[dposluns]

Ever since I caught wind of Spellblades from Hard Targets (including the horribly OP Manablade) I've wondered what kind of a character I might build around it. Here's my draft at one (PDF also attached):

Caliban
METATYPE: HUMAN
B 3/5, A 4, R 3, S 3, W 5, L 1, I 6, C 3, ESS 6, EDG 3, M 6
Condition Monitor (P/S): 11 / 11
Armor: 15
Limits: Physical 5, Mental 5, Social 7
Physical Initiative: 9+1D6
Active Skills: Acting Group 1, Assensing 1, Binding 6, Blades 6 (9), Counterspelling 6, Perception 6, Spellcasting (Manipulation Spells +2) 6, Stealth Group 1, Summoning 6
Knowledge Skills: Building Security 4, Magical Defenses 4, Seattle Organizations 4
Languages: English N, Sperethiel 2
Qualities: Consummate Professional, Creature of Comfort (Middle Lifestyle), Distinctive Style: Cloak, Impassive, Mentor Spirit: Adept Powers: Raven, Adept Powers, Psionic Mystic Adept, The Spiritual Way: Astral Perception, Improved Physical Attribute, Enhanced Perception: Raven, Magic
Spells: Combat Sense (limited), Heal, Increase Agility, Increase Reflexes (limited), Levitate (limited), Manablade (limited), Mob Control (limited), Petrify (limited), Powerblade (limited), Resist Pain
Adept Powers: Astral Perception, Critical Strike: Blades, Enhanced Perception (1), Heightened Concern (up to -3), Improved Ability (3): Blades, Improved Physical Attribute (2): Body, Improved Sense: Thermographic Vision, Traceless Walk, Voice Control (1) (5dicepool[5] vs. Voice rec. x 2 or PER + INT)
Gear:
. . Antidote Patch (6) x3
. . Armor Jacket w/ Concealed Pockets, Gear Access, Insulation (6), Nonconductivity (6), YNT Softweave
. . Binoculars, Optical
. . Blade (combat fetish)
. . Blade (combat fetish)
. . Caduceus Pin (F1 health sustaining fetish; unbound at chargen)
. . Caliban w/ (12 months) DocWagon Basic Contract, Fake SIN (4), License to Practice Magic: Registered Awakened Individual (4), (1 month) Middle Lifestyle
. . Cloak (Fashionable) (6) w/ Electrochromic Modification, Fire Resistance (6)
. . Forearm Guards w/ Chemical Protection (3)
. . Hairband (health fetish)
. . Hairpin (manipulation fetish)
. . Hairpin (manipulation fetish)
. . Hairpin (manipulation fetish)
. . Helmet w/ Image Link, Micro-Tranceiver, Respirator (6)
. . . . Renraku Sensei
. . Psyche x2
. . Reagents, Raw (dram): Psionic x100
. . Renraku Sensei
. . Scarf (detection fetish)
. . Stim Patch (6) x3
. . Trauma Patch
Weapons:
. . Ceramic/Plasteel Knife [Blade, Acc 5, DV 5P, AP -1]
Contacts:
Felix (Connection 1, Loyalty 1)
Talia (Connection 3, Loyalty 4)
Starting ¥: 2,160 + (4D6 × 100)¥

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Shadowrun © 2005-2016 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.

The key points to the concept is this:

• Mystic Adept with Intuition-based tradition, focusing on spellblades, binding spirits and Manipulation magic, with heavy emphasis on fetishes
• Raven totem with Spiritual Way to get all totem bonuses and +1 on summoning/binding
• Spellblades are attuned to a plasteel knife fetish that is wielded as the base of the blade, allowing for parrying with Manablade

The main features of this character are:

• Early on uses bound spirits to sustain Increase Reflexes, Combat Sense and Increase Agility. The first two can be replaced with F1 foci (and reagents) that are purchased at chargen but bound later (2 karma each). The third can optionally use a F4 sustaining focus down the road.
• Character keeps plasteel knife (combat fetish) well-concealed (cloak and hidden pocket, or fast gear access when concealing doesn't matter) and uses it to wield the Manablade, allowing for melee parry with 9 dice.
• Manablade and Powerblade are the only combat spells, and only require a single hit to manifest the blade. With fetish will probably cast around F8, resist 4 drain.
• Heightened Concentration negates the sustain penalty for the Manablade,
• At F8, Manablade does DV of 8 + net hits on 13 dice (up to 17 with Increase Agility), resisted only by Willpower.
• Uses spirits to conceal when possible for surprise attacks.
• Manipulation spells are 16 dice (plus potential bound spirits), good for crowd control or when melee isn't possible.
• Down the road may purchase Increase Willpower or Intuition spell and sustaining focus to better handle drain, and cast even stronger spellblades.

The character's biggest handicap is that he relies on his fetishes to access his most useful powers. When stripped of them completely his magic is mostly worthless but he can still use his summoned/bound spirits to help him get out of a tight spot.

From a min-maxing perspective, all karma not spent on Qualities is being spent on Power Points since they are only attainable through Initiation down the road.

Any feedback/critique of this character?

[Reaver]

Keep in mind spirits can only sustain a spell for (force) Combat Turns/per service.

In other words. For SECONDS. Assuming a force 6 spirit, that means for EVERY service you spend on sustaining, it can sustain a spell for 18 seconds. Four services are required to sustain a single spell for just over a single minute....


In other words, you are not doing any pre-buffing of note, or even in fact using your first IP setting up your buffs. (Casting them, then passing them on to your spirit).


You could try this trick with spell binding.... But how many bindings do you think you will get away with before spirits just stop answering your summon, considering binding litterally KILLS spirits (consumes a point of force for each day sustaining).

[dposluns]

That's if I get them to sustain my own spells. Spirits of Man can use Innate Spell to cast and sustain them on me as a normal (unbound) service.

That said, combat is usually quick and brutal in Shadowrun regardless. Especially when you've got 3+ initiative passes per turn. In our current campaign I don't think we've had a single combat last longer than 3 turns.

[dposluns]

Also of note: it would be a short -term strategy to rely on spirits, until I can bind some foci. Maybe just focus on Increase Reflexes until then, for instance, and make do without the others.

[Hobbes]

Between Focused Concentration, Psyche, Preparations and Spirits you really shouldn't have many serious penalties.  The whole point is to be buffed to hell and gone and rip things apart with your lightsaber. 

Mechanical notes, I don't think Heightened Concern does what you want it to do.  It works well for non-combat tests, it's not so good for combat tests due  to the action economy.

Improved Body is much better off as Improved Agility.  Yes you have the spell, but that is one less sustain to juggle.

Ways are often a poor value for starting characters.

Lightsabers don't need Strength. 

The "Lots of Buffs" character really benefits from Alchemy. 

[dposluns]

Between Focused Concentration, Psyche, Preparations and Spirits you really shouldn't have many serious penalties.  The whole point is to be buffed to hell and gone and rip things apart with your lightsaber. 

Mechanical notes, I don't think Heightened Concern does what you want it to do.  It works well for non-combat tests, it's not so good for combat tests due  to the action economy.

Reading the description again, maybe I've misunderstood it. Are you saying that it only negates the penalty for the duration of the immediately following action? I agree that would be pretty bad, but it's also not clear to what counts as "another task", i.e. ripping my opponents to shreds could be a task, no?

Improved Body is much better off as Improved Agility.  Yes you have the spell, but that is one less sustain to juggle.

I want to max out my Agility augmentation and it would take an extra 2 PP to do that with Adept powers. Meantime Body makes him a whole lot less squishy...

Ways are often a poor value for starting characters.

20 karma in this case buys about 15 karma worth of Power Points, plus the +1 to spirit summoning and binding. I guess that's about a wash, really. If Heightened Concern won't do what I think it does then maybe that karma should be invested in Focused Concentration instead.

Lightsabers don't need Strength.

I've made some adjustments to this and traded a point for Charisma (more bound spirits, better social and better handling of Astral stuff) but 2 lets me get +3 worth of Armor which is pretty important.

The "Lots of Buffs" character really benefits from Alchemy.

Well... maybe. I don't think I'd want to trade the versatility of Spellcasting or Summoning for Alchemy. I could maybe trade some Counterspelling but that seems risky. Two of the biggest buffs (Increased Reflexes and Combat Sense) work just fine with F1 foci and reagents. It's better with Increase [Attribute] but there are other ways around that... I've wanted to play around with Alchemy for a while but it seems like such a difficult value proposition.

[Hobbes]

Mechanical notes, I don't think Heightened Concern does what you want it to do.  It works well for non-combat tests, it's not so good for combat tests due  to the action economy.

Reading the description again, maybe I've misunderstood it. Are you saying that it only negates the penalty for the duration of the immediately following action? I agree that would be pretty bad, but it's also not clear to what counts as "another task", i.e. ripping my opponents to shreds could be a task, no?

All depends on your GM's interpretation of "...another task..."   In any case you're still spending a Complex Action on your first initiative pass unless you're ambushing someone and have a bit of time to set up. 

It's great for non-combat stuff where you can easily handwave taking a moment here or there to focus, but if you're planning on using it in Combat check with your GM.

The rest of it is simple mechanical efficiency stuffs, take it or leave it.

[dposluns]

I've done some more reading and it sounds like most interpretations let you ignore the distraction for the length of the distraction (i.e. however long you're sustaining the spell). A complex action would definitely slow down getting into battle (it's already a complex action to cast the Manablade, free action to ready the fetish using Gear Access), but maybe that's a tradeoff that needs to be made in the heat of battle, e.g. take a couple swings to knock down whoever's ganging up on you and eat the -2 to sustain, and then activate the ability when you've got some breathing room. Or in those situations use a bound spirit service to temporarily sustain the spell for you. Heightened Concentration is gonna be the only way other than a bound spirit service to sustain a 8+ Force Manablade at chargen without paying a sustain penalty.

I've done a bit of a reroll using sum-to-ten instead of the normal priority system. I think this strikes a slightly better balance for me:

Priority A: Mystic Adept, 24 Attributes
Priority D: 22 Skills and 50,000 nuyen
Priority E: Human Metatype

This lets me round things out a little better and pump up my base attributes. I had to dump skill groups and a bunch of skill points to make it work... so I reduced Perception to 1, paid for Con and the Manipulation specialization from karma and lost a couple Power Points.

I also ditched the Way quality in favor of Focused Concentration 5 so I can sustain one of the buffs on myself (either Agility or Intuition). The other one will either need a Spirit of Man or eventually a focus.

Caliban
METATYPE: HUMAN
B 5, A 5, R 4, S 2, W 6, L 1, I 5, C 4, ESS 6, EDG 3, M 6
Condition Monitor (P/S): 11 / 11
Armor: 15
Limits: Physical 5, Mental 5, Social 8
Physical Initiative: 9+1D6
Active Skills: Assensing 1, Binding 6, Blades 6 (9), Con 1, Counterspelling 6, Perception 1, Spellcasting (Manipulation Spells +2) 6, Summoning 6
Knowledge Skills: Building Security 3, Magical Defenses 4, Seattle Organizations 3
Languages: English N, Sperethiel 2
Qualities: Consummate Professional, Creature of Comfort (Middle Lifestyle), Distinctive Style: Cloak, Focused Concentration (5), Impassive, Mentor Spirit: Magician Powers: Raven, Magician Powers, Psionic Mystic Adept
Spells: Heal, Increase Agility, Increase Intuition, Increase Reflexes (limited), Levitate (limited), Manablade (limited), Mob Control (limited), Petrify (limited), Powerblade (limited), Resist Pain
Adept Powers: Astral Perception, Critical Strike: Blades, Heightened Concern (up to -3), Improved Ability (3): Blades, Improved Sense: Thermographic Vision, Improved Sense: Vision Magnification
Gear:
. . Antidote Patch (6) x3
. . Argentum Coat w/ -3 modifier for concealability, Concealed Pockets, Custom Fit, Custom Fit (Stack), Fire Resistance (6), Increase Social Limit by 1, Nonconductivity (6)
. . Blade
. . Blade
. . Caduceus Pin
. . Caliban w/ (12 months) DocWagon Basic Contract, Fake SIN (4), License to Practice Magic: Registered Awakened Individual (4), (1 month) Middle Lifestyle
. . Cloak (Fashionable) (6) w/ Electrochromic Modification, Gear Access, Insulation (2)
. . Forearm Guards w/ Chemical Protection (3)
. . Hairband
. . Hairpin
. . Hairpin
. . Hairpin
. . Helmet w/ Image Link, Micro-Tranceiver, Respirator (6)
. . . . Renraku Sensei
. . Psyche x2
. . Reagents, Raw (dram): Psionic x100
. . Renraku Sensei
. . Stim Patch (6) x3
. . Trauma Patch
Weapons:
. . Ceramic/Plasteel Knife [Blade, Acc 5, DV 4P, AP -1]
Contacts:
Felix (Connection 3, Loyalty 2)
Talia (Connection 3, Loyalty 4)
Starting ¥: 3,610 + (4D6 × 100)¥

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Shadowrun © 2005-2016 The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Shadowrun is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.