[Devil]

Is there any way for a Human to start out with more than 6 Magic?

What's the maximum starting Magic and how do you get it?

[FoxBoy]

Max is 6 at chargen always, unless your playing some kinds of infected, then your max is 5.

At this point there's no way to raise it above 6 except with karma and power foci, and even then power foci don't truly add to your magic stat, just to the roles requiring it.

To get a magic stat, you have to have the adept, magician, mystic adept or play a critter that starts with it, and even then you still don't get to do any of the fun things a mage can do without the requisite quality.

[Devil]

The problem is there are so many cool adept powers, yet I can't get enough to make me as good as cyberware or bioware would. I'd like to play a character without cyberware or bioware.

I think I've settled on a Mystic Adept, but it's difficult for me to choose and balance my spells and powers.

What adept powers are worth taking, rather than taking spells?

[FoxBoy]

Cyberware is inherently limited, you get a max of 6 pts, ever.

Adepts start with less power, but they have the potential, through initiation to hit some incredible levels.

Essentially, adepts start with less but can have more, while cyberware you can have it all at the beginning but not improve much after that.

As far as spells and powers are concerned, that's up to you and your playing style, and how well you can handle drain. If you don't like having to sustain spells and roll for drain, then going high on the adept side might be your calling. But if those don't bother you and like the idea that for 5 karma you can have a new 'power' (spell), then go heavy on the mage side.

I would say though, look at the level 1 reaction booster for adepts. Having only one IP in any combat round when your friends have 2-4 makes for boring combat fast.

[Mäx]

If your using karmagen and your GM has nothink against it you can iniate and then raise your magic to 6+how many times you iniated, but that gets pretty expensive and means you will have to gimp your other stats as special attributes count agains the limit in karmagen.
Also if your GM allows(and most do from what i have heard) you can also take an extra power point at initiation instead of a metamagic.

[Kontact]

It really depends on what you want to do with your character.  There aren't many "Must have" adept powers out there.
I suppose Attribute Boost is a great one for a MA since you'll likely have 6 magic and a power focus.  That means that with a single .25 PP attribute boost on reaction and agility (total of .5 PPs) you could be trowing 9-11 dice to raise either attribute by [#hits] for 2x[#hits] combat turns.  So, if you see trouble coming, you can raise your reaction and agility by an average of 3-4 points (up to aug max) with a couple of simple actions and likely have it running the whole time.  Then when it wears off, all you have to resist is 1S damage for each attribute, seperately, using your body and willpower.  So, tiny chance of tiny damage.

But there's a whole slew of Adept powers that are both unique and awesome if your build demands it.

[Walks Through Walls]

With magic especially the adept powers you have the ability to make a more unique idea in my opinion. True you might not get the 3 IP at the beginning, but you can get there once you raise your magic.

If you are looking to have a mystic adept combat character you can do three different things to get extra passes.
1- take the spell increase reflexes and have a sustaining focus if you want it always on, or make it your first action to cast it.
2- take the adept power increase reflexes. (if you go much higher than level one you limit what else your character can do)
3- use combat drugs for your additional passes at least to start out

In my opinion where the mystic adept really excels however is when you are making a specialized character. Look at the stealth package that I put together for She Who Walks Through Walls which is posted over in O.O.C road to redmond. If I had gone either mage or adept I wouldn't have the ability to sneak into as many places. Now I got that specialization by sacrificing some other areas. This is the third time I've created the character tweaking it each time, but still realizing that there are holes that I have to plug with my karma before I work on towards more in my specialization.

Hope this helps if you have question let me know and i'll try to help you out

[Devil]

Well the current concept I'm working on is a character who is very much like a classical magician. Like, similar to magician from our day and age but with the addition of the actually application of magic.

He'll be excellent at slight of hand, escape artistry, pain tolerence, and various spells and abilities that will allow him to perform his spectacular tricks. I don't really think he'll have alot of spells actually designed for combat, though some of them will certainly be useful in a fight.

I'll probably go with option 1, Walks Through Walls.

[Walks Through Walls]

You might be able to do that concept with a pure mage. Which adept powers were you looking at to use for the concept?

[Devil]

Well the most important ones would be things like
Metabolic Control
Pain Resistance
Nimble Fingers
But there's alot of other powers that would be complimentary to the character as well. I'm also open to ideas and suggestions.

For qualities I am going to take things like Double Jointed. And from either powers or qualities I'd like to get a bonus to recovery from injuries as well if possible.

What I don't like about full on mages is that they have to cast spells to be able to do the things I'd like to be able to do at any random moment. At least that's my understanding of the tradeoff.

[voydangel]

If your using karmagen and your GM has nothink against it you can iniate and then raise your magic to 6+how many times you iniated, but that gets pretty expensive and means you will have to gimp your other stats as special attributes count agains the limit in karmagen.
Also if your GM allows(and most do from what i have heard) you can also take an extra power point at initiation instead of a metamagic.

I could have sworn I saw that (gain 1 PP instead of a meta-magic when an adept initiates) as a rule, or at least an optional rule in a book somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it now.

[Glyph]

It's in the errata for Street Magic, so you might not have it, depending on how early of a printing you have.

[voydangel]

Ahhh. Super cool. At least now I know I didn't just imagine it. =)  Thanks!