This post is about
Physical Adepts, the discussion about
Mystical Adepts can be found here:
https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=29745.0During character generation 1 point of
unadjusted magic from the Magic or Resonance priority seem to give a Physical Adept 1 free Power Point.
p. 66
"
Adepts have a pool of points equal to their Magic (as listed in the Priority table, before any adjustments) that they use to purchase adept powers."
It seem as if adjusting Magic to a higher value (due to for example spending Adjustment Points or Karma on Magic) does not yield any extra Power Points (at least not during character generation). At least this seem to be the intent of the above rule.
If your essence is reduced below any whole integer then magic is also reduced. Book does not mention anything about the effects of dropping your current magic rating to zero. And it also does not say anything about reducing your maximum magic rating. That no matter how much augmentations you get you can always increase your magic rating to 6 (+ Initiation Grade) by spending Karma. It also seem as if adjusting Magic to a
lower value (due to for example buying Augmentations during character generation) don't mean you
lose any of your free Power Points you got from your Magic and Resonance priority selection... Interesting.
Then you have rules that seem to conflict a bit.
p. 156
"
Whenever adept characters gain a point of Magic, they also gain a power point".
I would assume that this does not apply during chargen. However, if this is the intent then the next sentence does a shitty job of clarifying it:
p. 156
"
This means that an adept character who starts with a Magic rating of 4 also starts with 4 power points.Are we to assume that that when they are talking about Magic rating in the quote above they are actually talking about an adept character that picked Magic or Resonance priority A (Magic 4) and did not spend any Adjustment points or Karma on Magic and also did not buy any augmentations...? (seem a bit far fetched to be honest, but not impossible I guess).
But post chargen it seems clear that whenever the physical adept
raise their magic (through Karma) they gain one power point. It seem as if they can also gain a power point via initiation, which will generally be cheaper (but if they for example start with Magic rating 1 -or even zero due to augmentations- then it seem to be cheaper to get that next power point by raising magic rating with karma).
This sound as if you can potentially gain a max of 12 power points without initiation by having a Magic and Resonance magic priority during chargen in addition to a combination of alternating lowering your magic rating with augmentations and raising your magic rating with Karma post chargen.
...unless you spend karma or adjustment points on magic during chargen since this does not seem to grant you free Power Points?? If I read this correctly you should probably never, as a Physical Adept anyway, spend karma or adjustment points on magic during character generation (since this will basically just make your magic rating more expansive without giving you any power points in return).
This part feels very strange.
But the alternative is also not optimal. If we
were to gain free power points during chargen whenever we spend adjustment points or karma to raise Magic then then you should probably never prioritize Magic or Resonance higher than D for a Physical Adept since you get
far more adjustment points from
Metatype than you get magic points from Magic or Resonance.
And there also does not seem to be any real drawbacks for a physical adept from getting augmentations (except maybe that it gets harder for magicians to cast various healing and increasing spells on you). Magic rating is not totally useless for a physical adept (there are some activated adept powers that depend on your magic rating), but it is also not used nearly as much as it is for spellslingers.
If anything, getting augmentations just to reduce your magic rating seem to make it
cheaper once you plan on investing karma to get that next power point....