Way of the Burnout, Best of Both Worlds Options

[Ancient History]

As the gang leader once said "Magic's a gun and I'm a mage."

Sometimes, life gives you lemons. You took one too many hits, or too many drugs, or just gave yourself a bit of cyber(

[ Spoiler ]

Or, Hell, maybe your GM just ran you through Brainscan. Drek happens, chummer.

).

Now you're stuck on the slow slide of the Burnout. So, make the most of it! You can still be a good magician with a bit of cyber. Hell, maybe better than your non-chromed counterparts, just take a Talisman geas tied to something integral.

It need be said, magicians should think carefully before mixing bioware and cyberware, as the /actual/ magic loss on top of the /virtual/ magic loss can be devastating. Adepts may be better off taking bioware to boost their physical stats, since that can at least be removed easily enough. It need not be said, the higher quality you can afford, the better. At this point, genetech isn't worth serious consideration by magicians. Too heavy a price, for too little gain.

Autoinjectors and Drugs
Ideal for magicians who need a bit of oomph, and cheaper by far than a chemical gland, the autoinjector can provide a quick rush of pharmecuticals. Popular choices include Novacoke, Psyche, and Zen; more esoteric magicians may have access to magical compounds for other benefits.

Drugs are a popular step in the Way of the Burnout, as the magician has to walk a fine line between excess and success.

Cyberlimbs
It's unfortunate, but sometimes you lose an arm. Or decide to lose an arm for the bennies it can give you. Few magicians go in for replacement limbs, because they're not essence friendly and, really, what the Hell can they do for you?

Lots. Let's consider the example of Johnny Threetricks:
Johnny always had to deal with spirits. Lots of spirits. Mean spirits. Before you could say "Mantis!" Johnny lost his right arm. So he got a new one. Not a great arm, but roomy enough for a big gun that held some silver bullets, a retractable spur, an Ares Redline laser, and a Shiawese Blazer (He had them fill up his internal air tank and run the hose to the arm. A little expensive, but damn surprising!)

Now, Johnny's example is a bit extreme, but it shows a few of the possibilities. Frankly, cyberweapons are almost the only point of a cyberarm on a magician. Which brings us too...

Cyberweapons
Some paranormal threats just don't respond to normal tactics. For those, and for those who can't deal with the situation any other way, there are options. Conjurors, for example, can't cast spells. When they're last spirit is toast or they're too tired to banish something, being able to pull out a weapon with an elemental effect might just save the day.
Other magicians just like having their mageblade close. Physical adepts learned in Savate or Mauy Thai might prefer a footblade, but the good old retractable spur, handblade, hand razors, or even oral spur does the job just as well, especially as they can be enchanted before they've been incorporated (the blade, at least.)
Silver-edged blades are preferred to the traditional high-tech composites, for when the Infected come a-callin'.

Damage Compensators and Pain Editors
Generally, too expensive for a magician to bother with; although very useful for the sudden quick successive drains during a spellbattle, Centering is a better bet for dealing with drain and the adept powers over pain are generally better.

Datajack
Often overlooked, the useful and versatile datajack grants the magician, among other things, quick and easy access to Magicknet, on-line hermetic libraries, and quick-and-easy access to datasofts. Plus the general benefits.

Encephalons
...do not aid in the use of any magic, magical perception, or Magical skills. But it can be useful in /learning/ magical skills and background skills. Which pretty much just makes it a karma saver, and may help you use those B/R skills to craft foci a little better. Eh.
Cerebral Boosters, on the other hand, provide a similar bonus for a lesser cost. Personally, I think they're both a bit of a waste, but if you're desperate to conserve karma (and what magician isn't?)
Mnemonic enhancers are better than cerebral boosters and encephalons for the purposes that a magician would need them, and generally make a better investment.

Headware Memory Hermetic Libraries
Pricey, very pricey in terms of essence (a basic rating 6 Sorcery library takes up 3.6 gigapulses, which equals 1.2 essence!) Naturally, the cost can be reduced some by higher grade cyberware or Data Compactors, but it's rarely enough to make it work it. My suggestion is, if you /need/ an internal Hermetic library, stick with dedicated chipjacks and high-MP optical chips.

Math SPU and Pythagoreans
A very handy tool for those rare Hacker-Magicians out there, and definately a bonus for Pythagoreans (or those who want to use their formulae.)

Metabolic Arrestor, Platelet Facotries, and Symbiotes
The last thing a Burnout needs is to lose more precious Magic to something as simple as damage. With a bit of luck, the metabolic arrestor gives the magician precious time for their teammates to come to their aid...or for an anchored Treat spell to trigger.
Platelet factories might be even better, but the daily anticoagulant is a bit of a drag...still, with a chemical gland, not a bad option at all.
Symbiotes are costlier in bio index than metabolic arrestors, and incompatible with platelet factories. Personally, I suggest getting the platelet factories and the nanosymbiotes. Hedge your bets.

Nanite Facilitator
Fairly simple, this is dandy for magicians who like using nanosymbiotes to cut down long healing downtimes. Practically required.

RAS Override
Often overlooked by magicians, but worthwile considering it's low impact, an RAS Override, turned on before going astral, means that any possessing force attempting to use your body has a tough fight ahead of them. Metahuman magicians, free spirits, loa spirits, and shedim are unlikely to register the "off" switch for the RAS Override...at least not right away.

Senseware
Cybereyes and visual mods are usually pretty good investments for Burnouts. Cheap, able to accomadate multiple enhancements, and the more you see, the more you can hit with a spell. Low-light, thermographic, and vision magnification are favorites.

Skillsofts
A bit pricey, especially in terms of essence, skillsofts can be invaluable to a magician. Not for magical skills, which can't be encoded in activesofts, but certainly for the many Knowledge skills, like Magic Background, Spell Design, and Talismongering. A big karma-saver! Speaking of stored knowledge, consider:

Trauma Dampners
The most useful of all bioware currently on the market for magicians who experience drain and combat monster adepts alike.

[Eyeless Blond]

[Kesh]

Now that is a useful post. Thanks!

[Ancient History]

[Aes]

A smart mage could do worse than investing in a reflex recorder for his sorcery or conjuring skills too. At .25 bioindex and 25k a pop, they're cheap boosts to essential skills.

Human mages might consider cats eyes too, and mages of all races the optical vision magnification for that all-important boost to LOS.

[FlakJacket]

Path of the burnout? It's been an age and my memory was never that good to begin with so remind me, was this the one where if you took any cyber you couldn't initiate after that?

[mmu1]

[Fortune]

[Aes]

I stand corrected. My bad, I were browsing the NSRCG descriptions at the time. Still, +1 to your stealth, athletics or back-up weapon ain't to be scoffed at. Or an additional die to your Morris Dancing centering skill

[Fortune]

[Lindt]

Wanna be able to chant in 5 obscure dead languages? There is the Mnemonic Enhancer for ya.

[Glyph]

[Ancient History]

Like I've always said, if a burnout has to take a geas, you can do worse than to take a talisman geas .

Now, the easy option for such a geas is a piece of cyberware...no one can take it from you, right? Not a bad choice, overall, but keep in mind the GM may insist you manipulate it in some way, which is kinda hard for a totally internal device.

While we're on the subject, let's talk about enchanting and cyberware: It ain't easy being chrome. All cyberware is, be default, a high-tech good. No virgin telesma bonus there. Furthermore, it's far easier to enchant something after it's been installed->you could perhaps enchant a cyberspur blade and then have it implanted, but a cyberarm, datajack, or any other object that needs to be connected to you directly should wait until after installation. Some cyberware simply /cannot/ be realistically enchanted: bone lacing and a nanite facilitator, for two examples.

Bioware and nanites aren't proper subjects for enchantment. The former is living tissue, while the latter is too diffuse and easy to lose to be worth much. Imagine enchanting your nanosymbiotes as a power focus (provided the GM would even allow it!), and then you get shot and lose 15% of your nanites...what happens to the enchantment?

[The Jopp]

Need knowledge skills? No problem. Headware memory for USING the actual skill (a rating 6 knowsoft takes up 108 MPs) and then you take a few implanted OMC (optical memory chips) with 1K of MPs piped through the datajack and the knowsoft link. Now all you need is all those nifty knowledge skills that might be useful.

[Critias]

I, uhh...I'm just wondering, here. But...is this... I mean, this isn't the first time it's occured to any of you that mixing a little cyber/bio with the mojo works wonders, is it? I always thought everyone knew that.

[Fortune]

It certainly isn't a new concept to me. I think out of all the Awakened characters I have had (and I play Awaakened characters almost exclusively), going as far back as SR1, only one has not had augmentations of one kind or another.

[Aes]

A point worth of essence can get you a LOT of useful gadgets. Likewise, two points of bio can get you a LOT of added bonusses. Sure, it sets you back 2 magic points, but you can initate that loss away when you pick up masking and centering anyhow ;)

[Shockwave_IIc]

AH i like your take on the RAS overide, interesting if limit use for it.

However, Symbiotes i do think are a complete waste of time more so the Magically active people since, in all realty all it does is give you 1 extra success on a healing test which will mostly likely be at +2 cos your a mage anyhow.... and thats not including the stupid hike in living expenses.

[Edward]

If you have a data jack the RAS override can be external.

Using technology taken from direct insert BTLs you can create a chip that includes a RAZ override and shows a low rating sim sense feed of a computer terminal asking for a password. Give it the correct password and the chip shuts itself off, any possessing entity will not know the password and thus will be trapped until you return to kick it out.

Although the system is loosely based on BTL technology the peak controls are well within the legal limits and thus there is no risk of addiction or side affects associated with BTLs.

Edward

[RunnerPaul]

[Edward]

I previously proposed that. I called it a rag doll chip and provided a few cheep sim sense games for the target to play. The biggest problem with this is logically it would cost about the same as a rating 1 BTL, less than a skill twitcher, about the same as a set of handcuffs.

My GM proposed a rating 8 persona BTL “my willing flunky” which is cool provided they don’t get addicted.

Edward

[lorthazar]

Back in SR 1 and SR 2 one of our group mages was heavily cybered. Very badass character, too. Often tag teamed with the Bodyguard and the Troll Samurai. Of course we had a large team, eight players. Made complicated plans easier becuase we knew what we could do and didn't have to hire help.

[Doc Byte]

My current character's an Odin shaman who started the game as a nearly burned out about 2 years ago. ( Magic 2 / 3 when he was waving ) Meanwhile he's initiated to grade 4 with a magic attribute of 5. ( essence 4 / bio index 3,65 ) Mainly he's got fighting ware. ( cyber eyes, boostered reflexes, dermal armor, smartlink, bone lacing, enhanced strength and quickness plus some other stuff. ) His non-magic side's in fact a classic street sam.
The "problem" is that it took me more than 200 karma points before he achieved at least at an average level in both of this professions. But I love the mixture of both worlds.

[tisoz]

I did not see the main reason I see magicians getting Pain Editor's in games I have been in. It raises Willpower by one, so there is an extra die when rolling on sorcery drain tests.

[Sharaloth]

Pain editors are great for magicians. The up to willpower, the ability to ignore the wound penalties from all that drain (which will be less with the raised willpower). Technically a magician with a Pain editor can drain himself to death without realizing it, but most players will stop before that condition monitor really starts to fill. In a last desperate stand situation, though, I can just see the mage turning off the pain and starting to throw the mojo like he's the wrath of God in metahuman form right up until the point where his heart stops.