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Buster
I had a few minutes this afternoon to twink my munchkin mage. He's built with normal chargen rules and 35 karma and 50000 nuyen of no-availability-limit extra cash.

Any comments, advice, or hysterical rants?

High points:
Immunity to Normal Weapons 20
Initiative 33
4 IP
Body, Agi, and Str all 11 each
Chr 7
Irresistable mind control spells (watch out if he lights his cigar in front of you)
Great versatility from spells, voodoo spirits, and skillsofts

Low points:
His only real weakness is that if he has to walk into a Ward without setting off the alarm, he'll have to spend a couple turns reactivating his spells (and probably a few more IP to get the full 8 hits on his increase attribute spells without using Edge). The drain from overcasting his Summoning every dawn and dusk would get to be a real drag, but his Trauma Damper and First Aid+Medkit should cancel out the odd boxes that make it past his 18 drain resistance dice and he can burn an Edge point if the spirit scores a spectacular number of hits.

Leftovers:
I didn't spend all his cash, I'm sure I'd buy an armored jacket and maybe some Social skillsofts to take advantage of his high Chr. There's a karma point I have leftover that I guess I'll just give as a tip to my Ally Spirit.

Variants:
Cut the spirit's force to ensure an easy drain test.

QUOTE (Mage)

Build point summary:
30 Elf
0 Physical Attributes
120 Mental Attributes
105 Special Attributes
78 Active Skills
35 Positive Qualities
-35 Negative Qualities
36 Learn 12 spells
2  Bind rating 2 foci
29 Cyberware + Gear (145,000 ¥)
0 Contacts
= 400 BP Total

5 karma Magical Group membership
7 karma  Initiate rating 1 (Channeling)
8 karma  Initiate rating 2 (Ally Conjuration)
8 karma  Ally Spirit
6 karma Logic 2
1 karma ???
= 35 karma

Spellcasting dice:  17 manipulation (13 all other spells) = 5 Magic + 10 (6) Spellcasting + 2 Power focus

Drain Resistance dice: 18 = 7 Chr + 9 Willpower + 1 Daredrenaline + 2 Focused Concentration

Initiative:  33 = 21 React + 9 Int + 3 Increased Reflexes.

Spells sustained by Ally Spirit:
Increased Reflexes force 4 (DV 1) +3 init, +3 IP
Increased Reaction force 10 (DV 3)
Increased Intuition force 9 (DV 2)
Increased Willpower force 9 (DV 2)


Physical Mask force 5 (DV 3) (hides the shamanic mask effect of his possession spirit)

Possessing spirit: rating 10 Guardian
Summoning: 15 dice (5 magic + 4 summoning + 2 mentor + 2 spec + 2 power focus)
vs 10 dice from spirit
DV = 2 * raw hits scored by spirit
Immunity to Normal Weapons 20
+10 all physical attributes
Dual Nature

Detailed Build:
METATYPE: Elf (30 BP)
PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES (0 BP)
Name Score  Cost
Bod: 1 (11) 0
Agil: 2 (12) 0
Reac: 1 (11)(21) 0
Str: 1 (11) 0

MENTAL ATTRIBUTES (120 BP)
Name Score  Cost
Cha: 7    40
Int: 5 (9)  40
Log: 2    0 6 karma
Will: 5 (9)    40

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES (105 BP)
Name  Score  Cost
Edge:  5    40
Magic: 6 (5)  65
Ess:  5.00

ACTIVE SKILLS (78 BP)
Skill      Cost
Spellcasting 6 (Manipulation 10) 26
Summoning 4 (Guardian 8_)  18
Counterspelling 4 (Combat 6)  18
Assensing 4    16

POSITIVE QUALITIES (35 BP)
Mystic Adept (Voodoo)    10
Mentor (Raven) (Guardian instead of Air) 5
Focused Concentration (rating 2)  20

NEGATIVE QUALITIES (-35 BP)
(whatever)

SPELLS (12 = 36 BP)
Name    DV (force 5)    Dice pool
Stunball  3      13
Powerbolt  3      13
Influence  3 (4 if multicast with Ignite)  17
Ignite  1 (1 if multicast with Influence) 17
Alter Memory  4      17
Physical Mask  3      13
Increased Reflexes 3 (force 4)    13
Improved Invisibility 3      13
Levitate  3      17
Increased Reaction 2 (force 9)    13
Increased Intuition 2 (force 9)    13
Increased Willpower 2 (force 9)    13



CYBERWEAR + GEAR (145,000 nuyen, 29 BP)

FOCI (2 BP binding)
50,000 Power Focus (rating 2)

CYBERWARE (Cost = 88,000 ¥)
Cost  Essence Name Rating
25000  (0.1) EPE: Daredrenaline (+1 all Willpower tests)
(40000) (0.2) Trauma Damper (-1 Stun or 1 Physical -> 1 Stun)
12000  0.64 Skillwires 4 (alpha)
(4000)  upgrade to Skillwires 4
3000  0.1 Skillwires Expert System
= 40,000


12000 ActiveSoft: First Aid 4
12000 ActiveSoft: Dodge 4
12000 ActiveSoft: Perception 4
12000 ActiveSoft: Infiltration 4
= 48,000

GEAR (Cost = 7,000 ¥)
(whatever)
Biomonitor
First Aid Kit (rating 6)
Fake Sin (rating 4)
Fake License (practice magic) (rating 4)

Narse
I like this build much better than the one you posted in the other thread.

I'd just like to point out that for around 50,000 nuyen.gif (51,200 to be exact) you can get an Ares Citymaster which has Immunity to All Weapons 20.
Naysayer
QUOTE (Narse)
I'd just like to point out that for around 50,000 nuyen.gif (51,200 to be exact) you can get an Ares Citymaster which has Immunity to All Weapons 20.

...until Cain comes along and has his Mr. Lucky one-shot-kill the driver with a Slivergun ; )

Kyoto Kid
QUOTE (Narse)
I like this build much better than the one you posted in the other thread.

I'd just like to point out that for around 50,000 nuyen.gif (51,200 to be exact) you can get an Ares Citymaster which has Immunity to All Weapons 20.

...I would have pulled the "not available at Chargen" rule but then this character already assumes some Karma has been awarded (the initiations and group membership) so yes he could very well have one.

The only thing though, a Citymaster can't cast or sustain spells which would mean all of his physical attributes would be 1s or he would glow like an X-mas tree with all the sustaning foci needed to hold those spells up and his attributes wouldn't be as sweet and "munchy".

Negative qualities: aww c'mon Buster, take Simsense Vertigo (+10), a couple of meaningless Incompetences like Aircraft Mechanic or Artisan: Cello (+5 each) SINner (+5), and a common/mild or uncommon/moderate Allergy (+10). There, +35 BPs
Buster
My favorite is "Incompetent: Pilot Anthroform" which gives you 5 bonus BP for being unable to pilot non-existent vehicles.
Glyph
As a GM, I would probably have a problem with a so-called mystic adept with no points allocated to adept abilities. Plus, the concept depends on some rules interpretations that I disagree with (a spirit sustaining more than one spell at a time, "Be me for the day" as a valid service for a spirit), and a mage abusing spirits this way would eventually have his ally turn on him (to the best of its ability), and have those high Force possessing spirits start spending Edge to resist the summoning test. Like most munchkin builds, he depends on a lax or lenient GM.
Buster
QUOTE (Glyph @ Oct 21 2007, 06:53 PM)
As a GM, I would probably have a problem with a so-called mystic adept with no points allocated to adept abilities.  Plus, the concept depends on some rules interpretations that I disagree with (a spirit sustaining more than one spell at a time, "Be me for the day" as a valid service for a spirit), and a mage abusing spirits this way would eventually have his ally turn on him (to the best of its ability), and have those high Force possessing spirits start spending Edge to resist the summoning test.  Like most munchkin builds, he depends on a lax or lenient GM.

I don't see how this is "abusing" spirits at all. He's Summoning a new spirit every dawn and dusk, suffering Drain every time. The mage is the one getting abused! biggrin.gif

I'm not sure what you mean by "'be me for the day' as a valid service" but I'm thinking you haven't read the description for Channeling metamagic?

I'm not sure why you have a problem with a Mystic Adept with no points in Adept powers, but you can call him an Aspected Mage if you like.

An Ally can sustain multiple spells of any force with no penalties. Personally, I would house rule that spirits (including Ally spirits) can't sustain a spell that has a higher force than their force, but that's another thread.
Kyoto Kid
QUOTE (Buster)
My favorite is "Incompetent: Pilot Anthroform" which gives you 5 bonus BP for being unable to pilot non-existent vehicles.

...that is a good one

...though that may change when they pull them out of their Arse in a month or so.

...stay tuned (I guess...)
Jaid
QUOTE (Kyoto Kid)
QUOTE (Buster @ Oct 21 2007, 06:50 PM)
My favorite is "Incompetent: Pilot Anthroform" which gives you 5 bonus BP for being unable to pilot non-existent vehicles.

...that is a good one

...though that may change when they pull them out of their Arse in a month or so.

...stay tuned (I guess...)

iirc, the kanmushi counts as anthroform based on SR4's definition of anthroform.
Glyph
I have read the description for the channelling metamagic. It creates more of a balance between the two minds, so that the mage has more control. It still doesn't affect how services are defined. Like the book, I wouldn't nickel and dime mages on every little thing, like tying your shoes or getting a bite to eat. But valid services would be things like "Help us get past these guards" or "Get this security door open", not "Stick around all day and buff me up."

And there is where a high-Force spirit would feel abused, especially a Loa. You might be in control, but the spirit is still there too. It will get bored and want to do something else, it will have things it wants to do itself, and if it is ignored so it can simply buff your stats all day, it won't be pleased.

Similarly, an ally spirit won't appreciate being used as a living sustaining focus all day. And all it says about ally services is that they don't expire. But the spell sustaining service consistently talks about single spells, so a strict reading of the rules wouldn't allow multiple spells to be sustained by the ally spirit.

Mystic adept, like the other awakened qualities, are meant to be taken by characters who are serious about developing them. So a GM would be well within reason to refuse the quality to someone basically looking to play a spellcaster for 5 points less. As an aspected mage, you would still need to pay the 15 points, so you would be over the 35 point limit and have to drop one of your other positive qualities.


And don't take any of this personally. It's not like this is a character submitted to an actual campaign of mine or anything, so I don't really care. You wanted comments and advice, so I'm saying how a GM might look at this character and have problems with it. That's the problem with rules exploit builds. They tend to get extra scrutiny, and the GM will use the most stringent interpretations of the rules to knock it down.
Big D
Meh. Keep a bound Task around with Pilot(Anthroform) as a bonus power.

Personally, I like the idea of Spirit Bane (Blood/Radiation/Toxic). If you ever meet one, they'll be trying to kill you first anyways, if they're smart enough to recognize you as the biggest threat. And yet, it's not entirely out of bounds, because it does give the GM ample room to make you earn the BP.

EDIT: As for the channeling abuse, during a "normal" day, you'd be able to get away with a single spirit; but, if you got into multiple combats, had to call on powers, or things like that, you'd burn through your tasks in a hurry and have to resummon at probably a bad moment.

Which is where a high-force Possession Ally with a smattering of skills and spells would be more useful. The only catch is, that's a lot more karma.
Buster
QUOTE (Glyph)
I have read the description for the channelling metamagic. It creates more of a balance between the two minds, so that the mage has more control. It still doesn't affect how services are defined. Like the book, I wouldn't nickel and dime mages on every little thing, like tying your shoes or getting a bite to eat. But valid services would be things like "Help us get past these guards" or "Get this security door open", not "Stick around all day and buff me up."

"Possess me for 12 hours" doesn't seem any more unreasonable than "Use Guard on me for 12 hours" or "Set fire to anyone who walks through that door in the next 12 hours."
Buster
QUOTE (Big D)
EDIT: As for the channeling abuse, during a "normal" day, you'd be able to get away with a single spirit; but, if you got into multiple combats, had to call on powers, or things like that, you'd burn through your tasks in a hurry and have to resummon at probably a bad moment.

True, but I don't need the spirit do anything but possess me. I'll do all the fighting, he just has to watch the show.

Good point about the blood/toxic spirit bane, I might steal that idea!
Big D
If I were in that position, there would be times I would want Movement and Concealment, at the very least. Each time you flick the switch on each one, that's a task...

So, normally, the spirit would be just for INW+stats (and note that possession buffs should stack with spell buffs, so go ahead and have your ally sustain physical stat buffs, too)?

The one downside to all of this is that you lose the magnificent flexibility of a Materializing spirit. But then, you could always grab an ally and twink it into a True Form Inhabitation merge, which is essentially the same thing. You just can't do it with non-allies.
Buster
QUOTE (Big D)
So, normally, the spirit would be just for INW+stats (and note that possession buffs should stack with spell buffs, so go ahead and have your ally sustain physical stat buffs, too)?

Exactly. It's difficult to use a bound spirit to sustain a spell, because the lazy bastards only sustain it for (force) turns. You can't even use summoned spirits to sustain a spell at all. Therefore, the ally spirit is perfect for sustaining spells.

Also, since it's a guardian spirit, he could grow some nifty claws too and use those all day with his 11 strength. But I thought the 33 initiative, 11 physical stats, and immunity to normal weapons 20 was enough...
Big D
Hmmm. Make that a decent-force (4+) ally, and I'd see your point... you could get by with the ally's powers, and would only use the summoned spirit's powers in extreme emergencies.

Of course, at some point, you just throw enough karma at the ally, and have it possess you itself semi-permanently. But then, any mage, given enough karma, eventually eats dragons for breakfast.
Narse
Personally I think Ally spirits using Inhabitation are much more hardcore. Remember in a flesh form you retain all the vessel's powers, skills and memories. So by having your ally inhabit a vampire you pick up Regeneration and Mist Form as well as any 'ware said vampire already had (not sure vamps can get 'ware but whatever, you get the idea).
Big D
Given enough karma, I'd pick one of each. For a Possession tradition, that actually means 3.

True Form Inhabitation(effectively Materialization) for its de facto teleportation and insanely fast movement.

Possession to turn you into Chuck Norris.

Inhabitation into a custom-built borg (vampire, jarhead, bioengineered clone with .01 essence left, "whatever gives you the most plusses") for the ebil.

You just need karma... lots and lots of karma. Fortunately, there are cheats to do that.
Tarantula
You have problems with your BP + karma build. Build the BP first, then add the karma. Not BP and karma together at the same time.
Tarantula
Now that I have the time, I'll go through your build.

First, your mentor spirit. You changed the bonuses it gives. Why should raven grant a bonus to guardian spirits instead of spirits of air? If you're going that far, just make up your own mentor spirit, call it Buster, and have it grant bonuses to all that you want. Make it +2 to drain and +2 to channeled spirits force. Why not?

As far as your cyberware goes, whats "upgrade to skillwires 4". You need to break down your chargen build, and then break down the spending of your post chargen nuyen and karma.
Glyph
I can kind of figure out what he was doing with the skillwires. He got Level: 3 Skillwires at char-gen for 12,000, then spent 4,000 post-char-gen to upgrade them to 4. It is a bit confusing, I'll admit.


I know the boosted Attributes are mostly an interim thing before he gets possessed by the spirit he's channelling, but I see two problems. One is that he is assuming the maximum number of successes, 9 or 10, despite the fact that he is only rolling 13 dice for health spells. I would insist on seeing the rolls, and having him soak Drain, each time. Plus, they can only increase an Attribute up to the Force of the spell, which is probably a moot point, since with 13 dice he would be unlikely to even get that 8 or 9 successes. He could probably get a respectable set of Attributes from his buffing spells, but I doubt he could consistently max them out like that.
Tarantula
Uhh, its 16,000 for skillwires 4. You don't get to upgrade for the difference.
Glyph
It's a GM call, although I would probably run 'ware upgrades that way too (you need to buy it at the new rating). Any page number to support that ruling?
NightRain
QUOTE (Glyph)
It's a GM call, although I would probably run 'ware upgrades that way too (you need to buy it at the new rating). Any page number to support that ruling?

It's a new piece of equipment. Unless it explicitly states you can upgrade one piece of equipment to another, then it's safe to assume you can't, just like real life smile.gif
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