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SR 5th ed. Improved Ability and Reflex Recorder

E

Elektrycerze3

Member
Dear internet strangers:

Could you please run a sanity check for me on how Improved Ability and Reflex Recorder work together? I was trying to combine the two in Hero Lab and it produced an unanticipated result. Now I am not sure if I am missing something.

Omitting some irrelevant specifics:
  • Improved Ability (p. 309 of the core book) is an Adept Power that increases the Rating of certain skills by one per level of the power; and
  • Reflex Recorder (p. 460 of the core book) is a piece of cultured Bioware that adds 1 to the Rating of a specific skill. The bonus caps at +(Skill Rating / 2).

Now, when I use both on the same skill to max it out, I expect it to work as follows, in no particular order:
  • Start with a skill of six;
  • Increase the skill by three through Improved Ability. With a skill of six, the bonus caps at three; and
  • Increase the skill by one through Reflex Recorder.

That would give me a Skill Rating of ten.

However, when I try to get to that result in Hero Lab, I cap at nine. Improved Ability three does not stack with Reflex Recorder. Improved Ability two and one stacks normally.

Am I missing something? Or is this a bug?
 
Improved ability cannot increase the skill to more than 1.5x the current skill level, or 9. So try the additions in the other order - 6 + 1 from reflex recorders + 3 from improved ability, but then improved ability can't increase it to beyond 9.
 
Thank you for replying Mathias.

Is this interpretation confirmed by the authors? I cannot access the CGL to check the errata right now, but the text in the book just says "The maximum improvement possible is [X]." I read it as the improvement from the ability itself. The Improved Ability is not increasing it beyond 9 - other sources do.

As a side note, Reflex Recorder adds one to the Rating of the Skill. Is "Rating" different from "skill level?" Is there an argument for saying that the full Rating, including the bonus from Reflex Recorder, is the base for the Improved Ability calculation?

On a more practical note, is there a way to change Improved Ability in the editor so that it fully stacks with Reflex Recorder? I can just add a permanent adjustment to each character, but I would prefer to adjust how Improved Ability works in that respect.
 
I know that skills have an augmented skill limit of rating / 2, but I cannot for the life of me find it in the book. If someone can point where that rules exists that would be great because I can't find it. If it's gone in 5th edition which it might be, I know it exists in 4th, then reflex recorder should increase this skill to a 10.
 
ShadowWalker said:
I know that skills have an augmented skill limit of rating / 2, but I cannot for the life of me find it in the book. If someone can point where that rules exists that would be great because I can't find it. If it's gone in 5th edition which it might be, I know it exists in 4th, then reflex recorder should increase this skill to a 10.
Click to expand...

I just did a quick search with the word "skill" in the core book pdf and could not find anything of sorts. I did skip examples and example characters, so it was not perfect, but I am fairly certain it is gone from 5e.
 
The adept power specifies that the bonus is capped at base skill rating x 1.5. That's a very odd phrasing, which was clarified to mean that the final total cannot exceed the natural skill x 1.5 (aka the maximum bonus is half of the original skill).

That maximum is being applied to the final skill rating in the Hero Lab program.
 
Kiirnodel said:
The adept power specifies that the bonus is capped at base skill rating x 1.5. That's a very odd phrasing, which was clarified to mean that the final total cannot exceed the natural skill x 1.5 (aka the maximum bonus is half of the original skill).

That maximum is being applied to the final skill rating in the Hero Lab program.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your input, Kiirnodel. Could you please specify where the phrasing was clarified? All I see is the reply #65 in the official errata thread here: https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=24595.60

That piece of errata says that the entire text of the ability is replaced with "This power increases the Rating of a specific Combat, Physical, Social, Technical, or Vehicle skill by the level of the power. You need to know the skill before you learn this power for it, and the power cannot be taken for skill groups. The maximum number of levels for this power is half your Rating in the skill (rounded up)."

While that piece of errata is listed as "provisional," I cannot find any other source of clarification. Could you please let me know where your interpretation is coming from?
 
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