I'm looking to make a good character, but preferably moderately well balanced, in my next post in a few minutes I will post my first draft, but until it comes up feel free to drop suggestions by. I'm not looking for game breaking, I mean the more power the better, but as I am in a party of hyperspecialists there are a few things I have to cover at least moderately well- those things being medicine, preferably secondary first aid, and semi-social skills. (Dice pool doesn't mean too much, seeing as my GM throws pornomancer dice pools at us. Actually, just always a success or two above what I have, edge or no. He plans out the monetary amounts and doesn't want to have to change anything so negotiation doesn't mean jack, unless I don't have it.) So, middling negotiation and etiquette. No con(She does not lie). I'm probably going with magic 5, some mild cyber, geased back to full magic and then Initiate and increase magic to 6 with karma.

I have 35 karma after creation and 48,957 , Oh, and free High Lifestyle for keeping a warehouse warded for the gang I'm in. Free contact at 2/4 named Nightflower, the leader of my gang. I know that the nuyen amount is weird, but we have an odd convention where if we have to replace a character we come in at the same powerlevel. Odd, I know, and a throwback to when we used to play DnD a year or so ago, but it is what we do so... eh.

Again, will post build as soon as I can type it all out, just wanted the few of you awake in this house to get a chance to begin thinking. Again, female magician, Hedge Witch, Follower of the Dark Goddess.

Chris

Yi "Oh Shits! It's that crazy old lady! Run!" Sommer

Human Female

Str - 2
Agi - 1
Ref - 2
Bod - 4
Cha -3
Int - 5
Log - 3
Wil - 5
Att- 170BP

Edge - 4
Magic - 4(5) - Ritual Geas - Must Consume Herbal Tea to resynch her body and mind
Essence - 5.2
Special Att - 60

Qualities - -15
-Magician - Hedge Witch
-Mentor Spirit - Dark Goddess
-Allergy (Common, Moderate) - Soy
-Spirit Bane - Guidance
-Weak Immune System
-Incompetent - Blades

Skills -
-Automatics - 1
-Dodge - 1
-Perception - 1
-First Aid - 1
-Assensing - 2
-Summoning - 4
-Binding - 5
-Counterspelling - 4
-Spellcasting - 5
-Arcana - 1
-Enchanting - 2
-Influence Group - 1
Skills - 118BP

Knowledge Skills
-Street Gangs - 5 - Drug Dealers
-Magic Scene - 3
-Homeopathic Remedies - 4 - Herb Witchery
-Safehouses - 4
-Ecoterrorism - 1
-Magic Theory - 1

Contacts -
-Lo Furok(Yakuza Fixer) C4/L2
-Nightflower(My Gang Leader) C4/L2
Contacts - 6BP

Lifestyle - High - Free as long as I ward their drug manufacturing warehouse

Gear -
-Shock Glove
-Ingram Smartgun X
-Stick N' Shock - 64
-Gel - 64
-Explosive - 64
-Armor Jacket
-Fake Sin Rating 4
-Stim Patch Rating 6 x3
-Power Focus Force 2(Bound)
-Counterspelling (Combat) Focus Force 2(Bound)
-Binding (plant) Focus Force 2(Bound)
-Custom Commlink R5/Si2/Sy5/F5
-Cybereyes Rating 3(Alpha)
-Flare Comp
-Low Light
-Smartlink
-Thermo
-Vision Enhancement II
-Vision Magnification
-Skillwires III
Gear - 25BP
Foci - 6BP

Spells -
-Powerbolt
-Ball Lightning
-Combat Sense
-Heal
-Increase Reflexes
-Orgy
-Physical Mask
-Turn to Goo
-Aspected Mana Static
-Levitate
Spells-30BP

Basically, I'm thinking join an initiatory group (5 Karma) initiate and get Channeling or Invoking, probably Channeling first(7BP with group and ordeal) and raise magic to 6 with 18BP, or leave it at 5 and Initiate 2 more times and get Invoking and Centering(9 Karma and 11 Karma Respectively.) or possibly skip invoking and initiate once for Ally Spirit Conjuring and get a Force 1 ally for sustaining.

With the money, I figured I would mostly buy skillsofts and a vehicle of some kind.

Any suggestions people? I don't want a bloodzilla creator or pornomancer, but if I have any glaring weaknesses I would love to know what they are.

Chris

Specific Spell/Spirit categories need to be assigned to your Binding and Counterspelling Foci.

Gah, they were on the original sheet and I just forgot to copy them over. Thank you, Fortune. PLant for binding(for obvious reasons) and combat for counterspelling. In reality I would prefer manipulation counterspelling, but to date our party has as yet to have a single non-combat spell cast on it so.... safe bet is with combat.

Chris

No other critiques? Am I really that good or just really confusing and boring?

Chris

Basically just looking for major weaknesses and/or ways to round the character out. Suggestions for the karma and money to shore up weaknesses or whatever would be nice as well. I would like a relatively well rounded character, not a bell curve mind you, I AM a magician there will be a spike, but something not crazy specialized. So... any suggestions can only help... or be ignored. But I promise they won't hurt.....unless you have broken fingers, and if so what the hell are you doing typing? Use your nose or tongue!.... I have been awake far too long.

Chris

You might check with your GM to see what if any Mystical Healing rules from Augmentation he/she is implementing. If some of the Mystical Healing techniques are going to be into play, then using skill wires you could could use them, like the enchanter healer, "Here drink this it tastes horrible but it is good for you." I see you have Knowledge skills in such.

Also for healing yourself specializing in Magical Health, via skill wire or by skill will enable you to heal yourself and other magical types easier.

WMS

Now, it might be flat character purposes; but you MIGHT want to consider dropping Str by one and tossing those 10 BPs elsewhere. She doesn't have any combat skills that a 4 vs. 3 Str won't matter, and it could be better in Agl, Reaction, or Body...unless you see her as pretty slow and frail.

But just a suggestion. Otherwise i generally like the character idea. I see alot of skills low; which is cool, can do a little of everything. Perhaps, though, you can take 10 BP from Str and toss them into Skills, to have a couple more 2's in there, with a specialization.

Just a point Wearz, the magical health specialization is only valid for the medicine skill, not the first aid skill.

@Tarantula
On that point I disagree, unless you can site a clearer reading of same.

WMS

Sorry about that guys, as a hazard of writing this up while really tired I transposed some numbers when copying that over. That should be a 2 STR and a 4 body not the other way around. Would like to be able to wear the armor jacket.

Y'know, when not possessed. Oh, someone in another thread addressed spirits getting bored just possessing you all day every day, generally depending on the character and the situation, I try and reward them. I mean it is very likely in my opinion that they have some favorite human things. Sex or food or drink or driving a fast car or TV or whatever, so I try and give them not necessarily equal amounts of time with their favorite things as they are possessing me, but I do them often, especially after a bitch of a run. I'm really nice to my spirits usually.

Chris

Etiquette and Negotiation are part of the Influence skill group. Overall, your skills should add up to 114, not 118.

Your cyberware should have dropped your Magic to 4.

I am confused that she is described as dwarven. You have not added in the cost of the dwarven metatype, have not added the dwarf bonuses to your Attributes, and added the human bonus to Edge. Did you mean that she is a short human?

If you raise any skill, it should be first aid. The rating of the skill determines the maximum damage healable, so First Aid: 1 means you can only heal 1 box of damage. I would also look into getting a rating: 6 medkit, a remarkably cheap way to get 6 bonus dice to first aid.

You might think about getting shock frills on your armored jacket instead of a shock glove. The frills have the advantage that you can activate them, and hurt people who hit you in melee.

Gah, I need to never start a thread while really tired apparently. She is human, or supposed to be. I was thinking originally dwarf, but the BPs just didn't work out. More willpower, more body, good, but I had to lower some skills. The amount healed by first aid is limited by the greater of your first aid or the rating of the kit, I figured a rating 6 first aid kit would be part of the 48k. I have a feeling the rest of the money will mostly go towards skillsofts. I'm geasing my magic back up to 5, again.... I should have listed it, but missed doing it.

Good point about the shock frills though. I wouldn't ever really be able to attack well with the shock glove in the first place. In fact I should really just upgrade the crap out of my armor.

Thanks, I'll modify the first post again and try and get all this stuff right. Thank you all for the help, keep it coming if you can.

A little more info about the group, we have a mystic adept infiltrator who basically runs, hides, and first aids herself DURING combat if she is ever shot or hit with a spell. A cybersam with like .2 essence left. He is a combat monster. We used to have ANOTHER combat monster in the form of a close combat adept(he usually was semi-useless because he couldn't soak damage or dodge worth crap and well... guns have a longer range than fists. This type of party works well with the GMs style, so don't get me wrong I need to be really effective in combat because he throws ALOT at us. I just want to not have alot of weaknesses.

Chris

@DTFarstar
I retrospect, what your character is basically doing is continuously being possessed. Just like a mage who has his focus always on, if you are being possessed by a spirit equal to or greater than your magic rating, then you are in Possession Addiction Burnout.

Basically the same effects as Focus Addiction Burnout. That is the way I as a GM would deal with a character who is constantly addicted to being possessed. What your character is doing is basically showing the signs of said addiction.

WMS

Well... I only plan on being possessed during runs, and usually only Force 4 or so. Partially because four is low enough to not make me a complete monster, and partly because if I ever want to buy anything else then I can't burn services from anything higher than that.

So... I don't think I would really qualify for possession addiction burnout. I dunno, the main thing I'll use is other peoples vehicles and such. I'm a big fan of being inventive with possession. Well, with all magic really. I'm contemplating dropping all combat spells but powerbolt so as to make room for some spells with more options.

So.... let me know what you think WMS.

Chris

@DTFarstar
OOps my gaff, from other threads with characters of a similar types. I read into your character that something that was not there.

But pull back and look at your concept character....if this was a focus that you were using, to me it would sound like one form of focus addiction, not burnout but still an addiction.

Dropping most if not all combat spells...it can and has been done. A lot of the non combat types of spells have very nice effects in and out of combat.

WMS

@HappyDaze
See this topic
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?act=...ST&f=26&t=19511

WMS

The only problem I have with possession addiction is that it can be carried too far. To use Buster's mage in the Mage vs. Street Sam thread as an example, he basically lived possessed. He had physicals of 1 across the board- though I assume since Buster isn't insane that would have been fixed with some of his extra BP if he actually meant to play the character- and lived possessed at Force 12. I can see that being Possession Addiction- Severe, maybe Burnout because it kind of sounded like he slept possessed too. This character however spends well under 10% of her life possessed. Less that 5% probably. I mean, she only possesses herself when on a run or if someone attacks her, and honestly possessing when attacked isn't her first reaction anyway so unless she had some insane run schedule where she spends most days running, I just don't see how she qualifies for addiction. I mean, she might possess herself on an average of 1 day a week, probably a lot less really. I mean if you apply standard addiction rules then if you have the channeling metamagic you are addicted or it is basically useless. So, either ignore the possibility addiction or make up a new chart for it or make channeling a one way ticket to addiction.

Chris

DTFarstar
I agree that your character does not need any addiction(s). But some of the example of such types of characters carried to extreme levels do.

Again RAW does not specify when such addiction tests need to be conducted. That is a GM call. But players need to be aware of it, in case the player's character goes to far.

WMS

I take it no one else has any suggestions/Comments/tweaks?

Chris

@DTFarstar
I would get a bit more specific about what Herbal Tea she has to drink. Like Korean Ginseng, Willamette Alfalfa shoots, South Philippine Sea Kelp, Hawaiian Kava Kava Root, with a Habanero pepper juice.

BAM!!! Kick it up a notch!:D

WMS

It is a preparation she has to make herself, takes about 30-45 mostly uninterrupted minutes all told depending on the available equipment. I haven't quite laid down the specifics of what is in it yet, but I've been experimenting with different teas and teas combinations in real life and I'm slowly getting there.

@DTFarstar
ok, just do not make it something you can buy at K Mart or the likes there of. Something you have to, "make" yourself would be more inline with the geas.

Ideally it has to taste awful, maybe some oil of Castor beans. A taste so bad you make several horrible faces after taking it.

WMS

I think it is going to be some crazy tonic that she has actually acquired a taste for over the years, but to everyone else it is despicably horrific.

Like, Castor Oil, Lemon Juice, Fresh Pressed Lavender and Jasmine leaves with essence of chamomile or something horrid like that.

Chris

I think her safehouse knowledge is going to some from doing homeopathic/spiritual housecalls for runner teams. When someone is really injured and needs to be healed up real quick they can call her in. Transfer a down payment and give her a location and she will swing by with an invoked possession plant spirit or if you need long term care she will come by and mix up some special compounds specifically for your wounds to help you heal.

Chris