Alright, I am joining in nick012000's Leuge of Justice superhero SR4 game, cause it looks like fun and I have reached a crossroad with my character, and I don't know what to do, so I turn to the more expeinced for help. This character is currently, a one-trick-pony (counterspelling, which he has in spades), however with 288 BP left (its a 470 BP game, with no restriction on availibilty, or the ammount of BP spent on equiptment) I think it would be wise to pick up a second trick.

Disclaimer: I do not consider myself a munchkin. I may (frquently) be guily of min/maxing, however my characters always have a damn good story behind them, and a dominent roleplaying aspect. I have never made a character for the sake of c00l p0w3rz. (well, ok, I did once, but just because that paticular GM needed to be knocked down a peg or two. Long story.) I say this because, well, I am DAMN good at counterspelling, with a base 12 dice plus will/body.

Basically, here is what I have of my character so far.

Mystic Adept (10 BP)
Aptitude (counterspelling) (10 BP)
Counterspelling 7 (32BP)
Counterspelling foci(rating 5): Combat (10 BP with bonding)
Counterspelling foci(rating 5): Detection (10 BP with bonding)
Counterspelling foci(rating 5): Healing (10 BP with bonding)
Counterspelling foci(rating 5): Illusion (10 BP with bonding)
Counterspelling foci(rating 5): Manipulation (10 BP with bonding)
Logic 5 (40BP)
Magic 5 (40 BP)
Total 182 BP

giving me 288 remaining, 160 of which can be spent on my remaining attributes. This Character has a strong theme of the mysterious, myth and identity. For this, I have several options.
1) illusion/manipulation mage
2) stealth M. Adept
3) unarmed M. adept
4) unarmed/stealth M.Adept
5) full support character (i.e. healing magic and a crapload of mystic armour)

The thing to consider are that
A) the counterspelling foci take up all the foci make up all the foci I can have active at any given time. Thus I cannot have any sustaining foci, and will have to sustain all the spells myself, a large hinderence considering its illusion/ manipulation I am talking about and B) that my main purpose for this character is to protect the other group members from incoming spells.

Thanks for you suggestions,
DV

Buy an armor jacket.

That's a too specialized character concept for me. I feel like in some MMORPG("We still need a tank for this instance, and another healer!").

as pure numbers, these options dont seem playable. For me, its the concept of the runner as a person, that makes the game fun. pick a couple different aspects of the setting, and invest in those. you dont need to do much, just spend a couple points of knowledge skills to back it up.

from a number perspective- a mage has TWO jobs in a team- counterspelling, and Astral control. If your mage cannon provide basic astral support, then he is not doing his job. This can be as basic as looking around the astral, and then banishing a spirit.

a mystic adept must expend 1 point of his power to get astral sight. without that, he is basicly a crippled mage. the mystic adept is not a mage with some adept powers, he is an adept with a weak spellcasting ability.

That really depends on how much you throw one way, and how much you throw the other. The mystic adept is certainly not the most efficient way to do one of those jobs... just the only way to do both

The party I'm GMing for right now has two adepts and two mages (out of 6 players... typical for this group of players, I just go with it). Between the two mages I think they total 4 dice for counterspelling. Yeah, that's a big security hole for them, but they spent the points elsewhere and they're aware of the issue. Groups don't have to have all their bases covered (and it's usually more interesting when they don't)... they just need to be aware of what their strengths and weaknesses are, and play to them.

Hell, just for kicks, I might ditch the Adept aspect, go full Magician, and grab Incompetence in the other Magic based skills. In addition to whatever else your character might be, he'd be a counterspeller. Do the rest of the character with skills, contacts, multilayered IDs, maybe a little 'ware, and attitude.

Don't feel like you have to fit into the box of "groups only want mages who can do X, Y, and Z"... if I was looking for a mysterious dude, and happened to find one who could augment our spell defense in a serious way, I'd be interested in working with him.

I'd agree on the full mage vs mystic adept argument presented earlier, go with a full mage.

If you decide to go for an illusion/manipulation specialist, it would also be a short jump to being a face. Though, in that respect a mystic adept would have the kenisics power, which would definately be good for facing.. err being a face.

Your guy's counterspelling has nothing to do with his Magic stat; I'd say make him a full-blown Physad who can block any spell not cast by a dragon or the Blood Mage Gestalt. If you're specializing in counterspelling anyway and your spellcasting will be crap with that power point spent, I say spend all the other ones, too.

I thought that a great concept for a Besm fantasy game would be some samurai dude who's really good at hacking things to pieces and has an anti-magic field around himself; he nulls everything but mundane threats, all of which he is well prepared for. This character could be that guy.

But how do you justify him being so specialized? Maybe if he spent his life protecting a place that was constantly under magical attack...

None know the history of this character. No one. But, since it has to exist OOC, here it is for you.

Many, many years ago, no one knows exactly how long it was, a man wandered into the wilds. He was looking for answers. He did not find any. Nor did he find food. Nor water. In fact, he found very little, and he walked untill he ran out of food, then water, till he colapsed.

Then he was found. Of all misfortune he was found by Aztech security, guarding an secret lab out in the wilds. They were doing research of a magical nature, and were delighted to find a near dead, awakened being. A quick search reveild no SIN associated with his prints, and they had a perfect guinea pig. He was subjected to their horrors for an unknown amount of times, years. The researchers were delighted, as he was the only one who had survived more then a few months of tests.

Bit by bit, he started to get increasingly well versed in resiting their experiments, which were performed on an almost daily basis. The Aztech experimentors began to almost fear the man. He begain to be seen as almost a larger then life figure in the eyes of the researchers, many recogmended that he should be killed, but the mystery of why he kept living intriged them to much.

Rather then a person, they started to see him as a mythical archtype, a projection of the Universal Unconsioius.

The man who would not break.
Who would not die.
He felt this, he noticed it in how they treated him. in what was said and what was unsaid. and on the frindge where the myth of him and reality of him overlapped, he found an inch a freedom, something he could exploit.

And exploit he did.

riding the idiosyncracy that was the edge of subjective and objective truth, he raised more then a little hell in that facility, and made his escape. Since then he has told no one anything of himself. He has earsed his personal history and cloaked himself in the myth. No one knows his origens or his time at the Aztech lab.


I really like emo samurai's suggestion about putting all six points into adept powers. I'm thinking somthing like this.

->Attribute boost 2 (all attributes) (2 PP)
->Voice Control (0.5 PP)
->Killing hands (0.5 PP)
->Improved ability 2(Inflitration) (0.5 PP)
->Improved Ability 2 (Disguise) (0.5 PP)
->Improved Ability 2(Brawl) (0.5 PP)
->Improved reflexes 1 (2 PP)
->Critical Stike 4 (1PP)
Geasa on all PP. These powers can only be used so long as there some mystery about him. He must be seens as larger then life, more then just (meta)human, or otherwise at least slightly mythical. For these purposes he is ALWAYS in a disguise or costume of some sort. He changes his manners almost daily, but is virtually always dramatic and inspiring, playing off the Symbols and archtypes ingrained deep in the (meta)human psyche. He is an artist and a performer. I may or may not have drawn inspiration from V. (from V for Vendetta) for this character.

Any more thoughts? or feedback on my use of PPs?

well, by my count, you're at 7.5 pp, and AFAIK there are no Geas rules in SR4

It's a very interesting character though, and I think you could probably toss critical strike and killing hands, use a melee weapon and you'd be great.

edit: V was a pretty cool movie

Firstly, my thanks for answering. The GM has specifically said that geasa were allowed in his game, and 6 PP, plus 25% ids 7.5 PP. I have considered melee weapons, but they are harder to use non-leathally. I am still not sure on this issue. a very... somthing... part of me wants to use a monowhip, most like because they hold an almost legendairy place in my mind. They are really disturbing and facinating. then again, there are many archtypes and symbols linked to a sword and the like. Thanks again for your imput.
Cheers and smiles,
DV
P.S. It is a good movie and a good graphic novel, which I recogmend you read if you have not yet done so

actually it works the other way 8pp -25% = 6pp

Wow, thanks for the heads up on that, I appreciate it greatly. gah, and I used to be good at math

Well, Improved Ability (Brawl): 2 should have been 1.0 power points, not 0.5 power points, so it adds up to 8 anyways. I guess two wrongs do make a right.

But seriously, I doubt any GM will allow a mystic adept with counterspelling and no points spent on magical ability. And even if he did, remember that a glitch on counterspelling can cause you to take Drain from the spell, which would be physical damage every single time.

While the SR4 BBB doesn't explicitly say it, I'm going to say that you need to spend at least 1 Magic point on spells as a Mystic Adept.

Ah, alright then. Another quick question open to anyone, does a weapon foci have to be the weapon it adds the dice to? or can it be anything?
Cheers!