Hey, I'm just starting with a new group. None of us have ever played shadowrun but we decided we're all going to read the rulebook and try to get it straight. Because we might be passing game-master duties off, I made a character as well, and would appreciate some double-checking so I know I'm doing it right (so I can help other players with their characters).

Two things I wasn't sure on and had difficulty finding clarifications of:

1. Can you take Improved Invisibility without knowing Invisibility, and Trid Phantasm without Phantasm?
2. If you put cyber-weapons in a cybernetic limb are there further essence penalties? See below- weapons nested in a cyberarm.

The gist of this character is that he's a magic/stealth infiltrator. His magic abilities are hindered slightly by a cybernetic arm (lost when he was younger and stupider) and datajack (because a DNI is invaluable and out-of-game, he already lost the .8 essence from the Alphaware cyberarm, so why not), but when magic fails, having some technology on your side is never a bad thing.

Priorities:
A Attributes
B Magician (Hermetic Tradition; 7 spells, 2 skills rating 4 each)
C Metatype: Elf (3)
D Resources (50,000)
E Skills (18 points... these are spread thin!)

Equipment (Cost): Datajack (1000, .1 ess); Chameleon Suit (AR 9, +2 sneak and sneak limit), Alphaware Cybernetic Right Arm with +2 Strength (5 Str total, 28000); Cyber-spurs and Shock palm (5000 each); Hermes Ikon commlink (3000); 50 drams reagents (1000); Force 5 Lodge (2500); 1 month low lifestyle (2000). 800 Nuyen remain.

Spells: Lightning Bolt, Stunball, Trid Phantasm, Improved Invis, Heal, Clairvoyance, Prophylaxis, Levitate

Karma: 25 Starting; -5 analytical mind; +5 Distinct Style (Obvious cyberware right arm, with glowing blue status lights (no effect on stealth, just for effect here)); National SIN +5; -5 for 1 spell; -6 each for running, perception, and palming to 2; -2 for Computers to 1

Attributes: Body 4, Agi 5, Rea 5, Str 2 (Right arm is str 5), Wil 5, Log 6, Int 4, Cha 4, Edge 2, Ess 5.1, Magic 5.

Skills: Spellcasting 4 (Freebie), Arcana 4 (Freebie), Astral Combat 2, Unarmed Combat 2, Counterspelling 4, Negotiation 2, Pilot Gnd 1, Sneaking 3, Gymnastics 2; Alchemy 2. Computers 1, Palming 2, Running 2, Perception 2
Knowledge/Language: Kn: Parageology 3, Chemistry 3, Fences 2, Magic Theory 3, Magical Threats 2; History 2; English 5; Native Lang: Sperethiel.

Contacts: Talismonger (Loyalty 2, Conn 4), Cybertech Mechanic (Loyalty 1, Conn 1), Fixer (Loyalty 2, Conn 2)

Thank you for your time!

Knowledge: Magical Threats are from http://www.ci-n.com/~jcampbel/rpgs/shadowrun/skills.html

It's interesting to see an asthmatic 40 kilo wimp with the agility of a pro athlete and the cyberarm of a bodybuilder, that's for sure.

1) Only one attribute at racial max.
2) 24 Attribute points, but I only count 22.
3) You have 3 Metatype points between Magic and Edge, +4 for Magic B, -1 for Essense loss. Your Magic is 4(Magic B) + 2(Metatype) - 1(Essense) = 5, but your Edge is 1(minimum Edge) + 1 (Karma) = 2. It should be 1(minimum Edge) + 1(Metatype) + 1 (Karma) = 3. Doing that costs 5 more Karma to raise your Edge from 2 to 3 instead of from 1 to 2, reducing your leftover amount to 0.
4) Your knowledge skills don't count toward your 18 skill points.
5) You get Intuition + Logic x 2 free knowledge and language skill points. for you that's currently 20 points.
6) You get one native language of your choice at rank N.
7) Raising Palming from 0 to 2 costs only 6 Karma, not 8.

Cyberarms start out with base Attributes of 3 for Agility and Strength. So your current cyberarm would have an Agility two points lower than your "natural" Agility of 5.

Maybe it's a 12 year old fiddler crab shifter gymnast?

I understand that it's in the game, but you guys keep coming up with the weirdest characters straight from left field to me. I would find it hilarious if I wasn't so busy going "WTF?!?" at the same time.

@Shemhazai: Your patience and attention to detail are impeccable, thank you for the detailed reply. Original post has been edited to reflect changes- mostly shifting skills around, making sure only one attribute is racial maximum, fleshing out knowledge skills. Added English as a second language, with five ranks; it adds background without hindering gameplay, hopefully.

Also will look less like Popeye with off-kilter cyberarm- Body increased slightly. @Glyph I know the arm's agility will be lower but this character can't even use guns, so agility is pretty much solely defensive.

@psychophipps [img]http://www.home-barista.com/forums/userpix/12946_muscle_arm.jpg[/img]

It is Reaction, not Agility, that is used for defense.

1) I still only count 22 out of your 24 mental and physical attribute points spent.
2) You currently get 20 knowledge and language skill points, I only count 18.
3) You didn't list perception in your active skill list.
4) You have 5 leftover karma.

To answer your question about the spells, the Improved Invisibility and Trid Phantasm spells don't have any prerequisite spells.

When you're going to ask a question like this, please use the appropriate edition button in your post icon. I still can't tell if this is SR4/A or SR5.