[banana...nut]

  Hey all! this is my first forum posting so excuse me if my formatting is a little weird lol, I've been lurking around these parts for a while now without posting anything. 
            Anyways, I need help in seeing if this character is viable in terms of... lore  I guess?  The concept  so far:  An awakened human man who's either a regular - or mystic - adept skilled in thrown projectiles and knife fighting. He'll probably end up leaning towards the role of infiltrator/ face as I don't see him wearing much armor at all or using any sort of firearm other than maybe a light pistol. (but I dunno, maybe the whole- light pistol + throwing knives thing is a little redundant)
           
            So far there's nothing really unusual, I know, but I just wanted to get the basic concept out of the way.    The parts that I'm unsure about involve the way this character perceives things astrally and how this character would (potentially) cast spells.  First up is the astral perception-thing: So in order to make this character a special snowflake, I had the idea that one of his eyes would be a normal eye with 'mundane' vision and the other would be black. The character would only be able to perceive astrally with the latter, though. I've thought about maybe giving him the 'dual-natured' quality so that perhaps he could use both eyes simultaneously and sorta 'layer' both perspectives on top of each other. However, it is from my understanding that the 'dual-natured' quality is unique to infected characters such as ghouls and I'm not sure if it would even apply in this situation.  I actually think that a character with the ability to perceive both planes simultaneously would be at a disadvantage due to his mind trying to process the two. Maybe the character would suffer a penalty to perception tests similar to the way one with more than 3 eyes would, due to to the excess of sensory information.

             Another way of doing this would be that either eye would roll back into his head while the other is being used, sorta like a way to switch between perspectives. I would imagine that in this version the character would always have a handicap no matter what due to the fact that he would only see out of one eye at a time.   And next we have the spellcasting part: This character has two cybernetic arms that attach right above the triceps to his flesh-body. And I like the idea of pitch-black pigmented ortho-skin covering his arms due to the contrast. But more to the point: since the character has a pair of cyber arms he would obviously take a hit to his essence but that's ok because I don't really intend to make him super efficient. My question is that if I decide to make him a spellcaster, would the fact that he has cyber arms hinder his ability to cast spells?

            My understanding of the way magic works is that you need line of sight or be able to see your target to cast the spell. (or most spells) But, I have also heard of magic users drawing 'signs' or runes or whatever in the air with their hands to cast spells as well as sight. I don't know if having cyber limbs would effect the casting of spells any more than the general loss of essence would, or even if it would at all, but I thought this character's solution to not being able to use his hands in casting would be to use -well -his feet    He would pretty much do the same thing as he would with his hands but except with more exaggerated movements. And I thought that maybe he could be a practitioner of Capoeira and combine the spellcasting part of his footwork with the unarmed combat portion of a martial art. One that focuses on deception and the concealment of your strikes and such, so in other words it would be perfect to conceal his casting movements in combat to the untrained eye 

          So basically what I'm asking is: a) how would you guys go about the whole- each eye sees a different plane - thing? what penalties would you think are appropriate? what qualities? would dual-natured apply? etc.
                                                                  and
                                                            b) Do spell casters need to have flesh-and-blood hands/arms to cast spells? is the drawing of symbols in the air an actual thing? - is it necessary?
I look forward to any responses  and sorry, I know I'm a little long-winded  but if anybody wants to hear more about the ideas i have for this character or whatever I'd love to tell. And I could also throw this character together in chummer and post it as well. Thank you.

[Bushw4cker]

I'll try to answer B.. then I'll get to A..

The using hands and motions to cast spells is a Geas.

They talk a little about it in 5th Ed. This is from 4th Edition Book, Gesture Geas is in Bold.

Yes, many magicians employ chants, incantations, or physical
gestures in their spellcasting and spirit summoning. It is, in
fact, fairly common. But the point is, it’s not usually necessary.
I, for example, am perfectly capable of casting any spell in my
repertoire without uttering a word or making a move. All I
have to do is concentrate, focusing my mental energy on the
appropriate pattern or formula—and this is true for the majority
of magicians, what they choose to do notwithstanding.
So if you’ve managed to comfort yourself that you’re safe from
magical effects because nobody near you is dancing around
or performing Gregorian chant, I’m afraid you’ll have to alter
your outlook a bit.

Geas
Bonus: 10 BP
Geas (plural geasa) means “bond” in old Gaelic. In
Shadowrun, a geas is a restriction an Awakened character
voluntarily imposes on his own magical power. Perhaps he
could never fully embrace the radical world paradigm of the
Awakened, and the geas is a symbolic gesture to establish one
last tie to reality. Or perhaps he may have suffered a traumatic
loss of power, and he made up the geas to reassure himself

that he’s still got the touch. Regardless of the reason, if an
Awakened character cannot fulfill the terms of the geas, then
he finds it harder to manipulate magic, effectively becoming
less powerful.
When the character takes this quality, he must declare
what type of restriction his geas imposes. A geas must be
something that affects all of an Awakened character’s magical
abilities and should not duplicate an existing limitation.
If the geas consists of a special action, the character must
have performed it within the past 24 hours to fulfill the geas.
Likewise, if the geas consists of avoiding an action, then it is
broken for 24 hours after the character performs the act. (This
type of action must be ordinary and normally necessary in the
character’s life; avoiding a special circumstance that occurs
infrequently with no hardship to the character isn’t much of
a limitation.) A character may take the Geas quality multiple
times, each time specifying a different condition.
If a character breaks the terms of his geas, then his Magic
attribute is effectively reduced by 1 point until the geas is
again fulfilled. If a character has taken multiple geasa, breaking
one geas breaks all of them, and the Magic loss is equal
to the total of all geasa taken. If breaking geasa reduces the
character’s Magic to zero or less, the character temporarily
loses the ability to use any magic and effectively becomes
mundane. An adept whose Magic is reduced by not fulfilling
a geas must choose 1 full Power Point worth of adept powers
per geas; these powers will not function if any of the geasa are
not fulfilled and the adept’s Magic is reduced. Mystic adepts
must also specify if Magic loss from breaking a geas affects
their magic skills or adept powers.
Awakened characters crippled by broken geasa are in a
dangerous position, as there is a real chance that such a loss
could become permanent. If a character suffers a crisis of
confidence while a geas is broken, Magic losses from geasa
become permanent (see Acquiring Geasa in Play, p. 29).
If the gamemaster allows it, geasa may be worked off
with effort and karma in the same way as other Negative
qualities (see p. 265, SR4).
Listed below are some common examples of geasa that
characters can impose on themselves:

Gesture Geas: This geas requires the character to gesture
visibly and freely to work magic. (This does not require
the character to spend an additional action; it’s part and
parcel of the appropriate Magical Skill Test.) If the character
is tied up, cuffed, paralyzed, or otherwise unable to move
hands and arms, the geas is broken. A variation of this geas is
dancing, which also requires the character to be able to move
his legs and body.

[Bushw4cker]

Cyberlimb question.. sounds like you want 2 Lower arm Obvious Limbs 0.45 Essence, 10,000¥.

You might want to consider Changeling Character..

or maybe Dragon Hide Orthoskin, I could see that being Black.

DRAGON HIDE
While many expect this mod to involve scales, that
would be a simple cosmetic modification unconnected
to the actual upgrade. Dragon Hide weaves flame-retardant
materials into the orthoskin, which distributes
thermal impact, prevents blistering, and reduces overall
burning as energy dissipates across the larger surface.
The user gains +2 Body for resisting Fire damage, but
also has a –2 penalty on Perception Tests involving heat
detection.

When you use Astral Perception, you are considered Dual Natured

ASTRAL PERCEPTION
Cost: 1 PP
Activation: Simple Action
This power allows you to bridge the gap between the
physical and astral realms and see into the astral plane.
Since you’re dual-natured while you’re using astral perception,
you can attack astral forms when you use this power.
Follow all the normal rules for astral perception (p. 312).

Being Dual Natured ALL the time, would be dangerous..

DUAL NATURED
Type: P Action: Auto
Range: Self Duration: Always
Dual-natured critters are active in both the astral
plane and the physical plane at the same time. They
can affect both astral and physical beings. They can perceive
and interact with the astral plane like characters
using astral perception (see Astral Perception, p. 312).
Being dual natured, though, is different from astral perception
in that a dual-natured critter always senses both
the physical and astral worlds; they don’t have to shift
back and forth (and, in fact, cannot do so). Their minds
are accustomed to processing both astral and physical
sensations, so dual-natured critters don’t suffer the –2
dice pool modifier for interacting with the physical world
while astrally perceiving.

[Kuirem]

a) Astral Perception is NOT vision and you can do it without eyes. This is mentioned page 312 of the Core Rulebook :

Technically, astral perception isn’t vision—you don’t need working eyes to see in the astral plane—but vision is the easiest metaphor to use.

b) As Bushw4cker said there is no need for flesh limbs to spellcast. Even touch spell will work through cyberlimbs since they become part of your body (you paid them with your essence). Cyberlimbs are weak in general but it could be an interesting concept to have a mage with one limb with high agility that he use to hit with touch spells.

If your mage think that for casting spells he needs to do a capoeira dance it is perfectly fine. As for combining Magic and Martial Arts you can find more on page 173 of Run & Gun but in general Martial Art Techniques do not work with Magic. Subduing is a bit of an exception because all your Touch spells automaticly hit a grabbed opponent so it can be used like that.

The last reference I will give you is page 280 of the Core Rulebook. Even if you can conceal your casting movement if they see a fireball coming from you they will know you are a mage and if you use a more discret spell there is still a chance they perceive it. Anyway there is not really a point to conceal your casting movement when casting movement are not necessary in the first place.

[Bushw4cker]

Changelings get some unique abilities. Here are a few that I thought of when I was reading your character idea.                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                           
DERMAL ALTERATION                                                                                                                           
COST: 3 TO 15 KARMA                                                                                                                           
Characters with this quality possess skin that looks and                                                                                                                           
feels quite different from normal skin and has unique                                                                                                                           
properties. Dermal Alteration is incompatible with any                                                                                                                           
other natural or artificial skin modification.                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                           
Granite Shell (15 Karma): This skin contains massive                                                                                                                           
calcite formations that make it appear grayish and hard                                                                                                                           
as rock. Granite Shell provides +4 armor that functions                                                                                                                           
as Hardened Armor (p. 397, SR5) but is not fully stackable                                                                                                                           
with other worn armor. For Damage Resistance                                                                                                                           
Tests; though Granite Shell does not stack with worn armor                                                                                                                           
it does still provide 2 automatic hits from the Hardened                                                                                                                           
Armor (p. 397, SR5).                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                           
METAGENIC (ATTRIBUTE) - AGILITY - If you want to be good with Throwing Knives..                                                                                                                            
IMPROVEMENT                                                                                                                           
COST: 15 KARMA                                                                                                                           
A character with Metagenic Improvement possesses a                                                                                                                           
genetic expression that enhances the genes connected                                                                                                                           
to the development of a certain Mental or Physical                                                                                                                           
attribute. In game terms, the minimum and maximum                                                                                                                           
values for one of the character’s attributes (as listed                                                                                                                           
in the Metatype Attribute Table, p. 66, SR5) are both                                                                                                                           
raised by 1. This quality may only be taken once per                                                                                                                           
attribute, but it is cumulative with the Exceptional Attribute                                                                                                                           
quality (p. 72, SR5).                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                           
STRIKING SKIN PIGMENTATION                                                                                                                           
BONUS: 4 KARMA                                                                                                                           
The character’s skin takes on an unusual color, either in                                                                                                                           
its entirety or in patches. For example, a character may                                                                                                                           
acquire brown leopard spots across her neck, shoulders,                                                                                                                           
and arms, or a character’s skin may turn entirely                                                                                                                           
orange, blue, or golden. The value of this quality is                                                                                                                           
contingent on the striking skin color being obvious and                                                                                                                           
visible, and affecting a character’s chances of being                                                                                                                           
noticed, recognized, or encountering prejudice. Due to                                                                                                                           
the uniqueness and ease of identifying these features                                                                                                                           
on characters, all Matrix Search Tests and tests to identify                                                                                                                           
or locate the character get a +2 dice pool modifier.                                                                                                                           
This metagenic quality is incompatible with bioware                                                                                                                           
skin augmentations.                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                           
THIRD EYE                                                                                                                           
BONUS: 3 KARMA                                                                                                                           
A third eye appears in the middle of the character’s                                                                                                                           
forehead. This eye incurs no vision modifiers, except                                                                                                                           
that the character may still perceive depth with one eye                                                                                                                           
closed. Even when the third eye is closed, an onlooker                                                                                                                           
can detect its presence with a Perception (2) Test. Third                                                                                                                           
Eye is incompatible with Cyclopean Eye (p. 120) and                                                                                                                           
incurs social modifiers (see Freaks sidebar, p. 123).                                                                                                                           

[Kuirem]

                                                                           
METAGENIC (ATTRIBUTE) - AGILITY - If you want to be good with Throwing Knives..

Strength is much better for throwing weapons as you need it for everything : range, damage, accuracy. 5/6 AGI + 6 Throwing Weapon + Specialization is enough to hit. You will even get extra dice if you have a smartlink. Even a 1 STR difference can easily reduce the range from Long to Extreme and apply an extra -3 dice so yes, you need STR.

[Bushw4cker]

Character I made few years ago.

He has Cursed Quality (Taken from 4th Ed.), That's why he has all the cyberware, every spell he cast ends up burning.

Magic Fingers.. Hands Start on Fire

Analyze Magic - Eyes start on Fire.

Euphoria (Orgasm) .. well you get the idea..

That's also why he has Lack of Confidence Quality and Alchemy Spells.

High Pain Tolerance because once you've had your %$#@ on fire.. getting shot doesn't seem so bad anymore.

Cursed
Bonus: 5 BP per rating (max rating 4)
Cursed characters seem to have a love-hate relationship
with magic. Though they are Awakened, magic has a way of
turning against them—spells go wrong, spirits get upset, wards
collapse, and adept powers fizzle. For every 5 BP gained with
this quality, reduce the number of 1s necessary to get a glitch
(p. 55, SR4) whenever that character is using magic. For example,
a dice pool of 6 and the Cursed quality at rating 2 would
trigger a glitch if a single 1 is rolled on the test. The gamemaster
may also require the character to make a test for operations
that would otherwise succeed automatically (such as passing
through a ward the character created himself ), simply to see
whether or not a glitch occurs.
When describing the effects of a Curse-induced glitch, gamemasters
should play up the oddity of the magical mishap. A magician
summoning a water spirit might suddenly find his clothes on
fire, or an adept with Improved Reflexes might suddenly find that
his shoelaces are inexplicably tied together. Note that Cursed is a
Negative quality—its effects should be hindering to the character
(and entertaining to others). The Cursed quality should not be
seen as an “offensive ability” where the character can cause wards
to collapse by touching them. The character is the one Cursed—if
he’s hoping for one effect, the opposite should occur.

This was made using my old character sheet designs.

[Reaver]

Others have covered the major points, I will just point out a few others things.

First off, as an Awakened, your Essence is a major factor into just how powerful your spells and adept abilities are. This is because any decrease to Essence directly affects your magic rating, to the next whole number! Thus getting even .05 essence of bio/cyberware reduces your magic rating by 1! (But you do now have 0.95 essence you can use to install new ware without hurting your magic rating any more).

As mentioned by others, astral perception is not linked to actual eye sight. You can be blind, even have your eyes plucked out of your head, and still perceive the astral. (This is why the 'blind' negative quality generates LESS karma for awakened then with mundanes).

(Back to cyberware). Lower arms replacements do not really help you much, as the only time a cyberlimb's stats come into play is when they are DIRECTLY used in a test.... AKA exactly when do you use you lower arms for anything? (Answer: grip tests only. Throwing a punch is upper arm/shoulder work. Shooting a gun is again upper arm/shoulder work). Lower arms don't do much other then give you capacity to store gear/cyber in.... and thus you have to wonder if it is worth the negative effects to your magic rating...

Spell casting is an act of pure will. No movement is actually required. However, there are many mages that do use gestures, chants, dances, and even  wands to cast spells..... but this is more of a learned response then needed. ("Every movie I have ever seen has the nage wiggling his fingers to cast a spell, so I must do that too!" Mentality)

You have an interesting concept and Idea, but be aware it hinders you more then helps. If you are OK with that, then fly away!

[Bushw4cker]

Others have covered the major points, I will just point out a few others things.

First off, as an Awakened, your Essence is a major factor into just how powerful your spells and adept abilities are. This is because any decrease to Essence directly affects your magic rating, to the next whole number! Thus getting even .05 essence of bio/cyberware reduces your magic rating by 1! (But you do now have 0.95 essence you can use to install new ware without hurting your magic rating any more).

As mentioned by others, astral perception is not linked to actual eye sight. You can be blind, even have your eyes plucked out of your head, and still perceive the astral. (This is why the 'blind' negative quality generates LESS karma for awakened then with mundanes).

(Back to cyberware). Lower arms replacements do not really help you much, as the only time a cyberlimb's stats come into play is when they are DIRECTLY used in a test.... AKA exactly when do you use you lower arms for anything? (Answer: grip tests only. Throwing a punch is upper arm/shoulder work. Shooting a gun is again upper arm/shoulder work). Lower arms don't do much other then give you capacity to store gear/cyber in.... and thus you have to wonder if it is worth the negative effects to your magic rating...

Spell casting is an act of pure will. No movement is actually required. However, there are many mages that do use gestures, chants, dances, and even  wands to cast spells..... but this is more of a learned response then needed. ("Every movie I have ever seen has the nage wiggling his fingers to cast a spell, so I must do that too!" Mentality)

You have an interesting concept and Idea, but be aware it hinders you more then helps. If you are OK with that, then fly away!

I would stick with character concept you like over trying to worry about 1 point of Magic, which you can later raise with Initiation.

Lower Arm Cyberlimbs, a few things that can help:

Armor-2, this is 4 Armor that stacks with Worn Armor. Armor never hurts mage, especially when everyone tries to geek the mage first.
Shock Hands. Better than most touch spells.
Cyberholster. Store your Foci, Fetishes, Throwing knives.. ect.

Strength is much better for throwing weapons as you need it for everything : range, damage, accuracy. 5/6 AGI + 6 Throwing Weapon + Specialization is enough to hit. You will even get extra dice if you have a smartlink. Even a 1 STR difference can easily reduce the range from Long to Extreme and apply an extra -3 dice so yes, you need STR.

If you're an Adept I would say take Strength Boost-4, and max out Agility, because you're going to use Agility for A LOT more for skill tests, especially if you're looking to be Infiltrator.

[banana...nut]

Thanks for the replies!
       Ohhh I didn't realize that every person capable of astral perception was technically dual-natured, I thought it referred to a person/critter that could only see into the astral plane. And I guess the whole switching perspectives with either eyes wouldn't really be possible lol. I actually remember hearing somewhere that an individual who has lost his mundane vision could still perceive things astrally, like Reaver said. Idk why that didn't occur to me lol.

And yeah in regards to the cyber I might as well go with full obvious. I mean, there's only 3 or so more inches to the shoulders from what I originally wanted- so why not? especially once you consider the benefits. With the Capoeira thing I came up with the idea as I was typing up the post so it wasn't very well thought out  But the idea of a Geass is interesting: I had seen it in the rule book before but I never bothered to look into it. Something self imposed by the practitioner isn't something I would want for this character - When Bushw4cker mentioned perhaps going the route of a changeling It gave me some good ideas. I wanted this character to be more of a weirdo (hence the stuff with his eyes) and have that whole 'works-with-the-hand-he's-been-dealt' kinda thing going on.
 
      Striking skin pigmentation is a good suggestion because I envisioned this person as having 'faux-eye' patterns on his back, like the kind moths do to deter predators. Originally I thought these would be mundane tattoos, but now I wonder if something like Striking skin pigmentation would allow for patterns like that?

[Bushw4cker]

      Striking skin pigmentation is a good suggestion because I envisioned this person as having 'faux-eye' patterns on his back, like the kind moths do to deter predators. Originally I thought these would be mundane tattoos, but now I wonder if something like Striking skin pigmentation would allow for patterns like that?

Yes you could.

[Reaver]

Fun biological fact:

Humans are naturally stripped

Yes, its not very visable in 99% of the population due to reactive measures our bodies take to protect us from UV radiation, however those with skin disorders are not so lucky. No matter the disorder, they show the same 'stripping effect'.....


What that has to do with SR? Dunno.... but its just one of those random bits of knowledge I have floating around in my head.... (like how camel and bovine urine was used as an anti-biotic, along with honey in ancient times)

[Thanael]

Stripped? Sure. As long as they're not striped.

As for the changeling powers there was one negative surge effect  called Extravagant Eyes in 4e,which would fit for your described weird eyes. In 5e it's only in the Hobgoblins meta genetic trait list and no where else. It was considered quite OP in 4e though as it had no real negative effect.

Here's the 4e description

Extravagant Eyes
Bonus: 5 BP
The character’s irises, whites, or possibly even entire eyes
take on an unusual color. For example, a character may develop
bright green irises, both eyes may turn light silver, or one eye may
turn white and one black. Many onlookers will simply assume the
character has cybereyes. Altered eye color has no effect on the
character’s vision. This effect is incompatible with cybereyes or
bioware eyes.

OTOH 5e has Low Light vision (with cat eyes) as a negative metagenetic quality with a social impact, even though bioware cat eyes don't have the same social effect. (Go figure...)




Btw all the weird eyes, black arms, capoeira gives me a little bit of a Voodoo vibe. Maybe you want to look into the Vodou tradition (Street grimoire p.50) and maybe later the Channeling metamagic.

For an adept this is only fluff mostly (except when you make him a serviteur but the you need a conjurer ally). But for a mystic adept I think you could do weird things with loa/possession spirits riding him. Also alchemy.

Maybe the arms are just tattooed ? ( not quite enough for the Distinctive Style quality...)