My First Char., Thoughts? Suggestions? Advice? Options

[heinous]

Hello all. As some of you know I'm brand new to Shadowrun, as are my running mates. I've created the following character and would just like to see what some of you thought of it. I had an entire history planned out for the character but i have to adjust it a lot, so i'll include it later. I intend on including some edges and flaws in the near future, but here's where i'm at right now ->

Name - Seed
Race - Dwarf
Age - 22
Height - 3'-7"
Home - Pemigewasset Wilderness

Priority
A - Magic - Full Magician
B - Attributes - 27
C - Skills - 34
D - Race - Dwarf
E - Resources - 5,000

Racial Modifications
+1 Body
+2 Strength
+1 Willpower
Thermographic Vision
Resistance (+2 Body to Disease or Toxin)

Totem - Snake (Wilderness)

Totem Modifications
+2 Dice for detection, health & illusion spells
+2 Dice for any one spirit of the land
-1 Dice for all spells cast during combat

Attributes
BOD - 4
QUI - 4
STR - 4
INT - 5
WIL - 7
CHA - 5
ESS - 6
MAG - 6
REA - 4

Spells
Heal - 5
Increase Strength - 3
Manabolt - 3
Mindprobe - 3
Confusion - 3
Improved Invisibility - 3
Silence - 2

Active Skills
Projectile Weapons(Crossbow) - 2(4)
Athletics - 3
Aura Reading - 5
Biotech(First Aid) - 5(7)
Sorcery(Spellcasting) - 5(7)
Conjuring - 5
Etiquette(Tribal) - 3(5)
Interrogation - 3

Knowledge Skills
Zoology - 2
Medicine - 5
Botany - 3
Magic - 4
Dragons - 2

Language Skills
English(Mage-Talk) - 3(5)
-Read/Write - 4
Tribal - 4
-Read/Write - 4

Contacts
Not exactly sure yet. definately a Talismonger and something else

Lifestyle - Squatter

Equipment
-Light Crossbow
-Ordinary Clothing
-Medkit
-Medkit Supplies (10)
-Fetish(Heal)
-Shamanic Lodge Supplies
-Survival Kit

Initiative - 4 + 1D6
Astral Initiative - 25 + 1D6

Dice Pools
-Astral Combat - 8
-Combat - 8
-Spell - 6

Karma Pool - 1

Starting Nuyen - .10 * (Remaining Creation Nuyen) + 3D6 * 100


Questions -
The equipment i've chosen is pretty much based on what the sample character had, as i wasn't sure where to go in this category. Where can i find the information for buying the shamanic lodge supplies at creation? What is the survival kit and where is the pricing table it's included in? what exactly are fetishes? where's the equipment table listing bolts for my crossbow? I read about penalties a dwarf might take using specific weapons, where can i find a list of these weapon types? How are my spell/skill selections? other than a talismonger, what other contact might i want to choose? and, have i miscalculated anything or done anything wrong?

any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Rob.

[Kagetenshi]

Not bad at first glance; your projectile weapons specialization is wrong (the difference betwixt skill and specialization is always 2 at chargen) and I’d advise not specializing that at all with such a low starting skill, unless you’re never going to improve that skill. I’d suggest less specialization in general, at least until you’re more experienced. More info later.

~J

[Bigity]

I might drop one of the lower force spell and bump up some of the others. A spell with a force or 2, or even 3, is going to be resisted alot of the time, at least against significant opposition. Drop Increase Strength maybe? It's not going to do your character much good, and unless you want to sustain it on the close combat specialist of the team and take a +2 to TNs and drain, you won't be using it much. I'd bump up Mindprobe for sure, and this is a spell where you need several successes to get the good dirt. I'd increase Manabolt too. Silence at Force 2 is going to be resisted alot.

Is Tribal a language? Which tribe? Sioux, Salish, etc.

I also have an instinct to not specialize Sorcery, but I can't really think offhand of a way it will really hurt you, so maybe it's ok.

[BitBasher]

Specializing sorcery will mean less spell defence dice from sorcery are available.

I would lose a lot of the specializations especially with the longer term remifications that you cannot increase a specialization beyond 2x the base skill level.

[heinous]

[Kagetenshi]

A specialization may not be higher than twice the base skill, with the exception of 1/3 specializations at chargen. Thus, if you do a 2/4 specialization, you’re going to need to up the base skill to 3 if you ever decide to increase the specialization, at which point it’s more efficient and effective to just start with 3 and specialize after chargen.

~J

[heinous]

[RangerJoe]

Folks seem to be really down on low-force spells on these boards (e.g., force 2-4). Especially for Illusion spells with low TNs to cast (I or W for directed, usually 4 for indirect illusions-- how many NPCs out there really have I or W above 3-5?) or detections spells with low TNs (or even combat spells for that matter), a low force spell with many successes can be just as successful as a high force spell. In order to generate lots of successes, you'll need to think carefully about using totem modifiers, spell pool, elementals (if you're a hermetic) and eventually foci or centering.

Sometimes being an effective spell slinger is less about the force 8 powerball and more a matter of being able to send off lots of spells, effectively resist the drain, and keep the mojo coming.

[Bigity]

Like I said, the low force stuff is fine for street punks or the average 40 hour a week security guard, but when the dedicated corp security guys show up, don't count on a force 2 illusion to save your team.

[Rory Blackhand]

I'm no expert, but you might want to try and get some sort of armor or you could get killed the first time you are shot.

You also took healing as a spell and as a skill. This is cool if that is your role, but it could be a bit more than you will need?? Maybe pick one or the other.

I like levitation, camouflage, shape earth, and shape change. But it is hard to get everything you want. At least with camo and levitate you could just get force 1 and keep trying until you succeed when you need to use them. alot of the other spells you need to have a higher force for it to be of value.

As has been mentioned you won't need increase strength unless you plan to get in there and start fighting physically instead of magically.

Just noticed you chose mind probe and interrogation. You might go mind probe only and save some skill points for something else. Or go compel truth.

[Kagetenshi]

[Bigity]

Well, because maybe they have spell defense, die pools, or a mage around to back them up.

[Kagetenshi]

First off, they're not going to have dice pools unless they're using karma. Second, do spell defense dice work against spells that have already been cast? I don't think so, but I may be wrong. Third, force two or force two thousand, a mage is going to see through it on the Astral anyway.

~J

[Kanada Ten]

Force must be half OR to affect an object. Therefore you either can't make a spoon invisible with a Force 3 spell or you can't make anything invisible to a camera with it. GM's call. (Page 182, SR3, under Spellcasting, Sorcery Test).

[Kagetenshi]

So Invisibility is better than II for low-force implementations, but that doesn't change the power of low-Force mana-based illusions.

~J

[Kanada Ten]

Right, unless you roll bad. Or have a bunch of dice tied up in Spell Defense. Or need to cast multiple spells at the same time. Those things never happen. And never at the same bleeping time when you've only got one bleeping karma pool left and the bleeping insect hive is pouring from the sewer entrance.

[Kagetenshi]

I'm not saying that high-force isn't, all else being equal, better, but you can get a very effective spell for a very low cost.

~J

[Bigity]

Well, to clarify, I wasn't saying low force spells couldn't be useful, but as a new player, it would be more difficult to know when you could use them effectively, and when you are going to leave yourself in a bad place by relying on them.

That's why I suggested maybe bumping some of them up :)

[GrinderTheTroll]

[Glyph]

For a Priority System character, you have one too many skill points (35), and two too few Attribute points (29, when you should have 31 after applying dwarven modifiers to a base 27).

I think, for a new character, that you should probably take fewers spells, at higher Force. Also, you can take Fetish or Exclusive modifiers on some spells to make them cost less, letting you take them at higher Force.

For skills, I would lose Interrogation (redundant with Mind Probe), and take Stealth, which is an essential skill.

Like others have said, you definitely need armor. Be sure to get some with good ballistic protection, as high as possible.

[sidartha]

[tjn]

[lokugh]

As far as language goes, you could go two ways:

1. Take tribal language as Crow. Makes sense with your background. The Cascade Crow tribe is part of the Salish-Sidhe council which surrounds Seattle and Cascade Orks, made up of orks, trolls and a few dwarves is an offshoot of that tribe and is also part of the S-S council. If your parents were human, perhaps Cascade Crow, them dropping you off with the C-Orks makes good RP sense.

2. Mage talk could be a special shaman-only dialect of the Cascade Crow/Ork, assuming your GM allows it, or you could take Japanese or Sperethiel or Salish, all three being languages spoken in Seattle and/or the S-S Council lands surrounding it (Sperethiel is spoken in both the Tir and in the Sinsearch elven tribe in the S-S Council). Of course, that leaves you without English, so I'd say just drop the (Mage Talk) spec. I could actually see that as a specialization for an academically trained hermetic mage (sort of like "Valley Talk" or Ebonics), but not for a wilderness shaman.

[Kagetenshi]

I assume the intention was Mage Lingo.

~J

[lokugh]