I'm building a magician's way adept that uses illusion spells and stealth adept powers for B&E work. I want to geas her powers to get the most for the points, and I've already decided to give her "Magical Power 3" a talisman (focus) geas, but I'm leary about attaching all her abilities to one item that might be lost/stolen/taken away.

So does anybody have any creative ideas for geasa for her other powers? I don't think incantation or gesture geasa would work, because of the nature of her work (stealth/infiltration/B&E). I was thinking a condition geas but I can't think of anything good. Maybe meditiation before the run?? Maybe she needs to be clean (water elemental magician)?? Anybody??

HELP!?!

must be undetected? (ofcourse, it's likely going to be hard for your GM to limit your powers and you not know something is going on like this)

Must wear a neon-pink shirt when casting spells.

Can only cast when no one is looking at her.

Must have a live spider in her hair.

(For party buff spells.) Must insult the person she is casting on.

Mostly undetectible. But i'm not trying to build a munchkin.

I think the geas should limit her in some way, but something like an incatation or geasture might make her unplayable as a stealth chatacter.

Did you have any ideas, Aku?

EDIT: or did you mean she must be undetected for her powers to work? I thought about that, but i don't want her evasive abilities to go out the door when she needs them most (i.e. when she gets spotted).

I once had a heavily-cybered character who wore the most outlandish clothing combos. And, always the same colors. It was the first time I manaballed someone that the party realized my clothing choices were a result of geases.

Sabosect: Thats actually quite characterful. I like it, but I don't think it will fly with this little bird. Hot pink form fitting armor doesn't seem... conducive to life...

No, you're not being creative enough.

Hot-pink shirt, disco pants every Tuesday (for some reason, we only had runs on Tuesdays), mismatched shoes (one was actually a woman's high heel, and the character was male), and a top hat that had to be turned exactly 90 degrees without taking it off to cast a fire spell.

well, i was thinking the powers would still be useful, because you can rely on skills to get an "where'd she go moment" (to be undetected) and then augment you're escape with your powers the rest of the way.

You could have some of the spells only work in the day, or in the night.
Have it geassed to her feeling appreciated by her group mates. This way it can be limiting, but not too much. Unless you group with mean people
Only works when it's raining. Though that one is a bit easy. Make it tougher and have it only work when it's not raining.
How bout hot pink panties? Losable yes, but not excessively.

Edit:Cause I write badly.

Magic does/doesn't work in the presense of holy symbols?

Incantation would work for a stealth character - you'd just have to whisper it. And make sure that there wasn't anyone around to hear your whispering ...

How about geasing your powers to appropriately camouflaged? It suits the concept and all you need is a Rapid Transit jumpsuit.

Actually gesture could work, and you could tie in centering for American Sign language. Obviously this would be for spellcasting.

If she has increased stealth ability I would tie it to a certain kind of boots.

Physical Abilities: Dietary requirement also known as the Popeye syndrome. maybe she eats an Aunt Sara's Fudge Brownie with Caramel and is empowered for an hour or two.

My last character was an exorcist straight out of the Vatican. He had a geas that required him to make the sign of the holy cross on his chest. -shrug- Give us a little more info on the character; a geas is a highly personal thing, and if we only know what she is, instead of who, it's more difficult to think up appropriate stuff.

She's a young hispanic female orphaned at a young age. She became aware of her abilities as a teen and turned to pickpocketing to avoid a life of forced prostitution. Eventually she was taken in by an elderly cat shaman who taught her to refine her craft (so even though she is hermetic she could have pseudo-shamanic geasa). Upon her adoptive g-ma's death she turned back to theivery, now as a cat-burglar and art thief, and then graduated to shadowrunning. She is water aspected (illusion spells).

Why not actual dairy cream, would be rare enough and a reason to actually shadowrun so she can afford it.

Maybe a vial of water worn on a pendant around her neck?

Must use expendable fetish (could lead to a lot of bookkeeping, tho').

Must 'trademark' their illusions. For example, every Physical Mask spell must have an infinity symbol worked into it somewhere (on the collar, a tattoo on the back of a hand, a siglet ring, etc.). This could eventually be as dangerous as the 'Distinctive Style' flaw.

Must work out to "Eye of the Tiger" (or some similarly annoying bit of 80's montage music) once a week. As GM, you should bring a copy of the song on CD and force the group to listen to the entire song whenever the player says their character is preparing for the run. Warning: this could be harmful to the GM's health.

Cleanliness.

Her mentor was a cat shaman, and they take modifiers from being unkempt.. she could have picked up that compulsively clean trait.. and it got tied in with her confidence at sneaking.

DS: I've been leaning in that direction. It would make sense, having been trained by a cat shaman. And maybe she thinks the geas is about cleanliness, but it has more to do with her relationship to the water element.

Maybe she can have a cleanliness geas coupled with a compulsive/obsesive flaw and also possibly using small vials of water as an expendible fetish like Spookymonster and Tal have suggested.

I've always figured geasa were more than a little psychological. They're a magical dependency, shoot, they're beyond that, they're a magical addiction. You cannot use your magic unless you satisfy the addiction.

I like the idea of water talismans, but the way I'd personally want to do that one isn't really well supported by Shadowrun rules. I'd want it to be a focus (rather than a fetish).. only way I can see to do that is to make it a runic enchantment. Possibly expendable spell foci, but for some reason I've got a feeling that the rules for that won't work particularly well.

Sabosect, I love the geas. Pure genius.

How much would an Obsesive/Compulsive (Cleanliness) Flaw be worth?

(I am at work so I don't have access to my SRC right now).

Somehow a water elementalist raised by a cat shamn doesn't seem to mix for me.

Cats and water are a pretty bad combo

Cleanliness geas would be extremely limited for a stealth character. God only knows what is in those ventilation ducts, janitor's closets and hydroponics fields... not to mention it would all but eliminate ghillie suit style disguises.

*coughs* On that note... obsession/compulsion is based on the severity of it, the more compulsive you are, the more points it's worth. If you geased your powers to it I'd only give you at most half points for it though as a GM. Otherwise you're just doubling up and the flaw really isn't a flaw if it's acting as bonus points on all your magical abilities. Compulsive Theif though... that might fit with a pick pocket and be interesting to play. Joe street samurai starts looking through his things as the gun fight starts. "What the hell did I do with my pistol?!?!"

Here's a condition geasa. Must not have gotten caught stealing with in the last 24 hours. Add that to a compulsive thief flaw and you're in business.

*edited to prevent double posting*

I also wanted to say I agree with Mugzy. Cats and water don't mix, even though they give similar modifiers. My question is why not just do a cat shaman? Nature spirits fit better with stealth anyway in my opinion.

I had an adept who magical power was geased to an honest to ghost magic wand. That was fun.
Also had one that had his spells delivered via squash balls. Power ball indeed.