[Nakedpanda]

I am extremely new to shadowrun and I'm looking for tips and advice when creating a combat oriented mage like,  what gear to chose ,best way to allocate my skills , and what are the best qualities


Edit: What are the spells you would recommend

[Bushw4cker]

Attributes- Two drain attributes as your highest.. If you're Human Hermetic mage then you would want Logic 5, Willpower 6 (You can only have 1 Attribute to Maximum.) Reaction and Intuition are good for Initiative. Don't skimp on other Attributes.

Magic- Rating 6

Edge -at least 3

Skills- Spellcasting 6 (Combat Spells +2), Counterspelling 6, Perception 3 to 6 (Visual +2)

Focused Concentration is decent quality if you want to sustain spell like Combat Sense without losing -2 dice

Gear doesn't matter that much.  Foci can help with Magic Abilities, but they are expensive and cost Karma. Don't forget Magic Lodge Force 6.

[Glyph]

I agree with Bushw4cker, mostly, although I would add summoning: 6 and assensing: 2 or so to the essential skills.

Mentor spirit is a great quality, too, because you can typically get a bonus to your most favored spell/spirit with it.

Overall - mages have a glut of magical skills that you can take, but you don't need all of them.  It's like being a street samurai versus a weapons specialist - the weapons specialist may be slightly more versatile, but pays for it by not being as fast, tough, or effective as the street samurai.

Priority character creation means that every level of priority you pick means a lower level of it somewhere else.  If you get your essential skills and have some points left over, wait before splurging on "extra" skills - if you change skills to a lower priority, you will have more Attributes, resources, etc.  Look at gains and losses, though - sometimes it is better to have some "extras" than to marginally improve another area.

[Kuirem]

Keep in mind that Magician can do a LOT more in fight than throwing Fireballs. Anyone can pick up a grenade or use a gun and deal damage pretty close to yours.

You can buff your allies (4+2D6 initiative on your street sam is huge), place barriers around, mind control your enemies, turn invisible, summon a pair of invisible hands that can shoot or punch your enemies and much more! Personally I think that Combat magic specialized mage are a bit boring, to not say suboptimal, when you see all the possibilities a magician offers so do not limit yourself, the sky (and your GM) is the limit!

[Coyote]

As a note, if you're making a combat-oriented Mage, you REALLY want to pick one of the traditions that uses Intuition as its Drain stat rather than Charisma or Logic. Mage/Face and Mage/Decker (or Mage/Rigger) may have more use for a Charisma or Logic-based tradition, but combat-oriented Mages want to use Intuition as their Drain stat so that they can improve their Drain Resistance, Defense, and Initiative by improving a single attribute.

[Medicineman]

@ Nakedpanda
Did You consider playing a mystic Adept instaed of a Mage ?
A Mystic Adept can sling Spells, summon(and / or bind) Spirits AND can use Adept Powers to enhance his (HTH ,Melee or Gun)combat Abilities....
He lacks Astral Projection though and needs tons of Karma and Years of Play to develop but he starts quite powerfull .

HokaHey
Medicineman

[Bushw4cker]

I would even recommend he try Aspected Mage (Sorcerer), especially if he's new to Shadowrun.  NakedPanda you're a bloke right?

Of course I do not recommend Aspected Mage if you're using Priority system to make character. I only recommend if you're going to use Point Buy System (KarmaGen) from Run Faster Book.

ASPECTED MAGICIANS
• Aspected magicians are a limited form of magician.
• Aspected magicians do not astrally project.
• Aspected magicians can astrally perceive.
• Aspected magicians must choose one, and only one, of the
following three Skills/Skill Groups.
• Sorcery (Spellcasting and related skills)  <-- This is one you want!
• Conjuring (Summoning and related skills)
• Enchanting (Alchemy and related skills)
• Aspected magicians cannot perform any of the magical skills
associated with the two groups they did not select.
• Aspected magicians can only learn Counterspelling if they
take the skills to be a spellcaster.
• Aspected magicians can follow mentor spirits.
• At character creation, aspected magicians who cast spells,
perform rituals, or create alchemical preparations may know
a maximum number of formulae from each group equal to
their Magic Rating x 2 (i.e., Magic Rating of 4 allows 8 spells, 8
rituals, 8 alchemical preparations)


One thing you might want to consider is making a few of your spells Fetish Exclusive (Especially the higher Drain ones..)

This is from Street Grimoire

FETISH

Such spells have to be learned specifically with
the fetish, meaning that a character would have to learn
a spell twice if he wants to cast it both with and without
a fetish. A magiciancasting a fetish spell either through
Spellcasting orRitual Spellcasting can reduce the Drain
Value by 2 (to a minimum of 2).

Fetish Availability 4  Cost: 2,000¥

[JmOz01]

Attributes- Two drain attributes as your highest.. If you're Human Hermetic mage then you would want Logic 5, Willpower 6 (You can only have 1 Attribute to Maximum.) Reaction and Intuition are good for Initiative. Don't skimp on other Attributes.

Magic- Rating 6

Edge -at least 3

Skills- Spellcasting 6 (Combat Spells +2), Counterspelling 6, Perception 3 to 6 (Visual +2)

Focused Concentration is decent quality if you want to sustain spell like Combat Sense without losing -2 dice

Gear doesn't matter that much.  Foci can help with Magic Abilities, but they are expensive and cost Karma. Don't forget Magic Lodge Force 6.

First a few things here...While right in concept, I would change a couple things

Attributes are reversed, willpower should be 5 and the draining attribute (Charisma, Intuition or Logic) should be 6.  A body of 3 as well...

I have found that Assensing is better than perception for a magic based character, and if you do a build with Resources E you can wait on the Magic Lodge or start with a level 1 and build up

[JmOz01]

I hope you do not mind, but I created a quick Mystic Adept to give you some Ideas.

Cross

• One of hundreds of thousands of humans living in Puyallup.
• Devout Catholic
• Lives at the church where he works part time (Janitorial)
• Turned to shadowrunning to help the church

Cross
METATYPE: HUMAN
B 3, A 3, R 3/5, S 2, W 5, L 3, I 3, C 6, ESS 6, EDG 5, M 6
Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 11
Armor: 12
Limits: Physical 4, Mental 5, Social 8
Physical Initiative: 6/8+3D6
Active Skills: Assensing 5, Automatics (Machine Pistols +2) 6, Counterspelling 6, Influence Group 2, Perception 3, Sneaking (Urban +2) 3, Spellcasting (Combat Spells +2) 6, Summoning 6
Knowledge Skills: Seattle Sprawl (Pullypup +2) 3, Theology (Christian +2) 3
Languages: English N, Or'Zet (Street +2) 3
Qualities: Christian Theurgist Mystic Adept, Code of Honor: Thug Life, the Code of the Streets (11dicepool vs. 4), Day Job (1,000¥/month, 10 hrs/week), Focused Concentration (3), Mentor Spirit: Magician Powers: Wise Warrior, Magician Powers, Quick Healer, SINner (National SIN): UCAS
Spells: Detect Life, Heal, Increase Noise, Influence, Levitate, Lightning Bolt, Magic Fingers, Manabolt, Stunbolt, Trid Phantasm
Adept Powers: Astral Perception, Combat Sense (2), Danger Sense (1), Enhanced Perception (2), Improved Reflexes (2), Linguistics (6dicepool (Varies))
Gear:
. . Armor Jacket
. . Certified Credstick, Standard
. . Concealable Holster
. . Flashlight
. . Identity: Specify Name w/ (0 months) Day Job, (1 month) Squatter Lifestyle
. . Identity: Specify Name w/ Fake License: Concealed Weapon (1), Fake License: Magic (1), Fake License: Weapon (1), Fake SIN (1)
. . Sony Angel
Weapons:
. . Ares Crusader II [Machine Pistol, Acc 5, DV 7P, AP –, SA/BF, RC 2, 40 (c)] w/ Gas-Vent System (2), (40x) Regular Ammo, Smartgun System, Internal
. . Knife [Blade, Acc 5, DV 3P, AP -1]
. . Survival Knife [Blade, Acc 5, DV 4P, AP -1]
Contacts:
Church Pastor (Connection 2, Loyalty 2)
Fixer (Connection 3, Loyalty 2)
Sprawl Ganger (Connection 1, Loyalty 2)
Street Doc (Connection 4, Loyalty 2)
Starting ¥: 2D6 × 40¥

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.

Some of the options are from other books, if you don't have them I can post summaries of what they are

Some of the choices are because they amused me (A religious runner using a Sony Angel and an Ares Crusader...)

I did "reskin" the Code Of The Thug Life to being a church based thing (He gives half his money to the church, always wears a cross)

You might want to change his spec on Combat spells to manipulation instead (This will get him 14 dice in all his spells but Detect life and Trid Phantasim, his combat spells right now are at 16 dice)

After a couple runs he will want to upgrade his fake SIN (Rating 4; 12,400 Nuyen)and buy some glasses or contacts with Image link, Smartlink, and Flare Comps (2,275 Nuyen for contacts; 1,975 for Glasses)

[JmOz01]

I will now post my thoughts on what I did and why.  I actually am a lot more organic with character creation, flipping back and forth to different sections, but am organizing my thoughts in order of the character sheet to make it easier to follow along. 

First was Character Concept: A Combat mage.  At first I was going to go with a Magician, however I feel Init is the live or die attribute and while there are spells that could have covered this, I like the certain of adept powers, so Mystic Adept.  Loose some Karma and Astral Projection is a reasonable loss to me.

I then looked at magical traditions, wanting to do something either Charisma or Intuition based (Help with social skills or Perception and Init).  I decided on Christian, as it would allow some interesting hooks.

Next choice was character creation option: I went with Standard as I did not know what options were available to you.  If I were using sum-10 I would have probably not done anything different.

Race (D)
I knew I would have to have Race and resources in D-E, I chose D for race as I do not feel mages need much in resources.  However this limited me to human or elf.  I like humans, I like edge, if you live or die by init, then edge is your safety net.  However Elf would not be bad here as it would add 2 points to your drain attribute and 1 point to your agility.  I decided edge would be more valuable. 

Attributes (B)
I first started with maxing out his Drain Attributes, then put everything else to 3.  I was running one short so removed it from Strength.  Mages do not need to be strong, but I wanted to make sure I was not to poor in attributes

Skills (C)
I feel that the 4 most important skills for a mage are Spellcasting, Counterspelling, Summoning, and Assensing so they went on the sheet.  Everyone should know stealth, a weapon skill, perception, and some etiquette.  Started playing around with skills.  Assensing took a minor hit, and did not have enough to go around to everything, but maxed out the basic mage skills and his weapon skill.  Put on some specs, etc... You can see the final product.  Note that I knew he did not need a lot of etiquette so I used my 2 skill group points which also got be Negotiation and Leadership (Which was lucky when I got to qualities)

I knew the character would be resources hurting so I decided that he would be from a poorer side of Seattle.  This helped define his knowledge skills. 

Qualities
I feel that the best quality for a mage is Mentor Spirit, so started there.  I also knew that I would only spend 20 points on Qualities as I need 30 for my Adept powers.  With 15 to go I went to my other go to for mages: Focused concentration, only being able to afford level 3, and with 3 karma left over I decided that Quick Healer would be nice.  I already knew he would have the Heal spell, and felt it went thematically with the religious angle. 

I then looked at mentor spirit choices, knowing I wanted a combat mage I found Wise warrior to be a good thematic choice.  The +2 to combat spells, and disadvantage really drew me towards it.  The +2 to leadership was a nice bonus and made me glad I had used my skill group points the way I did.

For the negative Qualities, well my sense of humor kicked in and I decided that he would be a SINer (as all are in the eyes of God .  Went with National.  I also liked the idea of him squatting at a church, so decided that he works at a church to part time with some unskilled labor.  I also liked the idea of a code of honor for him due to the religious angle, however none quite fit right, so went with Thug Life, but reskined it a bit to represent him tithing and displaying his religion. 

Magic (A)
Adept powers came first: I knew that I wanted him to have Astral Perception and Enhanced Reflexes (2 or 3).  So starting with those on the sheet I went through keeping the basic concept of a Combat Mage with a religious angle in mind.  I chose Linguist because I thought it would be a fun power for him (Speaking in tongues).  I also liked Combat Sense and Danger Sense (Divine protection).  With one Power Point Left I debated but decided that he needed some help in Perception, so 2 points of enhanced Perception it is

Spells were next.  I looked at the recommended spells for a christian and liked most of them so put them on the sheet (except Increase limits).  I then went to a few of my go to spells (Magic Fingers and Trid Phatasim).  4 spells remaining, started looking over things, knowing he is a combat mage I chose two more combat spells that would give different options (Stun and Mana bolt) That left two spells and chose levitate (walking on water) and increase noise (I thought of it as a good option as a subtle miracle type thing)

Resources (E)
UGG, 6k in nuyen...not much.

First Basic gear, armor, comlink, and weapon...Ok, an Armored Jacket, always worth every nuyen (1k...ouch, but needed).  I had decided that he would use a Machine Pistol, nice balance of die, concealibility, etc...My sense of humor kicked in again, I like the name of the Crusader...plus it is one of the nicest Machine Pistols in the game...a little pricey and money is tight so just one clip of regular ammo (910 nuyen...more ouch).  And a comlink, metalink it will have to be, but wait the Sony Angel is the same comlink (Stat wise) but has that religious angle, going with that instead.  At this point I have spent 2,010 nuyen... only 3,990 left.

Next is a fake ID, i debated on letting him just use his SINner but decided it was better to have a fake one that he used on runs so a fake ID;  2.5K for a level 1...ugg.  Then licences, wanted to practice magic, a concealed weapon, and weapon, another 600.  This left me a total of 890.

Life style is next, new I wanted him to be a squatter (at the church).  Looking at options however I decided that it was a comfortable squat with decent security so upped those.  Total lifestyle cost 600.  290 Nuyen left

Went back to weapons, I like survival knives.  Useful gear in the handle, can use to defend yourself in melee.  100 nuyen it is.  190 left

Decided on a concealed holster for the machine pistol (Why advertise)...40 left. 

Realized, no cred stick.  35 left

Decided a flashlight to hold him over till he can get some low light glasses, leaving 10.  Might as well pick up a second knife for the boot...

Finally contacts
Well a fixer is a no brainier. Decided he was still new to the streets, so loyalty 2, also decided his Fixer was a pretty local type guy so contacts 3 (Probably should change this to a 4 and reduce street doc)

A Priest made a lot of sense, so added it

A ganger was next, due to where he lives

Finally a street doc.  Honestly if I wasn't rushing he would have become a nurse and moved the Contact points around to make the priest and ganger more loyal and the fixer more connected).

I hope this LONG post helped you see how I do it...

[dposluns]

Lots of good feedback here already, I'll add my two cents:

It's a fine roleplaying choice to make a combat mage, but it's definitely limiting yourself gameplay-wise. Maybe it's the best fit for your group; you've already got an all-purpose mage or something. But mages are incredibly versatile in ways that most other characters aren't and if all you want to do is join them in dealing boxes of damage to enemies then you're probably doing a disservice to your team and definitely missing out on a lot of fun opportunities.

For spellcasting, Manipulation (and to a lesser degree Illusion) is definitely more versatile and can incapacitate enemies more effectively than combat spells. Health spells let you do things like increase your initiative passes (with Increase Reflexes) and buff your stats (with Increase Attribute) which lets you do things like act quicker, resist spellcasting drain, etc.

But if what you want to do is handle every situation with as much efficacy as possible, conjuring Spirits is where it's at. They can deal the damage directly for you, but they can also do a myriad of other things (including conceal you, make you run ridiculously fast, mentally influence others and even cast your own spells for you). And if you're going full-on Magician, there's no reason you can't both conjure spirits and sling magic, if you've allocated the skills for it.

I'm not advising you to change your design if focusing on combat is what works for you narratively, but I think most people new to Shadowrun are going to be immediately drawn to combat magic (because who doesn't want to shoot fire from their fingertips and fry every enemy they can see with electricity) and that's fine, but Shadowrun is also all about legwork, infiltration and creative solutions to sudden problems, and you don't want to shortchange yourself in those areas.

[dposluns]

Attributes are reversed, willpower should be 5 and the draining attribute (Charisma, Intuition or Logic) should be 6.

Note that if you want to buff with the Increase Attribute spell you probably want Willpower 6 and the other stat at 5, then you can have either Focused Concentration 5 or get a Force 5 Sustaining Focus (after chargen) and not have to pay a sustain penalty to keep the buff on yourself. Then see what else you can accomplish with your 9 Charisma, Intuition or Logic...

[deathwishjoe]

If you want to buff yourself as a mage I feel spirits of man are the superior choice over foci and focused concentration. As a service you can have a spirit use a spirit power on you and spirits of man get innate spell ability for every three force you summon them at. They can sustain the power for as long as they are around which if they are summoned and not bound is usually till sunrise or sunset. Things get pretty crazy though once you use bound spirits for this so I don't recommend this.  A force  6 or 9 spirit can add 4 to your drain stats and keep up improved initiative I think it is.

[Whiskeyjack]

I don't get the appeal of fireball mages, aka "I shoot a gun that bites me for trying," but then again I presume a lot of people who want that are new and don't get the mechanics and therefore don't see how it doesn't actually work great vs debuffing or whatnot.

I mean, seriously, you can carry a gun and be a walking swiss army knife of utility, and contribute more to most fights than throwing one fireball and then being focus-fired.

[Glyph]

I don't get the appeal of fireball mages, aka "I shoot a gun that bites me for trying," but then again I presume a lot of people who want that are new and don't get the mechanics and therefore don't see how it doesn't actually work great vs debuffing or whatnot.

I mean, seriously, you can carry a gun and be a walking swiss army knife of utility, and contribute more to most fights than throwing one fireball and then being focus-fired.

The same reason that some new players prefer street samurai over riggers.  For a lot of players, it is more fun to play someone who actively participates in combat, even if that is not the most optimal choice.  Support/party-buffing characters (mages who cast spells to buff or heal the combat types, technomancers with machine sprites), or characters who command pets/minions (mages with spirits, riggers with multiple drones) are both effective kinds of characters, but some people would rather just play someone who tosses lightning bolts.

But, (to also address something dposluns said earlier) if you are a mage, even one focused on combat, keep in mind that 3 or 4 combat spells is all you really need to start out with, leaving plenty of slots left to take spells that can do things like hide you, disguise you, move things, read minds, etc.  You can also summon spirits (who have lots of abilities of their own), read people's auras, scout in the astral plane, and block hostile spells.  So even if you put your main focus in combat spells, you will be far from a one-trick pony.