Here's an SR 4 character I'd like some feedback on, a generalist mage who used to work for a corporation instead of coming up from the streets, someone who worked for the upper management in whatever role a mage was needed, checking up on that division with the strange requests and odd accounting, fighting off Shadowrunners or keeping that spirit from eating the junior vice president. With degrees in both magic and medicine.

Former Wage Mage
Race: Human

Attributes 240.
Body 3
Agility 4
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Charisma 3
Int. 3
Logic 5
Will 4

Edge 2
Essence 6
Magic 5


Qualities 0
Magician 15
Incompetent (Con) +5
SINner +5

Active Skills 116
20 Spellcasting 5
12 Counterspelling 3
30 Conjuring Group 3
8 Assensing 2
8 Astral Combat 2
8 Medicine 2
10 Etiquette (corp) 2 (4)
10 Blades (Swords) 2 (4)

24 Knowledge points
Japanese 3
German 2
Chinese 2

Magic Background 5
Forth World History 2
Corp. Politics 3
Classical Music 2
Medical background 2
Magical Security 3

Spells: 24 BP
Heal
Physical Barrier
Stunball
Lightning Bolt
Magic Fingers
Clairvoyance
Levitate
Mind Probe


Contacts 8 BP
Mr. Johnson 3/1
Talismonger 2/2

Focus Bonding 1 BP

Resources 6 BP 30K nuyen
Weapon Focus 1 Sword 10K
Lounge Force 5 2500
Glasses with Low-Light, Flare Comp 175
Armored Vest 600
Hermes Ikon w Iris Orb OS 4000
DocWagon contract 5000
Middle Lifestyle 5000
Auctioneer Business Clothes 1500
28775

Comments? Lose one of the magic sub-skills in favor of Counterspelling 5? Skills are more limited than I'd like... seems like there should be some notable skill outside of magic stuff. Switch Cha and Str. for better sword damage? Fewer spells?

I'd replace the incompetence con with something else, maybe a light addiction or allergy - it seems rather crippling for infiltration purposes if he can't lie.

I'd also think about the sword/weapon focus angle. There's quite a lot of BP used up for something that's not that effective with those stats. A pistol might be more effective.

Well, with Charisma/Strength switched, the sword would be doing 5P, +1 reach...4 Agility, 4 Sword dice is 9 dice after said reach plus the Focus dice-1 in this case, for 10. So for a secondary skill, it's really not that bad at all; somewhere around 7-10 seems to be the typical secondary skill range. A higher weapon focus means more dice yet; and getting a 3 for a mere 6 Karma is really not bad. Think a little future-like; Blades(Swords) 3(+2), Focus 3 will be 13 dice, and that's sweet. Or, you could leave Cha/Str the same, and pick up one of the ''doozy'' swords like a NoDachi; Str/2+4P, +2 reach.

I kinda like the combat mage idea, so I do have a soft spot for it. He doesn't look to be the captain of the social area, and I don't see a problem with taking a Charisma of 2. Not every runner needs to be Don Juan, and it's not like you're ditching it to a 1. I DO suggest you switch Incompetence: Con though; even with a 2 charisma he can at least TRY to throw one die, and he can buy the skill later.

Otherwise, you need a Perception skill nowadays; it's no longer just rolling the stat like it used to be. Dig up 4 BP if you can(maybe another negative quality) to get a perception of 1, at least.

Make the character an ork. This will increase your body to 4 and your strength to 3, then trade your logic and willpower, which should leave your BP total unchanged.

Merry Christmas!

you have taken the magician quality which costs 15 BP, and then you have SINner at +5 BP and Incompetent for 5BP how does that make a 0BP outcome?

I don't think it's necessarily a big problem to have no Con skill. First, it depends on your GM. Not everyone has a GM that requires you to pick up the dice when you say something that might not be entirely true. In my group, we never roll for con unless it's a plot point. And this could make for some good role-playing opportunities. Besides, I feel that if your incompetence doesn't come into play, you cheated.

Typo, as I put in another character's negative qualities in, which were -15, then edited the post to fix most of it. It does balance at 400 though.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It seems munchkin-y to make a character and orc just to get the added stats. Plus that'd drop Edge down to 1, which is also a bit of a problem.

As for Con, I was thinking that this is a high-class, somewhat snooty person who thinks it's below him to lie, so he doesn't do it well. As a corporate mage, it's not his job to soothe hurt feelings... that was someone else's department.

I went for the regular sword because it's more discreet than a katana. Put it under a lined coat and it's not terribly conspicuous. I was thinking Chinese machete style... and katana are kind of cliched.

Consider cybering him up just a pinch. Cybereyes, Mnemonic Enhancers, Attention Coprocessors, Cerebral Boosters, SkillWires, Platelet Factories/Trauma Dampers and Sleep Regulators are all useful items that could easily be present in a wage mage, although obviously it'd be quite strange if he had all of them at once. Really, the big ones I'd suggest are the Cybereyes and Attention Coprocessors; frankly, your vanilla Perception pool is pretty crappy atm, but it's a cheap and easy thing to remedy if you're willing to give up a die in your spell slinging. Dodge or Gymnastics would also good ideas.

You'd be able to keep your edge at 2 without incurring any extra BP cost. Kind of munchkin-y though, yeah.

I'd think less the bioware side of things, simply because cyber is cheaper and as a "Whatever" mage they'd likely use him more for warding and spirit duties instead of saying "Let's build us a combat monster, get the bioware."

None of the 'ware I listed is even remotely combat monster related stuff, except maybe for the trauma dampers, and even those are more of a drain mitigation tool than a combat item. Spirit duties are actually the primary reason I take them, not combat; Conjuring tests are notoriously random, and even summoning and binding a simple force 3 spirit can be surprisingly tiring if the dice aren't falling your way. Many mages won't have them simply due to the fact that dampers are expensive, but then again, a mage who can handle drain easily is a mage that needs that much less time off to recuperate, so in the end they could end up saving the corp money over the long haul.


I mean, really, it's not like I was suggesting Restricted Gear and a Pain Editor. Not that it's a bad idea...

Why the cybereyes when all the vision upgrades are available in contact lenses?

Because Contact Lenses will not allow you to cast using the upgrades.

Electronics do not allow you to cast, optical only. So by all means, use binocular upgrades in your glasses, but they cannot be electronic reception that is piped to you, as it

As mentioned in the Magic Fingers spell, "Clairvoyance or remote-viewing technology can be used to get a close-up of the scene as long as it is within the caster's normal line of sight."

Emphasis mine. Your mage can use sight-enhancing tech as long as it only overlays rather than replacing your natural vision. I would expect that 2070-tech commlinks would have that capability, rather like the heads-up displays we have today.

A Medicine rating of 2 isn't gonna get you a degree...

Sorry, meant to put that in. But if it is electronic rather than optical, it'll fail. Even if it is an overlay, if you can't naturally sight them well enough to target them, an electronic window that pops up in your vision is not going to cut it. They may well havem eant mage sight goggles, binoculars, etc in that. Of course, they may not.

Sorry, meant to put that in. But if it is electronic rather than optical, it'll fail. Even if it is an overlay, if you can't naturally sight them well enough to target them, an electronic window that pops up in your vision is not going to cut it. They may well havem eant mage sight goggles, binoculars, etc in that. Of course, they may not.

*nod* It all depends on your situation. If you can't see 'em because it is dark, then thermographic goggles will not help you. However, if you can see them but they are far away and in the shadows, the electronic overlay will be able to reduce your targeting penalties. The key is that while you cannot use a device that SUBSTITUTES for your visual senses (BBBp173), you can use a device that ENHANCES and OVERLAYS your visual senses. It all comes down to how you interpret Augmented Reality in your game, I suppose.

I would remove astral combat. It is useless. I would drop blades, and the weapon foci as well. Spells are always better, even on the astral. This will allow you to boost some things like counterspelling, and even more importantly can give your character more items to flesh him out. He might be a wageslave mage, but he just feels a little dry.

IMO, dropping blades(another useful skill and even a flavor-one) will make him more dry. A character that only has the bare-bones skills they need, IMO, is far more dry than a mage that has a bit of blades or the like mixed in there. It's not hurting him to have some combat skills. I never found Astral Combat useless-I was happy as hell I took it on one of my characters. You do need it if you want to fight in the Astral so you aren't draining yourself away with spells.

You're missing something here: Magic Fingers doesn't need to target anything during your spell casting test. Magic Fingers is manifesting psychokinetic force as a proxy for your normal hands. Darkness only hampers Magic Fingers for the mundane reasons your normal fingers would be hampered; quite simply, it's hard to disarm a bomb in a dark room because it's fraggin' dark and you can't see which wire your Magic Fingers are pulling on without some kind of help. Clairvoyance/tech helps you use the Magic Fingers AFTER you cast the spell and are sustaining it, not while you cast it. An opposed spellcasting test with a Direct spell like Mana Bolt, however, relies on establishing a "link" to your target and channeling raw magical energy directly into his body. It's apples and oranges.

If I'm not mistaken(and I could be, since it's been awhile since I played SR3), back then, as long as you could see the target unobstructed, you could cast a Mana or Powerbolt at them. Full Darkness didn't work, but if you could at least see them, you took no modifier. However, the spells like Flamethrower/Lightning Bolt/etc, had to be targeted and suffered appropriate vision modifiers.

I mean, if that was the case I can understand why it was adjusted; in even dim light, where the gunners took a modifier to their shots, Manabolt was almost an ''I Win'' button in that case.