[FST_Gemstar]

A variation of a previous cybered up mage. More of a spirit/astral enemy focus. I know it is less efficient than just having lots of spirits, but I wanted to give it a try. I would love some feedback on making the character more workable!

Backstory: Character grew up the son of a upper-middle level wage mage who had the resources to ensure a quality education and future path for his children. While born with some magical potential, he did not have the natural knack for magic his father did nor the intellect to excel in school. He was determined to not disappoint and stayed with his studies for a long time, however the only things he was able to excel at was goofing off and using/selling drugs to try to keep up with his classmates and cheat on tests. An illicit incident where another student ratted him out brought a lot of heat down on his dad who nearly lost his job/sin, and caused a big riff in their relationship. It also got the character expelled from school with few prospects for a future career in magic or much else with the Corp. Disillusioned with the path he had been on, the magical elite, and his family,  the character burns his SIN, accesses as much of his trust fund as he can, and becomes determined to fight the Corps as a shadowrunner. He gets heavily cybered, because hey, he was never much of a magician, and becomes determined to learn more about physical combat (which he surprisingly finds more natural with his new limbs). His magical training hasn't been fully wasted however, as exploring the astral world and its denizens had been one of his passions, particularly with the aid of psychotropics. He discovered that as he became proficient in fighting in the physical realm, he had some power to do so in the astral as well.

Post char-gen: Character will probably pick up skill points in sneaking, con, etiquette, summoning, and arcana with initial karma. Money would probably go to investing more in upgrading limbs. The legs start weaker than I like but he doesn't need them for much.


== Info ==
Street Name: Soul Knife
Human
Composure: 14
Judge Intentions: 10
Lift/Carry: 4 (15 kg/10 kg)
Memory: 10
Starting Karma: 4
Starying Nuyen: 2110


== Priorities ==
Metatype: E(0) - Human
Attributes: B(3) - 20 Attributes
Special: C(2) -  Magician
Skills: C(2) - 28 Skills/2 Skill Groups
Resources: B(3) - 275,000¥

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 1
REA: 5
STR: 1
CHA: 5
INT: 5
LOG: 1
WIL: 7 (9)
EDG: 3
MAG: 1

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   1.16
Initiative:                10 + 1d6
Rigger Initiative:         10 + 1d6
Astral Initiative:         10 + 2d6
Matrix AR Initiative:      10 + 1d6
Matrix Cold Initiative:    5 + DP + 3d6
Matrix Hot Initiative:     5 + DP + 4d6
Physical Damage Track:     14
Stun Damage Track:         13

== Limits ==
Physical:                  4
Mental:                    6
Social:                    7
Astral:                    7

== Active Skills ==
Assensing                  : 3 [Aura Reading]     
Astral Combat              : 6 [[Weapon Focus Type]]
Automatics                 : 6 [Machine Pistols]   
Blades                     : 6 [Swords]                               
Perception                 : 4 [Visual]             
Sorcery Group       :2                     
                   


== Knowledge Skills ==
English                    : N                     
Sprawl Life                : 1 [Scavenging]       
Street Drugs               : 3 [Drug Business]     
Underworld                 : 2 [Black Magic]       
Metaplanes              :3

== Contacts ==
; Drug Supplier (3, 4)
; Fixer (2, 1)
; Street Doc (3, 2)

== Qualities ==
Addiction (Mild) (Cram)
Addiction (Mild) (Psyche)
Addiction (Mild) (Zen)
Addiction (Mild) (Novacoke)
Consummate Professional
Cyber-Singularity Seeker
Jack of All Trades Master of None
Magician
Prejudiced (Specific, Outspoken) (Wage Mages)
Quick Healer

== Spells ==
(Tradition: Chaos Magic, Resist Drain with WIL + INT (14))
Detox                      DV: F-6
Homunculus                 DV: Special
Improved Invisibility      DV: F-1
Levitate                   DV: F-2
Watcher                    DV: Special

== Lifestyles ==
Squat  1 months

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Datajack
Genetic Optimization (WIL)
Narco
Obvious Full Arm (AGI 6, STR 3, Physical 5) (Right)
   +Customized Agility Rating 6
Obvious Full Arm (AGI 9, STR 9, Physical 9) (Left)
   +Customized Agility Rating 6
   +Customized Strength Rating 6
   +Enhanced Agility Rating 3
   +Enhanced Strength Rating 3
Obvious Full Leg (AGI 3, STR 3, Physical 5) (Left)
Obvious Full Leg (AGI 3, STR 3, Physical 5) (Right)
Smartlink
Tetrachromatic Vision

== Armor ==
Armor Jacket                        12
Bike Racing Helmet                  2
   +Respirator Rating 6

== Weapons ==
Ares Crusader II
   +Concealed Quick-Draw Holster
   +Gas-Vent 2 System
   +Smartgun System, Internal
   Pool: 7 (9)   Accuracy: 7   DV: 7P   AP: -   RC: 4
Combat Knife
   Pool: 7   Accuracy: 6   DV: 3P   AP: -3   RC: 2
Weapon Focus: Horizon-Flynn Rapier
   Pool: 7 (9)   Accuracy: 7   DV: 3P   AP: -3   RC: 2
Survival Knife
   Pool: 7   Accuracy: 5   DV: 3P   AP: -1   RC: 2
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 0   Accuracy: 4   DV: 1S   AP: -   RC: 2

== Commlink ==
MCT-3500 (ATT: 0, SLZ: 0, DP: 3, FWL: 3)
   +Fake SIN Rating 4
   +Fake License (Weapon License) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Concealed Carry Permit) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Restricted Cyberware License) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Driver's License) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Bounty Hunter's License) Rating 4
   +Micro-Transceiver
   +Subvocal Mic
   +Earbuds Rating 1

== Gear ==
Ammo: APDS (Machine Pistols) x50
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Machine Pistols) x120
Cram x10
Magical Lodge Materials Rating 1
Novacoke x10
Psyche x5
Survival Kit
Weapon Focus (Bonded Foci) (Rapier) Rating 3
Zen x5

== Vehicles ==
Suzuki Mirage (Racing Bike)
   +Sensor Array Rating 2

[FST_Gemstar]

Whoops, having some karma calculation issues in Chummer... looks like I have more karma to spare will update shortly...

[falar]

Oh man. I dig this pretty hardcore. Cyber-mage is awesome-sauce. Exactly the kind of thing I want to see in my Shadowrun.

He's basically an astral-able street sammy. I dig it.

If you have cash to move around, go for Strength 7 on his off-arm so that you can get 3 RC when handling a two-handed automatic. Consider also adding in the implanted gyroscope thingeys. Because being able to bust out complex FA bursts is good for many, many things. You may only need one gyroscope because 1 + 3 + 4 is what you can get fairly easily with the right gun and mods. Add in 3 from one side and you're looking at 11 RC, which is just lovely.

EDITED TO ADD: Consider your Weapon Focus being a Cyber-Spur so that you can use Unarmed Combat: Cyber-Implants for it. I don't know how kosher it would be, but I love the idea.

[bdyer]

Any background count will cripple the character magically.  I feel that if you plan to project for astral combat then you need higher magic.

Biocompability would be better than quick healer In My opinion.

Definitely run this by your gm first due to:
3 attributes at 1, many gms will balk at that
Ask how limits and averaging will work with you limbs
Insure you can use edge on addiction tests and that they won't grow due to houserule.

[Strange]

I think he has too many spells, only allowed to start with MAGx2 in spells.  I think Biocompatibitly with cyberware is a great idea.  Not a fan of attributes being at 1, but that is a personal opinion.  Fun build.

[falar]

Yeah, after looking deeper at your choices:

- Logic should really be higher than 1. Your background seems to bear this out.
- Agility and/or Strength could stand to be 2. You get some core strength doing combat. Cut from Reaction.
- Biocompatibility over Quick Healer is a definite
- See about more Magic so you can actually start with the spells of the priority you chose and actually spellcast worth a crap

[FST_Gemstar]

In Process of reworking, as it looks like I had 18 karma to spare instead of 4. (-17 on PQs, -5 on Magic Rating, -9 on focus bonding, 24 on NQs, 25 to start = 18 remaining).

 One option would be to get some 10 karma more of nuyen and up that offhand arm strength up. I like this idea as I don't like the idea of having to replace limbs down the road to have the built in higher strength/agility customized limbs. This would leave me 8 karma. I have 8 karma worth of positive qualities I could still get. Biocompatibility will only net me .45 essence or so, as most of the 'ware is standard. Not my favorite, but it's the only way I could get the character to afford what he needed. I don't know much more 'ware I would need to squeeze in this character at this point, but having the option for a little more could be useful. Honestly, I was considering just getting Friends in High Places to take advantage of the character's soft cap charisma to get two Connection 8/Loyalty 2 contacts, perhaps an elite cyberdoc and a high class lawyer? If I had a useful anchored ritual to cast, maybe a Mountain mentor spirit could be helpful, as the character has the will/charisma to hit the threshold for the negative effects, the character can be a super survivalist with his high will, and and more counterspelling is always nice. I also wanted to carryover some karma to quickly pick up one point skills too.

Re: # of spells. It may be an order of operations finessing, but I figured the character had a magic 3 rating due to his priority and learned his spells BEFORE getting cybered. A little cheap, I know, and I am willing to drop the spells. To be fair, I did invest some in sorcery to rationalize this. This character doesn't really need sorcery or spells at all, so I am ok if the spells have to go. 

Attributes at 1: I don't want to start a debate again here and I know a lot of GMs don't like attributes at 1. I mitigated this a little with the investment in cyberlimbs. Agility/Strength is effectively going to be higher for most tests. I guess I do have the spare karma to up Logic to 2 if a GM wants to be a stickler about it. I will say that I don't see individual attributes as inherently LIMITing, as the game has derived stats from multiple attributes specifically for LIMITS. I find limits to be a better indicator for overall physical, mental, and social capacity. Even with low stats in Strength and Logic, this character has higher physical limits than some magicians/technomancers/deckers/faces, and high mental limits than most street sams. I assume that the character uses natural attributes for limits(I am comfortable with these numbers, and to falar, one of the reason not to use unarmed combat is the character's physical limit is too low to excel at it), but appropriate limb stats/averages for skill tests.

Addiction tests:  this character is going to have a rough time if the character can't buy hits on addiction tests (he's built for that ) or at least use edge. If that is not the case, this character will be less effective or even nonplayable.

Astral Projection: I didn't think about background counts stopping the character from astrally projecting... That would be a big problem. UPDATE: I can't find anywhere saying the the ability to astrally project is affected by background counts. Just astral related tests (spellcasting, astral combat, assensing, etc.) Astral combat will be tougher, and I guess any significant background count will effectively limit spellcasting. BGs would also affect enemy astral combat, and the character would still be very functional in the meat if a spirit materializes.

[Whiskeyjack]

I don't think the rules support something like buying hits on addiction tests, because those are always designed to be somewhat fraught, at least narratively. But I don't see why Edge wouldn't apply to them

That said I don't "get" why you would set yourself up to have a casting pool of 3 and a max non-physical drain Force of 1 on spells.

[falar]

Honestly, I'd try to play around with this in KarmaGen so you end up wasting less of your free spells. Or go up to at least having Magic 2 or 3 so you don't just lose the spells because you're over the maximum number of spells you can have at character generation.

[bdyer]

Addiction tests:  this character is going to have a rough time if the character can't buy hits on addiction tests (he's built for that ) or at least use edge. If that is not the case, this character will be less effective or even nonplayable.

Astral Projection: I didn't think about background counts stopping the character from astrally projecting... That would be a big problem. UPDATE: I can't find anywhere saying the the ability to astrally project is affected by background counts. Just astral related tests (spellcasting, astral combat, assensing, etc.) Astral combat will be tougher, and I guess any significant background count will effectively limit spellcasting. BGs would also affect enemy astral combat, and the character would still be very functional in the meat if a spirit materializes.

A: no gm in his right mind would allow buying of hits on addiction tests as it means you can constantly use a drug with very little side effects.  Edge is possible use and up to the gm.  Just know that even with 11 dice if you used 4-5 drugs in a run that's one edge from statistics

B: if background count is greater than your magic then you lose all magical abilities including projection and assesning.  It's a gm call on what happens if your projecting and run into a background count.  So with a magic of 1, a bC of 1 would cut you off from all magical abilities

[falar]

B: if background count is greater than your magic then you lose all magical abilities including projection and assesning.  It's a gm call on what happens if your projecting and run into a background count.  So with a magic of 1, a bC of 1 would cut you off from all magical abilities

I believe this is how it worked in 4th. This is 5th, which I don't think has this rule. If it does, please provide the book and page for reference.

[FST_Gemstar]

Why can't some characters use drugs a bunch? I guess I am being selfish with this argument, but  I can imagine a character with high willpower and genetic modifications (like this character) or with other implants (nephritic screens) or qualities (Drug Tolerant) etc. that should be able to use drugs without risking addiction or increased addiction. Drugs have their own negative effects besides addiction that can limit their use too.

Psycholgical dice pool is 12 (9 Willpower + 1 Logic + 2 Narco) and Physiological is 14 (9 Will + 3 Body + 2 Narco). Zen only has threshold of 1, so I would hope a GM would just let me buy that if it comes to it.  Like making a threshold 1 jumping test with 12 dice, this character is obviously capable of making this test. If there are environmental issues or distractions of whatever, those affect the dice pool, not the threshold. So if the character had a wound modifier of 1 and the ground was icey (-2), the character would still roll 9 dice for a threshold of one, still likely a good enough jumper to make the test. Psyche and Novacoke have thresholds of 2. Again, buying would be nice but I would feel confident rolling at that threshhold, and it would probably even be less depending on the time of the test. Cram is the only drug the character might use often enough with a threshold of 3. If not buying the three hits with the 12 psychological dice, the character would just have to be careful to ensure he doesn't used cram a week or two before the test. Edge would increase these dicepools even more.


 The character could still buy 2 nephritic screens and has room from the drug tolerant quality too. That would boost addiction test pools to 16 and 18. Edge would make it 19 and 21.  Would that be enough of a case to buy?

I also think GMs are more apt to allow (even encourage) buying hits for threshold tests as opposed to opposed tests. It keeps the story going easier, simulating the fact the character is skilled/whatever enough to generally  do a task. Opposed tests involve competing rolls, often with two personalities, where I think more elements of chance/luck can come into play. Though I guess this is all GM dependent.

[Whiskeyjack]

You can certainly use drugs a bunch.

Asking for a gimme result on what is always supposed to be a test that's either fraught or has you spending resources to mitigate the danger...yeah, no, that's not what buying hits is for.

This is like saying "my Drain pool is 14 and I have to roll against a value of 2, should I have to roll?" Yup, you should, even if it's a gimme. To do otherwise is not only bad precedent but, again, is not what buying hits is for.

[bdyer]

B: if background count is greater than your magic then you lose all magical abilities including projection and assesning.  It's a gm call on what happens if your projecting and run into a background count.  So with a magic of 1, a bC of 1 would cut you off from all magical abilities

I believe this is how it worked in 4th. This is 5th, which I don't think has this rule. If it does, please provide the book and page for reference.

Your right It's never spelled out but page 32 in sg seems to imply it.

Pre-existing active foci, sustained spells, quickened/anchored spells and rituals are reduced by the background count. If they are reduced to 0 or less, spells fizzle, wards and rituals collapse, foci deactivate. A foci cannot activate while under the influence of the background count. Anchored rituals and quickened spells if they have not expired revive themselves at 1 point of Force per hour, up to their preexisting Force. Preparations triggered while within a background count have their potency immediately reduced by the background count. Adepts may use a Simple Action to turn on or off a passive power in cases where penalties from background counts might exceed bonuses from their powers.


As for drugs even if you have a huge pool to resist addiction, statistically you always have a chance to fail even if it's small and that is the risk with drugs.

It's like for a mage who has a drain pool of 24 summoning a force 12 spirit, on average he only has to soak 8 drain and takes 0 damage but depending on rolls could still get hurt tremendously.

[FST_Gemstar]

Karma gen is probably the way to go with a character like this. Could use more starting money, fewer less starting magic/spells, etc. Thanks for the help, folks! I do always forget though, do karma buy characters get free contacts/knowledge skills now or not?

Whiskey: Fair enough. I guess I can boost the addiction pools of the character higher and advocate for edge use too. What is buying his for though? For me, I like buying hits for things that generally should be easy for a character (defined by 1 hit per four dice). I would have to actually roll for harder tests or ones that I am less likely to make, ones that I would need to be lucky to make. For me, if I don't need the excess hits, as per your drain example, like, the character is no better off rolling on awesome drain roll than a mediocre one, why not just recognize the character is strong enough resisting drain for such a test. If I had 8 drain coming my way, it would be statistically advantagous to roll (unless I guess the drain would kill you if you roll badly...)