I've decided to create a mage detective character, street level with some corporate training (Wuxing, which means she's wujen). Now, I've usually played combat mages, but want to go for the smooth-and-subtle route this time, so I'm also going for no more than the Force points she starts off with. Suggestions on spells, maybe equipment?

As far as spells go, I would think that a detective oriented mage would lean heavily towards the Detection Spells.. Things like Analyze Magic, Catalog, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Translate. Perhaps some of the Detect * spells. The obligatory health stuff, of course. Maybe a little illusion or manipulation spells and unless unless she's going to be working in rough area's she may or may not have any combat spells.

Just my thoughts.

[edit]
Forgot to put Analyze Device in there too.
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High charisma or etiquette ratings. Like Connor said, any of the snooping or getting into places you shouldn't be spells. For combat spells I'd figure more stun than powerbolt spells, although maybe one or two lethal ones. But most of all, just lots and lots on contacts.

If you're gonna have a high charisma you could probably have spirits do a fair amount of fighting for you as well. Dunno how much you're gonna lean towards the conjuring type, but that would free up more points for detection and illusion spells.

Don't forget the custom spells: Detect fingerprint and detect DNA sample

I would actually suggest NOT going the Detect * route, too easy to resist most of them. The State of the Art book has some great Detective MetaTechniques, I'd go for early initiation if you're allowed. Then learn to maximize Assensing. It encompasses things from Detect/Analyze Magic to Detect Emotion to a ton of "detective-like" abilities.

I'd personally even go the CyberRoute a bit to make myself useful on Runs (since detecting isn't always the best type of char for a run). Smartlink, Cybereyes (lots of Detective abilities in those and reduced Essence loss for the Smartlink with an ImageLink), Datajack, and maybe Olfactory Booster or CybreEars for more Detective potential. I'd use a Geasa to temporarily offset the Magic loss and buy it off with Initiation later.

As for spells.... I'd probably go with Clair spells as well, and Magic Fingers (for those hard to reach areas) and Preserve (Ritual Sorcery is a Detective type's best friend).

Later in-game you can 'become' more of a runner by picking up the obligatory spells like heal, reflexes, invis, armour, etc as you encounter the need.

Sphynx

Well, this mage detective is going to be a bit on the unusual side: she's wujen (but I already mentioned that) of the spirits of man; because of her beliefs surrounding magic and purity of the body (see Underworld Sourcebook), she dares not implant any cyberware into her body, and has an inherent revulsion against cyberware.

(Oh yeah, a bit of confusion here. Wujen use libraries to learn spells, correct? Can their libraries be used by hermetics and vice-versa? Also, their enty in MitS mentions wujen using circles, but if they summon spirits like shaman, why would they need a conjuring circle?)

Based in the Chinatown section of Seattle (don't remember if there actually is one, but for the purposes of this character and setting, there is), Lin is something of a do-gooder, usually the first person the Chinese come running to when things go wrong in their tightly-knit community and they’re too scared to run to the local Triads and too smart to think that the corps might give a shit.

This was my combat wujen before I started reconfiguring her skills and spells to something more befitting a poor academic living in a second-story apartment. Her story is a bit different this time: Lin Hua used to be a corp wujen for Wuxing before she got sick and tired of letting “the bad guys” skate free on technicalities while her corporation often stood by and let innocent people suffer, so she jumped ship in Seattle and went into the detective business to take a more active hand in solving puzzles and helping people. Underneath her coldly academic façade, Lin Hua is a romantic: she grew up reading and watching stories of pre-Awakened detectives, where she learned the value of doing good deeds for people in need. To date, she’s had a few cases rescuing kidnapped children and more than her fair share of freebie jobs, but she often finds herself taking on sleazier jobs to pay the bills. She tends to specialize in missing persons/items, murder cases and various small-time crimes for now; whenever the cases starts involving white-collar crimes, she calls on a Lone Star detective friend of hers for council. Right now, she's something of an unofficial detective/vigilante: because the cases she looks after often involve people that are either beneath Lone Star's notice (SINless and/or poor) or beyond their reach (gangers), she doesn't need to record proof or even tell LS, she simply needs to do what her clients want (which usually means returning people or items).

I'll elaborate on the character in case more details are needed.

Her spell library is short and specialized because I was trying to not go for Priority B on this character; as I said before, she's small-time. I don't even understand the concept behind some of the Detect spells if Assensing and the Aura Reading skill seem to do just as well; I'm still trying to understand the reasoning of the Clairaudience and Clairvoyance spells: wouldn't technology work better in this case?

Analyze Truth/Emperor’s Discerning: 5
Catalog/Chung Kuel’s Scroll: 2 (E)
Clairaudience/Long Ears: 4
Detect Fingerprints: 4
Detect Individual: 4
Healthy Glow: 2 (E)
Mind Probe: 5 (E)
Stun Bolt/Laughing Hammer: 5

As for her stats and skills:

Attributes (24):
Body: 2
Quickness: 4
Strength: 3
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 6
Essence: 6
Magic: 6
Reaction: 4
Initiative: 4+1d6
Astral Reaction: 25
Astral Initiative: 25+1d6
Astral Combat Pool: 7
Combat Pool: 6
Spell Pool: 5
Karma Pool: 1
Team Karma Pool: 0

Active Skills (40):
Aura Reading: 6
Conjuring: 4
Etiquette (Chinese): 3 (5)
Interrogation: 4
Negotiation: 4
Pistol: 4
Sorcery: 5
Stealth: 4
Tai Chi Quan (Evasion, Focus Strength): 4

Knowledge Skills (25):
Computer Background: 3
Criminal Psychology: 4
Electronics Background: 4
Forensics: 4
Police Procedures: 2
Psychology: 4
Underworld Politics: 3
English: 4
English R/W: 2
Mandarin Chinese: 4
Mandarin R/W: 2

Quick, but not too quick; smarter than average, likable and strong-willed, she more skilled than gifted, though I think I might've screwed up the skill points there. I wanted something to reflect her corporate background and her now street-level life: she'd be about 25 at the beginning of a campaign. Right now, she has seven contacts, with a LS Detective being a Level 2. Her equipment and (middle) lifestyle are equally modest:

Shock Gloves
Browning Ultra-Power Heavy Pistol [silencer], concealable quick draw holster, 3 spare clips, 50 rounds regular ammunition
Fine Clothing
Secure Long Coat (4/2)
Pocket Secretary
Binoculars [low-light, thermographic imaging]
Pocket Flashlight
Goggles [low-light, thermographic imaging]
Plasteel Restraints (2)
Wu-jen Sorcery Library-4 [2.4Gp]

Suggestions?

Body Two *wince*
Looks good, but man I wince everytime I see body under 4. Two dice = screwed if you get shot bad, either try and up it or stand behind a spirit or a troll or something. Personal issue aside, looks really good and in character, well thought out. Not really much to add.

Snow Fox specializes in this sort of stuff, I'll try and get her in here, but she goes heaviuly into manipulate spells and social skills.

Don't forget the forensics ,biology, and astral pollution knowledge skills.

I'd add some sort of gang and also organised crime related knowledge skills if at all possible. Since they basically run the streets in a lot of places, could come in handy for more low level investigations.

@AK404: At least in my game, since wujen aren't actually hermetics, they don't use "hermetic" libraries, just as they can't use a shaman's lodge for learning spells. Same would go with voudoun and other unique traditions. They are wujen, and therefore need materials based on the wujen worldview and way of working with magic. The elemental concepts embodied by hermetic works are all well and good, and a wujen who reads them in his leisure time might experience some interesting insights, but his view of magic is based in the Chinese "stems", not the Westerns "elements". If your GM were looking to make them more mainstream, on the other hand, he could allow it.

Isn't range (area of effect) for Detection spells Force multiplied by Magic?

Get the spells with the Personal (only castable on you) and Extended options for the same Drain Code but the range (F x M) is then multiplied by 10.

Hm. Interesting thought. Then I can quicken them later on.

I have a Private Investigator, one of my favorite characters.

He had been a Lone Star Profiler, dropped from duty after getting psychological problems with things he witnessed (->Awakenings) its not in any situation a good idea to be perceptive and have a perfect memory, especially in combination with psychometry ;-/

He is a shamanic Ki-Mage (urbantotem dog) his adept abilities are primarily perception-based (bonus dies, emotion sense, astral perception)
having played him a lot he is a grade 6 initiate at the moment, but i started him an initiate with psychometry and cleansing from start (reflecting his former experience with the dpi)
he now has symbolic linking, masking, invoking and centering. for spells he has catalog preserve and magic finger at 3, heal at 5 and spiritbolt at 6 (lots of toxics in my path, dog protects humankind of bad magic )
an ally at force 3 to be a sidekick (with heal)

lots of useful knowledge skills and attributes in the 3-4 area he is definitely not a combat character, in onlinegaming he evolved into a kind of NPC and more often than not GMs like his concept and plan runs especially for him to participate,..

cya bluedragon7