I don;t have a text version handy, and I'm not about to type up a big list of spells, sorry

Generally though, it seems to be similar to the spell selection from SR3 core book. The only thing that really jumped out at me is that both Petrify and Turn To Goo are in the core book again

Bull

Increase Reflexes: The effects are now identical to Wired Reflexes and the Adept version of Wired, so + to both Initative and Passes. There is only one version of the spell now, and it appears you choose which "bonus" you want to cast at. Each increase has a higher Threshold you have to meet, and +3 is teh highest it can go.

Metamagic: Umm, there's a handful of techniques included in the core book, most seem similar to their SR3 counterparts.

Atral Stuff doesn;t appear to have changed any.

Bull

Improved ability is just for individual skills, but you can purchase Improved Ability and have it apply to a skill that's rolled into a skill group (i.e. Firearms Skill group of 4 and Improved Ability Pistols +2 would give you Agility + 6 dice for Pistols and Agility + 4 dice for everything else).

0.5 per die. Combat Sense is totally evil now. Not only does it give you dice in Surprise tests, but it adds directly to your Reaction for the purposes of the Ranged/Melee attack opposed test while defending. It's better than Improved Ability (Dodge), because you can use it in all situations, not just full defense.

Well, Reaction Enhancers and most initiative boosters do almost the same thing... add directly to Reaction. I think that's the most effective (and expensive) route to go. A sammy with any level of Wired and several Reaction Enhancers could easily hit their Reaction attribute cap. Adepts also can hit this cap pretty easily with their powers.

i was more thinking in terms that with improved ability the adept can get more dice in a test then a sammie can ever get. point is that a sammie can get at most attrib+skill+edge while a adept can get attrib+skill+imp. ability+edge.

it may npt be much but wonder if not it will have some effect.

still, maybe one should have this forked into a diffrent thread as these posts may be on the edge of whats the point of this thread...

btw, does edge have a hard cap or can it go for ever?

The augmented Reaction cap is 9 for everyone but Dwarves (which is at 7). Thus, your maximum Reaction will probably be a 9. A human with a Reaction 6 and Wired 1 will have a Reaction of 7.

I don't want to get into the "Adept vs. Sammie" debate (which has been going on through time immemorial), but I'd still say they can be pretty much evenly matched after character creation, especially with the addition of Bioware at character creation. Realize that while an Adept may have greater skill dice, a Sammie can more easily max out their Agility attribute and have some fairly good bioware options to add bonus dice as well.

Edge does have a hard cap of 6 (7 for humans), unless you get the Lucky quality (which bumps it up by one).

Ah, good point. If you get Exceptional Attribute, you can boost your augmented Reaction rating to 10.

Racial Max * 1.5, round down.

*points to the sign hanging overhead*

Remember, this is the Questions Without Whining isle. The Nashing of Teeth isle, for all you moaning pleasure, is below.

Back On Topic:

* Are background counts and/or mana warps covered, and roughly speaking how do they screw with magic now

EDIT: ....and does background count screw with all Adepts powers, and is any effect on Technos mentioned

* Does ongoing sustaining of spells cost you -2 dice to all actions?

* Can you cast more than one spell in a Complex Action (simultaneous cast) and what is the penalty for it

* How long does it take for Heal to come into effect, do you have to sustain it over several rounds/seconds/minutes?

Is size of the split of the dice at caster choice?

Other than that, it sounds like casting two spells of significant power at once is more the territory of a GD or maybe a high grade Initiate that has spent the [huge gobs of] karma to raise their Magic. However with Edge you should be able to confidantly pull off a couple of small utilities or maybe even a powerful one and a utility. Does that sound like a good assessment?

Twice the Drain Value (before or after drain check?) in what unit of time? Also, if it the Drain Value before the drain check is there a way to speed it up? (Like maybe my drain check is used to reduce time but not the actual drain damage? *looks hopeful*)

To whom does that apply?
In SR3 we had that cap for Adept Improved Attribute as well as Bioware.
Cyberware was capable of surpassing that limit.

Any changes there?

P.S.: Sorry, bit of a cross topic.

Invisibility affects the minds of viewers, while Improved Invisibility actually warps light around the user. Since hits (successes) are limited by Force, you definitely need higher than a Force 1. Invisibility works as an additional "buffer" for sneaking around... the person must first pierce the illusion by getting equal or more hits on their Willpower (mana illusions) or Intuition (physical illusions) than the spellcaster got on his/her spellcasting test, then they must do a Perception Test normally if the invisible character was using Infiltration/Shadowring to sneak. If the illusion is resisted, then you can attack the "invisible" character normally without the Target Hidden modifier.

Note that against technological sensors, you need to beat the Object Resistance threshold number. This means 3 hits for most standalone cameras and electronics (laser tripwires or whatnot) and 4 hits for computers, vehicle sensors, and drones. They don't get to resist, being non-living objects.

Goggles with a fiberoptic cable on them, to cast around corners.

Everyone. There is a hard cap for maximum augmented attribute. So both sammies and adepts will have, at most, a 10 augmented Reaction and 7 natural Reaction (but only if you have Exceptional Attribute: Reaction).

Can opponent mages fire spells back down them? Or are they mirrored or have a much smaller openning looking out that you can't effectively see back in (like a security peephole).

Are you joking? Tell me you're joking. It works identically to the systems presented in both SR2 (Corporate Security Handbook) and SR3. So, no, you can't chuck a fireball down fiberoptics unless you have full view of the target's aura.

Does the spell description actually say that it warps light? If so, that not only kills the 'illusions don't manipulate light' holy war but opens up a whole new branch of 'visual aid' spells (mirror spells for magical trick-shooting, Detection-like spells that permit LOS for casting, and so on).

To add to that: Are mentors avalible during the game, or only at creation?

But remember that we don't have access to spell creation rules right now, and thus we can't really make any sort of value judgments as to whether or not one could feasibly create a spell that augments vision that can also be used to target other spells.

You can be a Shaman without a Mentor spirit, which probably means you don't follow any particular totem. You do not get Totem benefits unless you have a Mentor Spirit (in effect, the Mentor Spirit quality IS the Totem benefit part of Shamans). The bonuses for nearly all of the Mentor Spirit is a +2 to two different things (a spell category, spirit type, or a skill, like +2 Illusion Spells and +2 to Infiltration Tests), and there's always a penalty of either a Threshold 3 test to prevent from doing something (like berserker rage or strictly following a plan) or a -1 die to something (spell category, spirit type, skill, attribute test, etc.).

Mentor Spirits aren't on the "forbidden list" of qualities that they lay out for Qualities that can be taken after character creation, and nothing in the Quality description or the Mentor Spirit section of the Magic part of SR4 suggests that you can't take a Mentor Spirit later on in your career.

There are idols in the main book. No specific Loa running around in there (although the idol templates are generic enough that they could possibly be used for Loa), and definitely no blood magic.

This is gone from SR4. (As, for that matter are deadly wounds.)

There are only 5 Metamagics in the Core Book. It's a Core Book, folks, and there's a "Street Magic" book coming out.

All traditions have "lodges" now, although the Hermetic lodge consists of libraries and circles and stuff. It costs 500 nuyen per Force point.

There are no Aspected Mages. You can simulate Aspected Mages buy creating a Mystic Adept and getting Astral Perception as an Adept power and sinking all of the Magic rating points into spellcasting skills, or you can drop the Astral Perception and go with all Magic rating points into spellcasting skills.

Initiate Grade does not add to Astral Initiative, which is derived from Intuition x 2.

Did someone answer this?