[Kastie]

Help:  My GM decide to do something different for our next gaming sessions, as well as try a different game.  She has played Shadowrun before and is introducing us to the game.   She said she'd provide us with our class and race, but we are free to make the character up after that.  Unfortunately, I have only read the novels, but I have never looked at the rule books before, so I am really experienced.  Here is what I need help with:

My GM told me I need to make a Mystic Adept Drake Character.

I am looking for someone who is kind of a scout, or loan wolf.  Someone who has the ability to break in places undetected, but if gets caught, can handle a fight.  Because I am a total novice as far as the rule go, I do not even know if that type of character can be feasibly made, nor the game mechanics necessary to make it.  Any suggestions?

[voydangel]

As a mystic Adept you will have adept powers and a few spells at your disposal which will empower you to be able to do just about anything. Mystic adepts tend to start comparatively lower powered than most characters, but have (IMO) the highest potential long term.

For your "ninja skills" of B&E, stealthing and hand to hand combat, you will want to focus on the attributes of Agility, Reaction and Intuition. For Magic stuff, you will also want to have a decent Willpower, and I would recommend picking a magic path that has Intuition as your drain stat (assuming you can find one that fits your character with that stat). For skills you will need infiltration and unarmed combat respectively. The skill groups of Stealth and Close Combat might work as well depending on your specific ideals and whether you want to be good at some of the other aspects of those skill sets. I would also recommend Dodge, Perception, and some firearms skills. Depending on how spell heavy you are to start, you're going to need Spellcasting and Counterspelling, and if you're spirit heavy to start, you'll want Summoning and Binding as well.

Other than reading the description for drake characters in the Runners Companion, take a peek at the Core book, Arsenal, and Street Magic. Those are the bread and butter for this kind of character. The core - well, duh, it has all the basics and the primary adept powers and spells etc. Arsenal has extra weapons and gear, and has the optional martial arts rules and, if they're allowed, I would recommend taking one or two ranks in one or two styles from there. Street Magic has some awesome extra adept powers for being the B&E ninja type, and has some other interesting mojo related stuff - including a host of new magic paths.

After doing a wee bit o reading to familiarize yourself with the character you've been handed, feel free to come back with a build and we can help you out.

And lastly, I would highly recommend looking through the other character builds in this forum to help you get an idea for how this works and what a finished character build should look like. Looking at other peoples work can be really really helpful.

[Walks Through Walls]

Kastie is the character a 400BP character or has the GM decided on a different build point total? The reason I ask is just being a drake is 65BP which will limit the points you have for other parts of the character. You get some great benefits for the points, but as a mystic adept also you are going to be under powered compared to most mages, physical adepts or mystic adepts unless you really concentrate on one side or the other as a starting mystic adept.

Another thing to look into is what type of dracomform do you want to be able to turn into since there are 4 different forms each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

For a sneaky mystic adept you could go look at my character She Who Walks Through Walls in the OOC Road to Redmond post in the Play by post section. If you have some questions I'd be happy to try and help you. I think to get the most playable beginning character you are really going to need to specialize in some aspect or be prepared to do everything alright and nothing really well

Hope this helps you out

[Nomad Zophiel]

It may be a bit tight on 400 points. You've got 65 for a Drake up front. Mystic Adept is going to run you another 60 (if you buy up magic to 5). Another 160 just to get all your attributes to 3 (because you're going to need ALL of them for a spellcasting ninja) and you're at 285. You've now got 115 to spread between Attributes (to a max of 40), skills, spells and gear. You're going to want a bunch of skills: infiltration, unarmed combat, dodge, perception, sorcery, counterspelling etc.

If you've been handed the concept and have to run with it, I'd suggest building for style rather than efficiency. Go with a character who's young, kind of new to all of this and not entirely optimized. Dasically, pick an area of focus (magic, stealth, combat) and decide in advance that while the character wants to be good, she just hasn't had the practice yet. Pick up a few skills at a relatively low level and be ready to have a list of things to spend Karma on for the next year or so. Depending on how it shakes out, she may actually need to be a novice in all but one or two things. Still, watching a character grow is part of the fun.

[FoxBoy]

Something else to consider too, if the stealth angle proves untenable is to look at a barrier breaker.

I did a troll drake mystic adept as a test case and for 400 BP, the beast had the ability to rip even a blast bunker apart. Useless for anything other then melee, but with armor of 9 and a bod of 12... it was just a bloody tank. Claws were on the scale of 8p as a base as well with a very high AP. GM ruled it wasn't so much that the claws were sharp, it was just the amount of brute force behind it. in drake form, 1 less then max on strength and body.

Granted, 1 IP sucked and having only 2 or 3 skills.. but if it was the only hit needed, then that's not too bad. And the armor was thick enough that you'll survive quite a bit of punishment.

My real concern is starting players who are brand new to the game with such a character setup. Drakes are a lot more expensive then other types, and that's something that could bite you in the rear later on.

[Nomad Zophiel]

I almost see being stuck with that setup as equivalent to "build a 200 BP character. Add Drake and Mystic Adept and 75 points worth of stuff to back up the new powers." Since awakening as a Drake and as an Adept both come later in life, it makes some sense to build a lower cost metahuman character then add the templates for both. You still want everything to compliment everything else, which basically means unarmed combat. The compartmentalizing might make it easier.

Start with a 200BP character. This represents 1/2 to 3/4 of your character's life, basically the time before the cool powers manifested.
Add Mystic Adept, Magic 5 and 75 points worth of magic skills, contacts, spells etc. and Adept powers.
Add the Drake template

Outside of dracoform this type of character might not be supremely great at any one thing. It will be a well rounded character with plenty of room to grow.

[Kastie]

Thank you all for your assistance and advice.  You have armed me with some questions to go back to my GM with, and based upon his answers, I'll be ready to attempt a build.  Until that time, keep the suggestions coming, and please be gentle when I finally do post my build.

Walks Through Walls, I will definately check out your build as a way to help me get started, but it sounds like I have a lot to think about.