So, I've finally gotten my first SR4 character completed. Of course I went with the more complex mystic adept for trying out the new rules. Here he is, take a look and tell me what you all think. He's supposed to be a top-notch tracker with a touch of magical support.

Race: Human
B: 2
A: 2
R: 2
S: 2
C: 5
I: 4
L: 2
W:5
Edge: 3
Magic: 6 (Adept Powers 4/Magic 2)

Skills
Conjuring Group: 2
Outdoors Group: 3
Infiltration: 3
Unarmed Combat: 2
Dodge: 4
Perception: 4
Shadowing: 3
Spellcasting: 5
Counterspelling: 2

Knowledges
Parazoology: 3
Wizzer Gangs: 3
Local Charities: 3

Languages
Cityspeak: N
Korean: 3
Spanish: 3

Qualities
Mentor Spirit - Dog
Allergy - Silver Moderate
Uneducated

Adept Powers
Combat Sense: 4
Enhanced Perception: 3
Improved Sense [Scent]
Improved Sense [Hearing]
Rapid Healing: 3

Spells
Shatter
Detect Individual, Extended
Detect Life, Extended
Control Thoughts
Dog Form
Levitate
Magic Fingers

OK, you have a shadowing skill and an Infiltration group rating - that's 12 BP in your pocket right there. If your character is going to be trained in unarmed combat, there is no reason to have Dodge instead of Gymnastics. So get some jumping ability, it'll be good for you.

From a min/max standpoint, you should split up your Conjuring group and ditch banishing altogether. You have a very small dice pool for conjuring actions, which means that you can summon and bind very small spirits only - and that's fine because you choose the size of the spirits you call up. But it also means that you'll only be able to banish very small spirits. And that's not OK because you don't choose the size of the spirits sent against you.

Also, since you can start with a 6 in spellcasting, you should do so. It'll save you points in the long run. And I'm not really sure why you have a large Charisma, you aren't doing anything with it. Maybe you should be an intuition caster and transfer some Charisma to more perception?

-Frank

Yeah, I should have explained that he was a shaman - slipped my mind.

Why would I be able to ditch out of infiltration or shadowing? I thought one was for sneaking up on folks and the other sneaking through buildings.

And the gymnastics for dodge - I don't think that I'd be able to do gymnastics as a dog... dodge would still be on the list though. And I do like the idea of being able to cover up to 45 meters in a combat turn while on Full Defense.

looks like you have, 225pts in attributes?

50pts in skill groups
92pts in skills.

21pts in spells
10 mystic adept

-10pts allergy
5pts mentor
-20pts for uneducated (are you sure this fits?)

373 pts used?

what resources is he starting with?

Don't listen to Gothic Rose, Antimuppet. A mage may see Dog an archetype behind powerful forces in the Hermetic curriculum, tracing lineages to Anubis, Cerberus, the Dog Star...

Although, given in this case it looks to be a 21st century variant of Kane.

IMHO Astral Perception and assensing would be useful for a tracker-style character.

I'm not really sure that the 6th point of magic is worthwhile either. Ask your GM wether they use the interpretation by which the Mystic Adept uses the full magic rating to determine drain effects and max spell force or the system by which only the magical skills are put towards that.

If your GM allows you to determine drain ETC using full magic then drop the last point of magic attribute and switch it to a 4/1 split. 25BP can easily buy you the +1 on sorcery and conjuring to make-up for the die lost.

I'd personally take counterspelling as high as I could afford unless I knew I wasn't going to be the main mage in the party. People really need those dice against hostile spells.

In any case, I'd suggest buying a force 2 power focus (if you've not done so already) as they've very cheap for what they do.

The advice was muy mucho helpful. Exeter's all neato keen on the tracking now.