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[Gabriel]

Well, that was ROOTless saying that

Whoops!!! Sorry about that, Retread.

Gabriel

[ROOTless]

Ah yes, I only just remembered in the bus on my way home.
Also please not that damage from damage causing spells are staged up (and down) as normal, which is not included in the examples above.

Oh and Gabe, I don't sleep with books under my pillow at night. I get headaches when I do.

[kv]

Okay, so for an example (thanks for all of that, by the way, ROOT. You and Retread are being HUGE helps with all of this stuff)

I have a magicial using the path of the adept. I have to take "Path of the Magician" as my adpet powers to get any spellcasting ability, right? In any case, I end up with two levels of "Path of the Magician" (I'm assuming I'm doing this correctly- feel free to nudge me in the right direction)

So I have an adept who moves fairly quickly (level 2 improved reflexes) who can cast spells.

Now, the problem I have is... I have a magic rating of 8. I was mistaken in thinking that the level of spells that you learned added dice to the spellcasting test (something I think I heard from 4th Edtion, and got confussled), so I got most of (if not all of) my spells at level 2.

Does this mean that all of my spells are cast at 2(Damage Level)? So I can't heal more than 2 boxes of Damage? (That works fine for me, I'm just asking for clarification.

Since I would have the same target numbers, is there any hindrance I would have, other than having really easy tests to resist?

I mean, I don't mind having a guy using his willpower 2 to resist my manabolt- I can cast another one in half a second anyway. Are there any severe limitations I'm not seeing?

The idea is, after this run I'll initiate, and rather than spending more points on adept powers, I can spend them to get more levels of "Path of the Magician," which will make me much more powerful.

  -kv

[ROOTless]

adpet powers to get any spellcasting ability, right? In any case, I end up with two levels of "Path of the Magician" (I'm assuming I'm doing this correctly- feel free to nudge me in the

Well, effectively yes. Thus you have a Magic Attribute of 2

So I have an adept who moves fairly quickly (level 2 improved reflexes) who can cast spells.

Now, the problem I have is... I have a magic rating of 8. I was mistaken in thinking that the level of spells that you learned added dice to the spellcasting test (something I think I heard from 4th Edtion, and got confussled), so I got most of (if not all of) my spells at level 2.

Of 8, how? Initiation, adept geasa abuse?
Or are you just mixing names to confuse me by using the wrong names?
You should still have something like 12 points to buy spells for (according to my copy of MitS), for spell Force ratings up to 6. Though you might want to take them somewhat lower with a magic of only 2.
If you have Improved reflexes 2 (costs 4 points), this sounds reasonable enough.

Does this mean that all of my spells are cast at 2(Damage Level)? So I can't heal more than 2 boxes of Damage? (That works fine for me, I'm just asking for clarification.

No, they are cast at whatever Force you like, up to a maximum of the Force at which you learned the spell
You might well then learn things like manabolt at force 4.
Though you'll take physical drain when you cast it, it'll have a drain power of only 2, so with a decent willpower, you should be able to cast it at M and still take no damage (from 2M).
This would mean you couldn't heal more than 2 boxes at a time, assuming you're casting the spell at Force 2. Mind you, there's no reason ever to cast that spell above medium, so you'd take a drain of 1M (1's always fail, so it'll be effectively identical to a 2M, but stun), or you can learn it at force 4, drain 2M physical, with the option of using spell pool dice to resist drain.

Since I would have the same target numbers, is there any hindrance I would have, other than having really easy tests to resist?

Given the structure of your sentence, do you perhaps mean advantage instead of hiderance?
With a max force of 2, damaging spells will be of very low use I suspect (depending on how much you squeeze your spell pool I guess), so you'll like want a lot of utility spells.
They will be easy to dispel, and resist if relevant.
If you use a mind control spell, you'll roll against you opponent's willpower, and your opponent will roll willpower against the Force of your spell, here 2.

I mean, I don't mind having a guy using his willpower 2 to resist my manabolt- I can cast another one in half a second anyway. Are there any severe limitations I'm not seeing?

The idea is, after this run I'll initiate, and rather than spending more points on adept powers, I can spend them to get more levels of "Path of the Magician," which will make me much more powerfull

Congratulations grashopper.

Remember though that you'll still need to spend karma on learning new spells.

[Retread]

I'm not sure you can make a character from scratch with a Magic attribute of 8 without initiating. However, every level of Magical Power purchased with Magic points counts as one effective level of Magic for casting spells, this includes spell pool and force limits. There is no limit on the dice rolled for stats, like willpower for drain tests. The player simply has more limits on the strength of their spells as a cost for the additional adept powers.

Keep in mind also that when a Magician's path adept initiates they do so differently than normal mages. When initiating, the magic point is considered to go directly towards the character's magical power if they choose to learn Metamagic, if they want adept powers, they must forego the metamagic to allocate the Magic point as a Power point.

[kv]

I meant to say Magic 6. So... my Magic is efectively 2, because of the path of magician powers? So I would need to buy more adept points, taking more levels of path of the Magician... doesn't that automatically increase my spellpoints? (Going from rating 2 to 3?)

  -kv

[ROOTless]

OK, let's see.
MitS says you have to spend 3 points on improved reflexes 2. Without ugly manipulations, that leaves you with 3 points to spend on other adept powers, or on your magic attriibute.
Remember that your magic attribute technically is an adept power, with a price of 1/level.

Normally, a starting full magician gets 25 points with which to buy spells and all that (while an aspected one gets 35). MitS indicated that an adept on the magician's way gets 6 points/point in magic attribute, so a magic attribute of 3 would net you 18. An almost respectable number.
If you decide to go with just 2 in magic attribute (and 1 more point of adept powers, of whichever kind you like), you get only 12 points.
During character creation, you can exchange 25,000 nuyen for an extra point, to a maximum of 50.

These free spell points only occur during character creation (MitS p.22), after play starts, you'll have to buy spells like every other magician, using Karma.

You will find that magicians typically have ways of spending every last karma point they can get their grubby lil' hands on... and about three times more, too, if they could get 'em.

[Retread]

Aye, those spells, ally spirits, initiations, bound watchers, permanent wards, foci, and metamagic skills do take up a lot of karma...

[kv]

I'm going to try and get a force 2 sustaining focus first thing, so I can have armor on pretty much all the time. (Ruskiface, although a great GM, does have a tendency to be a little harder on mages.) So I'll pick up that, and then later when I have more money and time, I'll pick up some power focuses... since I'm the first real character to play a mage (outside of the adpet infestation), it should be good to play.

How does focus addiction work? How else can you lose magic?

  -kv

[Retread]

Focus Addiction is a form of magic loss, which is really just a game mechanic to screw over munchkins who use truckloads of foci. You can have a number of foci active equal to twice your magic attribute. If you activate another focus over that, you risk magic loss. Divide the total amount of force for all active foci by two. That number is the target number for a Magic test. If that test fails, the character must check for magic loss.

To check for magic loss, roll 2d6, if the total of that roll is less than or equal to the character's Magic attribute, they lose a point of magic. When a character loses magic in this manner they must accept a geas or they can never recover that Magic point and can never initiate again, ever.

Magic loss is caused by several things: Deadly physical damage, disruption in astral combat (physical or stun damage), improper medical treatment (not applying the +2 target modifier for doctoring and first-aid), drug abuse (roll Magic vs. the drug's rating, usually, success means no Magic Loss check is made) losing a supremacy duel/being utterly defeated in a banishing contest, and of course, permanent essence loss, including but not limited to vampiric drain and cyberware. Drug addiction including smoking and drinking can affect magical ability too. If a character stays addicted to a substance they risk attribute loss and essence loss, which leads to magic loss.

Again, magic loss must be offset with a geas, there is no other way besides the path of the Burn-out. Unless you buy into a pact with a nasty Shadow spirit named Gaf who is said to be able to restore a burn-out.

[ROOTless]

Retread seems to have it covered, except it's not number of foci, but total force of said foci.

Also please not that the plural of focus is foci.

[Retread]

Woops, my bad, I meant force

[mercy]

if you can take the adpet power living focus

[ROOTless]

Pardon?

[mercy]

in the nsrg there is a physical adept power called living focus that lets the adept sustain a spell cast on him  with out contrationg on maintaining it or pentlyys it acts just like a substaining focus