[Senko]

I'm thinking either a shotgun or submachine gun/assault rifle to allow you to spray an area as a distraction without needing high accuracy but I'm curious with the current books (no need for missions legal) what do people in a skill/weapon/mods both in character creation and later when you can spend a bit more? At the moment I'm leaning towards either a shotgun (Remington 990), a machine pistol (Ares crusader II) or an assault rifle (FN HAR).

[Jack_Spade]

Longarms.
Mages have the ability to increase accuracy - making shotguns amazing weapons in their hands.

[Mirikon]

Honestly? I normally go with a light or heavy pistol and then a melee weapon for my mages. Sometimes archery, if it fits the character better. While a mage with an assault rifle works fine, I typically don't see the need for it. If you're looking for a way to keep people's heads down while you cast, there are better ways than big weapons that most corpsec will notice (concealing an assault rifle isn't exactly easy). Two keys: spell selection and smoke grenades. With the proper spells, you ARE the weapon. With smoke grenades and astral perception, you can see the targets, but they can't see you. Let me put it this way. When corpsec looks for targets, they start with the mage and the people with the heaviest weapons. You're starting to look like both. And pistols are easier to get through security, more likely to be legal in a jurisdiction, and don't draw nearly the attention larger weapons do. Also, they're much more common, since there are a few million Predator Vs out there, and they're cheap, meaning you can wipe 'em and toss 'em if you need to.

IMO, spray and pray is crap, and a waste of ammo. Suppressive fire, on the other hand, is a great tactic, that works best for a Face, Drone, or secondary gunman, not someone who has other options to bring to the table, like a mage. The Mass Agony spell alone is enough to ruin a whole crew's day. Fireball is the quintessential mage's "Go Away" card. Improved Invisibility means you can slip around enemies, and put two to the side of their head. Even without magic, there's a reason why soldiers use controlled bursts rather than spray and pray. You won't hit a damn thing.

So my recommendations for skill/gun for a mage would be: Pistols (Specialization in either Tasers or Semi-automatics) with either a taser of choice or Predator V (clips of APDS and SnS to switch as needed), Unarmed combat (Knucks or shock hand), or Blades (Katana). Again, this follows the line of reasoning that when you are a walking restricted weapon (being a mage) and can summon fire support (spirits) it is best to consider what personal weapons are easy to get through checkpoints with minimal police interest. And automatic weapons and shotguns draw far more interest than a sprawl dweller with one of the most ubiquitous handguns on the market. Same as when you're driving with a load of novacoke in your car. The fewer reasons you give the cops to take interest in your vehicle, the better.

[Senko]

I did orignally (first making a mage) go with a pistol nicely common, concealable and the like but I had a lot of people tell me it was no good for a mage as you were never going to do any damage with it and you'd be better off going with an AOE attacking weapon to reduce the defense dice prior to the samurai attacking. Might need to reconsider that again. Increasing accuracy on shotguns should work just as well on a pistol and as Mirikon said instead of shooting I can be boosting attributes, casting chaotic world and the like. Of course in pistols I'm more tempted to the Colt Government 2066

Haven't seen mass agony before might need to post in character creation about what spells are currently recommended.

[bdyer]

Magic fingers and rating 10 bow.  12p -3 ap makes me happy.

[Haywire]

How do you think you can sneak a bow? 

I think machine pstols or smg are the best choice out there. If you really want to toast someone, well, there's lightning bolt or other combat spells. If you do not want to risk the drain, spray suppressive fire for the next attack of the sam or the gunbunny adept.

[All4BigGuns]

Take Pistols and get a taser. You don't even need a whole hell of a lot in the skill since you're a mage rather than a shooter.

[Marcus Gideon]

Take Pistols and get a taser.

Did not see that one coming, what with the user name and all =)

I've basically heard it a couple ways. Either the Mage should get a decent Pistol, like a Predator with APDS, and then skill it up enough to be useful. That way they have a Drain free means of applying damage on the battlefield, and aren't forced to rely on casting spells til their ears bleed.

Or they go for something with side effects, which don't rely as heavily on skill to use. Like a taser which will hit a lot more often and the Electric side effects are nice. Or get a Machine Pistol / SMG and just do Suppressing Fire every time.

[MijRai]

Automatics, take a Machine Pistol.  Small, concealable, generally only Restricted, and that Steyr TMP with a few modifications lets you bullet-hose some suppressive fire when needed.  It has just enough firepower to take care of normal business when drek hits the fan, and despite some folks going 'just use lots of magic,' that's not always a good idea.  Carrying a gun and not dressing up like a spellslinger means you won't hear 'geek the mage first!'  At least, not until you bust the magic out.  It is also a good way to avoid Drain when unnecessary, is just as legal as most normal pistols (the Sixth World is a tough place, Machine Pistols are legal to own) and can make people checking you for weapons think they found everything...  Until you Fireball them. 

All you'd 'need' in the skill is 3-6 points, along with an acceptable Agility and perhaps a Specialization.  Throw in some gear bonuses and you'll have around 10 dice, which is plenty to deal with street scum and lay down suppressive fire against anything more threatening when magic isn't the answer.  If you're magically enhancing yourself for your backup weapon you may want to reconsider, though. 

[psycho835]

As a mage, you presumably don't want to throw too much karma into combat-oriented skills, so go for automatics. You can handle weapons of all shapes and sizes - MPs for concealed carry, SMGs for when you wanta bit more firepower that you can still squeeze under the coat and ARs for when you need MOAR DAKKA and don't give a frag who sees you with it. Also, you can suppress hostiles (which as far as I know, you can't do with magic).

[Jack_Spade]

I'll stay by my recommendation for longarms:
Shotguns are the king of delivering dodge penalties - invaluable for people with limited dice pool. They are also the only weapon able to hit two adjacent people without splitting your dicepool.

Mages have a lot of possibilities to smuggle guns - illusions, spirits with concealment powers, shape material and increase gear limit to make the sawed off shotgun accurate again.

And if necessary they can use the skill with a sniper rifle and clairvoyance of any kind to shoot people through massive walls.

Best of all: Only very few people will expect the man with the riot shotgun or the long rifle to be the mage of the team.

[MijRai]

If they are some kind of Gun-Mage I agree with you all day on Longarms, Jack.  Spells to hide your bigger weapons, get bonuses to shooting, etc. are all very useful if you build for it.  That said, I'd call it a dedicated build (that I might make just to see what comes of it).

If the gun is their side piece though, you shouldn't be wasting your spells on the firearm; it is there to take out minor threats, support your allies and make you look like a slightly less important target.  At that point the gun is just icing on the magic-cake, so coating it in more batter probably won't go well.  A shotgun can do the same kinds of things, but with less flexibility than Automatics.  It works quite well if you want!  But not so much if you want to keep a firearm on hand in more areas, or for suppressive fire (if it is a side-piece, you probably aren't going to go for the Forbidden automatic shotgun). 

[Tarislar]

I'll second the recommendation for LongArms.

You don't need a concealable pistol, your a MAGE, no one can "spot" the magic spell brewing in your head.

But, the ability to put out serious damage w/ Shotgun or Sniper Rifle & avoid burning yourself out into unconsciousness with overcasting can be quite handy.

Also, spells rarely have range limitations so if you can see it at range then you can still cast at it.  So another bonus for using long arms.

[Marcus Gideon]

Let's assume we're talking about someone with Agility 5 + Weapon 4 = 9 dice which will average 3 hits.

* Shotgun (Enfield AS-7 for example, 13P DV and 5 Accuracy)

- Narrow spread
All ranges (0-60 meters), full damage (13P). Imposes -1 defense penalty to single target.

- Medium spread
Short range (0-15), -1 DV (12P), -3 defense penalty to 2 targets within 2 meter spread.
Medium range (15-30), -3 DV (10P), -3 defense penalty to 3 targets within 4 meter spread.
Long range (30-45), -5 DV (8P) and -1 Accuracy (4), -3 defense penalty to 4 targets within 6 meter spread.
Extreme range (45-60), -7 DV (6P) and -1 Accuracy (4), -3 defense penalty to 6 targets within 8 meter spread.

- Wide spread
Short range (0-15), -3 DV (10P), -5 defense penalty to 2 targets within 3 meter spread.
Medium range (15-30), -5 DV (8P), -5 defense penalty to 3 targets within 6 meter spread.
Long range (30-45), -7 DV (6P) and -1 Accuracy (4), -5 defense penalty to 5 targets within 9 meter spread.
Extreme range (45-60), -9 DV (4P) and -1 Accuracy (4), -5 defense penalty to 6 targets within 12 meter spread.

So the scariest application of a shotgun vs group of gangers would be rolling 3 hits with an Accuracy of 4, hoping that the -5 penalty keeps them from dodging, so you can deal a whopping 4P DV.

* SMG (FN P93 Praetor for example, 8P DV and 6 Accuracy)

- Suppressing Fire
Any range (0-150 meters), Full damage, -(hits) defense penalty to any number of targets within 10 meter spread. Targets attempting anything other than hiding behind cover / down prone must roll Reaction + Edge, Threshold (hits) to avoid taking full damage.

The SMG can cover more area than any shotgun blast, save the wide spread - extreme range. And it always applies full damage regardless of range, which means it's just as effective / more effective than 5/9s of the shotgun damage. And most importantly, it forces all targets in the area to get down and stay down or else they automatically risk damage. You don't need to overcome their entire dodge pool, just their Reaction + Edge.

[All4BigGuns]

Now explain how someone knows how to use military grade weapons (fully automatic equals military grade) but doesn't know how to use civilian weapons like handguns, tasers, sport rifles and shotguns.