So, lot's of goodies in that book (and lot's of chaff, but that's to be expected)
I'm excited about a few (possibly unbalanced) options that have opened up.
1) The Burminator
You remember that underwhelming Quality "Elemental Focus" from Hard Targets (p.191, +2 dice to cast your chosen element but drain is turned into that element too and you suffer the side effects)?
That drawback turns out to be a feature if you combine it with Elemental Master (p.36 FA).
Not only is all damage from the chosen element halved, but you also are now immune to the side effects. The kicker is that the damage is halved before you soak.
Suddenly a F12 Fireball is now only a mild 6 drain. If you use a fetish and/or the Mentor's Mask it's only 4.
2) Punchomancer
The BAREHANDED ADEPT (p.33) gives adepts Mag/2 touch spells, which can be cast through the Unarmed Combat skill. The force is limited to Mag/3 and Drain is doubled.
You may notice that nowhere I mentioned that these have to be Combat touch spells.
So, just a small list of really useful touch spells that can be cast at low force with reagents for great effect:
- Analyse device: Hello says the impersonator, of course I know how to use a sonic screw driver
- Combat Sense: Self explaining...
- Actually almost all Detection spells are touch range. How fun is that.
- Again, many health spells are touch, most notable: Heal: Yeah, no more stupid emphatic healing, Detox: Ah, Drugs, the cause and solution for all life's problems, Increase Reflexes: Muaharharhar!, Resist Pain: Bring it!
- Physical Mask: It's me...
- Fashion: ...and my perfectly fine tuxedo (that may or may not have been a full body armor only a minute ago)
- Increase Gear Limits: Improvised Throwing Weapons just became a lot deadlier...
3) Illusionist
p.37 That quality is just so good - no more sustain penalties for one Illusion spell per level of the quality. Lot's of area debuffs and stealth spells that would have crippled you to sustain are now perfectly viable: Opium Den or Chaotic World, Invisibility, Swarm just for example
4) Elephant Man
Revenant Adept allows an Adept to gain Regeneration until all injuries are healed. Regeneration does not heal drain damage. The new Flesh Sculpter/Skinwalker quality allows you to increase the shapechance limits up to 6 points more than normally (if you take it three times). Adept Spell exists. An Elephant has a base body of 12.
Combine all that and you have a nearly unstoppable combat form (which you can armor quite cheaply at 50 Nuyen per point of armor), healing 12+ points of damage per round
5) Bioaware
Nothing world shattering, but at Priority D there is now the Aware, gaining Mag 3 and Assensing 4.
You'll notice that you don't actually need Magic to be good at assensing. Which means you are free to invest in 'ware to boost your abilities (preferably bioware so you can keep at least one point of magic).
You are also able to bind and use weapon foci. Also you can gain an Animal Familiar (p.31) if you want to be a beast master.