attribute[Agility] (4) + Gymnastics (6) + Aptitude[Gymnastics] (1) + Specialization (2) Improved Physical Skill[Gymnastics] (3) = Agility 8(12) + Gymnastics 7(10) + Specialization 2 = 15 dice unaugmented, 17 dice unaugmented in my Specialization, 22 dice augmented, and 24 dice augmented in my Specialization?

First, by the Shadowrun 4 errata, Improved Ability & Reflex Recorder add to the skill rating instead of applying a dice pool bonus.

Second, by the RAW, there is no limit to dice pool bonus', although there are limits to certain things that will give a bonus, such as aiming, specified under anything with such a cap.

Now, for the rules on augmented maximums, there are two possibilities, both of which I believe have text in the BBB supporting them, despite them contradicting each other (I may look for quotes later).

The first one is, your maximum augmented rating (attribute or skill) is equal to 1.5 x the attribute or skills rating is - so, if you have a skill rating of 4, you may have up to a 2-point increase, for an augmented maximum of 6.

The second is, your maximum augmented rating (attribute or skill) is equal to 1.5 x the natural maximum of that attribute or skill, so with the natural maximum skill rating of 6, you may have an augmented rating of up to 9, regardless of what your base rating is. If you take aptitude, raising your natural maximum to 7, you may have an augmented of up to 10, regardless of the base rating.

Myself, and everyone I play with, uses the second interpretation, which we believe is the accurate one, but ultimately, it is up to the GM which cap to use.

From my current understanding of the BBB, I think Attributes cap at maximum x1.5, whereas Skills cap at current x1.5.

Increased Attribute costs double (2 power points) when you go over the maximum, so 4 points of it would cost 8 power points, not possible at character creation. A better approach would be to get muscle toner: 2, synthcardium: 3, and enhanced articulation. That all adds up to only 1.0 Essence cost, or only 1 point of Magic loss. And the synthcardium and enhanced articulation both give dice pool bonuses rather than raising the skill, so they don't count against the modified skill rating.

So you would have Elf w/Exceptional Agility: Agility (7) + Exceptional Attribute[Agility] (1) + Muscle Toner (2) + Gymnastics (6) + Aptitude[Gymnastics] (1) + Specialization (2) Improved Physical Skill[Gymnastics] (3) = Agility 8(10) + Gymnastics 7(10) + Specialization 2 + Synthcardium (3) + Enhanced articulation (1) = 24 dice augmented, and 26 dice in your specialty. Plus, later on you can upgrade your bioware to betaware and improve your muscle toner to rating: 4.

Ooh! I am intrigued, but unfortunately 'ware (even bio) sort of rubs the idea of this character wrong. The GM's considering allowing me to purchase extra power points at the rate of 4 BP per 1 Power (or 1 BP per 0.25 Power), with the restrictions that no single power's level can be higher than my Magic rating, and only (Magic Rating) worth of power points. The problem with losing Essence is, I want a few other Adept powers at 6, which requires my Magic rating be at 6. Hrm... Attribute Boost might be preferrable, to be honest.

I would STRONGLY advise against making power points that cheap - check the Street Magic errata for a way to gain power points other than increasing your magic; additional power points also should not be available at character creation unless you are playing a high-powered game, in which case you would need to either grant starting karma, or find a decent BP cost for what is normally only available through karma.

If you must have a way to gain additional power points not suggested in the books, they should cost at least 15 karma each (or 10 BP)

Well, following the progression for Qualities, that should work out to 8 BP rather than 10 - which means 2 BP per 0.25 Power?

Well, on an optimized character 1 BP = 1.5 karma or theres about, so you could potentially let someone initiate at character generation, convert the karma costs into BP and let people go for it.

Hrm, that does make 10 BP sound right. Okay, I'll go with it.

Huh, well sorry for posting I did actually look up the text in the books, i guess i didn't check for erata =(

Ah well, at least i mentioned that i didn't actually know.

Chibu for the lose...