[ve4grm]

I'm building a character that is a private-eye-style investigator, with mage skills to supplement his mundane abilities. I'm wondering if there are any spells or rituals I'm specifically missing that you think would be useful for tracking, finding targets, and generally getting into and out of trouble.

We have a health/combat focused mage in the party as well, so I'm focused more on detection/illusion/manipulation. A few really good spells from those categories wouldn't be out of the question, though.

So far, I'm taking:

Detection

Detect Individual
Mind Probe
Clairaudience
Clairvoyance (but the Street Grimoire version that lets me do thermographic vision)
Analyze Truth

Remote Sensing (though Detect Individual seems like the only real useful spell to use through this)

Utility/Stealth

Control Thoughts
Trid Phantasm

Combat/When the drek hits the fan

Chaotic World
Net Bind
Clout
Ball Lightning

[Davidvs]

I've gotten great mileage from:

Detect Enemies - Extended (I like to know who is coming to kill me and/or my team)

Detect Life and DL - Ext (who is lerking in the bushes)

Detect Magic (what spirits are around backing up the other mages)

I have been wanting to get Detect Object (guns) too.

Analyze Device is currently being used by a mage in our group and he is having tremendous success with it. "...Each net hit also gives the subject a bonus die while operating the device and allows the subject to ignore any skill-defaulting modifiers for using it as long as the spell is sustained."

[ve4grm]

I intend to pick up Detect Enemies at some point after chargen. Maybe Detect Magic, too.

I was considering swapping something out for Detect Life Extended, but can't decide what.

Analyze Device, eh? I hadn't really looked at it, but that's awesome.

[Ariketh]

Catalog and Spatial Sense is invaluable for 'scene of the crime' analysis.  After all, what's missing may be as important as what's present. Too bad the Recorded Room spell from Spy Games hasn't shown in SR5, as that could be useful as well. On the other hand, it had the same drain as Mindnet in SR4 and that is likely the only conversion that would need to be done for SR5 use.

Post initiation, Blood Sight might give you access to information you might not have otherwise. (Or might not have time to be processed by your cop contact's lab.) Death Mark might help track down a body.

-Ariketh

[ve4grm]

Post initiation, Blood Sight might give you access to information you might not have otherwise. (Or might not have time to be processed by your cop contact's lab.) Death Mark might help track down a body.

Where would I find Blood Sight and Death Mark? I don't remember seeing them.

[ZeConster]

Blood Sight and Death Mark are Necromancy rituals, and require dedicating an Initiation to the Necromancy school (by picking the Grave Binding ritual instead of a metamagic for that Initiation) before you can learn them by paying the regular 5 Karma per ritual [Street Grimoire, page 143-144].
Death Mark [SG, p127] makes it possible to follow a corpse's trail back to the original point of death, and Blood Sight [SG, p125] is like the magical version of running a DNA test on a blood sample, with some magical possibilities that mundane forensics can't reveal.
Grave Binding [SG, p129] itself isn't very useful for you, as it simply protects corpses from being possessed or inhabited by spirits, but it's a prerequisite for unlocking the others.

[ve4grm]

Ah, thanks. It's an option for later, though I plan on going into Psychometry first.

[Marcus]

I'd like to suggest Foreboding (SG pg 112), while it overlaps Chaotic world, I think its interesting spell and could have broader array of uses. (Interrogation perhaps?)