[Galgano]

Hello chummers. I'm trying to generate a character that I think would be fun, but I'm stumbling on a few things. I'd like to ask y'all to see if anyone knows the answers to these. Once I have put the finishing touches on the character, I'll post it on here so that y'all can critique him/her.
1) What is the availability of the chemical white phosphorus?
2) Can magic be passed on genetically/ does having magically inclined parents increase the chances of the offspring possessing magic?

Huh... I thought I had more questions than that. Ah well, I'm sure more will come to me after I finish posting this.

Speak of the devil:

3) I think I remember reading somewhere in the 4th edition books that the magic spell creation/weaving skill didn't require a Magic score ("in fact, some of the best spellweavers weren't magically inclined" or some such like that). I'm looking through the 5th edition books and I'm either looking in the wrong place, or making this whole thing up. Am I correct or incorrect in my thinking?

[FST_Gemstar]

as for 3... Mundanes can learn Arcana, which would be used for spell formula creation (it has a specialization). I'm not sure there are any specific rules on spell formula creation and I've never actually seen it in came. It's usually much cheaper and easier to just buy a formula.

[Marcus]

Hello chummers. I'm trying to generate a character that I think would be fun, but I'm stumbling on a few things. I'd like to ask y'all to see if anyone knows the answers to these. Once I have put the finishing touches on the character, I'll post it on here so that y'all can critique him/her.
1) What is the availability of the chemical white phosphorus?
2) Can magic be passed on genetically/ does having magically inclined parents increase the chances of the offspring possessing magic?

Huh... I thought I had more questions than that. Ah well, I'm sure more will come to me after I finish posting this.

Speak of the devil:

3) I think I remember reading somewhere in the 4th edition books that the magic spell creation/weaving skill didn't require a Magic score ("in fact, some of the best spellweavers weren't magically inclined" or some such like that). I'm looking through the 5th edition books and I'm either looking in the wrong place, or making this whole thing up. Am I correct or incorrect in my thinking?

1 Not that I am aware of, why do ya want it?
2 The answer as I understand it is maybe, there is at least one older fluff story distantly relating to the issue. What is for sure is that Magic isn't into the laws of science or meeting punnet square projections. But there are plenty of canon examples of magic parents having magic babies, so it just depends on what your looking for.
3. Yes as Gemstar said mundane folks can learn Arcana and assist in ritual magic to some limited extent. Creating magical Formuli has lost most of it significance from edition passed, but maybe. Not really sure why anyone would want too though. A with the advent of Hard target could also employ coupled different types of alchemical creations.
 

[Galgano]

Found the skill, but 5th edition says that you now have to have be a magic user of some kind. At least, that's how I'm reading it. I was wanting to create a character that had studied magic when they were young (and therefore knows a great deal about magic), but because they never awoke, they learned it for nothing.
I'm trying to create a 'dragon' character. They'll have the Exhalation Spray bioware. Inside, they will have white phosphorus which is the only chemical I have found so far that reacts explosively with air at a relatively low temperature. The only problem is that I don't know the availability of white phosphorus. It's a type of phosphorus which means it should be common enough.
The second and third queries go together. I am hoping to create a character that was born in to a magic family and everyone expected him/her to express the magic gene. Therefore, they were forced to study magic theory which I assume would include magic creation.

[fseperent]

Got a possible answer for white phosphorus.
Incendiary head arrows are 12f and have small amounts of white phosphorus.
I'd be inclined to say 18f or 20f for a batch of it.

[Galgano]

How would a batch of it be more unavailable than arrows tipped with it? I'm not just saying that because I want to start with it, I just don't think that a single item which is part of another item would have a higher availability than the other item. Plus how big is a batch?

[Glyph]

1) Incendiary head arrows are all I could find, too, so your GM will need to extrapolate from there I suppose.  SR4 actually had white phosphorus grenades.

2) The expression of magic is still unpredictable/a mystery, although corporations and others are still attempting to "breed" them.  A magical couple expecting their child to be awakened is well within the realm of plausibility, though.

3) Mundanes who could create spell formulas used to a thing, but in SR5, arcana, like other magical skills, requires a Magic rating to use.  I would just give the character a knowledge skill of magical theory to represent a mundane expected to awaken.  No actual spell design, though, sorry.

[fseperent]

Because white phosphorus is used to light things on fire,
Buy or steal a lot of it and you'll get a lot of unwanted attention.
The corps and law enforcement DO NOT want a firebug around.
My logic for where I set the availability is based on how much white phosphorus is in the arrowhead.
It's only enough to set a single fire, or turn a single person into flambé.
In my mind, you would buy it by kilograms.
Looking at the flamethrower, I would adjust my availability to 16f.

[Marcus]

The new chrome book as has flame thrower Cyberware, including the ammo, so no need to stress about that.

[Galgano]

By the kilo? I don't need that much. I only need enough for the sac to create its own supply. The exhalation spray bioware generates its own supply if I'm not mistaken. Plus it would be more like a dragon being able to make it's own fire as opposed to having a flame thrower

[ProfGast]

Not to be a downer or anything but, uh, a gland that produces White Phosporous and then expels it through the mouth seems like kinda a bad idea.  Without even accounting for the fact that WP must be ignited to form a proper incendiary weapon, one of the reasons it's so horrifying is the burning material sticks to skin and you are suggesting you want to expel it out of your mouth.

Then there's the little fact that WP is also poisonous with a Lethal dose of ingestion of approx 1 mg/kg body weight.  Again you're saying you want to discharge this stuff out of your mouth.

Really the rule of cool can only take you so far.  If you want a fire breathing character you're probably best with a mage whose flamethrower spell casts from his mouth.

[Galgano]

To counteract the poisonous quality of it, I was planning on getting the Nephritic Screen or whatever it is that protects the body from harmful toxins

[ProfGast]

That sounds like a lot of work and investment for an ability that is gimmicky, needs to be ignited to actually work, may still poison you anyways, and can be approximated better without using tech...

Whatever floats your boat though, if you ARE still intending to pursue that line of thinking you may also want to look at the 10 karma Natural Immunity quality instead of trying to use ware.

I'm still on the "not a good idea" boat though.

[Galgano]

Meh, I don't know if it would necessarily be a good idea, but I do think it would be a fun idea. Running around with claws and breathing fire. Now if I could just eat fire...

[Novocrane]

The new chrome book as has flame thrower Cyberware, including the ammo, so no need to stress about that.

That's not the ammo. It's extra fuel storage compartments.

Fuel canister: Avail 16F, Cost 40¥, 4 charges

This is flamethrower ammo, courtesy of R&G errata.