[Michael Chandra]

Now that they don't get free PP and they pay a decent price for PP, they are definitely a nice choice now with their own builds that they excel in and builds that other characters excel in.

Now to just fix Aspected Magicians.

[Crunch]

Phys Ads are awesome, but not OP in this edition.

[Carz]

The hotpatch does help with a lingering issue with progression, though.

I find it a bit distasteful that (in the hotpatch) MsyAds don't get a power point per magic increase and *have* to rely on metamagics.
Honestly, if 5 karma is equal to a power point during character creation, then it should be equal to one after character creation too - so maybe it costs that 5 more karma to get the power point when you increase magic. Not getting it altogether makes the Mystic adept not really a blend of the two character types and forces a definite choice in one direction or another.

I think what what I learned about game balance in 3.5 D&D with Mystic Theurges (Wizard/Cleric hybrid Prestige class), is that 2/3 the power of both classes is still underpowered. I think the Mystic Adept in SR5 is more than 2/3 the power of a Caster and more than 2/3 the power of an adept, and that's *good* for game balance. A half/half split didn't work (see SR4), so something better than that was needed.

I think that 5 karma is pretty good for balance; I'd like to see them extend that to post creation as well.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Huh I found mystic thurges powerful enough in 3.5 people who complained about the 2/3 power never give any value to the ridiculous versatility gained. and honestly the mystic adept split in 4e worked fairly well as long as you didn't do an even split. they may have been slightly under powered requiring a bit more optimization to work as well as others but they had a huge range of versatility which is just as valuable as your spell hitting a bit harder. People play super versatile guy then complain that they only hit 95% as hard as the specialist while the specialist has 50% of the versatility not 95%. 

[Michael Chandra]

I'd make it 10 karma after chargen, treating it like a positive quality when it comes to costs. Encourages them to take as many as possible at chargen. I disagreed with making them Initiative for PP, yes, I think that option shouldn't even be available to them. But all in all it's a matter of deciding how to balance them, and this is one of the two ways they could do it after chargen. Both options have their own downsides and upsides.