Beyond the benefits of something like Bull, where there's a skill bonus, why would an Adept (not a Mystical Adept) have a Mentor? Am I missing something, or is the aforementioned skill bonus the only real edge besides roleplaying flair?

Well, discounting mystic adepts for a second, certainly most mentor spirits are geared toward bonuses to magical skills, but they can be part of a viable adept build. Besides the skill bonus (which is handy) you get the occasional oddball like Rat or Bear with a more cogent physical advantage - and some of the disadvantages aren't bad either! Some people like Bear's berserk or Wolf's tenacity in combat.

Concept and Flavor are big as well...

For Example: Sometimes, an Adept Warrior feels the pull of Wise Warrior, even if he does not gain any true advantage from her patronage...

I love this forum, seriously. Responses in minutes, fast enough that I stand a watch and they're waiting for me.



The more I look at it, the more there are plenty of advantages to be had with Adepts. So much so that one of my players was just asking me about how to spend a few extra BPs, and I pointed him to the Mentor section. Bear would seem to be one of those ones that's got a lot going for a Way of the Warrior Adept. Two extra dice for resisting damage and the downfall is that you run into combat when hurt? Yeah... sign me up.

I've been away from my books too long to have seen the benefits.



Flavor is always a key for me. If a character is merely a pile of shiny stats, then it's an accountancy exercise, not something I'd play. I like breathing life into a character, which is part of the reason I can't play a character I haven't written at the very least a couple thousand words about prior to ever rolling dice.



Am I in error, though, or missing an errata. I posed the question based on another thread, but now I'm seeing in my copy of the BBB that only Magicians and Mystic Adepts can have Mentors...

SR4A changed that: http://shadowrun4.com/resources/sr4a/sr4a_changes.pdf

Lars

Going through the main book and Street Magic, there are more mentor spirits than I thought that give tangible non-magical bonuses. Most commonly, you get a +2 dice pool bonus to a skill, but have to make a Willpower/Charisma (3) test to avoid doing something bad in certain situations (backing down from a fight, accepting help defeating an enemy, etc.), or suffer a -1 penalty to a skill or test. Only Owl and Moon Maiden give you a "free" bonus (the penalty is for casting a category of spells), although it is still balanced, because the adept will still be constrained by having to live up to the ideals of the mentor spirit, or suffer penalties. And Rat gives you a bit more, since both of its bonuses are mundane ones.

In addition to the roleplaying opportunities, mentor spirits can be a good deal for adepts because they offer a +2 dice pool bonus that stacks with other bonuses. Faces and stealthy types generally have the most options here.

See, now this is why I need to pay more attention to errata. Thanks for the link, eh.



I'd noticed the leaning towards Infiltration and social related bonuses, and it makes me grin, because I love my social adepts.