My RL gaming group are about to kick off a game of 4th ed. None of us have ever played SR before (Well, I played like 3 games of 2nd ed years ago) and I'm struggling with this: What the heck does a strongly playable starting mage look like?
I figure it's got 5's in magic and mental attributes, may be a dwarf, but I'm struggling to build something that has the complete range of magic skills you seem to need:
Summoning, Binding, Spellcasting, Counterspelling, Astral Combat, Assessing, with maybe 1 point in banishing? then 6-8 spells for a solid all around selection
Who can also have skills like influence.
So anyone got a thumbnail sketch of a mage? Am I using to many spells? Skills to high?
What does a powerful starting character mage look like in Sh
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Re: What does a powerful starting character mage look like i
Powerful magicians are generally specialists. You have casters on one side and summoners on the other. Summoners are divided into Manifestation and Possession traditions, and Possessors are divided into normal and 'hulk smash'.
Yeah, dwarves are probably the best overall as mages. The willpower is nice. As a spellcaster you generally want to go with an Intuition-based tradition, because Intuition is key for stealth. Intuition 5, Willpower 6, Magic 5 to 6 (you might not want to spend Karma on anything but initiation & foci, so the obscene price may be worth it). Get some Edge too.
You'll max the two casting skills which aren't Ritual Magic, with the main one at 6. Counterspell 4, Assensing. No banishment. Banishment is for losers.
Buy a bunch of spells, and some sustaining foci of the highest rating you can. Bind them with BP. Use Edge to get a +3 Improved Reflexes on your rating 2 sustaining focus. Improved invisibility is another nice one to jack up, and now you're a ninja.
For combat spells, Stunbolt and Command seem to be favorites.
Usually you'll want to get some Cyber- and Bio-ware. This is almost a good excuse to go with a Logic tradition, as you can buy a nice cerebral enhancement.
As a summoner, you want Summoning and Binding at 6 and 4, and probably Counterspelling. Don't bother with astral combat: you can summon a spirit to deal with astral hazards. Charisma is generally your main stat, although there are reasons to go with Intuition if you can make up a new possession tradition.
Most people will want to use Frank's much publicized trick of using Spirits of Man on extended services. Possessees can get buffed to absurd levels, which can increase the survivability of the caster. If you're a troll with decent physical attributes possessed by a spirit, people have to start calling in tactical nukes to stop you (Remember Dr. Faust from Guilty Gear?).
Being a decent mage generally leaves enough skill points that you can make a decent hacker as well. You could drop the points to be a face, but Adepts tend to do it better.
Yeah, dwarves are probably the best overall as mages. The willpower is nice. As a spellcaster you generally want to go with an Intuition-based tradition, because Intuition is key for stealth. Intuition 5, Willpower 6, Magic 5 to 6 (you might not want to spend Karma on anything but initiation & foci, so the obscene price may be worth it). Get some Edge too.
You'll max the two casting skills which aren't Ritual Magic, with the main one at 6. Counterspell 4, Assensing. No banishment. Banishment is for losers.
Buy a bunch of spells, and some sustaining foci of the highest rating you can. Bind them with BP. Use Edge to get a +3 Improved Reflexes on your rating 2 sustaining focus. Improved invisibility is another nice one to jack up, and now you're a ninja.
For combat spells, Stunbolt and Command seem to be favorites.
Usually you'll want to get some Cyber- and Bio-ware. This is almost a good excuse to go with a Logic tradition, as you can buy a nice cerebral enhancement.
As a summoner, you want Summoning and Binding at 6 and 4, and probably Counterspelling. Don't bother with astral combat: you can summon a spirit to deal with astral hazards. Charisma is generally your main stat, although there are reasons to go with Intuition if you can make up a new possession tradition.
Most people will want to use Frank's much publicized trick of using Spirits of Man on extended services. Possessees can get buffed to absurd levels, which can increase the survivability of the caster. If you're a troll with decent physical attributes possessed by a spirit, people have to start calling in tactical nukes to stop you (Remember Dr. Faust from Guilty Gear?).
Being a decent mage generally leaves enough skill points that you can make a decent hacker as well. You could drop the points to be a face, but Adepts tend to do it better.
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Re: What does a powerful starting character mage look like i
Question: what kind of house rules are you using? Personally, I use BP instead of Karma and seriously halve the cost of Skills. Skills are, in the basic rules a really counterintuitive investment.
So under basic rules, buying Skills at chargen is you telling the world that you in fact believe that the game is going to last a long time and that you're willing to sacrifice character effectiveness now in exchange for being able to buy yourself up to full attributes anyway for only modest numbers of Karma and then walk away as a super bad-ass later on.
---
So anyway, after doing a lot of Shadowrun math and coming to the conclusion that Skills are too expensive and that running Karma and BP in the same game is a bad idea, I came to the conclusion that those rather simple house rules made things a lot better. Heck, I'm officially an author of Shadowrun material and shit, you can say it's sanctioned by the writer who gave you the 4th edition cyberzombie.
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But assuming that you aren't doing that, and that instead you're going to walk in with a by-the-book one-shot character, it would look something like this:
Attributes: 220
B: 3 A: 2 R: 2 S: 2
C: 2 I: 5 L: 2 W: 5
Ess: 6 Edge: 5 Magic: 5
Mad Skillz:
Stealth 1
Influence 1
Athletics 1
Summoning 4
Binding 4
Spellcasting 4
Counterspelling 4
Assensing 6
Perception 1
Automatics 1
Pilot Groundcraft 1
Equipments: 22
Power Focus 2
High Lifestyle
FN-HAR Assault Rifle
Ingram Smartgun
Chameleon Suit with
Transys Avalon Commlink running Navi
Rating 6 Medkit
Rating 4 Area Jammer
Mage Sight Goggles
Goggles of Flare Comp, Smartlink, and Thermographic
Sedan
Qualities 10
Magician (Choose or Design an Intuition tradition)
Mentor (Owl)
Geas
Spells
Shape Metal
Heal
Turn to Goo
Trid Phantasm
Mana Static
-Username17
- Skills suck. Seriously, a skill gorup costs the same as an attribute point and it isn't even close to being as good.
- But, Skills are even more expensive if you try to buy them after character generation. Rating x 5 for a group, rating x3 for an attribute? What the hell, man?
So under basic rules, buying Skills at chargen is you telling the world that you in fact believe that the game is going to last a long time and that you're willing to sacrifice character effectiveness now in exchange for being able to buy yourself up to full attributes anyway for only modest numbers of Karma and then walk away as a super bad-ass later on.
---
So anyway, after doing a lot of Shadowrun math and coming to the conclusion that Skills are too expensive and that running Karma and BP in the same game is a bad idea, I came to the conclusion that those rather simple house rules made things a lot better. Heck, I'm officially an author of Shadowrun material and shit, you can say it's sanctioned by the writer who gave you the 4th edition cyberzombie.
---
But assuming that you aren't doing that, and that instead you're going to walk in with a by-the-book one-shot character, it would look something like this:
Attributes: 220
B: 3 A: 2 R: 2 S: 2
C: 2 I: 5 L: 2 W: 5
Ess: 6 Edge: 5 Magic: 5
Mad Skillz:
Stealth 1
Influence 1
Athletics 1
Summoning 4
Binding 4
Spellcasting 4
Counterspelling 4
Assensing 6
Perception 1
Automatics 1
Pilot Groundcraft 1
Equipments: 22
Power Focus 2
High Lifestyle
FN-HAR Assault Rifle
Ingram Smartgun
Chameleon Suit with
- Helmet
Chemical Protection
Fire Resistance
Nonconductivity
Thermal Damping (8900¥!)
Transys Avalon Commlink running Navi
Rating 6 Medkit
Rating 4 Area Jammer
Mage Sight Goggles
Goggles of Flare Comp, Smartlink, and Thermographic
Sedan
Qualities 10
Magician (Choose or Design an Intuition tradition)
Mentor (Owl)
Geas
Spells
Shape Metal
Heal
Turn to Goo
Trid Phantasm
Mana Static
-Username17
Re: What does a powerful starting character mage look like i
Catharz: I'm interested to see you (and frank) both thought AStral combat was totally a waste of time - saves some points. What do you think is a bunch of spells to start with? First instinct from me was to shoot for 8-12, but that seems V expensive.
Frank: Yeah, I dug up the house rules de santa cruz from dumpshock and am trying to pursade the receptive GM that maybe we should use those. He's scoping it out. There is an obvious "Maybe we should just use the rulebook the first time out" factor going on, so it might just be Core rules only. That said, char gen tweaks are pretty minor, so I don;t see it as an issue. His call though.
Assessing at a 6? I see the advantages in infomational skills, but isn't conjuring 6, like, better?
I'm intrested to see the very short spell list again, I was looking at alot more - 5 takes the pressure off.
Frank: Yeah, I dug up the house rules de santa cruz from dumpshock and am trying to pursade the receptive GM that maybe we should use those. He's scoping it out. There is an obvious "Maybe we should just use the rulebook the first time out" factor going on, so it might just be Core rules only. That said, char gen tweaks are pretty minor, so I don;t see it as an issue. His call though.
Assessing at a 6? I see the advantages in infomational skills, but isn't conjuring 6, like, better?
I'm intrested to see the very short spell list again, I was looking at alot more - 5 takes the pressure off.