[Chalkarts]

Most of my characters are made for concept over stats.  I like to RP flawed characters, it makes the game more challenging.

I’m brewing one now that blends heavy cyber with magic. 

A mage that ended up having to replace large portions of her body, weakening her magic substantially but she’s a street Sam that can counterspell.

My question,
Would a low Essence affect astral perception?
Can you see astral if your eyes are cyber since you can’t just do 1 eyes full cyber the other natural, right?

I know the spells would be weak and the drain bad but I think it would be a fun character.

Any thoughts on making it badass within the parameters I’ve discussed?

[Michael Chandra]

Astral Perception doesn't involve your physical eyes at all. This is why even with Reduced Sight or Blindness (which gives less karma than Reduced Sight II if you're a mage) you can still astrally perceive just fine.

The biggest nuisance will be that Essence loss impacts the dicepools of Health spells. This impacts Increase Reflexed, Increase [Attribute], Heal and so on.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Using reagents would be a way to make low-force spells perform like they were high-force spells.  Plus they're easier to clean up, afterwards!

[Chalkarts]

The biggest nuisance will be that Essence loss impacts the dicepools of Health spells. This impacts Increase Reflexed, Increase [Attribute], Heal and so on.

I’m making it an aspected mage focused on sorcery.
I want her to have a weak heal
So I’m ok with the ding, I also took focused concentration to help with the drain.
I’ll also have an ok stun bolt and a good counterspell.
I mostly want the counterspell.
She also has mentor spirit bear so she can rage lol.
She’ll only have an essence/magic rating of 3 due to her augmentation which will now include a skull with eyes and ears since she can still see astral.

[Chalkarts]

Using reagents would be a way to make low-force spells perform like they were high-force spells.  Plus they're easier to clean up, afterwards!

Ooh good idea.
I was also thinking of a weapon focus so he could fight astral things.

She’ll be a bear shaman

[Chalkarts]

I’m kinda stuck in the character creation and needed some advice.

I can give her a full arm, leg and skull with a built in cyber deck and sweet eyes/ears

Or I can go 1 arm, both legs, basic eyes, no deck

Both options drop the essence to 3 so my magic would be 3 which I can live with.

Which do you think would be better?

[Michael Chandra]

I'd consider two legs with some modification that lets you move faster. Cyberlimb Agility doesn't impact movement rate, so some mods to boost movement would be nice for a Street Sam. And Deck for a streetsam/mage would be stretching your skillset too much.

[Chalkarts]

I'd consider two legs with some modification that lets you move faster. // And Deck for a streetsam/mage would be stretching your skillset too much.

Is there a speed mod?

And since most of my physical attributes would come from the limbs I was going to treat my str and agi as dump stats so I could better prioritize skills.  I was thinking skills B.  She would need a high counterspell rating, i don’t care about the sorcery as much, shell be all weak healing and location spells.  Aspected mage (C)

Attributes last, focus on body, willpower, and logic
I was hoping that would give me enough skills to put a few points into the decking skills.  I’m kinda trying for a Swiss Army knife character.  That little blade isn’t very powerful, but you could still shank a squirrel.
She’d be well armored, high counterspell, decent melee with a spell focus sword, decking functional enough to unlock doors and divert cameras.  Utility decking.

[Michael Chandra]

There's stuff like Centaur lower body, digigrade legs, skates and skimmers in Chrome Flesh to modify rates. The first two cost more essence so pricy, but Skates and Skimmers merely cost capacity.

[Chalkarts]

There's stuff like Centaur lower body, digigrade legs

Those things sound cool but wouldn’t really fit for the character background, not basic enough lol.

Since she hadn’t been on the job long, the company that replaced her parts considered it a favor to give her customized str/agi 4, alphaware limbs as severance.

[Michael Chandra]

Then you'll want to consider Skates or Skimmers. They increase your movement rates but reduce your Physical Limit while they're deployed. Those are quite doable, especially Skates, which take 2 Capacity and are 2x250 for a set. They add 50%. Skimmers double but take [4], are 2x2000 and give a penalty of 2 PL instead of 1.

[Chalkarts]

I like the idea of the skates.
But that brings about the question of what’s my movement based on? My agi 4 legs or my agi 2 stat?

[Michael Chandra]

Your agi stat, which is why I advised some movement buffs. Cyberlimb Agility is for tests only, and movement rates aren't a test. So unless some book/errata has overridden that, even when it involves your legs you only use your natural Agility. (Mind you, a GM could rule otherwise.) So you'd have 4m/8m as rates without buffs, 6m/12m with Skates, 8m/16m with Skimmers, per Combat Turn.

Physical Limit also doesn't care about cyberlimbs, though there are kinds of mods that give bonuses or penalties to limits on certain tests.

Edit: Let me check my blog...
https://shadowland.blog/2015/08/02/cyberlimbs-1/
https://shadowland.blog/2015/08/02/cyberlimbs-2/

"Rule: Cyberlegs their Agility applies for Movement Rate" <--- One of the optional cyberlimb houserules I designed that I actually agree with (I dislike most cyberlimb houserules I designed based on people's feedback)

[Sphinx]

I like the idea of the skates.
But that brings about the question of what’s my movement based on? My agi 4 legs or my agi 2 stat?

Your Agility 4 legs.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

I like the idea of the skates.
But that brings about the question of what’s my movement based on? My agi 4 legs or my agi 2 stat?

Your Agility 4 legs.

Or your agility 4 legs averaged with your body's 2.  If your core was irrelevant to running, sprinters wouldn't be ripped.