So I am making a new character after I retired my last one and I decided to make an Occult Investigator. I've made a mage before, my last one being basically a swiss army knife of logic based skills. I could help the hacker program, help the medic patch people up, and could help the dronomancer repair his stuff. Now I've decided to make this investigator and I hit a bit of a snag. Both flavor and mechanically wise I'm not sure how to build a private eye. I already picked an intuition based tradition, took the Spider as my mentor for the detection bonuses, but besides that I am lost. Here's what I have so far and any help would be appreciated.

Point Breakdown
Race: 0
Qualities +/-: 20/35
Stats: 270
Active Skills: 70
Knowledge Skills: Non used. Besides taking parazoology and maybe black market I don't know what else to choose.
Resources: 30
Contacts: 0

Human
Mystic Adept

Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 4
Strength 1
Charisma 3
Intuition 5
Logic 3
Willpower 5
Edge 5
Magic 5(4 magic, 1 power point)

Qualities:
+
Mentor Spirit (Spider)
Restricted Gear (Power Focus 4)

-
Allergy Uncommon (Depends on where the campaign takes place)
Big Regret (Leaving behind older brother in attack on old gangs base when younger)
Distinctive Style 1 (odd astral aura)
Day Job (2500/20hrs) Astral Security for local gang chapter
Dependent (Easy) Stray dog he's "adopted". At this time has not realized it's an awakened critter which is how it keeps getting in his house and eating his food.

Active Skills

Spellcasting 4
Summoning 4
Automatics 3
Perception 4
Binding 4
Assensing 3
Dodge 2

Spells
Lightning Bolt
Increase Reflexes
Extended Detect Life
Catfall
Heal

Powers
Astral Perception

Gear: 50,000/150,000 left
Power Focus 4

A few comments on what I've done so far. I chose the Mystic Adept route because I can get astral projection as a Metamagic later (probably my first one) while I can't get adept powers later. I plan on using improved ability on the Arcana skill when I get it because it is a mundane skill and thus ok to boost. Now if you can convince me just going straight mage is better please convince me. I am up for change. I thought of lowering the Edge to get a couple of extra points. Another 10 or 20 bp may be what I need to even this thing out.

So at 386/400 points spent I am at a loss. I feel like even though its not done yet I built it wrong at some point. Anyone got any pointers or maybe a build you made. Like I said before any help is appreciated.

I personally prefer the Owl Mentor Spirit over the Spider Mentor Spirit. The bonus to both the physical and magical skill that is most closely related to investigations (mundane and magical) is great, as well as the bonus to either two of the great support spirits out there. Also, considering the fact that you only have one combat spell, the disadvantage isn't that bad for your character.

You should have Contacts.. at least someone in the police, and perhaps in various magical organizations. Syndicates might also be useful. A LOT of knowledges could also come in handy. Maybe soft-max Perception and pick up Chemistry? More spells related to detection; Catalog might be useful coupled with Trodes. Sterilize for when you're done. All the Snensor gear you can find, and perhaps a couple of spy drones/sample collection drones? For an investigator, Ritual Magic makes sense, too.

Skillwires (for skills like Chemistry), tons of knowsofts (which dont require skillwires), and smart detection spells like Spatial Sense Extended Range, Astral Window Extended Range, Detect [Sensors], Detect [Mechanical Trap], Mind Probe, Hawkeye, and Analyze Magic. [the last a spell that uses hits on spellcasting on the Assensing table. That means Magic (4)+Power Focus (4)+ Spellcasting (4) + any mentor spirit and spellcasting specializtion modifiers. If you have the Aspected Domain lifestyle positive quality on your lifestyle that would add two more dice to Analyze Magic as would the Home Ground positive quality. Combine the mentor spirit, specialization, and other factors and when you use Analyze Magic to examine something/someone in your doss it'd be 20 dice and an average of 6.66 hits on assensing. It'd take Assensing 6+Intuition 9 to come close to that while in the field.]

For knowledge skills Seattle Historians, Paracritters, Astral Security Techniques.

For Mentor Spirit you can't go wrong with Dog. Everyone loves a Dog shaman and investigation is necessarily a thing requiring interaction with others. If you go Hermetic or some non-Intuition tradition there is no reason you can't get Increase [Intuition] on a Sustaining Focus or Quickened just because its not a drain stat. Get the tradition that suits your story the best whichever it may be.

And IMO Gecko Crawl is better than Catfall. Gecko Crawl+Concealment power of a spirit and you walk away instead of jumping.

Oh and strongly consider Cleansing and Filtering. Cleansing allows you to destroy all Astral Signatures as a single complex action and Filtering allows you to investigate areas in Background count at full magic and assensing without altering the area. Without Filtering you take dice in penalties AND it lowers your magic AND you get a headache. Cleansing is a pre-req for Filtering. Sensing metamagic might also be appropriate but is expensive for what it does.

For Combat a detection-based mage can benefit a lot from Combat Sense.

if you want a funny character look at a Cowardice negative quality combined with Adrenaline Surge and Combat Sense. Never be surprised and run away before baddies can engage you.

I think taking mystic adept might not be as beneficial later on as you might hope.
This is partial dependent on how fast karma is doled out at your table though.

I am curious why you want to enhance Arcana as an adept. Arcana is used for spell design, spirit formulas, etc. Do you want to use it to identify magic? Would knowledge magic/spell theory/spirits/etc not be more useful?

Intuition, Perception, and Assensing are some of the most important tools to an investigator.
Having astral Perception without Assensing, means that your eyes see it but not that you gain anything useful from it (no assensing ~= no astral perception).

I would recommend a full magician to you for the automatic astral perception /projection (no metamagics need be spent on acquiring them) and for the spirits. Watcher spirits alone make it worthwhile in my opinion. Investigators need to do legwork. Watcher spirits effectively give you a centipede's worth of legs. You can find things, you can spot for rituals, you can tail someone, etc.

If you were taking mystic adept to pad your abilities with awesome powers that is a different matter: social powers can make you a smooth talker and thus a better mundane investigator; Physical powers can make you able to tackle the magical threats you uncover; however, taking adept for mystical powers alone might not stack up in comparison to full magician.

Also, as mentioned before, you need contacts. A few well informed/connected friends or even a dearth of relevant acquaintances will aid you when you hit the streets doing legwork.

First off I think that you might want to reconsider the whole adept thing too. My recommendation is to go with a shifter (eagle or wolf would be the best) or an infected. Either way you'll be dual-natured and be able to astrally perceive and interact with astral beings. That would free up a LOT more points for contacts and other skills. I might stat one out just to see how it works.

OK I took what you had and stat-ed out something that I think works a little better as an example. I left 11 BP for contacts as I think that would be important to any investigator.


Point Breakdown
Race: 35 (Loup Garou)
Qualities +/-: 5/-25 (still points to get here if you want more)
Stats: 200
Active Skills: 144
Knowledge Skills: 27 points
Resources: 10
Contacts: 0 (11BP to spend)

Human
Loup Garou

Body 3
Agility 3
Reaction 5
Strength 5
Charisma 3
Intuition 5
Logic 4
Willpower 6
Edge 5
Magic 1
ESS:5

Qualities:
+
Analytical Mind (rc)

-
Big Regret (Leaving behind older brother in attack on old gangs base when younger)
Distinctive Style 1 (odd astral aura)
Day Job (2500/20hrs) Astral Security for local gang chapter
Dependent (Easy) Stray dog he's "adopted". At this time has not realized it's an awakened critter which is how it keeps getting in his house and eating his food.

Active Skills

Athletics (Group) 2
Electronics (Group) 1
Influence (Group)2
Stealth (Group) 3
Automatics 2
Perception 4
Assensing 3
Astral Combat 3
Tracking 2


PowersPowers:
Dual Natured, Enhanced Senses (Thermographic Vision),
and Natural Weapon (Claw/Bite: DV Str/2+1P, AP 0),

Weaknesses:
Allergy (Aconite, Moderate), Allergy (Horseradish, Moderate), Allergy (Sunlight, Moderate), and Dietary Requirement (Metahuman Flesh). During the 4–6 day peak of its
28-day cycle, a loup-garou will become savage and go berserk as a Bear shaman (see p. 192, SR4) and is treated as if it had a rating 2 adrenaline pump (p. 338, SR4).

Gear: 50K for gear (or you can have more if you take more flaws or use some of the contact pool)