[Teyl_Iliar]

So I got this Idea today about making a Rastafarian mystic adept. He's an Ork with a shamanic tradition, with a magic of 5, willpower 4 and a charisma of 4 the only thing I'm having trouble with is picking which powers and spells I want to have him use. I'm trying to make him an individual (unique?) character  while still making him capable of standing up in a fight, considering he's been living in the Redmond Barrens his whole life he should be able to do that much. So far I was thinking 3/2 split, 3 points of adept powers, 2 points to casting. Adept powers being astral perception 1 point, quick healing 2 0.5 points, mystic armor 2 1 point, sustenance for 0.25 points, and commanding voice for 0.25 points. For spells I picked Levitate, Improved invisibility, increased reflexes, stun bolt, and power bolt. the only problem I'm seeing with this whole mix is his skills fighting and otherwise wise aren't very strong at 6-7 dice and his casting skills also aren't strong at 9 dice. So I'm looking for advice anyone have suggestions on making him a bit more lethal/useful?

[Makki]

why does he not have the Rastafarian tradition (Digital Grimoire) 

he also needs a Geas to be high for his Magic to work!

[UmaroVI]

What you need to do with Mystic Adepts is to not try to be half mystic half adept, but rather be using the mystic to complement the adept. In other words - don't try to make someone who has combat spells and punches - instead, make someone who does something synergistic with both parts. A few questions for you:

Do you want to use the actual Rastafarian tradition as suggested by Maki, or do you want to stick to Shamanic? Rastafarian is Possession which greatly changes things.

Do you have access to Digital Grimoire? How does your GM think "Heightened Concentration" works?

[Teyl_Iliar]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you guys I got really focused on the build and got some extra help from a guy who likes a challenge. 

why does he not have the Rastafarian tradition (Digital Grimoire) 

he also needs a Geas to be high for his Magic to work!

to be specific he's not a rastafarian himself, but he grew up around a community of them in the redmond barrens, so he understands the culture, and even partakes in some of the activities but doesn't fully follow that path.

What you need to do with Mystic Adepts is to not try to be half mystic half adept, but rather be using the mystic to complement the adept. In other words - don't try to make someone who has combat spells and punches - instead, make someone who does something synergistic with both parts. A few questions for you:

Do you want to use the actual Rastafarian tradition as suggested by Maki, or do you want to stick to Shamanic? Rastafarian is Possession which greatly changes things.

Do you have access to Digital Grimoire? How does your GM think "Heightened Concentration" works?

I want him to remain shamanic, mostly because of how I imagined his backround. Growing up as a dirt poor ork in the barrens he didn't have much access to formal education, and his discovery of his own magical talent was brought on by intuitive use of his powers. Once it became apparent he was awakened, the other awakened metahumans living away from socitey also inhabiting the area decided to mentor him to keep him from being a problem for them all later on. His mentor helped him to follow a more shamanic path.

I do have access to Digital Grimoire, but haven't used it before and don't know much of it's content. Presently I don't know how my GM feels about Heightened Concentration.

since I've tightened up the build since i made the first draft I'll give you an Idea of where he's at now. Presently he's spec-ed as a generalist with combat survivability. spell wise he's got  a 3/2 split, 3 points of adept powers, 2 points to casting. Adept powers being astral perception 1 point, quick healing 2 0.5 points, combat sense 1 0.5 points, sustenance for 0.25 points, Enhanced Perception for 0.5 points, attribute boost 1 for 0.25 points . For spells I picked Levitate, Improved invisablity, increased reflexes, stun ball, and power bolt. These spells are backed by a force 4 power focus and a force 3 Sustaining focus (healing). Between these magical skills he got plenty of defensive and offensive capacity mixed with unarmed and clubs.

[UmaroVI]

Can you post your whole sheet?

[Teyl_Iliar]

Can you post your whole sheet?

sure give me some time and I'll post it.

[Teyl_Iliar]

As promised.
Name: Jakob Deepwood
Alias: Jackson Haze (fake SIN) Grita
Race: Ork
Sex: Male
Age: 21
Nationality: UCAS
Lifestyle: squatter/ Redmond Barrens
Karma Spent: 0
Physical Description: height: 2 meters, weight: 136 kilograms, Hair: black worn in shoulder length thin dreads, dark brown eyes. with short unkempt facial hair.
Personality/background: Jakob is a serious at face value guy. If he thinks your a rass, he'll tell you. *A habit long ingrained because of his siblings.)  While normally remaining calm and collected, his temper forged by a rough life in the Redmond Barrens quickly turns deadly.

Jakob grew up in the Redmond barrens. born in 2050 with 3 siblings he was one of the oldest of 9 in his family. His parents were blue collar workers, and with a family so large they had a more than a few money problems. Thankfully the community around them made up largely of low income families were focused on teaching at least basic reading/writing/tech the young, as well as how to farm, and fend for themselves. That being the case, Jakob learned how to farm and hunt by the time he was 8 to help put food on the table. When his latent talent awakened at age 13 his parents became afraid of what their son could now do. At the end of their ropes they approached the community's magical group and begged for help. The group accepted him as an apprentice showing him how to hone his body and control his magic. After 5 years of journeyman ship Jakob's training was complete. His mentor a Rastafarian gave him two foci as gifts after completing the groups final tests. Having spent the last 5 years learning martial styles of fighting to help him hone his body and discipline his mind, he rejoined his family, but felt disconnected due his absence over the years. So a month after his home coming, he moved out and moved on. he held a few jobs over the next years, but didn't find many of them very rewarding feeling confused, he turned to his mentor for advice. His mentor told him that "My yute, life should mean more than just working for the next mon. Nuh true?" and to meditate on this. On his way back to his pad some Halloweeners tried to shake him down, when he refused to be pushed around they attacked and he killed them in self defense. The fight made it clear to him what he was capable of. He took everything they had worth selling and did so, which made him more money than working as a cook ever did. After speaking again to his mentor about the experience His mentor referred him to a small group of people in the area trying to make enough of a name for themselves that they could break into the world of shadow running. Jakob's first run shattered his previous perceptions of what it took to survive in the shadows. He knows that he's got a lot yet to learn, but the satisfaction of a successful job has him hooked so now he's looking for more work and hoping to find a good team that he can learn from.

Attributes
Body   Agility  Reaction Strength
4/9   4/9    5/9       4/12
Charisma Intuition  Logic Willpower
4/7      5/9      2/9    4/9
Edge   Magic   Essence   Initiative
3/6   5/6   6   10 1-4IP

Positive Qualities
Home ground (Seattle) 10
Perceptive 5
Restricted gear 5
Negative Qualities
Addiction mild, Deepweed -5
Sereve allergy uncommon mustard -15
Sensitive System -15

Active Skills
Assensing       1/6
Clubs           3/6
Counterspelling 1/6
Etiquette       1/6
Perception      1/6
Spellcasting    5/6 (combat 7/8)
Survival        2/6

Knowledge skills
Seattle gangs 5/6
Paranormal zoology 2/6
Street Drugs 3/6
Trap Setting 2/6

Language Skills
English   N
Or`zet 5/6
Rastafarian 4/6


Adept Powers
Power          level    Cost   Notes
Astral Perception        1   Can perceve astrally.
Attribute Boost (A) 1      .25  Boosts agility for # of hits rolled
Combat sense        1      .50  +1 against suprise tests and against ranged/melee attacks
Enhanced Perception 2      .50  +2 to all perception tests
Rapid Healing       2      .50  +2 to all healing tests
Sustenance              .25  One meal a day and 3 hours of sleep = rested.

Spells            Notes
Improved Invisibility      Invisable even to cameras.
Increase reflexes      Allows caster to Increase Reflexes and IP's +1 per hit.
Levitate         Physical spell, Range=LOS, duration=S DV=(F/2)+1
Powerbolt         Direct spell, combat, range=LOS, DV=(F/2)+1 P
Stun ball         Direct spell Area, combat, Range=LOS(a), DV=(F/2)+1 S

Foci   130,000¥
Type      Power      Notes
Power focus     4      Adds power rating to any casting
Sustaining focus  3      Holds an active health spell

Weapons 5,000¥
Melee Weapons      DV   Cncl   AP   Reach   Quantity   Mods/Accessories
AZ-150 Stun baton   7S(e)    4   -half   1   2      Personalized Grip, Melee hardening, quick-draw holster 2 power clips
Extendable Baton   3P   -2    0   1   1                      Personalized Grip, Melee hardening, quick-draw holster
Survival Knife      3P   -3   -1   0   1                     Concealible holster,
Shock glove      5S(e)   -2   -half   0   2             Gecko Grip, Melee Hardening


Gear 14,610¥
Squatter Lifestyle three months 1500
Armor jacket
nonconductivity rating 6
Fire Resistance rating 6
Chem protection Rating 6
Clothes 2 sets
Flashlight x2
Medkit rating 6
Sleeping bag
Tent
Survival Kit
Fake SIN rating 4 (Jackson Haze)
Glasses modified
Flare Comp
Thermo enhancement
Vision enhancement rating 3/3
Earbuds Modified
Audio enhancement
select sound filter
Spatial Recognizer
Certified Credstick 540

Commlink
Sony Emperor Response 2 Signal 3
Renraku Ichi System 2   Firewall 2
Basic user program Suite: analyze 2 Browse 2 Command 1 Edit 2

Contacts
Mas Sciencne (Dread street name) Tailsmonger/fixer/mentor L5/C3

Build Point totals:   400
stats          190
edge             30
magic            62
skills           70
positive qualities     35
Negative qualities      -35
resources        30
Contacts        8

Quick Reference table
Condition: 10P/10S
Perception 9 (12 if visual 15 for hearing 9 for assensing) 
Passive Defense: 6-9
Armor: 8/6 (Armor jacket)   
Armor modifiers: 6 non conductivity, 6 Fire resist, 6 chem protect,
Adept modifiers: combat sense + 1 reaction against attacks
Base Combat Pool Melee (clubs 3 + agility  4 + Personalized grip 1 + reach 1 = 8 )  (Unarmed 3 + agility 4 = 7) Ranged (Spellcasting 7 +  magic 2 + power focus 4 =13)
Initiative: 10 Passes 1-4

[UmaroVI]

The main problem I see is that you are really all over the place in what you're doing, and it means you have some kind of redundant choices. Right now you're getting little if anything out of being a Mystic Adept - few of the powers you have complement your spellcasting in any way. You're just good enough with Clubs to not hit yourself in the face, but not good enough to ever want to use clubs in place of combat spells. You've got a focus on combat spells, but only know too of them (and know very few spells in general). The result is that you're stretched really thin and have stuff like Counterspelling 1

I think you really need to figure out whether you want to be fighting people magically - in which case you should be a mage - and have physical attacks for high Background Count situations (which you really should have Automatics for - you're not going to be very effective with 8 dice in clubs), or whether you want to be hurting people physically and use magic as backup for when you are disarmed, in which case you want to reorient your magical powers towards supporting physical combat.

Heightened Concentration is a digital grimoire adept power that might be either a really good choice for a mystic adept, a good choice for a mystic adept, or a dud for anyone, depending on how your GM interprets it to work. The key question is: can I set it to "ignore sustaining penalties" with a single complex action, and then go about my business without taking that specific modifier? Or do I have to do stuff like take a separate complex action to set it for each individual task I want to do? The less key question is whether 2 sustained spells are a -4 penalty or two -2 penalties.

[EDJohnson]

What you need to do with Mystic Adepts is to not try to be half mystic half adept, but rather be using the mystic to complement the adept.

That part right there is important. Think for a moment how hard your character is going to get hurt trying to cast a spell with so little Drain ability. That is why EVERY mystic adept EVER should have the following spell:  Knockout. For the drain, even with over casting, you can cast this spell at like force 8 before you need to worry real hard about the drain. I imagine this spell fits well into your street thug life background, where his unaugmented fists were his only means of survival. It's a simple switch to change out your clubs for unarmed too.

Why do I value Knockout beyond just the drain? Force 8 will do 8 DV, plus hits. I'll say that again. 8 DV plus hits. You can knock out a troll on a good roll. And all you have to do is touch them with unarmed. It's a great bang for the buck for a limited casting character.

I also agree with UmaroVI, in that you really are all over the place. I figure your thug life means you did more physical activities than spiritual or astral. Let that shine through. Give him some Intimidation. Improvised Weaponry (Municipal Property) is a favorite of mine for gangers, but usually reserved for trolls.

Your adept powers are scattered the worst though. Are you a Hunting Way Adept? Probably not. Then perception is really unnecessary there (and could be enhanced far more with points in the skill and a specialization anyway). Are you an Invisible Way Adept? Not really. Then get lose the Healing. Are you a Warrior Way Adept? From the looks of it, yes. Focus some on your combat abilities then. Increased Reflexes will go a LONG way to surviving in a fight (and frees up another spell that you will NOT need to sustain).

One last note: Your power focus exceeds the maximum rating by availability (I believe the highest you can have is a 2 in char gen, as it is 5xRating).

[baronspam]

With a Restricted Gear postivie quallity (Runner's Companion) you can select a single piece of gear of up to availabilty 20.  Check with GM to make sure this is ok, but RAW its kosher with the Quality.

Consult with your GM for guidance on starting dice pools, but this is a vastly efficient way to get dice.  Raising magic from 5 to 6 at char gen cost 25 build points (for hitting the hard cap).  The r4 power focus, including the quality you need and bonding the focus, is 29 build points, and it adds to every pool you use your magic for.  Four more build points for 4 times the dice. 

[EDJohnson]

With a Restricted Gear postivie quallity (Runner's Companion) you can select a single piece of gear of up to availabilty 20.  Check with GM to make sure this is ok, but RAW its kosher with the Quality.

Consult with your GM for guidance on starting dice pools, but this is a vastly efficient way to get dice.  Raising magic from 5 to 6 at char gen cost 25 build points (for hitting the hard cap).  The r4 power focus, including the quality you need and bonding the focus, is 29 build points, and it adds to every pool you use your magic for.  Four more build points for 4 times the dice.

Sorry, I missed the quality. I will be more careful in the future.