What do your magicians spend their karma on? Options

[emo samurai]

There are, like, 50 different ways to spend your karma if you're a mage. What do your mages spend most of their karma on? And could you please explain your power-leveling strategies?

[Konsaki]

Increasing magic and initiating should be the same item, just because they go hand in hand.

[Magus]

[mfb]

you forgot one of the most important: increasing magical skills.

[emo samurai]

Oh god, it should have been "Augmenting skills." Dammit.

[mfb]

YOU HAVE RUINED CHRISTMAS

[toturi]

[emo samurai]

Bah, Christmas is a backwards, insular, pro-religious holiday that was derived from an even more backwards, insular, pro-religious holiday! :D

[OneTrikPony]

If I ever play an SR4 mage I will spend my karma on bonding spirits followed by warding places, followed by bonding spirit and power foci, followed by learning spells, followed by initiation for masking, followed by raising my magic atribute, then I'll raise my conjuring skill to 7. Because that's the order things will happen in the game. If I have any karma left over after that I'll augment my spells... somehow (is augmenting spells in SM?) :D

[Thanee]

All of the above. ;)

Initially, raising Magic seems like a good plan (considering, that it is used for mostly everything), then getting better Skills/Attributes (not just for magic; to cover one's bases) and some more Spells (more spells = more fun). Initiating will be done, when Metamagic is needed for some reason mostly, not so much to raise Magic even further, because it's so expensive.

Bye
Thanee

[ElFenrir]

All of the above, for me too. :grinbig:

Depends what type of character im playing, too.

My mad-scientist alchemist pretty much only needs to alternate upping some magical skills with initation and alchemy/enchanting, foci bonding, etc.

My Wolf shaman is much more adept magically and physically, so his karma is spread evenly, making him a giant sink.

Combat Mages can be giant sinks, as well.

[emo samurai]

Could a mod please change "Augmenting spells" to "Augmenting skills?"

[Kasheu]

heh you forgot "staying alive"and "looking pretty" ;) the mage in my group has spent quite a bit to either live or keep from taking any damage to avoid modifiers

[Sren]

I've found that spending karma on the more fun things like initiating w/o magic increase for more metamagics, buy up all magical skills, buying new spells and increasing non-magical aspects of the character (being able to pilot a vehicle, use a weapon and having a high body attribute are all good for a mage) isn't anywhere near as effective as simply trying to increase your die pools. There really does seem to be an imperative in this version to power-game, and pump magic attribute, spellcasting skill and bonding power foci as the only effective things to do with for mages.

If opponents can counterspell or use spirits (who have all attributes and skills equal to force) then you're fighting opponents with high die pools, and you need to do better than them.

In the high-karma game I'm running, the players have all maxed out die pools for their primary skill(s) and summon spirits with as high a force as they can withstand the drain from. With a little planning, the group can get a couple force 8 spirits, who can do anything better than any of the players (attribute and skill rating of 8 for combat skills makes force 8 spirits the best possible combatants).

So a plan for power leveling needs to focus on magic attribute, willpower and a high-force power foci, then work on sorcery and conjuring skills, then initiation to make a higher magic attribute available for purchase. Unfortunately, there isn't as much variation for similar concepts anymore, a spellcaster needs the highest possible die pol to compete with magical opponents who will generally have similar or better die pools (hopefully the GM doesn't left opponents use edge too much).

[De Badd Ass]

[emo samurai]

I thought ally spirits only help with spellcasting. And you could always use a spirit of man with Innate Spell instead of an ally.

[De Badd Ass]

[emo samurai]

I thought spirits only helped with sorcery. I take that to mean only spellcasting and counterspelling. Then again, sorcery is a huge term.

[Zak]

[De Badd Ass]

[Mortax]

I have yet to play 4th edition, so keep this in mind. :-)


I spent most of my karma on initiating and spells. I devided it up more equally with longer term characters. (Mortax was a high grade initiate with some level stupid spells, though that happen's with vampire mages.)

Pyre Dancer and Angelise were my 2 longest running mages after Mortax. (Phonix shamen and Cat shamen respectively) They were evenly split between initiating and spells. they both got up to about grade 3 I think. They had a lot of differnt spells, mostly illusion and manipulation spells. I like to be versitile. :-)