Pretty much, this. Intuition may not go as high as the other drain stats, but you can much make up the difference with a point of ware - and the ware you're taking synergizes nicely

platelet factories: any time you take two or more damage, the damage is reduced by 1.
Trauma damper: If you take Stun, reduce it by 1. If you take Physical, shift 1 box to stun instead. (when combined with a platelet, damper first, then platelet, so its only beneficial if you're taking 3 or more points of damage).
Drain is damage. Specifically, stun damage unless you overcast. While you may not be a hermetic mage with a cerebral booster and a logic of 9, you DO have a very nice safety buffer in case you roll a ton of 1's on your relatively low drain resistance dice.

But yeah. An orc combat mage with a point of ware is well rounded, and very very scary.

This guy, combat free spirit
A nosferatu optimized for astral and summoning duties and being a face with Realistic Disguise. Alternately, another possession free spirit possessing a blackberry cat and good for stealth, decent at combat, and ok at being a face (for a cat)
It wouldn't be optimal straight out of chargen, but with the right qualities and some karma to push inherent Command and Stealth up, an AI would probably make an excellent and hard-to-kill hacker/rigger/team coordinator.

Fourth runner can be anything. I imagine an eagle shapeshifter would come in handy for aerial support/shadowing.

Really, you can cover most of the bases with two characters:

1) a Dwarf Hacker/Rigger combo, running either ware or adept to get the skill bonuses he'll need to do well in both fields.
2) an Elf Gunslinger/Face, again either adept or ware, with high agility and reaction and combat sense (or something like it).

Both are rolling 9-12 dice in a broad set of fields, and can throw 15+ dice on a few specific rolls. After that, you need a melee/tank sort of character (likely a troll or orc) with good stealth so he can work with the Elf Gunslinger. Finally, you need a mage, and with the other fields covered reasonably well the mage can afford to focus exclusively on mage stuff, and thus cover most of that area.

Is it perfect? of course not. It's not possible to build a 4 (or 5, or 7) man team that perfectly covers all bases and has no weak points. But it's functional.

Disclaimer

I won’t offer any stats, as I’m convinced that it’s not possible to create the Alpha Crew with 400 BPs, but I’ll post my concept. The Alpha Crew consists of four Shadowrunners who served together in the MET 2000 for some years.

----------

Armin “Spectre” van Balen (Homo Sapiens Sapiens)

Armin has some serious problems with cyberware rejection, thus he never got any implants. He’s the spotter of the team, having no problems to get through any scanner and with a face one tends to overlook in a crowd. Usually he stays in the back, offering backup power with his sniper rifle as well as using external hardware for acting as the Alpha Crew’s rigger. During his time in the MET2k usually he operated one of the unity’s APCs and he’s a skilled mechanic.

Spoken languages: Dutch, German, English

Louis “Foudre” al-Assad (Homa Sapiens Nobils)

Louis’s an elf of franco-algerian origin. The cybered-up physical adept’s the combat expert in the Alpha Crew. Dealing with all sorts of aggressive conflicts and mastering most weapons. He’s a natural tactician as well.

Spoken languages: French, Arabic, English, German

Alister “Sledge” Monegan (Homo Sapiens Ingentis)

Alister’s mother was a fugitive from Kaliningrad while his father is of lower class British origin. The Fomori grew up in East End, London, and would have ended up as just another docker if not for his awakening as a norse magican. Choosing the Dragonslayer / Thor as his mentor spirit, he joint the MET2k where he met the other members of the eventual Alpha Crew.

Spoken languages: English, Russian, German

Jennifer “Shine” Klein (Homo Sapiens Sapiens)

Jennifer’s of upper class origin and grew up in Hamburg, AGS. The rebellious girl joint the MET2k to anger her father and served as a paramedic. She’s a recently emerged technomancer and with her family background she’s also the social expert of the Alpha Crew.

Spoken languages: German, English, Spanish

Four mages with maxed out summoning and binding skills. They just walk to wherever they are supposed to break into, summon a dozen spirits, rip the place apart, and walk away

I actually did create a purpose built team before, but I believe it was five people. I doubt I still have the stuff for any of them besides Hawkeye.

Ever read Nigel Findley's 2XS novel? 1 ex-cop turned Shadowrunner with a lot of loyal contacts. There's your 1-man shadowrunning team. Especially that book introduced the Argent character.

Ah, good ol' Dirk! Too bad we'll never see him again.

I would skip the pure combat moster because every runner will cover this. And I would assume every position has to be covered twice. So I go with

1 Elf Mage, 1. Focus: support magic/spirits 2. Focus: Face
1 Human Myth. Adapt, 1. Focus: Cov.Opt./B&E 2. Focus: support magic/spirits
1 Elf, 1. Focus: mundane Face (ware) 2. Focus: Hacker
1 Human, 1. Focus: Hacker, 2.Focus Cov.Opt/B&E

This way you can form small teams for every situation, which is best for every kind of action. Based on the amount of Karma or BP everybody should cover basic stuff like: connections, infiltration, con, drone controlling, disguise, fighting, driving.

Just build one guy who can do everything, then multiply by four.

Bye
Thanee

Eh. It's easy to claim the "best team", but when Shadow Wars opens, you can try to prove it.

Team SYZYGY
Sy - Human Combat Medic
Zy - Human Hermetic Magician
Gy - Human Cyborg

Bring it.

Having an entire chararcter be nothing but a medic is a waste, it requires one stat, one skill and one piece of equipment.

Just have the hermetic do it, his logic will be high anyway. Plus he can follow up with a heal spell (the order must be First Aid then Heal) to bring anyone from death's door to fully recovered.

If you think so, join Shadow Wars and kick my ass for wasting so much potential.

Are you kidding, I can't think of a more efficient person to incapacitate or kill someone!

"I have detailed files on human anatomy." - Uncle Bob

Doctor McCoy, a PC in the first campaign game I ran, took out an entire neighbourhood of warehouse guards.

You realize you're agreeing with me there right? The Terminator wasn't a medic by an stretch of the imagination, but he could very easily serve as one.

His team could replace the medic with another cyborg, complete with hyperalloy combat chasis and detailed files on human anatomy, and have him be just as good at being a medic while still having great combat ability.

I'm not even sure what "Human Combat Medic" is supposed to mean in his post, after he maxes Logic and First Aid what does he do with the rest of character that's completely unspent?

Then maybe you could have asked before starting to bitch? Not sure that Simon will answer though: the sheets are supposed to remain private in Shadowars

Ooh, do tell! I know how I would do it, but I want to hear the story.

Welcome to the poorly thought-out wireless world!

The group got ahold of a chuckwagon, painted it in Starbucks colours, and had Doctor McCoy mix up some special flavourings to cover the taste of drugs he also whipped up. "Midnight Serenade” and “Chocolate Thunder” Soykaffs were doled out to folks in the neighbourhood at a discount in the Warehouse areas. I think you can guess what they did by their name.

IIRC, they actually made 1 per cup sold after all expenses.

The guards that were worst off were the ones that had a cup of each.

Night One Bioware Samurai, Fomori augmented adept, Ogre augmented Druid spellcaster, Nartaki ambidextrous technician/hermetic magician.

That is 1 too much for Shadowars: teams are restricted to 3 there. More information:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=32257

And I was planning on an Ogre Druid too

So no nartaki for me.

If I ever make a nartaki character, I will name him "forewarned".

Ow.

Eh. Shadow Wars has house rules. All you can prove is that you are the best, with the house rules.

And RAW is so broken that exactly zero people actually play with the straight rules. Or are spirits stuck on the astral forever in your games... actually, I wouldn't mind that much..

Spirits are stuck forever on the astral if you choose to use only part of the RAW, which is in itself a house rule.

So why, exactly, does Materialization not work according to RAW? Looks fine to me.

I don't know. I had assumed that he meant that spirits didn't have Materialisation, but now that I have my books in front of me, I have no idea why.

He means the fact that its a Physical power and as such cant be used in astral.
Or at least i think he does based on his or someone else posts around here.

Physical powers cannot be used in astral space or affect astral forms. Materialization is, by its very nature, not being used in astral space, since it is the critter projecting itself to the material world. Nor can it affect astral forms - the critter is still dual-natured, but it is not affecting other astral forms with its materialized side, but with its astral side.

1 Elf Shawman /Face High Charisma
2 Ork Sam Generalist for the firepower
3. Dwarf Rigger/Hacker
4. Infiltration Specialist adept

The spirit arrives in the Astral. The power is a Complex Action. It is additionally a Physical power, so it can not be taken from the Astral, where the spirit resides. Conclusion: the spirit can not Manifest, Materialize or Inhabit according to the Rules as Written since it would take a Complex Action only usable from or on the Physical plane.

Exactly how RAW do you want your rules again?

Only if you ignore the specific rules within the Materialisation power itself as well as rules found elsewhere. Conclusion: Materialisation allows them to create a physical form.

I want my rules RAW, all of it, not just one portion of it.

Seriously, RPG rules systems tend to be an "exception based" rules environment where there are general rules but specific rules contradict and supersede them at any time.

So you can't hurt someone while knocking them down. Except when you have this Martial Art. And you can't use a physical power in the Astral, except for Materialization, etc. which clearly say that you do in their text.

So I'd like my rules very RAW, thanks.