[Argentis]

Hi guys, here is a character I have been messing around with in Hero Lab for the last while, and I can't quite make it work.  I'm looking at a magician who is a cat burglar and follows Cat.  Here is what I have so far, but I can't fit everything into 400 BP.  Any and all input welcome.

Back story's not 100% yet, but I've got the line from The Score stuck in my head where Deniro says "Picture everything you want in life, and then spend the next 30 years getting it, one small piece at a time".

Thanks,
Argentis

Edit: Ignore the knowledge skills for now, I started off with the street shaman sample character.  I'll get those fixed at some point.

[Argentis]

boo comments yet?  well maybe all the magic experts take the weekend off.

[emsquared]

You may get more responses if you don't make people dld a file to give you a crit. I don't even like it when theyre in a spoiler block :P

[Argentis]

Any tips on how to get a suitable export from hero lab to stick in a spoiler block?  It seems like I either get a pdf, or a wall of text statblock.

[Mad Hamish]

I'd be very tempted to drop some of the minor skills to put Counterspelling, Summoning & Binding up.
I'd also consider dropping str to 2 or 1 which lets you put willpower and/or charisma up which helps with drain. you could possibly drop intuition down 1 as well.

You're probably better off looking at spells for some abilities rather than skills e.g. get Levitate instead of climb, you'll have to drop a few spells to do it though.
You want Improved Reaction

A sustaining focus or two would be a very good idea, improved invisibility & stealth sustained by focii give you a much better chance to do things, another option is to summon a spirit of man with innate spell to sustain one of them & you can have bound spirits as well) alternatively you could decide to drop some spells and depend on spirits to cover that (summon a spirit to use concealment instead of having improved invisibility & stealth)

Not sure I've helped much...

[Crunch]

I'd also consider dropping str to 2 or 1 which lets you put willpower and/or charisma up which helps with drain. you could possibly drop intuition down 1 as well.

Given that a lot of things that a Cat Burglar does (Climbing, Running Jumping) will be Str related I'd tend to shy away from dropping Str. Given that Intuition covers checks to notice things I'd shy away from dropping Intuition as well. For a Magical Cat Burglar I've always found that Mystic Adept works better than straight Magician, but your mileage may vary.

I'll also chime in with advocating keeping your basic activities as skills rather than spells. A cat burglar who can't climb a wall wouldn't get very far in a game I was running, but that's just me.

[Mad Hamish]

I'd also consider dropping str to 2 or 1 which lets you put willpower and/or charisma up which helps with drain. you could possibly drop intuition down 1 as well.

Given that a lot of things that a Cat Burglar does (Climbing, Running Jumping) will be Str related I'd tend to shy away from dropping Str. Given that Intuition covers checks to notice things I'd shy away from dropping Intuition as well. For a Magical Cat Burglar I've always found that Mystic Adept works better than straight Magician, but your mileage may vary.

I'll also chime in with advocating keeping your basic activities as skills rather than spells. A cat burglar who can't climb a wall wouldn't get very far in a game I was running, but that's just me.

Climbing, Running and Jumping might all use strength but Levitate takes care of Jumping and Climbing and at a higher force is faster than running, a spirit with the Movement power is also usable instead of running.

As far as not being able to climb, the goal isn't to climb, it's to get someplace. Whether you do it by climbing or using levitate doesn't really matter

[Crunch]

Until you find yourself dealing with background count or magical security. Like I said in my game it would be a bad move to make yourself completely dependent on Levitate to function as a burglar. In your game it may be fine.

[Mad Hamish]

It's not perfect but it's a fair tradeoff to start with.
Spent 3 bp for levitate instead of the number of bp for the physical skills.
You can buy the skills during advancement relatively cheaply (10 karma for the skill group).
Similarly it's a not cheaper to put str from 2 to 3 or from 1 to 3 even than willpower from 4 to 5 and the extra dice resisting drain will probably be more use than an additional dice on climbing

A background count will cause you problems but as a starting magically active character a background count will always cause you issues ->  and with 5 magic and a rating 4 power focus it takes a high background count to completely stuff you (although you might find yourself overcasting more than you want)
Against magical security additional counterspelling dice might help you more there than climbing does anyway.

Unless you've got reason to suspect that the campaign is going to start going up against astral security or in a background count I think you're better off using magic initially and picking the skills up in play, the spells give you more flexibility and compared to small dice pools of 4 in climbing, 5 in gymnastics etc I think it's the best option when the player says they feel they're squeezed for points already.

[Crunch]

Like I said, in your game it may work out. I'd tend to be leery of playing a cat burglar who can't climb a wall. YMMV.