Only 2 behind a human, or 3 if they use a Charisma-based Tradition.

Troll mages tend to balance a bit more than you'd think because of their lower mental stats screwing their drain resistance. Get centering first.

Try a dwarf. They make beefy little mages.

Do you mean to tell me you don't think there are cooking autosofts and chef drones in 2070? If so, I'm curious why on earth not... If anything, cooking is gonna be pretty darn simple. It's not like a neurosurgery expert system.

I mean, come on. Taco Bell in 2070 better have some goddamn burrito drones, or I'm gonna slap them and ask why they haven't sprung for a cheapo "add beans, cheese, ground beef-like-food-product" instruction set.

Well thats really the whole thing, I've never generally found mages overpowered in every situation. Now and then sure, but no more so than a Sammie could be. I mean under SR3 there was one situation I was in on a run, there was several of us and then we run into this suicide bomber with a deadmans switch. He had like 20 kilos of C12 strapped to himself.

A mage with mind control might easily have diffused the situation. But I cant think of any other ability that would have provided a quick and easy solution that would not have resulted in the bomb going off.

One of the sammies though was an ork hopped up on some crazy cyber/bio, with a dikoted katana and something like 12 dice to throw behind it (under SR3). So he wound up taking the risk of rushing the guy, clamping one hand around the other guys (the one holding the detonator) which he had to make several tests against (Basically he had to get clsoe enough to do it, then roll reaction to do it before the guy could let go of the trigger) and then just ran the guy right through with his sword.

Where uppon I, at the time playing a demo expert quickly rushed in to disarm the bomb while everyone else started beating feet away from the building incase something went wrong.

It may just be that I dont know spells well enough to think of a way a typical mage could deal with a situation like that when everyone is well within the blast radius and theres only a matter of a combat turn before the guy detonates the bomb. Much less totally outshine anyone else.

I do very much agree that the only time I've ever seen spelltossers outshine everyone in a huge way was when there were no appropriate countermeasures. And it doesnt allways have to be magical in nature. I mean the corp security sections make it quite clear that more and more often buildings are using 'living panels' or the much cheaper awakened ivy to cover the outside of buildings, their all using ultra tint windows, specifically so mages cant see inside the building and cast spells on people from the outside etc.

And certainly by 2070 most 'major' buinsesses can easily afford such things as well as a few basic wards and such. With only a small percentage of the world population being awakened of course they wont all have on the job site mages, but they likely would have a few contracts out with LS, KE, HC and other security companies that would be alerted to a break in and respond accordingly. Likely by sending out a few drones and a watcher spirit or two to see what's up first.

In the really high end area of things where your more likely to find runners, especially in cases when it's ultra expensive/important personell/equipment your very likely to have active measures in place to deal with magic. From wagemages to spirits to paracritters and the dreaded FAB III.

COntroll thoughts or actions would have been best, you're right on that one. As for others...

Hmm...

Blast barrier cast around the guy, then smugle sudgest he let go. (Only if you have the spell at a very high force)

is there a disabledevice spell, or did I write that one? Can't remember.

Assuming that the bomb was electrical ignition and c12 has the same properties as c4, use a fire manipulation spell that doesn't explode (that part is very important, you need heat, but boom bad.) The fire fries the electronics (and you're bomber) but c4 is set off by electrical ignition or an explosion. In viatnam they used to light it on fire and cook with it.

Oh yeah they do. With no mental hinderances, and the Will bonus, the little guys are like a long-running mana battery. Coupled with a bit of a nice physical bonus, lets you pump the magic attributes more.

Ive found Orks to be very, very nasty in this role. Their attribute limits are not that bad at all....and their mental attributes can be near max early, due to you not needing to even put anything to their Physical ones at the start.


Now, jumping to the other side of mages and too much...in SR4 i am developing an alternate chargen system that actually brings back an old SR standby, the priority system. Already i am noticing a little bit of a magical nerf out of the box...it doesnt make mages totally overshadowed(far from it), but it does force them to make some tough decisions...so they cant have everything. (and far be it from me to dislike mages either....one of my favorite characters was an adept. Another was mundane. I just have fun.)

That's my observation as well. Street Samurais are very capable, as are mages. Both are good.

Bye
Thanee

You could do both. My usual mage is a healer/detection emphasis with a few combat and illusion spells. With an above average skill level in automatics (or whatever), plus a specialization and a sustaining focus for an Enhanced Reflexes spell, and the mage doesn't stand out much. For magical support they would often use a spirit or two that are high enough level not to take much or any damage from mundane means. Smart goggles or a full Smartlink also helps, though goggles don't hurt the Essence of course.

This does slow magical advancement a bit in the beginning, but I've never had any problems with it in the long run.

That is true. Keeping a character alive can be challenge, especially if the group isn't tactically inclined.