[Strange]

Ok finishing touches before we play on Sunday.  First out, he does not have a fake sin or licenses, and has a street lifestyle.  This is intentional, as he has paranoia.
Originially I had the spell increase intuition, but I would have to cast that at a force 6 to improve my intuition, which would prohibit me from using focused concentration to hold it and also making the drain physical.  I was hoping for a way to increase my drain stat so I could cast more spells, but that will have to wait until I can spend the karma.  I changed that to agility, but then that made my adept power of attribute boost (agi) no good, so I dumped that.  As it stands, I need one more power point for  adept power, and any other suggestions would be good, too.  Thanks!
Movement: 6/12
Karma: 0 Street Cred: 0 Notoriety: 3 Public Awareness: 0
Human Male Age 25 Height 5'7" Weight 160
Composure: 7 Judge Intentions: 8 Lift/Carry: 6 (45 kg/30 kg)
Memory: 7 Nuyen: 350

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3 AGI: 3 REA: 3 (5) STR: 3 CHA: 2 INT: 6 LOG: 2 WIL: 5 EDG: 2 MAG: 5

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   5.02
Initiative:                9 (11) + 3d6 Astral Initiative:         12 + 2d6
Physical Damage Track:     11 Stun Damage Track:         11

== Limits ==
Physical: 5 Mental: 5 Social: 5 Astral: 5

== Active Skills ==
Alchemy                    : 1                      Pool: 8
Arcana                     : 4                      Pool: 6
Artificing                 : 1                      Pool: 8
Assensing                  : 5                      Pool: 11
Astral Combat              : 2                      Pool: 7
Automatics                 : 1                      Pool: 4
Banishing                  : 5                      Pool: 12
Binding                    : 5                      Pool: 12
Blades                     : 4                      Pool: 7
Clubs                      : 1                      Pool: 4
Computer                   : 1                      Pool: 3
Con                        : 2                      Pool: 6
Counterspelling            : 5                      Pool: 10
Disenchanting              : 1                      Pool: 8
Etiquette                  : 2                      Pool: 4
Impersonation              : 2                      Pool: 4
Negotiation                : 1                      Pool: 3
Palming                    : 1                      Pool: 4
Perception                 : 2                      Pool: 8
Performance                : 2                      Pool: 4
Ritual Spellcasting        : 5                      Pool: 12
Sneaking                   : 2                      Pool: 5
Spellcasting               : 6                      Pool: 13
Summoning                  : 5                      Pool: 12
Survival                   : 1                      Pool: 6
Unarmed Combat             : 1                      Pool: 4

== Knowledge Skills ==
Area Knowledge: Seattle: 6                      Pool: 12
Charity Shelters           : 5                      Pool: 11
Denver                     : 2                      Pool: 8
English                    : N                      Pool: 0
History                    : 1                      Pool: 3
Japanese (Language)        : 4                      Pool: 10
Magic Traditions (Academic) : 3  Pool: 5
Magical Law                : 1                      Pool: 3
Magical Theory             : 5                      Pool: 7
Magical Threats (Academic) : 4    Pool: 6
MCT                        : 3                      Pool: 5
Music                      : 2                      Pool: 8
Parazoology (Academic)     : 4    Pool: 6
Spanish                    : 1                      Pool: 7
UCAS                       : 1                      Pool: 3
Yakuza                     : 2                      Pool: 8

== Contacts ==
Kinnori-San; Mitsuhama; Company Man (3, 4)
== Life Modules ==                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Denver (UCAS Sector)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Fugitive
Magical Education (Mystic Adept)
Wage Mage
Street Mage
== Qualities ==
Bad Rep
Biocompatability (Cyberware)
Focused Concentration (Rating 3)
In Debt X
Mentor Spirit (Chaos)
Mystic Adept
Paranoia
SINner (Corporate Limited) (Mitsuhama)
== Spells ==
(Tradition: Chaos Magic, Resist Drain with WIL + INT (11))
Ball Lightning             DV: F-1 (13 dice)
Chaotic World              DV: F (15 dice)
Heal                       DV: F-4 (13 dice)
Improved Invisibility  DV: F-1 (13 dice)
Increase Agility      DV: F-3 (13 dice)
Levitate                   DV: F-2 (13 dice)
Stunbolt                   DV: F-3 (13 dice)

== Powers ==
Astral Perception
Combat Sense Rating: 4
Improved Reflexes 2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1 point to spend
                                               
== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Cybereyes Basic System Rating 2
   +Image Link
   +Smartlink
   +Low-Light Vision
   +Flare Compensation
   +Thermographic Vision
Datajack
Obvious Full Arm (AGI 6, STR 6, Physical 7) (Right)
   +Customized Agility Rating 6
   +Customized Strength Rating 6
   +Bulk Modification Rating 2

== Armor ==
Armor Jacket                        12
Forearm Guards                      1
Helmet                              2

== Weapons ==
SCK Model 100
   +Folding Stock
   +Smartgun System, Internal
   Pool:7(9)   Accuracy: 7   DV: 8P   AP: -   RC: 3
Sword ("Ninja-To")
   +Personalized Grip
   Pool:13   Accuracy: 7   DV: 9P   AP: -2   RC: 2
Cyber Arm attack
   Pool: 7   Accuracy: 7   DV: 6S   AP: -   RC: 2

== Commlink ==
MCT-3500 (ATT: 0, SLZ: 0, DP: 3, FWL: 3)

== Gear ==
Earbuds Rating 1
   +Sound Link
Power Focus (Bonded Foci) Rating 2
Qi Focus (Bonded Foci) (Astral Perception) Rating 4
Weapon Focus (Bonded Foci) (Sword) Rating 3

== Vehicles ==
Suzuki Mirage (Racing Bike) ("Yamaha/MCT Tenshi")

[fseperent]

Before you do anything else, pop open notepad or a similar program and double check what you got from the life modules.
I've had too many errors when using Chummer for life modules, I just type it out in Notepad.
Looks clean, but I don't normally run spell slingers.
As for your PP, Maintain Warmth, Motion Sense, and Sustenance would be my choices, given the street lifestyle.

[FST_Gemstar]

Looks functional, but I haven't gotten good at assessing life module builds -

Is there a way to get some enhanced Agility/Strength into your arm at character generation? It will make your sword arm more menacing. Do you need the cybereyes and datajack? some glasses and trodes would work too and save you some cash and essence for better things in the future. It may even let you take a standard arm instead of an alpha one to save some cash and boost that arm (and lower that In Debt X), as that in Debt X is going to be a real killer. I know a lot of mystic adepts prefer not to use a PP for astral perception, but if you have one to spare, perhaps use a PP for that and turn that Qi Focus into a health sustaining focus if you want a sustained intuition?Or just drop it for cash? Or use one of those combat sense ratings for Heightened Concern, which should let you sustain a spell without penalty?

[Strange]

Before you do anything else, pop open notepad or a similar program and double check what you got from the life modules.
I've had too many errors when using Chummer for life modules, I just type it out in Notepad.
Looks clean, but I don't normally run spell slingers.
As for your PP, Maintain Warmth, Motion Sense, and Sustenance would be my choices, given the street lifestyle.

Yeah, I've re-coded all the modules that I and my team have used, I know them all to be good.  It took a while, though!
I like sustenance and motion sense.  Will probably do motion sense because sustenance costs .25, and there isn't much else I like for that much

Looks functional, but I haven't gotten good at assessing life module builds -

Is there a way to get some enhanced Agility/Strength into your arm at character generation? It will make your sword arm more menacing. Do you need the cybereyes and datajack? some glasses and trodes would work too and save you some cash and essence for better things in the future. It may even let you take a standard arm instead of an alpha one to save some cash and boost that arm (and lower that In Debt X), as that in Debt X is going to be a real killer. I know a lot of mystic adepts prefer not to use a PP for astral perception, but if you have one to spare, perhaps use a PP for that and turn that Qi Focus into a health sustaining focus if you want a sustained intuition?Or just drop it for cash? Or use one of those combat sense ratings for Heightened Concern, which should let you sustain a spell without penalty?

1. I am allowed to purchase more, but money is too tight. I am planning on upgrading in the future, however.  I tried with just a straight cyberarm, no biocompatibilty or eyes, but didn't like it.  For one the smartlink, even though I don't plan on being too much of a gun man, and for two it lets me use my magic in low light and with thermographic vision.  Plus the eyes are cool.  2. Heightened Concern sounds perfect, if it works for spell sustaining. 

All good advice for sure, it is just a character decision that holds me to some things.  I'll look into changing Astral perception into pp and getting a sustaining focus if the heightened concern (sic) doesn't apply.  Thanks.

[gradivus]

My 2 nuyen's worth

Drop the power focus to 1 or drop it altogether.
Drop the STR in the cyberarm and get AGI enhancement+3 and shockhand.
Agility 9 plus Unarmed 1 plus touch attack = 12DP which has a chance of hitting unlike what you have now... and if you dropped the power focus to 1 then you only need 1 karma to get the cybermelee weapon specialization to make it 14DP. Better yet, drop the whole idea of a cyberarm, it's not doing you any favors.

That cyberarm is at least 15000(arm)+15000AGI+15000STR+Bulk modification= 46k
Used muscle augmentation [2] is 48k...change STR 3 to 2 and now you have AGI 4(6).
And best of all MAug .5+ Datajack .1 + Cybereyes .3 = .9 so you could have MR5

In any event cyberarms don't have their own limits so attacking with it is your physical limit which at the moment is 5 not the 7 you have listed. Right now you have cyberarm 1 + cybereyes .3 + datajack .1=1.4 therefore you can only have MR 4 not the 5 you're showing unless you have exceptional attribute (magic).

You have more than 25 karma in negative qualities before you took In Debt (since no module gives you In debt), therefore you can't take any more qualities. And even if you could take it, In Debt X means you owe 75k off the bat- that's 7500 interest payment every month. Unless your GM is in a habit of overpaying novice runners, good luck with that.

There's other errors but there's no point in listing themsince between the In debt and the magic rating you have to start all over.

[Strange]

My 2 nuyen's worth

Drop the power focus to 1 or drop it altogether.
Drop the STR in the cyberarm and get AGI enhancement+3 and shockhand.
Agility 9 plus Unarmed 1 plus touch attack = 12DP which has a chance of hitting unlike what you have now... and if you dropped the power focus to 1 then you only need 1 karma to get the cybermelee weapon specialization to make it 14DP. Better yet, drop the whole idea of a cyberarm, it's not doing you any favors.

That cyberarm is at least 15000(arm)+15000AGI+15000STR+Bulk modification= 46k
Used muscle augmentation [2] is 48k...change STR 3 to 2 and now you have AGI 4(6).
And best of all MAug .5+ Datajack .1 + Cybereyes .3 = .9 so you could have MR5

In any event cyberarms don't have their own limits so attacking with it is your physical limit which at the moment is 5 not the 7 you have listed. Right now you have cyberarm 1 + cybereyes .3 + datajack .1=1.4 therefore you can only have MR 4 not the 5 you're showing unless you have exceptional attribute (magic).

You have more than 25 karma in negative qualities before you took In Debt (since no module gives you In debt), therefore you can't take any more qualities. And even if you could take it, In Debt X means you owe 75k off the bat- that's 7500 interest payment every month. Unless your GM is in a habit of overpaying novice runners, good luck with that.

There's other errors but there's no point in listing themsince between the In debt and the magic rating you have to start all over.

All the Cyberware is Alphaware and he has the Bioware Compatability trait, so my total is at .98 spent, 5.02 remaining.  Our GM has ruled that, for life modules, the SIN you receive doesn't count against your negative karma limit, and the physical limit was put in by Chummer.  DIdn't even notice it, and it is useless anyway!  The In debt is insanely high, but my GM approves and says it will actually "make things a bit more fun".

[gradivus]

It would help if you put the grade next to the items that are not standard.

As far as life modules..don't use chummer at all.
Use a spreadsheet, so you can put a column for each module and add in each attribute/skill given and then sum it up. That way you can make sure it's all added right.

Also, is your GM giving you the free know/contacts as the developer who wrote the section said he intended, or is he going with the example that does not support this?

[ZeldaBravo]

"make things a bit more fun".

Be prepared for all kinds of fun though!   

[gradivus]

Here's what I get when I did the numbers (up to Street mage but before you start on karmic balance):

1   BOD
1   AGI
2   REA
1   STR
4   WIL
2   LOG
4   INT
2   CHA
1   MR
    Qualities
    SINner:Limited Coporate
    Paranoia(7)
    BadRep(7)
    Skills
2   Acting SG
4   Arcana
3   Assensing
2   Astral Combat
1   Blades
1   Computer
6   Conjuring SG
1   Enchanting SG
2   Etiquette
5   Know: MCT Corporation
5   Know:Charity Centers
8   Know:Denver
1   Know:History
1   Know:Magic Law
5   Know:Magic Theory
4   Know:Magic Threats
3   Know:Magic Traditions
4   Know:Parazoology
1   Know:UCAS
0   Lang: English
2   Lang:Japanese
1   Lang:Spanish
1   Negotiation
1   Palming
2   Perception
2   Sneaking
5   Sorcery SG
1   Survival

You'll not that a lot of the numbers are different than your original post.
You have 410 Karma at this point.

I would highly recommend community college (55Karma)
It will increase WIL fron 4 to 5 (that's worth 25)
It will Increase Sorcery SG from 5 to 6 (that's worth 30)
It will increase LOG from 2 to 3 (that's worth 15)
You'll can increase Know:Magic Theory from 5 to 9 or take Know:Metaplanes 5
That's over 70 points for 55 and since you should raise Sorcery and Will anyway you'd be spending the 55 anyway.
Heck, follow it up w/Ivy League (80 Karma) [Yes you can take anothe Higher Ed Moduke afte ComCollege]
It'll increase your WIL to 6(worth 30 Karma)
Increase your LOG to 4 (worth 20)
Increase your CHA to 3 (worth 15)
and best of all your sorcery SG to 7 (worth 35)
plus increases ettiquette, perception and 9 more knowledge skilll points.

If the GM gives you the free knowledge point, put 1 in English for the specialty CitySpeak. Since it's a English/Japanese lingo you should be able to default with it for Japanese (Int*2-3 probably as Native speaker has no set skill number I would assume you use Int in it's place- you're GM may look at this differently). Anyway, if he allows you to do it, you save the 2 ranks in Japanese and can add the to Spanish for a Rank of 3.

I don't know how he rules the MR loss (does he allow you to drop from 1 to zero and then you buy 5 or does he require you to buy 6 and drop to 5- big difference).

Anyway with 275 points (more if you don't take community college/Ivy League)this character can get his MR 5 and 5 PP(80 or 100 Karma depending on the GM ruling) plus 175 70 195 leftover to round him out. A little tight, so maybe no Ivy League no matter how good Sorcery SG 7 looks.

I'd seriously consider dropping Bad Rep.

Hopefully this has been helpful.

[Strange]

It would help if you put the grade next to the items that are not standard.

As far as life modules..don't use chummer at all.
Use a spreadsheet, so you can put a column for each module and add in each attribute/skill given and then sum it up. That way you can make sure it's all added right.

Also, is your GM giving you the free know/contacts as the developer who wrote the section said he intended, or is he going with the example that does not support this?

As I wrote up above, I have re-coded the modules we used, and we check them extensively.  He did give us the free contacts and Knowledge points.  Finally, Chummer doesn't list grade on the sheet info (which I think we will be adding later).  I have also submitted the re-coded life modules (I am redoing them all, almost through Further education, and I added in Hard Targets, but I don't have rigger 5.0 yet for those).

[Strange]

Here's what I get when I did the numbers (up to Street mage but before you start on karmic balance):

1   BOD
1   AGI
2   REA
1   STR
4   WIL
2   LOG
4   INT
2   CHA
1   MR
    Qualities
    SINner:Limited Coporate
    Paranoia(7)
    BadRep(7)
    Skills
2   Acting SG
4   Arcana
3   Assensing
2   Astral Combat
1   Blades
1   Computer
6   Conjuring SG
1   Enchanting SG
2   Etiquette
5   Know: MCT Corporation
5   Know:Charity Centers
8   Know:Denver
1   Know:History
1   Know:Magic Law
5   Know:Magic Theory
4   Know:Magic Threats
3   Know:Magic Traditions
4   Know:Parazoology
1   Know:UCAS
0   Lang: English
2   Lang:Japanese
1   Lang:Spanish
1   Negotiation
1   Palming
2   Perception
2   Sneaking
5   Sorcery SG
1   Survival

You'll not that a lot of the numbers are different than your original post.

I think you are saying that a lot of the numbers are different here.  You have 1 too many points in Conjuring skill group, and 1 too few points in close combat skill group, and you put city street knowledge in denver instead of seattle, and you have assensing wrong (+3 from wage mage, +2 from street mage).  Other than that, I put 2 points into blades and 1 into spellcasting, so other than your math error and wrong skill groups they are pretty spot on. I didn't go for further education for several reasons, 1. It doesn't fit the character concept and 2. It is karma efficient, but not for what I would want it for (will and 1 point in spellcasting).  This guy is more street, less academic.  I don't even really like the skills I get from magical education, but the whole life module fits my characters background and makes sense, so it stays.  If I spend too much karma on the further education I will have even less for the nuyen that I need, and end up with a lot of skills that don't fit concept at all, so they become not Karma efficient.  Hope that makes sense

Thanks for trying but the skills are right and I don't need a revamp, just finishing touches!

[gradivus]

since magic education is 1, wage mage is 2 and street mage is 3 that's 6
unless they switched sorcery to 3 and conjuring to 2 like it should be.
I really would like you to say I missed an errata and this is so.

I didn't look at your knowledge skills too closely so I put the points in denver because I didn't realize you took seattle, unlike the Japanese Lang that I some how noticed while not even looking at the knowledge skills. I guess my peripheral vision isn't too far gone in my old age.

It doesn't matter what I or anyone suggest- your character, so you got to play it and you want to have fun doing so.

[Strange]

since magic education is 1, wage mage is 2 and street mage is 3 that's 6
unless they switched sorcery to 3 and conjuring to 2 like it should be.
I really would like you to say I missed an errata and this is so.

I didn't look at your knowledge skills too closely so I put the points in denver because I didn't realize you took seattle, unlike the Japanese Lang that I some how noticed while not even looking at the knowledge skills. I guess my peripheral vision isn't too far gone in my old age.

It doesn't matter what I or anyone suggest- your character, so you got to play it and you want to have fun doing so.

As a mystic adept you get to pick what skill groups you choose. You don't automatically get sorcerery and conjuring.

I appreciate your suggestions on the further education (my other Mage concept had state college and post grad studies, and his spell casting was tops. He was also quite boring!).