[SmilinIrish]

Yes, its certainly not the first meta that you take.  Quickening...

[ShadowcatX]

Quickening is grossly over powered, and it isn't like mages need it, even with the massive nerfs to magic from fourth to fifth, spell casters are extremely powerful.

Centering, however, is fine. It isn't meant to do away with all your worries about drain, instead it is simply meant to help out some. That is because drain is meant to be a limiting factor, being able to brush it aside too easy would be a bad thing.

[Lucean]

I have to admit I was disapointed when I realized centering added initiate grade to the drain roll not magic rating.

I REALLY think that it should be Grade*2.

No. It's not too hard to raise initiation grade. And since there are many metamagics that rely on initiation grade for their effect you essentially multiply their outcome.

[prionic6]

The mages at my table generally have as much edge as possible to be able to cast the more powerful spells. You can also heal drain with first aid, so be with a team mate who can do that and learn the skill yourself. In a hunch, stim patches can als help to delay dealing with the damage. And combat drugs can give pain tolerance

[Senko]

I have to admit I was disapointed when I realized centering added initiate grade to the drain roll not magic rating.

I REALLY think that it should be Grade*2.

No. It's not too hard to raise initiation grade. And since there are many metamagics that rely on initiation grade for their effect you essentially multiply their outcome.

I have to say from what I've seen aside from the increasing karma costs its the first initiation that's the hardest one to get roleplaying wise and I freely admit I've not played enough to judge its effects at higher levels (someone posted they have a 3k karma character which is just . . . ). Still I remain dissapointed that its not a shortcut to a potential +6 drain dice though.

[Top Dog]

Raising initiation grade is relatively easy indeed, and probably the first thing you should invest in as a mage (you can probably do the first one after your first run). And while Centering isn't too useful as your first, getting it at 2 or 3 certainly adds a lot. Add a focus and it's not hard to hit 18 drain dice fairly early in your carreer, which helps a lot.

From what I understand, you can't heal drain with first aid. It's pure time only (although medicine helps with that). Stun certainly can't, since first aid only heals physical.

[living]

Drain damage, regardless of whether it is Stun or Physical damage, cannot be healed by any means other than the natural properties of the body—that means no magical healing and no medkits. If you overdo it, you’ll simply need to make time for some rest. page 278 corerules

You can't heal drain with first aid.

[prionic6]

Bummer! I only went by the Healing section starting p. 205 which only mentions that drain can't be healed by magic.

[Reaver]

Bummer! I only went by the Healing section starting p. 205 which only mentions that drain can't be healed by magic.

Medicine is the skill you want.

While under the case of someone with Medicine, the patient adds any hits from the Medicine test to their body test to recover from damage. Note however, it doesn't change the time interval for the tests.

[prionic6]

But stim patches work, right? They don't really "heal" anything...

[8-bit]

But stim patches work, right? They don't really "heal" anything...

Yes, they work. They are a, very, temporary solution though.

[SmilinIrish]

Stim patches are for when you are on your way out, and you need something to keep your mates from carrying you out.  As a mage with low agility, and anticipating the need to run out, with only 3 dice to start with, can't handle negatives. But when it wears off, look out.

[prionic6]

Well, a force 6 stim patch lasts for an hour and I see nothing (apart from addiction) that prevents you from using another one after that hour three, maybe four of them in a row might be possible before going unconscious 

[8-bit]

Well, a force 6 stim patch lasts for an hour and I see nothing (apart from addiction) that prevents you from using another one after that hour three, maybe four of them in a row might be possible before going unconscious 

You are going to keep racking up damage. By the time it wears off, you've probably sustained more Stun Damage, and maybe even some Physical Damage. Also, Stun Damage overflows into Physical Damage eventually. And you'll fall unconscious.

You use one of them to get yourself out of a pinch. You don't spam them for forever; that's unfeasible and unlikely to be productive in the end.

[Tarislar]

No. It's not too hard to raise initiation grade. And since there are many metamagics that rely on initiation grade for their effect you essentially multiply their outcome.

Raising initiation grade is relatively easy indeed, and probably the first thing you should invest in as a mage (you can probably do the first one after your first run). And while Centering isn't too useful as your first, getting it at 2 or 3 certainly adds a lot. Add a focus and it's not hard to hit 18 drain dice fairly early in your carreer, which helps a lot.

Define easy.  If you mean you can raise it at the expense of ever increasing your Skills or Attributes or Binding Foci, then sure, I guess its easy.

And how are you getting it after 1 run?  Maybe if you've already planned out your Arcana skill & then saved 7 Karma at Chargen & then also get 6+ Karma for your 1st run.  That takes some pretty dedicated set up if you ask me.

Investing 30+ Karma to get +2 Dice dice for Drain & Counterspelling is a bit much IMHO.
And all it really promotes is to put off those "by grade" powers till later which then promotes Quickening first.

We all say that Quickening is overpowered and I don't disagree but when the other options have also been gimped badly then it just promotes making the non-gimp choice.

Making that go from 2 dice to 4 dice for the 30 Karma actually makes that choice somewhat debatable.
Or as someone else said, remove Grade from the equation & use a different stat, like adding Magic to Drain dice.  That gives you a bigger boost at the start & will also push you to upgrade your base Magic stat as well.