So one of my players has an ork gunslinger adept and I've been thinking about ways to help develop his character in game.

He is pretty tight with the crew so having him become part of an initiatory group doesn't really seem to fit the way things are going with his character. I then thought about giving him a mentor to help train him in various "ways of the gun" and thought, why couldn't a mentor spirit do this for him. the Wise Warrior would fit perfectly with the way the character behaves.

I remembered an earlier thread with people discussing the benefits that mentor spirits could provide to adept characters, but the Wise Warrior doesn't give any tangables to an adept.

Since the character would be paying karma to get the mentor spirit and would still have to abide by the drawbacks, but gain none of the benefits I thought of having the mentor spirit effectively count as being "in a group" for the karma costs of initiaition for the character.

I wanted to get people's feedback on this idea to make sure it's a reasonable way to go.

If it seems unreasonable, what kinds of ideas do people have to work with something like this?

Seems fairly reasonable to me, if the mentor spirit is basically acting as an instructor for the adept, filling the role of a group leader in a group of 2.

I'm not clear on why being a loyal member of the PC group precludes his joining an initiatory group on the side. If the initiatory group is focused on training each other and advancing their magical abilities, they don't necessarily need to be some kind of close-knit cabal. It seems like you could create a group that would exist mostly on the back burner, without being any more constricting to the PC than a mentor spirit.

In this case, I would think of the group more like a collective contact with a high loyalty. Sure they might have some strictures, but probably nothing out of line with what you would get from a mentor spirit. Also, it allows for the opportunity to throw in the occasional plot hook from one of the group member. Or not, depending on your play style.

What I'm picturing is something like "The Somatic Order of Marksmanship." They would focus on the development of firearms related skills, as well as adept powers and metamagics that facilitate the use of said firearms. You're totally in control of the level of secrecy, loyalty, and availability of the group members.

Maybe I'm totally off the mark on this (really didn't intend the pun, honest) but it seems like it could work without making the PC feel like he's cheating on the other PC's. Shadowrunner teams aren't always a monogamous relationship.

This is where I'd rip off stuff from Earthdawn with a vengence.

Give Adepts the choice of Discipline Mentors. To steal ED you'd have: Warrior (melee adept), Troubadour (social adept), Weaponsmith (tech adept), Beastmaster (animal adept), cavalryman (rigger adept), archer (ranged adept), thief (stealth adept), scout (sensual adept), and then the various PhysMage adepts (Wizard, Nethermancer, Illusionist, and Elementalist). I left out Air Sailor and Sky Raider since they would be straight up conceptual and more free form (sense of adventure and sense of individuality respectively).

In ED each discipline got certain inherent advantages as they advanced in circles (initiations). The discipline mentors would just be front-loaded and watered down versions of these (ie. the scout could take drain to increase his dice for perception tests)

You needed a mentor (initiation group) to coach you to the next circle (grade) but eventually your mentors start to thin out as YOU become the mentor. That's where the Ritual of the Ghost Master came in. For the ritual you had to research and find a Ghost Master and then pledge yourself to it (in turn eventually becoming a Ghost Master). You could then enact the ritual and train with it to circle up. The Ghost Master is very much like an Avatar (or whatever they are called in SR).

Path of the Artificer
Adept Mentor

The artificer takes delight in the act of creation. Whether it is a work of art, a complex machine, or a good plan the Artificer Adept is thorough and loving.

Benefits: +2 to two of Mechanics, Armorer, Chemist, or Artisan skills
Drawbacks: The Artificer cannot bring himself to abandon, damage, or destroy any of his possessions. If the Adept must ever face such a choice he must make a Willpower (3) test (or whatever the tests for these things are) to take the course of action that would lead to the "loss."

Another option, if you want the Wise Warrior to function in the more traditional Mentor Spirit capacity as well, would be to transition his bonus to Combat Spells and Detection Spells to combat skill tests and perception tests. You might want to downgrade to a +1 or something, as it might be out of balance to give a +2 to any combat skill check. But then again, maybe not. I'm sure you could find someone to debate either side.

Maybe instead of 'combat skill tests and perception tests', it could be 'tests with any one weapon skill (or unarmed combat)' and I think downgrading the bonus to Perception tests to +1 would work. thus, overall it'd be +2 to tests with any one weapon skill and +1 to perception tests'.
Would that work?
I dunno Earthdawn at all, but that could work too, since it's supposedly the same world (like 5000 years ago...)