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Magician/Hacker

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W.I.Z.

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« on: <05-13-12/0120:26> »
Concept I have been interested in a while.  The really smart nerdy guy that loves computers and then awakens still just as nerdy but now he is a magical nerd.  Let me know if there are things I missed or should have done differently.  Attached the character as an PDF file hope that is ok otherwise I will try and copy and paste.  Made it with the Chummer character generator.


TheNarrator

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« Reply #1 on: <05-13-12/0406:06> »
I think mage/hacker is actually a cool concept.  Double nerd power!

But these stats... I don't think I'd want to play this character. This is all just my personal opinion, but I think it's got some serious flaws. For instance....

All physical stats at 1? I know he's nerd, but 1 is like sickly small child level. It makes for a seriously fragile character. And you didn't even come close to spending the maximum allowed on physical and mental attributes, as far as I can tell. (Which is half the BP total, usually 200 BP, and doesn't include special attributes.)  Did you really need Logic, Magic and Edge all at 6 more than you needed to not have the physicality of Stephen Hawking?

Actually, can you clarify something for me? Your Reaction is listed as "3(1)", which doesn't make any sense. If it's a natural one and boosted to 3 by your spell, then it should be "1(3)" and if it's a natural 3 with a +1 enhancement then it should be "3(4)". Never mind, I just realized that you're encumbered.

Your skills are equally unbalanced. Most of your hacker skills are at 1. A rank of 1 in a skill is "barely competent". Keep in mind that most of your Matrix actions will ask you to roll Skill + Program instead of Skill + Attribute, so you can't coast on a high Logic score.

Your Counterspelling is only 2, and that's something that would worry me if I were your teammate; one of the most important things that a mage provides his team is counterspelling, which is the only thing that keeps them from getting wiped out the first time an enemy mage hits them with a stunball. (And Counterspelling 2 + Body 1 = near-certain failure if you're hit by a powerbolt, fireball or anything else that isn't a mana spell. And then you explode.) Ditto for an Assensing of 1... you won't be able to provide your team with much info with such a low score, and it's something that only you can do for them. (I'm also not sure Astral Combat is worth taking at all, especially at that low a level. Any spirits you fight will have way more dice to throw at it. You'll probably get better results by stunballing them.)

Meanwhile your Spellcasting is a 7, which meant that you dropped an extra 10 BP on the Aptitude Quality. Yes, Spellcasting is your big thing, but it doesn't need to be pushed that high when your other skills are at 1. You'd be better off spending those 14 BP on turning some of those "barely competent" skills into "halfway decent".

Oh, and the Pistols 1. I'm normally all for mages with guns, but a Pistols 1 + Agility 1 is too small a dice pool to be useful. Even with the Laser Sight, you barely have an even chance of hitting a stationary target, and practically none of hitting a moving one. But you do have a pretty good chance of shooting yourself in the foot by rolling snake eyes. Considering that it's only 4 Karma to buy Pistols 1 in game, I think you might be better off leaving it for later and putting that skill point into something else. You'll still have stunball for ranged combat purposes.

You're wearing armor heavier than twice your Body score, which means that you're encumbering yourself. Not worth it. Get the form-fitting body armor instead. It only counts half as much towards encumberance. Or add Armor to your list of spells.

And on that note, your spell list is pretty short. You're not very versatile.

Speaking of which, you have three sustainable initiaitive-boosting spells, but only two sustaining foci. I have to question the usefulness of having the third spell if you can't sustain it. (Also, a Force 4 focus? Are you shooting for 4 Initiative Passes at the start? And did you get the Restricted Gear quality for that purpose? It's really not worth it. 3 IPs is generally fine for a starting character, and again: there's lots of better places where you could really benefit from putting those build points.)

For the hacker side of things, I can't add much except that you might want to take your Firewall and System up to 4 instead of 3.

W.I.Z.

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« Reply #2 on: <05-13-12/0712:01> »
OK Thank you for all the input!  Background is went to MIT&T on a double scholarship so he has more along the lines of computer and software knowledge with his spellcasting so not as much hacking yet.  He came home to his parents being liquidated by a rival corp and was seconds too late to do anything for them, hence the Level 4 focus for Improved Reflexes.  (he has a thing about being on time now)  Also he does have two other level 3 focuses for the Improved Reaction and Intuition.  I made a bunch of changes as suggested let me know what you think. Reposted instead of editing because for some reason it wouldn't let me trade out the PDF.  Thanks again!

Thrass

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« Reply #3 on: <05-13-12/0820:21> »
magic hacker is a cool thing

on the pro: you don't need to wait while your hacker or your magician get's his little playtime on his own...

on the con: you can't be astrally perceiving and virtually perceiving at the same time I think so if you get between the matrix and the magic front you need to decide where you wanna be

I'ld skip all the VR stuff and just do AR with improved reflexes you can get your 4 ini passes for AR hacking and decide each round if you wanna dish out a combat spell or hack

if you do so you can skip the biofeedback filter and the hot sim module ... which is not that much but a little to play around with if bp are short

always carry 2 commlinks... if you're a hacker you should have 2 commlinks (or more)
reason 1: you can decoy ... put your real commlink in stealth mode and the other one public or hidden (not stealth) depending on where you are etc
reason 2: if you need to reboot or smth. you still have a possibility to open up a com channel etc
(there are other possibilities like paning and running a high firewall and a scanning agent on the accessable node where the attacke has to come through, but for epxensiveness and other reasons this is not always a viable solution)

Speech - Thought - Matrix
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TheNarrator

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« Reply #4 on: <05-13-12/0844:42> »
New and improved character looks good! Much more versatile. Able to provide a decent amount of magical support and technical savvy.

No other advice I can give, really, except to make sure you have a toolkit for your Hardware skill. Nicely done.

Netzgeist

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« Reply #5 on: <05-13-12/0849:47> »
I haven't deep analyzed your build, but I will give just a little fluff and crunch suggestion: make him a chaos magician instead of a hermetic magician; it makes a little bit more sense with your background.

groduick

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« Reply #6 on: <05-13-12/1034:43> »
Tried that here; char is a possession magician, with havking and face skills, uses possessing spirits for physical, technical and even combat tasks.

W.I.Z.

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« Reply #7 on: <05-13-12/1353:40> »
I'ld skip all the VR stuff and just do AR with improved reflexes you can get your 4 ini passes for AR hacking and decide each round if you wanna dish out a combat spell or hack

if you do so you can skip the biofeedback filter and the hot sim module ... which is not that much but a little to play around with if bp are short

always carry 2 commlinks... if you're a hacker you should have 2 commlinks (or more)
reason 1: you can decoy ... put your real commlink in stealth mode and the other one public or hidden (not stealth) depending on where you are etc
reason 2: if you need to reboot or smth. you still have a possibility to open up a com channel etc
(there are other possibilities like paning and running a high firewall and a scanning agent on the accessable node where the attacke has to come through, but for epxensiveness and other reasons this is not always a viable solution)

Good point on all.  Got rid of the filter and hot sim and with some juggling was able to get another commlink.
No other advice I can give, really, except to make sure you have a toolkit for your Hardware skill. Nicely done.
Thanks I had forgotten about that!
I haven't deep analyzed your build, but I will give just a little fluff and crunch suggestion: make him a chaos magician instead of a hermetic magician; it makes a little bit more sense with your background.
Perfect!  I didn't really know what that was but after looking in to it that fits my concept exactly thanks much!