[argouru]

So my group is going to be starting an SR 6E campaign (my first time ever playing SR outside of playing the starter kit once) and when I had asked my gm if I could be both a magic user as well as a technomancer, he said sure. The concept is a man who walks in all 3 worlds and isn't sure which one he belongs in the most (if any). I don't want to abuse this, but want to ask just how much more powerful would being both on the same character be over being a magic-user who can hack the normal way?
How can I avoid abusing this build if I am both?

[Michael Chandra]

(Leaving aside that according to the official Lore, this is not possible at all, because in the end it's your table.)

It's rather OP, since you're basically spending 1 extra priority level on enough special points to have both significant Resonance and Magic, where a Decker has to spend significant resources on the gear needed to do it well.

[Hobbes]

Unless your GM is giving you an extra half dozen or more Benefit points and at least 12 if not 18 extra skill points you wouldn't be able to abuse this if you tried.

TM's need 3 Skills, and Resonance.  Mage needs 2 Skills and Magic, Shadowruners need several skills.  You'll basically need every Mental Attribute to be high as well.

Shadowrun is a game of specialists.  Some builds can cover multiple areas of specialization adequately but always have to make some compromises.  A dedicated Magic build or Matrix build is going to be "better" presuming even close to normal Priority Gen resources.  Splitting your Benefit Points between Resonance, Magic and Edge means something is sitting at 1.  Possibly multiple somethings.  And then you need (at least) 5 Skills to do "Your things", possibly 7 if you want to throw in Astral Perception and Enchanting?

Nah.  Do you boo.  There are a couple build threads of 6E Mage/Deckers if you want to see what those look like.

[Michael Chandra]

Unless your GM is giving you an extra half dozen or more Benefit points and at least 12 if not 18 extra skill points you wouldn't be able to abuse this if you tried.

Doesn't change the fact that it's more powerful than a Magic user that has to buy ware to deck, which is the first question that got asked.

[Hobbes]

Unless your GM is giving you an extra half dozen or more Benefit points and at least 12 if not 18 extra skill points you wouldn't be able to abuse this if you tried.

Doesn't change the fact that it's more powerful than a Magic user that has to buy ware to deck, which is the first question that got asked.

Priority Gen is a Harsh Bitch.  I do not think investing in a separate stat is cheaper than 'trodes and a 30kish Nuyen Deck and Commlink (or RCC). 

Certainly if the GM is letting the PC get a free Resonance or Magic stat of 5 or 6 and throwing in some spells and complex forms... sure, clearly going to be better than a character who doesn't get a bunch of free stuff at chargen.  But if the GM is starting Resonance/Magic at 1 and splitting the points from the Magic/Resonance Priority between Spells, CFs, and the Resonance and Magic Attributes, this is going to be a Mage/TM with 11ish points (or less) split between Magic, Resonance and Edge.  Presuming Metahuman of some kind.  If Human it's what... 9 points split between Magic, Resonance and Edge? 

Eh.  Welcome to a bunch of middling dice pools that have trouble vs Difficult thresholds and NPCs and you don't have the Edge to overcome them.

I'd love to see a TM / Mage build that was so much better than a Decker / Mage build that it would be disruptive at a table that was allowing a TM / Mage build in the first place.

[argouru]

Unless your GM is giving you an extra half dozen or more Benefit points and at least 12 if not 18 extra skill points you wouldn't be able to abuse this if you tried.

Doesn't change the fact that it's more powerful than a Magic user that has to buy ware to deck, which is the first question that got asked.

Priority Gen is a Harsh Bitch.  I do not think investing in a separate stat is cheaper than 'trodes and a 30kish Nuyen Deck and Commlink (or RCC). 

Certainly if the GM is letting the PC get a free Resonance or Magic stat of 5 or 6 and throwing in some spells and complex forms... sure, clearly going to be better than a character who doesn't get a bunch of free stuff at chargen.  But if the GM is starting Resonance/Magic at 1 and splitting the points from the Magic/Resonance Priority between Spells, CFs, and the Resonance and Magic Attributes, this is going to be a Mage/TM with 11ish points (or less) split between Magic, Resonance and Edge.  Presuming Metahuman of some kind.  If Human it's what... 9 points split between Magic, Resonance and Edge? 

Eh.  Welcome to a bunch of middling dice pools that have trouble vs Difficult thresholds and NPCs and you don't have the Edge to overcome them.

I'd love to see a TM / Mage build that was so much better than a Decker / Mage build that it would be disruptive at a table that was allowing a TM / Mage build in the first place.

Well yeah, it seems like it would be either sub-optimal or overpowered. I'll just try going with a basic (cheapest) deck for now and put points into Cracking and Electronics for now and upgrade them later to give me more things to do outside of combat (I maximized my attribute points to cover the multiple attributes that I'd need to cover as I want to be a melee combat caster who can hack stuff).

[Hobbes]

TMs don't need decks?  Kinda the whole point of the thing.

Again, you do you Boo.

[argouru]

Yeah, but focusing instead on being a full-magic caster instead seems more practical and balanced.

[joe15552]

Overpowered? Underpowered?

I think both of those discussions are null and void when we remember we are playing a role-playing game here. What story do you plan to create with this concept? I can think of some pretty darn cool plot hooks that could get your character invested on multiple levels. I think this character is a GM's dream.

[argouru]

Overpowered? Underpowered?

I think both of those discussions are null and void when we remember we are playing a role-playing game here. What story do you plan to create with this concept? I can think of some pretty darn cool plot hooks that could get your character invested on multiple levels. I think this character is a GM's dream.

I know, but looking over it more I see that it would mean dividing up my skill points too much and I can accomplish what I want to with a commlink or better yet, a cyberdeck. I was able to use karma to get enough cash to afford a bargain-basement deck and save up for a better one. I can still walk in all 3 worlds like I want to (astral, matrix and mundane) and save up for vr gear as well without having to spread my skill points too thin.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Overpowered? Underpowered?

I think both of those discussions are null and void when we remember we are playing a role-playing game here. What story do you plan to create with this concept? I can think of some pretty darn cool plot hooks that could get your character invested on multiple levels. I think this character is a GM's dream.

I know, but looking over it more I see that it would mean dividing up my skill points too much and I can accomplish what I want to with a commlink or better yet, a cyberdeck. I was able to use karma to get enough cash to afford a bargain-basement deck and save up for a better one. I can still walk in all 3 worlds like I want to (astral, matrix and mundane) and save up for vr gear as well without having to spread my skill points too thin.

If you're being a technomancer, you don't need a cyberdeck.  If you do decker instead of technomancer, you can cut down on the number of skills you need (but then yes you'll need that cyberdeck and probably want an essence-hitting cyberjack)

[argouru]

Overpowered? Underpowered?

I think both of those discussions are null and void when we remember we are playing a role-playing game here. What story do you plan to create with this concept? I can think of some pretty darn cool plot hooks that could get your character invested on multiple levels. I think this character is a GM's dream.

I know, but looking over it more I see that it would mean dividing up my skill points too much and I can accomplish what I want to with a commlink or better yet, a cyberdeck. I was able to use karma to get enough cash to afford a bargain-basement deck and save up for a better one. I can still walk in all 3 worlds like I want to (astral, matrix and mundane) and save up for vr gear as well without having to spread my skill points too thin.

If you're being a technomancer, you don't need a cyberdeck.  If you do decker instead of technomancer, you can cut down on the number of skills you need (but then yes you'll need that cyberdeck and probably want an essence-hitting cyberjack)

Ugh, can't afford both a cyberdeck AND a cyberjack (I made money my E priority). Is the cyberjack absolutely necessary for starting with? If not, I can always save up for one and if so, maybe it would be bettert to go the Technomancer route after all as I could use the karma for skill increases instead of for money as I would need to go without adding in the technomancer features.

[argouru]

well with our 5th and final player wanting something simple to play for his first character (this will be our first campaign playing shadowrun in any form as we all came from D&D) the group has a face, a weapon user and 2 street samurai along with me, meaning I'll need to be both caster and hacker after all if we want all our bases covered on options to solving problems. I don't mind and have already hacked a cyber eye during a test session last weekend. Being a hermetic caster helps me to not have to worry about both charisma and logic and I made charisma and logic my dump stats.

I went priority a on stats, b on metatype, c on resources, d on magic and e on skills, using karma to give me more base skills (I didn't see anything in the book saying I couldn't) as well as another point to attributes. for skills I took Astral, close combat, cracking, electronics, engineering, firearms, sorcery, biotech and conjuration. I'm going to avoid enchanting and took the adept route for the bonuses it gives, taking Improved Reflexes x2 (for the added reflex score), Mystic Armor x2, Pain Resistance x6 (to mitigate my abysmal luck in die rolling, as I do poor enough with high dice pools as is), Combat Sense x2 (I want to be a mage that is rather hard to 'geek'), and Astral Perception so that I can at least interact with the astral even if I can't enter it.

I spent my money on a mid-level deck (Renraku Kitsune) and a max-level commlink (Transys Avalon) as well as a pair of AR Gloves. The reason he's a spellcaster who can hack is due to his younger brother being a hacker who taght him about hacking as they grew up together, the sibling being a genius at hacking and coding.

I made agility my top stat (as well as gave myself a lot of extra magic, bumping me up from 1 to 6 on my magic stat with the dm's okay) as their father owns and runs an illegal fight ring in the city and had trained them to fight until he learned that his younger boy was too busy with his head in his vr gear and his older son suddenly started creating magical fires everywhere. He looks upon them both as disappointments.

My guy's main weaknesses are not being very strong (rather embarrassing for an ork), being horribly awkward with social situations (he joked to a vampire mafia boss about ork vamps being unrecognizable as a vamp as the fangs grew upwards and was joked unconscious by a bodyguard for it), as well as having zero ability to use exotic weapons as well as being totally hopeless in the outdoors (incompetent in both). The outdoors weakness will be interesting as we live in Minnesota's Twin Cities area and have based the game world around that (our home base is the very house several of the group and all of us play our game sessions in).