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Sinistra
I have been working on a Shapeshifter Mystic Adept concept and we have a few House Rules that make Mystic Adepts both better and potentially worse. (Long as you do not mind casting lower force spells.)

I was wanting to do an Eco-Warrior from the Athabaskan Council, that is a Fox Shapeshifter. There are house rules that differ from the normal Shadowrun 4E game though, and so far all players enjoy them.

Mystic Adepts, when there points are put into the magical side, that limits force of spells, and not die pool. So a 6 magic, 6 Spellcasting Mystic Adept with a 3 Magic 3 Adept split cast spells with 12 dice, but is limited to 3/6 Force for spells.
Smartlinks are limited to implant only
It is 2057 (Though all the wireless exist, I do not know if we will have a Crash 2.0 in this "timeline")
Form Fit was removed
Alternate Encumbrance threshold (Bod+Str)
Do not worry about points for Contacts(Good contacts wont cost BP, and GM will go over all an approve or disapprove.)

Books:
SR4A(20th Edition Core Book)
Arsenal
Augmentation
Runner's Companion
Running Wild
Street Magic
Unwired
Way of the Adept

I have 400 BP to work with, and I wanted to use Elemental Aura spell (Cold in this case), and be melee focused.

My own brain fails me, so I come to you looking for tips and even potential builds. I was thinking Druidic for magical tradion
I have a template below if you wish to use it.
[ Spoiler ]


Feel free to adjust it as you want, I just wanted to give anyone who did a build a little bit of the work already done for you.

In the meantime I am going to try and make my own again, accepting all critique because I wish I was better at making characters in this system. If you need any more info ask and I will see what I can provide.


There is a second topic with some discussion about this found here -- Thanee
Mantis
Not a build note per se, but the standard rule on qualities is the same as the one you have listed. You can't have more than 35BP in either negative or positive qualities by RAW, so you could remove those from your list of stuff to keep track of.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Mantis @ May 15 2013, 06:13 AM) *
Not a build note per se, but the standard rule on qualities is the same as the one you have listed. You can't have more than 35BP in either negative or positive qualities by RAW, so you could remove those from your list of stuff to keep track of.

Thank you, I learned the character creation basics from the GM and using Chummer. So I have slightly more limited knowledge that I would like because until recently I have not had time to just sit and read all the books.
Mantis
Well in that case, are you sure you want to go with a mystic adept? They usually require quite a good understanding of the rules to build and develop so they don't end up sucking. I'd suggest going either full magician or full adept as that lets you concentrate on just one aspect of the magic. There is quite a bit with learning how spells work and spirits operate without adding in the mystic adept and adept powers to the mix.
If you want someone that is melee focused, you could go with a possession tradition and use the spirit powers to give you the needed boosts. This is easily done as just a pure magician. It would also let you focus your karma more effectively. No matter the magic type, they all suck up the karma like crazy but I find the mystic adepts suck it up the most having to split focus as they do.
You could also go with a pure adept and pick up Elemental Strike (cold) and be very, very good at melee. You wouldn't get spells or spirits of course but you could focus your karma on making a very effective melee fighter. Plus adepts get some damn neat powers to use outside combat. Commanding Voice is fun and if you are worried about spell defence, take the spell resistance power. Combat Senses can make it very hard for you to be hit and the various attribute boosting abilities are nice.
Sinistra
My previous character was a magician, a summoner actually (Invoking Metamagic and all). Before that I have played a Rigger. What I said probably came out wrong, I do not know all the standard character creation rules, since my GMs do not use them. the Invoker was fun, though my GM started getting frustrated with the spirits I would Bind and Invoke. I have always just had a a hard time cramming a character into the BP creation rules, I really do prefer just straight karma all the way.

Basically I know the rules of the game, I just do not know standard character creation because things have always been house ruled. Also I would prefer to avoid Possession Tradition like the plague, the character builds I have done already drove my GM nuts.
Mantis
So do I. Is there a reason your GM wants to use the BP system? Not to derail your thread but I find karma build characters to be more rounded and you don't spend so much time trying to maximize the BP in the most efficient way. Karma is karma whether you spend it during creation or in game.

That said, mystic adepts, especially what you are trying to build, are hard to fit into the BP system. A melee capable character should have good physical stats with a focus (I think) on agility (to hit) and reaction (to avoid being hit), with an above average body to soak when you do get hit. Strength is important but not as much as there are plenty of other ways to get damage boosts for melee (weapons, crit strike, martial arts, hardliner gloves, etc). A mystic adept adds the problem of also needing good mental stats to help with the active spellcasting and such. You can mitigate this somewhat by choosing a tradition that uses Intuition as a drain stat and stay away from binding a lot of spirits so you don't need as much charisma. But you still need a good logic so you can keep enough foci active at once for the various booster spells you are going to want.
On top of that you need to split your magic between two aspects and that eats up the karma pretty quick. For a given amount of karma a pure adept or magician is generally better at his task than a mystic adept. I find the mystic adept is a good choice if there is already a magician and an adept in the team. Then you can play back up to either of those two with your powers. As a front line fighting type, they kinda suck, at least to start.
Draco18s
Couple of general comments:

1) You're a shifter. DO NOT prioritize your (meta)human form. You'll end up comparing the benefits of being human with being not-human and end up staying human, thus wasting 60 BP.
1a) Armor. Don't wear it.
2) Cyber. Limit it as much as you can, for various reasons, the primary one being that it won't work in animal form (see #1)
3) Magic. Whatever you can do with a spell and also with adept powers, take as a spell. It's not worth 3 PP to get Improved Reflexes if you can have it as a spell (yes, you'll be limited in Force, but good news: you have a pile of dice to make use of that force*).
4) Pick a martial art that fits the animal form, at least in flavor, if you can. Then it's one of those "fights that way because of animal upbringing" than being a mechanical advantage.

*I had the reverse issue (not enough dice) due to your table's rule on the magic split
Sinistra
QUOTE (Draco18s @ May 15 2013, 04:32 PM) *
Couple of general comments:

1) You're a shifter. DO NOT prioritize your (meta)human form. You'll end up comparing the benefits of being human with being not-human and end up staying human, thus wasting 60 BP.
1a) Armor. Don't wear it.
2) Cyber. Limit it as much as you can, for various reasons, the primary one being that it won't work in animal form (see #1)
3) Magic. Whatever you can do with a spell and also with adept powers, take as a spell. It's not worth 3 PP to get Improved Reflexes if you can have it as a spell (yes, you'll be limited in Force, but good news: you have a pile of dice to make use of that force*).
4) Pick a martial art that fits the animal form, at least in flavor, if you can. Then it's one of those "fights that way because of animal upbringing" than being a mechanical advantage.

*I had the reverse issue (not enough dice) due to your table's rule on the magic split

What are some of the Adept powers you would recommend?
Freya
The only ones that make sense for a fox shifter, IMO, are anything to do with melee combat and physical prowess (basically anything that's under Athlete's Way). Even then, there isn't a whole lot that you could do with adept powers that you couldn't do with spells (Increase Attribute, using Levitate instead of Great Leap, etc.)
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 04:27 AM) *
The only ones that make sense for a fox shifter, IMO, are anything to do with melee combat and physical prowess (basically anything that's under Athlete's Way). Even then, there isn't a whole lot that you could do with adept powers that you couldn't do with spells (Increase Attribute, using Levitate instead of Great Leap, etc.)

Yeah, the only difference is Foci really and sustaining.
Draco18s
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 15 2013, 10:13 PM) *
What are some of the Adept powers you would recommend?


Freya's aren't bad, but there's the other aspect of Fox as well. Cunning Trickster. Commanding Voice, Improved Attribute Charisma, Skill Whatever-its-called for Bluff. Etc.
Freya
QUOTE (Draco18s @ May 15 2013, 10:51 PM) *
Freya's aren't bad, but there's the other aspect of Fox as well. Cunning Trickster. Commanding Voice, Improved Attribute Charisma, Skill Whatever-its-called for Bluff. Etc.


Yeah, stuff like Kinesics, Commanding Voice, Improved Ability (Social skills, especially Con, and possibly Stealth skills) and/or Enthralling Performance. Sorry, I should've specified "within the confines of the character concept you indicated", since you'd already said you wanted her social skills to be fairly low. On the other hand, a fox is so used to watching body language and minute movements for hunting purposes that Kinesics might not be out of place. It makes a lot more sense to me that a shifter would be able to read someone's emotions by their posture than something like using a Mind Probe on them.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 06:28 AM) *
Yeah, stuff like Kinesics, Commanding Voice, Improved Ability (Social skills, especially Con, and possibly Stealth skills) and/or Enthralling Performance. Sorry, I should've specified "within the confines of the character concept you indicated", since you'd already said you wanted her social skills to be fairly low. On the other hand, a fox is so used to watching body language and minute movements for hunting purposes that Kinesics might not be out of place. It makes a lot more sense to me that a shifter would be able to read someone's emotions by their posture than something like using a Mind Probe on them.

It does make sense, and I may adjust the concept, I have no problem with them being good at Social, I just see it being a rough balance to be good at Spellcasting, Possibly unarmed combat(Or the elemental Aura spell is fairly useless), and then also being decent at social stuff. As I learned with my first Shadowrun character, being a generalist in a world of specialist gets you killed or you just tend to suck. I am dealing with a group where the average offensive dice roll is 14-15, I think are low is 12, and we have a high at about 17 dice. Without negative or positive modifiers from beyond the character.
Freya
I definitely know what you mean with having to keep a rough balance between all these different things; it seems like it's a case of "spells, unarmed combat, people skills: pick two". Unless your group is really desperate for combat monsters I'd hold off on the unarmed combat part for a while. From a roleplaying perspective, even though foxes are carnivores they're generally more playful and shy than aggressive, and they're fairly small physically compared to other predators so they're more likely to avoid a fight than charge into it. Mechanically, a Strength of 2 with Magic 3 on the "magician side" and the house rules you described will only get you a DV of 4P even with Elemental Aura. You'd also have to get up-close, resist (F/2) +3 Drain for the spell and either take a dice pool penalty or use one of your sustaining foci to keep the spell going. On top of that, with an Agility of 5 you'd need 6 points your relevant combat skills and either at least 0.5 PP worth of Improved Ability or a weapon focus to match even the low end of the group's offensive dice.

Honestly, you might be better off forgetting unarmed combat for the time being and just going with a combination shamanic mystic adept/face (might as well get the Drain resistance if you're focusing on Charisma anyway) to work the "playful trickster" aspect of a fox's personality. It would take changing your tradition and shifting points from Reaction and Intuition into Charisma, but on the bright side, adept powers for Social skills are a lot more point-efficient than for Combat skills. If you do end up having to fight, spells and spirits should hold you over until you can raise your Combat skills, especially if you use one of those sustaining foci for Combat Sense and take cover a lot.

If you end up absolutely needing an unarmed combat character instead, get six dice worth of Unarmed Combat, put a PP into two ranks of Improved Ability (Unarmed Combat) and another PP into Killing Hands and two ranks of Critical Strike, then get two sustaining foci and cast Increase Agility and Combat Sense on yourself before combat. Touch-range combat spells like Death Touch, Shatter or Knockout on top of those (lower Drain than Elemental Aura and no dice pool penalty for sustaining them since they're instant), will end up with roughly 14 dice for your Unarmed Combat pool and a DV of maybe 6P per attack. The weapon focus probably isn't worth it at this point, since you'd have to spend a ton of BP/karma to have decent skills with it and you can't use it in fox form anyway, unless there's a section of the rules I've misread.

I'll do a little number-crunching to see what I come up with for a shamanic mystic adept/face build and post something in your other thread a separate post, apparently, since someone locked the other thread. nyahnyah.gif
Freya
As I mentioned, my adaptation of your character for a shamanic mystic adept/face. As written here, the build has 0 BP available.

[ Spoiler ]


Of course, this all depends on what you need for your campaign and what you're going to be able to spend in terms of that chunk of Karma and nuyen. I went into the build with the mindset of "she's a fox and a magician first and only started developing her people skills later", so I intentionally went light on the Social side skills-wise in favour of her magic. On the other hand, between Kinesics and the two Improved Ability powers she'll get +4 dice to Con and Negotiation and +3 dice to any other "reading body language" skill. The spells I picked were based on the ones I mentioned in the other thread, but since I was already running out of BP I decided to leave off a few I would otherwise have added (namely some combination of more combat spells, more Increase Attribute, and maybe Improved Invisibility/Silence for ninja-ing purposes). The leftover three points in Knowledge skills are because I couldn't think of anything else to put them into that fit, and depending on where your campaign is set, it might've made sense to have another language in addition to English and Athabaskan.

Feel free to use as much or as little of those stats as you want, I hope it helps.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 09:46 AM) *
As I mentioned, my adaptation of your character for a shamanic mystic adept/face. As written here, the build has 0 BP available.

[ Spoiler ]


Of course, this all depends on what you need for your campaign and what you're going to be able to spend in terms of that chunk of Karma and nuyen. I went into the build with the mindset of "she's a fox and a magician first and only started developing her people skills later", so I intentionally went light on the Social side skills-wise in favour of her magic. On the other hand, between Kinesics and the two Improved Ability powers she'll get +4 dice to Con and Negotiation and +3 dice to any other "reading body language" skill. The spells I picked were based on the ones I mentioned in the other thread, but since I was already running out of BP I decided to leave off a few I would otherwise have added (namely some combination of more combat spells, more Increase Attribute, and maybe Improved Invisibility/Silence for ninja-ing purposes). The leftover three points in Knowledge skills are because I couldn't think of anything else to put them into that fit, and depending on where your campaign is set, it might've made sense to have another language in addition to English and Athabaskan.

Feel free to use as much or as little of those stats as you want, I hope it helps.

Not to sound stupid, but is Combat Reflexes supposed to be Increased Reflexes the health spell which gives more passes, or Combat Sense the detection spell?
Freya
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 16 2013, 01:20 PM) *
Not to sound stupid, but is Combat Reflexes supposed to be Increased Reflexes the health spell which gives more passes, or Combat Sense the detection spell?


That's not you sounding stupid, that's allllllll me. It's supposed to be Combat Sense. (I was reading the adept powers while I wrote that and got my wires crossed, I'll change it.)
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 08:27 PM) *
That's not you sounding stupid, that's allllllll me. It's supposed to be Combat Sense. (I was reading the adept powers while I wrote that and got my wires crossed, I'll change it.)

We all have those days. Trust me, I spend a fair bit of time going over what I typed because I am dyslexic. Even then I still screw up because my brain messes with me when I do my rechecks.

So in combat, only one pass huh? Would you recommend the spell and a Foci to remedy that wit the Extra Karma and Nuyen I will have. I do not know the exact values, but if I base it of what my last character had before he died...156 Karma, 281K Nuyen.
Freya
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 16 2013, 01:37 PM) *
So in combat, only one pass huh? Would you recommend the spell and a Foci to remedy that wit the Extra Karma and Nuyen I will have. I do not know the exact values, but if I base it of what my last character had before he died...156 Karma, 281K Nuyen.


Yes, I think the easiest way to get around only having the one combat pass is just using and sustaining Increase Reflexes. You'd have to overcast it to Force 4 to get the maximum benefit from it, but even if you left it at Force 3 you could still get 3 IP total and use one of your sustaining foci for it. Now that you mention it, Increase Reflexes might make more sense than Increase Agility, since you're using Reaction/Combat Sense for defence anyway and Agility doesn't apply to offensive spellcasting. (I assume you'd be handling combat by tossing spells around and GTFOing if something attacks you.)
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 08:51 PM) *
Yes, I think the easiest way to get around only having the one combat pass is just using and sustaining Increase Reflexes. You'd have to overcast it to Force 4 to get the maximum benefit from it, but even if you left it at Force 3 you could still get 3 IP total and use one of your sustaining foci for it. Now that you mention it, Increase Reflexes might make more sense than Increase Agility, since you're using Reaction/Combat Sense for defence anyway and Agility doesn't apply to offensive spellcasting. (I assume you'd be handling combat by tossing spells around and GTFOing if something attacks you.)

Yeah, that has become the idea at least. My agility will be used if I am trying to be more combat subtle and shooting/tasing people (I really have a thing for the Taser weapons, they are hilarious and great)
Freya
If you want to do it without having to split your dice pools into firearms for a taser, grab yourself a pair of shock gloves. (Why didn't I think of that earlier?) At a flat 5S DV and bypassing armour you'll do slightly more damage than you would with Elemental Aura, without having to deal with sustaining or Drain, and not electrocuting people that hit you isn't a big deal since when they shouldn't hit you anyway.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 09:07 PM) *
If you want to do it without having to split your dice pools into firearms for a taser, grab yourself a pair of shock gloves. (Why didn't I think of that earlier?) At a flat 5S DV and bypassing armour you'll do slightly more damage than you would with Elemental Aura, without having to deal with sustaining or Drain, and not electrocuting people that hit you isn't a big deal since when they shouldn't hit you anyway.
Yeah, makes sense. I am glad I came onto the forums because it turned an idea in my head that was not going to work into something that should work. While Elemental Aura is cool, I will save that for another concept another day. Maybe when I am just doing something a little more normal.

This is the part I love about Elemental Aura more than if people attack me in melee they take damage "This fiery aura does not affect the subject, but increase the DV of any melee attacks by the caster’s hits."
Sinistra
Freya, your build above acctually has 15 points left over, only 190 in Attributes, and I am not sure where the extra 5 BP went missing but I have quadruple checked at this point and I am sitting on 15 points, 190 in attributes.
Freya
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 16 2013, 02:48 PM) *
Freya, your build above acctually has 15 points left over, only 190 in Attributes, and I am not sure where the extra 5 BP went missing but I have quadruple checked at this point and I am sitting on 15 points, 190 in attributes.


Oh, weird. I'm not sure where the other ones went either, but I wasn't checking the numbers all that closely when I threw it together, so it's entirely possible I didn't add correctly. I don't know what else I'd suggest for the character besides what I've already posted and "whatever's appropriate to your campaign", so go nuts!

Going to be AFK for a few hours, but I should be around later this evening.
Sinistra
Sounds good, I was just letting you know and I will do with them what I see fit. Look over the build, see if there is anything that may be useful and all that.
Ryu
Sustaining Foci will be very useful, going for 4 in the long run (manipulation/detection/health/illusion). YouŽll also want to initiate a few times and take masking/extended masking.

Get Perception 1 instead of Con, buy the Influence group with karma.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Ryu @ May 16 2013, 10:43 PM) *
Sustaining Foci will be very useful, going for 4 in the long run (manipulation/detection/health/illusion). YouŽll also want to initiate a few times and take masking/extended masking.

Get Perception 1 instead of Con, buy the Influence group with karma.

I planned on initiating for Both masking and extended masking. Specially since I should have a large chunk of Karma.
Ryu
Consider getting the Shapechange spell. Seems redundant on a shifter, but isnŽt. Getting something with flight is still great, and with that lowly Body stat you can transform into the ever-present pidgeon. Really mean on a hunter of small vermin, too.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Ryu @ May 16 2013, 11:41 PM) *
Consider getting the Shapechange spell. Seems redundant on a shifter, but isnŽt. Getting something with flight is still great, and with that lowly Body stat you can transform into the ever-present pidgeon. Really mean on a hunter of small vermin, too.

"This spell does not transform clothing and equipment. Magicians
in critter form can still cast spells, but cannot perform other tasks requiring
speech." -Shapechange 211 SR4A

Does that above quote mean if I used that spell, all my gear would be left where I once was? While yes I know I am a shpaeshifter and am slightly less gear intensive(Uhhh, I am probably only going to have Foci, clothing, and shock gloves along with a Commlink for non-simsense stuff. Like voice calls), I would not want to have my gear fall into a pile on the ground.
Draco18s
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 16 2013, 06:07 PM) *
Does that above quote mean if I used that spell, all my gear would be left where I once was? While yes I know I am a shpaeshifter and am slightly less gear intensive(Uhhh, I am probably only going to have Foci, clothing, and shock gloves along with a Commlink for non-simsense stuff. Like voice calls), I would not want to have my gear fall into a pile on the ground.


Your gear falls into a pile on the ground.

Or if you assume the...not exactly canon but intended and left out rules regarding shapeshifters and equipment, it's possible that you'll destroy your stuff and/or hurt yourself.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Draco18s @ May 17 2013, 12:15 AM) *
Your gear falls into a pile on the ground.

Or if you assume the...not exactly canon but intended and left out rules regarding shapeshifters and equipment, it's possible that you'll destroy your stuff and/or hurt yourself.

So even with a regular shift, any foci would be dropped to the ground also. Assuming human to animal. Animal I would not have the Foci on me at that point unless I gathered them up anyway...Though that gives me an interesting idea for a Foci that is a necklace(For a fox it could in theory stay on in both forms)
Freya
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 16 2013, 05:20 PM) *
So even with a regular shift, any foci would be dropped to the ground also. Assuming human to animal. Animal I would not have the Foci on me at that point unless I gathered them up anyway...Though that gives me an interesting idea for a Foci that is a necklace(For a fox it could in theory stay on in both forms)


There's some precedent for that, actually. One of the adventure hooks in the Neo-Tokyo section of Corporate Enclaves had a fox shifter who wore a power focus as a collar.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Freya @ May 17 2013, 01:10 AM) *
There's some precedent for that, actually. One of the adventure hooks in the Neo-Tokyo section of Corporate Enclaves had a fox shifter who wore a power focus as a collar.

Good to know it exist in canon then.
Mantis
I was actually going to suggest you get exactly that sort of foci. Collars or other things like that that can go around the neck means you can carry the foci with you. Of course if they are all necklaces, you might begin to end up looking like Mr. T in human form.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Mantis @ May 17 2013, 01:25 AM) *
I was actually going to suggest you get exactly that sort of foci. Collars or other things like that that can go around the neck means you can carry the foci with you. Of course if they are all necklaces, you might begin to end up looking like Mr. T in human form.
If I do not have a lot of Foci I should be fine. They are the only real valuable thing that are hard to replace.
Rubic
QUOTE (Mantis @ May 16 2013, 08:25 PM) *
I was actually going to suggest you get exactly that sort of foci. Collars or other things like that that can go around the neck means you can carry the foci with you. Of course if they are all necklaces, you might begin to end up looking like Mr. T in human form.

Alternatively, the collar is one focus, with each gem it has inset as an additional focus. Earrings could ALSO work, though it would make you more noticeable in animal forms (esp. something that doesn't have ears). Another option is to wear a chain necklace, with the foci being links in the chain. This, then again, falls to the Mr. T Syndrome.
Mantis
Actually, if they are for fairly low force foci or your GM allows you to remove the limit on stacked foci, a stacked focus may be the way to go. This allows you to get a multipurpose focus in one item. So it could be a force 3 power focus, force 3 health sustaining focus for example. This would be something you'd have to get in game though as I think the price and/or availability would be too high for a starting character. Anyway, something to look into.
Sinistra
QUOTE (Mantis @ May 17 2013, 06:18 AM) *
Actually, if they are for fairly low force foci or your GM allows you to remove the limit on stacked foci, a stacked focus may be the way to go. This allows you to get a multipurpose focus in one item. So it could be a force 3 power focus, force 3 health sustaining focus for example. This would be something you'd have to get in game though as I think the price and/or availability would be too high for a starting character. Anyway, something to look into.

the price is doable, though I would have to see how the availability is effected. I should see if Stacking Foci adds to the cost too. I would think not but you never know.
Sinistra
Looking in Street Magic at Stacked Foci, they do not seem to have a lot for it but I do not know if there is Errata somewhere else. Though they are harder to find since a stacked Foci needs a specific formula, not a formulas of each of the seperate foci that make the stacked. So I can understand double cost, and maybe double availability. I will have to see what else I can find on it.
Mantis
Try building one in Chummer and see what it does. That can give you an idea on where to go with prices and availability. I think the software is just stacking the costs.
Sinistra
After looking between Karma and BP builds for this character if I can convince him to just do Karma instead things will be so much easier and better. I had made different characters through BP, and recently I tried remaking most through Karma and they do seem to be a lot more...effective and get what I want when done through karma.
Dakka Dakka
QUOTE (Freya @ May 16 2013, 09:51 PM) *
Yes, I think the easiest way to get around only having the one combat pass is just using and sustaining Increase Reflexes. You'd have to overcast it to Force 4 to get the maximum benefit from it, but even if you left it at Force 3 you could still get 3 IP total and use one of your sustaining foci for it.
That is only true if you think the erroneous FAQ is a rule. When you determine the force of a spell (or the maximum possible force) you are not using "Magic-based skills" (SR4A p. 195) that determination is independent of skill. Determining the Force falls under"all other purposes" (SR4A p. 195). So a Mystic Adept with a magic Attribute of 5 and 2 Power Points could cast spells up to MAG 5 normally (overcasting MAG 10) but would only use 3+Spellcasting+modifiers dice to do so.

While this makes the drain a bit less painful, getting 4 hits on the spellcasting test is not easy without a Power Focus. If you are using BP-Gen, take a Force 4 (with Restricted Gear). You will never get it cheaper. 100k„, 4 BP vs. 100k„ 32 Karma.
Mantis
The only problem I have with the power focus in character creation is cash in creation does not equal cash in career. Spending all those BP on the quality (5 BP) plus the cash (20BP) plus the bonding (4BP) doesn't really work out as cheaper. I know plenty on here advocate doing this but I prefer not to spend BP on stuff that is either one use (restricted gear) or else more easily acquired in game (money). The hardest thing to get is usually karma and if I can spend those BP getting skills or attributes raised or even picking up some of the hard to get qualities, I find that to be a better expenditure of BP. To each their own though.
Dakka Dakka
I agree that restricted gear is not a great choice, but unfortunately a necessary one for the F4 Power Focus. As to whether 100k„ are acquired more easily, highly depends on the gaming group. I doubt that a Karmasink like a Shapeshifter Mystic adept will at any point have 32 Karma lying around. Smaller heaps will most likely go to other necessary purchases. If you only use one spell category, you may get away with a F3 Spellcasting Focus, but the Power Focus will also boost any rolls you have to make with your adept powers (like Attribute Boost).
Draco18s
QUOTE (Mantis @ May 23 2013, 06:14 AM) *
The only problem I have with the power focus in character creation is cash in creation does not equal cash in career. Spending all those BP on the quality (5 BP) plus the cash (20BP) plus the bonding (4BP) doesn't really work out as cheaper. I know plenty on here advocate doing this but I prefer not to spend BP on stuff that is either one use (restricted gear) or else more easily acquired in game (money). The hardest thing to get is usually karma and if I can spend those BP getting skills or attributes raised or even picking up some of the hard to get qualities, I find that to be a better expenditure of BP. To each their own though.


Bonding foci at character creation is MUCH better than getting them in play.
Mantis
Like Dakka Dakka said, it depends on your game. I've never found it to be a better place to spend my BP, or at least not a necessity in my games. But this has also been done to death so no point in rehashing it.
Sinistra
I don't want to spam up the Forums, but I finally got a consensus on how to do the character. 1150 Karma, Avail 15. So I have some work to do but any suggestions are always nice.

Edit: On a side note another player apparently is doing a similar concept. They are just a human from The midwest somewhere or something of Native decent and a citizen of one of the countries out there. Though they are a Full up Aspected Sorcerer Magician, while I am an Adept. They also plan on being a support caster more than a straight up kick there teeth in combat wise, so in combat I can see us filling two different roles...but we will both be good socially(Myself better because of planning an Adept powers)
Draco18s
QUOTE (Sinistra @ May 27 2013, 02:36 AM) *
I don't want to spam up the Forums, but I finally got a consensus on how to do the character. 1150 Karma, Avail 15. So I have some work to do but any suggestions are always nice.


With that much karma you can basically do anything you want and still be good.
Tymeaus Jalynsfein
QUOTE (Draco18s @ May 27 2013, 07:47 AM) *
With that much karma you can basically do anything you want and still be good.


Indeed... Just wow...
Ryu
Seems like the karma/ressources after chargen got rolled into chargen. Given that unaugmented magicians donŽt need much money and the attribute cap is pretty meaningless with 1000+ karma, I hope the other chars have been spending their gains efficiently.
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