I still like them even with the changes. In previous editions aspected mages got a bonus to whatever they were aspected for. Since that got removed I think a good alternative would have been this: An aspected mage is considered to have a magic rating 1 (or 2?) points higher for the purpose of determining whether drain is P or S ONLY. This only applies to the school they are aspected to.

To me this gives them back just a bit of the "they are a bit better at this one thing" they use to have.

they're not too bad for some uses, terrible for others.

specifically, if you want to have spirits or spells (i recommend spells, personally) and want to invest the absolute minimum amount to get access to those things, being aspected is not a bad idea. generally speaking, you're not usually giving up anything particularly great by pushing something from priority D to priority E.

which means that you can, for example, have an aspected sorcerer with really good skills, any race you want, decent attributes, and just dump your resources or something like that.

for some character archetypes, that's an awesome deal.

My idea that I am persuing is a Detective mage (note the name order...a detective who happens to be a mage....not the other way around). I see him as kind of a Dirk Montgomery combined with Harry Dresden (Post 2XS Dirk Montgomery so he has a cyber limb). As such he will have mostly detection/manipulation spells and a couple of rituals (most notably Watcher and Ward). Is there a logic based tradition that allows summoning of spirits of man? I think I want him to dabble in necromancy/psychometry and the necro requires a tradition that can summon them.

Logic & Spirits Of Man? Hermetic & Zoroastrian.

If it were SR4, also Chaos, but that has since been changed to Intuition as of SR5.

Officially? What SpellBinder said.

Unofficially? Anything you want. Though the rules did not make the conversion from SR4, the basic idea is pretty simple. Pick your drain, decide which 5 spirits align to which spell categories for the purposes of the new tradition, and decide what the new tradition is like. As an extra bonus you could be the only follower of your new tradition. Especially if you're learning your tradition directly from your mentor spirit. Depending on the mentor you could then pass on knowledge of the tradition to new students. (Yay, plot hook and roleplay opportunities.)

Also, there is some history in SR4 and SR5 of a tradition having one set of drain stats and a subsect having a different set of drain stats. The two I remember off the top of my head is Wicca (Wil + Log or Wil + Int) and the Hermetic tradition (Harlequin uses a Wil + Int variant).

So if there is a tradition with spirits of man that you like but the drain stats don't appeal to you, swap the drain stats. Call it a subsect and come up with a background on why it's a subsect and why it uses the alternate drain stats.

-Temperance

Be sure to consult your GM before following Temperance's mechanically unimpeachable advice. My experience with players making traditions is that they're super abusive, so I'm a little gun shy about allowing custom ones in my campaigns. To head off that kind of reaction, make sure to test the waters lightly and go along with the GMs edicts.

Talking to your GM about anything oddball is always good advice! So yeah, what pragma said.

Incidentally rythymhack, the SR4 rules are in Street Magic, pages 46 & 47. Though SR5 is it's own beast, those rules should be easily adaptable. It should be a good reference for you and your GM if you can track down (or already have) a copy.

-Temperance