[Razhul]

We're playing a one-shot tonight and I was wondering if anyone already had a mindcontrol, power hungry mage ready that I could perhaps use. I suck at making new characters (I find the rules mind boggling ).

I was looking for deception abilities (never played a mage, so please bear with me on my ignorance). What I remember was used other times was physical mask, invisibility, read thoughts (?), mind control. So, ideally, a non-violent mage who just tells people what to do (magically).

Any help would be appreciated and I'd send you Internet Karma(tm).

[firebug]

I could build a mage for you, is that what you need?  What's the rules for creation?  Standard Priority, all books?

A character who is selfish and immoral, but rather than kill, simply abuses magic to make things go however he pleases?  That reeks of Black Magician tradition (at least, the 5th edition version) and a charismatic mage with social skills and some fiendishly powerful magic.  Not to mention some spirits he doesn't respect at all bound to him.

[Razhul]

Yes, exactly that Firebug. All books are legal in our game. All character creation rules are also accepted (to 10 etc.).

[Hobbes]

Subtle mage.  Still needs at least 22 Karma worth of Negative Qualities but is otherwise good to go. 

First thing every day is to throw Increased intuition at force 6, then use Heightened Concern to Negate the sustain penalty.  You've now got 15 drain dice and silly amounts of dodge and initiative.  You should be running Improved invisibility at force 3 pretty much the second you take the job with Movement and Concealment from a spirit.  Stealth or levetate Spell as needed.

You've got 11 dice for Contact preparations.  Make a few Agility preps for yourself and a handful of Deflection preps for your team.  With 15 dice for Drain you shouldn't have any trouble.  Crank 'em out while the autopilot, or one of the other runners drives.  If you get to two boxes of stun damage, stop and take care of that.  You should have time while the team does legwork too.  Control Thoughts "Tell us all you know" a personal favorite on any NPCs you don't have as contacts or expect to keep a long term relationship with.

You should be flying and invisible during a the actual run, unless you're sustaining all the team buffs.

Combat starts with a Force 7 Foreboding thrown in the middle of the enemy.  Then you stand there in the open laughing like a lunatic as long as they're not tossing grenades at you.  For Grenades, hold action and levitate...   You're actually pretty good with the pistol, but Cat Mentor means you're likely going to be in screw around mode until someone actually draws blood.  But Control Thoughts and Foreboding work fine until that happens.  Reckless cast Control Thoughts "Stand still" is pretty much a death sentence, and with 15 dice of Drain is reasonably spam-able. 

If you want to go for more big time mind control swap out Shapechange for Mob Mind.


== Info ==

Movement: 10/20
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Human
Composure: 7
Judge Intentions: 8
Lift/Carry: 4 (15 kg/10 kg)
Memory: 6
Nuyen: 1690

== Priorities ==
Metatype: E - Human
Attributes: B - 20 Attributes
Special: A - Magician or Technomancer
Skills: C - 28 Skills/2 Skill Groups
Resources: D - 50,000¥

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 5
REA: 5 (7)
STR: 1
CHA: 2
INT: 6
LOG: 1
WIL: 5
EDG: 3
MAG: 6

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   6
Initiative:                11 (13) + 3d6
Rigger Initiative:         13 + 3d6
Astral Initiative:         12 + 2d6
Matrix AR Initiative:      13 + 3d6
Matrix Cold Initiative:    6 + DP + 3d6
Matrix Hot Initiative:     6 + DP + 4d6
Physical Damage Track:     10
Stun Damage Track:         11

== Limits ==
Physical:                  4
Mental:                    5
Social:                    5
   Body Armor Bag [-1] (Must be visible)
   Custom Ballistic Mask [+2] (Only for intimidation, Must be visible)
   Mortimer of London: Argentum Coat [+1] (Must be visible)
Astral:                    5

== Active Skills ==
Alchemy                    : 3 [Contact]            Pool: 9 (11)
Animal Handling            : 0                      Pool: 1
Archery                    : 0                      Pool: 4
Automatics                 : 0                      Pool: 4
Blades                     : 0                      Pool: 4
Clubs                      : 0                      Pool: 4
Con                        : 0                      Pool: 1
Counterspelling            : 6 [Combat]             Pool: 12 (14)
Disguise                   : 2                      Pool: 8
Diving                     : 0                      Pool: 2
Escape Artist              : 0                      Pool: 4
Etiquette                  : 0                      Pool: 1
Free-Fall                  : 0                      Pool: 2
Gunnery                    : 0                      Pool: 4
Gymnastics                 : 0                      Pool: 4
Heavy Weapons              : 0                      Pool: 4
Impersonation              : 0                      Pool: 1
Instruction                : 0                      Pool: 1
Intimidation               : 0                      Pool: 1
Leadership                 : 0                      Pool: 1
Longarms                   : 0                      Pool: 4
Navigation                 : 0                      Pool: 5
Negotiation                : 0                      Pool: 1
Palming                    : 2                      Pool: 7
Perception                 : 6                      Pool: 12
Performance                : 0                      Pool: 1
Pilot Ground Craft         : 0                      Pool: 6
Pilot Watercraft           : 0                      Pool: 6
Pistols                    : 6 [Semi-Automatics]    Pool: 11 (13)
Sneaking                   : 2                      Pool: 9
Spellcasting               : 6 [Illusion]           Pool: 12 (14)
Summoning                  : 6 [Spirits of Air]     Pool: 12 (14)
Survival                   : 0                      Pool: 4
Throwing Weapons           : 0                      Pool: 4
Tracking                   : 0                      Pool: 5
Unarmed Combat             : 0                      Pool: 4

== Knowledge Skills ==
Area Knowledge: Seattle    : 4                      Pool: 10
English                    : 2                      Pool: 8
German                     : 2                      Pool: 8
Russian                    : N                      Pool: 0
Sprawl Life                : 2                      Pool: 8
Underworld                 : 2                      Pool: 8
Yakuza                     : 2                      Pool: 8

== Contacts ==
; Coyote (3, 1)
; Talismonger (1, 1)

== Qualities ==
Focused Concentration (Rating 3)
Mentor Spirit (Cat)
Mystic Adept

== Spells ==
(Tradition: Chaos Magic, Resist Drain with WIL + INT (11))
Control Thoughts (Limited) DV: F-3
Deflection (Alchemical)    DV: F-1
Foreboding (Limited)       DV: F-5
Heal                       DV: F-4
Improved Invisibility (Limited) DV: F-3
Increase [Attribute] (Alchemical) (AGI) DV: F-3
Increase [Attribute] (Limited) (INT) DV: F-5
Levitate (Limited)         DV: F-4
Shapechange (Limited)      DV: F-5
Stealth (Limited)          DV: F-4

== Powers ==
Combat Sense Rating: 5
Heightened Concern
Improved Reflexes 2
Magic Sense

== Lifestyles ==
Low  1 months

== Armor ==
Body Armor Bag                      8
   +Concealability
   +Restrictive
Chameleon Suit                      9
   +Thermal Damping 3
Custom Ballistic Mask               2
   +Gas Mask
   +Single Sensor Rating 2
      +Ultrasound Rating 2
   +Trodes
Mortimer of London: Argentum Coat   12
   +Concealability
   +Custom Fit (Stack)

== Weapons ==
Browning Ultra-Power
   +Concealed Quick-Draw Holster
   +Laser Sight
   +Personalized Grip
   +Spare Clip
   +Spare Clip
   Pool: 11 (13)   Accuracy: 7   DV: 8P   AP: -1   RC: 2
Colt Agent Special
   +Laser Sight
   +Spare Clip
   Pool: 11 (13)   Accuracy: 6   DV: 8P   AP: -   RC: 2
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 4   Accuracy: 4   DV: 1S   AP: -   RC: 2

== Commlink ==
Meta Link (ATT: 0, SLZ: 0, DP: 1, FWL: 1)

== Gear ==
Ammo: APDS (Heavy Pistols) x20
Ammo: Explosive Rounds (Heavy Pistols) x10
Ammo: Stick-n-Shock (Heavy Pistols) x20
AR Gloves
Contacts Rating 3
   +Flare Compensation
   +Image Link
   +Vision Magnification
Earbuds Rating 3
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 3
Fake SIN (Nancy) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Concealed Carry Permit) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Mage License) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Driver's License) Rating 4
Fetish x3
Medkit Rating 6
Monocle Rating 4
   +Thermographic Vision
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
Reagents, per dram x25
Survival Kit

== Vehicles ==
Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbit (Subcompact)
   +Sensor Array Rating 2

[firebug]

Boop!  Hobbes beat me to it.  Snooze I lose I guess.

[Hobbes]

Side project I happen to be tinkering with.  Human Mages are fairly formulaic.  Spell selection, Mentor Spirit, and Negative Qualities are for the most part going to be the major differences.  Priority allocation, stats, skills, gear, won't be all that different from mage to mage.  Drain stat at 6, Willpower 5, dump Str, do what you can with the rest.  Skills: Spellcasting, summoning, counterspelling @6, perception and stealth as needed.  30 Karma on Power Points, Focused Concentration and you're done with the basics.  Pick your Mentor spirit and spells, maybe a low grade focus, maybe not.  'bout it. 

OP may want to swap out Mentor: Cat for Mentor: Fire Bringer and change spellcasting specialization.  May not.

[Facemage]

Very good build! Are you using heightened concern correctly? You need to activate it every time (complex action) before an another task. What is an another task? Your whole day? A whole run? Or only your next spell/pistol shooting? If you think that it is a whole day, do you really think that the mystic adept is in balance? Technically it means the same as focused concentration 12, which would cost 48 karma (max is still only 6). And still costs only 2.5 karma. So, mystic adept gets permanent increase reflexes spell and focused concentration 12 by paying only 15-20 karma?

Note that the heightened concern is not useless if it needs an additional complex action to negate the penalty every time you do something. But then the karma cost is in balance compared to focused concentration/sustaining foci.

[Razhul]

This is awesome and MUCH appreciated! For yesterday's run, I used the mage from CRB and replaced the spells with Mind Control, Imp. Invis., Physical Mask, Increase Reflexes, Mind Probe, Levitate, Manaball, Lightning Ball, Lightning Bolt, Chaotic World.

That gives you an idea of how the character I envision behaves. He calls himself Zod, speaks in 3rd person and looks almost exactly like Emperor Meng from the original Flash Gordon.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have stunbolt. Personally prefer manabolt to manaball, but YMMV.

[Hobbes]

Very good build! Are you using heightened concern correctly? You need to activate it every time (complex action) before an another task. What is an another task? Your whole day? A whole run? Or only your next spell/pistol shooting? If you think that it is a whole day, do you really think that the mystic adept is in balance? Technically it means the same as focused concentration 12, which would cost 48 karma (max is still only 6). And still costs only 2.5 karma. So, mystic adept gets permanent increase reflexes spell and focused concentration 12 by paying only 15-20 karma?

Note that the heightened concern is not useless if it needs an additional complex action to negate the penalty every time you do something. But then the karma cost is in balance compared to focused concentration/sustaining foci.

Before Alchemy tests, before casting other sustained buffs, before summoning, ect.  If you're in non-combat time an extra complex action isn't a big deal.  You should be able to start Combat ready to go in most cases.

[Facemage]

Nice, you use it the same way as me. It is still a good adept power.

[Halinn]

Side project I happen to be tinkering with.  Human Mages are fairly formulaic.  Spell selection, Mentor Spirit, and Negative Qualities are for the most part going to be the major differences.  Priority allocation, stats, skills, gear, won't be all that different from mage to mage.  Drain stat at 6, Willpower 5, dump Str, do what you can with the rest.  Skills: Spellcasting, summoning, counterspelling @6, perception and stealth as needed.  30 Karma on Power Points, Focused Concentration and you're done with the basics.  Pick your Mentor spirit and spells, maybe a low grade focus, maybe not.  'bout it. 

You described very well why I'm a fan of sum to 10 for magicians. Drop money to E, get skills to B. You've suddenly got a lot more to play around with to increase variety, though you do want to spend karma on money. More difficult for mysads, since you can't really fit in mentor spirit, focused concentration, money and 6 power points, except maybe if you settle for focused conc 2

[Razhul]

Where is Spell(limited) from? I don't think I understand how that works. :S

[Halinn]

Where is Spell(limited) from? I don't think I understand how that works. :S

Street grimoire p 212. Reduces drain value of a spell by 2, but you need to have a fetish to cast that spell. You can learn the spell multiple times, so you have both a fetish and a non-fetish version.

[Razhul]

I see the character has fetish x3 but about 7 spells with "limited". Do I need 1 fetish per spell or 1 per school of magic?

I'll get my hands on Street Grimoire when I get home, I swear!