Shadowrun Combat Magician

[tricktroller]

When i say combat magician, I mean it.

Human

Attributes
Magician -15BP
Mild Allergy Gold +5BP
Moderate Addiction Cigarettes +10BP
Bad Luck +20BP

Stats
Bod 3
Agi 4
Rea 4
Str 3
Cha 1
Int 3
Log 5
Wil 5
Ini 7
Edge 2
Magic 6
Essence 6

Skills
Spellcasting 6 (specialized combat +2)
Pistols 2
Perception 4
Dodge 3
Pilot Aircraft 1
Pilot Groundcraft 1
Pilot Aerospace 1

Spells
Manabolt
Manaball
Flamethrower
Fireball
Combat Sense
Increase reflexes
Armor
Levitate
Heal
Invisibility
Powerball
Stabilize

Ruger Super Warhawk
Laser Sight concealable holster
10 speedloaders 60 rounds exploding ammo
10 speedloaders 60 rounds regular ammo
10 speedloaders 60 rounds stick n shock

Lined coat with Thermal dampening, fire resitant, chemial protection, insulation, and non conductivity 6

Goggles 6 with themorgraphic, low light vision, Vision enhancement 2, vision magnification, flare compensation

Auto picker 6
monofilament chainsaw
respirator 6
survival kit

combat spellcasting focus 3
Power focus 2
Sustaining focus 3

magical lodge 6

This should leave 16 BP for any remaining needs, i.e., contacts more gear etc.

what do you guys think? Haven't played before but trying to get a game together.

[tricktroller]

I want the character to be able to blast out lots and lots of spells. Also how bad would it be for this character to try to overcast say a force 12 fireball?

[Iku Rex]

I have never actually played SR 4th, but I've been looking into making a character lately. Old Dumpshock threads, like this one (http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=35745), can be a good source of advice IME.

My initial thoughts:

* You could get another couple of dice for combat spells with the right mentor spirit (5 BP). (Dragonslayer?)

* Foci seem very useful. Apparently, a sustaining focus for Increase Reflexes is more or less standard issue for mages.

* Counterspelling gives you a better chance to survive if you ever run into another mage.

[Swordguy]

Too many spells, not enough dice in the stuff that matters. And that's coming from a player who's not an especially good optimizer.


The important pools for a combat mage are as follows (not necessarily in this order):
-Drain Resistance
-Spellcasting
-Something dealing with Spirits (even if you can't summon them, Banishing is dammed useful)
-<insert non-magical combat ability here>

Are all of these pools currently at 12 dice or higher? They should be.



Moreover, your spell list is way, WAY overkill. You need something more along the lines of the following:
-Single target attack spell
-Area-effect Attack spell
-Physical damage spell
-Mana-based damage spell
-Initiative-boosting spell
-Defensive Spell
-Healing Spell
-Utility Spells to taste.

Note that some of those spells can be the same thing. You can have an area-effect, mana-based damage spell and a single-person, physical damage spell, and both needs will be covered. Thusly, I'd drop your spell list to something a lot more like this:

-Stunbolt
-Fireball (because I'm 100% sure that you want to throw this spell around)
-Increase Reflexes
-Armor
-Heal
-and 2-3 utility spells depending on how you want to help out your team. Good examples are Mass Invisibility, Chaotic World, Orgasm, Levitate, and Sterilize. Note that Sterilize is considered mandatory for MANY teams.


Thusly, a character that is laid out as follows is probably going to be far more useful both to your party, and to helping you into the game world:




Shadowrun Combat Magician My commentary is in italics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When i say combat magician, I mean it.

Human

Attributes
Magician -15BP
Mild Allergy Gold +5BP
Moderate Addiction Cigarettes +10BP
Bad Luck +20BP

Stats - 270 BP
Bod 5Damage resist is HUGE...you WILL get shot
Agi 4
Rea 2 You should have Increase Reflexes sustained, that's more important than having a high Reaction stat
Str 2
Cha 1
Int 3
Log 5
Wil 5
Ini ? I can't recall the equation and am too lazy to look it up right now
Edge 2
Magic 5 remember you pay a BP premium for maxing out an Attribute at creation
Essence 6

Skills - 106 BP
Spellcasting 5 (specialized combat +2)
Counterspelling 4 add 4 dice to your buddies spell resist tests? Yes please
Summoning 4 now you can summon spirits to help out or reconniter
Astral Combat 3 You can astrally project as a mage, be prepared to fight in it
Automatics 4 (SMGs +2) almost as concealable and WAY better than pistols
Perception 3
Assensing 1 part of combat is recon - ID the mage with this so your buds know who to shoot
Etiquette 1 (Street +2) you do NOT want to default on social checks


Spells - 16 BP
Stunbolt
Fireball
Increase reflexes
Heal
Sterilize
Levitate
Turn to Goo Cause it's hilarious
1 other spell

28 BP left for gear & contacts

Weapon & Gear

SMG of your choice with internal smartlink and smart-glasses for you (+2 dice to shooting!). I prefer the HK227.

Those same smartglasses can have your thermographic/low-light/etc/etc modifications.

Get a commlink with an OS that doesn't totally suck. It doesn't have to be good, but you need to have one. Firewall rating of 4, minimum. The other program rating can be 1-2s.

Get a Force 2 Sustaining Focus (being able to sustain a F2 Increase Reflexes Spell is Good Enough - Force 3 maxes you out on passes and you probably won't need it at first).

A F2 Power Focus is awesome if you can afford it. I'd go with mundane gear and contacts over any more Foci than these two.

GET FORM-FITTING BODY ARMOR. Layer it under a stylish armored coat (or one of the Zoe Heritage Line outfits - looking good is important). Now you're up around 10-12 dice in B/I ratings. Combined with a 5 Body and you can soak an errant it or two...this is why (in conjunction with the sustaining spell penalty) you don't have the Armor spell on your list anymore. DO NOT get PPPO and layer it with Form-fitting and other armor. Yes it's legal. It's also cheesey as hell and the designers have said they regret giving PCs the option to do it.

A Talismonger Contact is MANDATORY. Even if she's a 1/1. Just as long as you know somebody...

Finally, you need at least one Rating 5+ Fake ID with Licenses for: Casting Magic, Summoning Spirits, Carrying Foci, Carrying Weapons. I suggest a "Paranormal Animal Control Specialist" as your cover...it justifies all of the above licenses neatly.


With the above character, you're doing the following:
12 dice for combat spellcasting before Foci
10-ish dice for Drain Resist
10-14 dice for damage Resist (Body 5, 6-12 depending on armor choices)
12 dice for shootin' things (Agi 4, SMG 6, Smartlink 2)

...more importantly, you're better at filling your role. Now, not only do you defend your team against magic passively via counterspelling, you can also deal with magic-based threats by assensing them, and either engaging in astral combat yourself, spellcasting at about the level you were originally, or by summoning spirits to deal with the magical threat.

[tricktroller]

I might have forgotten to mention that only the core rulebook is available to me.

Also the GM would probably stick with me being the only mage. I doubt he would get into astral combat. So more of a combat mage meant to fight regular people, ghouls, etc.

[Andrewmoreton]

First Rules then opinions
Rules
Your Lined coat has 30 points of modification out of a maximum of 9
Your goggles are availability 18 after stacking all of the mods
(Your goggles are also useless, they work-like current night vision goggles so you see the world through an electronic screen and..... unless you can see with your EYES you cannot cast a spell at a target so they block your own magic, you need cyberware or natural night vision)

Casting Fireball at force 12 will inflict 11p Drain on you as a hermetic mage you have dice pool of 10 dice to soak that , on average that means you take 8p damage and are nearly dead.

You have not got a lifestyle or commlink both are pretty essential (on the other hand you have 12bp so no problem)

Opinions
You show a studious lack of interest in social skills, unless another charcter has some you will never get paid very well and will never find any useful information

You should have an assensing skill it is really useful, drop some perception as other characters can cover that.

You should ALWAYS have infiltration , (So many characters die from this, nealy as many as die from no social skills :smallamused:)

You need more sustaining foci as you have several spells (COmbat sense, Armour, Improved reflexes that need sustaining to be useful) however you probably can't get them at the start so plan on getting them with cash and Karma

Not summoning spirits takes away about half or more of your abilities so its silly

Invisibility is a good spell, however it only works on living targets drones and cameras can still see you. Take Improved Invisibility

Astral combat will happen if you perform any astral projection and run into astral security (mages/spirits ) and is also the best way to get rid of hostile spirits . However given your cha of 1 you are largely harmless in astral combat anyway

Also why have you spent 4 pts on learning to fly the space shuttle badly? That is a skill you will never need

Also NO COUNTERSPELLING!!!!! You like being killed by enemy mages?

On Swordguy's comments
Generally agree except I consider the banishing skill pointless less drain from using Mana/stun bolt or astral combat

[tricktroller]

Ok guys here is what I would like a character with max magic and spellcasting with specialization in combat magic. Can you guys write me up a character like that?

[Poil]

Yes.

Well not until tomorrow that is, and it's not a promise. But you need to set some basic preferences to race and such or I'll be putting together a centaur with a spell list appropriate for raiding a strip club. :smalltongue:

[Andrewmoreton]

Yes but my software produces PDF's which won't post to the board

[tricktroller]

Lol core book only for races other than that I want him time blow things and people up. Or he can be a close combat monster. Either one works for me.