physical mage Options

[starblade]

I am about to recently start up a shadowrun campaign and was wondering about the physical mage. I'm been hearing that it is a pretty weak character because it generalizes in a system made for specialaztions. I was wondering where you can abuse it. I know it limited more than mage or adept but I think some of the adept abilities might help spellcating or spellcasting might help the adept abilities. Any help is appreciated.

[Talia Invierno]

"Abuse" is a relative term - depends greatly on your general style of playing. For me, I personally don't see the system as "made for specialisations", for example. However, a few points come quickly to mind.

1. Magical Power points can be voluntarily geased: pay .75 per point instead of 1 per point. Thus a spellcasting magic level of 4 would cost only 3 power points.

2. Focusing on spells, the Force of which is irrelevant to the effect, such as the infamous "Increase Reflexes". A high enough Sorcery could easily allow the physical magician to cast such a spell at a high enough level to gain full effect, absorb all drain, and an elemental or sustaining focus could maintain it as long as reasonably needed.

3. Focusing on either the Stealth or Athletics physad improved skills. It would not be difficult for a physical magician to achieve 12 dice in either ... even in both if desired, at a cost of only 3 power points total - with no geas required.

4. The physical magician, perhaps more than any other except the physad, stands to gain from pregame initiation. That extra power point is valuable!

[Sphynx]

They are less abuseable than any other 'type' IMHO... It's an Adept who gets Spell Defense and can maybe use some sustained spells where Force doesn't matter like Increased Reflexes to avoid spending Power Points.

Sphynx

[Erchael]

I asked something similar a while back so there should be a thread hanging around with some info you may find useful.

As far as my opinion goes, with infinite karma, it's a very powerful archetype ; with finite karma (character creation for example) points tend to be stretched thin if you want to be a capable adept (combat/stealth/etc) and a capable mage (sorcery/conjuring/etc) hence specialization in a form or another may prove useful.

In some cases, by specializing in a narrow field, you can get the most of both your magic and adept powers but it's rather by intelligent management and roleplaying than by brute force.

IMO, the "best" physmages aren't really a matter of stats but rather of concept : as you won't be as "powerful" as either a full adept or mage, you'd rather have some fun playing the physmage. I'm going to play (at last!) and I'm going to start such a character too, and sure hope to have fun with him. :P

[Talia Invierno]

Magician's way adept

[booklord]

Rapid-fire Munchkin Fox Shapeshifter spellcaster
"Bloody Mary"
( Named since she's constantly sprouting numerous bloody wounds that heal very quickly. 1 box per minute )

Fox Shapeshifter Hermetic physical mage character
( so she can summon an elemental causing 6 boxes physical damage drain, and 6 minutes later be completely fine. Not a problem at all since noone summons an elemental in the middle of a fight )
Lot's of mental attribute bonuses
High Intelligence, Quickness, Charisma, Willpower
Low Strength, Medium Body
Minimal animal physical stats ( 1 each, animal form basically unused )
Pain Resistance Edge if you can manage it
magic = 1
Dual Nature allows instant astral perception
Level 3 Improved Reflexes Physical Adept ability
Number of exclusive combat style spells.
Skills specialized on spell-casting and conjuring.

------------------------------------------------------------

That's the most abusive physical mage character concept I can come up with. Can anyone else do any better?

[Erchael]

[Dingus_McGee]

Well, seeing as how it's common practice that Regeneration doesn't heal Physical Drain, it wouldn't fly in my game.

Still, that IS quite munchy!! :D

[Glyph]

Bah, botched min-maxing. According to the rules, 'shifters do heal physical Drain, but with an effective Magic rating of 1, you can only summon up to Force: 2 elementals - and who cares if you heal it in 6 minutes instead of 6 hours? As the poster admitted, no one summons an elemental in the middle of a fight! Besides, that character will be taking physical Drain for any combat spell cast at above Force: 1, and you do cast spells "in the middle of a fight". Your grand total of 6 spell points worth of spells. And hermetics don't really work unless you have decent resources - a fox shapeshifter adept of the magician's path is spending 55 points before buying Attributes (and you lose 6 points just giving those minimal physical stats to the animal form) and skills, so resources will be very tight.


Adepts of the magician's way can be munchkinized, of course. Take Magical Ability: 4 with the gesture geas, giving you 24 spell points, and improved ability/edged weapons: +6 dice. Take Resources: A. Buy a Force: 6 0-reach weapon focus (such as a katar or kris)-don't forget to dikote it- and a Force: 6 Mana Bolt focus. Bond the first one for 18 spell points. For the last 6 spell points, take mana bolt: 6, and make it fetish for -1 Drain. Pick the Dragonslayer Totem. Get the Ambidexterity: 6 Edge, Edged Weapons: 6 and Pentjak Silat: 4 skills (the latter to give you the Close Combat and Close Combat/Edged maneuvers). Get a second katar or kris. In close combat, your character will be rolling 27 dice before Combat Pool and ignoring Reach penalties. You will also have a mana bolt with 2(Damage Level) Drain and 3 extra dice for casting it - 9 once you get 6 karma and bond the manabolt focus. It goes without saying that this is a two-trick pony, and not much fun to play, but definitely munchkinized.

[TinkerGnome]

[Glyph]

D'oh! Yeah, I meant 30 points. Such an adept can only be built with the point system or sum-to-ten.

[Tziluthi]

No, I'd say that you just put priority A in magic, as per usual for the physad magician, and priority B in resources.

[Glyph]

But the foci take more than 400,000 to purchase, which is why you need sum-to-ten or the point system to do it the way I had it. That's not to say you can't build a good adept of the magical way under the straight priority system, just that you couldn't do my example of brokenness with it.


For less broken adepts of the magical way, you just need to think of specialties where adept and spellcasting abilities both come in handy. For a covert ops adept, for example, you could take Magical Ability: 4 (geased), then spend 3 power points to get improved ability/stealth: 6 dice, traceless walk, and flexibility/level: 2. Get spells such as improved invisibility, physical mask, levitate, oxygenate (to breathe underwater), stealth, and clairvoyance, to become an extremely versatile sneak.