QUOTE (Mordinvan @ Jun 19 2010, 10:00 PM)

Really, I'll tell you what. You play that mage, and I'll play a A.I. in an otomu, and we'll see who's more versatile. You're one trick pony equates to absolutely nothing in any situation where they do not have direct access to a mind. So against a done, gravity, poisons, injury, pain, bullets, or anything else for that matter you're pretty much screwed. All the power to you though.
Why are you making an assumption that I am a one trick pony? Have I ever stated that? I am pretty sure that I have not... as for hurting the Ottomo... you don't need mind oriented spells to do that... any good physical illusion could screw you six ways from Sunday if the mage is even a little bit intelligent about it... as for the strictly Manipulation Spells, ever heard of Levitate? or Petrify? or Turn to Goo? or Ignite (that body will eventually burn after all)? Those are all in the base book... there are a ton more in Street Magic that are also very useful... Physical Spells are just as much a theat to Machines as they are to Living Organisms (And the character I was describing has access to more of the Physical Manipulation Spells than the Mental Manipulation spells)... Not to mention the useful things that a Spirit can bring to the Table... If you listen to Dumpshock here, Spirits are vastly overpowered, and though I do not necessarily agree with them, they are at least very useful, even if they are below Force 6 in Power.
And as for what a human (or metahuman) is susceptible to, whether or not I am a mage is irrelevant, as most of Metahumanity is susceptible to the same things, so it is not really singularly applicable to my situation anyway... And yes, Drones are somewhat immune to such things... However, a drone is not immune to having something dropped on them, nor are they immune from the damage taken from falls if they are significant enough (through a simple Levitation spell afterall).
Every character has strength and weaknesses... your AI has a lot of weaknesses compared to a living, breathing Metahuman, though most of them could be said to be fluff reasons rather than Mechanical Reasons... But the biggest that I can see is that you are Software... Your disadvantages are somewhat more subtle, though, I will give you that... It does not mean that you cannot be destroyed though... Drones are not the end all, be all of invulnerability...
And further more, just because I am a Mage does not mean that I do not have access to technology that can harm you... MAgic is not the end all, be all of a well designed character... I have jkust as much access to things like weapons, programs and yes, even Drones that are just as useful as your Otomo... Don't make the mistake that I am a one trick pony... I tend to build well rounded characters, and do not rely upon "One Trick" to stay alive in the Shadows.
Anyways... It is definitely an interesting debate... I like the option to have access to a limited number of "Schools" of magic for the tradeoff of a cheaper Spell cost... it is intriguing, and I might bring that to our GM for consideration... You, of course, see it as a Gimped option, and that is your perrogative... I do not tend to create characters with the sole purpose of having the most Uber Character that I can... I tend to create living, breathing characters that are playable... Would you call them gimped? Probably... But many of hte Players at my table think that hte characters I make are extrememly interesting, and they often can do things, where the Specialist would have trouble... Again, here on DUmpshock, if you are not playing something with a Dice Pool close to , or over, 20 Dice, tehn you have not created your character correctly. Those kind of characters are very specialized at what they do, make no mistake, but they are not all that versatile at all... They relyu upon other to cover their weaknesses. On the other hand, I tend to create a character that had a life before Chargen, and as such, you cannot rely upon the mysterious "Invisible Friends" to cover things... my dice pools may be less (and sometimes significanlty less in the cases of the Pornomancer, Climbing Master, Optimized Technomancer, Ultimate Healer, and Ultimate Gunbunnies), but then again, I do not subscribe to the crede that you need 30+ Dice to succeed (as most of those builds possess)...
Ultimately, I play this game to create interesting and intriguing stories... Stories do not rely upon Dice Pools, they rely upon Personality... Your character is not a group of statistics, it is the Personality that is the main focus; the statistics are just there to cover any "Mechanical" necessities that are needed from time to time...
Keep the Faith
Mordinvan...