[bdyer]

Can you critique my mage focused on manipulation and controlling

She was born into slavery.  At the age of 8 she was forced into a brothel.  Luckily she was one of the few women who kept her sanity by using everything she could as a tool.  She bribed one of her customers to teach her magic tricks which she used to break out by herself stealing a good portion of that days cash as well.

She now uses everything she can, the end always justify the means for her.  She enjoys now controlling peoples minds, sorta of the way she was controlled.  The original brothel is hunting to retrieve her back and for the money she stole

The gm has us as "lean and young"  meaning max avaiablity is 12 with a contact and only 150 max money and lvl 3 on skills unless we have a really good story then maybe 1 4

[UmaroVI]

The main thing that stands out as bad is that you're a Dryad logic mage. This is super bad for you and is cutting your effectiveness way down, because you're paying a lot for Charisma bonuses, then leaving your Charisma at 3, and paying a lot to boost your Logic instead. You would be dramatically better off as a Charisma mage.

You also have lots of skills at 1-2. It's more efficient to buy them at 3 if possible for later karma expenditure - although it's more efficient to buy other stuff (eg, stats) instead. Also, you have Astral Combat, which is useless (the way to win astral combat is Stunbolt).

Manabolt is bad. Get Stunbolt. It's less drain, and KOing people is at least as useful as killing them (you can always just shoot them later).

You don't have summoning. This is bad because summoning is super win times.

2 Intuition is asking for it. Intuition is very important - Initiative is key for everyone, Perception is important, Assensing is important, seeing through Illusions is handy.

I cannot tell if you paid 40 points to buy 5 magic, and are losing a point to ware, or if you paid 65 points for 6 magic and are losing a point to ware and now have 5. If you did the latter, don't, 25 bp now is way not worth it when you can spend 25 karma later.

The major things I would change are:

Switch to a Charisma tradition. Shamanism is perfectly fine, there are other good ones as well, if you don't like it. Drop your Logic from 5 to 2. Raise your Charisma from 3 to 7. Remove Astral Combat, First Aid, and Con (the Con is going simply because you are already an OK face when defaulting, and the point inefficiency oh god). At this point, think about if you want augmentation. Tailored Pheremones are nifty. Dareadrenaline is also nifty (since it applies to drain checks). However, it's pretty debatable; it depends if you'd rather be more good at mage or more at face.

At this point, think long and hard about all your skills, except for Spellcasting 4, Counterspelling 3, and Summoning 3, and whether you really, really want to start play with them or are OK buying them with karma. I strongly recommend that, given the setup you have, you sink 200 bp into non-special stats, 40 into magic 5(4), and 40 into Edge 5, and live with weakish skills to start. In particular, you really want to softcap Intuition, and it would not hurt to softcap Body and/or Reaction depending how much you care about living through gunfights. What skills you do get, I recommend you try to get at 3.

[bdyer]

I wanted the trama damper and the platlet factorys to help both with drain and for resisting damage.  Once I did that it seemed to make senseto look for other augs.  Since there is no aug to raise charisma directly and since the number of acti foci are determined by logic, it seemed to be better to go logic than charisma.   If initution is so important and we need to raise it anyway and since we already have a face wouldn't an initution tradition be better than to save some points?

1 thing I forgot to mention from the GM is that our last session was plagued with 5-15 spirits per encounter to counter the mage with 6-7 spirits always with him so he has made it clear that Absoulte 1 spirit summoned and he will include mages in encounters for the express point of poping spirits.  So I stayed away from summoning.

[ARC]

I wanted the trama damper and the platlet factorys to help both with drain and for resisting damage.  Once I did that it seemed to make senseto look for other augs.  Since there is no aug to raise charisma directly and since the number of acti foci are determined by logic, it seemed to be better to go logic than charisma.   If initution is so important and we need to raise it anyway and since we already have a face wouldn't an initution tradition be better than to save some points?

1 thing I forgot to mention from the GM is that our last session was plagued with 5-15 spirits per encounter to counter the mage with 6-7 spirits always with him so he has made it clear that Absoulte 1 spirit summoned and he will include mages in encounters for the express point of poping spirits.  So I stayed away from summoning.

Drop the 'ware, as a mage there are ways around drain, don't use all your hits on the casting use them for drain.  that's the one suggestion I have for you.

[tzizimine]

I would keep the trauma dampener. It's like an auto-success on each drain test... way too useful.


@ARC, can you please post the source of the using casting hits on drain? I know that was an option on prior editions, but in SR4, I believe that got rid of that option and I can't seem to find anything saying otherwise in SR4A, Street Magic or Digital Grimoire. Thanks.


*EDIT* If damage from drain is that much of a concern, remember that you can learn spells with fetishes (+2 to Drain tests for that spell), just don't loose the fetish else you can't cast the spell. Also, initiate with Centering as fast as possible... but ultimately, the switch to a Charisma tradition will help the most.

[ARC]

As I am away from my books right now I can't site my sources.  Mason is the one that pointed it out to me the in the first place.

[UmaroVI]

It's an optional rule, and doesn't matter too much. It's only for Direct combat spells and you just overcast your Stunbolt and then drop the net hits anyways.

The logic thing would be more useful if you had foci. Logic is something you can't afford to completely bomb, mind you, but it's worth having some. Intuition and Logic traditions are both viable and can both be good.... but not as an Elf. If you're playing an Elf, you really should be Charisma.

You can only summon one spirit at a time - you need Binding to get more. It's silly to not bother with spirits at all - even if you don't care about having them help you fight, they bring way too many useful things to the table to not even bother with Summoning 1 at the very least.

On 'ware: it is a reasonable option to have, and a reasonable option not to have, unless you are Logic in which case you should almost always be taking Cerebral Boosters. That's why I say think about it - but if you want it, go for it. Trauma Dampers, Platelet Factories, Tailored Pheremones, and Dareadrenaline are all useful things.

[Mason]

As I am away from my books right now I can't site my sources.  Mason is the one that pointed it out to me the in the first place.

No, I am not. That is a house rule we use, remember? We allow hits on the casting test to be withheld for hits on Drain, which isn't particularly unbalanced in our own group but could be horribly abused in others.

[tzizimine]

Thanks, Mason. I thought that rule seemed a little home-style....

[bdyer]

Character Take 2

[Xzylvador]

You need to specify what type of spells your Foci work on, (I'm assuming the sustaining one is for health (increased reflexes) and the casting one for manipulation; just want to point out that they can't just work on all kinds of spells.)

[bdyer]

ya spellcasting manipulation, sustin health.

any other crtiques

[Xzylvador]

*Luxury lifestyle might be really hard to keep up. Don't know many 'runners who take it unless there's some other things that guarantee a steady monthly income (more than the 1k a month you have). Have some bad luck on one or two runs and you'll be on the street. And even if you manage to upkeep it, so much of your pay will go towards maintaining it that would probably better be spent on better gear, bribes & gifts, SIN's etc etc.

*Your commlink as far as I can see is a big hole in your defenses. 1 Firewall, 1 System, no analyse. Even a kid with a script could hack you with ease. A lot depends on how much security your team hacker's willing to do I guess; but depending on your enemies and GM, it could be a big flashing "WE ARE HERE" sign you're carrying around.
*Rating 2 fake SIN & no licences: ouch.
*I see ammo but no gun, but that might be because of how the sheet's cropped. No gun skill either, defaulting you roll with 1 die! Meaning you -might- hit something large, nearby and standing still 50% of the time... and 1/3 of those times "something" being your own foot.
*I'd advice taking summoning instead of enchanting. Putting up a watcher as guard dog or scout or using it to send a message seems more useful than enchanting (never really seen that used ingame).
*Infiltration 1 seems a waste really. With a dicepool of 3 you still never want to go sneaking around anywhere.