From:	TopCat <topcat@***.NET>
Subject:	Re: [SR3] Physical Adepts
Date:	Fri, 4 Jul 1997 14:59:03 -0500

Okay, time for my take on physads...

Now as we all know, physads must use B magic (C for metahumans unless you
use some optional thing). What they get for B magic should be roughly
equivalent to what other adepts get for B magic.

They should not be the equal of an A resources samurai, because the samurai
put a higher priority into his defining feature. They already get many
powers not available to samurai and sometimes they're cheaper. Sometimes,
however, they are more expensive...

Even if they are more expensive, they aren't illegal and they aren't
detectable (increased reflexes as compared to wired reflexes appears to be
the favorite topic). And at level one, increased reflexes is half as costly
as having wired reflexes one installed. At level two, it is just slightly
more expensive (1 point of magic more) and it remains just that slight bit
higher at level three.

Frankly, having the legal, undetectable, unremovable (organ-/cyber- leggers
know what I mean) speed enhancer is always preferable to having the speed
enhancer that could get me thrown in jail in most countries, can be detected
by even mediocre cyberware detectors, and is worth a lot of money to someone
if they rip it out of my body.

They also don't have to mess with the SOTA on their physad abilities, which
samurai might find themselves facing if those rules are used...

As physads are now, they're perfect. There is a lot of opposition on this
point due to the fact that they were severely imbalancing to the game in 1st
edition Shadowrun and many people are used to playing them as easy/cheap to
make demigods. When you sit down and really look at what they pay to become
physads and what they can get for that rather small amount, they still
appear to get more "bang for their magical buck" than sorcery adepts,
conjuring adepts, elemental adepts, and certainly astral adepts. I'm more
than willing to overlook this slight imbalance in favor of playability which
the current physad rules supply.

Also, nothing stops a physad from using cyberware if they really want to
have the exact same thing as the samurai's have. Take wired reflexes two if
you really want to save that one magic point, but remember how much it was
really worth when you're running from cyber-leggers or trying to stealth
past a cyberware scanner.
--
Bob Ooton
topcat@***.net