[Seeker]

Rather simple one, actually.  What is the lowest essence you are willing to drain your character down to?  And, why?  So, I lied.  Two Essence questions. 

I'd make a reference to essence loss and the Count, but... ah ah ah.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Are you talking about character creation, or in play?

It all depends on the character I'm creating, really.  Some characters will want more cyber, others less.  Some will want a lot in the beginning, but seek to get rid of it as they progress.

So, it depends.

[Seeker]

I was looking for a base that most stay above.  The most common I've seen seems to be 2 essence, but this is by no means the norm. 
I've seen some start with .5 essence, and I've seen some say they don't want to drop below 3 ever.

Just a question that I believe is answered best around character creation.

[eshoup1]

I've played several characters with less than 0.25 essence. Once you start selling your soul for power it is hard to stop.
And once you've commited half your soul, you might as well commit the other almost half.
Nothing is worse than trading half your soul for some awesome 'ware and then ending up dead because you needed just a little more chrome.

[Glyph]

I have no problems going down to fractional Essence for a street samurai.  Essence is mostly a metagame quality limiting how much 'ware you can put in a character.  Actually, Shadowrun handles Essence pretty well - people will react to Essence loss in extremely different ways, and be able to physically handle augmentations to different degrees.  You are not constrained by any specific rules, but instead, you have a plethora of positive or negative qualities that you can take if you want someone who takes to cyberware very well, or starts becoming psychotic, or develops a neural disorder, or has a weakened immune system, or has a cyberarm that makes a whirring sound, or wired reflexes that don't always kick on right away.

[Shinobi Killfist]

I have 2 types those who can see the astral and those who can't. 

I'm going to relate it to movies/books where people can talk with animals.  I always have this weird feeling when I'm watching/reading a something and everyone is eating meat like normal and then 2 chapters in the character is talking to animals.  and not just emotions but full on conversations.  I'm like once you know and can do that, eating meat seems really effed up.

 Now in SR terms if you can't see the astral it is just your bodily integrity or something hokey who cares about essence I'll go down to .00001, now if I can see the astral and I'm seeing something like your soul/life force getting eaten away by dead spots I'd be fairly into clean living, no or very limited cyber, avoid addictions etc.  The descriptions of the astral and cybered up types in some of the earlier novels really sold me on this.

[baronspam]

Magician:  Essence=6.

Augmented: Essence= as close to zero while still staying above that I can get it to come out.

Adept::  Probably 5, but have not crunched number of a essence 4 adept.

[Seeker]

Are essence draining creatures not very common now-a-days?  I've had a second-editioner harp on me for dropping below two a few times, so maybe that was where my tentaiveness
with the stat stems from.

[baronspam]

They are still in print.  How common they are, or paracritters in general, depends entirely on the campaign.  In games I have played it it has been basically a non-issue.

[Tsuzua]

I've seen it all over.  Typically most mundanes eventually settle in the <.5 essence range from the 1-2 essence range.  Mages typically either stay clean or dip down to 4-5 range.  I'm playing a mystic adept with an essence of 3.025 essence.

As for essence draining creatures, they're around.  I've never seen them much well ever.  However in 4th edition, it's fairly slow.  It takes on the order of minutes.  So if you're helpless before a vampire, yeah, you're toast.  But you'll be toast either way in that situation.

[Crash_00]

It's all about the character for me, but I'm very much a roleplayer over rollplayer. If I'm playing a sammed out gunner then as long as I'm not in the negatives I'm good. Usually I'll keep my mages at 5 or six, but I've played a mage with as little as three (back in SR3).

[nojosecool]

Magician:  Essence=6.

Augmented: Essence= as close to zero while still staying above that I can get it to come out.

Adept::  Probably 5, but have number crunched number of a essence 4 adept.

Personally, I won't make an adept with more than 4 essence.  Too many of the adept powers are just better handled with bioware, and some augmentation effects can't be replicated by adept powers.  Some cyber is good, of course, but I limit it to low rating cyber ears (mostly for dampening and balance augmenters), data jacks, and maybe cyber eyes (but usually not).  Either that, or a cyber forearm and a cyber full arm are nice touches if you're making a longarms or assault rifle adept.  Or just a cyber arm if you're making a pistolier.

I just crunched a great augmented adept who is a face/hacker/wall-running infiltrator (sounds stretched thin, right?  You might be surprised how well this works when you do an augmented adept!).  For an adept, I wouldn't go below 4 essence under any circumstances.  Lower than that, and you have to make real sacrifices with adept powers, then you also start spending more on wasted magic points so the costs no longer justify going that route.

For a samurai, on the other hand, I see no point in being stingy with burning up essence.  It's like not filling up your gas tank all the way because you might want to put more in it later...  Sure, it's not actually that simple, but TO HELL with magical healing!

For a juicer, I might try to hold on to 3, just so I don't die from my primary stat-boosters.

[The_Gun_Nut]

I believe the rules on Essence limit the bookkeeping to 0.05 degrees of loss.  That means that, in general, dropping to 0.04 or 0.01 is functionally the same as 0.05.  Anything more and the character needs either cybermancy, or a coroner.

[Mara]

I usually figure a Technomancer or Mage/Adept is going to be down to 5 Essence. Reason is some things are just so good..
especially with some of the stuff from War!(seriously..I now see little to no reason for a Combat Mage to NOT have cyber eyes
anymore)

Anything else, I pretty much base what I do based on the concept. A Sniper, for instance, does not need more then
a Smartlink and stealth stuff, while a Face can always use stuff like Tailored Pheremones. Generally, I do not like to drop
below 3 Essence at Chargen, though on a Street Sam, I will go as low as 2...so I have room to upgrade later.

[Chrona]

Are essence draining creatures not very common now-a-days?  I've had a second-editioner harp on me for dropping below two a few times, so maybe that was where my tentaiveness
with the stat stems from.

The lower your essence the more resistant you are to the Essence drain power