I'm looking to play a retired lone star first-response combat mage, and I've got alot of questions as I've never played a caster before.

Givens about the character:
• Not specialized in summoning/spirit dealings.
• Maximum of 1 essence loss
• Formerly specialized in combat sorcery.
• All books allowed
• 1 full cyber arm replacement (Delta if i can afford it. Allowed by House Rules.) Looking at Shock Hand (al la Ghost in the Shell)
• Retired within the past 6 months. Trying to make money as an investigator.
• SINner


Questions:
• Any common newb magical misconceptions to be aware of? Any newb magical mistakes to avoid?
• For your group, what problems in the magic system have you identified and how have you fixed them?
• Are there any good examples of Lonestar (or ANY fast response team) tactics, build, equipment, and policies?
B: Are there any official resources that talk about playing shadowrun from the other side of the legal fence?
• Any good cyber/bioware that bears keeping in mind? I'm already taking 1 magic loss from the cyber arm (delta if i can afford it).

Forum Recomended Cyber/Bio: Snesors, Pain editor, Trauma Dampener, Platlet Factories, Cerebral Booster



EDITS: edits reflect summarization of conversation below

You can't take deltaware on a starter character.
Each Essence point lost is 1 Magic point less, so if you have 5 Magic and a cyberarm, you have effectively 4 Magic while having paid for 5.
There are NPC statistics given in the Corebook, with example equipment.

That's all I can do to help.

Can't get delta at character gen, but you can get Alpha, doublethe cost, for 80% of the essance.

Don't forget your non-magical skills, like perception and infiltration.
Shock hand is good, just remember the unarmed skill, which can be of use with your spell selections, too.
War has some tactics mentions, but those are for military, and may not apply as easily. Other then that, use your knowledge of cop dramas, and apply magic, it shouldn't be too hard.
The Gyromount I wouldn't bother, unless you are looking at a big gun.


The only issue I've had with magic is the direct spells, which I've houseruled to do net hits damage on the physical, and force+net hits on the astral.
As far as cyberware, I would load up with as many sensors as you can fit into the arm. They may not help you target with magic, but having a few ways to detect things can't hurt (and with indirect spells, they can help you indirect fire, sometimes). I also hear pain editors are useful to a mage, once the drain starts building up, so you might want to consider them.

Deltaware is not allowed at chargen, the maximum is alpha. The gyromount is probably a bad idea: it is a Forbidden item so even with your background you cannot get a license for it. Even if Lone Star equipped you with one, they could not legally let you keep it once you retire. The only way to make it work in a civilised campaign is to put it in a modular limb so you can take it off when needed, and modular full limbs don't exist per RAW. Do you really want a full arm? A modular lower arm would leave you more space for mage ware such as cyber eyes (mages cannot cast through external enhancements), trauma damper (absorb drain), platelet factory (absorb overcast drain), cerebral booster (increase drain pool),...

I think the poster is saying their GM is allowing Delta grade cyber at purchase, but I could be wrong.

So far Lunavoco I have seen stat stuff-but in order for me to give some serious input I'd like to know more. Can you flesh out the character? Even if it's in broad strokes?

Even if the GM allows delta at chargen, it is terribly expensive: 150000Y for the empty arm, and all the upgrades have to be delta too.

To All: Delta is available at chargen at our table. Generally, good story trumps rules for us, and we don't feel that this breaks the game. We find that the cost is prettry limiting. I'll update the original post to reflect this.

His mundane skills will be low, but that'll be part of the focus of the character, coping with the desparity between what he's good at and what he needs to be good at. He'll constantly be digging in his tool box looking for the correct tool, but he'll find that he spenbt his whole life collecting hammers. The retirement is going to be a hard hit for him. Karma is going to be spent in game to raise them as the story progresses.

The Shock Hand rules will likely be modified to be a little more effective VS cybered opponents. I don't have them down yet, but I'll make a new thread about that at some point.

Several posts speak against the Gyromount. I'll drop it then.



Cyber/Bio: Snesors, Pain editor, Trauma Dampener, Platlet Factories, Cerebral Booster

Cost Will be an issue on the arm. I'm building the character today at work, so i'll let you know how it ends up. Hopefully that'll let me give more details for Paul as well.

Make sure they get a Ruger Thunderbolt.

Cool. Hopefully we can help make this a fun process!

remember that over casting does physical damage, but you still resist with Willpower + (drain Stat).

Over casting can be fun with the right spells.

with the cyber arm you will have 4 magic, so you can over cast to Force 8. a Force 8 Death Touch will only have a drain of 2. (F/2-2) you will in turn deal 8 + net hits in damage while only risking 2 damage.

Be sure to take Unarmed combat, specialize in Spell trigger, and dont forget the +2 bonus everyone gets for touch attacks.

If your Unarmed combat is 3 and agility is 3 then with a specialization and casting touch attack spells, you will have 10 dice.

i remember hearing somewhere that since cyberware is bought with essence, then cyber eyes still count as line of sight. get an eye drone,. and send that bitch into rooms you don't want to go into and Ball lighting the hell hell outta crap.

Mass Agony is Awesome.

Electricity is my fav elemtal damage,.. it is always Stun, and if the enemy takes just 1 box of it they can be f--ked in combat... Some one above mentioned Shock Touch.. that would be a good idea as touch range spells reduce drain.

Never underestimate the power of the Arcana Skill

Specialize in the Spellcasting skill for extra dice in your chosen category

Levitate can be a lethal non-combat spell

i may have more suggestions, i'll post them latter

If you're playing a combat mage, remember that combat spells, while good, are not the best tool to kill people with most the time. Invest in an Ares Alpha and a good automatics skill.

I'm going to chip in for your ware....

Cybereyes: Negating vision modifiers helps your spellcasting directly. Eye light system(augmentation) and Smartlinks are good(combo with Aztech spellslinging gloves from war. Get 2 if you're using indirect spells), Vision Magnification.
Debatable rules shenanigans: Eye Tool Laser*augmentation)+smartgunsystem weapon modification(arsenal) +cybereye smartlink satisfies both necessary halves of the rules for using smartgun+smartlink with only your eyes. The idea being to effectively smartlink your spells - possibly stacked up more with the gloves from war. (i always wanted to make a fingergunning magic cowboy specializing in indirect spells, which normally suck)

Trauma Damper: Effectively drops 1 drain off your spells. Nice combo with Platelet factories(not strictly necessary), but its a good safety net if you're overcasting regularly.
If you ARE overcasting, the Bear mentor spirit can help with resisting that drain.

29BP in total nets you a a Rating 4 Power focus with Restricted Gear(be mindful of quality limits), including the nuyen cost and foci binding costs. Its only 4 points more than maxing out your magic, so worth considering.

Consider how you want your extra passes. They all have their upsides and downsides.
If a mystic adept, Improved Reflexes is expensive, but discountable with an Adept Way. Improves your Reaction for better defense too. Being an adept lets you take heightened concentration, which may be worth it if you're a buffer.
Improved Reflexes, the spell: needs 4 max hits for max effect(hard to start with a rating 4 foci), can be counterspelled off of you, has drain, needs to be recast if you're passing through wards or astral barriers. Most importantly, it can be cast on others. Does not raise your Reaction attribute, only Initiative.
Ware: Can't be counterspelled, doesn't go away in background count, doesn't come with a sustaining modifier. Raises your reaction attribute, but also lowers essence.

Unfortunately, this trick does not work. You need a hard connection, not wireless (Works when eye is actually docked to the eye socket, not when ity is a "Drone"). If you want to do this trick, get Mage-Sight Goggles. They can move out to 30 Meters away from the caster.

Massive attack spells aren't the best choice for a cop: A fireball is pretty hot but a stunball will not kill the hostages.

Mind control and Barriers spells can be very usefull too.

The Pain editor (adding a biomonitor and a trauma dumper is better) is a must have to unleech the multicast power. Best with an logical or charisma-linked Drain tradition.
Pain editor : 0.3B, trauma Damper 0.2B, Biomonitor 0.3E or [1] (best have it in a lower arm cyberlimb : 0.45E)
remain somme essence for other stuff like cybereyes (extra vision capacity grant you a better targeting : Ultrasound vision, and their is no more invisibility spell in front of you for exemple). A sleep reg., 'cause justice don't sleep (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) 0.15B
You can put somme more stuff in your cyberlimb, like autoinjectors, shock hands, and more.