Shard O'Glase said:
They brought back generalized skills as skill groups, no mor ejus tpistols, I can take firearms, great.
Yep, quite nice, unlike 3e, where they boned non-casters and non-deckers even more: "Here, you have 3 skills to take to use any weapon with a stock. Meanwhile, the caster just needs Sorcery and Conjuring, and that's it! The decker really only needs Computer, and has a ton of bonuses to his Decking Pool anyway. HAH!" At least they break out the skills for everybody now, not just non-casters/non-deckers.
You can always get mote money, but you have a toal of 6 essense period. Sur eif you dont got the money you dont got the money, but you'd have to be crack addled in some cases to take the cyber. I find that unfortunate since I think cyber is a better theme element than bioware is.
It'll probably help when they come out with the non-guns toy book, but Cybertechnology had rules for removing cyberware and putting something else in the Essence hole.
Also the bioware in the case of the synaptic booster is so cheap essence wise physical adpets might be wise to go with it instead of using there magic.
Actually, it works out to be cheaper at start with the adept power, rather than bioware.
For example, Boosted Reflexes-1 (which costs 2 power points) has a cost of at least 15 BP (5 for Adept, which provides the first point of Magic, and 10 for the second point), and you can't start with any other powers without spending more on Magic.
To start with a Synaptic Booster-1, which costs $80k, you have to have AT LEAST spent 16 BP on cash (at $5k/BP). Because it takes off a half-point of Essence, you lose an entire point of Magic, so you have to spend another 10 BP to get up to where you were...so now I've spent 31 BP to have Magic 1 and a +1 to Reaction and Initiative Passes. On the other hand, I'm now free to spend Power Points on other abilities, and can upgrade to Synaptic Booster-2 without any further Magic loss if I don't put any other cyber or bioware in.
Of course, if I went with Boosted Reflexes-1, I have 16 less BP committed, so instead, I can go and buy another point of Magic with that, and get the same amount of other powers as the guy with the bioware. The remaining 6 BP can be used to purchase a knife Weapon Focus, so I can gut spirits (3 BP on cash for a Force 1 focus, and 3 BP to bond it).
Of course, once you're rolling in money and can get a Delta-Grade Synaptic Booster-3, Cybereyes-4 w/the works, Muscle Aug-4, and Muscle Toner-4 for less than 2 points of Essence, you're getting the best of both worlds.
but strength gets virtually no skills linked to it, and it provides very little outside of skills. Yeah base HtH damage is 1/2 str and it lets you know how much you can lift.
Notice how there's not even a rule for Strength providing recoil reduction any more? Pity. My troll could fire his (Cannon Companion custom) LMG nearly all day and never have a recoil penalty.
Brad