The GM likes her, but it never hurts to double check. Also, never trust a smiling GM. This is a 450 point character for an upcoming Ghost Cartels online game. Most of the points above 400 went into the extra Magic, Spellcasting Aptitude and more foci... those are EXPENSIVE.

She's a young corporate magic prodigy who took off into the shadows after her mother (an important researcher) was assassinated under very strange circumstances.
I'm considering taking a level of Gremlins and a Mentor Spirit (Dark Goddess), but I'm not sure. I'm old fashioned about hermetic mages not having that sort of thing, I guess. Also, flying off the handle as the Dark Goddess advocates isn't right for someone who was tightly controlled and professional for most of her life and is only now cutting loose.

The Detection focus is there to sustain the Nightvision spell as a natural alternative to losing magic for cyberware. She's pretty good in Astral Combat, though having Powerbolt might be useful there. Summoning is just fair... She can probably call up a Force 3 spirit and have it do one thing. She can throw Stunballs all day at force 5 though. Best to sustain a barrier and fast for defense... putting a level 3 on the sustaining foci might be too weak... though the results would be as good as an Armor spell, at worst. Perversely, it's better to cast most things at force 5 than six, I think. Drain is a point lower and you only get one more possible hit out of the extra Force (and with a spellcasting and magic pool of 12, 4 hits will be the average). No guns or gun skill as a deliberate choice on the character's part, and a stylistic one on the player's. I could even codify that by switching the Incompetence. Con (Seduction) didn't make the point cut.


Lamia.
Human Hermetic Mage.

Attributes: 265
Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Charisma 3
Intuition 4
Logic 5
Will 4

Edge 2
Essence 6
Magic 6

Initiative Astral 8 ( 1 pass (3 passes)

Physical Damage 10 boxes
Stun Damage 11 boxes

Melee Weapons
Sword Focus
Pool 9 dice Reach 1 Damage 4P AP -

Astral Sword Focus
Pool 11 dice Reach 1 Damage 5P AP -

Ceramic Knife
Pool 5 dice Reach - Damage 2P AP -

Qualities (0 BP net)
Magician 15
SINner -5
Records On File (Renraku) -10

116
8 Assensing 2
10 Astral Combat (Blade foci) 2 (4)
16 Binding 4
10 Blades (Swords) 2 (4)
12 Counterspelling 3
6 Etiquette (corp) 1 (3)
6 Dodge (ranged) 1 (3)
8 Perception 2
24 Spellcasting 6
16 Summoning 4

27 Knowledge points
English (N)
Japanese 3
Sperethiel 2
Chinese 2

Magic Background 5
Forth World History 2
Corp. Politics 3
Fetish Clubs 2
Fine Wines 2
Magical Security 3
Parazoology 3

Spells: 33 BP
Heal (Damage value) -2 H
Manabolt Drain (F÷2) C
Stunball Drain (F÷2)+1 C
Lightning Bolt Drain (F÷2)+3 C
Extended Clairvoyance Drain (F÷2)+1 D
Mind Probe Drain (F÷2) D
Nightvision Drain (F÷2) D
Mob Control Drain (F÷2)+2 M
Levitate Drain (F÷2)+1 M
Physical Barrier Drain (F÷2)+3 M
Elemental Aura (Ice) (F÷2)+3 M

Contacts 10 BP
Henry Huggins Renraku Mr. Johnson 3/1
Cleo DeNile Talismonger 3/3

Bonding for Foci 5 BP

Resources 19 BP/95K

Foci:
Power Focus 2 pentagram choker 50K
Detection Sustaining Focus 1 Eye jewel 10K
Sword Weapon Focus 2 20K


Armor:
Long Coat (6/4) with fire resistance 4, Non-conductivity 5 2500
OR
Form-Fitting Body Armor half-suit (4/1) +Non-conductivity 6 2100
With either:
Syngergist Long Coat (4/2) +Fire Resistant 5 1800
Or
Armored Clothing (4/0)(middle casual outfit) 500 +Fire Resistant 5 1000

Lounge Force 6 3000
Fake SIN (4) 4000
Glasses with Flare Comp 75
Ceramic Knife 75
Novatech Airwave w/Mangadyen Deva OS 2050
AR Gloves 250
Virtual Pet Dragon-girl. 100
PocketMage Library (1) 600
Fake Magic License 400
Fake Weapon Focus License 400
Optical Binoculars 100
Endoscope 250
Stim Patch (6) x4 600
Micro-Flare launcher 50
Low-light flashlight 25
Certified Credstick 25
600 wardrobe of fetish outfits dominatrix, librarian, Japanese school uniform, leather, etc

Middle Lifestyle 1 month 5000

1800 staring nuyen

From a RAW optimization point:

Get armor and trodes! More generally I don't know what the tone of your game is, but your equipment could be a lot more pro, modded armor, a camo suit, an optical telescope, neurostun etc.

You spent 30 points on conjuration group 3. Banishing is pretty weak compared to combat spells. Drop the group and and take Summoning and Binding at 4 for 32. If you can squeeze out the points for a specialization or focus you'll be summoning spirits equal to your magic all the live long day.

You spent 10 BP on aptitude spell casting. You need to get that to 7 at char-gen if your GM will let you, or you should drop it. Paying karma to take a skill from 6 to 7 is insane. You could bind a power focus and get a mentor spirit for that much.

I'd also drop detect magic. By RAW it doesn't do much if you can already assense.

Lastly I'm sure you'll ignore this, but being a dwarf would save you points and give you better vision and stats.

edit: Nothing that WeaverMount didn't already suggest, 'cept I'd say ork over dwarf.

Is incompetent: hacking really worth 5 pts for a Mage? If I were the GM then I'd tell you to change that.

The first thing I noticed: Why a sustaining focus and a nightvision spell and not a pair of low-light contact lenses / goggles? Especially as you already have a pair of glasses you could combine. Cheaper, more subtle and they don't break on every single ward.

Apart from that: What WeaverMount said.

If you run house rules that factor logic into matrix tests it is actually a viable incompetence for logic tradition mages, IMO

I'm guessing that he wants to be able to cast spells with low light vision (or better), which is a very valid goal. IMO some nice beta eyes are the best way to do that, but if you are against cyber for thematic reasons you should go with dwarf or elf magicians.

Again this is all just my thoughts on optimization. Story comes first, but it's basically impossible to critique how well a character will fly if you don't know the player or the table.

Actually, I think she looks quite good. I might vote for the drop Banishing/other two summoning skills at 4, but the stats look good and everything otherwise, IMO. No need to change the race if you don't feel it.

Thanks for the replies, all! For the curious, the other characters for the game are being posted here, including a cat shaman.

I could drop Aptitude Spellcasting... I had momentarily mixed up the cost for maxing out attributes vs. skills when I took it. It IS a lot of Karma to get a 7, as pointed out, and mages certainly need plenty of it, but on the other hand, it'd make her a really spectacular mage over time.

Incompetent: hacking is a limitation because under the RAW, she'd have a pool of 4 with zero effort, and a tiny bit of Karma would bring it up to 6... someone who spends so much time on moldy old tomes shouldn't be able to pull off hacks as well.

The focus for Nightvision is indeed not to just see in the dark, but see in the dark "naturally" for magic targeting purposes. The glasses should have it too, just for mundane usage. I was very short of money in the next to last version... I had to drop one spell and took the astral combat spec. and 1 more point in resources.

That's also why her gear hasn't been modified... no cash! I couldn't even afford the fake SIN before. Mages are much more likely to be set on fire or hit with lightning than the average person, so a 5/4 flame resistant/non-conducting upgrade would be useful, if I can find 1,300 nuyen somehow.

Since hacking by RAW has nothing to do with attributes, everyone gets a DP of 4 with zero effort (ie: buying the software), but you won't be able to do any hacking with that. Still, if your GM is cool with it, go ahead. Would'nt fly to well in my group, though.

And still, why the nightvision spell? If you want to cast in low-light situations, use astral perception; you get that for free anyway and there is no bad lightning on the astral plane. (You get a -2 dice pool modifier for all purely physical actions; spellcasting obviously isn't one).
Not to nag too much, I just don't see the reason.

The same advice I got on Physical Barrier is that you'll almost always need to cast it at force 5+. That's 6 drain, which is fairly costly with only 9 dice to resist.

If you drop the Detection Focus, that'll give you 10k nuyen to upgrade your armor like you were talking about, as well as 1 BP to spend someplace.

Hmmm, that's what I get for reading the skill rules more than the hacking rules! Better check more carefully. The GM was OK with it, but I don't want to have a non-limiting limitation.

And you can't target mundane targets with spells via Astral Perception, only mana spells against astral creatures, if I'm reading things right.

You can target all everything on the same plane as you. As an astral perceiving mage you are on both planes, thus you can target everyone on either the physical or astral plane. An astrally projecting mage can't target mundanes, as he's got no connection to the physical plane.

Ahhh, I see. So the advantage to mage-compatible low-light or themographic vision vs astral percetpion is being able to target and cast without having to take an action to shift perception, and avoiding the -2 to meatspace actions (like dodging gunfire!)?

Speaking of which, is Dodge an essential skill for every character? A mage can have defensive spells and can't afford to go on full defense much, as that takes time away from casting... certainly if one is planning on putting up a barrier. Armor and Deflection don't look like any great shakes either though.

Well, I always thought about it like this: yeah, you'll lose the action, but you'll gain the possibility to live a bit longer. I always make sure I have some kind of dodging ability. It's easier to knock out hits by dodging than it is by soaking. I know it might not make much sense, since it's the same amount, but it's like this:

The Dodge roll lets you possibly NOT get hit. If i recall, ties still go to the defender, which means that the person attacking has to beat your net dodge hits. (Honestly, I still confuse this aspect of SR3/4, even til now. We always ran it as defender wins ties, even in SR4.)

But, if the hit goes through, that dodge roll still cut out a few; if someone shoots you with a heavy pistol(5P, -1 AP), and rolls 4 hits, and you roll 4 on the dodge, you just avoided getting hurt at all. But one gets through-but hey, it's not four. 4 net hits means 9P that you need to stage down. 1 net hit is 6P.

Now comes Body and Armor-say a lined coat(6), with a Body of 3, is 8 dice(-1 armor from the -1 AP.) 3 hits are rolled. Without Dodge, you would have taken 6P. With Dodge, the 6 would have became a 3, and you'd only be at a -1 penalty. It would hurt, but it's better than 2/3 of your boxes being filled in.

Also keep in mind the power of the attack must surpass the armor, or it becomes stun; say you had on an Armor Jacket but no Dodge, and you rolled nothing on your Dodge test. Armor Jackets have 8 Ballistic. In the top version, 3 hits would bring the power to 8, which has -1AP, and thus the armor jacket is now 7 armor. And that's physical damage. However, if you Dodged out, say, 1 hit of that, making the gun 7 instead? Guess what, that's stun damage.

Short version: Dodge is good.

Being able to dodge is kinda nice, although not mandatory. Remember: You don't get a second damage resistance throw, you get half of it; the other half (your reaction attribute) you'd get anyway. The dodge skill is quite horrible, though. You have half the effect it provides (more dice avoiding melee attacks) already thanks to blades, so dodge doesn't give you anything gymnastics wouldn't give you as well (more dice avoiding shooting attacks). And gymnastics is good for quite a lot of other things as well. Even better, it's in the athletics skill group together with lots of skills which, while not necessary (especially for a new runner), are really nice to have for every character.

There has never been a single character in my group that has actually taken dodge, not even the 4 IP combat monster that used an action to dodge almost every combat turn.
I'm not a fan of gymnastics dodge, but it's there and it's better (thanks to being way more versatile) than using the skill actually intended for the purpose. Go figure.

In Full Defense against a melee attack, the defender gets to add 2 X Dodge to Reaction, but only 1 X Gymnastics, so in that particular case, Dodge is better.

EDIT:

Dodge is also usable in certain rigging tests, whereas Gymnastics is not.

For mages, such as the OPer, if one has levitate, then chances are Gymnastics will be less useful than for someone tied to the ground.

Peter

Updated stats!

I took off her Aptitude for Spellcasting. Instead, I added Manabolt, changed Detect Magic to Clairvoyance, bumped up the weapon focus to 2, added 5000 nuyen of general gear (flame and shockproofed the coat, fake licenses, assorted little things... the micro-flares will be handy in lighting up dark streets), one point more on a contact and broke up the Conjuring group 3 to Binding and Summoning 4.

No Dodge though. Levitation would be useful in floating up out of gun range, but sloooow, especially at the level the sustaining focus can handle (9 meter movement).

Elemental Aura (Lightning) is quite tempting, though she shouldn't be getting into melee combat with normal people. 10 dice against people without long weapons, 7P damage at half impact and the chance to stun sounds nice, but A) lots of people have guns and B) they'll shoot them at the person who is crackling with lightning.

These characters are 'all core book'? You could benefit from Form Fitting Body Armor (Plus, armored spandex is hot...) from Arsenal, and the Debt negative quality, for more BP and Nuyen, from Runners Companion. I, personally, also wouldn't let a character with no computer skills and no intention to ever use computer skills take Incompetant: Hacking. I'd make you take the 'Computer Illiterate' negative quality from Runners Companion instead.

Going off of Lamia's back ground, the SINer quality seems necessary, as does either Records on File or Wanted qualities.

With those extra points, you should get a Power Focus 2. They're like Smartlinks for mages, but more so. +2 for every test that uses your magic attribute? Yes please!

Armored spandex is indeed hot. One reason for the long coat was that so it could be opened up to reveal the scanty outfits beneath, a tradition going all the way back to Sally on the cover of 1e. Also, the long coat brings down the profile of the sword focus.

Form-Fitting Body Armor will cause an encumbrance penalty with the long coat though. Only the Auctioneer Business Clothes or Victorious Camo Jumpsuit will work with shirt and her level of Body, giving a ballistic rating of 8. You can't pull off wearing a camo jumpsuit in the city though... everyone will think you're some hick.

I don't have the Runner's Companion, but SINner would fit... She left the company well after the Crash, so it wouldn't get lost that way and I'm sure her former company would like her back one way or the other. That could replace the Incompetence (though Pistols could also work). "Wanted for a crime she didn't commit" is kind of a cliche though. A Power Focus would be handy, but I want to leave some room for improvement and not go totally foci-nuts.

From Incompetent: "The character is treated as having a skill level of "unaware" for that particular skill. In some cases, a Success Test may be required to perform certain tasks that most people take for granted. Characters may not possess that skill, nor may the default on it."

From Defaulting: "In some cases, however, a task may be too difficult for someone who lacks the proper skill to attempt. In this case, the character simply fails."

So, two things to note: First, if you take the Incompetent flaw, by definition you "have no X skill and cannot use X skill." What you meant to say was that you would never allow the use of the Incompetent flaw in your game, I believe.

Second, another poke in the eye to the Devs for the Success Test comment in Incompetent - by definition, you can NEVER make a success test with the skill for which you are incompetent, as you may neither possess nor default on the skill, so I'm terribly curious what sort of success test they had in mind.

The problem is that the incompetence never actually affects the game. At all. Being incompetent in climbing means you'll never be able to cross a fence, which could become a problem sometime and somewhere. Being incompetent in hacking means nothing, because you couldn't hack by defaulting (the pool is much too small) and if you really need to, you could just buy an agent, which isn't hindered by your incompetence in the least and would be better than a person with a skill of 0-1 anyway..
But that's a decision for the GM to make. I already stated that the incompetence wouldn't be allowed in my group, either, but it's legal and as such no problem as long as the GM is cool with it.

Wanted doesn't just mean that the police want you; can be some agency (gang, merc company, corp) has put a bounty out on you. RC recommends at least 20k contract, which means any person with a gun who puts two and two together will be coming for you . I think it's a fun quality though, and certainly follows your character's background. Records on File means that a corp or some other state actor knows every bit of your information, down to having DNA samples. They're both -10bp qualities.

Detect magic is not the best spell. However detect magic extended range is actually not all that bad. The reason why is that it gives you a radar sweet of magically active people or spirits around you. You can find foci, mages, spirits, magically active critters, magical infections (HMVV,) and any other item that is magically active. Now assensing will generally get you this if you can see the person. However there are situations where detect magic extended range is not all that bad of a spell if you use it well.

It is not a bad item to have for subtly casing a warehouse or facility. Especially if there is any kind of magic detection or magical extraction. At the same time though there are better spells you can take.

From the character description you gave, the SINner Quality makes more sense for your character than the Incompetence - hacking. It would also give the GM some leverage in certain key points of the campaign you are considering.

Peter

OK, I'll make that change. Would the Wanted or Records on File (The latter might fit better) qualities mentioned above work with your plans, or should I just keep the fact that she left the corp under bad circumstances as background element? I'd probably put those points to a Spellcasting Power Focus or Con (Seduction).

Masterofm, good point on Detect Magic. It'd be less conspicuous than an astral recon and not run afoul of any astral security measures. Only basic Detect spells can be Extended though, right? Ones with "Detect" in the name, so there's no Extended Clairvoyance?

Clairvoyance is not an area spell. Clairvoyance is a window that you can move around in a radius. It is just one of those things. It is a nice window and it means you can get more then a magical ping if you have a better assensing pool. It is also more precise then a detect magic spell. Also if a mundane is not magical they do not ping. Moving Clairvoyance around means that you can see anything you would normally be able to see. Detect magic only detects one specific thing. Magic.

What is nice about Detection spells with extended range is that they are basically a radar for things that the enemy cannot pickup unless they are coming at you to bring the pain. If a mage is moving in to get a closer look at you they will ping on a magic sensor possibly before you can spot them with assensing. It has defensive and offensive capabilities. Detect enemies is a nice spell, but a detect magic spell as an accompanying spell is equally as helpful. The only difference is that there are ways to get around detect enemies (drones, crowd spraying, maybe the person you are body guarding is the target, ect.) Detect magic extended range means people trying to come up at you with a magical threat will have a much harder time wailing on you.

If people take a look at you anyways you just have a spell active on you, you can walk down the street with something like that on you. Sure it is suspicious, but if you can talk yourself out of the situation or if there is some magical threat after you.... well it is a little less suspicious then detect enemies or increased reflexes.

Don't let the GM's 'needs' or plans colour your character design. Use what fits your idea of how she left the corp. Let the GM adapt to what the players give him.



All Detection spells are 'basic', including Clairvoyance, unless they are already listed as Extended. Street Magic , p. 165 says you can turn a basic spell into an Extended one by increasing the Drain. Go ahead and do that, if you like.

Peter

It's one of those things that I find helps the spell, but does not really break the game. Extended ranging the detect magic spell actually makes the spell worth anything. Other then that I wouldn't bother with it. If your GM won't allow it I would say get Analize magic or device over a spell that basically is assensing in a nut shell.

My big kick would be to not abuse it. Some spells can be overpowered and if it is always your A game and your only A game then a GM will find a way to nerf the spell or punish the character. Mob control and spells like alter memory will sometimes get you a very big GM beat stick. Detect magic extended range is a nice spell that has implications of screwing up some of the best laid plans. I play the GM as much as I play my character. Try to only use your ace in the hole when you think you actually need it instead of using it as an annoyance.

Updated again! Third time's the charm, I think.

Added
Records on File (Renraku) -10 and switched Incomp: Hacking with SINner.

Switched the Manip. Sustianing Focus 3 for a Power Focus 2.

Reduced Etiquette by one. Added Dodge 1 (Ranged 3). She can Parry in melee combat.

+1 more BP of gear, all different armor types.

Changed Clairvoyance to Extended. Added Ice Aura to spells.

Added +1 reliability to the Talismonger contact.

Clairvoyance is already a ranged spell. You can't get it in extended range form. It works as a small window or roaming eye and gives you a 3d radius that you can see around your character. It does not give you a "see everything" kind of radar, which is why Clairvoyance can't be taken as ER.

Also in Shadowrun the best defense is a good offense. Parry is actually not a very good skill or specialty to have. The fact that it can borrow from your next IP, and only applies to unarmed or melie attacks means it stinks. Just take more dodge as it is the same thing, but less suck.

I think Mau and Lamia will mesh quite nicely...assuming their personalities don't clash too much. Since they both have medium lifestyles and seem to be club hoppers in the off time, I imagine that won't be too much of a problem.

It would appear there are different interpretations to Street Magic, p. 165.

I'm going with the interpretation that all Detection spells that are not already Extended are in 'basic' form, and can be learned as Extended as per p. 165.

I personally like Dodge, but I don't have any statistics to prove it works better, as masterofm says, or worse as others earlier have said.

Peter

Clairvoyance as a standard spell has a range of Force x Magic in meters. You may pick anywhere in that range as your "point" in order to see from, and may move the spell within that range. Clairvoyance as an extended spell has a range of Force x Magic x 10 in meters. This can all be found on page 198 of the BBB.

Parry is not a skill. When being attacked in melee, the target may choose to parry (using Reaction+appropriate weapon skill), block (using Reaction+unarmed combat) or dodge (using Reaction+dodge). When using the Full Defense Option you add your Dodge skill to this roll. So, simply purchasing dodge is the most efficient way to get a higher die pool, however if the character wishes to be good at using a weapon, it is a viable defense in combat. Also, "parry" is an acceptable specialization, but you may also choose a specific weapon, in which you'd gain the bonus when parrying with that weapon as well. With that said, buying the rank of Dodge was a good idea for reasons that were previously outlined.

Melee and Unarmed work as offensive and defensive skills together. In close combat, she could all-out parry for 12 dice as she is now. It'd be hard to top that with dodge at the current points I have.

On a related note, does a weapon focus add to Melee Parry, or just attacks? If it does, that'd be 16 dice.




Indeed! They also have an interest in ancient history, though different periods. They might get into a bit of a friendly rivalry over which tradition of magic is "better."

it adds to everything weapon focused. Personally I am all about if you are going to pimp out a character it is better to take guns and dodge then a CQB weapon.

"Melee and Unarmed work as offensive and defensive skills together"

Yes, but only if you are fighting someone else who is using melee or unarmed against you. It is why dodge is so nice, because it lets you roll against both shooting and melee. It is your choice however, but personally I am more of a fan of spell slinger shooters then spell slinger brawlers. It seems that a brawler has to spread themselves out thinner then a shooter.