[Shinobi Killfist]

I'm making a character and the basic concept is a former low end ganger who dealt drugs(currently he has chemistry and made the stuff himself), who got some ware to improve his street cred.  In early adulthood his magic manifested and he started seeing spirits of the dead, or at least he thinks they are.  Some are of people whose lives he wrecked through drugs, and he decided to change his life.  Since he moved towards shadowrunning, whether it is for the better is debatable, but he will a least try to keep the killing to a minimum.  I went with dark king as a mentor even though it does not help him much because it seems to fit the spirits of the dead idea.  I thematically prefer hermetic, but could go with something else.  I want the ware since I kind of want to start out as a bit of a burn out who is digging his way out.

House rules makes wired reflexes and other additional pass methods less useful, since everyone has the same number of passes and bioware costs double in cash. no restricted gear.  It is a somewhat low power gaming group  Current build is this, which I am not totally happy with.

B 3/4, A 2, R 3, S 2, C 2, I 4, L 5/7, W 5, E 2, Ess 4.3, M 3, Init 7, IP 1
Condition Monitor boxes (Physical/Stun): 12/11
Armor (Ballistic/Impact): 8/8
Skills: Arcana 1, Assensing 1, Binding 1, Chemistry 3, Counterspelling 4, Enchanting 2, Etiquette 1, Infiltration 1, Intimidation 2, Negotiation 1, Perception 1, Spellcasting 6, Summoning 4
Knowledge Skills: (Specify Skill Name)Botany 2, (Specify Skill Name)Drugs 3, (Specify Skill Name)Geology 2, (Specify Skill Name)Lone Star Procedure 2, (Specify Skill Name)Magical Threats 1, (Specify Skill Name)Magical Throery 2, (Specify Skill Name)Metallurgy 2, (Specify Skill Name)Seattle Nightlife 2, (Specify Skill Name)Small Unit Tactics 4, (Specify Skill Name)Zoology 2, English N, Japanese 3, Spanish 2
Qualities: Addiction (Mild): Booze, Bad Luck, Flashbacks (Uncommon trigger): Overdoses (9dicepool (3)), Magician, Mentor Spirit: Dark King, Sensitive Neural Structure, Spirit Affinity: Spirits of Man, Spirit Pact: Formula (1)
Spells: Combat Sense, Detect Enemies, Extended, Heal, Healthy Glow, Levitate, Orgasm, Physical Barrier, Physical Mask, Powerbolt
Cyberware:
   Cyber Arm (Obvious) (Main Hand) with Cyberlimb Agility (9), Cyberlimb Body (9), Cyberlimb Strength (, Enhanced Agility (3), Enhanced Armor +2/+2 (2), Enhanced Body (3), Enhanced Strength (3)
   Cybereyes (4) with Eye Recording Unit, Flare Compensation, Image Link, Low-Light Vision, Microscopic Vision, Smartlink, Thermographic Vision, Vision Enhancement (3), Vision Magnification
Bioware:
   Cerebral Booster (2)
Gear:
   Dodge Scoot
   Identity: Specify Name with Fake SIN (4), Low Lifestyle
   Sustaining Focus: Detection Spells (3)
   Tool Kit, Assaying
   Tool Kit, Chemistry
   Urban Explorer Jumpsuit with Nonconductivity (3)
Weapons:
   Ingram Smartgun X [Submachine Guns, DV 5P vs. B, BF/BF-L/FA, RC 4, 32 (c)] with Folding Stock, Gas-Vent 2 System, Smartgun System, Internal, Sound Suppressor
   Attack of Will (vs. Spirits) [DV 2P vs. I]
   Unarmed Strike [Unarmed, DV 4S vs. I]
   EX-Explosive Rounds (SMGl) x100 [DV +1 vs. B-1, RC 1]
   Regular Ammo (SMG) x100 [DV – vs. B, RC 1]

[Herr Novak]

I like the idea of having a mage with a cyberarm. So if you have it for style reasons that's just fine. From a min/max POV i don't think it's a good idea. It's nice for shooting pistols or SMGs, but you don't have any skill for that. You also don't have Unarmed Combat and I am not sure if one Cyberarm helps that much in Unarmed Combat and therefore i'd also say that your unarmed strike is lower than 4S.
You maxed your cybereyes which is also not very efficient, you can get the more imprtant enhancements (smartlink, image link, vision enhancement, flare comp.) in goggles or lenses. Considering efficiency I'd try to sty below 1 Point of Essence loss.

If style is more important to you than efficiency: How has your drug dealer defended himself prior to his awakening? He has no combat skills, but as a street ganger he should have a basic ranged and melee combat skill, which would also take advantage of your cyberarm. As for the cerebral booster: of coures that's nice for a hermetic, but I have some problems imagining how a ganger would obtain that. At least in my shadowrun world neurosurgery is not something a street doc is able to do.

[UmaroVI]

I think you can do fine as a mage with a cyberarm, you just aren't currently because you don't have the skills to back it up.

I'd shuffle your points around a touch to free up the BP for Automatics 4. I'd suggest taking the 4 points from -1 Intimidation, -1 Enchanting, -3 Summoning, and then specialize your Summoning in Man and your Automatics in SMGs.

Physical Barrier is a bad spell because of the dumb way shooting through barriers works. Metal Wall (Street Magic) does the job it wants to do, but has more drain.
Powerbolt is not a bad spell, but it is for you, because you don't have the dice pool to affect things like drones/vehicles. I suggest a elemental P-damage spell in its place.

You appear to be under-armored. Does your group play with no FFBA? In any case, you have Body 4, but only 6/6 armor (cyberlimb armor doesn't count for encumbrance).

The Ingram Smartgun X is a perfectly good gun, but yours is under-modded: you don't have enough recoil compensation to effectively use it, especially when you remember that Gas-Vents can't work at the same time as Sound Suppressor. Are you using Arsenal?

[Shinobi Killfist]

To answer some questions.

Novark:  I initially saw him as pretty low end and as a maker of drugs as opposed to a street distributor so he was less in the line of fire, and got some protection from his gang.  But the arm provided enough to beat off a lot of would be attackers.  8 dice to pimp slap, 10 dice to shoot with a smartlink makes you competent even without any skill.  I am not 100% sure on the calculations on the character I used hero lab and I've found some hinky things so far.  They don't add in the cyber arms armor, they think it is only for called shots for some reason, and they had given me a 3/6 body I think they are flat out adding the enhanced body for the cyberlimb to your total instead of averaging it in.  And you are right getting it to 1 essence loss would be a lot more efficient and goggles will cover me for shooting people.  I am going to check with the gm about alpha at the get go if he lets me do that, I'll drop the eyes.  Though I might go with 2 arms then.

UmaroVI:  Yeah we don't use form fitting, I went with the urban explorer as opposed to something that gave me 8 ballistic because it is a pimp track suit.  And yeah we are using Arsenal, but since most people don't powergame much I was a bit leery on modding the weapon, but yeah a smidge of recoil would be a good idea.  I am a bit shaky on going to 4 in automatics for the same reason, there is a decent chance I'd match the dice pool of the street sam like that. 

How does dropping 1 in intimidate, enchanting, and summoning sound.  Putting 1 in automatics, 1 in unarmed with a specialization in automatics and my cyberarm sound or is that still inefficient. 

[Henzington]

its more effecient to get specializations after you start playing as 2 karma is alot less then 2 bp

[UmaroVI]

If you want to wear the jumpsuit because it is a pimp track suit, you should probably wear some PPP for the extra +2/+2, say a vitals protector and some arm/leg guards.

[Pyromaster13]

Everyone should get PPP vitals protectors at least. They protect your plums from blunt force trauma.