Alrighty guys I played some Shadowrun after a long layoff played in two missions games which were a blast, I was going to play by nomral Slick talking Subductor Con Artist but after realizing the party was full of Mages and Faces and *cringe* elves... I decided to just play my Bullet Depository Orc Adernaline Junky.... and watch the mages take over EVERYTHING... and made me started to wonder... the first time a party is on a RUN and there is a mage.. the first thing everybody says "Geek the MAGE!" It got me to thinking... i hate mages.. and i think a good character to bring into the game would be *drum roll* a burn-out anti mage.

So Basically i was pondering.. what is a good build to Geek the MAGE!

The magically active have great power. The only recommendation I can give with a clear conscious, is Arcane Arrester.
With a window seat to Hell, I can also recommend Astral Hazing.

We have a Fomori hooked up like that in the current group. The idea was to test it and see if it was broken. My players think that I am a harsh GM and Arcane Arrester is a bad idea.

Haunt the team with some dark spirits and suddenly they get uppity, who knew?

BlueMax
/I did
//and that was half the battle.

Dude, LynGrey, seriously man, Spell Check. Reading that abortion of the English language caused me pain.

I was actually disappointed to see he was posting from the USA...

Why don't you try a shotgun. Those work pretty well to deal with pesky mages. Flamethrowers can be hilarious. You could always try to fit in by playing a mage yourself. Failing that... well I'm not sure which edition you're playing, since you forgot to mention that little tidbit, but I suppose you could probably play a character with wired reflexes. Make sure that you 'forget' to have the trigger installed though. You can then 'accidently' shoot all of those pasky mages with said shotgun at close range whenever you feel the need.


Also, HD, Valentino, your posts were pointless and not the best examples of proper English. Bashing folk for typos is lame.

Mage geeking is quite hard, given an ultra-prepared twinkmage. Fortunately, most mages aren't ultra-prepared twinks.

Most spells don't work too well on technological items, so rigging works. They can't target you if you can't be found. IF your GM will permit it, consider playing an AI (rules in Runners Companion) with the Piloting origin.

For on-site mage-geeking, stealth and surprise is your best bet. A Force 10-12 Manabolt has a very high chance of turning you into fine red mist, so you need to stay out of the mage's line of sight.

Obviously, you want a burst-fire weapon with full compensation - or even better, a grenade launcher, since magical Detect Ambush spells have problems with indiscriminate attacks. Of course, you want as many IPs as you can get.

Get a post count above 10, and I might decide to let you proof read my Masters Thesis.
Also, if I was a better person I wouldn't point out the lack of a verb in your first sentence.



Sorry, I thought 4th ed was pretty standard, and figured figured the absence of edition would be defaulted to 4th. -rant- Yeah I play 4th, i tend to want to punch the guys who hold on to the old editions cause they can't play their game breaking tricked-out tweek (commonly) elf. Besides dropping the cash on new books, I usally don't mind the evolution with the editions. Best excuse I've herd about not evolving is they haven't released Dikote for 4th. -rant-

Great ideas guy, thanks for the help.



.... isn't their a gun that has all the above crteria (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) ... But given shotguns tend to be the answer TO ALOT OF THINGS.

Thermal smoke grenades for trolls and dwarves. They can't target you if they can only see a haze of shifting heat signatures and then a fraction of a second as your overused sledgehammer fractures their skull.

You introduce them to Firefly or Buffy. Slip them a copy of Snowcrash, then Cryptonomicon. Before you know it, they're telling you about their slashfic.

Then you shoot them in the face for writing slashfic. I watch Anime but I still have some standards.

Geeking the mage is easy. You want Astral Hazing, a Monowhip, a Sniper Rifle, and ADPS ammunition. This is an extremely tough setup for mages it deal with. If its a secure zone, you walk right up to the mage and unless they have a magic of 7+ they are unable to cast spells. Then you can just whip them.

Alternatively, you can just shoot them at long range with a sniper rifle.

If they summon a spirit of force 6 or less, a sniper rifle with ADPS will be sufficient to overcome its resistance. If it it Force 8+, you may need to walk up to it - getting it in range of astral hazing - and then shoot it at point blank.

Thermal smoke will always be an asset, if you have radar sense.

Not out of the box, no, but you can build one.

Buy an Auto-Assault 16 (Arsenal). You'll need to take Restricted Gear (Runner's Companion) to buy it at chargen. It's a shotgun capable of burst fire and full-auto, with a large ammo drum.


Add an underbarrel MGL-6 using Arsenal's modding rules.

You now have a full-auto shotgun with a three-shot grenade launcher - and a concealability modifier of +10.

I suggest keeping it in the van.

Geeking a mage is really a tactical thing. A mage who gets the drop on a sammie can waste him, and a sammie that gets the drop on a mage can waste him.

For pure damage - monowhips and heavy guns.

For having a decent chance of resisting a magical attack - a gnome or fomorian with astral hazing, with high Willpower and high Edge.

For getting the drop on a mage - drones, chameleon suits, and sniper rifles.

Adepts also make good mage-killers. Killing hands or weapon foci to take out spirits, one level of mystic adept put into magery to get counterspelling (or the still affordable magic resistance if you are going with a pure adept).

To kill mages? Rigger running armored combat drones with ultrasonic and radar armed with grenade launchers firing airburst frag and HE. (and mount flash-paks on the drones too.) However this approach is pretty hard on the furniture. For finding the mage use a rigger with sneaky little drones.

Well, first this was, you where playing a missions game (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) scaling on the fly dosn't really work well when you are running off of a script sadly (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Now if your GMing, there's always backround counts! mages love them...trust me, would I lie?

now for just killing them, drones, with the 4a rules killing drones with magic is a pain, or at least more so then before. But I guess it depends on the fun factor, I mean for those of use that like old 80's sci-fi I would say a P4? the police ground drone, load it with explosives and when they pile into the team van (if they have one) launch and drive it under., then BOOM! For more drone fun, I would say, exploding fly spys. you need a good piloting skill granted and programs but have it buzz right up to the back of the head and pop!.

ok so I might of thought of this once...or twice... OH MGL 6 and chem grenades! that also works, nothing says I love you then a modded grenade launcher with burst fire, and 3 or 6 grenades down range loaded with DSMO and narcoject (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Oh in regaurds to Lyn's second post...I like this guy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cyber-Zombies work, too.

Generally, though, I prefer things like the gecko-gripped, external smartgun shot gun at about head level for a dwarf, or high explosive trip wires, or monofilimanet wires at head hight for a dwarf...Shoot at the mage, run for cover to break line of sight...and let the mage be a dumb schmuck to come after your...

Seconded on the cyberzombie. Fomorii cyberzombie would be an ungodly nightmare. Except I prefer cyberspurs + cyber gland + Cutters. To the face.

Failing that, go either a SURGED fomorii with Astral Hazing Technomancer, or an AI. Just use drones to harass crap out of them. Or just choose to remote control their getaway vehicles, and careen them into oncoming traffic at 200km/hr....

- J.

Nuke him from Orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

What if he learns it's coming via divination, uses shape eath/stone to go below the earth, has a custom spell or a high force oxygenate in place and casts radiation shield coming out? He only needs to go, what, three, four km below the surface. Easy! Sorta.

Anything moving after the area is nuked, you leave for another planet.

For a Mage Geeker, I'd build an AI pilot or Dronomancer.

What about that Mossberg fatty (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ? I mean it's clip is only 10, but i don't plan on using that much ammo... If i'm gunna lead hose.. I'M just going to narrow burst a MMG into the chump.


Btw is there some tactical edge that Drones have VS Mages? I've noticed alot of suggestions for those, i'm pretty much anti stay-at-home rigger (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I like being there... shooting stuff or slicing stuff with my own hands.

What book is this Astral Hazing located? What does it do?



I like the idea, but it does seem a bit much...

Runners companion. Astral hazing is a 10 point disadvantage (ho ho ho) that gives you an R4 background count wit a radius of (essence) meters.

Seriously, I'd pay points for that so making it a disadvantage is just hilarious.

Drones are highly technological processed objects. Magic needs to overcome the Object Resistance before they can be directly affected. Nasty.

Any one have experiance with the usefulness of the "Murky link" edge? Seemed questionable to me for most characters but might be of great use to someone pissing of the wizards.

I'd probably end up going Drone Technomancer with magic resistance, have him claim he is the new type of wizard and all other are inferior! (Actually I'll be playing this guy soon with luck... less the superiority complex/ killing mages), I don't think I'd take astral Hazing... feels like... well too good for one reason. Its a flaw? Ew. Seriously ew.

It's suggested that the GM may elect to select your disadvantages, so you should never plan on having Astral Hazing - you might end up with a Cephalopoidal Skull instead. It seems like a dickish move on the part of the GM, but no more so than taking Astral Hazing on a non-Awakened character is a dickish move for a player.