[Bakajin]

Ok done some more research and hopefully have a fairly well fleshed out character for 400BP etc.  Any inconsistencies or glaring holes anyone sees?  Lots of good advice from my previous attempt so hopefully this looks much better.  Thanks all.

[Ethan]

Well, min-max wise you'd want Spellcasting to be pretty high. I'd even go so far as to soft-cap Magic at 5 then use the remaining BP for higher spellcasting and more spells. Better yet, take it from Ritual Spellcasting. It hardly ever comes up, certainly not enough to be at Rating 4. Unless that's key to your concept.

Spellwise, I think Manabolt and Stunbolt are a bit redundant. Switch out Manabolt for Stunball. Low drain and effective. Are you sure there are no more Manipulation spells (edit) that you want? 

You don't have an OS for your Commlink.

Also, your Magic Lodge is at Rating 1. So it's utterly useless for a Magic 6 Mage.

[rasmusnicolaj]

I would lower Body to 3 and strength to 1. Also Edge 1. I would the use those BP to raise Willpower to 5 and the rest in Intuition and Reaction for a better initiative.
Drop Banishing as that is a trap option. Just have Summoning and Binding.
Influence skill group 3 isn't karma efficient so you should probably lower it to 1 or find the BP for raising it to 4.
Dodge isn't that great a skill (and especially combined with a low reaction). I would drop it.
Pilot Ground Craft isnt helping you much with a dicepool of 3 so just drop it to save BP.
Drop Pistols 3. You are always better of just stunbolting people in the face.
Ritual Spellcasting as noted Ethan should at most be 1.
Raise Spellcasting to 6.
Do you have 35 BP worth of negative qualities? If not get it (I can't remember the price of the ones you have chosen).
I agree with Ethan to change Manabolt to stunball.
With a raise in spellcasting I would get a few more spells like Increase Reflexes.
Adjust your gear with not all the guns and gun accesories.
You can always upgrade your Lodge so money spend on it isn't wasted.
Try and find the money and BP for a R4 Power Foci (lowering magic to 5 for this is worth it as it will give you a total +3 to all magic related dicepools). A R3 Sustaining foci (health) is also nice together with Improved Reflexes.

Rasmus

[Bakajin]

Great tips...a couple of questions.

Body at 5 is set so that I can stack the armor I have (and compensate for little or no dodge), is it better to take more hits then?
Strength 1 I can see other than carrying capacity I guess I wont use it that much. 
Edge 1,  I guess the difference between 1 and 2 isn't worth the cost compared to using it for better initiative?

Also on the Power Foci R4...isn't that beyond what I can buy during character creation?  I had thought I could only go up to availability 12 for items I buy initially?

Thanks,
Jason

[UmaroVI]

It's not that body isn't worth it, just that you may not have the points for 5 body.

Edge, yeah, basically, again, more edge is better, it's just a question of priorities.

The f4 power focus, you need the Restricted Gear quality for. It's still worth it.

[Bakajin]

Got it!  I juggled to get the power focus with dropping Magic by one and shifting a few other items. 

As far as pistols...shouldn't I have a backup to my magic or is that trying to straddle the fence a bit too much?

[Ethan]

Strength 2 is passable. Strength 1 may piss off your GM. Edge depends on your GM, one of mine used to allow it to refresh once an hour.

If you don't want to keep your Pistols skill, I suggest looking at Automatics. Get yourself a silenced Assault Rifle, set it to Full Auto, and load up on SnS/Gel Rounds/Whatever. All you do is lay down Suppressive Fire. It uses 20 rounds, it's a complex action, and it's a neat way to contribute without making yourself a great big mana-casting target.

If you'd like, you can even get Heavy Weapons (with Automatics or without). Use a Smartlinked Grenade Launcher with an Airburst Link. It can get pricey but you'll be a flexible member of the team. My last Mage had 2 in Automatics and 1 in Heavy Weapons, and he just lobbed smoke or gas grenades when necessary and lay down suppressing fire with SnS to cover retreats. Didn't kill anyone, but corpsec kept their heads down.

Oh, and you don't need a point in Pilot Ground Craft to drive. As long as you don't want to do combat in one, you can just use it to get to places.

You'll need Restricted Gear for the R4 Power Focus. It's worth it though, but I tend not to bother with it. I usually don't have a problem with casting or affecting my target, it's the drain.

That's why I would like to introduce to you the concept of Fetishes. I am in no way being bribed by several talismongers.  Ahem.

You don't want your most common-use spells to be Limited, that is they'd require a fetish in physical contact to you for you to cast them. A limited Heal spell would suck, especially if a fetish is in physical contact on pieces of yourself if you get my meaning.

Fireball and Lightning Bolt... these spells deserve Fetishes. They're not "common use" spells, and the high drain will wear you out when you do want to use them. Once you get more spells, consider making them Limited if:

1) You can live without casting that spell
2) You'd like to continuously cast that spell when the situation arises

I am also not being bribed to inform you that they cost only several hundred nuyen a piece and can be otherwise ordinary looking: rings, earrings, anklets, bracelets, all sorts of tiny jewelry to more... stereotypical ones.

 

[UmaroVI]

Yeah, if you want a backup weapon as a mage, far and away the best option is Heavy Weapons and the ArmTech MGL-6, because being passable with it is much more helpful. Don't use boom grenades, use thermal smoke, chemical, that kind of thing (ones that have fixed effects in an area rather than damage that drops off).