How does my Tomb Raider mage look? Options

[Knight Saber]

The negative qualities were picked up from all the previous bad behavior in exploiting the magical world for profit. Getting the globetrotting and running around skills were tricky... I think Infiltration needs to be in there. Could break up Athletics Group, but those are all things one will do in the jungle/desert/rainforest/what-have-you. Need to finish up the gear too, a Smartgun pistol and some of the camoflague armor. Not 100% sure on the spells yet, and the contacts and knowledge skills need to be finished.

Former Wage Mage Archaeologist/tomb raider

400 BP

Race: Human

Body 3
Agility 4
Reaction 3
Strength 2
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 5
Will 4

Edge 2
Essence 6
Magic 5

240

Qualities
Magician 15
Cursed 1 -5
Spirit Bane (beasts) -10

116
24 Spellcasting 6
16 Summoning 4
8 Assensing 2
8 Binding 2
12 Counterspelling 3
6 Perception (Visual) 1 (3)
6 Dodge (ranged) 1 (3)
20 Athletic Group 2
4 Survival 1
6 Negotiate (Bargaining) 1 (3)
6 Pistols (Automatics) 1 (3)

27 Knowledge points
English (N)
Japanese 3
Sperethiel 2
Chinese 2

Magic Background 5
Forth World History 2
Corp. Politics 3
Fetish Clubs 2
Fine Wines 2
Magical Security 3
Parazoology 3

Spells: 24 BP
Heal
Physical Barrier
Stunball
Lightning Bolt
Translate
Extended Spatial Sense
Levitate
Mind Probe

387


Contacts 8 BP
Mr. Johnson 3/1
Talismonger 2/2

Focus Bonding 2 BP

Resources 10 BP 50000
Spellcasting focus 2 30K
Lounge Force 5 2500

Form-Fitting Body Armor Shirt 3/0 500
Victory Globetrotter Camo Jumpsuit 750

Glasses 4 with low-light, Smartgun, Flare Comp., Image Link 775
Ceramic Knife 75
Novatech Airwave w/Mangadyne Deva OS 2050

PocketMage Library (1) 600
Fake SIN (4) 4000
Fake Magic License (4) 400
Fake Spellcating Focus License (4) 400
Optical Binoculars 100
Endoscope 250
Stim Patch (6) x4 600
Micro-Flare launcher 50
3x Micro Flare 75
Low-light flashlight 25
Survival kit 100

Middle Lifestyle 1 month 5000

[Matsci]

Needs In Debt-25, and drop cursed.

[ICPiK]

Love the idea of the character! If your gonna go with just a pistol maybe a Ruger Super Thunderbolt with some APDS?

[Meatbag]

Love the idea of the character! If your gonna go with just a pistol maybe a Ruger Super Thunderbolt with some APDS?

Do you mean the Ruger Super Warhawk, which is a hand cannon, or the Ruger Thunderbolt, which is a burst-fire autoloader? Either would work, of course.

But APDS is Availability 16F, placing it out of reach at Chargen (Restricted Gear on ammo is really a waste).

[Machiavelli]

I play a similar character and I would propose to add possibly the following things:

- quality: college degree (+1 on academic skills), linguist (for ancient languages)
- skills: archeology (i couldn´t find it, would fit, eh?)^^, anthropology, etc. etc.
- drop skill: dodge (also possible with gymnastics skill and you already have the athletics group)
- languages: everything ancient. At least latin, hebrew...choose some. Your guy has nothing from this.

[Screaming Eagle]

I'd drop one of the combat spells and either get another utility spell (an anti-venom spell, armor) or an illusions spell (Bugs, Mask, Hot Potato). I would also tend to take Banishing before taking Binding, heck on most characters I'd take banishing over summoning, but thats just me, I'm a chicken.

[Knight Saber]

I was thinking the Ares Slivergun might be the pistol to go with, theme-wise... silenced, big capacity and deadly when shooting at unarmored targets... Such as animals or aggressive plants. The Predator IV was also on the list, or the Colt Government (reliable, free recoil compensation).

Vis a vis banishing vs. binding, a combat spell can do the job just as well, and binding would be handy for spell learning later on.

One thing I'm torn on is Strength and Charisma. I could switch to Str 3 and be better at many physical skills, but the social level is already pretty low, and Cha is strength on the astral plane.

I could drop Dodge for specialized Infiltrate given Gymnastics, but if I understand correctly, you can't double your skill when doing a full defense with Gymnastics... Having a 9 point dodge pool would be handy when fleeing angry natives throwing spears at you.

The Knowledge skills were pasted over from a previous character, so they'll be updated with archaeology and other relevant skills, plus ancient languages.

With one offensive spell, it seems like Power Bolt would be the way to go... good on spirits, people and machines. I was thinking about Armor, but wouldn't Improved Reflexes work better?

[Muspellsheimr]

I would also tend to take Banishing before taking Binding, heck on most characters I'd take banishing over summoning, but thats just me, I'm a chicken.

Banishing, as written, is basically crap. Stunbolt is almost always both superior and more versatile, while costing significantly less resources.

With one offensive spell, it seems like Power Bolt would be the way to go... good on spirits, people and machines. I was thinking about Armor, but wouldn't Improved Reflexes work better?

Powerbolt will not work on spirits unless they are Materialized. If you do not think you will ever have to worry about Astral enemies, it should be fine. Otherwise, not so much.

I would suggest Powerbolt & Stunbolt - together, they cover killing, subduing, objects, & astral.

These two spells are always on my list, & unless I am playing a combat mage, the only Combat spells on the list [exception being my pyromancer - which is a theme thing]. Even on a combat mage, I would only take these, Powerball, & one Indirect spell for offense.


In other words, separately, these two spells are very good. Together, they are easily among the best spells in the game.

[Screaming Eagle]

Depends on how you visualise the situations you'll find yourself in. Reflexes is typically better in combat and panic situations but armor helps with threats you are unaware of, those pesky traps damage, fire, rocks, tiny poison darts... quietly maifesting Guardian Spirits which are directly behind you. Frankly its a matter of taste. I would have gone bonkers on detection magics myself with only a token spell or two elsewhere.

[crash2029]

My 0.02 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif)

-Bring the spellcasting down to 5 or even 4, one extra die is not worth that many points
-Get a sustaining focus with combat sense and drop dodge
-Having a bound spirit with the guard power could be very useful
-If you can swing it how about exotic weapon (monowhip), it's useful at low strength and very Indy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
-Social skills...useful for talking headhunters out of making your cabeza into a curio, useful for talking tribal leaders into letting you plunder their ancestral tombs
-Hardware, because jungles, deserts, and tundras are murder on sensitive electronics
-Edge: sheer drops, deadly traps, ancient construction, exotic diseases, not-so-friendly locals, need I say more?

[Psikerlord]

I think he's looking pretty sweet, although I agree with Crash dropping spellcasting 6 to 5, and picking up a few extra spells instead... maybe combat sense, increased reflexes... And as a personal thing, I would swap out physical barrier for one of the elemental wall spells.... lightning wall? smoke wall? they just look cooler! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)