[B4N3]

First of all, thanks to UmaroVI for inspiring me and opening my mind to some advanced character building.

Story before the actual problem:
Group consisting of 2 army guys, one adept we don't know what he actually does and me (assassin-type character). We had a face-like character and a hacker who both decided to take a break.
So now I'm in a double windmill (? = difficult situation), since I've said I can create another character supporting the team. Somehow I don't like the idea of being a rigger, sitting in a car controlling some sneaky espionage drones (our GM said that a rigger to be "ear" and "eye" for the group would be good, nothing against this, but I played a technomancer for too long..) while the main story goes on without me being involved directly (sounds crazy ..).

That's why I decided to try a support-based mage which can evolve with some time into an elemental mage (flamethrower, lightning bolts and stuff like that .. just in different colors ^^).

I am currently a bit stuck on a character concept of mine, featuring parts of UmaroVI's occult investigator.

Explanations inside the spoiler.


== Info ==
Street Name:
Name: Unnamed Character
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 6
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 1
Public Awareness: 0
Elf
Composure: 12
Judge Intentions: 12
Lift/Carry: 5 (15 kg/10 kg)
Memory: 7
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3 (4)
AGI: 2 (3)
REA: 3
STR: 1
CHA: 7
INT: 5
LOG: 2
WIL: 5
EDG: 2
MAG: 4

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   5
Initiative:                8
IP:                        1
Astral Initiative:         10
Astral IP:                 3
Matrix Initiative:         6
Matrix IP:                 2
Physical Damage Track:     11
Stun Damage Track:         11

== Active Skills ==
Assensing                  : 1 [Aura Reading]       Pool: 6 (8 )
Con                        : 1                      Pool: 8
Etiquette                  : 1                      Pool: 8
Infiltration               : 3 [Urban]              Pool: 6 (8 )
Leadership                 : 1                      Pool: 8
Negotiation                : 1                      Pool: 8
Perception                 : 1 [Visual]             Pool: 6 (8 )
Spellcasting               : 6 [Illusion]           Pool: 14 (16)
Summoning                  : 1                      Pool: 9

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Contacts ==
(3, 4)
(2, 3)
(3, 3)

== Qualities ==
Distinctive Style (10 pts) (good looking Trid-Star, posing sometimes for camera's)
Incompetent (Banishing)
Low-Light Vision
Magician
Mentor Spirit (Sky Father)
Prejudiced (Specific, Outspoken) (WageMages)
Records on File (Horizon)
Restricted Gear (Rating 1)

== Spells ==
(Tradition: Shamanic, Resist Drain with WIL + CHA (12))
Clairaudience              DV: (F÷2)-1
Heal                       DV: (Damage Value)-2
Improved Invisibility      DV: (F÷2)+1
Increase Reflexes          DV: (F÷2)+2
Levitate                   DV: (F÷2)+1
Looking Glass              DV: (F÷2)+3
Mind Probe                 DV: (F÷2)+2
Shadow                     DV: (F÷2)+1
Spatial Sense, Extended (Limited) DV: (F÷2)+4
Stealth                    DV: (F÷2)+1
Stunbolt                   DV: (F÷2)-1
Trid Phantasm              DV: (F÷2)+3

== Lifestyles ==
Low  1 months

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Obvious Full Arm (BOD 9, AGI 9, STR 3) (Right)
   +Customized Agility Rating 6
   +Customized Body Rating 7
   +Armor Rating 2
   +Enhanced Agility Rating 3
   +Enhanced Body Rating 2

== Armor ==
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
   +Chemical Protection 6
SecureTech Forearm Guards 0/1
SecureTech Shin Guards    0/1
SecureTech Vitals Protector1/1
Vashon Island: Steampunk Corset/Vest2/2
   +Nonconductivity 6
Vashon Island: Steampunk Slacks or Knickers/Petticoat and Skirt1/1

== Weapons ==
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 2   DV: 1S   AP: -   RC: 0

== Commlink ==
Meta Link (1, 2, 1, 2)
   +Disposable Commlink OS
Novatech Airware (3, 4, 3, 3)
   +Novatech Navi
   +FTL Matrixware Power Suite [Analyze 3, Browse 4, Command 2, Edit 4, Purge 4, Scan 2]
   +Encrypt Rating 1 [Copy Protection 1, Registration]
   +Agent Rating 3 [Copy Protection 3, Registration]

== Gear ==
Contact Lenses Rating 2
   +Flare Compensation
   +Vision Magnification
Earbuds Rating 2
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 1
   +Spatial Recognizer
Fake License (Private Investigator) Rating 4
Fake License (Carry Foci) Rating 4
Fake License (Practice Magic) Rating 4
Fake License (Driver's) Rating 4
Fake SIN (Ari McClure) Rating 4
Flashlight
Forensic Thaumaturgy Kit
Glasses Rating 4
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
   +Image Link
   +Skinlink
   +Ultrasound
Medkit Rating 6
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Laser Range Finder
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Motion Sensor
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Radio Signal Scanner Rating 6
Power Focus (Bonded Foci) Rating 4
Simrig
Sustaining Focus (Health) (Bonded Foci) Rating 3

== Vehicles ==
Thundercloud Contrail (Racing Bike)
   +Vehicle Sensor



Some explanations:
We habe 5 BP free to use for contacts, and have to use 15 BP for contacts.
Since I do not have much agility to boost my infiltration skills, I thought about using the spells improved invisibility combined with stealth. The cyberarm helps to aquire some agility for the use of pistols or heavy weapons in general. Because I can multicast I thought stunbolt is enough, but somehow I am not satisfied with the creation.

Short story of the character is: Female Elf, good looking trid star for some advertisings and movies at horizon and some other companies. Tends to be a hobby investigator using her skills and friends to help people.

Problem is, I kind of have the feeling of missing something big, like not being able to boost charisma or willpower later on, except using 5 karma to get hold onto the attribute boost skills.
Some things like contacts are not specified yet due to time management ^^.

[Solo]

I would try to get a power focus (level 4), a sustaining focus, and increase the summoning skill.
The power focus would help all you magical skills and the sustaining could be good for increased reflexes.

Spirits add a great versatility to any Mage/shaman. Having a skill at a higher level would be very useful.

[Thrass]

you can't customize body to 7 (on your cyberarm) as an elf (unless taking exceptional attribute, metagenetic optimization or genetic optimization)


try bying those skill specializations ingame (~ half the cost as in 2 karma instead of 2 BP)

Why you do have this cyberarm is beyond me, would you care to explain it?

[Novocrane]

You also can't take items above rating 6 at character generation.

[B4N3]

Rating 6?
There are no items higher than 6 or availability 12.
And I've got restricted gear for the power focus.

Uhm.. the cyberarm is used to push the body attribut to 4 to be able to wear a little bit more armor.
And for heavy weapons / pistol usage later on. Since I did not hit my augmented cap I thought it would be all right :S

The character was created by the chummer chargen using standard rules..

[Novocrane]

Rating 6?
There are no items higher than 6 or availability 12.

+Customized Body Rating 7

[B4N3]

Okay, my mistake ^^

Let's change it to:

Obvious Full Arm (BOD 9, AGI 9, STR 3) (Right)
   +Customized Agility Rating 6
   +Customized Body Rating 6
   +Armor Rating 2
   +Enhanced Agility Rating 3
   +Enhanced Body Rating 3

or to (since the restriction on the natural attribut is in another post):

Obvious Full Arm (BOD 9, AGI 9, STR 3) (Right)
   +Customized Agility Rating 6
   +Customized Body Rating 5
   +Armor Rating 2
   +Enhanced Agility Rating 3
   +Enhanced Body Rating 4

[UmaroVI]

You can't have Enhancements over rating 3 because you don't have a cybertorso.

What you want is to customize Body to 5 and Agility to 7, then 3 Body and 3 Agility enhancement. 8 Body is what you need to average to a 4.

[UmaroVI]

Okay, on (fairly quick) review, I think you are in pretty good shape, really. The cyberarm is really not a bad investment - it's a huge amount of extra defense and it means that you aren't totally helpless when you can't use magic.

Sky Father is not working for you. You have way too many Illusion spells and too few Manipulations for him to be a good choice. Based on your spell selection, you should really think about Spider, Cat, Seductress, or Trickster.

Infiltration 4 is more helpful, long-run, than the specializations. I would lose any two specializations and get that.

Shadow is a pretty meh spell because it duplicates smoke grenades, and I would recommend dropping it for Physical Mask, which is one of the best Illusions.

I would suggest carrying the ArmTech MGL-6 Grenade Launcher and putting some of the grenade types that do fixed effect over a radius (chemical splash grenades, chemical gas grenades, smoke grenades, and flashbangs are all good). You can get 11 dice with it (10 agility, -1 default, +2 smartlink) which is actually pretty good.

[B4N3]

Okay, thanks for the replies, but I only see a body attribute of 9 working to get an average body of 4..
With customized body 5 and enhanced body 3 I only get body 3 in the chummer-gen. And if I take agility rating 7 it is over the rating 6 rule, mentioned by Novocrane.

Additionally I changed the specializations of infiltration and perception (otherwise I could drop aura reading and take perception visual instead) and got infiltration 4, changed the Sky Father to cat (but either trickster or spider sound great) which gets me another 2 dice in infiltration for a dicepool of 9.
Added the MGL-6 with the following modifications:
ArmTech MGL-6
   +Airburst Link
   +Shock Pad
   +Smartgun System, External
   +Chameleon Coating

with 10 grenades of: flash-bang, splash with narcoject, smoke and gas.

Are there some contacts which you would recommend to know, which are useful for legwork etc.?

== Info ==
Street Name:
Name: Ariane Gurth
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 6
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 1
Public Awareness: 0
Elf w Age 35 looks like 23
Height 178 Weight 56
Composure: 12
Judge Intentions: 12
Lift/Carry: 5 (15 kg/10 kg)
Memory: 7
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3 (4)
AGI: 2 (3)
REA: 3
STR: 1
CHA: 7
INT: 5
LOG: 2
WIL: 5
EDG: 2
MAG: 4

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   5
Initiative:                8
IP:                        1
Astral Initiative:         10
Astral IP:                 3
Matrix Initiative:         6
Matrix IP:                 2
Physical Damage Track:     11
Stun Damage Track:         11

== Active Skills ==
Assensing                  : 1 [Aura Reading]       Pool: 6 (8 )
Con                        : 1                      Pool: 8
Etiquette                  : 1                      Pool: 8
Infiltration               : 4                      Pool: 9
Leadership                 : 1                      Pool: 8
Negotiation                : 1                      Pool: 8
Perception                 : 1                      Pool: 6
Spellcasting               : 6 [Illusion]           Pool: 14 (16)
Summoning                  : 1                      Pool: 9

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Contacts ==
(3, 4)
(2, 3)
(2, 3)

== Qualities ==
Distinctive Style (10 pts)
Incompetent (Banishing)
Low-Light Vision
Magician
Mentor Spirit (Cat)
Prejudiced (Specific, Outspoken) (WageMages)
Records on File (Horizon)
Restricted Gear (Rating 1)

== Spells ==
(Tradition: Shamanic, Resist Drain with WIL + CHA (12))
Clairaudience              DV: (F÷2)-1
Heal                       DV: (Damage Value)-2
Improved Invisibility      DV: (F÷2)+1
Increase Reflexes          DV: (F÷2)+2
Levitate                   DV: (F÷2)+1
Looking Glass              DV: (F÷2)+3
Mind Probe                 DV: (F÷2)+2
Physical Mask              DV: (F÷2)+1
Spatial Sense, Extended (Limited) DV: (F÷2)+4
Stealth                    DV: (F÷2)+1
Stunbolt                   DV: (F÷2)-1
Trid Phantasm              DV: (F÷2)+3

== Lifestyles ==
Low  1 months

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Obvious Full Arm (BOD 9, AGI 10, STR 3) (Right)
   +Customized Agility Rating 7
   +Customized Body Rating 6
   +Armor Rating 2
   +Enhanced Agility Rating 3
   +Enhanced Body Rating 3

== Armor ==
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
   +Chemical Protection 6
SecureTech Forearm Guards 0/1
SecureTech Shin Guards    0/1
SecureTech Vitals Protector1/1
Vashon Island: Steampunk Corset/Vest2/2
   +Nonconductivity 6
Vashon Island: Steampunk Slacks or Knickers/Petticoat and Skirt1/1

== Weapons ==
ArmTech MGL-6
   +Airburst Link
   +Shock Pad
   +Smartgun System, External
   +Chameleon Coating
   Pool: 2   DV: n. def.   AP: -   RC: 1
Minigrenade: Flash-Bang
   Pool: 2   DV: 6S (10m Radius)   AP: -3   RC: 0
Minigrenade: Gas
   Pool: 2   DV: Chemical (10m Radius)   AP: -   RC: 0
Minigrenade: Smoke
   Pool: 2   DV: (10m Radius)   AP: -   RC: 0
Minigrenade: Splash
   Pool: 2   DV: Chemical (10m Radius)   AP: -   RC: 0
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 2   DV: 1S   AP: -   RC: 0

== Commlink ==
Meta Link (1, 2, 1, 2)
   +Disposable Commlink OS
Novatech Airware (3, 4, 3, 3)
   +Novatech Navi
   +FTL Matrixware Power Suite [Analyze 3, Browse 4, Command 2, Edit 4, Purge 4, Scan 2]
   +Encrypt Rating 1 [Copy Protection 1, Registration]
   +Agent Rating 3 [Copy Protection 3, Registration]

== Gear ==
Contact Lenses Rating 2
   +Flare Compensation
   +Vision Magnification
Earbuds Rating 2
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 1
   +Spatial Recognizer
Fake License (Private Investigator) Rating 4
Fake License (Carry Foci) Rating 4
Fake License (Practice Magic) Rating 4
Fake License (Driver's) Rating 4
Fake SIN (Ari McClure) Rating 4
Flashlight
Forensic Thaumaturgy Kit
Glasses Rating 4
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
   +Image Link
   +Skinlink
   +Ultrasound
Medkit Rating 6
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Laser Range Finder
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Motion Sensor
Micro Sensor
   +Skinlink
   +Radio Signal Scanner Rating 6
Minigrenade: Flash-Bang x10
Minigrenade: Gas x10
Minigrenade: Smoke x10
Minigrenade: Splash x10
Narcoject x10
Power Focus (Bonded Foci) Rating 4
Simrig
Sustaining Focus (Health) (Bonded Foci) Rating 3

== Vehicles ==
Thundercloud Contrail (Racing Bike)
   +Vehicle Sensor

[Gorean]

Okay, thanks for the replies, but I only see a body attribute of 9 working to get an average body of 4..
With customized body 5 and enhanced body 3 I only get body 3 in the chummer-gen. And if I take agility rating 7 it is over the rating 6 rule, mentioned by Novocrane.

"customized" doesn't have a rating, it just adds to availability.
chummer however calls it a rating due to the way it's implemented, it's not a "Rating" as far as the rules are concerned.

So getting your arm
Obvious Full Arm (BOD 9, AGI 10, STR 3) (Right)
   +Customized Agility 7
   +Customized Body 6
   +Armor Rating 2
   +Enhanced Agility Rating 3
   +Enhanced Body Rating 3

would cost you 27450 and be availability 11

[UmaroVI]

I recall something about chummer defaulting to averaging in your head as a limb, which is contradictory to the example in the rules. IIRC there is an option to change it.

[Thrass]

IIRC Chummer can be set to use 6 limbs (2 legs, 2 arms, torso, head) or 5 limbs (with either the head or the torso as the 5th limb)

you should be able to choose the behaviour in the settings

[B4N3]

Found and changed it
Thanks.

Now .. where can I implement a smartlink ... should I dump vision magnification?

[Thrass]

just checked and it seems that your glasses are above availability... remove that availability 8 ultrasound and get a smartlink instead (see what availability your glasses have then and adjust accordingly
(chummer sums up the availability on the glasses when you buy mods as plugins quite nicely)

You can't use your glasses for spell targeting anyway.

What you can do is get contact lenses with ultrasound, you can have all of it)
(In every group that I played by now contact lenses and glasses can be used at the same time)