I'm working on building a Cat Shaman and have a quick question.

DamienKnight's spreadsheet generator lists a bonus of "Gymnastics or Infiltration tests +2 Dice." I can't recall if that means the +2 Dice applies to both skills, or I pick which skill it applies to when picking the Mentor Spirit. I assume it applies to both but...better safe than sorry.

As a commentary:
This is the first mage I've built in 4th Ed, it's a lot harder than building Sammies or Adepts!

You have to choose one. You get two times +2 to X.

Magicians have tons of options available, you just have to decide on one.

If you want an efficient core concept for a cat shaman, start with solid agility and charisma, and accept one point of magic loss for muscle toner 2, synthacardium 2, and cerebral boosters 2. Slightly lower magic (I suggest 5->4), more agility on both planes, higher athletics pools. Take the Acrobatics, Stealth and Influence groups, and a solid summoning skill. Spellcasting 4+ is a given; spells should be mostly illusions.

I went 3 Agility and 5 Cha (first pass was an Elf with 7 Cha, but decided against that.)

This is the spell list I was looking at:

Hot Potato (Realistic, Single) (sm)
Improved Invisibility (Realistic, Single)
Stunball (Direct)
Acid Stream (Indirect, Elem.)
Heal
Increase Reflexes
Levitate (Physical)
Physical Barrier (Environ.)
[Critter] Form (Physical) (Black Cat)
Physical Double Image (Realistic, Multi) (sm)

And thanks for the clarification!

Hot Potato (Realistic, Single) (sm) - very fitting
Improved Invisibility (Realistic, Single) - par for the course
Stunball (Direct) - Stunbolt should IMO come first, you will get issues with the size of the AoE.
Acid Stream (Indirect, Elem.)
Heal - yeah
Increase Reflexes - sustaining focus?
Levitate (Physical) - or magic fingers?
Physical Barrier (Environ.) - warning: if you want to cast it, we are likely talking force 5+.
[Critter] Form (Physical) (Black Cat) - yeah
Physical Double Image (Realistic, Multi) (sm) - how about Fashion instead?

Physical Barrier is iffy, I agree. As for Physical Double Image, that combined with Imp. Invis. is a great defense. No need for Dodge rolls if the bad guys are shooting the wrong spot. Still, it's one of those things that rarely works more than a couple times, so again, iffy.

I'm currently at 473/450 BP for the character...gotta cut some things down.

450 BP, huh? I know where this guy is slotted to go!

If you are already Invisible, the bang for the buck of Physical Double may be low.

Peter

Working on the same character some more, but this is more of a background/opinion question than a rules question.

The character is a Cat Shaman who is is working on a Doctorate in Archaeology. What skills would best represent this?

He has Etiquette for dealing with the bureaucracy, he speaks a couple languages, he has Archaeology as a Sixth World Knowledge skill. What else would be needed, or would that cover it?

Edit: He also has a "Day Job" as a research assistant.

Huh! So am I. (Not the shaman bit, though. )



Is he a classical archaeologist ( eg. Greek/Roman, approaching the past through lots of texts) or an anthropological archaeologist (focussing more on artifacts filtered through anthropological theory)? For the former, I would ensure a good spread of pertinent languages and maybe a bit of History skill to aid textual research. For the latter, I would add Anthropology skill and maybe a language to fit the particular area of research. Mythology would fit for both.

Peter