OK, while i don't have the full book on hand, I have seen enough to create some simple characters under SR4. So, I decided to take one of my standard shaman setups, and compare it to a similar character in SR4. This character has no cyber, and since it was made under the priority system, it's not as badly tweaked as it could be.

Here's the original character:

Race: Human (Race E)

Attributes: ©
B: 2
Q: 6
S: 1
C: 3
I: 6
W: 6

Magic: 6
Reaction: 6, +1d6 Initiative.

Skills: (D)
Sorcery/Spellcasting 5/7
Conjuring/Summoning 5/7
Stealth 4
Ettiquette 3
Pistols 4
Disguise/Cosmetic 2/4
Negotiation/Fast talk 3/5

30 pts of Knowledge skills

35 pts of spells. (Resources B)
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Here's how she came out using 400 points:

Race: Human
Qualities:
Magic
Sensitive System:

B: 2
A: 3
R: 5
S: 1
C: 4
I: 2
L: 3
W: 5
E: 4 (5)

Magic: 5

Skills:
Spellcasting 6
Conjuring group 4
Stealth group 2
Influence group 1
Pistols 4
Astral Combat 3

(I don't know how many free Knowledge points I get in SR4)


Resources: 55,000 nuyen

Spells: 9

I'll let the math guys here do a more detailed analysis; but to me, it looks like the character has less breadth than before-- in order to be good at what she does, she had to sacrifice some other areas. This means the game doesn't penalize overspecialization-- it encourages it.

Well, part of the problem is that you have 30 points invested in Edge. That's a huge investment that could be used for other things (namely, the other Attributes and more skills). I'm not quite sure why you've invested so heavily into the Skill groups, unless you really intend to use Palming and Disguise in the Stealth Group (I can see why you went for the Influence group, though). I'd rather put a few points and specialize in something for Infiltration and Shadowing.

You get (Intuition + Logic) x 3 free points (not "build points", but Skill Points) to use on Knowledge skills.

You also have no contacts, I've noticed.

That looks kinda high for cash, no? Not a lot of BP i guees, but going by the samples on SRRPG so far 20K seems to go a long ways when you don't have to buy 'ware or vehicles. Or did you plan to sink some cash into foci? EDIT: If you are thinking about a focus the biggest cost of foci isn't the cash but the BP for bonding, at 1:1 for the karma used to bond post-creation. Very steep, in all cases more BP to bond than you'll use to get the cash to buy them.