[Silverdragon11]

Hello Everyone

I was recently invited to play in a shadowrun game with 8 to 11 players. I thought this sounded awesome. I told my GM that I was going to create an elf shaman like I always did. He said "Good, that makes you the only pure mage."

Everyone else (some are new players) are playing street sams, infiltration people (one or two), physical adepts, we have one hacker, and a decker. I think we also are going to have a face.

My GM told me "You'd better concentrate completely on magical abilities. Make sure to take combat magic, get some great general spells, assensing is a must, and you might want to think about astral combat."

I'm not the best at making mages (Even though that an deckers is what I like to play), and with a lot riding on this role as a mage in the group, I thought I might need some help.

Here is the character I have thus far. I originally had him built to be a magician/summoning/face/B&E, an that is how the character stands now. Now I'm wondering what direction I should take him in. Obviously Mage/Summoning, but what else would be a good fit? What skills should I switch around? Are there some good skill specialties I should take (I haven't taken any yet)? Any new spells? My goal is for this mage to be able to handle the magical needs of this group.

Thanks very much. Here is what I have so far.

[spoiler]

== Info ==
Street Name: Not Chosen
Name: Not Chosen
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 6
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 1
Public Awareness: 0
Elf M
Composure: 10
Judge Intentions: 12
Lift/Carry: 6 (30 kg/20 kg)
Memory: 6
Nuyen: 0 (Street Lifestyle for storyline reasons)

== Attributes ==
BOD: 5
AGI: 2
REA: 2
STR: 1
CHA: 7
INT: 5
LOG: 1
WIL: 5
EDG: 1
MAG: 5

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence: 6
Initiative: 7
IP: 1
Astral Initiative: 10
Astral IP: 3
Matrix Initiative: 7
Matrix IP: 1
Physical Damage Track: 11
Stun Damage Track: 11

== Active Skills ==
Spellcasting 6 Pool = 11
Counterspelling 4 Pool = 9
Summoning 4 Pool = 9
Binding 3 Pool = 8
Assensing 1 Pool = 6
Etiquette 1 Pool = 8
Negotiation 1 Pool = 8
Infiltration 1 Pool = 6
Perception 1 Pool = 6

Active Skills that were Dropped

Shadowing

Active Skills Considering

Arcana
Astral Combat

== Knowledge Skills ==
Magical Background 5
Magical Security Procedures 4
Parazoology 4
Magical Phenomenon 3
Corporate Security Tactics 2

Knowledge Skill Considerations

Considering Putting Corp Security Tactics into magical Knowledge Skills

==Contacts==
Talismonger Con: 5 Loy: 1
Fixer Con: 1 Loy: 1

==Qualities==
Positive: Magician (Shaman)
Positive: Totem (Haven't Decided Yet)
Positive: Restricted Gear
Negative: Simsense Vertigo
Negative: Sensitive Neural System
Negative: Sensitive System
Negative: Scorched

==Spells==
Stunbolt
Stunball
Flamethrower
Increase Reflexes
Heal
Improved Invisibility
Increase Charisma
Levitate
Physical Mask
Mana Window

Spells I'm thinking About
Mob Mind
Mind Probe
An AOE Damage Spell
Analyze Device
Analyze Truth
Astral Window
Clairaudience
Stealth
Physical Barrier
Catalog
Orgy

==Important Gear==
Power Focus 4 (Bonded)
Sustaining Focus 3 (Bonded)
Counterspelling Focus 3 (Bonded)
Assume that the rest of my equipment contains the best amor and sensory gear.

 [/spoiler]

[All4BigGuns]

It's a large team, don't worry about branching out. Stick with spellcasting and summoning and let the rest fall off into the void. That's what the rest of the team is for. Sure take a little etiquette (if your GM is one of those who says a 0 is the kid in the back of the class eating paste and picking his nose), and a rank or 2 in infiltration CAN be useful. Still, neither are worth sacrificing ability in your specialty in such a large team.

Personally, I say go Hermetic tradition (Logic drain stat) putting Log and Will at 5 with a 4 in Intuition and be the Fount of Knowledge on top of your casting. Pretty much stick with the magical skills with maybe 1 Pilot Groundcraft specialized in Wheeled and 2 ranks in Pistols "just in case".  I'd also suggest holding yourself to a 2 minimum attribute, as a 1 (or God forbid more than one 1) can potentially cause big problems for you.

[Black]

If your going for a charisma-based tradition, go with 6 charisma.  7 Charisma is not worth the extra 25 BP.
Go with 6 magic.
Logic 1.... is really, really low...specialling with your knowledge skills...
Don't take Astral Combat, take a mana bolt or similar.  Much more effective.
Talismonger C5 L1.  Very well connected for a Talismonger, obviously a business relationship
Body 5, Strength 1.... ok, but does look odd.
You might want an extra sustaining foci given the number of sustaning spells youve chosen.

Flamethrower is actual a firebolt... one of my players made that mistake.

Hope this helps

[emsquared]

First off, I can't fathom why a table of 8 to 11 players would be fun, but that's another post altogether...

Now I'm a big fan of optimizing my characters, but I think you've went overboard on min-maxing your stats.

As is, you're not a mage, you're a liability.

Absolutely soft max your Drain stats (CHA, WIL), but that's really about it, you need a decent REA and a decent INT (but not a soft-max INT) to combine and give you a decent Initiative, because even under IR you have to have something for the spell to work with. You need enough BOD to stay alive, but you shouldn't be getting shot at enough to justify the soft-max there. STR you can leave at min, it's not that bad to boost if you want to not be feeble in the future, but putting LOG at 1 means you wouldn't know when to use what spells. AGI, even for a mage, is an important attribute. You want to stay unnoticed, your best defense will be not making yourself a target. So have a firearms skill - and a corresponding firearm , and have a good Infiltration skill.

If your GM is cool with you taking Neg Quals that will never effect you ... well, I'd be surprised.

[All4BigGuns]

If your going for a charisma-based tradition, go with 6 charisma.  7 Charisma is not worth the extra 25 BP.
Go with 6 magic.
Logic 1.... is really, really low...specialling with your knowledge skills...
Don't take Astral Combat, take a mana bolt or similar.  Much more effective.
Talismonger C5 L1.  Very well connected for a Talismonger, obviously a business relationship
Body 5, Strength 1.... ok, but does look odd.
You might want an extra sustaining foci given the number of sustaning spells youve chosen.

Flamethrower is actual a firebolt... one of my players made that mistake.

Hope this helps

He did state in the opening post that his GM specifically called out Astral Combat.

[Black]

If your going for a charisma-based tradition, go with 6 charisma.  7 Charisma is not worth the extra 25 BP.
Go with 6 magic.
Logic 1.... is really, really low...specialling with your knowledge skills...
Don't take Astral Combat, take a mana bolt or similar.  Much more effective.
Talismonger C5 L1.  Very well connected for a Talismonger, obviously a business relationship
Body 5, Strength 1.... ok, but does look odd.
You might want an extra sustaining foci given the number of sustaning spells youve chosen.

Flamethrower is actual a firebolt... one of my players made that mistake.

Hope this helps

He did state in the opening post that his GM specifically called out Astral Combat.

Ahh... might think about was the quote.  I assumed (I know, i know) that the GM was making a general statement to the effect 'We will need someone who can fight in the astral... against spirits ect', and mana based spells are far more effective in the astral than astral combat.  And given his the only one who can operate in the Astral in his team, he needs to be able to take on astral critters and mages.  And without a weapon foci, astral combat won't be very effective against say a force six spirit.  But the mana bolt will kick its a$#se.

[All4BigGuns]

If your going for a charisma-based tradition, go with 6 charisma.  7 Charisma is not worth the extra 25 BP.
Go with 6 magic.
Logic 1.... is really, really low...specialling with your knowledge skills...
Don't take Astral Combat, take a mana bolt or similar.  Much more effective.
Talismonger C5 L1.  Very well connected for a Talismonger, obviously a business relationship
Body 5, Strength 1.... ok, but does look odd.
You might want an extra sustaining foci given the number of sustaning spells youve chosen.

Flamethrower is actual a firebolt... one of my players made that mistake.

Hope this helps

He did state in the opening post that his GM specifically called out Astral Combat.

Ahh... might think about was the quote.  I assumed (I know, i know) that the GM was making a general statement to the effect 'We will need someone who can fight in the astral... against spirits ect', and mana based spells are far more effective in the astral than astral combat.  And given his the only one who can operate in the Astral in his team, he needs to be able to take on astral critters and mages.  And without a weapon foci, astral combat won't be very effective against say a force six spirit.  But the mana bolt will kick its a$#se.

Ahh, I'd still take the skill personally since it was called out because it may mean that GM for some reason requires it to do anything on the Astral (don't ask me how, but you never know).

As I said before, I think he should go Hermetic with a good Logic (of course) and go human--taking Bad Luck to work with the low Edge, which is pretty much the most worthless stat anyway. Combine that with Restricted Gear for a Force 4 Power Focus and everything else is gravy. With a high Int and Log, he could take knowledge skills to ID various baddies and some tactical deployment knowledge skills to help his team with that.