[Gnomeborg]

Ok, so I'm making my first-ever Shadowrun character for a game that starts on Tuesday.  The group currently has 5 players (4 besides me).  We've got a dedicated hacker/rigger, a street samurai, a B/E guy with combat (unaugmented or adepted for some reason), and a cyberwear investigator.

I want to play the Face with a little bit of magical investigation.  I am fascinated by the SURGE stuff in the Runner's Companion, so I'd like to, if I can, play around with that.

But I'm fairly lost on how to actually make this.  How to make my character actually not be a mess of a sheet, and able to contribute to the group.  I've looked through UmaroVI's new archetypes (found his/her stuff while google searching for some help) and didn't find one that really did what I was looking for (the Ork Paranormal Investigator was close, but I'm not sure how to adapt to make it into a face...)

Can y'all help me out?

[rasmusnicolaj]

You don't have a magician in the group so go for that role.
An elf Shaman is easy to also make into a decent face.
If you go for Surge you could take metagenetic improvement Charisma or you could maybe take Glamour (or be a dryad). Just remember that Surged characters get the negative quality Distinct Style for free (you are after all a genetic freak).
It should be fairly easy to get a broad selection of spells for general use as a support character and investigation.
Chose a mentor spirit that gives a bonus to one of the social skills or just the type of magic you wanna be best at (probably manipulation because mental manipulation is a nice way of doing at least some of your face stuff).

Rasmus

[UmaroVI]

If you want to be a face and you're going to SURGE, Glamour is the way to go.

You might want to use the Spirit Medium as a base.

[Gnomeborg]

Any other advice anyone can give me?

[ArkangelWinter]

Buy as many skills as possible at 1 or 4; take the Influence group, thank me in the morning. Tailored Pheromones is really good. Emotitoys are overpowered.

Dont get cybereyes unless you're stuffing more toys in them than glasses can hold; on the other hand, cyberarms are nice.

And as a face, even some of the negative SURGe qualities can be beneficial if you don't mind being very memorable.

[Charasanya]

And as a face, even some of the negative SURGe qualities can be beneficial if you don't mind being very memorable.

I'm a little confused... Care to give an example?

[Mara]

And as a face, even some of the negative SURGe qualities can be beneficial if you don't mind being very memorable.

I'm a little confused... Care to give an example?

I would guess: mood Hair, extragavant eyes, etc...they are beneficial because they really do not have much of
a mechanical drawback.

[JustADude]

And as a face, even some of the negative SURGe qualities can be beneficial if you don't mind being very memorable.

I'm a little confused... Care to give an example?

I would guess: mood Hair, extragavant eyes, etc...they are beneficial because they really do not have much of
a mechanical drawback.

And don't forget Mana Static on a Mundane character stripped down to less than one essence.

[ArkangelWinter]

^what both of them said. Mood hair isnt such a bad option for a face, especially if you  an pass it off as fiber optic hair. A couple of the other appearance alterations can be used this way, passed off as cosmetic augmentation (which implies money). Neoteny is also good, since it would be very unsettling to anyone you negotiate with, or used to lure them into a false sense of security.

I'm wary of Mana Static, but by some interpretations it helps more than it hurts.

[Gnomeborg]

I went ahead and built it as a Dryad.  I was building it as a SURGE infected Elf, and taking both Glamour and Symbiosis with further points, so a Dryad was the right way to go.

Should I be buying my skills in sets, or individually?  UmaroVI's archetype for the paranomral investigator didn't purchase his spell casting outside of the skill set, so I'm starting to get nervous that I shouldn't be looking at the full group.

[UmaroVI]

That depends on the skill set. Influence, yes. Sorcery...generally no. Ritual spellcasting isn't worthless, but IMO it isn't worth losing 6 spellcasting for and you don't need to be great at it; you can pick up 1 level with karma later on if you find you need it. Conjuring, never, Banishing is useless.

[Gnomeborg]

That depends on the skill set. Influence, yes. Sorcery...generally no. Ritual spellcasting isn't worthless, but IMO it isn't worth losing 6 spellcasting for and you don't need to be great at it; you can pick up 1 level with karma later on if you find you need it. Conjuring, never, Banishing is useless.

For flavor reasons, I'd decided to take Incompetent: Conjuring.  I liked the idea of not being able to summon spirits worth a damn.

[ArkangelWinter]

That depends on the skill set. Influence, yes. Sorcery...generally no. Ritual spellcasting isn't worthless, but IMO it isn't worth losing 6 spellcasting for and you don't need to be great at it; you can pick up 1 level with karma later on if you find you need it. Conjuring, never, Banishing is useless.

For flavor reasons, I'd decided to take Incompetent: Conjuring.  I liked the idea of not being able to summon spirits worth a damn.

That severely limits you as a mage, but sounds interesting. If you have the Street Magic book, you may want to swap Incompetent for Aspected Magician.

[UmaroVI]

Conjuring is a skill group; that would actually be 3 incompetences (summoning/binding/banishing). Which is severely limiting, yes, because Summoning alone is really good.

[Solomon]

Why exactly is Banishing useless? Playing an anti-magic investigator and was thinking about investing in it heavily