[FriendlyFire1]

I am a new player to shadowrun.  I want to know what kind of character I should create.  I like using weapons, some magic and stealth.   I wanted to be an assasin but my friend says that every shadowrunner is somehow an assasin.  I also would like to be an elf.  If anyone could think of the best class for me  it would be much appreciated

[JustADude]

First off, there's no such thing as a 'Class', though there are certain loose archetypes that apply. And yes, it is true that most 'runners are generally at least semi-good at sneaking and backstabbing, just because of the job they do.

I'd recommend taking a look at playing an Mystic Adept, since you want weapons _AND_ magic. Elf is a good choice; take a Charisma-based Tradition for your Magic and you're golden for both your shooty/stabby/sneaky stuff (Agility) and your Drain (Willpower + Tradition Stat, in your case Charisma).

Personally, I'd recommend Voodoo, if you have Street Magic, since it's a Possession tradition, and those jive well with the Adept part of a Mystic Adept. Just be sure to pick up Channeling ASAP. A decently powerful Spirit will make you absolutely beastly, but you'll burn through your Services in a blink without the Channeling Metamagic.

If you don't go with a Possession Tradition, though, it's also generally worth eventually "burning" a point of Essence to buy Muscle Toner 4 and a Platelet Factory, for +4 Agility and-1 to all damage of 2 or more, respectively.

Either way, though, during CGen you need to be sure to buy (and bind) a Rating 4 Power Focus and a Rating 4 Sustaining Focus (Health). the Power focus helps on all your casting rolls, while the Sustaining Focus will let you maintain the max rank of Improve Reflexes on yourself without any penalties. Should also pick up a Weapon Focus as well, if you plan on going melee.

Just my $0.02. Guys who know more about what they're talking about will probably be along shortly.

[FriendlyFire1]

Thanks    My friend says that I would be a weapons master but they don't use much magic though I think It migh fit me what do u think

[Inconnu]

In short? Do both. In debt is a 30 bp negative quality that allows 6 bp extra free gear, and you can keep some of the bp even if your gm says no to buying cash with BPS.
And 45000 is gonna be 1 mission's or two pay during most campaigns, although you may want to verify cash levels with the gm.
This essentially frees up another 36 bp. Put it in skills.
You can get another 10 bp for simsense vertigo, if you aren't planning to do much in the Matrix.
You can always take a Gaes of making your bed every day, although your gm may be a stickler and make you say you do it every day.
And take another for brushing your teeth, showering every day, brusing your hair.... 

[JustADude]

You can always take a Gaes of making your bed every day, although your gm may be a stickler and make you say you do it every day.
And take another for brushing your teeth, showering every day, brusing your hair.... 

And congratulations, you're now out most of your powers, because you didn't get home last night and someone pick-pocketed your toothbrush and hair-brush thinking they were something valuable.

[Inconnu]

Go out and buy another one.

Duh.

But those were a complete joke, although i considered the making the bed one.

Before i realized that my character was about as likely to do it as me.

[Ted Fast]

First of I would download Chummer from http://www.dndjunkie.com/blog/?p=88 it is a really helpful program that will keep track of all the math for you.
When I made my first Shadowrunner by hand it took me about 2 day on-and-off. Using Chummer would have really cut down on the time.

It would be helpful if you could tells us witch books you can use.

Two things I learned from making my first character: 1 Don't pick up any specializations when you make your Elf. You can pick them up when you start playing for a really low Karma cost.
2 If you have a question about  something, ask. This forum is really helpful.

[Crash_00]

Chummer can be useful, but I really recommend doing you first character or two by hand. It really helps get a head for the rules (Chummer really just does the math and some of the limitations). It also lets you notice some of the little things that chummer flat out does wrong. A lot of them have been fixed over time, but there are still several things that it doesn't add up correctly and it can be confusing if you've never actually poured through the books and read the rules text.

[FriendlyFire1]

ok   wouldmy character be to powerful if i make it have good skill in stealth, weapons and magic?

[Crash_00]

No. Generally the more you spread out, the weaker you get overall unless you have a really good handle on the system.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what kind of magic you're wanting to actually do.

Adepts have, for the most part, passive magic that just enhances their abilities. Think of it like magic steroids or, in more gamer oriented terms, super mario growth mushrooms. The power is there, but you don't have to do much to get it to work and it's fairly simple.

Mages have active magic that is fairly complicated. The spells vary depending on what you choose, but you always have to choose a force to cast at and resist drain. These are things like you traditional lighting bolt or, again in more gamer oriented terms, super mario fireball flowers. You have to do something to use the power.

Mystic Adepts are a combination of the two that are either A.) wonderful or B.) about as effective as slapping the badguys with a pool noodle, depending of course on how your GM runs them (the book and FAQ contradict each other in a very major way concerning how mystic adepts work).

Now, there is also cyberware. Cyberware and Bioware (I usually refer to both as cyberware because back when I started playing cyberware was what all augmentations were) enhance your abilities, but hurt your magical abilities. That said, some ware is a good trade off. The key is in efficiency which means you start with a little and upgrade it to more essence friendly options in game to get more without continuing to eat your essence.

This sounds like a lot, but the key here is that if you just want to make a guy that can sneak, stab/shoot, and throw fireballs, you have a lot of options. You can make an augmented mage (just a mage with bio/cyber to boost your sneaky/weapons abilities), you can make a mystic adept (split your magic between magic steroids and spells), or you can make an Augmented Mystic Adept. Keep in mind that your magic is not going to start as high as a straight mage's will in any of these cases.

Then again, you can also just make a combat mage and use non-cyber bonuses to help your stealth abilities and weapon foci for stabbing things. Mage's can get spells like silence, stealth and Imp. Invisibilitiy which really help for those Syphon Filter/Splinter Cell style runs.

[All4BigGuns]

ok   wouldmy character be to powerful if i make it have good skill in stealth, weapons and magic?

No. Simply because you couldn't really be good at all three, and being so spread out (all three areas have multiple skills) would make your character weak and useless to any team.

[Inconnu]

Remember, the char can only have 2 skills at 5 or 1 at 6, same for attributes.*

Gm may choose to handwave more on a higher bp level of course.

Assuming you are human. If not, you can have only 2 at 1 less than racial max, or 1 at racial max.

[Crash_00]

Skill levels don't change for metas, only attributes. That said, you don't have to have a 5 or 6 to be good at something. Remember that the average professional only rolls six dice naturally (average human stat 3 plus professional level skill of 3).

No. Simply because you couldn't really be good at all three, and being so spread out (all three areas have multiple skills) would make your character weak and useless to any team.

This is simply not true at all. Stealthy combat mages (and by that I mean mages that are actually able to function as combatants rather than mages that can cast spells in combat) have been possible in every edition of the game. Just because you aren't rolling the max dice pool does not mean you are useless at that area.

Not every game forces characters to be OMGBBQ powerful in anything to have a remote chance of success.

Picking up Infiltration at 4 and Pistols 4 is 32 BPs. For an elf, 5 Agi (30 BP), a point of magic, and 6 BP of gear (Muscle Toner 2, and Reflex Recorder: Pistols. 4k is left over for other gear) will give you a DP of 13 when you add in Smartlink for shooting and 11for Infiltration. Keep in mind those are both near double the average professionals dice pool. Assuming you soft cap your magic, you'll still have a magic of 4 letting you cast up to force 8. You can still toss a 6 in your spellcasting, giving you ten dice for spells before buying any foci.

As powerful as a pure mage? No. Useless? Definitely not.

[All4BigGuns]

The two skills at 5 or one at 6 is correct, however, with attributes the limit is half the number of BP you have and only one at attribute maximum. They don't really limit soft-capped (1 below racial maximum) attributes, but the limit of half your BP effectively limits it to around two at best (may need to dumpstat a lot for that though). Keep in mind, however, that Edge and Magic do not count within these limits on attributes (except in the karma generation--which I refuse to use).

Skill levels don't change for metas, only attributes. That said, you don't have to have a 5 or 6 to be good at something. Remember that the average professional only rolls six dice naturally (average human stat 3 plus professional level skill of 3).

No. Simply because you couldn't really be good at all three, and being so spread out (all three areas have multiple skills) would make your character weak and useless to any team.

This is simply not true at all. Stealthy combat mages (and by that I mean mages that are actually able to function as combatants rather than mages that can cast spells in combat) have been possible in every edition of the game. Just because you aren't rolling the max dice pool does not mean you are useless at that area.

Not every game forces characters to be OMGBBQ powerful in anything to have a remote chance of success.

Picking up Infiltration at 4 and Pistols 4 is 32 BPs. For an elf, 5 Agi (30 BP), a point of magic, and 6 BP of gear (Muscle Toner 2, and Reflex Recorder: Pistols. 4k is left over for other gear) will give you a DP of 13 when you add in Smartlink for shooting and 11for Infiltration. Keep in mind those are both near double the average professionals dice pool. Assuming you soft cap your magic, you'll still have a magic of 4 letting you cast up to force 8. You can still toss a 6 in your spellcasting, giving you ten dice for spells before buying any foci.

As powerful as a pure mage? No. Useless? Definitely not.

I guess maybe I should have said the rest of what I meant, "useless unless you tanked your magic being silly and putting implants in a mage".

[Crash_00]

Yes, because losing one point of magic is "tanking" it.

They don't really limit soft-capped (1 below racial maximum) attributes, but the limit of half your BP effectively limits it to around two at best (may need to dumpstat a lot for that though). Keep in mind, however, that Edge and Magic do not count within these limits on attributes (except in the karma generation--which I refuse to use).

200 points is a lot to spend really. As long as you aren't paying the overpriced hardcap fee, there shouldn't be any issues getting what you want. For an elf (what the OP wants to play):
B: 3 A:6 R:4 S:2
C: 3 I:5 L:3 W:5
is a completely playable build with no horrible stats at all. This is of course assuming the character takes an INT tradition. A CHA tradition would be cheaper and allow some extra points elsewhere, but INT based doubles up on initiative effectiveness as well.