I guess I'm a munch?, Trying to make a missions character Options

[kingenemy]

Alright - I've been told over and over that I've made a terribly min-maxy character for sr3 - though I didn't see it. The charm of SR's earlier editions is in no small part found in one's ability to create a really top-notch superspy right out of the box. Now I only played in Missions so my respectably good character was hugely overkill. (He was a version of the Elf-Hitman, Skillwired up so that he basically got 10 dice in every skill - he was hugely playable in the roleplaying way - the superbland guy who just happens to be great at everything who has to constantly wonder about the validity and ethics of his actions - but again, Missions doesn't really allow for roleplaying, at least not in a nuanced long-build kinda way.)

But I'm told that my character is terrible and I'm terrible for making him. So I'm looking at SR4 and I see they've done away with a lot of the front loading of characters which is mechanically superior - right you have a place to go at least - but I can't tell if you're meant to make a guy who's adequate at three or four things - or one who's great at only one thing. I'm playing around. Physad-magicians are pretty good because stat-buffing magic is the best magic you'll ever cast once (maybe look into that - far better than cyber and better than physad powers because it goes to all the attributes and isn't limited - maybe erratta should cover it?) So that's first attempt - Lots of kinesics to make a face + a pile of utility spells and conjuring - so Face/Magical Support guy - this build gets me about 20 dice in 2 or 3 things.

The other way to go is physad-magician melee fighter. The stat-buffing is still a great (if potentially broken) option + you get killing hands and critical strike - so with a magicked up str and say 2.5 magic worth of critical strike you can punch a whole lot harder than a panther cannon hits. This is a fun way to go, but a little one trick pony for me - you get the death touch-ninja man and that's sort of all - what to do when there's no-one to fight/kill?

I thought of a hacker/rigger but right - why bother till the rules are actually written.

Finally I ended up with a variation of the first two characters - who's o.k. at chatting, o.k. at fighting and o.k. at magic and pretty good at summoning. Magic characters are the easiest to make and the mentor spirit writes a lot of personality right into the guy in the first place so there's that little crutch.

My question is - are these bad characters? the SR missions are rediculously simple. A single well built character can dismantle all of them - at least the SR3 ones - but maybe that's what everyone's on about. I don't get it - advise me!