[hexblade]

Hi. I used to play a fair amount of SR3 back in the day, but this is my first real attempt at a combat mage in SR4. Got the idea from the Angel RPG pregen character "The Apt Pupil." 400 BP build. Would appreciate any feedback.

30 BP Elf

-5 BP Qualities:
Magician (Path Magic)
Mentor Spirit
Focused Concentration
Severe Allergy Silver
In Debt (15,000)
Thrill Seeker

6 BP Bond Foci

240 BP Attributes:
Body 3
Agil 4
React 3
Str 2
Cha 6
Int 4
Log 4
Wil 5
Edge 1
Magic 5

5 BP Contacts : Fixer, connection 3, Loyalty 2

86 BP Active Skills:
Astral Combat 3
Automatics 2
Binding 1
Blades 2
Counterspelling 3
Dodge 2
Influence group 1
Spellcasting 5
Summoning 1

Knowledge/Language Skills (24 free points):
Club Scene: 3
English: N
Fashion: 4
Gang ID: 3
Latin: 4
Magic Background: 2
Sperethiel: 5
Underworld Politics: 3

21 BP Spells:
Armor
Heal
Increased Reflexes
Levitate
Lightning Bolt
Manaball
Manabolt

17 BP Gear (85,000 + 15,000 debt):
High Lifestyle 1 month
Indian Pathfinder Racing Bike
Force 3 Earring Sustaining Focus (for reflexes)
Force 2 Signet Ring Spellcasting Focus (combat)
Force 1 Monosword Weapon Focus
Survival Knife
HK MP5-TX SMG w/ 10 Clips Regular Ammo
Ceska Black Scorpion w/ 10 clips regular ammo and hidden gun arm slide
2 Flashbang Grenades
2 Thermal Smoke Grenades
Lined Coat
Novatech Airware Commlink w/ Iris Orb OS
AR Gloves
Subvocal Microphone
Rating 4 Fake SIN
Rating 2 Contact Lenses w/ image link and flare compensation
Rating 1 Earbuds
4 Rating 4 stim patches
Force 5 Lodge Materials

400 total BP

[deathwishjoe]

wheres your will stat and what kind of mage are you?  also assensing is a pretty useful skill for mages to have.  Id recommend it even though its not directly helpful with combat. 

[hexblade]

Sorry, I missed that. Added Wil stat, and I realized I didn't have any kind of dodge. So I moved a couple of things around to add it. Also, the character is a Path Magician, so Cha for drain stat. What would you recommend adjusting to get the assensing?

[deathwishjoe]

I'd probably drop one out of CHA.  You dont have enough dice in social skill to be a primary face and one point lower wont effect much how the character feels when RPing him or the assisting dice for the primary face.  Id also consider buying fetishes for all your spells as there pretty cheap and I feel useful but thats not as important. 

I'd also want to bench mark him against a few encounters and see how well he does solo against them I suspect your dice pools for a few things are kinda low for a primary combat character.  Try one of the denver missions. 

This issues with combat mages is you have to ask yourself what can I do in combat that a street sam cant do with an assualt rifle with an underslung grenade launcher.  Unlike street sams combat mages can potentially damage themselves when they attack due to drain so your essentially that far behind a non magical type. Just something to think about when designing a combat mage.  there still playable and can even over power most street sams but it all comes down to what tricks they use to do so. 

[Kontact]

Actually, I'd shuffle over one point of logic for a point of Charisma, since cha is the old drain stat.  Logic will limit the number of foci you can have, and raising your cha from 6 to 7 later is going to cost you 35 karma while raising logic from 3 to 4 costs 20 karma.   Well, you'll also need to pay to get the 4th foci that'd allow bound.

Speaking of which, binding a power focus in game costs a lot more than at creation.  The bp cost is basically nothing.  Might want to grab one up front.  Increases your magic score across the board.  spellcasting, summoning, and many metamagic things.

[hexblade]

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of raising Cha and trying to upgrade to a power focus. I also agree that doing much of anything with the social skills is points that could be spent elsewhere. I'll probably drop the influence skill group. Even without it, with a 7 Cha, will still have 6 dice defaulting, which is better than a lot of non-face runners can boast for social skills even with some training.

Thanks for the advice.

[JohnQ]

You might want to consider some Form Fitting Body Armor if you plan on getting shot at. At Body 3 your looking at a 6 max for Ballistic/Impact Armor. No books in front of me but you could get something from the FFBA, every d6 helps, even a half suit.

I second the Power Focus option that Kontact mentioned, it helps with more.