[Darrian Wolffe]

So we're starting a low-to-mid-power Shadowrun 4A campaign, and since I normally play gunbunnies, I'm up to play a mage this time.  Thing is, I'm also going to end up being the group face, so I'm trying to figure out a way to be competent at both.  The problem is, I'm finding it very difficult to figure out ways to increase my competence at casting and socializing given the campaign restrictions.  Character is in the spoiler below, but the relevant house rules and game assumptions are as follows, and are important.

Note this is not a finished PC - there's a few hanging BP and nuyen not yet spent.  But it's close enough to being finished to be posted.  How would you guys further optimize this PC for what I want to do, keeping these restrictions and the core character concept in mind?

1) Core book is the ONLY assumed-legal source.  Other sources are available on an item-by-item basis.  Components from other books that are included in the character below are pre-approved.  Other stuff may not be.  Feel free to suggest it, but understand that it may not fly.
2) StickNShock, emotitoys, and other cheese are under a gentleman's agreement - we don't use/abuse them, and the GM doesn't do it back to use 10-fold (SNS= Guided Copperhead Mortar rounds in retaliation, for example).
3) The character must be a Mage, must be a "standard" Elf, and must have the mentor spirit listed.
4) The Contact "Tabby" is required, as are the "SINner" and "Records On File" Negative Qualities (the character is heavily connected to S-K).
5) All PCs must be able to survive - if not be awesome - during a physical firefight outside of their primary specialty.  Therefore, this mage must be able to not completely suck during a firefight in an area with a Background Count 6.  Grenade spam is explicitly out.
6) There is no dice cap...however, preferred starting dice pools at campaign start are: 14-16 in your Primary Skill fields (casting for mages, shooting for gunbunnies, etc), 8-12 in secondary fields.



Metatype: Elf
Body - 3
Agil - 3
React - 2
Str - 2
Cha - 6
Intu - 4
Log - 2
Will - 5
Edge - 2
Magic - 5

Active Skills (Knowledges/Languages TBD)
Spellcasting - 5
Summoning - 5
Binding - 4
Counterspelling - 3
Etiquette - 4
Negotiation - 4
Perception - 3
Automatics - 4
Infiltration (Urban) - 2 (4)

Qualities
Magician
Mentor Spirit (Dragon; +2 negotiation dice, +2 on Manipulation Spells)

SINner (non-criminal)
Incompetent (Hardware) (tends to let all the blue smoke out)
Sensitive System
Records on File (S-K)

Spells
Stunbolt
Manaball
Alter memory
Influence
Control Emotions
Control Thoughts
Heal
Sterilize
Increase Reflexes

Contacts - as a Face, I can't skimp on these too much
Tabby (L3/C4)
 (L1/C1) - free, dunno what yet
 (L2/C3) - probably fixer
 (L1/C2) - information contact (street)
 (L1/C2) - information contact (corp)

Important Gear
F2 Spellcasting Foci
F3 Sustaining Foci
F6 Magical Lodge
R4 Fake SIN (Day-to-day) , R4 spellcasting, concealed carry, & automatic weapons licenses
R4 Fake SIN (Nefarious purposes), R4 spellcasting, concealed carry, & automatic weapons licenses
FN 5-7C Machine Pistol w/ Gasvent III & Internal Smartlink and some gel rounds and Hi-ex ammo
3 Months Medium Lifestyle (connected to R4 Fake SIN - day-to-day)
2 months Low Lifestyle (safehouse, connected to R4 Fake SIN - nefarious)
Rating 4 Monocle w/ Smartlink, Image Link, Vision Magnification, R2 Vision enhancement)
Rating 4 Microtranceiver
Nanotech Airwave Commlink w/ Iris Orb OS & AR glove
FFBA (1/2-suit) or 2nd Skin Line Armor (GM is considering FFBA bonuses applying to 2nd Skin, as they fluff is basically identical), layered under an Armor Vest with R4 Nonconductivity & Thermal Dampening.



Important Dice Pools
Spellcasting: 12 dice (14 for Manipulation spells)
Drain Resist: 11 dice
Etiquette: 10 dice
Negotiation: 12 dice
Automatics:  9 dice when shooting FN 5-7

Specifically, my spellcasting and social dice pools seem 2-3 dice less than what I feel they "should" be, but I can't figure out ways to sleaze them higher without totally imploding the character.

Normal Operations
When needing to Face the heck out of somebody, I plan on getting good social dice pool by abusing the crap out of Manipulation spells.  Control Emotions (you like this person) in my Sustaining Focus to start with (1 extra dice for each hit),  an Influence spell on top of that ("you want to make a deal with this person") and/or Alter Memory ("you remember that this person is on the up-and-up") and I'll be throwing a decent amount of dice for Ye Olde Facing.  Control Thoughts is generally for when I stop caring about being subtle.

On active runs, we drop a Force 3 Increase Reflexes spell into our Sustaining Focus and summon a Watcher spirit to, well, watch our backs.  Once the shooting starts, we find cover in a hurry, and either start up some moderate-force spirit shennanigans, or start using Manipulation spells to mess with bad guys (Control Thoughts, obviously, is a fun one for this, or a fast Alter Memory spell).  Stunbolt and Manaball are standard-issue direct damage if necessary.  Shooting is a low-tier option, of course, and I plan to use plenty of wide bursts with the amount of recoil-compensation on my gun; more making noise than anything else.  Maybe later during game play, if I can get them, I'll start grabbing capsule rounds and loading amusing chemical compounds into them instead of gel or hi-ex rounds.

[wylie]

specialize spellcasting (combat spells) and pistols (semi-auto)
and any other skill to get that extra bit of dice

[Darrian Wolffe]

Was planning to pick up those specializations with karma during gameplay, since they're a LOT more cost-efficient there.  What about gear or other options?

[UmaroVI]

First, take a look at my sig and the "Spirit Medium" for a similar sort of character.

You're getting extremely little value out of 3 agility. Conversely, 7 Charisma would help you dramatically. Lose an Agility for a Charisma.

You appear to not have the Influence group? Con 4 is worth 8 points.

Spellcasting 6, Summoning 4 - better karma efficiency, also, after you specialize in Man, you should be able to summon spirits big enough that Drain is the real limitation.

What tradition are you? I'm guessing Shaman? I am assuming that from here on.

Counterspelling 4 is worth it. 3 is lighting karma on fire. Ditto for Perception. I really recommend Assensing 1 so you can at least make astral perception checks. You can ask spirits for close looks, but being blind on the astral is bad.

The karma inefficiency of Infiltration 2 with a specialization at chargen burns and chafes.

Manaball is a terrible spell. Replace it with something more useful. Stunball, Powerball, some P-damage Elemental AE, or another utility spell, or something.

That force 2 spellcasting focus isn't worth it. You are probably best off not having it, and spending the bp on skills, then binding a good, decently high force Centering focus. With logic 2, you get 2 foci - you want to make them count, and a force 2 spellcasting focus is going to be dead weight fast.

How to be better at Social skills: Spirit of Man with innate spell: Increase Charisma (learn that spell with one of the two slots you get from spellcasting 6). Have it sustain that on you.

You have a major problem in that one of the things you want to do isn't a thing, which is make a Charisma stream magician who isn't cybered and can do physical combat in a r6 background count without using grenades. That just isn't going to happen. Right now, in a r6 background count, you suck. The fastest path to not sucking is going to be getting up to Magic 7 and Cleansing during gameplay. If it's a "have to have gun skill for lulz" then just put 1 point into it. Also, are the gun mods from Arsenal in or out? If they are out, you don't want Automatics because you're not going to be getting enough recoil compensation to get any real use out of it.

You can fix this by:
1) Accept that you aren't going to actually be any good in a r6 background count until you get more magic and Cleansing, drop the weapon skill as low as allowed, and live with it.
2) Use 'ware.

Either are viable options.

[UmaroVI]

Also, you don't have either enchanting or ritual spellcasting, ergo do not need a magical lodge (binding does not need a lodge).

[Lethe]

Doesn't look so low to me... you spent around 450 BP.

Edit:
Metatype: 30, Attributes: 210, Skills: 138, Contacts: 20, Spells 27, Qualities: -15, Gear: ~25
Ok, its only 435.. bad guess.

[UmaroVI]

Okay, on second thought, starting with a force 2 power focus is not necessarily a bad move. That's 12 bp (10 to buy, 2 to bind) and is +2 to Summoning, Binding, and Spellcasting which is worth more than that. The only thing to keep in mind is the limit on number of active foci; do you see the game lasting long enough for buying a high-force Centering focus to pan out?

[Darrian Wolffe]

Doesn't look so low to me... you spent around 450 BP.

Edit:
Metatype: 30, Attributes: 210, Skills: 138, Contacts: 20, Spells 27, Qualities: -15, Gear: ~25
Ok, its only 435.. bad guess.

That's why I was worried - it's little functionality for the BP.

Umaro, your advice is very much appreciated.  I'll have to go into it more when I get off of work this evening; this site is blocked at my day job.  At the the very least, the advice on the Spirit of Man sustaining an Increase CHA spell is solid gold - I'd been totally unable to figure out how to cast that spell at a high enough force to matter without paying through the nose for a sustaining focus.

[Tsuzua]

I agree with Umaro's points. 

One thing you can do with the "contribute in a r6 background count" requirement is command rig.  Save up in game for a decent commlink with command 6 and you can joystick a doberman or some random drone.  If you're willing to take drugs like cram, you could contribute via AR command rigging (especially if you're okay with your drone tipping over once in a while).  AR usage is pretty safe and commlinks aren't that expensive.  Hot sim gets you free IPs and +2 to tests which is pretty nice, but more dangerous and prevents you from walking around.

Just a word of warning, you'll be taking armor penalties with an armor vest and half suit FFBA.  It's 10/5, but 8/4 for encumbrance and that's over your armor limit of 6.  I would buy up your body if you can.  If you can't, I would talk to the GM about some of the armored clothing from Arensal.  The book doesn't have good 4 ballistic armor.  Ideally you'll want 4/6 armor before FFBA*, but I'm not sure if you can do that without PPP and another GM check.  If you can get body 4, then armor vest + half-suit FFBA works especially since you can just wear normal clothes over it all.  You can also do Urban Explorer Jumpsuit + helmet + half-suit FFBA as well for max armor of 10/9.

*-This will give you 8/7 armor after half suit FFBA and is 6/6 for encumbrance.

[Mason]

Any skill starting at 2 or 3 is bad, due to the way BP compares to Karma.

Grabbing 4 in 2 skills in a group without just taking the group is bad.

I'd say drop perception down to 1, which gives you 7 dice thanks to your vision enhancement, and improve it in play. Turn your two 4s in social skills into 4 4s by taking the group for just 8 BP more-the 8 BP gained from perception. 2 4s cost 32, 4 4s cost 40.

Alternatively, drop automatics to 1 and bump perception up to 4, while still getting the social group.

Do you even need infiltration? Bump spellcasting to 6 and summoning to 4 and take Improved Invisibility. Alternatively, drop automatics in favor of Infiltration 4 and some pistol skill, get a silenced pistol, still get Invisibility. Be a sneaky sneaky mage with a gun.

[UmaroVI]

Improved Invisibility is not an acceptable substitute for infiltration. You are not going to get the five hits to fool sensors reliably unless you are an Illusion specialist which this guy isn't, and it doesn't do either jack or shit against stuff like radar, sonar, astral perception, etc that you need Infiltration to deal with.

I gave it some thought, and figured out what I would do under the following assumptions:
Elf
Face
Magician
no Surge
no Possession
not a Mystic Adept
SnS does not exist
Rating 6+ background count is common enough that it is worth being able to fight competently in it.

My conclusions is that the way to go is a cybered buffmage. Instead of trying to be able to stunbolt people or shoot them, be able to shoot them and use Manipulation magic to back that up and do noncombat stuff - so stuff like Combat Sense, Deflection, Levitate, various forms of mental shenanigans. Probably 2 points of essence loss for a pair of combat arms, Tailored Pheremones, and you can probably fit it a little more stuff but what, exactly, depends on what the GM allows - probably Platelet Factories, maybe Dareadrenaline and/or Trauma Dampener if allowed.

[farothel]

As mage I wouldn't take automatics, but pistols.  It's easier to use, easier to conceal, you can take them in situation where assault rifles are not going to enter and no matter what, you're never going to be a primary physical combat character.  As for the skill, if you're strapped for BP (and who isn't) and given that you will probably will use the same pistol every time, decide on a pistol (the Ares Predator IV is still the best IMO), take 2 ranks of pistol and a specialisation in the type you take (in this case, heavy pistols or semi-automatics, depending on how the GM does this).  It saves you 6 BP and you have the same dicepool as with 4 automatics (actually 2 dice more as the Ares Predator has a smartlink, you just have to get it in your goggles as well).

[All4BigGuns]

Opinion post (If you disagree, then you disagree)

Honestly, the restrictions placed on you burn and chafe as much as the "infiltration 2 with specialization" does Umaro. Not knowing your GM, it's hard to say but the restrictions give me the impression of a serious GM Power Trip that needs to be nipped in the bud. Heck, the only restriction that doesn't seem to be power trippy to me is the very last one, and that's only because the dice pools are pretty decent benchmarks to hit.

The one about needing to be able to function in a firefight in a Background Count of 6+, throws a huge red flag up for me. It tells me that you'll probably be almost constantly in such a Background Count, and being Awakened will be a waste of points practically.

As mentioned, this is only an opinion from suppositions evoked by those restrictions.

[Lethe]

specialize purely on summoning, so you are able to summon a force 10 spirit without falling unconscious. then send that spirit in. it will loose most of his force, but will still be able to act i guess..

[Darrian Wolffe]

Opinion post (If you disagree, then you disagree)

Honestly, the restrictions placed on you burn and chafe as much as the "infiltration 2 with specialization" does Umaro. Not knowing your GM, it's hard to say but the restrictions give me the impression of a serious GM Power Trip that needs to be nipped in the bud. Heck, the only restriction that doesn't seem to be power trippy to me is the very last one, and that's only because the dice pools are pretty decent benchmarks to hit.

It's nothing like that.  Trust me on this one.  The #4 restriction, for example, is due entirely to my talking to the GM about playing an S-K employee who isn't "completely" separated from the corp...thus, the GM required those things to represent it.  The #3 restriction is partially mine (I want to play a mage, with a mentor spirit, and I really don't like playing SURGE'd characters or the super-rare metatypes, so an Elf is the race that I want to go for), and partially a function of the table etiquette we have.  We are an EXTREMELY anti-min-maxing group.

The whole idea behind being able to operate in an R6 background count zone is because we all feel that a character shouldn't be so hyperspecialized that they lose 100% utility when their primary gimmick is taken away.  In my case, being in an R6 background area negates my magic completely, so I should be useless in that scenario (even understanding that I'll be crippled, but not useless).  it's not because that huge quantities of the campaign will take place during high background counts - it's to keep us from hyperspecializing...which is a thing that we're fine with, as a group.  The street sam, for example, should be able to operate while in an EMP field, and the rigger should be able to operate outside of the group party van.

In general, I'll post a revised PC later tonight for perusal.  Lots of good suggestions here.  Not all of them will be used, obviously, but it's clear I can get good-quality help here.  Thanks!