[All4BigGuns]

Try this one out:

[spoiler]
Unnamed Hero
Meta-type: Human

Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Willpower 5
Logic 3
Intuition 5
Charisma 5

Edge 3
Magic 6
Essence 6.0

Condition Monitor (P/S): 10 / 11
Armor: 9
Limits: Physical 4, Mental 6, Social 7
Physical Initiative: 8+1D6
Astral Initiative: 10+3D6

Active Skills:
Arcana 1
Assensing 2
Binding 6
Computer 1
Con 1
Counterspelling 4
Gymnastics 1
Influence Group 2
Perception 3
Pilot Ground Craft (Wheeled +2) 1
Pistols (Tasers +2) 3
Sneaking 1
Spellcasting 6
Summoning 6

Knowledge Skills:
Black Market 1
Law (Magical +2) 2
Magical Theory 3
Magical Threats 3
Seattle Sprawl 1

Languages:
English 5
Japanese N

Qualities:
Allergy, Common (Moderate): Antibiotics
Distinctive Style: Shinto Priest Robes
Focused Concentration (5)
Shinto Magician
SINner (National SIN): Imperial Japan

Spells:
Ball Lightning
Chaotic World
Heal
Improved Invisibility
Increase Reflexes
Levitate
Magic Fingers
Physical Mask
Stealth
Stunbolt

Gear:
   AR Gloves
   Contacts (3) w/ Flare Compensation, Image Link, Low Light Vision
   Ear buds (3) w/ Audio Enhancement (3)
   Glasses (3) w/ Vision Enhancement (3)
   Identity: Specify Name w/ Fake License: Awakened (4), Fake License: Offensive Magic (4), Fake SIN (4), (2 months) Low Lifestyle
   Magical Lodge Materials: Shinto Shrine (6)
   Reagents, refined (dram): Shinto x50
   Renraku Sensei w/ Mapsoft: Seattle Sprawl
   Shinto Priest Robes
   Sustaining Focus: Health Spells (4)

Weapons:
   Yamaha Pulsar [Taser, Acc 6, DV 7S(e), AP -5, SA, 4 (m)] w/ Personalized Grip, (20x) Taser Dart

Contacts:
Fixer (Connection 4, Loyalty 3)
Parazoologist (Connection 1, Loyalty 3)
Talismonger (Connection 3, Loyalty 3)
Starting ¥: 545 + (4D6 × 100)¥

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[/spoiler]

[Senko]

I'll take a look over it, I assume this is for a specific game as they have Japanese native and english 5 rather than a modfication of mine? I notice you have drain stats as 5/5 rather 5/6 with int at 4.

[All4BigGuns]

I'll take a look over it, I assume this is for a specific game as they have Japanese native and english 5 rather than a modfication of mine? I notice you have drain stats as 5/5 rather 5/6 with int at 4.

I put the languages as they were to reflect the SIN I gave it (Imperial Japan).

I put 5 and 5 instead of 5 and 6 because 1 die won't make much difference in drain resist whereas the higher Intuition will improve Perception, Assensing, defense and Knowledge Skill points.

Sneaking is a bit low, but Stealth and Improved Invisibility should serve well enough until some karma can get put in the skill.

[Senko]

Am I missing something here when I try to work this out I can't get it come out right. In priority it has 2 karma left over, not much but there are things you could buy with that an extra 2 knowledge skills, speed reading, some more gear, a medium lifestyle and this is after I buy a magic licence since that's normally seperate from a combat magic one.

[All4BigGuns]

Am I missing something here when I try to work this out I can't get it come out right. In priority it has 2 karma left over, not much but there are things you could buy with that an extra 2 knowledge skills, speed reading, some more gear, a medium lifestyle and this is after I buy a magic licence since that's normally seperate from a combat magic one.

I built it with HeroLab, and it shows everything being dead even. As to license, if you'll notice the one that says 'Awakened', that covers what you should be seeing as the 'magic license'. Unfortunately, it doesn't show on the text-only output, but the real SIN has 2 months of Middle lifestyle

Link to PDF Sheet

[Senko]

Ah that'd be it I didn't have any lifestyle there just the low one on the fake SIN.

[All4BigGuns]

Oh, while it is lacking rituals and the skill to use them, that shouldn't be that big a deal since rituals aren't all that useful considering how much time they take to perform.

[falar]

Oh, while it is lacking rituals and the skill to use them, that shouldn't be that big a deal since rituals aren't all that useful considering how much time they take to perform.

*drives by and shouts, "Ritual Magic isn't as bad as Alchemy" out the window*

[Tarislar]

Consider dropping skills to c and magic up to a.  You will loose 4 skill points / 3 skill groups gain 1 magic 1 edge and 3 spells.

Seconded.  Magic A, Skills C looks like you come out ahead overall.   

3rd'ed


How important is eventually being a Face?

How about the following for raw focus on magic-ing.
4 = Magic + Attributes
1 = Skills + Cash
0 = Human

32 Attributes Points = B3, A4, R5, S1, W5, L3, I5, C6
32 Skill Points = Sorcery-6+Spec,  Summoning-6,  Binding-6,  Counterspelling-6,  Perception-6+Spec

20 Karma = Mentor Spirit-5,  SpiritWhisperer-8?, JoaT-2,  Trustfund-5
5 Karma + Negatives = Contacts, Contacts, Contacts, Skills, Cash  (in that order)

Your Rich-(ish),  Connected,  Attractive,  & Hard to Hit.   And in a perfect position to branch out with a bunch of low level skills right away.

[Hobbes]

Oh, while it is lacking rituals and the skill to use them, that shouldn't be that big a deal since rituals aren't all that useful considering how much time they take to perform.

*drives by and shouts, "Ritual Magic isn't as bad as Alchemy" out the window*

*opens front door*  "For Runners its worse!"

Ritual magic takes too long and tends to be better for stopping or screwing with runners rather than the other way around.  Plus takes a more significant investment.  IMO.

[All4BigGuns]

I will admit, however, that the ritual equivalent of Heal is tempting for me as are Watchers, but one or two rituals isn't enough for me.

[Marcus]

Eh All4 I think your version is going in the wrong direction, though full credit for for a coming with an interesting variant, I really like the shinto robe thing, I'm totally stealing the hell out of that. I think the revised version is fine and totally playable. The sheet don't really need the gun but it's fun so carry on.

That said I agree with Hobbes, a caster in play will get better a lot faster by investing in initiation, foci, and quickened attributes. The skill list may vary slightly, but I would never count on it changing dramatically unless you're playing in game that goes on for years.  Also Ritual maic is cool for sure but it's not for players excepting in specific themed games.  But putting it on a single team mage it's fairly contradictory to the core caster role, or at least distracting from it.

All that said I think it's fine build, and should be totally playable.

[Senko]

@Tarislar
Being a face is a nice dream I use to comfort myself, in practice resource, skill and atttribute shortages have convinced me its impossible to make one I'd be comfortable playing so I'm trying to focus on just the mage aspect.

Thanks for the suggestion but I'm afraid I'd choke on that character with no computer, driving, basic interaction skills its not a character to me its just a bunch of numbers I'd never be able to make myself care about. Every time I looked at it I'd be wondering just how in the world anyone got that good at those areas and never picked up basic etiquette or computer use. I know it is the better option mechanically intelectually but emotionally I'm just one of those people who can't accept the current design practice. I need my characters to be someone I could believe grew up and gained those skill organically for me to care about them as a character, to be beliveable in the setting and like I said I think I have a very diffrent view of what skill zero means to most people here. The design philosophy this game inspires of max out 1 skill then later branch out drives me up the wall even if I love the setting. Especially since as others have said mages do tend to need to focus their karma on other matters once the game starts (foci, spells, inititiation, etc) so planning to get those 1-3 skills comes at the cost of advancement as a mage.

[All4BigGuns]

The design philosophy this game inspires of max out 1 skill then later branch out drives me up the wall even if I love the setting.

It isn't a design philosophy for the game, but rather the main flaw in a dice pool system. World of Darkness has the same flaw, but worse in that you're punished for maxing something out with extra costs and punished for not doing so by sucking at what you should be good at.

[Hobbes]

The design philosophy this game inspires of max out 1 skill then later branch out drives me up the wall even if I love the setting.

If skill points, stat points, costed the same before and after char gen you'd see a lot more diversity in initial skills, and a bit less pedantic Max 3 or 4 skills and stats at chargen.  Since skills and stats have an exponential cost curve it drives the behavior you see when coupled with the flat costs at chargen. 

Even Karma gen characters suffer a bit from this because of Jack of All Trades doesn't kick in till after char gen.  You're still moderately incentivized to focus on a few maxed skills at char gen.  Which is totally bonkers because magic characters have two (essentially) straight line cost curves for growth in initiation and foci.  So there obviously isn't any game balance reason for the steep exponential cost of stat and skill growth.  And don't get me started on cyberware being a sunk cost.

Anyway, the harsh maths of character advancement drives the specialized character building behavior you see.  *shrug*  If you don't care about it, then rock on.

FWIW I recommend picking up those low ranks in skills at char gen with Karma.  Just grab one or two dice in those skills you think you should have but won't actually use.  Just sayin.  6 dice computer/driving/whatever isn't particularly different than 4 or 5 dice.  You can have your desired character depth and be optimal at the same time.  Not that picking up 3 extra dice on Pistol is a big deal for a mage, your character is fundamentally sound so you'll be fine at any table. 

Apparently I need to give my soapbox to someone else for safekeeping....