I had always read the character creation rules as "buy Magic to rating X, implants reduce Magic by their essence cost". For example, you buy Magic 2, get 1 ESS of implants, and you are automatically back to Magic 1.

I just started using Chummer and it works differently than I had imagined. In the same example, you buy Magic 2, get 1 ESS of implants. Your essence and magic max are reduced to 5, but your actual Magic is still 2.

Which is correct? Have I been doing it wrong the whole time? If so, this quite literally changes everything.

That is correct. Chummer also works like this, however it automatically spends BP to keep the selected Magic rating

Are you sure about that? I ran a few tests and it does not reduce the actual magic rating OR take extra BP/Karma, all it does is reduce the Magic max.

You might have one of the optional or house rules turned on. There is one that makes it so that essence loss only reduces maximum magic/resonance (instead of both maximum and current)

IIRC Chummer has a selection in the House Rules and Options area that controls that behavior. I don't remember the name of the check box.

Thorguild

Thanks guys, I didn't have the house rule checked, but after some more math it showed that it would take off the first paid level of Magic at each loss of Essence. Example: 1 essence of ware would "cost" 10 karma from your special attributes before even raising Magic to 2.

Are you using BP method or Karma?

In either case, raising Magic to 2 would cost 10 BP or 10 Karma

Each Point of Magic lost due to Essence is going to cost you another 10 points.

Karma. The math is funny though, if you Raise magic to 2 (10 Karma), get 1 point of essence, it then charges you 25 Karma for that same Magic 2, when it should be 0 Karma for Magic 1 plus 10 karma for Magic 2 but an effective Magic rating of 1. I guess it assumes you want to raise to Magic 3, get the point of essence, and then have a final score of 2, since you can't really buy Magic from 0 to 1.

LIke I said, Chummer tries to keep up the selected Magic/Resonance rating. In other words, you select the rating you want to end up with, and the program automatically deduces the karma/BP required to stay at that rating.