er, sort of. the newer FAQ ruling adds the word "active" to the wording on page 168 of SR3. the older FAQ ruling, in effect, adds the words "except in the case of purchased power points". when you combine, them, you get:

And that modified quote you just made works fine for the senarios I made at the bottom of page 2.

Don't confuse "power points" with "levels of a power". Some powers cost less than one power point per level - such as 0.5 or 0.25 per level. Improved Body, for example, costs 0.5 power point per level of that power. So, Improved Body level 2 costs 1 power point. Improved Body level 4 costs 2 full power points.

If an adept has Magic 3 with no foci or power points purchased from karma, he can't have Improved Body level 4 because that power is one level above his limit of 3. The adept could have Improved Body level 3 at a cost of 1.5 power points. The same adept can also have 1.5 power points worth of other powers as long as their rating is not over 3 as well.

If that adept has Improved Body level 3, Improved Strength 2 and Improved Quickness 1, he used up all 3 of his available power points he got from his Magic 3. If he then spends 20 karma to get another power point to spend on powers, his level limit will now be 4 (magic 3 + 1 from karma). He can spend 0.5 of that power point he just got to get Improved Body level 4, leaving him 0.5 power points left over to upgrade other powers, or even get a new one.

The number of powers does not matter. The level of any power can't be more than your limit (magic + power points from karma).

I'm not going to get into the Foci right now.

I'm sorry if I'm not understanding your point.

[Edit - corrected math on the power points and added some more]

Do you mean that you think the number of powers an adept can have is directly equal to the adept's magic rating + points purchased from karma?

Example:

Magic 3 + 2 points of karma = 5 powers at whatever level less or equal to 5
Magic 5 + 1 points of karma = 6 powers at whatever level less or equal to 6
Magic 2 + 0 points of karma = 2 powers at whatever level less or equal to 2

Let me know if I'm on the right track.

no, the levels of any power are still restricted by the character's magic rating, no matter which FAQ ruling you go with. like this:

older FAQ ruling
::Magic 3 + 2 points from karma = 5 total power points, all of which can be active at any one time (maximum level of any power is 3)
::Magic 5 + 1 point from karma = 6 total power points, all of which can be active at any one time (maximum levels of any power is 5)
::Magic 2 + 0 points from karma = 2 power points, all of which can be active any any given time (maximum levels of any power is 2)

newer FAQ ruling
::Magic 3 + 2 points from karma = 5 total power points, only 3 of which can be active at any given time (maximum level of any power is 3)
::Magic 5 + 1 point of karma = 6 total power points, only 5 of which can be active at any given time (maximum level of any power is 5)
::Magic 2 + 0 points from karma = 2 total power points, all of which may be active at any given time (maximum level of any power is 2)

Ok, we're on the same page now. Thanks so much for bearing with me on explaining that.

I can see the "active" part having to do with foci and whatnot, but I feel that if you spend the karma on X number of power points, you should have those extra points plus magic rating available to you no matter what.

I think I might have to address that to ShadowFaq again, because if they don't count (like you're saying) it would really suck against people with cyberware - just not balanced.

fortune's argument is that making purchased power points weaker than initiation is okay, because it makes initiation a more attractive option. i didn't address this point until now, because doing so would have clouded an already-complicated argument.

i don't think it's right to shaft any character type--especially my favorite character type--in games that don't have MitS. you shouldn't need a supplement to bring a basic character type on par with the other possible types.

I don't know about you all, but the runs we do provide just a few thousand nuyen and maybe 3-4 karma each. It wasn't until recently that we did a run out of a gamebook that gave us quite a bit of cash and karma. But even then, it takes us a lot of time to same up to get any type of upgrade - skills, stats, items. Don't get me wrong, I like earning things for my character and I like having to plot out my next upgrade. It's my feeling that the core should be just that, add-on books should be just that and not totally change the way the core is handled. In this case, I should be able to use the powers I get from chargen as well as those I spend karma to get. Put the limits on the foci and what they can do, not the base way the character is done.