[Facemage]

What are the best initiations to almost any mage?  What do you think? I think that at least quickening, centering, masking, extended masking, shielding and in case of mysad: power points are good. Did I miss any good one? I think that some of the initiations are quite useless (e.g. penetrating spells).

Which one should be the first initiation? And the next three? For example, masking is good, but the adequate magician with assensing skill can still easily see through the mask, if your grade is only 1. Should I still select it first? What do you think?

[Mestoph]

Shaping spells is quite fun, making fireball donuts around your street sam  when he is in  meele range is interesting idea.

[Tecumseh]

The order largely depends on what kind of GM you have and the campaign you're in.

As you point out, Masking, Centering, and Shielding are more useful as you progress in your initiations. I usually don't take them first unless I have a pressing need.

Quickening is useful immediately, but only if you have spells you would like to permanently sustain. It's also up to your GM to determine how frequently you might run into something that would take out your quickened spell, at which point your spent karma is lost. Some GMs do this routinely; others never do.

Here's what I plan for my current character:
1st: Quickening
2nd: Masking
3rd: Extended Masking (to help mask some of the quickened spells)
4th: Centering (although note that it requires a Free Action, which could come at the expense of other things you want to do, like Counterspell)
5th: Shielding

Taking Centering earlier would be reasonable if you have issues with drain. Power Points would be another wrinkle if you're a MysAd. I'm not, but you'd have to weigh what the 1 point would buy you versus what you'd get with a metamagic. 3+ drain and/or spell defense dice are probably better than 1 power point for most people, but every game is different.

[ikarinokami]

MY mage is currently doing her sixth initiation.

I went
masking
extended masking
flexible signature
quickening
centering
spell shaping

for my 7th I'm going cleansing and shielding will be the 8th.


I like going masking and extended masking first because I feel keeping your buff spells and passing through wards as a top priority, and centering is not really worthwhile until around initiation 3 or 4th.
 quickening at 4 is perfect, because masking , extended masking and flexible signature allow you to disguise your quickens and you can pass through wards.

centering at 5 is perfect.

spell shaping at 6th to get the most out of chaos world, mana static

[firebug]

Quickening should always be first unless you are going for a specific build that requires something else (like Channeling).

Masking can help with a lot of stuff and is generally useful for any runner to not be noticable as a magician so easily.

Then, if you're focused on spellcasting, I'd suggest Flexible Signature.  You can a lot of spells, don't want to be tracked super easily.  However, if you don't think it'll come up either way, then skip this.  You could maybe go for Spell Shaping if you sling a lot of AoEs.

For spirits, I'd suggest Channeling (if you're a possession tradition, definitely, if not, just if it's your style) or Summon Great Form Spirit.

By your fourth one, Centering (with a Centering Focus, which you should be able to get by now) will make a sizeable difference.

Fifth and beyond, I'd say it's up to the player.  Shielding is a good choice for pure defensive purposes, but if you're going for something specific, do that instead.  Shielding can wait.

If you're alchemy focused, this list is totally different, so nevermind.  Same for various Aspected Mages.

[ikarinokami]

Quickening should always be first unless you are going for a specific build that requires something else (like Channeling).

Masking can help with a lot of stuff and is generally useful for any runner to not be noticable as a magician so easily.

Then, if you're focused on spellcasting, I'd suggest Flexible Signature.  You can a lot of spells, don't want to be tracked super easily.  However, if you don't think it'll come up either way, then skip this.  You could maybe go for Spell Shaping if you sling a lot of AoEs.

For spirits, I'd suggest Channeling (if you're a possession tradition, definitely, if not, just if it's your style) or Summon Great Form Spirit.

By your fourth one, Centering (with a Centering Focus, which you should be able to get by now) will make a sizeable difference.

Fifth and beyond, I'd say it's up to the player.  Shielding is a good choice for pure defensive purposes, but if you're going for something specific, do that instead.  Shielding can wait.

If you're alchemy focused, this list is totally different, so nevermind.  Same for various Aspected Mages.

My issue with quickening first is that you become a magic Christmas tree, and you can't move through wards, both of which I consider to be central to the shadow run occupation.

[firebug]

Fair, though before you get Masking and Extended Masking, sticking to just a few (like reflexes and attributes) can be non-suspicious and not so bad for wards.  Remember, you can bring your net hits on CHA + MAG through wards if you do it that way, so just a couple and you should be able to manage.  It'll be worth the extra effort for what can be done with Quickening.

[Hobbes]

I always go Masking first for any awakened character, even the Adepts, who then switch to PP.  Extended masking for any spellcaster comes next.  Centering comes third.  After that it really depends on the caster.   

[Jayde Moon]

Wow, no love for Psychometry.  Horrible optimizers, the lot of you!

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Wow, no love for Psychometry.  Horrible optimizers, the lot of you!

The Hermetic Mage at my table picked up Psychometry as his first metamagic actually, Shaman picked up masking, and myself as an adept went with power points. Masking, Extended Masking, especially Adept Centering  are great, but I need the power points currently to fill holes in my characters powers. My 3rd initiation will be Adept Centering, cause ignoring the 1st 3 wound penalties would be super helpful. I need to point out Great Spirit Form to our Shaman. And our GM has (with tables agreement) remove quickening as an option. Which is both great and crapy. Otherwise, both would have taken quickening.

[firebug]

Psychometry isn't a basic, generalized and powerful option.  I for instance love Absorption--  I think it's cool as hell and awesome against other magicians.  I'm building an aspected sorcerer who's going to focus on apotropaic magic.

Also if someone uses ritual magic with any amount of frequency, the Advanced Ritual Magic metamagics are both solid choices.

[falar]

Psychometry isn't a basic, generalized and powerful option.  I for instance love Absorption--  I think it's cool as hell and awesome against other magicians.  I'm building an aspected sorcerer who's going to focus on apotropaic magic.

Absorption and all that apotropaic magic stuff is just boss as heck. I want to be able to throw a fireball back at another mage at least once. Or eat his lightning and spit it back at him as a supercharged blast of invisible force.

[Marcus]

Wow, no love for Psychometry.  Horrible optimizers, the lot of you!

As to the Quickening, Yes, you maybe the magic Christmas tree for a little bit, but like any good tree, anything that tries to run over you will be in for a bad day.
The ward thing is a real problem, no doubt. But the price is worth it.  You can get all kinds of tricks later but the survivablity advantage quickening offers is to great to be passed up. 

I do however think that Centering and Shielding will take you further then masking so long as you don't plan on getting too crazy.

[Facemage]

Good ideas, thanks. So,a good initiation list contains also absorption, spell shaping and flexible signature in addition to the initiations in my original post.

The order of the initiations may change depending on your table and campaign. Thanks for the help!

[Klice]

I am wondering how your GM or you manage the initiations. When I read all of you, I have the feeling that it's something that happens pretty often and fast. In opposition to what I read on the book, meaning months of study being compared to a researcher that would write a thesis on a certain subject. For me, it's something that should be a long process and should take most of the time of my players in between sessions.
How do(es) you/your GM manage the passage of time ? Are your games taking place on several years (in game time) ?

On a side note, I started the game of my players in 2075 and I'm starting to dread the passage of time and that I'd miss "important events" of the lore.