I once had a Nartaki mage who was a mechanic: Fix, Levitate, Analyze Device, Light, Magic Fingers. Add Fashion and Fling (I know, I know, suboptimal; choice was for RP reasons), and that, IIRC, was her starting spell list. Magic 6, Spellcasting 6 (+2 manipulation after the first run), and Mentor Spirit: Dragon. Surprisingly effective, especially after Glitter learned just why the other mage(s) in the team had Increase Reflexes and Heal.

Fun times, fun times.

All I can think of saying ins Harry Dresden (mainly because I'm re-re-reading the series)

In the NAN I think teaching would be one of the more common professions as shamans would have the best understanding of the cultural heritage of their tribes.

I think there's a big problem for mages jobs: most people fear and distrust magic. And I can see why the corps would prefer to keep the masses away from mages: mages services can't be mass-produced, and there are little to no barrier to entry (you have to be a mage, to know how to cast spells/summon and know the spells).

Sure there can be a few things corps can do, like patent spell formulas, but that's not enough. Making the population fear magic is a better option. This way, people will only trust mages with a certification from a corporation. Incidents involving an uncertified mage will make the news, and in the end magic services will be controlled by corporations.

Illusion spells are very useful for design prototyping.

Bye
Thanee

What about the Shapechange spell. Talk about something people would pay for.
"You dream of flying? Ok, close your eyes and hold your breath. There. Now fly mister eagle. You've got an hour. That'll be 500 nuyen please."

or

"You've got ebola? Guess what? There's no duck form of ebola. Poof. You're a duck. Relax for a few days til we're sure it's gone. That'll be 5000 nuyen please."

or

"Scuba lessons? You don't need no scuba lessons. Hop in the water. Poof. You're a shark. Have fun."

etc, etc, etc

Ha, nice.

I can't see why it wouldn't work.

I could think of ways ("Magic") but I was more amused by the idea than its plausibility.

Penis thief.

Other then being known as 'That prick who invented duck Ebola'.

Mmm---Peking Duck anyone?? Great way to get rid of a person. Just shapechange them into a duck or chicken, toss them into the back of a poultry truck and off they go to the meatpacking plant.....wow what a way to die.....though once you die I think you revert back to human form. I guess they would have mage inspectors in the plant to prevent that though....

Reminds me of "I cast Polymorph Other on the balrog to turn him into a trout." It works so well, it's permanent. The trout then gets tossed in a nearby river (as it retains all it's crazy balrog powers, like exploding violently on death) and Leaving Quickly.

Some poor fisherman sometime later ends up catching a fish, which then explodes.

At a game at a D&D convention, that's pretty much exactly what we did, only worse. Polymorphed the bad guy into a puppy, after having hit him with Curse and Blindness.

Ouch.

I once had a character that was Baleful polymorphed into a small furry critter at the beginning of a fight. The rest of the group assumed I would just roll up another character, as in that fight they had gotten their asses handed to them and had to teleport away and leave me there, asumed dead. Adding insult to injury, they managed to take the time to grab my pack full of stuff rather than grab me, which wasn't surprising as my character was a bit obnoxious and had provoked the fight by insulting the NPC who I knew was much more powerful than we were.

But in the confusion as they left i was able to sneak away, and as I was a psion, the change in form wasn't as devastating to me as it could have been otherwise. The game took place before the spell was erratad to lose your special abilities including class features, so i couls still manifest powers. I had just enough xp to level up, and took a level in Thrallerd, which i had planned on doing anyway.

The next gaming session I brought my new wizard character into the group, and it took about two months before they figured out that my psion was the wizard's familiar, and the wizard was my Thrall. Aoiding people with True Seeing was the hardest thing.

I've heard of such antics before.

Then there was the druid and his dire wolverine.

Er, I mean, the gargantuan dire wolverine and his ant-companion-druid (he took an alternate class feature to wildshape smaller rather than larger, and then used ride checks to increase the wolverine's AC).

Not sure if it was mentioned yet but there's a good bit in Vice about most of the horishi for the yakuza being mages w/ quickening. Seems like it would be a good fit for a non-gumi tattoo artist as well.

That is brilliant.

Thorguild

We once had a BBEG, who was a general of an extraplanar invading army and whose name we did not know, polymorphed into a chicken.
Well, his further fate had his name established as Tso.

Not sure about 4th Ed., but in Third Mundanes were ok as long as the astral gateway was maintained. If it dropped, mundanes died immediately. I think magically active then were subject to essence constraint. It is how the mundanes on the team were able to participate in Harlequin Returns.

Any Magician with a Heal, an Anti-Toxin or a Cure Disease spell will always have a better than decent living as a portable med center.

My current mage Martin Miggs has a shingle (an excellent forgery) that allows him to be a Magical Healer out of his home, also thanks to a recent Run involving insect spirits he's registered with the U.N. as a freelance magical investigator.

Another thing he has at his disposal is his talent with hydroponics, in addition to the 'Urban Farming' on his property he's working on growing Glowmoss for fun and profit.

This whole discussion is mentioning many of the ideas for magic in society and business covered in GURPS Technomancer. I consider it an invaluable resource (in some respects, not in others) for an urban fantasy campaign. It's out of print, if anyone's looking for it, but for sale at like $8 from Steve Jackson Games online (e23) in PDF format. I might also recommend Dreaming Cities (Tri-Stat), but GURPS Technomancer is far more comprehensive.

You're looking to get a reputation as a quack doctor? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)