..the most basic of astral abilities, punching and defending. The shaman just pushed me too far too fast and wildly overestimated my abilities, until one day I summoned a spirit I couldn't control
Physical adepts cannot summon spirits..
Hero Lab is functioning without much of the clarifications for Shapeshifters yet.
The inclusion of Dual Natured, Regeneration, Allergy, and Vulnerability are still considered Provisional at the moment, so Hero Lab won't include them.
The max Magic of 5 issue is that the chart is formatted oddly, making it seem like the Magic Rating has a maximum based on the type of Shifter that you are. Comparing that chart to the others shows that the column currently marked with the "MAG" at the top is probably supposed to be for Edge, and that MAG is referring to the column where all the shifters have just a "1" which indicates that they have an innate magic score.
A solution if you want to make corrections is to use the Editor and copy/edit the shifter you want to have.
A starting magic of one isn't a bonus of any sort. It just means you are a magical entity. It is a special attribute which can be increased with points from the Metatype priority.
If you choose not to become a mage or adept then your Magic attribute will only be relevant for things like critter powers or Mana barriers.
Well, copying the race should be pretty straight-forward. The only roadblock is that you'll have to manually copy the data, rather than making a copy and doing some slight edits.
If you open up the editor, the race is on the Race, Metahuman subtab of the Race tab.
If you hit the New (Copy) button, you should see Bovine Shapeshifter close to the top of the list. Now, when you copy it, the editor will tell you that you can't save it. Which is fine, you can use it to go through the data and see what you need to change.
Next, hit New (Blank) to make a fresh blank race. Name it something like Bovine Shapeshifter (Errata). From there, just go through the Copy and fill in all the information the same way. The Magic is actually a scripted event, so you can just not add that. Otherwise make sure you go through and copy everything else.
Once you have everything copied (make sure that the tags and bootstraps also match), then you can also add the Dual-Natured, Regeneration, Allergy, etc) as bootstraps also.
Right now we have a Troll bruiser, a technomancer(can't recall race), an Elf Face, an Elf Stealth Street Samurai and me!
Now, the GM did ask that one of us have some type of astral affinity even if not a magician, and since I tend to be the type to write a story for a character and then create them, it was handed to me.
I have decided I want to make a Sasquatch Adept. The basic story is that I was training under the Shaman of my clan to take over when he died since I was the son of the eldest(kinda like chief) even though I showed minimal aptitude toward spirit summoning. It seemed the only thing I was good at was the most basic of astral abilities, punching and defending. The shaman just pushed me too far too fast and wildly overestimated my abilities, until one day I summoned a spirit I couldn't control. Not only that, it was a malevolent spirit, and it ended up killing several of my clan members before the Shaman was able to banish it. Since it killed my father, I didn't have the protection of a leader on my side and I was cast out.
I was thinking about Meta(A) Attributes(B) Magic(C) Skills(D) and Resources(E) since I will have limited skills and resources having been living on the streets and coming out of the forest. Our face(the one I helped) is Resources(A) and has vowed to take care of me(she's a den mother character).
I think it is worth pointing out that Physical Adepts aren't just inept at spellcasting (or summoning), they are flat-out incapable of doing it. If the situation we're talking about involves the character failing to summon a spirit, then they can't just be a physical adept. That would be like expecting a human to fly.
Now, with a Mystic Adept, the character could have attempted to learn summoning and failed so spectacularly that it caused problems. This might be a good reason to take the Incompetent (Conjuring) quality. The end result would be the inability to learn how to conjure, but the character still has the potential to do it.
You're new to the game, so I completely support having your character be simpler. Honestly, its a big undertaking to make a Metasapient as your first character, so sticking with Physical Adept is probably a good idea. I just wanted to point out that the background story might need some tweaking to make that part jive correctly with the setting.
Another tip on background, Shifters don't generally congregate into villages, mostly because their natural form is the animal, not humanoid. Now, Shifters that walk in from the wild in the NAN are offered SINs and would likely be welcomed into society. You could have walked in and joined a NAN tribe near Denver, still placing you in the right area for the game (I think?). A Shifter joining the tribe might have been a big deal, leading to the extensive magical training they attempted to give you. And the excitement might have then led to their overestimation of your capabilities. After the mishap, they could have blamed you, leading to the casting out.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of Borrowed Time. And if you're deciding to be a Physical Adept, you couldn't have been the one to conjure the spirit (as much as the village might have blamed you for it). But if you're ok with having a timer leading to when you're character dies, cool on you. When a Spirit goes Free, strange things can happen.