Best initiation metamagic to start with?, Never had to choose before Options

[Knight Saber]

I've recently had a mage character join a magical group and get the chance to initiate (at grade 1). This is the first time it's ever come up for me and I'm wondering what the best metamagic choices are. Hermetic mage with a strong combat focus. Masking seems the most logical to start with... being able to look mundane is useful for a runner mage, though it's not quite as good as earlier editions... it used to be "If you're initiated, anyone not as initiated as you can't see your real aura." Centering is another possibility, though the benefits aren't quite as great at grade 1, and I do have a level 2 power focus when a little extra drain resistance is needed.

Thoughts? Practical advice?

[Sephiroth]

Since when do power foci assist drain resistance? Last I checked, Magic is not an attribute rolled to resist drain.

Ally Conjuration is quite worth it if you can put up with how much of a karma sink it is.

If you have Arcana, as a hermetic you should be fairly competent with Divining. You can see into the future, man.

Invoking is a great thing to use during downtime between runs, although as a hermetic your list of great form power options is rather limited (you do get Quake, though).

Masking is an excellent early choice as well. It is the first step towards being able to use Quickening effectively, which can be very good if used properly.

[pbangarth]

I've always seen Drain as the primary limiter to a mage's power. While the effect of Centering itself grows slowly, it and its big brother Shielding allow for the use of foci which do help Drain Resistance.

The Power Focus, as Sephiroth so diplomatically points out, does not aid resisting Drain, as the Drain Resistance Test does not use the Magic Attribute.

[Summerstorm]

Hm.. first one should be masking, i think. It enables you to scout through wards (in some circumstances) gets the heat of your ass and cloaks you from assensing7recognizing your aura.

After that... there are too many useful ones... depending on your specializations/playing style.

[KarmaInferno]

I wish Quickening didn't suck so much now.

Karma equal to the spell Force is just painful. Especially when it's not all that hard to break a quickening.




-k

[Nifft]

Since when do power foci assist drain resistance? Last I checked, Magic is not an attribute rolled to resist drain.

Maybe he meant Spellcasting focus?
I know that in 4e20a they removed that option for all foci.

Ally Conjuration is quite worth it if you can put up with how much of a karma sink it is.

If you have Arcana, as a hermetic you should be fairly competent with Divining. You can see into the future, man.

Invoking is a great thing to use during downtime between runs, although as a hermetic your list of great form power options is rather limited (you do get Quake, though).

Masking is an excellent early choice as well. It is the first step towards being able to use Quickening effectively, which can be very good if used properly.

Yeah, Masking and Ally are great.
It also depends what kind of campaign you're playing.

- If you find yourself suffering from Drain too often, consider Centering.

- If you find yourself suffering from background count, consider Cleansing.

- If you find yourself subject to investigation due to your nefarious activities, consider Flexible Signature.

[Sephiroth]

I wish Quickening didn't suck so much now.

Karma equal to the spell Force is just painful. Especially when it's not all that hard to break a quickening.




-k

I believe the way around this is to get Extended Masking first. Since SM states that the metamagic allows the initiate to extend Masking to her foci and quickened spells, and since Masking is used to pass through wards without tripping them, it is much more effective to have Quickening with Extended Masking than just Quickening by itself. EDIT: I guess it doesn't really help with the karma though... still, Quickening is a very good choice as a later initiation metamagic.

[Neraph]

I'm a fan of Shielding, leading to Absorption.

Of course, if you've seen me post about my Ally Spirit thread, I like that one too, although with the newer Calling rules you can basically do it for free now.

And lastly, I'm a believer of being able to use Geomancy on Astral Hazing (there's debate on this one, so YMMV), so assuming that to work, it's fun also.

EDIT: For Masking/Extended Masking, I normally just get a Power Pact with a free spirit for Aura Masking, although I know some people out there like pointing out that Power Pact only lasts for 24 hours (even though you can infinitely refresh it, some like to take things away from their players).

[Makki]

- If you find yourself suffering from Drain too often, consider Centering.

- If you find yourself suffering from background count, consider Cleansing.

- If you find yourself subject to investigation due to your nefarious activities, consider Flexible Signature.

-if your GM throws a lot of magic at you, consider shielding+absorbtion. it's like magical duels from harry potter (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

-if you rely heavy on spirits, go for Invoking obviously

-my personal favourite of them all: if you're good at assensing, psychometry is just awesome

-I don't really favor Masking that much, because I don't care if they know I'm awakened. They'll find out sooner or later. But Extended masking for passing wards with active foci is nice. If you're afraid of getting tracked and unveiled Maskind and Flexible Signature are the choice.

[Neraph]

Masking, Extended Masking (or just Aura Masking, as I mentioned above), and Astral Chameleon is an amazing combination.

[Mäx]

Shielding is pretty nice, especially if your initiating at chargen(karmagen) so you can grap a force 3 shielding focus to go along with that(15k (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) and 28karma for bonding + restricted gear)
In play its only really useful pick at first initiation if you soonish after have 24-36 karma to bond force 4-6 shielding focus (cheap in (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) at 20-30k)
Or if your planning on picking up its advanced form absorption at your second initiation, which might not be a bad idea if you find yourself facing a lot of magicians.
Shielding+absorption make for a bad-ass anti-mage:
Level 2 initiative with force 4 shielding focus and counter spelling skill of 6(spec for combat spells) + a mentor giving bonus to combat spells has
Body/Willpower 4(for simplicity's sake, might be different values)
counter spelling 6
spec 2
mentor 2
shielding 6(foci+initiation grade)
absorption 2(initiation grade)
= 22 dice for the test = 7 hits on average = fully absorbs spells up to force 7(lets assume he raised his magic to 7) and can now reduce the drain from her next spell by 7(or the force of the spell absorbed if less) so she could for example cast napalm with a drain code of force/2 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

[Whipstitch]

Invoking isn't for everyone, but if you like binding it's a pretty good first choice given that it doesn't rely on Initiate Grade to do its thing. After all, Masking, Flexible Signature, Centering and Shielding are all wonderful choices for virtually any practitioner, but as other posters have already pointed out, they each take a couple grades or a focus before they really start to shine. I like it better for traditions with ready access to Guidance Spirits than I like it for Hermetics though. Astral Gateway is basically metamagic grade mojo all on its own.

[Saint Sithney]

What? No one's going to say it?


Channeling.
Welcome to crazy bullshit tank town.
(obviously this doesn't apply to a Hermetic mage, but you know it's the best.)

[pbangarth]

Yeah, that's number one for a Possession tradition mage.

[Neraph]

Non-Possession Traditions can still make use of it with the Free Spirit binding rules presented in Street Magic and the Calling rules in Running Wild. Think outside the box.

EDIT: Heck, all you have to do is Banish and then Resummon a Possession mage's spirits and you get access to them anyways.

[pbangarth]

But by the text of Channeling, only Possession tradition mages can learn and use it.

Even if that were not the case, a non-Possession tradition mage would have to wait till she came across a Possession spirit, and then went through the Banishing, re-Summoning, Binding cycle. Whereas the other first-order metamagics described here are available for use by the hermetic mage as soon as she Initiates.

[Neraph]

But by the text of Channeling, only Possession tradition mages can learn and use it.

Ahh. It's been a while since I read it.

Even if that were not the case, a non-Possession tradition mage would have to wait till she came across a Possession spirit, and then went through the Banishing, re-Summoning, Binding cycle. Whereas the other first-order metamagics described here are available for use by the hermetic mage as soon as she Initiates.

Um... Only if you were to ignore the Calling and Binding of free spirits. Then yeah, they'd have to wait around.

But yes, apparently only Possession-Tradition mages can learn Channeling.

[Shinobi Killfist]

For logic based traditions I suggest masking and then extended masking. You should have the logic to help keep a lot of focuses active, it is the one perk of being a logic tradition. Abuse it. I am such a big fan of inititating I think it takes precedence over almost everything else. I'd shoot for grade 4ish before getting my magic to 6 for example. Then with the high initiate rating extended masking, shielding, and centering really rock.

[Neraph]

I agree-ish. Except I'd take Quickening over Centering, and Quicken Improve (Willpower) and Improve (Other Drain Attribute) up to their augmented maxes - you'll get more mileage than you would from Centering, and with Extended Masking noone will ever know.

And I start with a Magic of 6, unless I'm an Infected, so I only care about Initiating.

[Knight Saber]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

For logic based traditions I suggest masking and then extended masking. You should have the logic to help keep a lot of focuses active, it is the one perk of being a logic tradition. Abuse it. I am such a big fan of inititating I think it takes precedence over almost everything else. I'd shoot for grade 4ish before getting my magic to 6 for example. Then with the high initiate rating extended masking, shielding, and centering really rock.

Ahhh, I hadn't even thought of the benefits of extended masking. The character has three foci already (Power 2, sustaining detection 1 and a weapon 2) with plans on another sustaining. She's already at magic 6 from BP.

Has anyone tried to use masking to impersonate a dual aspected creature or a shapeshifter?? That is "another kind of astral creature" after all.

[Whipstitch]

I don't see any good reason to forbid it, since the RAW seems pretty clear there. About the only real hurdle I could see is if you're trying to present a rare "type" of aura you've never assensed before, but that's kind of a situational thing and a GM call. I'd personally just assume initiate grade magicians would have the prerequisite expertise in all but the the rarest cases anyway. Even then if the fake was somehow unconvincing you'd still be covering up your real aura anyway.

[Critias]

I'd go Masking, then Centering, myself. Those are two that it just seems like every Shadowrunner magician will benefit from -- increased anonymity and increased capacity to resist drain -- and everything after those two will vary based on play style. I could see going for Invoking instead of Centering on a very binding-oriented character...but, yeah. In some order, those three would invariably be my first choices.

It seems hard to go wrong with Masking for a professional criminal, especially one who's already got at least one Focus.

[KarmaInferno]

Well, if casting is a secondary thing for you, and you don't toss many high force spells, can see Centering being less beneficial.




-k

[Shinobi Killfist]

Thanks for all the suggestions!



Ahhh, I hadn't even thought of the benefits of extended masking. The character has three foci already (Power 2, sustaining detection 1 and a weapon 2) with plans on another sustaining. She's already at magic 6 from BP.

Has anyone tried to use masking to impersonate a dual aspected creature or a shapeshifter?? That is "another kind of astral creature" after all.

With 3 focuses I'd definitely shoot for extended masking.

Why did you pick up a weapon focus though? They are not really that useful for a mage, they are not terrible but how often are you getting in melee. I'd shoot for a sustaining focus 4 health, next. It is expensive, but improved reflexes with 4 hits is awesome.

And yes you should be able to mask to impersonate a shapeshifter as long as you have assensed one, though you may be missing physical clues so it might not work overall.

[Neraph]

Why did you pick up a weapon focus though? They are not really that useful for a mage, they are not terrible but how often are you getting in melee. I'd shoot for a sustaining focus 4 health, next. It is expensive, but improved reflexes with 4 hits is awesome.

She's (right?) planning on making Bloodmourne, of course.

Actually, I'd imagine that it's to help a little with melee (all my characters have a ranged and melee weapon skill at least), beat ItNW without resorting to spells, and help out with Astral Combat. Right?