[mtfeeney = Baron]

Ok, I'm making my first mage, and I'm down to picking out spells.  I can probably take up to 9 spells.  I don't have a particular magical theme, and our party already has another mage, so I don't think I have to concentrate on being the one-man Swiss army knife.  Any suggestions?  It would help if you explain WHY you would take the spells you chose.

[RHat]

Might help to know what the other mage can do, as well as what your team composition is.

[mtfeeney = Baron]

She has: Alter Memory, Control Thoughts, Detect Life, Extended, Heal, Improved Invisibility, Increase Reflexes, Levitate, Mind Probe, Mob Mind, Physical Mask, Powerball, Stunbolt

We have a face/sniper, a multi-purpose mage, a decker, and now me.

[RHat]

Could grab some illusions you can be creative with, double up on Heal, a couple combat spells...  Other mage has got most of the core utility covered, so you get to branch out some.

[Csjarrat]

area of effect spells and elemental effect spells would complement quite nicely. some buffs/hexes to complement your squad could be good too

[emsquared]

This may be obvious, but you'll want to have your own Increased Reflexes, I would imagine.

[UmaroVI]

Take a look at the magicians in the first link of my sig for some ideas. Some of the more useful spells not covered by the other magician:

Mana Static (dealing with spirits/other mages)
Trid Phantasm (I hope you can figure out what to do with this)
Mana Window/Astral Window/Clairaudience (spying)
Increase [Attribute] (popular ones: Willpower, "my drain stat," "that other mage's drain stat," Logic (skills), Charisma (cast it on the face before negotiating)
Detox (toxins are nasty. Also works if your teammates or you use combat drugs - you can use it to cancel the side effects)
Shapechange (swiss-army-knife of utility; notable uses include turning into a flying critter, turning into something small to get in and out of places, turning into a "human" (you can't do metahumans, but you can do humans) for a disguise. Check how your GM rules the Body restriction ("Between Body-2 and Body+2" is common but not universal) and make sure you can actually turn into useful stuff.
Metal Wall (opaque, solid walls are obviously useful)
Stunbolt (every mage should know this)
Increase Reflexes (every mage should know this)
Blizzard (AE that can destroy vehicles and forces crash tests)
Stunball (take out large groups for low drain and nonlethal)

[mtfeeney = Baron]

Shapechange (swiss-army-knife of utility; notable uses include turning into a flying critter, turning into something small to get in and out of places, turning into a "human" (you can't do metahumans, but you can do humans) for a disguise. Check how your GM rules the Body restriction ("Between Body-2 and Body+2" is common but not universal) and make sure you can actually turn into useful stuff.
Metal Wall (opaque, solid walls are obviously useful)
Stunbolt (every mage should know this)
Stunball (take out large groups for low drain and nonlethal)

I considered shapechange, but with 5 body.. I can't really turn into the useful stuff.  It's not high enough to get the heavy duty animals, and it's too high to turn into any of the flying creatures or smaller/sneakier stuff.  Here's a list of the possibilities for my 5 body(giving me animals from 3 to 7 body):

In water: giant squid(octopus), seal(sea lion), hammerhead shark(great white), sturgeon(manta ray)
On Land: alligator, alligator turtle(alligator), boar, cheetah, hyena(african wild dog), antelope, okapi(zebra), burro(camel), baboon, gibbon, gorilla, domestic pig, ostrich, bobcat, wolverine, phython, boa constrictor(python)

Do you need both stunbolt and stunball?  I was going to just take stunball, as a group spell would still work on an individual.

p.s. - I'm a huge fan of your magicians.  The fluff alone makes them worthwhile reads.

[UmaroVI]

The problem with just knowing Stunball is friendly fire. You can lower the size of the AE, but it eats a die per meter and it starts out at Force radius in meters.

Yeah, 5 body is kind of in the meh zone for Shapechange. It's more helpful if you have a 3-4 Body because that's the threshold to be able to turn into flying animals. I'd skip it on this character.

[mtfeeney = Baron]

The problem with just knowing Stunball is friendly fire. You can lower the size of the AE, but it eats a die per meter and it starts out at Force radius in meters.

Yeah, 5 body is kind of in the meh zone for Shapechange. It's more helpful if you have a 3-4 Body because that's the threshold to be able to turn into flying animals. I'd skip it on this character.

It turns out that I'm going quasi-possession mage, so I'll probably drop my body down anyways.  The good news is that apparently opens me up to a wide world of shapechanging.

[Thrass]

You don't need to go possession mage to get that you can shapechange human and get your net hits to all physical stats.

Humans are body 3 so with body 1-5 you should be fine.
(at leats I think humans have body 3)

[mtfeeney = Baron]

You don't need to go possession mage to get that you can shapechange human and get your net hits to all physical stats.

Humans are body 3 so with body 1-5 you should be fine.
(at leats I think humans have body 3)

I clearly need to read the shapechange spell again.  You can shapechange into a human?  I wasn't aware that metahumans were critters.

[UmaroVI]

The FAQ says humans are kosher but metatypes aren't. The FAQ does have some derp in it, and not everyone plays by that. Given that other sapient species are explicitly "Critters" and that humans are not paranormal, I think it's within the spell's requirement.

[Mason]

I dislike the way Shapechange works. Seriously, if I am big enough and burly enough, I can turn into bears easily but no matter how many hits I get, I can't turn into a falcon?

I kind of like the House Rule I saw where the Threshold of the spell is the difference in Body between the form you want and your own form, and your net hits over that then add to your Physical stats.

[Lysanderz]

I dislike the way Shapechange works. Seriously, if I am big enough and burly enough, I can turn into bears easily but no matter how many hits I get, I can't turn into a falcon?

I kind of like the House Rule I saw where the Threshold of the spell is the difference in Body between the form you want and your own form, and your net hits over that then add to your Physical stats.

I just got a new house rule.