Suggestions for Magician Adept Options

[Trax]

I'm making an awakened character for the first time and so far this is what I've come up with. At the moment he's a sorceror adept but I've been thinking about making him a Shaman so I could conjure spirits. It would also free up 36k of resources to spend elsewhere. Although switching to Shaman would require some alteration of the skills, maybe dropping whips, and probably changing all the spells. Unless I perhaps take Owl or Coyote as my totem.

Originally, instead of whips I gave him edged weapons, specializing in combat axes, but with a Kusarigama I can stay at a distance and carry it around almost anywhere, unlike a combat axe. Or I could go insane and specialize in monowhips, and buy it later ingame.

Is there perhaps any kind of gear that could be useful that I'm missing?

Priorities
----------
A: Attributes
B: Magic
C: Resources
D: Skills
E: Race


Attributes
----------
Body: 5
Quickness: 6
Strength: 5
Charisma: 2
Intelligence: 6
Willpower: 6
Essence: 6
Bio Index: 0
Magic: 6
Initiate Level: 0
Reaction: 6
Initiative: 1d6 + 6


Active Skills
-------------
Athletics: 4
Bike: 4
Etiquette: 2
Pistols: 5
Sorcery/Spellcasting: 5/7
Stealth: 4
Whips/Kusarigama: 4/6


Knowledge Skills
----------------
IN: Cooking: 3
ST: Criminal Organizations: 4
ST: Fringe Cults: 4
AK: Greater Seattle: 4
SW: Magic: 6
BK: Magic Background: 4
SW: Paranormal Animals: 4

English 5
Latin 5

Dice Pools
----------
Combat: 9
Spell: 6
Karma: 1


Spells
------
Armor(FC): 6
Ball Lightning(FC): 6
Fashion(E): 2
Levitate(FC): 2
Imp. Invis(FC): 4
Incr. Reflexes +3INI(FC): 1
Powerbolt: 6
Stunbolt: 6
Treat(E)(FC): 6

(E= Exclusive learned, FC= Fetish Drain Casting)

Vehicles & Drones
-----------------
Harley-Davidson Scorpion
Handling: 4/5, Speed/Accel: 120/6, Body/Armor: 2/1, Sig/Autonav: 2/2
Electric Security System


Gear
----
Colt Manhunter
Conc: 5 [SA, 9m] 16©
Laser Sight
Personalized Grip
Quickdraw Holster (Conc)
3x Clips, ExEx

Kusarigama, Dikote
Conc:8, Reach:2, Damage: 7S

Micro-transceiver [1]
Subvocal Microphone

Ordinary Clothing

Pocket Secretary

Shades, low-light & Thermographic
Mag:20x

Form-fitting Half-Body suit [3/1]
V-Island "Actioneer" Jacket [1.5/1]
V-Island "Actioneer" Long coat [2/2]
V-Island "Actioneer" Shirt [1.5/.5]
V-Island "Actioneer" Slacks [1/.5]
(Armour Total 9/5)
Wrist phone w/Flip up screen

Magical Items:
-----------
Sorceror Library (6)
Healing Fetish, Re-useable: Treat
Healing Fetish, Re-useable: Incr. Reflexes +3INI
Illusion Fetish, Re-useable: Improved Invisibility
Manipulation Fetish, Re-useable: Armor
Manipulation Fetish, Re-useable: Fashion
Manipulation Fetish, Re-useable: Levitate
Sustaining Focus [1]: Incr. Reflexes +3INI

Cash: ¥1280
Notes:
Middle Lifestyle: 1 Month


Contacts
--------
Fixer lvl 1
Talismonger lvl 1

[Herald of Verjig...]

1st, sorcerer isn't mutually exclusive with shaman. Sorcerer just means a mage of any tradition who only has sorcery, no conjuring. They can be hermetic, shamanic, wu-jenous, voodooey, pathish or any other horrendous misapplication of endings to magical traditions that you can establish.

2nd, you don't need a high rating library to start with, you can probably buy time with someone else's big magical library in the occasions that you need to research a spell. If you get in with a good initiatory group, some of your dues will cover access to a mutual collection of hermetic libraries that shoud include a sorcery library.

[Catsnightmare]

You could also choose to be an Elementalist, choose a specific element and cast spells related to and conjure elementals of that chosen element.
Fire = Combat and Fire Elementals
Air = Detection and Air Elementals
Water = Illusion and Water Elementals
Earth = Transformation Manipulation and Earth Elementals

While it seems to have been dropped from 3rd Edition, all GM's I've played under still hold to the SR2 rule that allow Elementalists to take Elemental Manipulation spells appropriate to the chosen element as well.

[Crimson Jack]

Are you focusing on both melee and spellcasting for some particular reason? If this character is for a solo adventure, it might make more sense.. maybe. But, if you're going to be in a team, I'd advise dropping the higher-than-usual Body/Strength Attribute scores. I generally prefer having a stronger skill set at character creation than Attributes when it comes to casters. That's just me though.

Also, have you considered building your character by the point system? It normally favors this type of character creation. For instance, say that you wanted to lower your starting Attribute total by a smidge (just enough to buy some more Skill points). You don't have to lower Attributes from priority A to priority D equivalent (assuming that both Magic and Resources are positively where you want them assigned). You can simply lower it appropriately via the point system. I find that it gives players far more control over the construction of their characters than the Priority System does.

You might also want to consider building your character's lifestyle via the rules in Sprawl Survival Guide. You can make a pretty sweet place and custom tailor it to your character's likings, often times putting up with a few nuisances and getting a nice reduction in monthly living expenses. :)

[Trax]

The GM prefers for us to use the Priority system, and the reason why I had him at melee and spellcasting is for the times where he is not with the group, and sometimes we do solo runs.

[Glyph]

Note that if you changed this character to a full shaman, you would have to give Magic the Priority: A slot. You would lose 3 Attribute points and 10 spell points, and you would have to completely change both Attributes and skills (Attributes because with a Charisma of 2, conjuring spirits is hardly worth it; skills, because you will need to buy the conjuring skill and re-think the combat skills from when your physical Attributes were higher).

In other words, if you make a shaman, you will more or less be creating a new character. :D

[Herald of Verjig...]

I will repeat a key aspect of one of my points. He can be a shamanic sorcerer with no change but selling the library for a lodge or 27. However, yes, if he wants spirits, he basically needs to create an entirely different numberset to be able to use them without falling dead on spirits that can be disrupted by an irate hamster (the non-giant non-spacey variety).

Conjuring can be very powerful, but it also is painful to get that power. Conjuring drain isn't halved, and there is no conjuring pool, so you get less successes and more headache. Also, the drain code is directly proportional to the force of the spirit, so trying to conjure a nice, simple force 5 spirit with that attribute setup will result in you rolling 2 dice against a TN of 5 to avoid deadly stun. Then there's the joy of unhappy spirits who just got freed by way of unconscious conjurer...

[Trax]

Do'h, I had forgotten that I would've had to make it Priority A. I guess i'll leave conjuring up to the other shaman of the group.

[Crimson Jack]

Hmm, there's another shaman in the group? Really good piece of advice here: Try complementing him/her. Fill in the gaps that he/she doesn't possess. No need for redundancy.

[Trax]

From what i've seen, my character already fills the gaps, his shaman is no combat character.