[Icharbezol]

Hi, and thanks for taking time out to read my first post. Hopefully I can get a clarification on whether the Lightning Reflexes quality from Run Faster can combine with an adept's Improved Reflexes power.

The wording of Improve Reflexes states that "the increase cannot be combined with other technological or magical increases to Initiative." And it also states that the maximum die bonus for Improved Reflexes is 5d6, although the power itself does not allow a bonus so high.

But Lightning Reflexes states "This quality is not cumulative with any other Initiative enhancement, be it technological, chemical, or magical."

I find no other forum posts on the subject other than one from 2011, and no errata. I personally think that the wording of Lightning Reflexes would restrict its use with the adept power since it is a magical enhancement. My player creating an adept says since Improved Reflexes says max dice 5d6 it should be stackable and it doesn't say anything about qualities stacking with that, only magical or technological  improvements.

Is there anything out there that supports either argument? I see this combination as more or less something that puts adepts over the normal maximum possible dice for Initiative that anyone else can achieve, and makes them a little over powered in that regard. Everything I see is putting a max of 4d6 on initiative dice, so a samurai wouldn't ever have a chance unless adept die rolls were really low on initiative and an adept would always be top on initiative period, which gives them an unfair advantage. Or am I missing something?

Thanks in advance to any replies

[Jack_Spade]

Sadly no, lightning reflexes doesn't stack with anything other than drugs.
But you as GM can of course change that.

[MijRai]

Yeah, Lightning Reflexes explicitly doesn't stack with Magic, so I'd say nope. 

[Icharbezol]

Sadly no, lightning reflexes doesn't stack with anything other than drugs.
But you as GM can of course change that.

I'd say drugs = chemical (per the quality Description) and therefore no as well.

[Icharbezol]

If nothing stacks with the Quality, I'm not really sure what good that Quality is unless you're playing a Mundane with no enhancements whatsoever?? Is that the point of it?

[Beta]

If nothing stacks with the Quality, I'm not really sure what good that Quality is unless you're playing a Mundane with no enhancements whatsoever?? Is that the point of it?

I think that is exactly the point.  I think that this is the first time you've been able to get faster reflexes without some sort of external enhancement, and clearly it is written not to replace enhancements, and not to be a near-mandatory addition to existing enhancements, but rather to be a source of somewhat higher initiative for people who don't have another way to keep up.

At that the best it will typically do is make you more reliable at getting two actions if you have otherwise mediocre initiative, and to act before the truly mundane.  It isn't offering a way to keep up with the serious speed freaks.

[Sphinx]

I agree with Beta. Most people in the Sixth World get by without magic or combat cyberware. Lightning Reflexes (Run Faster, p.148) offers an alternative for characters who don't want to be wired or Awakened, but would still like to act faster than the average goon.

[Lucean]

I think that this is the first time you've been able to get faster reflexes without some sort of external enhancement ...

A quality with this name was around in SR4, too. It was published in Runner's Companion and gave you +2 REA with similar limitations.

[Whiskeyjack]

If nothing stacks with the Quality, I'm not really sure what good that Quality is unless you're playing a Mundane with no enhancements whatsoever?? Is that the point of it?

Not every option is an optimized one.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

The point is for the purely mundane characters that for whatever reason don't want/can't afford the Cyber/Bio initiative augments and don't want to deal with addiction rules (can't blame them on that one).

[farothel]

It can also be used by people who have magic and/or enhancements, but in other areas.  Deckers, social adepts, mages etc.  They put their resources in other things and this can offer them a way to also increase their initiative slightly.  Not as much as the dedicated street sammies or fighting adepts, but enough to be able to do something extra in combat.

[MijRai]

Depending on your interpretation, it could also be used on Infected to make them faster when they aren't Awakened; that +1 initiative die there is (in my opinion) racial, not magical.  +3d6 to initiative is nothing to sneeze about.