[foolofcheese]

I have played around for a while with making a character, no play group here, and have finally decided to getting around to doing it. I have a lot of the big concepts in place, but I haven't made all my final decisions.

I am pretty sure some of the things I have so far are a little redundant. The phrasing used sometimes makes it hard for me to parse out what is the same, what is different, and what is not really as useful as it looks.

Right now the concept is a guy that is always looking for the little bit more advantage without getting too close to overdoing it.

the priority build as of right now is:

A: Magic - as the magic rating, starting PP potential, number of spells and magic skills this seems important
B: Attributes - go big with attributes to have a good starting pool for the skills I want, Mysad is going to use a lot of karma and odds are not much is going to end up being added here
C: Dwarf - I like the vibe and it adds more attributes in the right places, especially Will
D: Money - 50k will "buy" more skill points than having skills as priority D, not to mention a decent fake SIN
E: Skills - I am hoping gear, magic, pp and those two extra skill bumps from magic A fill in the gaps

qualities: jack of all trades, perfect time, focused concentration 3

Body 5 - gives something to soak with, fits dwarf theme of tough as rocks
Agility 5 - useful for ranged combat, gives options when coming out magic blazing isn't a good idea
Reaction 1 - somethings got to give, thematic with the slow dwarf, make sure to have a spell to make up for it and maybe some chems (buy to 2 ASAP)
Strength 3 - another somethings got to give, no too painful, try to stay out of hand to hand
Willpower 7 - one of the bigger reasons to pick dwarf
Logic 3 - one of these three will be a casting stat bumped up two more, the other two will just have to get by being "average" 
Intuition 3 - one of these three will be a casting stat bumped up two more, the other two will just have to get by being "average" 
Charisma 3 - one of these three will be a casting stat bumped up two more, the other two will just have to get by being "average" 
Edge 2

I went with the build as many tall stacks as you can theory and live with the shorts stacks you have to, probably not the best distribution but that is partially why I am looking for advise

The advise I read early on is be good at one or the other for Mystic Adept, either go towards being a magician or go towards an adept, don't try to be both. I am leaning towards the concept of a utility style magician

Power Points, since I am going to use up a lot of starting karma to buy these I figure I might want to try and fill in some build "holes." I try and focus on what I can get efficiently and what can't be easily acquired otherwise.

Astral Perception - brings me a little closes to being a magician
Demara - maybe fill in a skill gap that can use one point
Heightened Concentration - avoid those skill penalties, maybe run a second spell
Danger Sense 1 & Combat Sense 1 -  maybe redundant, can't really tell, gives that little nudge to fix being slow on reaction
Nimble Fingers & Rapid Draw - broader range of free actions to help with slow on reaction some more
Attribute Boost Agility 2 - okay maybe a little overkill, but really if you are picking attribute boost this is a good one
Attribute Boost Strength 2 - more situational, but makes up for the zero points I spent for attributes and may come in handy from time to time
Keratin Control - a dwarf without a beard, crazy!, that said shave off the beard to go on a run, have a beard the next morning, a little roleplay fluff   
1 PP - if I have done the math right I have one more point to decide

For spells I am looking at:

Telekinesis type spells; Fling, Magic Fingers, and Levitate
Health Spells; Heal, Detox (for chems,) and Increase Reflexes
and some utility: Analyze Device (last moment skills?,) Fashion, Opium Den 

Money will be spent on Armor, a fake SIN, gear, maybe a fancy commlink

Skills will fall into mostly magic: Summoning, Spellcasting, and Counterspelling (with specialties this will cost me 11 of my precious 18 skill points)

So what are people's thought so far?

[FST_Gemstar]

Priority selections look good to me. D is the worst slot and skills d is the worst d slot, so good choice on taking resources d instead of skills.

For atts, you are prob too agility focused. Being agile is not going to be much help to you with your initiaitve and defense pools so low (reaction + intuition). Everyone else is going to get to try to geek the mage (you) before you get a chance to do anything because you are likely to be hit and your initiative is going to be <11. You will likely go last in combat and only get one pass, making all of the cool magic things you could do moot. So i would shift more into reaction (at least 3), and take an intuition drain tradition and up intuition.

Power points are ok. I would pick combat sense over danger sene. Attribute boost strength wont do you much good. 2 levels of attribute boost  agility will work fine to up your low agility if you need it. I would also recommend taking improved reflexes 2 to boost reaction and initiative so that you can sling spells when needed and to help keep you alive.

Skillwise it is tough. You can spellcast, summon, a little counterspell, perception, sneak, a gun, a social, and assensing and that's all youll have room for. A skillpoint forva skill level and for a specialization goes a long way.

Resources you can get your basic runner gear just fine. A focus might be in your budget, but binding it might not. There is some helpful ware that you could get, but prob best to keep it simple.

[foolofcheese]

so I recognize that agility is a little high, but the idea is it is connected to a whole host of skills that can be useful with one skill point and Demara could do that

I also have concern about the go the slow reaction route, when checking my math I found I used one too many points for building my Willpower, so I can move the point to Intuition (tall stacks); I took increased reflexes as a spell which bumps my reaction a little and adds a precious d6 of initiative as a force three spell and it won't build any penalties with the focused concentration 3, the last part is to plan for using cram or maybe jazz once each during the adventure and wait out the addiction, all that should keep me from being too slow

I see going Hermetic and summoning a Spirit of Man for health, that would free up me from healing and put a rather less threatening spirit in play to play medic for the party, another line of thought is grab the living focus have a spirit of man cast increased reflexes and use heightened concern to carry the focus penalty (I suspect there is a flaw in that but I can't tell where)

I appreciate taking the time to critique what I have so far, I will crunch the numbers a bit more and see what it yields