Hey all,

A friend of mine has been invited to a game of SR4 with a group that likes really, really big dice pools. It seems like most of the party has there key skill at 21 dice or so

She asked me if there is anyway to get a Spellcasting dice pool past 16 or so and I was stumped

So I thought I would ask, any advice on how to get an uber big pool?

That is actually rather easy, depending on rule abuse / creative re-intepretation and available nuyen and Karma.

Making the test
4+ Magic
6 Spellcasting
2 Specialisation (for example combat)
2 Mentor Spirit (for 2 spell/spirit categories)
2+ Power focus (you can start with a rating 2 power focus, or rating 4 with a positive quality), dont forget the 100k to have the exotic draco/sangua materials from WAR1 for your focus for an extra oommpfh.
4+ Ally spirit (I would advise to have at least a force 6 ally spirit, better force 8 to support force 8 spells like stunbolt)
(1+ Edge)

My mage (magic 8, ally spirit 8, power focus 4, spellcasting 6, combat speciasation/combat mentor spirit 4) rolls 30 dices for combat spells without edge (which is 6).

Drain
5+ Willpower 5+
5+ Drain attribute 5+
Trauma damper, if appropriate
Platelet factories, if appropriate
2x sustained foci with a rating of at least the drain attributes to sustain your drain attributes at a level of 9 each (or rating 1 ally spirit abuse for spell sustain)
2+ Initiation centering

Ask your GM before character creation for his ally spirit abuse rules, spell sustaining and foci dependency rules.

SYL

That is a pretty good and complete summary of the ways to pack heavy as a mage.

There's also the need to pick a good portfolio of spells. Some are more powerful than others (direct combat spells, for instance - those are also bound to enrage some GMs). Some nifty spells don't even need high dice pools, by the way
Depending on the spells, maybe ask the GM about how he applies object resistance. That tends to vary between groups and has a large impact on some spell categories.

Just make very sure that the drain resistance pool is up to the task. I've already seen a character that was essentially a magic artillery that could fire once or twice before collapsing. A pity, really. He was chucking up to 12-16 dice, but rolled maybe six dice for drain resistance.

My experience has been that you only need the really big dice pools a few times in a run. So, one -can- make the PC a little more broadly skilled, but give her a high Edge, so when it really matters, you can unload a shitstorm of trouble on the opposition.

So, maybe fewer bonuses, but more spells to be more generally useful.

The Drain Resistance advice is important. Sort of contradicting the above point, slinging slightly weaker spells, but doing several in a row, can be more effective. But, then, Edge helps with Drain, too.

Have you got any starting character builds that eventually reach all that? How much money and karma?

Ah, no, sorry. It took me 800 Karma to get everything together.

Lets see

At character creation
Magic 5-6

Spellcasting 6 with 12 Spells

Power focus 4 (with restricted gear quality and 100k in ¥)

Mentor spirit 2 (quality)

Specialisation 2 (would recommend it to buy it with Karma)

Willpower/Drain Attribute 4+

Ingame
8-12 Karma and 40k-60k times x ¥ for x sustaining foci for drain attributes (and other spells, if necessary, like increased reflexes). Ask your GM before on how he handles focus addiction.

25-35 Karma to increase magic back to the old value if you use bioware for drain reduction. If you go that way, use a cyberhand to get a nanohive 6 in the cyberhand together with neocortical/limbic nanites, universal nantidotes, neurostun immunity, O cells and one nano swarm of your choise to make you immune to most B/C-Weapons.

Around 60-100k ¥ for trauma damper and factory

50-200 Karma for force 6-9 ally spirit. Depending on how abusive you want to treat your ally that ally spirit gives +force to all spellcasting tests and can sustain an infinite number of spells with a force not higher than the force of your ally spirit (so drain attribute, willpower, invisibility, combat sense ...). Pretty sure you will get evil eyes from your co-players, the GM and the ally spirit.

13-60 Karma for initiation 1+ with centering metamagic (giving more drain dices according to your initiate rank - you will feel the effect with a grade of 3 or higher)

Actual costs can vary wiedly depending on houserules, rule abuse, and your actual build.

SYL

Actually, you really dont need uber pools that high to be an effective mage, especially if you have around 14-16 dice for drain. I always max my drain stats on cheesy mages by getting centering foci and that metamagic. Go elven wil + cha tradition will get you 13 dice right off the bat, 14 with imp stat.