The Physical Adept Errata

Author’s Notes

Since the first release of the article “Physical Adept Reexamined” appeared in The Graveyard, I’ve gotten some very interesting feedback concerning the article. All in all it was well received, but a few problems were noted. The article itself was somewhat rushed into print, and for this I do apologize. A good example of this is the point costs on some of the Traditions of Animal. Each Tradition of Animal was actually created before the point costs for some of the various powers were reworked, and as such they didn’t work out as much of a bargain in the point cost category. To correct this problem each of the Traditions has been reworked in this article. Another problem that was pointed out to me was with physical mages. I don’t use physical mages in my campaign, and as such I never considered them in the original article. This too will be addressed by this errata.

Physical Mages

Although I personally dislike the concept of the physical mage, some people do allow them as character classes within their own campaign. One of the questions asked of me after the release of the original article concerned using a spell lock or quickening to make a Increased Reaction or Increased Reflexes spell permanent on a physical adept or physical mage, and what the effects would be. The Physical adept’s Reflex Enhancement power is a function of his own, internal magic. It cannot be combined with any other form of reflex or reaction enhancement. In the case of the physical mage, you’re looking at someone who uses in essence two different forms of magic. Part of his magical potential is focused inward toward his adept abilities, the other part is focused outward. This makes the two types of magic different enough that they will not work in combination with each other. No external magic will affect a physad or physical mage’s internal magical abilities for the purposes of enhancing them. If the physad or physical mage has any internal abilities related that would be enhanced by the spell cast, the spell simply doesn’t have any effect. In short, this is not a way to build the types of characters that are lovingly referred to in the gaming community as munchkins. The idea is to balance the physad in the structure of the campaign, not to create a character with +8D6 dice for initiative.

Traditions of Animal : Errata

Authors Note: All of the point costs for the Traditions of Animal have been reworked. Some powers may have been added or removed to individual totems.

BEAR

Preferred Environment: Forest
Magic Point Cost: 3.5
Totem Powers: +1 to Strength, +1 to Body, Danger Sense (1), Increased Olfactory (1), Improved Skill: Biotech (2), Astral Perception
Character: Bear is powerful in body and slow-moving unless he has to move fast. He seems clumsy and unaware of his surroundings, but he is in harmony with the world and what goes on around him. He is slow in speech but powerful in battle. Bear is a great protector and will go to great lengths to keep his family and friends from harm. Bear is a powerful healing totem found in cultures wherever bears are known, be it North America, central and northern Europe, or Asia.
Disadvantages: Bear is powerful in combat, but can go berserk when wounded. Each time a bear adept is wounded, he must make a willpower roll against a target number of 4 + 1 per each box of damage he has taken. If he fails this check, the adept goes berserk and attacks the person that attacked him, using the most powerful weapon or unarmed combat skill he has. Once this opponent is down, the bear adept may make another willpower check; if he fails again he must attack the next closest member of the opposition and continue in this fashion until he makes his willpower check to calm down or all of the opposition has been killed or is unconscious. Note that even when in a berserker state, bear will not attack his friends. Bear Adepts are both protectors and healers. As such a Bear Physad must have a biotech skill or concentration of at least 4.

CAT

Preferred Environment: Urban
Magic Point Cost: 2
Totem Powers: +1 to Charisma, Enhanced Hearing (1), Improved Physical Sense: Lowlight Vision, Reflex Enhancement (1), Improved Abilities: Stealth (2), Improved Abilities: Athletics (1)
Character: Cat is stealthy, vain, and sometimes cruel. She is cunning and learns many secrets, but does not like to share her knowledge with others. Cat is an Urban totem, for she is quite at home with mankind, either in their company or as a solitary huntress in the streets and alleyways. Cat adepts are solitary types, with no commitment to anything but themselves.
Disadvantages: Cat may toy with an opponent in combat, even when the situation is desperate. She will threaten, sneer, and hiss, displaying her dominance. She will also use flashy combat, and other irrelevancies in the process of the kill. Unless she is wounded, a Cat adept must make a Willpower (6) test when using any Combat technique; if failed, she will hold successes so as to only inflict one or two SC’s of damage. If wounded, this playing around stops. Cat is fastidiously clean, suffering a +1 penalty to ANY Actions taken if she is dirty or unkempt.

CHEETAH

Preferred Environment: Desert
Magic Point Cost: 4
Totem Powers: +2 to Quickness, Reflex Enhancement (2), Improved Abilities: Stealth (1), Improved Abilities: Athletics (1)
Character: Cheetah is concerned with image and style. Cheetah adepts are always into current fashion trends, hip colloquialisms, new tech, and all the other little state of the art gadgets. Cheetah adepts are also fairly impatient and full of a lot of energy. They are always going places, doing things, meeting people.
Disadvantages: Cheetah adepts tend to be highly superficial in their dealings with people, quick to judge and rarely interested in more than surface appearances. Their style is usually flashy, with lots of visible special effects. Cheetah doesn’t like to wait for anything, and will get loud and obnoxious if forced to be patient. A Cheetah physad must have a base quickness of at least 4.

COYOTE

Preferred Environment: Anywhere on Land
Magic Point Cost: 0
Totem Powers: None.
Character: Coyote is the Great Trickster, unpredictably bold one moment, cowardly the next. He can be a friend or a dark joker who leads you into danger. Coyote is also the great Magician. A Coyote adept is too independent to be bound by anything except his word. Like Grandfather Coyote in the legends, his is intensely curious. He is often greedy and fond of taking risks just for fun.
Disadvantages: None. A Coyote adept wouldn’t let himself be tied down by such concepts. He is beyond rules and lives by his own wits. However, his lack of magical advantages is not entirely helpful, and his random nature makes him a debatable choice as a shadowrunning companion.

DOG

Preferred Environment: Urban
Magic Point Cost: 1
Totem Powers: Increased Olfactory (1), Improved Physical Sense: Enhanced Hearing (1), +1 Willpower
Character: Dog is loyal to friends and family. He fights furiously to defend his home and holdings, but is not generally aggressive outside his own territory. Dog loves people and defends them pitilessly from dangerous spirits or evil. Once a Dog adept gives his loyalty or love, he sticks to it even if the person he loves is unworthy. A Dog adept will try to protect humanity from evil at any cost.
Disadvantages: Dog is single minded to the point of stubbornness. A Dog adept must make a Willpower (4) test to change his plans or tactics. The test itself requires one Action as Dog struggles to change his mind.

EAGLE

Preferred Environment: Mountains
Magic Point Cost: 1
Totem Powers: Improved Physical Sense: Vision Magnification (2), Reaction Enhancement (1)
Character: Eagle is the highest flying bird in the sky, and so he comes closest to heaven. He faces the rising sun at dawn and is lord of the highest peaks. Eagle is proud, solitary, and sees everything which happens on the Earth over which he flies.
Disadvantages: An Eagle adept will not tolerate evil or ignoble actions. He is a fierce defender of the land and the purity of nature, with a strong distrust of technology and its tools (+1 penalty on tests that involve dealing with highly technological items). Polluters and others who would damage the land for profit are Eagle’s enemies, and he will brave any danger to defeat them. Double all essence cost of added cyberware or bioware, because of the psychological impact this has on Eagle. (And yes this does mean that any cyber or bio implanted is at 4 times the listed cost)

GATOR

Preferred Environment: Swamp or Urban
Magic Point Cost: 1
Totem Powers: Reaction Enhancement (1), +1 Body
Character: Great fighter, big eater. Swift to act when action is called for, but lethargic, even torpid, the rest of the time. Gator is often ill-tempered, especially when prodded to action. But once he grips, he holds, and will not turn away from a path he has chosen.
Disadvantages: Gator is lazy and greedy. As an eater, he prefers to glut himself with food and then laze around. As a shadowrunner, he prefers a job with a big payoff that will let him take it easy until the money’s gone. It can take some hefty argument to make Gator exert himself. His greed makes him loathe to share material goods and he will almost never make loans or pick up a check. Once on a job, he goes for a direct solution and is impatient of subtlety. It takes a Willpower (6) test for a Gator adept to break off a fight, a chase, or other direct action.

GOOSE

Preferred Environment: Lakes & Fields
Totem Powers: +1 Charisma, Improved Skill: Etiquette (2)
Magic Point Cost: 0.5
Character: Goose is a great orator, often given to flowery language and elegantly worded prose. She is usually very skilled at negotiating and dealing with people, because she knows just what to say. Goose adepts are always willing to open their mouth with an opinion, they have one for everything under the sun.
Disadvantages: Goose can be tactless at times, especially when she’s upset. The skill in knowing just what to say has its dark side, too: Goose adepts will often deliberately say something that just sets someone else off in a big way. And their highly opinionated nature is not always welcome in some circles. Goose adepts may not purchase the Improved Skills: Stealth power. They simply can’t remain quiet long enough.

HAWK

Preferred Environment: Forest
Totem Powers: Reaction Enhancement (1), +1 Quickness, Improved Physical Senses: Vision Magnification (1)
Magic Point Cost: 1
Character: Hawk is the Messenger. He is a swift and silent hunter; not as high flying as Eagle, but every bit as noble and certainly a lot more forgiving of failure in others. Hawk has a great memory.
Disadvantages: Hawk is direct and sometimes has a tongue as sharp as her beak. She never forgets a slight or injury, and will go to great lengths to avenge either.

LION

Preferred Environment: Prairie
Totem Powers: +1 Strength, +1 Charisma, Improved Skills: Stealth (1), Reaction Enhancement (1)
Magic Point Cost: 1.5
Character: Lion is the brave and powerful warrior. His method is direct and pointed, for he is not a creature of subtlety. Lion prefers to work from surprise and ambush, allowing others to perform tasks for him while he holds his strength in reserve. He will take the offensive if necessary. Any threat to his kin and family is a threat to him.
Disadvantages: Lion is vain and demands the most from himself, especially when it comes to his physical condition and appearance. He must live well and demands respect and loyalty from those around him.

MOUNTAIN LION

Preferred Environment: Mountains
Totem Powers: +1 Strength, Improved Skills: Stealth (1), Improved Sense: Tracking Scent, Reaction Enhancement (2)
Magic Point Cost: 3
Character: A great hunter, but not a wasteful one. Mountain Lion finds excessive killing beneath his dignity. He is a proud leader, but doesn’t suffer the vanity of the Lion. Keen, aware of his surroundings, and aggressive when necessary; this is the Mountain Lion.
Disadvantages: The Mountain Lion Adept is critical of waste, in any form. Mountain Lion adepts quite often bite off more than they can chew, often accepting challenges that are beyond their capabilities.

MOUSE

Preferred Environment: Field, Prairie or Urban
Totem Powers: Improved Skills: Stealth (2), Reaction Enhancement (1), Danger Sense (1)
Magic Point Cost: 2
Character: Because Mouse is so much smaller than many other animals, and because so many other creatures hunt her, the Mouse adept usually has a well-developed sense of danger. Mouse scrutinizes everything, and has a marvelous ability to categorize and organize. Mouse is not as skittish as Rabbit, or as selfish as Rat.
Disadvantages: To others, Mouse often seems a nit-picker. A Mouse adept will always try to find new, better, or more efficient ways of doing things. Mouse always wants to go over every little detail, and usually blows all the obstacles way out of proportion. This slows things down a lot sometimes which can be bad for a shadow job.

OWL

Preferred Environment: Anywhere at Night
Totem Powers: Improved Physical Senses: Vision Magnification (2), Improved Physical Senses: Lowlight Vision, Improved Physical Senses: Hearing Magnification (1), Astral Perception
Magic Point Cost: 1
Character: Owl is a wise and silent observer. She does not speak unless she has something important to say. Owl lives by night and shuns the sunlight, in which she is practically helpless. What she hunts for, she finds. Owl is helpful to her friends and fearsome to her enemies.
Disadvantages: +1 penalty to ALL Target Numbers in direct sunlight.

SHARK

Preferred Environment: Sea
Totem Powers: Improved Physical Senses: Olfactory (2), Improved Physical Senses: Tracking Scent (1), Reaction Enhancement (1), Killing Hands: Str (M)
Magic Point Cost: 2
Character: Shark is the cold, relentless hunter of the sea, utterly savage in battle. Shark calls no place home, but wanders the sea and knows all its secrets. Shark would be a likely totem for adepts of any seafaring or shore dwelling culture: Hawaiian kahunas, Japanese miko, Haitian houngans, Eskimo angekok, as well as the NAN tribes of the Pacific Northwest and any surviving adepts among the few Australian aborigines still living in the Dreamtime.
Disadvantages: A Shark adept may go berserk in combat when wounded, or after a kill. A berserk Shark adept attacks the nearest living thing, friend or enemy, with his best weapons or spells, or may possibly continue to attack the corpse of his last victim, savagely blasting and hacking it. Even if he isn’t dead, Shark believes that the best enemy is a dead enemy. He rarely uses non-lethal methods in combat. If challenged in any way, he does not stop to reason, he strikes. And when he strikes, it is to kill.

SNAKE

Preferred Environment: Anywhere except Mountains
Totem Powers: Improved Physical Senses: Olfactory (1), Reaction Enhancement (1), +1 Reaction, Improved Abilities: Social Skill (2)
Magic Point Cost: 1.5
Character: Snake is a wise healer who dwells in many places and knows many secrets. Snake is a good councilor, but exacts a price for her advice. Snake is adaptable, and can confuse the senses of enemies.
Disadvantages: Snake doesn’t fight unless she must defend herself or hunt to eat. Snake adepts are obsessed with learning secrets and will take enormous risks to do so.

TIGER

Preferred Environment: Jungle
Totem Powers: +1 Strength, Improved Skills: Stealth (2), Reaction Enhancement (1)
Magic Point Cost: 1.5
Character: Tiger is the hunter, hider, and stalker. She is a master at concealing herself until the last moment, when she springs and kills. Tiger adepts are into surprise and ambush tactics, and like spontaneity in their lives. She is also a protective mother and loyal companion.
Disadvantages: Tiger has a certain way of doing things, and she does not invite debate. Tiger adepts get irritated when others try to ignore or alter their well designed plans. Tiger is also very concerned with honor, both for herself and for those around her, to the point of sacrificing tactical advantage or personal gain.

WOLF

Preferred Environment: Forest, Prairie or Mountain
Totem Powers: Improved Abilities: Stealth (1), Reaction Enhancement (1), Improved Physical Senses: Enhanced Olfactory (1), +1 Quickness
Magic Point Cost: 1.5
Character: Wolf is a hunter and warrior. He is brother to all his pack, and fiercely loyal to his mate and cubs. As the ancient saying goes, Wolf wins every fight but one, and in that one, he dies.
Disadvantages: A Wolf adept is loyal to his family and friends until death. Nothing can make him betray those bonds. He will not show cowardice. When a Wolf adept extends his protection to another, or otherwise accepts a responsibility, nothing will make him break that promise. However, Wolf will sometimes go berserk, as Bear does.

The Traditions of Man : Errata

Authors Note: All of the point costs for the Traditions of Man have been reworked.

Traditions of Man represent groups of Physical adepts that are trained for a certain task or goal. Each Tradition of man presented is an example, and you are encouraged to add more traditions to suit your individual campaign. It is assumed in the cases of most of the Traditions of Man that these were Traditions that the player character did follow at one time, but he has resigned or left the organization since to become a shadowrunner.

The Paladins of Tir

Powers: Danger Sense (1), Improved Ability: Armed Combat (1), Improved Ability: Unarmed Combat (1), Killing Hands: (Strength) M
Magic Point Cost: 2.5
Character: The Paladin of the Tir is the personal body guard of the Nobility of Tir Tarngire. He has been trained since birth to fulfill this role in life, striving to better himself through sacrifice and denial. He is quiet, watchful and always prepared to deal with any situation that might arise.
Disadvantages: The Tir Paladin has been raised since birth in a rather sheltered environment, one that teaches him only that which he needs to know to serve his masters, the nobles of the Tir. As such most Tir Paladins are very mistrustful of all non-elves they meet, and only slightly more so to elves that are not members of the nobility. The Tir Paladin speaks Sperienthal as his native language. Any other languages the character wishes to speak (including English) must be purchased as skills. The character must also purchase a skill of etiquette/Tir Court at level 3 or better.
Restrictions: Elves Only

The Sioux Wildcats

Powers: Improved Ability: Unarmed Combat (1), Killing Hands: (Strength) M, Improved Ability: Armed Combat (1), Improved Ability: Stealth (2), Pain Resistance (1)
Magic Point Cost: 2.5
Character: The Sioux Wildcat is a special forces trained soldier with one mission, protect the NAN. The wildcat is a special kind of soldier, capable of surviving the wilderness alone and tracking his enemies. Once a wildcat is on your trail he will never stop until he finds you.
Disadvantages: The Wildcat is a solider and a patriot. He believes in his cause and will gladly die for it, without ever crying out in pain or protest. He will drive himself beyond the limits of human endurance in the single minded pursuit of his goal. Once a Wildcat has decided on a course of action, it requires an opposed negotiations test vrs his willpower to convince him otherwise. Please note, however, that a wildcat is not prone to making quick decisions. He will study his options carefully before deciding on a course of action, but once he has made up his mind to do something it is almost impossible to convince him to quit. Quit is just not a word in his vocabulary.
Restrictions: Amerinds Only

The Independent Adept

Powers: None
Magic Point Cost: 0
Character: The independent adept is an adept that does not follow any of the traditions listed above. He may spend his magic points in any way that he pleases. This type of adept did not belong to a group or find a totem, his powers realized themselves on their own.
Disadvantages: None

The Unaware Adept

Powers: None
Magic Point Cost: 0
Character: The unaware adept is similar to the Independent Adept, but this type of magical adept does not know that he is an adept. To him his skills are not magical in nature but rather just things he learned to do.
Disadvantages: The Unaware Adept may not initiate until another physical adept can show them the source of their powers and begin to train them in their proper use. This should require a lot of roleplaying, as the Unaware adept will be very resistant to the idea that they are actually magically active. Due to this restriction, the GM may wish to allow the unaware adept up to one more magic point during character creation.

Physical Adept Powers : Errata

Authors Note: The point costs for non-physical skills listed in the original article was incorrect. These are the correct figures. The point cost for magic sense listed was also incorrect.

Magic Sense

Cost: 0.5 Pts

Improved Ability

Cost: See Below

Each skill or category of skills is listed with the maximum number of dice you can purchase for each individual skill and the magic cost for the improvement. Note that in the case of Skill Categories, it is possible to improve all skills in that category by use of the Improved Skill power, but the power must be purchased for each skill within that category separately.

Skill or Skill Category	Maximum Increase	Cost Per Level
Armed Combat	+4	0.5
Unarmed Combat	+4	0.5
Stealth	+4	0.5
Athletics	+4	0.25
Firearms	+2	1.0
Gunnery	+1	1.5
Projectile Weapons	+4	0.5
Throwing	+4	0.25
Social Skills	+3	0.5
Knowledge Skills	+2	0.5
Build/Repair Skills	+2	0.5
Technical Skills	+2	0.5

The Physical Adept Reexamined