E. Longshanks - character gen, The mystic adept w/ the heart of gold Options

[masterofm]

Possession tradition mystic adept.... kinda like a street sam kinda not like one. Let me start off by saying our group has been playing shadowrun for quite a while, and since we wanted to be able to replace or kill off characters.... well needless to say after my main character became an NPC I have had to switch to my alternate character and I guess make another alternate character. The rules is 400 bp + 100k + 50 karma. Now I have yet to invest my karma into the character, but since the alternate characters are supposed to rake in half the karma the main character has gotten... well it is actually a little bit more then 50 all told. Anyways here he is.

E. Longshanks - troll

Body- 9
Agi- 2
Reaction- 2
Str- 5
Chr- 1
Intuition- 3
Log- 5 (8 )
Will- 5
Edge- 2
Magic- 6 (5)

Qualities- Mystic Adept, Focus addiction, Addiction moderate, Allergy unc/mild silver, Gremlins 2

__Skills__
Skill group Conjuring -4

Dodge - 3
Exotic Melee Weapon - 2
Assensing - 2
Spellcasting - 5
Counterspelling - 5

Spells
Decrease Reflexes
Alleviate Adiction
Increase Agility
Decrease Will
Mass Animate
Increase Reflexes

Powers
Attribute boost agility r4

Cyber/bio
Skillwires r2
Platelet Factories
Cerebral Booster r3

Monofilament wip weapon focus r1
Helmet & full body armor
Ballistic Shield
Comlink : Meta Link
Tarp
1 month Squatter lifestyle

I'm thinking of taking that 50 extra karma initiating once and upping my magic by one for 36 karma and taking channeling and then am pondering on what to do with my extra 14 karma left over. Buying up my Charisma by one maybe and maybe up my edge by one more? Maybe then just save until I can initiate once and buy up my magic again? Later if I get enough money I will try to get a trauma dampener..... then again I should probably get it instead since our downtime is always suck.

[Muspellsheimr]

Powers
Improved ability summoning r2
Improved ability spellcasting r2
Attribute boost logic r2

Improved Ability cannot be taken for Magical skills.
Attribute Boost & Improved Attribute cannot be taken for Mental or Special attributes.

[crizh]

Seriously?

You can't name a character with a heart of gold after Edward the First. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif)

[Ryu]

I assume the 50 karma will be spend on several attribute ranks.

The Conjuration group does not gain you much; you can make do with summoning alone. I´d lower Logic to 4(7), 25 BP for skills. Do the same with magic and you can start with Agility 4 instead of Attribute Boost Agility. Then you could be a full mage with little other changes, gaining access to a mentor spirit and getting astral perception for free.

You are aware that a possessed entity uses the mental attributes and IPs of the spirit? Or with channeling, the lower mental attribute?

Also, consider that the Decrease XXX spells are Range:Touch spells. That severely limits their utility.

[masterofm]

The plan was to make this character overcast most of his spells, and summoning. I wanted to have him be a kind of risky character to play, since I think I would derive more fun out of it. I mean I could be a little more cheese with the character, and I could probably take out decrease willpower, but I was kind of thinking of using it if we are able to reduce the effectiveness of a mage if captured and interrogated since all the other mages use either stunball or stunbolt. I could just drop reaction to one and then buy it up with karma since it would be cheaper considering I will be starting out with 50 and increase agility a bit higher, but I'm thinking that is a bit lame and I don't really want to push the envelope.... I guess I could.... hum....

@ crizh - I think you missed the fact that the character has a charisma of one. Thus the joke.

[Ryu]

I think you will find yourself possessed most of the time, so Intitiate degree 1 (Channeling) is a top priority. Voodoo would make a good tradition, as it offers Guardian, Sage, and Task spirits. Skillwires? Who wants to use those?!?

The risk part is pretty much eleminated from the game if you consider your extreme body (13+ in possessed state). A force 5 guardian spirit brings you no risk of drain, but Body 14/Agility 7/Reaction 7/Strength 10, and Automatics 5, Dodge 5, Counterspelling 5, plus the movement and fear powers. Hell, with a decent summoning skill you could "risk" a force 7 spirit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[masterofm]

I was not thinking of going voodoo for two reasons. The first reason is it is just waaay to good, and the second more important reason is my GM knows that they are broken and would kill me if I even considered bringing it to the table. I was thinking spirit of man with possession would be enough to get me by. Note the fact that I didn't load up the character with spells like mass dominate, mana static, and a few more cheese centered spells. Having a character possessed and rocking that much hurt as a combat crazy mystic mage is good enough for me. I could take this character so much further... but I won't.

[krakjen]

I don't have my books at hand to look it up, but I thought you couldn't make a weapon focus with a monofilament whip...

For what I remember from some old discussion, there was two reasons:
- First of all, a monowhip is a high-tech weapons and as everyone knows, technology and magic doesn't mix very well.
- And secondly, the monowhip is, basically, some kind of very thin wire (almost monomolecular), which enable it to cut through your everyday door/wall/ganger...
But adding orichalcum in it to make it a focus (if even possible) would certainly fuck up its properties.

[masterofm]

What if you added it to the hilt of the wip and it translated it's properties to the rest of the wip? Wire is not really "high tech" what is high tech I will admit is making the wip, but you still have to hold it in your hand so it isn't completely made of nothing.

[hyzmarca]

I would think the biggest deterrent to using a monowhip weapon focus would be the GM making you roll to see which one of your body parts is severed when you glitch with the thing.

You know, there is no way you can play this character without a great many Braveheart and primae noctis jokes.

[Glyph]

If your weapon focus requires fuel or power (monofilament chainsaw, vibroblade, laser crescent axe) does it work when you're astrally projecting?

Yes, but since the technological aspect of the weapon (moving parts, monofilament, laser blade, etc.) doesn't apply in the astral, the weapon should be treated as its nearest basic equivalent (a chainsaw would simply be a club, a laser crescent axe would just be an axe, and so on).

Considering that they are talking about things like chainsaws and laser axes as valid weapon foci, I don't think a monofilament whip weapon focus would present any problems whatsoever. It is a perfectly valid choice as a weapon focus. Hyzmarca is right about glitches presenting a problem, although it certainly fits the "risky character" theme that you wanted.


Minor nitpick: your Logic is over the modified limit, unless you pick up the Exceptional Attribute quality with your post-char-gen Karma.

[Muspellsheimr]

There are no restrictions to making a Monowhip a weapon foci in 4th. The only restriction is that ranged weapons cannot be weapon foci. Orichalcum is not required for foci - it just makes the enchanting easier.

[masterofm]

Yeah getting hit with his own wip would suck... but then again he would have a body of 14+ and even with half impact armor (not including the shield) it wouldn't be too painful. Would probably sting like the dickens, but with high body and armor stats I figure he would probably keep on trucking. I have been playing some cut and dry very good characters, but I did a switch up with this character because I thought adding flavor (while still being fairly badass) would make my RPGing experience all the more interesting. I almost want to give him berserk to kind of have him have a "caster form" and a "war form."

At the same time I like that he is pretty tanky so can take quite a few hits and probably spend an IP just charging up before he can bring on the pain.