Hey folks. I've been fascinated with the SR game ever since I was a kid and I'm finally able to get into a game this summer. My plan is to make a sort of catch-all character since we'll be short handed so I wanted to know if any one had any critiques for this character.

The basic concept for this character is that because we'll be running with fewer players than normal (three, possibly four) I'm going to adopt the positions of face, street shaman, magical healer (major) and mundane healer (minor). The horse shaman should give +2 to summoning beast spirits and a +2 to health spells, which should give me a max of 10 dice on both of those tests instead of 8. I'll be rolling 12 dice for first impressions and 10 for everyone else socially. The DM also tends to give extra successes or what have you depending on how charismatic a person you are and I normally fit this role in his games so I have a little edge there as well. His spells aren't especially strong compared to someone who specializes in magic but because his tradition in shamanic he'll also be rolling 10 dice to resist drain, which means he will be more consistent and can go for longer.

I'm also keeping a lot of the skills at level 1 because I don't know what to expect out of the campaign yet. So I can branch out later depending on my play style.

The only problems I see with this character at a glance is that it'll be hard to upgrade him in any particular direction without neglecting others. So I'll always lag behind somewhere if we add other players and the lack of contacts. I ran out of mojo near the end.

Any advice?

400 BP

Spends 230 on race and stats together

Race: elf
Body: 2/6
Agility: 3/7
Reaction : 3/6
Strength: 2/6
Charisma: 7/8
Intuition: 3/6
Logic: 4/6
Willpower: 3/6
Edge: 1/6
Magic: 5/6

Full essence.

Qualities Cancel each other out in BP

Positive qualities:
Magician
Spirit affinity - Beast
First impression
Mentor Spirit: Horse

Negative Qualities:

Moderate Allergy - Soy
Combat Paralysis

132 BP spent in skills.

Skills:

Skill group: Sorcery 3
Skill group: Conjuring 3
Skill group: Influence 3
long arms 1 (+2 shotgun)
Assensing 1
Astral combat 1
Perception 1
Intimidation 1
First Aid 2 (+2 combat wounds)
Pilot Ground Craft 1 (+2 motorcycles)
Dodge 1

10BP spent in stuff and lifestyle

Stuff:

Docwagon (basic service)
Medkit - Rating 6
Trauma Patch x2
Glue Sprayer
Fake ID Rating 5 (with driver's license and gun license)
Fake ID Rating 3 " "
Mossburg Shotgun with 50 slug and flechette rounds of ammo.
Actioneer Business Clothes (for the social occasions)
Armor Jacket (for out in the field)
Mana Lodge Force 5
Yamaha Growler
Harley-Davidson Scorpion
Biker's Helmet
Gas Mask
Fuchii Redcap with nix operating system (cheapo system)
Seven days worth of clothing.

Mid Lifestyle 1 month

18 spent in spells

Spells:

Lightning Bolt
Stunbolt
Stunball
Heal
Levitate
Shapechange
Detox

Contacts:

Fixer 4/2
Tailsmonger: 2/1

Knowledge Skills:

English: N
Chinese: 3
Japanese: 3
Spanish: 3
Sperethiel 3
Seattle Politics: 2
Magical Theory: 4
New Age Religion: 3

Ditch Lightning Bolt for Mana Bolt. If you need a lethal spell, take the best. Shotgun isn't much use. If a magician needs to use a firearm then the group must be in some seriously deep drek. Also, allergy to soy? That's a death sentence in the Sixth World, omae.

But yeah, you've already spotted your biggest problem: you run the risk of 'multi-classing-to-death.' That is a term my group started using because we have a player in our DnD games that regularly has a lower BAB than single-classed wizards and terrible hps. He does have tremendous saves though...What is hilarious is that that player has what he describes as a street-sam-hacker-rigger in our current SR game...

You'll probably want to focus on Initiation right off since it will provide the biggest boost for the bulk of your abilities...

Ok, for starters, you will have to be very careful.

With no Armor spell, and a 2 Body, and a 3 Agility, you will be taking big minuses for wearing anything more than armor clothing. With a 3 Reaction and 1 Dodge, you won't be able to get out of the way that well. And with only 1 Edge, you can be in big trouble if you take a hit. Combat Paralysis is also going to be a real doozy mixed with everything above. You do have a couple of offensive spells and a shotgun which is good; and it's totally cool to play a more non combat character; but a decent Defense is kinda important. If you wear an armor jacket with a 2 Body, you are going 4 over and going to take a nasty die pool hit.

About the Shotguns not being needed above; Magic has Drain. It's always good, IMO, for a magician to have something to fall back on.

I would knock Charisma down to 6; maybe switch Logic with Willpower, and you will have the same Drain pool. Use that to get your Body to 3 and you can at least wear a 6/4 Armor Vest or Lined Coat without taking a penalty. Or, the Armor Jacket with only a 2 penalty rather than a 4.

Maybe try to scrape up one more point of Edge as well. I think you can get away with a bunch of 1 skills, since you have 3 skill groups at 3.

But that's at a first glance. But it's been discussed here a few times, if you plan on being in the field, the Body 3 is something to shoot for, generally.

Oh, and i've done Soy allergy before. I talked to the GM and we decided that I pay more for my lifestyle and when we go out i pay extra as well. I usually also try to keep at least a Middle or above, since you do eat more real food there. See how your GM will handle it.

I would recommend dropping Astral Combat for something else - use spells if you have to fight on the astral.

I would also suggest putting a bit more into resources, and picking up a Force 3 Sustaining Foci (Health), and take Increase Body as one of your spells. It will give you all the benefits of a higher body, including being able to wear decent armor. Don't use it to often though unless you want to risk a foci addiction (possible replacement for your allergy - in Street Magic)

Don't have a link at the moment, but there are a few threads comparing Dodge to Gymnastics - if you are not familiar with how a Gymnastics dodge works, I would suggest reviewing those threads before deciding which you prefer.

I would also personally take Pistols over Longarms, simply because it is more convenient in most circumstances. Otherwise, looks good (enough for government work, anyways).

One thing you're going to have to decide is how much you want to optimize your character for being used "out of the box"

Why I mean is that at chargen paying 4bp for a skill to get two more dice in it to take you from absolute suck to something maybe survivable works.

However it is BP/Karma inefficient.

I.e. Karma cost of buy a level 4 skill = 22
4 level 1 skills 16 karma

Also you'll be able to pick them up as you go quickly. First adventure, 4 karma, get a level one skill.

I'd be tempted to drop some of the level 1 skills and bundle them together to get a decent ability in one or two things.


Also I'd stick with the lightning bolt. First off I get the feeling this character isn't that bloodthirsty. But beyond that stunbolt puts targets down just as fast without as much drain.

But just as importantly lightning bolt can be used against things like drones which manabolt simply can't (and with only as many casting dice as this char has it's probably still better than a powerbolt which usually wouldn't make threshold).

Some minor nitpicks. Fake ID rating 5 is unavailable at chargen. You have 7 spells, which cost 3BP each, but only claim you spent 18BP on spells.

Your stats don't add up. You spent 160 on attributes, and 30 on race. Total of 190BP.

Qualities and skills are good.

Your gear spending seems to be about right.

I'd say go through and double check all your figures, particularly attributes/contacts. Then use your spare BP you find to shore up some of those 1's to 2's and the like.

Okay, good point. :/

Allergy to soy? Omae, what are you plannin' to eat? real food is expensive you know

I disagree with this advice.

First point, Lightning Bolt is a very good spell, because unlike Manabolt it can do a lot of damage to Drones, which are a massive bane to magicians most of the time. For purely meat targets the Stun Bolt will do the job, if he needs it dead, well he can finish it off with a shotgun round to the head.

Second point that while, the Magician may not be great with the shotgun, it's presence makes it less obvious to adversaries that he's the mage (and hence the one who should be geeked first) if he isn't throwing around spells at the time.

The shotgun was intentional. Most mages are taking pistols or light machine guns because it is lightweight and easy to conceal for the former and the latter doesn't take a genius to hit with full auto. So it won't be as apparent that a mage would be using a shotgun. The thing is, the shotty I have goes full auto with slugs or flechettes and can get incredibly nasty. I can't reload as fast, but really, after that if you haven't wasted everything in the room by then you shouldn't be using guns.

Lightning bolt was specifically to deal with drones and other vehicles. Fire in any form works badly in my party ten times out of ten. Mana bolt just won't cut it and I can deal with drain, not well, but still deal. I may take it later, but I need that BP now. I can spare cred later. Besides, this character isn't geared towards killing.

The soy allergy is something I want to work out with my DM, I'm aware that this is a world of soy dogs, soy milk, soy snacks and everything else soy. But he's a vegetarian and I'm going to bump him up to high lifestyle soon. So unless he hits bottom (he will eventually, and I want this to be a problem) then everything will be fine besides dietary restrictions.

Ditching astral combat. If I can use spells I will.

I'm not seeing exactly where I'm missing that extra 10 from stats.

Elf is 30
The 2/6 body is 10 BP.
The Agility 3/7 is 10 BP due to starting with 2 from racial.
The Reaction 3/6 is 20.
The Strength 2/6 is 10
The Charisma 7/8 is 40 due to starting with 3 from racial.
The Intuition 3/6 is 20.
The logic 4/6 is 30
The Willpower 3/6 is 20.
The Edge 1/6 is 0.
The Magic 5/6 is 40.

That should be 230. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

Also, no focuses. My DM won't outright take them from me, but if there's a party wipe and he doesn't kill us all he'll take all of our stuff including that. And that's if we're lucky.

Other question:

Should I go for a six in magic immediately and reduce some other stats? I'm not exactly sure how many completed runs it will take me to grab the 25 BP needed to hit full magic to then go for initiation.

I think the confusion with "stats" is that you are including the "special" stats of edge and magic in that number. But they're technically different and aren't under the 200BP limit (i.e. you could buy up your stats more from skill or other BP if you wanted to).

Unless you have a weird GM you'll get Karma not BP during adventures. it takes 18 karma to get to level 6 that should take about 4 sessions. Though some Montey Haul GMs will give you that much in 2....

You use Karma to advance after character creation. New rating x 3 for attributes (including magic & edge), and 10+(new rating x 3) for initiation grades. You can reduce initiation costs by up to 40% through group initiation & ordeals - details found in Street Magic.

About the foci, they are increadably useful, and highly recommended. Unless you are playing with a GM that makes it a habbit of constantly removing the PC's equipment, they are worth the investment in nuyen & karma

Updated and perhaps final character.

As soon as possible I plan to raise my strength and edge in that order. After that I'll go straight for more magic and then initiation since that's where the majority of the neato magical skills are. I made my character great at spellcasting, summoning and since I had a gigantic amount of charisma I decided to dump social skills (one of the group is going to play a dedicated face and I don't feel like changing my idea on the horse shaman) but also to pump intimidation to a respectable level. I may grab the influence subset eventually but this would be later on. I plan to play someone who was a decent runner at one point who was even on the verge of going legit, perhaps even retiring from running at a young age but a long string of terrible runs has damaged not only his reputation but his bank account and even his social skills as he began to descend into depression. The prolonged fall from grace turned circle down the toilet has made him a dangerous nervous wreck of a man. Currently the only person that he can trust in the world is his therapist, whom he met two years ago after his third unsuccessful run in a row. This is just as much for flavor as it is for my GM to play out for fun. Hopefully he'll latch onto it.

Positives of the character:

- An excellent spellcaster and summoner.
- A decent mundane healer (the rating 6 medkit really helps) and an excellent magical healer who rolls 12 instead of 10 because of the horse spirit connection.
- Drain resistance. He has 10 for resistance to magical drain, which means he'll be able to cast stun bolts all day with little chance of taking any drain from it. And he can summon spirits with less drain.
- Shapechange makes him very versatile and he can change into any animal with up to 1 to 5 body. Net hits increase animal attributes. Incredibly useful.
- Can bind up to 7 different spirits due to high charisma. I'll probably never have that many but you never know.
- Great at intimidation.
- Beast Spirit Affinity.
- Looks incredibly fun to play.

Negatives of the character:

- Geek the mage. He's not a front line fighter and if he starts drawing attention to himself he's screwed. Invisibility helps with the getaway however.
- No gun. See geek the mage. I may fix this later. Much later.
- No foci. I'll get those later, but I was more focused on spell versatility rather than enormous power. I'm wary about using these anyway because of possible addiction.
- Minimum strength and edge. I'll shore them up by a point each to start but I'll never have high levels of either. I never intended to take bad luck without at least a two in edge anyhow. I'm just getting it later when it is cheaper with karma.
- No social skills. If the game runs long (and I expect it to) I'll invest in the influence skill group to shore that up. The high charisma attribute makes it possible to go without and we already have a dedicated face.
- No fixer contact and few other contacts. This can be solved with the application of cred later on.
- Soy allergy in a world full of soy.



Elf (30)
Body 3/6 (20)
Agility 3/7 (10)
Reaction 3/6 (20)
Strength 1/6 (0)
Charisma 7/8 (40)
Logic 3/6 (20)
Intuition 3/6 (20)
Willpower 3/6 (20)
Edge 1/6 (0)
Magic 5/6 (40)

Advantages
Magician (15)
Spirit Affinity: Beast (10)
Spirit Mentor: Horse (5)

Disadvantages
Minor Allergy: Soy (10)
Incompetence: Cybertechnology (5) (Has high disdain for the way that cyberware and bioware disrupt the body)
Bad Luck (20)


Skills 143
Skill group: Summoning 5 (50)
Skill group: Spell Casting 5 (50)
Gymnastics 2
Pilot Ground Craft 1 (+2 Motorcycles)
Intimidation 5
Perception 1
First Aid 1 (+2 Combat Wounds)
Assensing 1


Spells:

Heal
Stun Bolt
Stun Ball
Lightning Bolt
Invisibility (real) (+2 to resist drain with fetish)
Shape Change
Armor (+2 to resist drain with fetish)

Contacts:

Tailsmonger: 2/1
Therapist: 2/4

Knowledge Skills
English: N
Sperethiel: 3
Chinese: 3
Botany: 3
Spirits: 3
Parazoology: 3
Street Rumors: 3


Stuff (7 BP)
Medium Lifestyle, one month: 5000
Mana Lodge Force 5: 5000
Suzuki Mirage (racing bike): 6500
Level 4 Fake SIN w/ Driver's license: 4400
Level 3 Fake SIN " ": 3300
Novatech Airware Commlink with Mangadyne Deva OS: 2050
Biomonitor: 300
Lined Coat: 700
Medkit Level 6: 600
Trauma Patch x2: 1,000
Glue Sprayer: 150
Gas Mask: 100
Survival knife: 50
Binoculars: 100
White noise Generator Rating 6: 300
Micro Transceiver Rating 5: 1000
Manipulation Fetish (armor): 600
Health Fetish (Increase Reflexes) 100
Wardrobe of Street and Social Clothing (Two outfits worth 500 each, five outfits worth 100 each): 1500
Houseplants (A small assortment of ferns, flowers, five large tomato plants and several herbs made for making incense and cooking grown from seeds along with UV lamps to help them grow. All mundane in nature.) 2000

Ok, a few thoughts. Generally a good character with a few minor issues.

1. A starting strength of 1? As a GM I'd never allow it without a really good explanation and even if I took it, I'd make the character work to get it up to a 2 and then a 3. I guess if you're GM goes for it, ok, but for me it's a bit too min-max.
2. The incompetent: Cybertechnology I'd have a hard time accepting as well. Not only is it a skill you don't have, but it's not one the character would have reason to eventually pick up right? So if that's the case, why should it be worth 5 points? I've even seem some character creation programs for SR4 that won't let you take Incompetent with any skill you don't possess. I'm not sure if that's official or not, but something I thought interesting.
3. I believe the highest level you can start a skill group at during character creation is 4.
4. I'd use some of those points you get back from lowering the 2 skill groups to 4 to pick up say Ettiquette 3 and say Automatics (SMG) 2(4). You'd need to find 2 more points, but that's not bad. SMGs are a nice compromise between the light pistols and the long arms. Serious enough to pose a threat and concealable enough to hide away. Get a set of contacts or glasses with flare comp and a smartlink and it at least puts you up to a respectable number of dice for using the weapon. You can lay down reasonable suppression fire for your buddies at least.

Those would be my suggestions at least.

With a sweep of his...

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