I'm working on an aspected Chinese pacifist Wuxing Mage. He is limited to health spells. Now I was asking myself whether it is possible to give him a spellcasting/health spells specialization. Since he is limited to health spells, it would be somewhat illogical if he could do so (IMO). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information regarding my problem. Did I overlook something?

TIA!

In SR4 that is a 10 bp negative quality. It doesn't prohibit you from casting or summoning things that are not health related. Instead, you just suffer a -4 modifier to those types of casting and spirits. I see no reason that characters of this type wouldn't specialize.

Street Magic->The Awakened Character->Tweaking the Rules (p.31)->Expert Aspected Magician (second column, second-to-last)

Ah, ok. Sorry, I should have read that.

So if I have magic 6 & spellcasting 4 and specialize in health spells I'd have

14 dice for health spells
4 dice for spells of other categories

Right?

Yup. Plus mentor spirit/focus bonus, if any.

Does the target's essence still affect magic healing?

Lost Essence does give a negative dice pool modifier, yes (see the first paragraph on Health category spells). Mystical Healing (p.121, Augmentation) does not. Yay hippiemancers!

Damn, I'm either blind or too tired...

Thank you!

And if the GM is opposed to the optional rule you'd have 12 dice for Health magic (before patron spirit) and 6 dice for other magic.