Shadowrun Play > Character creation and critique

Mage help?

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Snack Happy:
So I am making a mage for a backup character for my games and it doesnt seem that 400 BP is enough though so I thought I would look to assistance from you guys. I wanted to make him an Elf since I plan on using the Black Magic tradition. I also picture him working for a corporation as one of their magic go to guys. I think my problem is I am trying to make him a good overall mage and want to be good at everything. I am almost leaning towards conjuring if I had to choose but Im not sure on pros/cons between the two. For contacts we get free points equal to Cha+Edge+social skill ranks.  Any help so that I dont run out of points to fast or suggestions would be helpful, I generally run out of points after qualities skills and stats ehich sucks since i need gear. Here is a list of how I brainstormed my stuff if you can think of better qualities for corporate mage let me know as well.

BODY 2
AGILITY 3
REACTION 4
STRENGTH 2
CHARISMA 6
INTUITION 4
LOGIC 3
WILLPOWER 5
EDGE 2
MAGIC 5

QUALITIES
RECORDS ON FILE 10
PREJUDICE TROLLS OUTSPOKEN 15
MODERATE ALLERGY SILVER 10
MAGICIAN -15
MENTOR SPIRIT -5

SKILLS
SORCERY GROUP 4
CONJURING GROUP 4
ASSENSING 4
INFILTRATION(URBAN) 1
NEGOTIATION 2
ASTRAL COMBAT 2
DODGE 2
DATA SEARCH 2
BLADES (SWORDS) 1


Needless to say this is over 400BP already it comes 405 and i have yet to buy any spells or gear so yes any ideas how I could make him better are much appreciated. Thanks guys.

Dakka:
Ritual spellcasting isn't great, so you can save 8 points by going with Spellcasting 4 and Counterspelling 4 over Sorcery Group 4.  Also Banishing isn't super great, just "banish" the offending spirit with a healthy dose of manabolt and he will be no more, so you can go with Conjuring 4 and Binding 4 saving 8 more points.  You can get another 5 points of negative qualities so now we are up to 21 points.  You generally don't want to spec at character creation, its easy and cheap to do with karma so droping those is 4 ponts for 25.  Astral Combat can be left to spirits so you can drop that for 8 more and 32.  More than enough for spells and gear.

I like your attribute distribution but I might go with reaction 3 and body 3 or strength 1 and body 3.  Most the time you will have +3 init and +3 IPs so reaction isn't super important.  You can also buff your attributes with magic and the base attribute is meaningless to this buff.

Spend 8 of your 32 points on spellcasting 6.  It is the tool by which you practice your trade, so may as well max it out.  21 of the remaining 24 goto 7 spells which leaves you 3 for gear or 15,000 nuyen. 

Snack Happy:
What would be worthwhile gear with only 3 points and what are some key spells to take?

Dakka:
Well, magic can do darn near anything so it depends what you want to be able to do to decide what spells to take.  Staple spells are Heal, Manabolt (single target physical damage), Stunball (area stun damage), and Improved Reflexes.  After that you can take whatever direction you would like to go in.  Invisibility, more damage spells, elemental aura so you can hit stiff with your sword, mind probe, confusion, armor for those time where getting shot at is part of the plan, physical barrier or even Turn To Goo for making liquid puddles of your enemies.  It really all depends on your mood.

Kontact:
The spells you take also depend on your mentor spirit and the spell type it boosts.

Going back to attributes and buffing your attributes with magic, actually the lower your attribute is to start with, the lower the force needed to increase it, therefore the easier it is to bind to a Sustaining focus.  On that note, don't forget Foci.  You won't be able to hide them from astral detection until you initiate enough to get Extended Masking, but they're still great to get at chargen, since the BP cost for binding is so much less than the karma cost during play.


So, if you drop your reaction or intuition (or both) to 3, then you can purchase and bind a (actually, you'll probably want several) lvl 3 Health aspected Sustaining Foci.  Then you can cast Increase Attribute, and bind it to that foci, raising your reaction or intuition by the number of hits scored (I think to 2x force I.. don't know the cap here.)  Anyway, even if it was only 3, then you've just boosted your Reaction, Intuition, Body, whatever to 6.  Pretty nice... until you hit some Background Count...  And don't forget the Sustaining focus for Increased Reflexes to keep your extra IPs without incurring the -2 sustaining penalty.


Basically, what you might want to take away from this is, don't neglect money at chargen.  Money is awesome.  Buy foci, and armor... don't forget to look like a regular guy and not a gunless wizard.  Just because you're a living weapon, that doesn't mean that you can't spend cash on gear.

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