A tough team choice! Options

[Kyleigh Wester]

Well, after I saw a post claiming mages were more important to a run then deckers, I went about talking to my friends. I started a little poll asking, if it came down to it, would you rather have a decker or a mage in your team? Imagine you're hired for a run but you can only have so many people in your team. You got one slot left, and you can choose between a mage or a decker? Two completely differant worlds of running but both almost required to an extent.

I really want to know what dumpshock members think of this. I had trouble getting a straight answer from most of my Shadowrun team and really want to see what the answers stack up to.

[Kyoto Kid]

...SRIII & before: I would take the Decker, for without one, the Matrix is pretty much useless. A Rigger could also be a decent backup decker, but to really crack the tough nodes, you need a specialist. Though not as instant as healing spells, someone with a decent Biotech (First Aid) skill, a well stocked Medikit and an autodoc drone can get a team by in the case of injury. Just make sure everyone has a decent willpower to fend off spells and the Sammy is an expert at some form of Melee attack (or the adept has killing hands or a WF) if a spirit shows up.

...SRIV, as much as I hate to admit it, the mage is more important here. Almost anyone (even the mage) can beef up his or her commlink and buy the essential programmes and skill to crack the matrix. Since most matrix tests are extended, having that huge DP is not all that necessary. Also, Attribute has no bearing the cracking pool (*sigh* :S) so a high Logic is not as important as good utility programmes. Spells in SR4 are tougher against mundanes & based on the many discussions I have read magic almost always seems to trump just about everything else in the game.

[Kagetenshi]

Deckermage! Riggerdeckermage, even better. Of course, if you can find a Riggerdeckermageface floating around…

~J

[Kyoto Kid]

...only if I can use the optional Powerful Character Generation rules in MrJ'sLBB :grinbig:

[Daddy's Litt...]

It depends on the run and the opposition.

[Wounded Ronin]

Mage. Decker is honestly pretty limited utility. Mage is essential, however, since if you don't have your mage the whole team is easy to magic to death. The mage is a much bigger gap in your game plan than the decker.

[warrior_allanon]

i have to agree with DLN and add that it also depends on the makeup of the rest of the team. for instance, the group that i ran with in DFW we had 2 phys ads, 1 Street sams and a electronics expert/face and occaisionally we had a mage, but usual aspects of the missions magic side we could use the phy adepts with a major weapon focus, (Thank you force 5 Broadsword) and the electronics side, we all had fairly decent vehicle and weapons skills and the electronic tech handled the data recovery by pulling the hard drives or installing a tap link and then having an exterior NPC decker do the recovery. honestly theres ways around both

for SR4, i would say take the mage, anyone can hack now

[Glyph]

Without knowing either the composition of the rest of the team or their mission, there really isn't enough information to make an informed choice. I would agree with the consensus that the mage would be better 9 times out of 10 in SR4.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Much as I, the pentultimate deck-wanker, hate to admit it...

9 for 10 in ordinary situations, the mage. Of course...

Just get a mage who's Initiated once and has the extra Magic die that can safely allow Essense to be reduced. Bam, a Deckermage. He can spend his cash upgrades on his commlink, and his karma for his magery, once he's gotten his hacking DP up nice and pretty.

[Gelare]

I've always loved mages, always played with 'em whenever I got the chance, regardless of what game I was playing, but in a game like Shadowrun where there's so much cool potential in the Matrix, it's a pity that deckers aren't, y'know...better. Or rather, mages should probably be nerfed a little, but alas. Unless you're doing a datasteal run, the mage is the correct choice.

[Kyoto Kid]

...I love mages too, usually when they were in the sights of my Walther 2100

--Jill :ic:

[Critias]

Was that supposed to be English?

[Kyoto Kid]

[Cthulhudreams]

[tisoz]

[wargear]

Having not made the jump to 4th ed, this is my 3rd ed view:

For recon, healing, and mobility you cannot beat having a well rounded mage on the team.

On the other hand, having a competant decker on matrix overwatch throughout a run can be a lifesaver.

My recommendation: Take the decker, and cultivate a bear or snake shaman contact at level 2 or above to cover the healing.

[toturi]

3rd ed: Otaku on overwatch, combat decker to do off-line systems, mage for just about everything else.

4th ed: Mystic adept hacker.

[adamu]

Mage - gotta have it.

In SR4, it's ALL those spellcasting dice thrown by the bad-guy mage vs. your Willpower and NOTHING ELSE if you don't have a good counterspeller.

Plus, hacker and his sprites useful against any opposition with tech. More the opfor tech, the more useful.

Mage and spirits useful agains ANYONE, whatever the environment or opfor tech level (okay, there are mana ebbs and all that, but that's picking nits).

[DireRadiant]

In SR4 a mage that can summon Task Spirits will be able to handle the matrix operations. And that's just one way for the Matrix stuff to get covered.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Kyleigh Wester]

Since we've already ruled in the fact fourth edition fux0red up the use of Hackers and made them pointless, hows about we focus on third edition? Hrmmm, I really do like the input, but here's a situation.

You've meet with the Johnson and he's offered you one hell of a pay. Theres only one problem, you have no idea what's going to go down. Only that you must break into an Ares Complex and retrieve.....something. You don't know what it is or how you're supposed to get it. The only help he offers is a map of the complex with a red dot where the object is supposed to be, fourth floor in the center of the complex. Theres a catch though, for some reason you can only take one person, and they have to be one of his own men. A cybered out Combat Decker or a Mage with a long list of spells, most of which force six and specialized in combat. Which do you choose?

If you were stupid enough to take this mission, which would you choose?

[hyzmarca]

The mage, because SR3 spirits can't disable bomb vests. I would, of course, require the character in question to wear a vest loaded with enough explosives to level Rhode Island, set to explode if I am neutralized and which can be exploded manually if I get pissed off enough.

[wargear]

The Decker. Its one of Mr. Johnson's men, who will have an agenda all of his own, and not necessarily one in the best interests of the shadowrunners. The combat decker is limited to the same real world limitations of the rest of the team. A mage would be far too much of a wild card for any sane team to work with.

[Kyoto Kid]

...I agree with Wargear.

[tisoz]