Adept Powers
The third magical path. Adepts don't cast spells — they invest Power Points into innate Adept Powers. Sources: SR2 core pp. 125–126, Grimoire 2nd Edition p. 34, Awakenings pp. 115–119.
An Adept (sometimes Physical Adept) is a magician who channels mana through the body instead of through spellcasting. The same mana that would let a hermetic mage hurl Manabolts lets the adept punch through a steel door with Killing Hands, react faster than wired chrome with Increased Reflexes, or shrug off a serious wound with Pain Resistance.
Adepts cannot learn Sorcery or Conjuring — the spell list and spirit-summoning are locked to full magicians. They can bond foci (Power Focus, Weapon Focus) with Karma + nuyen, and they can take a totem if the GM allows (treated as a "shamanic adept" — see SR2 p. 124). See Talon in the Dossiers for an Elf Physical Adept built end-to-end.
- Budget: Power Points = Magic Rating. Fresh adept = 6 PP. (SR2 p. 126)
- Spend: Each power has a fixed PP cost. Tiered powers (Killing Hands, Increased Reflexes, Combat Sense, etc.) charge differently per level — see the inline breakdown on each card.
- Cap: You can't exceed your PP total. Pre-allocate at chargen; raise levels or buy new powers later with Karma.
- Magic is fragile. If Magic Rating drops (cyberware, drain, deadly damage), PP drops with it — and the adept may lose already-bought powers. Adepts therefore avoid chrome the way mages do.
- Karma growth: After play begins, raise an Attribute or buy more powers / higher levels with Karma, the same way skills are improved. (SR2 p. 126)
// FULL CATALOGUE
All 37 named powers. Each card shows headline PP cost and — for tiered powers — the cost breakdown per level. SR2 GRIM AWK indicate source book.
- Some totem-favoured environments and constraint details are paraphrased here for brevity — verify the exact wording at the table from the source book.
- Awakenings presents the SR2 power Improved Physical Senses with additional sub-effects (Flare Compensation, High-Frequency Hearing, Improved Scent/Taste, Low-Frequency Hearing, Sound Dampening). Those are levels within the existing power, not new powers — see SR2 p. 125.
- Aspected adepts and other build options from Awakenings and Grimoire 2e exist as character-build levers rather than new powers; if you'd like a write-up, ask.