Mageslayer Adept, What amount of Spell Resistance Options

[IKerensky]

Hello,

I am preparing a Mageslayer Adept as a PC. I am wondering if it is necesseray to buy both Magic Resistance Quality and Magic Resistance Power.

The Pros : 10 Dice added of Magic Resistance.

The Cons : cost BP and Power Points.
May be Overkill.


Also is taking specific resistance power interesting : like Veil and Heat tolerance, Pain resistance, Increased perception ?

I supposed other peoples have already wandered thoses waters, so what is your findings ?


To fluff out a bit the character :

Mageslayer Adept, hard to track in astral and magically resistant (Murky link), he have a hard time managing technology (Gremlins 4, Sensitive system), but he is sneaky and quiet. Abnormaly fast he has tremedous hand to hand capability and is a nasty surprise for a mage or his bodyguard as he surge from the shadows to hit and kill before disappearing, nearly impervious to tracking magic or assault spells...

[CeeJay]

Magic Resistance quality is right out, since awakened characters can't get it.

But you could go the mystic adept route, allcotate one power point to magic use and buy the counterspelling skill. That would give you another couple of dice for spell resistance that you can use to protect your fellows too.

Another option is being a changeling with arcane arrester.

-CJ

[IKerensky]

Oups, I should have know something was fishy with the quality.

I dont really like the idea of having him use spell, but the changeling approach sound logical and could be interesting,making him a brand new meta-variant.

[Nixda]

You do not need to let him use spells if you don't want to - don't give him the Spellcasting skill and take the aspected magician negative quality.

You could start with counterspelling 6 (Combat Spells+2) and a mentor spirit that gives another +2 to counterspelling (Mountain or Adversary).
And if you really want, you could probably get him a shielding focus later. So you do not necessarily need to spend many qualities on it if you don't want to.

[CeeJay]

You do not need to let him use spells if you don't want to - don't give him the Spellcasting skill and take the aspected magician negative quality.

You could start with counterspelling 6 (Combat Spells+2) and a mentor spirit that gives another +2 to counterspelling (Mountain or Adversary).
And if you really want, you could probably get him a shielding focus later. So you do not necessarily need to spend many qualities on it if you don't want to.

That's what I meant. Just buy Counterspelling and maybe banishing and don't bother with spellcasting or summoning.

-CJ

[Achsin]

Don't forget to pick up the shielding and reflecting metamagics later on, if you go that route

[dirkformica]

If you did go the Mystic Adept route, there's nothing specifically saying you have to allocate points to spellcasting to use Counterspelling.

If you have Runner's Companion, the metagenic quality Arcane Arrester could be nice. Either Surge III or take the metavarient race Fomoroi.

Arcane Arrester
Cost: 25 BP
When affected by a spell (including a critter’s Innate Spells),
the character—and she alone—treats Force-based effects (damage,
paralysis, etc.) at half (round down) actual strength. Note that the
actual Force of the spell is not actually reduced. For instance, a
character with Arcane Arrester targeted by a Force 5 spell would
resist it as if it were a Force 2 spell, though the spellcaster could
still add hits to improve the effect. Arcane Arrester cannot be
combined with Magic Resistance (p. 79, SR4). This quality can
be taken by characters with a Magic attribute.

If you were to change the concept into a mundane with a ton of cyber/bioware, another quality from Runner's Companion could also be quite devastating as a mage slayer(and LOL it's a Negative quality):

Astral hazing
Bonus: 10 BP (for non-Awakened characters),
15 BP (for Awakened characters)
A character with this quality has expressed metagenes that
somehow catalyse and feed on the character’s darker emotions and
negative feelings, disturbing the character’s aura and any ambient
mana in her vicinity. For reasons not yet understood, the character
becomes an aspected domain in her own right and taints astral
space around her wherever she goes; a generator of tainted astral
background count (similar to a cyberzombie).
This astral haze afects all attempts to cast magic on, at, or in
the vicinity of the character. Whatever the ambient mana condi-
tions are, the character always stands at the heart of a Rating 4
background count (see p. 117, Street Magic) that extends a num-
ber of meters from her body equal to her Essence; this background
count also impairs her own actions if the character is Awakened. If
she remains in one place for long, the background count expands
by one meter in every direction every two or three hours (at the
gamemaster’s discretion).

Hell, you could be a chromed up Fomori with Astral Hazing and an essence of 1 and really go to town on mages. Of course, that concept is quite counter to your fluff ideas.

[Banaticus]

No, he could be a chromed up Fomori with 1 essence, a toxic personal background count that follows him around and cuts the Force of all spells in half (and also reduces mage's casting dicepool when they're near him) who wears a ruthenium polymer suit and has a high infiltration skill. With all that troll buffing that Fomori have, he'd sure be one mean unarmed combat guy as well.

[toturi]

No, he could be a chromed up Fomori with 1 essence, a toxic personal background count that follows him around and cuts the Force of all spells in half (and also reduces mage's casting dicepool when they're near him) who wears a ruthenium polymer suit and has a high infiltration skill. With all that troll buffing that Fomori have, he'd sure be one mean unarmed combat guy as well.

The background count isn't toxic per se.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

The background count isn't toxic per se.

Though it is definitely annoying...

Keep the faith

[Udoshi]

Hello,

I am preparing a Mageslayer Adept as a PC.

Go mystic adept, buy counterspelling as high as it'll go, and specialize it when you have 2 karma free. You won't be dissappointed, and it cheaper than quality mucking.

(For Spell Defense, you add your Counterspelling to the defense pool, which means it can be very effective with only a magic of 1 - Magic isn't added, just Counterspelling)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Go mystic adept, buy counterspelling as high as it'll go, and specialize it when you have 2 karma free. You won't be dissappointed, and it cheaper than quality mucking.

(For Spell Defense, you add your Counterspelling to the defense pool, which means it can be very effective with only a magic of 1 - Magic isn't added, just Counterspelling)

But for added goodness... having Spell resistance (Adept Quality) as well as Counterspelling, is a very good combination indeed...

Keep the Faith

[Combat Mage]

The Question is, how much resist dice do you really need?
If you've got decent body and willpower attributes + a good counterspelling skill, that should probably be enough for most sitations and the adept power points could be better used on stuff that actually takes the mage out faster. The mage being dead or uncouncious is the best anti-magic after all (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Of course if your goal is to hunt initiated combat mage veterans, you might wanna take both.

Greetings,
Combat Mage

This post has been edited by Combat Mage: May 29 2010, 09:59 PM

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

The Question is, how much resist dice do you really need?
If you've got decent body and willpower attributes + a good counterspelling skill, that should probably be enough for most sitations and the adept power points could be better used on stuff that actually takes the mage out faster. The mage being dead or uncouncious is the best anti-magic after all (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Of course if your goal is to hunt initiated combat mage veterans, you might wanna take both.

Greetings,
Combat Mage

Indeed...

And Welcome to the Forums Combat Mage...

Keep the Faith

[Whipstitch]

This sort of character was actually my first sr4 build, although he wasn't a hand-to-hand guy, since, uh, well, in SR4 people have guns. Including a lot of the magicians. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Anyway, I'd say whether the magic resistance power is worth getting or not depends on whether you're going to get any bioware (I see that you already took sensitive system, which is kind of a shame, but I digress...). Again, you don't really need a high magic attribute if you don't intend to use your magic to dispel, so getting a point or two worth of 'ware isn't necessarily a bad idea since 'ware is generally better at producing a well-rounded character than magic is. In that case, getting Magic Resistance and Combat Sense both at 3 or something may not be such an awful idea, since with the right 'ware you can still be a cut above all but Street Samurai and dedicated combat adepts anyway.

But if you go the pure adept route, I'd probably recommend staying away, since generally speaking, as a pure adept you'll really want to leverage that high magic attribute and either take powers at a high rating or take powers that actually use the Magic rating in rolls. And while yes, you could possibly take Magic Resistance at a 5 or something, that'd be overkill since as a pure adept you'll really need to spend power points on meat and potato abilities as well, particularly if you're really stuck on the idea of being good in hand to hand, in which case I guess you're probably forced to dump points into critical strike. Anyway, big powers to look at if you stick with full essence would be Combat Sense (always worth considering), Magic Sense (Highly optional, but good and cheap at magic 4+ and really fits the character's flavor), Agility/Reaction Boost and Heightened Concentration.

[Makki]

make a Gnome, rather than the Fomori or changeling for the extra Willpower. also some naive mages won't powerball little children in the first place

[Glyph]

Anyway, I'd say whether the magic resistance power is worth getting or not depends on whether you're going to get any bioware (I see that you already took sensitive system, which is kind of a shame, but I digress...).

Actually, sensitive system only affects cyberware, not bioware.

[Whipstitch]

I know, that's why I said bioware. Normally I'd just say 'ware. I cram 'ware into bloody everything.

[Tomothy]

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this but you could take astral hazing.

[Glyph]

Astral hazing is great for mundane characters (although it has its drawbacks), but for a mystic adept, he would be buying up a 5 or 6 Magic and only have an effective Magic of 1 or 2. That would be fine if you only wanted a one-trick pony who did nothing but spell defense (since passive counterspelling doesn't use the Magic attribute, only the skill). For any other type of character, though, it would be a waste.

[wowbragger]

Just had to hop in, been reading the forums for a while but this is the first thread I wanted to toss in a comment at.

I'm really new to the game and all the concepts myself, and really like the idea of this sort of character. Gonna try something like this myself now as my next char, looking forward too it. Any other input along the subject would be appreciated since I'm only just starting to really delve into the magic aspect of the game as a whole and aside from reading through all the books (done with core, RC, Augmentation, and onto Arsenal) this forums has been an incredible source for ideas.

Along the same lines, aside from searching about through threads here (and my own imagination) does anyone know a good resource for character concepts?