[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.

[Snack Happy]

What would be a good mentor spirit to choose? I want to be pretty stealthy and still be good ranged support when the crap hits the fan?

[Dakka]

Cat and Rat both give +2 Infiltration but their downsides kinda suck, several mentor spirits give +2 dice to combat spells, the Trickster gives +2 to Illusion spells and Con tests which is a type of sneaky.   There is no spirit that gives any combination of +combat/illusion/infiltration however, so you may have to accept a less on the nose spirit guide for your character or talk to your GM about making a new mentor spirit.

[FoxBoy]

Some of the spells I would recommend include the following:
For the medic: Heal, Stabilize
For the sneak: levitate, magic fingers, Improved invisibility, silence
For the mentalist: Influence (READ IT! Seriously.. this one is deceptively overpowered), Control thoughts, control actions, control emotions
For the combat mage: Vehicles don't take stun damage, so power ball, power bolt, and napalm type spells are good to have. Improved Reaction as well.
For the trickster: Control Asphalt, Control Concrete, Control Steel, Control Earth, Control Water, Influence again

Mind you, spells are VERY flexible. Stuff like fling is a low powered levitate if you read the description, but you can also use levitate to hold someone over the edge of a 30 story high rise to 'give him an aerial view'... and to give him time to reconsider NOT telling you what you want to know. Control Asphalt, use that to lift the edge of the road right behind you.. so the truck that's following you can impale it's tires on the edge you created. It's like hitting a curb at 90 mph. Your tires WILL suffer. And that fireball? Force one spell is Still plenty enough to act like a flare. Throw that sucker straight up and light up the area, and go to town on the ones who thought they could sneak up on you.

Spells are just the tools in a tool kit. And nothing says you have to use the hammer only on the nails.

[Snack Happy]

Where is control concrete and asphalt at or is that ones that had to be made up and how is it done if they were? Also I was looking closer at spells like invisibility what does force matter for those if they just resist number of hits you get anyway because you could just say force 1 cast the spell get a bunch of hits and have very little drain to worry about couldn't you?

[Dakka]

You are never allowed to have more hits than the force of the spell.  In practice this usually means every spell is cast at force = magic.

[Snack Happy]

Sorry I am a bit ignorant and still learning we have only played twice. Also would that mean for increse reflexes you would only want to cast it at 4 since its the most you can get anyway.

[Walks Through Walls]

for sneaky types another good mentor spirit would be moon maiden. +2 illusion spells, +2 negotiation though if you are looking to be combat also you have -1 to combat spells. Though there are ways to fight without combat spells.

For example hot potato the gun that is in the sammies hands and he drops it. Mass sight removal and now no one in the area can see and are automatically firing blind.

[Dakka]

Yes a force 4 Improved Reflexes is all you really need, however it is vulnerable to a Counterspelling dispel which reduces hits of the spell, a single counterspelling success would reduce you from 4 IPs to at least 3 or worse where if you cast the spell with, say, 6 hits they would have to get 3 hits on a dispel test to make you drop an init. 

[Snack Happy]

Well thanks for all your advice.  Here is my new sheet please critique.
Elf    30BP
Attributes    200BP
Body   3      Agility   3   Reaction    3
Strength    1   Charisma   6   Intuition    3
Logic     3   Willpower  5   Edge    1
Magic    5
Skills    120BP
Spellcasting  6      Counterspelling   4
Longarms(Shotguns)    2       Conjuring    3
Binding   3   Assensing   4
Infiltration  1   Influence   1
Dodge   2   Data Search    2
Qualities     +10BP
Records on file +10
Prejudice Trolls (outspoken)  +15
Moderate Allergy Silver    +10
Magician   15
Erased   5
Mentor Spirit(Seductress)  5
Spells    27BP
Heal   Increase Reflexes
Manabolt   Stunball
Improved Invisibility   Stealth(Wasnt sure if this was better than Hush or Silence for sneaking)
Influence   Levitate   
Physical Barrier(I figured you could use this for same concrete scenario and protection)
Foci 9BP
Health Sustaining 3
Illusion Sustaining 3
Illusion Sustaining 3
Gear  24BP(120,000)
1 Month Medium Lifestyle
Foci x3
Remington 990 w/ Internal Smartlink
License 4
Regular Ammo     160 rounds
Flechette   80 rounds
Lined Coat
Magical Lodge 6
Spirit Binding Materials 6 x 3
Commlink Novatech Airware OS Iris Orb  Basic+
Fake SIN  4
Contacts(Smartlink, Image Link, Vision Magnification)
License  4
Medkit  6
Micro Transceiver  6
2x Metal Restraints
150x Plastic Restraints

There he is in a Nutshell I just have to buy knowledges and contacts.  I got 11pts for contacts and 18 for knowledges.   Thanks for helping me work on him any further suggestions will be appreciated.  Remember he is supposed to be either a corporate mage or an ex corporate mage still not sure which. Also if i made any mistakes please let me know.

[Dakka]

I like it.  A charisma of 6 however I would consider trying to find 2 BPs to turn Con 1 and Negotiation 1 into Influence 1.  2 skills for 2 BP that use your best attribute is a pretty good deal.