[Whiskeyjack]

but I'm the only magic user, so I thought that a pure Mage would be better as it would allow me to do some astral recon.  is that enough of a reason in your guys opinion, or is it not worth it?  Again, I really appreciate the advice you guys have given me.

Astral recon is nice, but remember a MysAd can at least astrally perceive in the area around them with the right power/focus, which is pretty decent. Personally I see power points as being head and shoulders better than projection, but I know other people have different opinions.

[Whiskeyjack]

Adept Powers               
Authoratative Tone [3]         1.5PP      
Combat Sense[6]         3PP      
Commanding Voice          1PP      
Facial Sculpt         .25PP      
Improved Sense(Ultrasound)         .25Pp      

Personally I prefer having Improved Reflexes vs Increase Reflexes, when available.

I've said before how i'm playing a MysAd face/mage, with no face adept powers, and don't miss them at all. This still holds true. I would dump Authoritative Tone and maybe 2 levels of Combat Sense for IR 2, and that frees you up a spell slot. I probably also wouldn't bother with Facial Sculpt (because Physical Mask) or Improved Sense (because just wear goggles, even if they don't help you cast).

[drakir]

A bit late but...    If I build a face shaman, elf is hard to resist. One of mine: Euphoria
Priorities: Magic A, Attributes B, Meta C, Skills D, Money E
Attributes: Bod 3, Agi 3, Rea 4, Str 1, Cha 9, Int 5, Log 2 (karma), Wil 5, Edge 4 Mag 6, Init 9+d6
Qualities: Exc Attr: Charisma, Jack of all Trades, Mentor Spirit (Seducer), Too Pretty to Hit,
Negatives example: Allergy com mild, Distinct Style, Prejudiced, Simsense Vertigo.
Skills:
12(16) Spellcasting 6+2 (Illusions)
12(14) Summoning 6+2 (Spirits of Man)
12(14) Binding 6+2 (Spirits of Air)
11        Counterspelling 5
6          Assensing 1 (karma)
15       Negotiation 6
12       Con 1 (karma) (mentor bonus included)
6         Perception 1 (karma)

Spells:  (Not written in stone by any means)
Powerbolt, Detect Life, Heal, Detox, Imp Invisibility, Opium Den, Physical mask, Control Actions, Fashion, Physical barrier

Gear: Fake SIN rat 4, Commlink, Lifestyle, Armor Jacket, Suzuki Mirage, some reagents

Low perception I know but negotiation is really good as is the magic skills. Defaults to 8 in all other social skills and easy to raise with karma.
4 Edge and 14 Drain dice is really nice. If you go Sum2ten and skip counterspelling you have the option to go up to 6 in Agility and 5 Reaction. Then sneaking, weapon skills and other Agility based skills is easy to get respectable numbers in. Remember JoaT makes it really cheap to raise low skills.
Euphoria is not about killing her adversaries but an Opium Den can incapacitate a lot of gangers for a while. Power Bolt is mostly for drones. The violent troll gets controlled, The ork guard gets a flirtatious wink and so on.

[gilga]

If you are open to being a mystic adept instead of mage. Then becoming face is very easy, the best example I can give is to take 6 levels of cool resolve. (You can save a bit of power points with cheaper social powers but it is simple).

High charisma + 6 dice from adept powers to replace the sixes you'd normally put in social skills anyhow. Get Influence 1 + Acting 1 for 10 karma and being CHA 8 elf you'll get 15 dice for each social skill, for 40 karma investment. Awsome you are a face now you have 10 more karma you can possibly spend and build your mage.  Should be even possible with Skills E magic A unless you need many mage skills. The problem with this build is that once you go mystic adept you'll want all sort of cool combat powers instead of social powers... but not all adepts should be tools of destruction.

[Whiskeyjack]

Adept face powers are certainly nice but in no way required for success. And you can hit diminishing returns fairly easily which you want to be aware of and avoid.

I'd rather have the high skills and put the PP to other stuff.

[Pap Renvela]

The adept doesn't need to put a huge PP investment nto facing...authoratative tone 3 is just .75PP.