Buying Spells and Magic Equipment

During the course of your career, you are likely to come to need magic spells quickened on you, or special magical equipment. (other than foci). The following spells are relevant:

Stealth
(Improved) Invisibility
(Physical) Mask
(Trid) Phantasm
Enhanced (Cyber) Attributes

In order to have a spell quickened on you, you must find a mage with the quickening metamagic technique (at least initiate grade 1), and the spell in question at the appropriate force you need.

There are two ways to find the appropriate mage: Money is No Object and Thrifty

Thrifty
This is difficult because the availabilty is increased.
The availability of a given mage with the approprate spell is 10+desired spell force+desired sorcery(spellcasting) dice.
So for a force 1 enhanced attribute the availability is 10+sorcery dice (min 1 for 1 success, so min 11).

The spellcaster charges the following:
For each point of karma spent (force of the spell): $5000
For his time and effort: $1000 per sorcery die.
For each karma pool spent in the action: $5000
For Drain: $1000 per drain point, $2000 per drain level. Double for physical.
(So Drain +2M would cost $2000+$4000 = $6000, or $12,000 if drain is physical).
Sorcery dice includes ranks, as well as spell pool available and appropriate foci used.

In the case above, a force 1 spell with 1 die would cost $6000 (or more if he failed at his attempt and you had to use karma pool to reroll) plus the relevant drain on the spell. Mind you that an oops could be problematic.

Money is no Object

In this case, you need only find the mage. The availability of a mage is 6+sorcery dice.
This is because you need not find one with the spell you need: you can buy the spell seperately and pay him to learn it. If necessary, you can also purchase an expendable spell focus for the appropriate spell for him to use on your behalf also- to increase sorcery dice.

Cost:
Per force of spell: $10,000 ($5000 per karma to quicken, and again to learn it)
Cost for a copy of the spell.
Cost for an appropriate expendable spell focus.
For labor: $1000 per his normal sorcery dice.
For karma pool used: $5000.
For Drain: $1000 per drain point, $2000 per drain level. Double for physical.

Much more expensive, but much easier to make happen.

Spells with force higher than 6 may have an increased street index also.

Magic Equipment

Now that we have a cost basis in place for quickening spells, it's relevant to determine what spells make sense.

Invisible Armor: Armor enchanted with invisibility (or improved invisibility). While the bulk is not decreased, it's less likely people will notice you wandering around with a bunch of armor on. Keep in mind the force of the invisibility spell must be high enough to affect the armor. Improved invisibility keeps it hidden from mechanical sensors, but also makes it harder to find if you put it down somewhere.

Invisible Weapon: While easy to conceal, it is very difficult to aim without a smartlink or laser targeting. With cyberware help there are no penalties, but without you take a +2 TN penalty to aiming with the weapon and cannot use scopes. Weapons may be difficult to find if dropped.

Stealth Weapon: This weapon has a weightless and slotless silencer effectively on it at all times.

Stealth Shoes: This prevents your feet from making noise as they touch the ground, giving you a +Force bonus on stealth checks to avoid being heard.

Masked Armor: This can cause your armor to appear as anything else (chosen at casting), perhaps as another company's uniform, clothing, or even as another race/gender's body. Provides +force to disguise rolls. Physical mask is needed to fool sensors.

Masked Vehicle: Requires the vehicle mask spell, but can help disguise a military vehicle or one with weapons as a standard vehicle.

Keep in mind that rutheneum provides no bonus if it is masked or invisible. Also note, equipment's complexity affects the minimum force of a spell needed to overcome it, and successes determine the number of successes somone else must get to see through the illusion. Also note that magical equipment leaves an astral aura.

Phantom Smoke: Trid smoke is a smoke grenade that spews forth smoke that has been enchanted with the phantasm spell (or the trid phantasm spell).
Regular Phantom Smoke: Those who fail their successes can see smoke of a given color come out of the grenade. Non-cyber rutheneum is not fooled, however, and this eliminates the bonus granted due to rutheneum, but only if you fail against the force of the smoke.
Trid Phantom Smoke: Those who fail on success see the smoke, and ruthenium can be fooled as well, making people in rutheneum stand out to people who succeed on seeing through the smoke. Works better at lower force, though a minimum force is needed to enchant the device.
Both are very expensive considering the karma cost associated with a single shot device. This can also be built into paint, spray paint, or even walls.

Cash for Karma
You can also pay people to give karma to a free spirit or allied spirit on your behalf. You'll need to pay them $5000 per karma point, but find people is much eaisier, with an availability of 4.