I'm working on a Mystic adept "jack of all trades" character. I'm spliting my magic 2 for phys ad/3 for Magic. If I take attribute boost for the 4 physical stats would I roll attribute boost 1 + magic 5, or would it be magic 2 ? I'm pretty sure that the spell increase attribute (which I am taking for the mental skills), would be Spellcasting ( 5 in this case ) + magic 3.(edit: also, does attribute boost stack with drugs?)

I sacrificed a point of magic to get rating 4 skillwires and I was wondering, If I spend a day Finding a pirated software site... a) I can buy activesofts at 10% of street cost (nowadays= 1,000*rating)? and b) how long can I keep that site? do I have to stay logged on? or could I go back to it later without spending a day looking for it?

This character is next to useless, but i think he has real potential down the road.

I ma not sure on the software, but I am fairly sure you would use magic 5 for that text.

Same.
The odd thing about ShadowRun and pirated software is that you oddly have to pay a cost for it. Of course, this was started back in 80s when pirated CDs had a cost to the provider. Alternate history, blah blah. The other weird thing is that finding stuff always takes time, even if you have a contact, again, all I can think of is the back ally dealers who aren't always in the same place every time, alternate history stuff.

(Also, game play balance; it might shock some of you, but realism isn't fun!)

I can't remember where I read it. But adept powers use your full magic rating stat when they roll magic.

It's one of the few saving graces of mystic adepts. Also if you have a power focus... it can add dice to the attribute boost power as well.

There's only a handfull of powers which benefit from this though... and most are of questionable utility.
Attribute boost... drawback doesn't stack w/ anything (including combat drugs IIRC)
Empathic healing... meh
Enthralling Performance... meh
Facial Sculpt... only affects duration.. potentially usefull
Gliding... only affects distance... meh
Living Focus... max force of maintained spell... meh
Magic Sense.. increase range. potentially usefull
Melanin Control... duration... potentially usefull
metabolic Control... effectiveness... meh
Motion Sense... detection roll... usefull if you use a blindfighting style
Pain Relief... how much healed... okay stun healing maseuse but takes so long to heal you're almost better going for the stim patch and letting hourly healing do it's thing.
three-d memory... increase size and number of areas.... at magic 5... 25m3 is roughly the size of a 3x3x3m cubicle. very niche

I agree that the sites probably have to stay on the move, but as far as searching for programs the book says 12+rating,1 combat turn (of course they might not have what you are looking for, then you have to find another sight, which could take a few days) I would like this character to find a site before the run and then look up and download a skill during the run as needed(think trinity in the matrix with that helicopter) , but having an open matrix connection could be too risky.

Cost of activesofts is going WAY up w/ the 4A errata.

Buying a program is a one time cost which includes maintenance.
Pirated stuff doesn't have maintenance and degrades over time, so you need to pay more money and time to keep it up to date

Just to give an idea... Rating x 10000 (rating 1-4) to buy.

Pirate is 10% of STREET cost (street cost may vary from book cost based on legality and rarity).
40,000 to buy rating 4 base,
4000 to pirate, w/ an ongoing 1000/2month (or 500/month) to keep it up to date.

Translation you have 10 autosofts... that's 5000/month just to keep them up to par.
On top of the 40000 to buy the cracked copies in the first place.

you can get pirated update patches too!
edit: i guess you accounted for that.. anyway, you sure can't afford a lot of 40,000 skills at chargen, so what can you do?

Play a character with a more reasonable skillset, that's what! I've always thought skillwires were for that handful of skills you can't afford to train normally, but might need in a pinch. The idea of playing a Jack-of-All-Trades with wires instead of real skills is absurd. Punky, but absurd.

Did I mention this character idea is retarded? I just think it would be fun to play. I mean, he would suck at just about everything, but he could also attempt just about anything too. I see him being a big talker, Like an 80's stock broker. but not really having a lot of talent, kind of just getting by on luck (or dying shortly into the first adventure)