[Rift_0f_Bladz]

That is what I had originally thought, but swear I read somewhere (maybe on the forums) something/someone's saying otherwise, will correct in original post. Thanks!

[DragginSPADE]

It's funny how the overpowered gear changes with editions.  In SR2-3 I seem to recall every samurai and his mother having Image Magnification 3 cybereyes, because it let them do all their shooting at short range TNs for a very minor cost.  (No Take Aim actions required to use image mag back then.)  Between that, smartgun links (-2 to target numbers) and recoil suppressors, the first several things were usually good and dead by the time my mage got around to casting his manabolt or sleep spell. 

So back to topic, lots of good information so far.  Anything else I should know about SR4 vs SR5 that hasn't been mentioned so far?  Any "Gotchas" that might not be apparent when reading the books?

[Glyph]

SR5 is curious, power-wise.  A lot of things seem more powerful than they were in SR4, but only on a flat scale.  SR5 characters are actually less powerful compared to the rest of the world.  Someone starting out with a skill of 6 or 7 is still good, but is nowhere near the best in the world any longer.  One thing that remains the same is that with such wide-open character creation systems, you can make characters of widely varying effectiveness.  And despite all of the nerfs, you can make powerful builds.  Even with the core book alone, you can start out with 12 power points, 12 Agility, etc.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

You can initiate at character generation, most Power Points you can get is 7 magic = 7 Power Points (via PQ), + ~ .5 via mentor spirit, and usually .75 via adept way. This equals 8.25 pp. So how did you get to 12?

[Glyph]

7 Magic with the exceptional Attribute quality, the Raven mentor spirit (1.5 PP worth of bonus powers), and then buying/bonding 14 total points' worth of qi foci (three rating: 4 and one rating: 2, or two rating: 4 and two rating: 3) for another 3.5 PP worth of adept powers (total force of all foci that can be bound at character creation is Magic x 2).

You want to be careful not to have too many active at once because of possible foci addiction, but it is fairly easy to divvy up the foci by purpose, so you have, for example, one set with combat sense and danger sense for combat, and another set with improved gymnasics and freefall for rooftop running.  Background count (if you get Street Grimoire) is the real reason I would not want so many qi foci.  This is more of a "How much can I get for this one thing?" conceptual build than a character for actual play.

[Duellist_D]

I think my Post got misinterpreted.
SnS are stinkers in 4e because they were stupidly effective to a point where they had been the no-brainer option for every use case since they took down targets faster than lethal ammo.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

@ Dualist_D: I must have. It seemed like you were saying they sucked in 5th.

@Glyph: Fair enough, but honestly don't view Qi foci as actual Power Points. Powers yes, but saying a starting adept has 14 Power Points is misleading.