[whitelaughter]

the 4th ed change, that orichalcum no longer reduced karma costs for creating foci, pretty much made nuyen irrelevant for magicians - foci were too karma expensive to buy, cyberware and bioware chew magic, sure you could buy a lifestyle, but that meant you had even less need for nuyen.
Has that changed in either 5th or 6th ed? Has anything been added that a magician might drool over, or oricalcum returned to usefulness?

[FastJack]

Depends on what you mean by drool over?

In the Sixth World, Enchanting and Alchemy are a big thing, with being able to put spells into preparations. Orichalcum is the purest of reagents, which all others are measured against and help in Alchemy, Artificing, Counterspelling, Ritual Spellcasting, Summoning, and creating temporary Magical Lodges.

[Reaver]

Also note that skills work a little different in 5e (not so sure in 6e, don't play it).

You are no longer capped to 6 in a skill. Now in 5e, 12 is the skill cap - which takes up a fair chunk of Karma.
Initialization is also a possibility, as are various foci.

If you are asking if Mages are still karma sinks, then yes: Money is not a primary resource for mages, still.

[MercilessMing]

Reagents are still a decent nuyen sink in 6e.  Enchanting has become more useful, so spending money on enchanting is less of a waste than previously.
The number one thing you can do to help karma heavy archetypes like mages, or nuyen heavy archetypes, however, is to let them trade nuyen <-> karma.  2000 nuyen per karma point is the book recommended exchange rate.

[Beta]

In 5e they added (in supplemental books, not core rules) refined and radical reagents cost 10x and 100x the price of normal reagents but with some potent effects (including lowering drain).  They can be pretty drool worthy, if your game chooses to allow them (they can make mages even more powerful than they already are).

[FastJack]

Also note that skills work a little different in 5e (not so sure in 6e, don't play it).

You are no longer capped to 6 in a skill. Now in 5e, 12 is the skill cap - which takes up a fair chunk of Karma.
Initialization is also a possibility, as are various foci.

If you are asking if Mages are still karma sinks, then yes: Money is not a primary resource for mages, still.

Play 6E, it's easier to learn and is the official game of the Living Campaign!

Skills are capped at 9 in 6E.

[whitelaughter]

The number one thing you can do to help karma heavy archetypes like mages, or nuyen heavy archetypes, however, is to let them trade nuyen <-> karma.  2000 nuyen per karma point is the book recommended exchange rate.

oh, shiny! Yes, that definitely makes mullah interesting again.

Thanks to everyone for comments.

[edit] amusingly, that's far, far cheaper than the options in early editions. 88k for a single point of oricalcum, to reduce the cost of a focus by the level of the focus. You'd need a level 44 focus to match that; even if with the reduced cost of 50k, you'd need a level 25 focus! Good luck finding or making that level formula, or finding the special components even if you can...