I have always just houseruled the following issues since i have yet to find
an answer to the problem clearly stated in the books, but here we go.

Does a magician with a mentor spirit add his mentor spell category/spirit bonuses to drain?
(example, would a wolf shaman have +2 to his drain pool for combat spells?)

Also, does counterspelling count vs various critter and spirit powers like Elemental attack, Engulf, Confusion?

Thanks in advance.

The text on BBB pg 192 says that the "magician gains bonus dice when acting or using Sorcery or Conjuring skills ..." As I read it (and I agree, it is vague), bonus dice for spirit of a specific kind therefore is a bonus to the conjuring skill, and does not apply to the drain test.

Yours,
Joel

I agree with Joel.

simple enough, as that is pretty much how i have been reading the issue on mentor spirit bonuses as well-

though i am still curious on the issue of critter powers,
are they ruled as spells for purposes of counterspelling?

A similar change that took me by surprise while transitioning to 4th edition was that Power (and Spellcasting) Focus dice could no longer be added to Drain Resistance Tests.

For better or worse, this set of changes makes Drain Resistance the hard limit on the scaling power of magicians. A tenth grade initiate with a Force 6 Power Focus and a Sorcery skill of 8 is no better at resisting Drain than a fresh 400 point character. Am I right, or am I missing something?

I do note that Willpower and the Drain Attribute could be raised, but there is a hard limit on that as well.

i had actually thought that a power foci would could be used in either casting/or resisting drain-
though on the description on power foci in SR4a it makes note that it can only be used on tests that involve
the magic attribute...hmmm

the initiate can get centering. This means that as long as can perform the appropriate free action, the initiate gets extra dce equal to his initiation level to resist drain. Further, if you want to invest specialized karma, you can get a centering focus, for yet more drain dice.

Yours,
Joel


PS: Initiates can also get shielding, which adds their initiation to the counterspelling. And can get a Shielding Focus. Focus addiction, here I come...

That would be the part I was missing. I forgot about Centering. Since Centering scales with Initiate Grade, Drain isn't such a hard limit on overall effectiveness. Thanks Joel.

Most Critter Powers are not spells for purposes of Counterspelling. The notable exception to this is Innate Spell, which functions as casting a spell.

I have seen that somewhere too.

You can choose to ignore it where it seems reasonable, but by the "standard" rules interpretation counterspell only works against critters that are actually casting a spell. So a spirits influence power doesn't get protected by CS but something casting the spell influence get protected by CS. Firebolts from a fire spirit don't get CS, etc.

Nice-thanks for the info on the counterspelling.

In the FAQ a suggested house-rule (or optional rule, depending on how you want to look at it) was to retain the ability to withhold dice from spellcasting for use in drain.