Mages and running out of BP and dying, Mages and running out of BP and dying Options

[Eleazar]

There are a few good things to know when building a magician.

1. Don't spend BP in magical skills you will never use, this also means don't purchase the skill group. For me these tend to be:
banishing(just use stunbolt)
binding(magicians usually don't have a high CHA)
ritual spellcasting(WORTHLESS, unless you have a group of mages and the metamagic for it),
2. Always max out on spells. Get your spellcasting to 6 at chargen and get your 12 spells. It is cheaper this way.
3. Stunbolt and Stunball are all you really need for offensive spells. It is nice to have the option to stun instead of kill anyways. If you end up needing to kill them, just stab/shoot them.
4. Get mentor spirits that complement what you are trying to do. The Raven is great. with +2 air/+2 manip spells. Air spirits one of the best types of spirits you can summon.
5. Be cunning and resourceful with your spells. With a list of 12 spells you should be able to get yourself out of a lot of bad situations and find solutions to those impossible missions the team might come across.
6. Dwarves make the best magicians
7. Some other spells you could look into:
influence and alter memory
turn to goo
deflection (I prefer over armor)
physical barrier
control actions
Also keep in mind your mentor spirit when choosing spells. Since I have the Raven for my current build I have a higher amount of manipulation spells to cash in on the +2 dice bonus.
8. Get the assensing and always remember to clear your own astral signatures
9. Summon a powerful spirit at the beginning of play to create high force wards for you. As long as the spirit isn't disrupted from the ward creation process you need not worry.
10. It helps to have a high edge as a caster. I have mine at 5 on my current build. It helps ensure you can summon that high force spirit or do a lot of damage with stunbolt.
11. Instead of a sustaining focus I would go with a Power Focus 2 at chargen, they are cheaper at chargen. They can also be used to offset the -2 penalty when casting, though this won't help on all rolls. It would be far better to buy a sustaining focus later in the game, don't worry you will get plenty.
12. Psyche is amazing for magicians. You not only get just a -1 penalty for sustaining but a +1 to Logic(drain stat). The side-effects aren't so bad compared to the other drugs. Since your a dwarf you should have a high body and willpower for those addiction tests.
13. Get money by using turn to goo on corpses with cyberware. If your GM won't allow this then give the corpses to Tamanous, the Body Mall, or ghouls. If you have mind probe, influence, and alter memory at your disposal you can scam a lot of people and get things for free.
14. If at all possible it pay to have a good infiltration skill and agility attribute. This isn't something I can say I have with my current mage. I just ran out of BP to allocate. If you are starting out with higher than normal BP, it would be a good place to allocate some.

These are all from the completely mechanical side. Of course you have to create a believable mage during chargen. You may find not all of these tips fit in to who you want your mage to be.

[RMR]

I always buy the 8/6 armor. and I like having lots of utility spells So from what I gathered from the responses is that i can cut back on my attributes a little to get some points back. I like having 1 sustaining focus right off the bat too. I'll think on it more.

[stevebugge]

Might just cut one of your spells altogether too, you can always learn more spells with earned Karma

[Buster]

I'm with Eleazar, max out Spellcasting and buy the max number of spells at chargen. They are much more expensive after the game starts. This way you start off with a wide range of options, including as E said, ways to solve otherwise impossible problems. Personally, I over-max my spellcasting with Aptitude and buy 14 spells at chargen. I need every one of them (and wish I could buy more).

[toturi]

[Buster]

[Eleazar]

[Glyph]

I don't find banishing, binding, and ritual sorcery worthless, per se. They are good to pick up later in the game. But magicians have a lot of skills and options open to them, so to be effective in a certain role, you need to pare your character down to the essentials, and maximize your effectiveness in those areas. This is not to say that generalists can't be fun, but for this particular situation (characters dying in combat a lot), min-maxing seems to be the way to go.


Two things I neglected in my general advice earlier.

One, line of sight can be a pain, but it can also work in your favor. Tinted one-way glass (the standard for most vehicles), mage goggles, and endoscopes can let you target enemies who won't even know where the attack is coming from.

Two, if you are getting hammered in firefights, you might consider summoning a spirit ahead of time, and letting it do your fighting for you.

[Buster]

I agree, summon your unbound spirit first thing in the morning right after you brush your teeth and again in the evening right after sunset. It should be part of your daily routine as an Awakened criminal in 2070. That way you can First Aid any drain while you have plenty of time. You don't have to have the spirit follow you around everywhere, so you can dismiss him back to his favorite metaplane to be called back with a Simple action as soon as you need him.