So, I talked with one of my players in the game I run and he's willing to trade off with me to run side-missions for myself and the other two players that his character wouldn't necessarily be called on (He's like...ethical, and won't do wetwork). So, I slapped together this Mage-Killer Adept while at work today and was curious if everything I did was legit (I'm fairly sure it is). BP limits on abilities don't matter, as he's coming in at 400BPs to a group that has Karma.

The character concept is very simple, geek the mage. The players have recently found out the power of spell-throwers, and I know the player will be using them, so I decided to use this to level the playing field slightly. With 12 dice for personal counterspelling, and unarmed damage that can kill just about anyone, I thought "Charge in and wack him twice" would be a viable tactic. Comments?

I have 6 BP's left, and used 33 on Nuyen. Any suggestions?


Shadowrun Character: Scope
Type: Human Physical Adept Mage Slayer

Body: 4
Agility: 4 (6)
Reaction: 3 (4)
Strength: 3
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 3
Logic: 3
Willpower: 3

Essence: 5.06

Edge: 3
Magic: 4/1 (-1 due to Cyber/Bioware)

Assensing: 2 (+2 Magic Auras)
Counterspelling: 4 (+2 Stun Spells)
Gymnastics: 4
Infiltration: 2
Perception: 2
Running: 4
Throwing Weapons: 2
Unarmed Combat: 7 (+2 Punches to the Face)

Seattle Gangs: 2
Hermetic Doo-Dads: 2
Kung Fu Styles: 4
Security Procedures: 2
Kung Fu Movies: 4
Japanese: N
English: 4

Mystic Adept (10BP)
Aptitude: Unarmed Combat (10BP)
Addiction, Mild (Kung Fu BTL’s, -5BP)
Bad Luck (-20 BP)
SINner, Criminal (Manslaughter, 10BP)

Good Fixer (Connection 4/Loyalty 4)

Combat:
Unarmed Strike: 14 Dice (+2, Punch to Face), 6P Damage

Adept Powers
Astral Projection
Critical Strike: 4 levels
Killing Hands
Spell Resistance II

Spells
Armor


Gear:
Datajack (Alpha)
Muscle Toner II (Alpha)
Reflex Recorder, Unarmed Combat (Alpha)
Synaptic Booster I

Contact Lenses
-Low Light
-Flare Compensation
-Thermographic
-Vision Enhancement III
-Vision Magnification
Earbuds
-Audio Enhancement III
-Select Sound Filter III
Stealth Rope
Fake SIN, Rating 3
Fake License, Rating 4
Linguasoft: Aztlan, Rating 5
Linguasoft: Sphertherial, Rating 5
Knowsoft: Seattle Street Plans, Rating 5
Knowsoft: Security Companies, Rating 5
3x Flash Bang Grenades
3x Frag Grenades
4x Smoke Grenades
4x Thermal Grenades

I never realized that. Well, that's just 20 points for 2 more Edge, I suppose.
Changed it up top.
As a note, I built it off a character generator at work, hence my asking if it was all legit.

Can't take 10 levels of crit strike.

If you could, there would be a lot more kung fu masters out there, and little need for a sam with a sword.

I'm pretty sure critical strike is capped at your magic, so you couldn't have more than 4

Edit: From page 187 in the Hymnal:

"Many adept powers may be purchased at a variable rating. The maximum level an adept may have in any power is equal to the adept’s Magic attribute."

Penetrating Strike, from SM, is your friend too, as is Inertial Strike....

What does he expect to do with the Counterspelling skill? Only magicians and mystic adepts can use it.

Ah, that's a good point. He would need to be a mystic adept to have access to counterspelling.

That being said, it's only 5 points to change from physad to mystic adept, and I don't see any reason you'd have to put points in to magic, rather than all physical.

Magic isn't used for counterspelling rolls, it's just used to see if you can have it.

And as a sidenote, it does me proud to see all 35 negative points used. So many people stop at 15 or 20....

If he's a mage slayer how come he doesn't have astral sight and assensing? How does he verify that the person is actually a mage?

Changed to Mystic Adept with 6 BP's remaining.

And how does he know someone's a mage? Because they're the ones that go "Ooge Booga" and make people explode?

Good point on Assensing. Will likely end up with 2 ranks there.

Assensing 1 with a specialization in "Mage Auras" yes? Because that's 6 points for 6 dice, which is a good set.

Also, you don't have a mentor spirit. I'd recommend rolling those 6 points in to Mentor Spirit and picking either Mountain or the Adversary. Both are +2 dice to counterspelling. Mountain is a bonus to spirits, which isn't that great. The Adversary is a bonus to manipulation spells, I think. Either one would be useful if you later branch out....

But yeah, get Street Magic. The Unarmed adept has so much goodness to be found in that book....

A smart mage will wear the same gear as his team and carry a gun. Unless you're watching him astrally, it may be hard to tell (if he's good) which one is the mage.

Spell effects don't seem to be always clearly defined; you won't necessarily see the mage flinging balls of fire, just a pulse in his aura if you're astral and then people explode.

I'd recommend sacrificing a point of Magic to actual Magic instead of PP, so that you don't start as a burnout. You'll be a pretty poor mage, but sometimes a spell at Force 1 or 2 can make a difference.

Armor is a nice spell to overcast at force 2. 2 hits is still +2 armor.

I also like Mana Static. 2 successes is 2 background count.

Those are the spells my mystic adept has, and she's basically designed around a similar concept, except with guns.

Get rid of the datajack and pick up some trodes. They do the exact same thing for cheaper and no essense cost (you're a mage, remember?).

Because of rounding, strength 3 does the same damage as strength 4.

I'd take that point and a point of edge and get rid of bad luck.

You can also save points if you make him an ork.

Seeing as how you need a magic rating of 1 to use counterspelling, I'm pretty sure a mystic adept would have to allocate at least one point to "mageness" or whatever you call it, to do the same.

... yeah, checking the mystic adept quality, you need at least a point dedicated to using magic skills. It's in the sorcery skill group, for goodness sake.

There we go. Dropped Edge some to pick up the 6th point of Magic (actual magic, to use the Counterspelling ability).

I'd rather not him be an Ork, just to work well with the Party and their anti-Orc sentiments.

Given the extremely wide variety of tactics, appearances, settings and companies which mages keep, I think you're really going at this the wrong way.

Building a one-trick pony who can dash up and sock people might work once, but I think a true mage-killing adept would be far, far more rounded. Plus, you've got adept powers AND magic AND cyber. Even for a twinked out horrific abortion of a character, that's gotta be hard to handle.

Ditch the aptitude and the Mystic Adept. Pick up Astral Perception, more Infiltration and some stealth gear. You'll want to be able to fight astral entities while Perceiving, so Mystic Armour is your friend.

I'd also go for *many* more offensive options. A headshot from the shadows kills mages very quickly, as does a taser dart from right behind them. A smoke grenade will blind a mage temporarily, and can be followed up by one of your other options. Your build sorta mentions some of this stuff, but you've poured a great deal of BP into socking things in the face.

So yeah. Mr One Punch Wonder here might not be the wizkiller you're hoping for. Not in the real world, at least.

...KK has the High Pain Tolerance 2 quality [Note: If you take this, you can't take the Adept power of the same name too]

IMO the quality is far superior to the adept power since it affects the break points for wound modifiers. The Adept power just gives you a buffer until it is exceeded. Once that happens you take apply wound modifiers as normal.

Dang, Narmio. You're not a fan of adepts, are you?

First you dissed the entire concept of Mystic Adepts

Wait, wait, you're overstating what I said.

Okay. I'll call off the trolls.

I just gotta represent for my mystical homies, yo.

Or something like that....

The mystical adept is probably the hardest character to make and play with, I think. Like you said, you're pulling from 3 (or even 4, if you count all his gear) main sources. That being said, if done well, they can be extremely entertaining.

Thanks for calling off the dogs. I'll call off the horrific abortions, too.

And yeah, agreed, mystic adepts can be really hard to get going, but once you're 50 karma down the road they can start to shine. But I usually find that if you utterly minmax one to begin with, you instead find yourself 50 karma down the road and trying to patch all the holes, while your street-sam buddy is thinking about cash-for-karma or an Underwater specialisation on his basketweaving.

Basketweaving (Tribal Fakery) is much more lucrative....