(ShadowRun) Making A Battle Mage

[DragonBaneDM]

Wahoo! Today marks the sixth campaign I'm playing in currently.

Anywho. I've played Shadowrun before, this is my second campaign, the last one fell apart. Before I was a Dwarf with a love for Gausse Rifles.

But THIS time...THIS time gentlemen... I'll be playing a Battle Mage. I have the core book and Street Magic, as well as some other books if you guys say I need them.

I'm looking for any tips whatsoever on making this guy as optimal as possible, since my Dwarf suffered from splitting his skill set too much.

Mostly, which spells should I be looking at here? And I know I wanna go Blaster Mage here, but if there's some sort of a Batman Wizard equivalent, lemmee know about it!

Thanks Playground. Don't let me down!

[Tehnar]

I'm not very experienced with Awakened characters, but here are my suggestions (I'm assuming 4th edition) for spells:

Stunbolt/ball
Invissibility, improved
Powerball
Levitate
Heal
Influence
Improved Attribute (probably Reaction or one of your drain stats, depending on tradition)
Magic Fingers

You might want to sacrifice a point of magic for some synaptic boosters/cybereyes. Sight penalties add up quickly, and you bet the opposition will use edge to resist your spells. Then its geek the mage time.

[Douglas]

A Sustaining Focus and Increase Reflexes. If you get the skills to craft it yourself, it's possible to get all four turns per round as a starting character.

For your staple offense spells, you want stuff that's easy to resist the drain for. Stunbolt/ball is the obvious choice. Anything that contributes to drain resistance is good, particularly combined with a sustaining focus, though focusing a lot on that might cut down your starting spell selection too much.

[kjones]

Be careful getting cybereyes for a mage. The rules are ambiguous as to whether or not you can use vision enhancements that take up capacity in cybereyes to cast spells. (The statement is that you can use any vision enhancement that costs you essence... the cybereyes themselves cost you essence, but adding stuff to them does not cost more essence.) Talk it over with your GM.

Other than that, Tehnar's list is pretty good - Stunbolt in particular is a must. For some reason, SR4 seems to treat stun damage as less preferable than physical damage, whereas in my experience the opposite is true. (Stun tracks are usually shorter than physical tracks, stunning someone is less illegal than killing them, etc.) Having some way to damage objects, of course, is a must - don't forget that electricity damage does amusing things to drones, though how common drones are depends on the kind of game you're playing.

If you're interested in "Batman" mages, they're not so easy in SR, especially since Batman wizards rely a lot on buffing allies, and maintaining a lot of buffs is hard. I'd go with the Influence route if you wanted that kind of thing. (illusions, Control Thoughts/Actions, etc.)

Finally, how the frag did your dwarf get his hands on a gauss rifle? The availability on those things is ridiculous, not to mention the ammo.

[DragonBaneDM]

Before Boom, my dwarf, started 'running, he worked for Ares as a bug spirit exterminator. He used his corporate ties to get it. GM okayed it, and I was actually better with my machine gun as it turned out...

Anyway, he ended up as Ares' personally whipping dog cause of that, and got caught with it once or twice.

Buying ammo from an undercover cop wasn't fun...

EDIT: Oh, but back to the Mage. I'm going Dark Magic with him, although he's gonna be working on a Tradition of his own while running. Dragon Magic. He's a company man for Krupp just cause of how much he idolizes Lofwyr.

So my stat array should be Magic > Willpower > Charisma > Intelligence > Everything else, right?

[DeltaEmil]

4th edition Shadowrun does allow you to use the enhancements in your cybereyes to cast spells, as the eyes with all the stuff in it is considered to be paid with your essence, and therefore a part of you.

Also, Tehnar's list is good indeed.

Should you decide to chose a tradition with logic as your drain stat, then a cerebral booster will aid you a lot.

As a spirit exterminator, you should have either of One Less/Slay/Slaughter Spirit.
And what do you mean with Dark Magic?

[DragonBaneDM]

OH! It's called Black Magic technically, right? Sorry, like I said this is only my second campaign hahaha.

I'm still learning this stuff.

[Oracle_Hunter]

OP: What Edition are you playing?

Advice: In general, the important part of being a Battle Mage is having a gun and being good with it. Unless Magic exacts little cost in 4th, relying on spells like Powerball to do your killing all the time is going to leave you stunned out of your mind when it comes time to do something big.

You'd be surprised how many people forget that mages use guns just like everyone else

EDIT:
If you're unsure of the Edition number, then just answer this: is cyberware generally wired or wireless

[DragonBaneDM]

Heh, it's 4th edition. Sorry for not clarifying earlier.