[rasmusnicolaj]

Hi

Any advice is welcome 

We use 500 point build and there are no restrictions on the number of positive qualities.

Elf

Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 1
Charisma 6
Intuition 5
Logic 4
Willpower 5

Essence 6
Magic 6
Initiative 8
Edge 3

Positive Qualities:
Magician (Shaman)
Spirit Mentor (Cat)
Focused Concentration 2
Aptitude (Spellcasting)
Restricted Gear (Power Foci)

Negative Qualities:
Addiction (Mild, Alcohol)
Sensitive System
Scorched
SIN'er (criminal ID)

Skills:
First Aid 1
Automatics (specialization) 1
Assensing 1
Perception 1
Spellcasting 6
Counterspelling 4
Summoning 3
Binding 3
Survival (Urban) 1
Infiltration 1 (+2 from totem)
Con 1
Dodge 1

English (city speak) N
Siux 4
Japanese 4
Spanish 4
Sperethriel 4
Shamanistic Magical Lore 4
Seattle Street Gangs 2
Seattle Talismongers 2
Indian Mythology 2

Spells:
Stunball
Heal
Improved Invisibility
Stealth
Stunbolt
Powerbolt
Increased Reflexes
Stench
Trid Phantasm
Physical Mask
Levitate

Contacts:
Bartender 2/2

Lifestyle: Squatter

Gear:
Power foci R4, Counterspell foci R2, Fake ID R5, Ares Alpha (Gas Vent 3, Shock Pad, Underbarrel Weight, Chameleon Coating, Personalized Grip), 4 extra clips, Concealed holster, 100x ammunition for ares alpha, Common clothing, Leather jacket, Sony Emperor Commlink with subvocal microphone  and upgraded response to 4 (Runs hidden), OS: Novatech Navi (Optimization: Browse), Powersuit (Analyize 3, Browse 4, Command 2, Edit 4, Purge 4, Scan 2, Encrypt 1), Pilot Agent R4, Metalink With Vector Sim (Public . Fake ID), Flashlight, 2x magnesium torch, Gas mask, Knife, Medkit R6, Rappelling gloves, Contact Lenses (Thermographics, Flare Compensation, Image Link, Smartlink, Magnification, Vision Enhancement R3), Shamanistic Lodge Materials R2, 3 bottles of synthetic whisky, pack of smokes,

As a note I only has access to the core rulebook and street magic.

Regards
Rasmus

[Onion Man]

If there are no limits to positive qualities, take restricted gear at least one time and turn that into an r4 power focus.  Even if you don't have a good use for it at character creation, taking it 2 more times and holding those two gear purchases off for the future is definitely worthwhile, even if all it does is keep you from having to spend weeks getting something that would really help your run right now.

[baronspam]

A couple of thoughts, in no particular order-

With 500 build points you really should find the points for a 6 magic.  No reason you shouldn't have room in your budget.

Drop the unarmed combat.  Your strength is brutally bad and your agility is meh at best.  You are not going to be punching anyone.

You might consider dropping the pistols as well.  When in doubt, stunbolt.  You hit better with it, and the drain is so low can throw it pretty much every init. pass.

Speaking of inititive passes, you might turn that counterspelling foucs into a sustaining focus.  You can cast improved reflexes for extra reaction and init. passes, but without a sustaining focus you are then at -2 to all your other dice pools. 

You do want some dodge or gymnastics so you can defend yourself.  You have alot of skills at 1, some computer skills, demolitions, etc.  While a broad skill base is nice, you really dont come up to strong professional compentency with those dice pools, and shadowrun is a game of specialists.  Being a magician is a full time gig in itself, and lets you fill alot of roles (recon, combat, medic, spirits are very usefull and versitile.)  I don't think anyone expects you to be getting on line or planting the explosives as well.  I would focus you skill list a little more.  You can always add some of these skills back with Karma. 

I haven't reviewed your math, but double check everything.  A 500 bp character is pretty robust.  Somehow it seems like you should be getting a bit more bang for your buck.  For a 500 bp character you should be able to afford magic 6, and probably that r4 Power focus that Onion Man suggests.  I am not sure where all your points are going.

 Edit- just saw the skill groups, thats where some of it is going.  Overall, I think you have too many skills at too low a level.  Shadowrun is a team sport.  You have a really big skill range, but many of them come in with dice pools in the range of 4-6 dice.  Honestly, thats not very good.  Don't try to be good at everything.  As it is you  have social skills, technical skills, you do demolitions, you do first aid,  And that is on top of your magic, both spell casting and summoning.  You don't need to be a one man army.  Pick a couple of things, and focus.

[UmaroVI]

I think Baronspam has the right idea; I'm going to add some advice: rethink your spell list. Unfortunately, SR spells are not very well balanced and some spells are just bad.

Spells you shouldn't have:
*Manabolt. This spell is only useful in very narrow circumstances: people who are immune to Stunbolt (drones and vehicles, mostly) are also immune to this, and you also have Powerbolt.
*Chaotic World. This spell blows. Instead of exploding your own face to put up an area debuff that people can walk out of, you could be doing something useful like flattening them with a Stunball. It is also much like Stench, but worse in every conceivable way.

Stench: this one is a maybe, depending on how your GM takes that "at the GM's discretion" thing. You should ask whether this is going to never work, only work on "mook" NPCs, or not work against stuff like spirits but work fine on people and animals, or what. I would really strongly consider whether this is actually a better spell than Stunball, depending on how your GM plans to run it.

Spells I highly recommend:
Physical Mask. This is one of the big reasons to be good with Illusions.
Trid Phantasm.

Spells I would consider:
I might drop Powerbolt for a single-target P-damage indirect spell. It will be less good for murder, but more good for stopping drones and vehicles which are a big problem for mages without one.
Levitate is a very handy spell for sneaky stuff, which you appear to want to do.

Skills you should drop:
I would check and see how good the rest of your team is at First Aid. 4 logic + 1 skill is not that great; lots of people will wind up with huge pools at this as a side effect of whatever else they want to do.
Pistols: you have just enough to shoot yourself in the foot.
Athletics: get Running, if you are worried about that sort of thing. And Levitate. Levitate > Climbing and Swimming.
Astral Combat: here's how you win Astral Combats: stunbolt. Astral melee is for silly.
Demolitions: you have just enough to blow yourself up.
Unarmed: drop this and get Dodge instead.
Computer/Data Search: you aren't very good at this. Get an agent; it will be better than you. Check the link in my sig and look up the Paranormal Detective; he has a commlink/agent setup that is not very expensive and can handle computer basics for you.

Baronspam's advice about foci is very good and you should most definitely follow it.

Things I would do with those points: as a mage, you want to start pumping your karma into bonding better foci (like Centering Focus, higher-force Sustaining focus) and raising magic ASAP. Thus, I do recommend specializing relevant skills at chargen.

Buy more spells at chargen. You seem to be going for illusions and B&E type magic; if you look at the Paranormal Detective (follow my sig) he has a similar focus and you might consider some of the Detection spells he has to supplement your illusion spells in this regard.

5 body. Mages are a BIG target because they have offensive power, but tend to have weak defenses and are slow.

More edge. 5 if you can get it. Edge is great for everyone, and especially mages because Edging a spellcasting roll lets you ignore the "force caps hits" rule.

[usefulidiot]

I would have to disagree with dropping the pistols skill. Even if at a low level, I always have one type of back of skill to inflict physical damage with a spell based character. Just for the chance that he could run into a character with spell defense too high for you to bust through or be in an area with a negative back ground count to your tradition. I always found one of the fastest ways to take down a mage is to shoot them and the fastest way to take down a street sam or tank is to throw spells at them.

[UmaroVI]

It's not necessarily bad to have a decent physical combat skill as a magician, but it is bad to have a bad ranged skill. If you want to keep it, I would:

1) replace Pistols with Automatics. This is important, because you need wide bursts to be hitting regularly with a low dice pool.
2) Have 4(6) rather than 2(4). It's very inefficient having a lot of low rating skills.
3) Own good guns, not crappy ones. The difference between a poor gun and a good one is only a few thousand nuyen; if you're going to spend 18 bps knowing how to shoot it, spend 1-2 to make sure it's worth shooting. I suggest the Ares Alpha for not subtle gun, and the Ares Executive Protector for subtle gun. Make sure you mod them properly; check the link in my sig and look at the Combat Hacker for an example of how to mod/load them.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Hi

Thanks for the advice so far. It’s much appreciated :-D

I have edited my character in the post above. I have summarized my changes below:

Charisma 5-6 (to resist drain), Magic 5-6, Positive Quality: Restricted Gear (Power Foci), Dropped all skill groups (that hurt a lot too do :-) ), Changed Pistol to Automatics (Haven’t chosen a specialization yet), Dropped a few of the low skills, Learned a few new skills (Infiltration, Dodge & Con), Changed my selection of spells, Raised Power Foci to 4, Updated my Commlink setup, changed pistol to a modified Ares Alpha, Got a Fake ID,

I have around 1400 nuyen left to spend. Upgrade the Fake ID to rank 6?

Can you get a permit for the Ares Alpha because that would be nice to have?

What about armor??

Regards
Rasmus

[UmaroVI]

You can't get a permit for the Alpha, because it is F.

I would also own a more subtle gun - either the Executive Protector I recommended, or a Machine Pistol that you can hide.

You can't get a fake ID higher than rating 4 at chargen.

Armor is a real nuisance. Time for some Pretty Princess Shadowrun Dressup! We need some theme music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSbXGsysAAk

So the idea is you want armor that is socially acceptable, adds up to 6/6, and if possible gives you useful things, and is idealy not super expensive. If you do not care about hiding items on your person (which you may well not), copy the Technoshaman's armor (sig again). If you do care, I suggest Synergist Business Line + Form Fitting Body Armor + PPP Shin Guards, Forearm Guards, and Arm/Leg Casings (but only wear the arm or the leg casings, so it counts as 0/1 instead of 1/1).

[rasmusnicolaj]

So the idea is you want armor that is socially acceptable, adds up to 6/6, and if possible gives you useful things, and is idealy not super expensive. If you do not care about hiding items on your person (which you may well not), copy the Technoshaman's armor (sig again). If you do care, I suggest Synergist Business Line + Form Fitting Body Armor + PPP Shin Guards, Forearm Guards, and Arm/Leg Casings (but only wear the arm or the leg casings, so it counts as 0/1 instead of 1/1).

Consider the Technoshaman's armor stolen (so I guess he is running around naked now).
How do you calculate combined armors total armor ratings? Formfitting Body Armor + Leather Jacket + 3 different SecureTech assesories gives me 9/7 or what?
And what about encumberance and strength requirements??

Thanks.
Rasmus

[UmaroVI]

All of them stack, so yes, 9/7. The FFBA is counted as only 3/1 rather than 6/2 for encumbrance (which is what makes it good), so it counts as 6/6 for encumbrance (ie, no penalty for a 3 body character). Armor has no Strength requirement.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Sweet 

That should improve survivability for my poor shaman.
I know for sure that my GM will let the bad guys shoot in my general direction much to my displeasure 

Now I just needs to find a BP so I can afford that cool armor package...

Regards
Rasmus

[UmaroVI]

Long-term, a useful thing to look into would be MilSpec armor; for low-body characters it provides very good protection. It is expensive, not subtle, and availability over 12, so you don't really want to start with it, but at some point as a mage it might be a good investment.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Thank you I will do that together with a couple of sustaining foci.

And I really need to get the core supplements also.

Regards
Rasmus

[rasmusnicolaj]

All of them stack, so yes, 9/7. The FFBA is counted as only 3/1 rather than 6/2 for encumbrance (which is what makes it good), so it counts as 6/6 for encumbrance (ie, no penalty for a 3 body character). Armor has no Strength requirement.

I read the armor rules again and as I understand it armor doesn't stack.
Am I misreading it or is it a rule from Arsenal or another sourcebook sadly lagging in my collection?

Regards
Rasmus

[UmaroVI]

FFBA and PPP are special - they stack, even though normally nothing stacks, because they are Special Snowflakes designed to be worn under your clothes.