[gilga]

The way I see it the most powerful magical skills are spell casting and summoning this already covers most of the fun things mages can do.  So a mage can even go with Skills E and Magic A to leverage the bonus magical skills.

That said the concept of mage is very broad and there are many kind of possible mages. Try to answer what kind of magical skills do you want to use and what other things than magic do you want to do. There is nothing wrong with a mage that actually use a gun, or even a knife in combat.  Is your character a combatant? an infiltrator? Perhaps a face? These change the build. The way I see it magic is a resource just like nuyen and you can do any roll as a mage depending on your build.

What you really need is magic C+ and if you take  a low priority in magic you are encouraged to take a higher priority in metatype so that you can have magic 6. I find magic A and B very rewarding as they also give skills and I love skills.

[Tarislar]

counterspelling with specialization, summoning with specialization assensing with specialization at least 

I'll disagree here,  those are areas where I don't feel Specialization gives you the bang for your buck compared to Spellcasting or Binding.

[Tarislar]

When building a full mage with the standard priority system, what is the optimal priority layout?  I mean in the sense of what gives the most bang for your buck on a typical, generic mage.

Or perhaps more specifically, the pros and cons of Magic(A)-Skills(B) vs Magic(B)-Skills(A).  What experience I have suggests to me that those are the big two, and even attributes are but second fiddle to them.

Magic-A = 6 Magic, 10 Spells, 10 Skills
Skills-B = 36 Skills, 5 Groups

Magic-B = 4 Magic, 7 Spells, 8 Skills
Skills-A = 46 Skills, 10 Groups

Is your Mage attempting to do something else extremely well?   Because unless he's holding down 3 roles or something,  then Skills-A just means he's going to be sacrificing somewhere else to do so.

Magicians Need Spells so to me,  Magic-A is "almost" a lock for my choices.

Really, if your just focusing on being the MAGE & not some sort of other combo then I would probably choose the following.

Magic - A4
Attr - B3
Skills - C2
Resources - D1
Meta - E0


So you start out as a Human with 3 Edge,  enough to survive for sure & pull out the rare powerful nuke.
6 Magic & 10 Spells is VERY useful at the beginning & I'd still be tempted to buy 1-2 more.

Attributes-20 + Intuition Tradition gives you =  Bod-3, Agi-2, Rea-3, Str-1, Wil-5, Log-3, Int-6, Cha-5

Skills-28+10+2G   (Basic Strong Magic w/ Social OR something w/ a little Combat/Stealth tossed in)
Automatics-0  (Or 4+1S)
Assensing-6  (Or 3)
Binding-6+1S
Counterspelling-6
Perception-6  (Or 4)
Sorcery-6+1S
Summoning-6
Group-Influence-2  (Or Stealth-2)



10 Spells:  (Some that I find most useful)
Combat  x2   (Ball Lightning, Blast, Concussion, FireBall, Lightning Bolt, Mana Bolt, Stun Ball, Stun Bolt)
Detection  x2  (Analyze Device, Analyze Truth, Clairaudience, Detect Enemies XR, Detect Life, Mind Probe)
Health  x2  (Heal, Increase Intuition)
Illusion  x2  (Chaotic World, Improved Invisibility, Physical Mask, Stench)
Manipulation  x2  (Barrier, Control Thoughts, Elemental Aura, Fling, Influence, Levitate, Mob Mind, Sterilize)

[Rooks]

counterspelling with specialization, summoning with specialization assensing with specialization at least 

I'll disagree here,  those are areas where I don't feel Specialization gives you the bang for your buck compared to Spellcasting or Binding.

yvmv if you want your team mind controlled or your mage to miss out on an important piece of cyber ware or if that hobo is awakened that's up to you

[Whiskeyjack]

counterspelling with specialization, summoning with specialization assensing with specialization at least 

I'll disagree here,  those are areas where I don't feel Specialization gives you the bang for your buck compared to Spellcasting or Binding.

yvmv if you want your team mind controlled or your mage to miss out on an important piece of cyber ware or if that hobo is awakened that's up to you

Assensing is a threshold, everyone wants INT, and a spec in Aura Reading is so cheap, it doesn't need to be maxed.

[Hobbes]

Really, if your just focusing on being the MAGE & not some sort of other combo then I would probably choose the following.

Magic - A4
Attr - B3
Skills - C2
Resources - D1
Meta - E0


So you start out as a Human with 3 Edge,  enough to survive for sure & pull out the rare powerful nuke.
6 Magic & 10 Spells is VERY useful at the beginning & I'd still be tempted to buy 1-2 more.

Attributes-20 + Intuition Tradition gives you =  Bod-3, Agi-2, Rea-3, Str-1, Wil-5, Log-3, Int-6, Cha-5

Skills-28+10+2G   (Basic Strong Magic w/ Social OR something w/ a little Combat/Stealth tossed in)
Automatics-0  (Or 4+1S)
Assensing-6  (Or 3)
Binding-6+1S
Counterspelling-6
Perception-6  (Or 4)
Sorcery-6+1S
Summoning-6
Group-Influence-2  (Or Stealth-2)



10 Spells:  (Some that I find most useful)
Combat  x2   (Ball Lightning, Blast, Concussion, FireBall, Lightning Bolt, Mana Bolt, Stun Ball, Stun Bolt)
Detection  x2  (Analyze Device, Analyze Truth, Clairaudience, Detect Enemies XR, Detect Life, Mind Probe)
Health  x2  (Heal, Increase Intuition)
Illusion  x2  (Chaotic World, Improved Invisibility, Physical Mask, Stench)
Manipulation  x2  (Barrier, Control Thoughts, Elemental Aura, Fling, Influence, Levitate, Mob Mind, Sterilize)

For a combat mage that will be using guns, I'd throw in a bit of Alchemy and a couple preps.  Combat sense or Analyze Device maybe.  Shuffle some of the Cha over to Agility for shooty/sneaky mages.

I'd add Increase Reflexes to your list too.   

[Tarislar]

Combat sense
I'd add Increase Reflexes to your list too.   

Doh, not sure how I left either of those off the list.