Name: Jack
Body: 3
Agility: 4 (6)
Reaction: 3
Strength: 3 (5)
Charisma: 4
Intuition: 3
Logic: 3
Willpower: 4
Edge: 4
Magic: 5 (4)
Initiative: 6
Essence: 5

Active Skills, Counterspelling : 3, Ritual Spellcasting : 3, Spellcasting : 3, Automatics : 2, Longarms : 2, Pistols : 2, Banishing : 2,
Binding : 2, Summoning : 2, Cybertechnology : 2, First Aid : 2, Medicine : 2, Dodge : 1 (Ranged Combat) : 2, etiquette 1 (corporate),

Knowledge Skills
English : N, Japanese : 2, Italian : 2, Or'zet : 2, Magical Threats : 1, Ares Macrotechnology : 2, Chemistry : 1, Biology : 1, Club Music : 1, Corp. Security Tactics : 1, Black Markets : 1, Magical Threats : 1, Lone Star Procedures : 1, Medical Background : 2

Cyberwares
Cybereyes Basic System (Rating 2) alpha
+ Low-Light Vision
+ Thermographic Vision
+ Vision Magnification
+ Vision Enhancement (Rating 2)
Datajack alpha
Ear Damper alpha

Biowares
Muscle Augmentation 2, Muscle Toner 2

Positive Qualities:
mage adept

Negative Qualities
Addiction, mild (adrenalin junkie) , SINner, Allergy com/mild, Addiction, mild (stims), Allergy com/mild


Weapons
10x Spare Clips
Quick-Draw Holster
Silencer
10x Gel Rounds (10 shots)
10x Stick-n-Shock (10 shots)
2x Ares Predator IV
2x Ingram Smartgun X

Armors
Clothing (Regular), Leather Jacket, Auctioneer Business Clothes, Helmet (Regular), Armor Jacket

Vehicles
Suzuki Mirage (Racing Bike)

Equipment
Commlink : Novatech Airware, Commlink : 3 Commlink : Meta Link, Tag Eraser
Stealth RFID Tags (40), 2 Holo Projectors, 20x Datachip, 8x Datasoft (various fields of interest) (Rating 6), 4x Mapsoft (seatle and the corperate compound he works at (Rating 6), Sim Recording (expensive), 20x Sim Recording (above average), Virtual Person, Virtual Pet, Wall Space, Blackout (Rating 3), OS : Iris Orb, OS : Vector Xim, 2x Sustaining Focus (Rating 3), Contact Lenses (+Flare Compensation +Smartlink), Rappeling Gloves, Microwire ( 100 m) Biomonitor Medkit (Rating 6) 5x Stimulant Patch (Rating 3) 2 Fake Sin (Rating 4)
Magical Lodge Materials (Rating 3) Earbud (+ Audio Enhancement (Rating 3) + Select Sound Filter (Rating 3))
10x Fake License (Rating 4), Respirator (Rating 6), Flashlight, Wire clippers, Containment Manacles, 5x Metal Restraint

Spells
Stunbolt
Heal
Increase Reflexes
Levitate
Improved Invisibility (modified to deal with sonar/radar, etc. by making it multisense)
Type : P Range : LOS Duration : S DV : (F/2) + 3 Realistic multisense The number of Hits is the treshold to resist the spell.

Powers
Sustenance
Eidic sense memory
Pain Relief

Contacts
Talismonger (L:2 C:3)
Fixer (L:6 C:5)

Jack is a wannabe. He passed through much of his early life rather unremarkable but always wanting to be more. When he finished high school he got really lucky on his S.A.T.s and made it into med school, where he was again decidedly average. During this time his awakening occurred, and he found that he did in fact have an aptitude for magic. It was at this point the University offered him a magical scholarship, but he asked that he be permitted to finish his med school studies just to get MD behind his name, and so he could open a magically assisted healing practice when he got out. Being motivated by now having a future he finished off his med degree and did a masters in magical practice.

After his schooling was over he began a small but promising career as a GP in a nice neighborhood in Seattle. While he did have almost everything most people could hope for, Jack wanted a more exciting life, and dreamed of running in the shadows but didn't have the courage to start, or know how to begin, but as fate would have it however he got his chance. Once night after a party at one of his friends places Jack was walking back to the bus stop when he noticed some movement in the shadows up ahead. At this point he cast his invisibility and went in to check it out. What he saw happening in the basement of a parkade was some sort of exchange going on, for a little girl who was being held. Jack called up the 3 spirits he had bound a the time, and cast improved reflexes on his guardian spirit, and have the other two move near the girl and her father should a fire fight break out. He hated violence and hopped the situation would resolve without any, but also feared that if you would resort to kidnapping, murder wasn't far off. Turns out he was right. After the money had traded hands and the girl was turned over to her father, the gang decided to try and erase the wittinesses. They got as far as drawing the weapons and making the threat before the 2 force 5 task spirits possessed the father and daughter with orders to get them to safety and the force 5 Guardian spirit took over Jack with orders to put down the kidnappers. The fight was over before it even began, the kidnappers saw their prey fleeing on opened fire on them with pistols, and an smg. This only inspired Jack's guardian spirit to be more... forceful in its approach. After the fight was over which took all of 4 and 1/2 seconds Jack's spirits departed, and he ended the invisibility spell. Checked what was left of the gangers to see if any of them were still alive, and in need of medical attention, but it appeared the guardian spirit took its orders to seriously to allow any of them to survive. Jack then went to the father and daughter explained who he was, and why he was there, to calm them, and then ordered his spirits to depart.

As it turned out the girl was a grand daughter of a higher level Aries manager. It looked like the gang didn't really know who they really had they abducted the girl, and had tried to extort the father, and didn't know about the grandfather. They kept him from contacting police by telling him they had a spirit watching him, and if he did anything funny they'd kill the girl. They actually didn't have any magical backup but their bluff kept the father obedient. The Grandfather was greatful when he heard the news about the rescue, and offered Jack of job working at one of the hospitals on the Ares compound where he worked. Jack became a good friend of a the family, and when the Grandfather learned of his dreams of adventure he made quiet arrangements for Jack to acquire some ware and weapons training and to accompany runner teams on various assignments which were 'reasonably safe' to keep him from seeking out other more dangerous forms of entertainment.

You can only know spellcasting x2 spells, you know 2 too many.

He's binding force 5 spirits (that cause physical drain) and he wants more danger?

Are your skills all in skill groups?

Sorcery (group) 3
Conjuring (group) 3
Biotech (group) 2
Firearms (group) 2

and

Dodge (ranged) 2

Do you have 28 points (140K) tied up in resources?

I've been thinking about the consequences of Physical Drain for Summoning, Binding and other "downtime" activities, and I'm wondering if the risks aren't a bit exaggerated. At least you can Heal physical Drain. And being a medic...

Sorry, thought it was linked to magic, not spell casting, my bad. Removed hybernate and lightning bolt, and replaced them with
etiquette: 1 (corporate), can't believe I didn't include that in the first place, must have deleted it by accident.


The force 5 spirits were being done before the ware was installed, when he had a magic of 5, they would have only caused stun.




Yes they are.




Total cost of gear including ware is 154,585
So should be 31 points total.
If it doesn't add up, I appologise, as I used one of those online generators do the math for me.

Nope. That was errata'd back in '06.

In my opinion, that's just pure cheese.

Not sure why they'd bother you, as they were part of the background, and not a factor in the character anymore, unless you simply hate possession tradition mages?

You're right. I was mistakenly thinking that your character still actually had them as Bound Spirits.

I was actually hopeing for advice about the playability of the character, and/or ways to improve it.

Only that magic allocated to spellcasting determines what spells and spirits cause physical drain. Whole magic is used only for things like forcing your way through wards and so on.

As for the binding drain on a force 5 spirit:



so you have a ~21% chance of needing to soak 10 or more boxes of drain. You have a real risk of death (14+ boxes) around 1.6% of the time. And the odds quickly catch up with you if you do it often.

Well, the problem with the mystic adept is that they are a very hard thing to build right, especially if you want any spellcasting.

If you want to be a member of the master race (an ork) and are willing willing to drop banishing and ritual spellcasting then you can get somewhere.

400 pts
Ork
Mystic Adept
35 points in flaws

Body 4
Agility 3
Reaction 3
Strength 3
Charisma 4
Intuition 3
Logic 4 (6)
Willpower 5

Edge 3
Magic 5 (4) (assume 3 for spellcasting and 1 for adept powers)

Essence 5.3

Biotech (Group) 3
Binding 4
Summoning 4
Counterspelling 4
Spellcasting 6
Etiquette 1
Dodge 3

6 spells

force 2 power focus

Platelet Factories
Cerebral Booster 2

Vision Enhancment 3 (stand alone)
Vision Magnification (stand alone)

Contacts 16 points

54,500 Y left of 155,000 Y for stuff

You are missing out on good passive defense (reaction), and you don't have a sustaining focus to get more IP. On the plus die, you can spells with 11 dice, and summon and bind with 9. You have 11 dice for drain resistance (logic tradition), which you will really need as plenty of your spells will cause physical drain. You have platelet factories for when you really screw the pooch on the drain. Get a trauma damper later, for even for drain resistance, or even replace your platelet facts with one, if you can find the cash. Your boosted logic plus higher biotech group gives you 9 dice, making also believable as a doctor.

As I understand it, the number of points you devote to mana skills determines how many dice you add to such tests, I didn't see anywhere in the BBB which indicated it limited the force of the spirits you were calling. If you can show me I'd like to see it, as the mystic adept leaves me a little confused as to limites and the like at times.

I have built a Mystic Adept Healer before, but then most of my adepts do not use any cyberware/bioware/nanoware etc. Yes that makes the character gimped at start but fits the background for the character. She also is human rather than ork.

WMS

In the errata:

Thanks. Just wish they'd have stuff like that in the main book. Makes it hard to have to search across the books, the faq, and the errats to actually know whats going on.

He could have them out of chargen, you know. There are rules for starting the game with bound spirits. We could even say that they're the same spirits, just with additional service rituals done on a regular basis.

I'm also currious how you would ever see them doing me more then 10 poitns of damage during the binding ritual?
its force X 2 to resist, not force X 4

If a mage has spells like thermographic vision up, can he use it to target other spells at a warm body in a pitch black room?

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I don't care about the Bound Spirits (assuming they existed). I have a problem with the Bounds Spirits' Force (5), being that the character cannot at present actually summon anything with a Force that high.

In SR4, it's 2x the spirit's total successes on its binding test, minimum 2. So, if it got all successes, a force 5 spirit could dish out 10 drain; if it got no successes, then it's 2. Force doesn't really have anything to do with it; it's all about the total successes. I don't know how it could deal out more damage without you botching, unless it used Edge.

BBB page 180


So a force 5 spirit rolls 10 dice to resist binding.

BBB again


So if the spirit gets 3 hits on its 10 dice, the binding drain is 6. It it manages to get 7 hits on 10 dice, the binding drain is 14.

--------------

Re: Thermographic
A mage can use any sight enhancement that is natural (such as the orks low light vision), or any enhancement paid for with essence, or any enhancement that uses the original light (telescopes, mage sight goggles, binoculars). An enhancement that is simply computer generated imagery (cameras, any non cyber vision enhancement, etc) can't be used to target spells. Also, spells which enhance your perception (clairvoyance, the various vision enhancing spells) can't be used for spell targeting either. I guess there's an argument for you being able to use any vision enhancements of a shapechanged form to target spells though.

Yep your right.... so a force 5 sprit who uses its edge will kill most summoners.
15 dice to resist... should be getting about 7 hits with edge (rule of 6), times 2 means 14 points of damage. That is more then just a little retarded. And if they hate being bound as much as the book indicates, there be no reason for them not to do so, if they stood a good chance of knocking out the mage so they could break free and then kill the sucker.

I believe you were trying to calculate typical values. For the effect of the rule of 6, simply multiply the number of dice by 1.2 before dividing by 3. So 15 dice, including edge, with rerolling 6s, has an expected value of 6 hits.

Note also that the base shadowrun mechanic has a large statistical variation. And reroll 6s has an even larger variation.

JoelHalpern

Which still results in a nearly 50% of most mages being knocked out, and killed by trying to bind a force 5 spirit.

I am not following you.
Firstly, as I read the books, most of the time spirits will not use Edge to resist binding.
If you assume spirits usually use edge, then the mechanics for spirits do indeed get a lot nastier.
(If you try to bind something you have a spirit bane for, sure, I would expect edge. if you have run a character who, as the rules describe it, abuses his spirits, then again I would expect edge.)

Now, lets look at what happens assuming edge is used. We can expect the Spirit to get 6 successes. Drain of 12S.
Presumably, the mage has Willpower 5. And decent stat in his drain stat? So by the rule of 4, he can guarantee 2 successes in his drain resistance.
Even if the Spirit rolls 7 hits, then the Mage should use edge for drain resistance. Even at edg 1, we expect more than 4 hits.

Conversely, expected value is not the same as "a safe bet." If spirits are using edge for binding resistance, then you really need to have a second mage handy. If the binder falls unconscious, the second mage fights off the spirit. (This also seems to be a good idea for binding high force spirits with the no-edge assumption. The random variation is VERY high.

Yours,
Joel Halpern

The fact of the matter is there is no reason a spirit wouldn't use edge to prevent binding. RAW says if the drain knocks the mage out, the spirit will turn on the mage and try to kill him. If it hates it enough to kill the person doing it, it hates it enough to use edge to prevent it, unless using its edge sucks worse then something you're willing to kill over. And yes, the backup mage to fend off pissed off spirits is a good idea.

Given the impact, if the GM is going to plan on having spirits resist binding (and summoning, if they choose) with edge frequently, then I would hope that they tell the players that at setup. It will shift the spirits down to the lower power ones. (Many of which are still useful.)

I had tended to assume from the way the book was worded that it was not the norm. But reading it the way you do seems equally valid to me.

Joel