Day 8: Onyx the Cybermage
#CharacterCreationChallenge
This one was tricky - you can’t really have the Magic role filled by a mundane character, so it took me a while to figure out a concept for “technical mage”. In the end, I did something I rarely did in the past - I created a mage with just enough cyberware to support his magical abilities, while not impacting them too much. Then it was also tricky to fit everything into the character creation system, because there’s not really any category that can go on a really low priority… but more on that later.
Appearance and first impression
Onyx is an Ork, but he is about as far from the stereotype as possible. Dressed in an expensive, tailored navy suit, usually speaking with an upper-class English accent (but occasionally slipping into an Irish accent when he loses his calm), he does his best to present himself in a refined, educated and gentle manner.
Backstory
Onyx was born in the elven nation of Tir na nOg (Ireland), and as a non-Elf he was always a second-class citizen. While he did not join any of the organised resistance groups as a teen, he was left with a negative view of the Tir elves, and when he got the opportunity to study Hermetic Magic in Oxford, he took it, as much because the most English of universities was as far from the Tir as hew could imagine. Then… something happened. Onyx refuses to talk about it, but he ended up fleeing as far as Seattle, and his now burned SIN is understood to be subject to arrest warrants in both the UK and Tir na nOg. Rumors have it that he attempted to join a resistance group that turned out to be a sting operation, although somehow along the lines, he also learned the jealously guarded “ancient” martial arts style Carromeleg.
Character Creation Overview
This was probably the most difficult character I created so far, and I switched to a sum-to-10 approach again. Even then, it was not easy to fit everything and I had to make some tough tradeoffs.
Priorities
For a spellcasting magician, Magic needs to be reasonably high, so I put it on B. This only gives me Magic 3, and since the cyberware will reduce it, I really needed at least 3 adjustment points, so Metatype went on D. This left Skills, Resources and Attributes all on C, since all of them are also important. Final spread:
B: Magic (3)
C: Skills (20)
C: Resources (150,000)
C: Attributes (12)
D: Metatype (Ork, 4)
Attributes
For a high-end hermetic Mage, Logic and Willpower are important, so Logic went on 6, Willpower on 5, costing 9 of our 12 Attribute points already. Intuition, Body and Strength get another one each, and that’s it for now. 3 of the 4 adjustment points go into Magic, one increases Edge to two. For now we have:
Body 2
Agility 1
Reaction 1
Strength 2
Willpower 5
Logic 6
Intuition 2
Charisma 1
Edge 2
Magic 6
Which is pretty pathetic.
Skills
The main priority here is Spellcasting, which goes up to 6. We also want decent Conjuring and Astral (and once again I am pretending Enchanting doesn’t exist). The Martial Arts thing is never going to be a major part of the character, but for it to be at all useful, we need a bit of Close Combat and a bit of Athletics. And of course Stealth and Perception, but one of those will have to wait for Karma. For now we have:
Sorcery 6
Athletics 3
Conjuring 4
Astral 4
Close Combat 2
Stealth 1
Knowledge Skills
With high Logic, there is a decent amount of free knowledge skill points we get. English is his native language, but he is also pretty fluent in Sperethiel (the ancient Elven language spoken in the Tir nations). He also knows a fair bit about Magical Theory, Tir Politics and Academic Institutions.
Spells
Manabolt is a classic, mana-only combat spell. It does nothing against nonliving objects, but can attack living being at line-of-sight distance.
Punch is a physical combat spell that only works at touch distance, but gives a simple touch (or an unarmed attack) some extra, well, punch.
Analyse Truth is a Detection spell that allows a subject (Onyx himself or someone else) to tell the difference between lies and truth.
Heal is your classic healing spell.
Improved Invisibility makes a subject invisible, to both living eyes and objects like cameras.
Physical Mask makes a subject look like someone else, again to living eyes and objects alike.
Martial Arts
Onyx knows Carromeleg, a martial art supposedly from a different age of magic thousands of years ago that involves quick, accurate strikes and highly mobile defences. This allows him to learn techniques, although at this stage he only knows Bending of the Reed (Melee), which lets him gain a bonus point of Edge when he uses the Dodge minor action against Melee attacks, which in turn adds his Athletics to a single Defense dice pool. This costs 7 Karma.
Qualities
Analytical Mind is cheap and gives bonus points for Logic-related tests, including drain resistance for only 3 Karma.
Focused Concentration at rating 1 lets Onyx sustain one spell (Improved Invisibility, Physical Mask or Analyse Truth) without taking a dice pool penalty. It costs 12 Karma but is worth it.
Impaired (Strength) at rating 2 gives 16 Karma in return for reducing the Strength maximum from the normal Ork max of 8 to “only” 6, which will never matter.
Prejudiced (Tir Elves) means Onyx can’t gain or use Edge when Tir Elves are present unless he is directly opposing them. It provides 8 Karma.
Low Pain Tolerance doubles all dice pool penalties from damage - fortunately, his Pain Editor (see under Gear) makes that less of a problem; unfortunately it makes him more reliant on a dangerous augmentation. It provides 10 Karma.
All in all, Onyx gets a net 19 Karma from qualities, almost the maximum allowed of 20.
Gear
Weapons
The only weapon he carries are Shock Gloves, kind of like a melee taser.
Armor
A Mortimer of London Berwick Suit is one of the most stylish and expensive suits available. It is also armored and may give benefits to social tests in some circumstances, not that Onyx would benefit much from that.
Magical Gear
A Magical Lodge (in this case a ritual circle in the floor of his apartment) is a necessity for learning spells and doing some kinds of magic. It can also protect him from some magical threats and attacks.
A Spell Focus for casting combat spells in the shape of an iron amulet adds 2 to the dice pool for casting combat spells. Aside from being expensive, it also cost 8 Karma to bind.
Vehicles
A Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbit is a tiny, ubiquitous, cheap and economical car. It gets one from A to B and doesn’t stand out.
Augmentations
A Cerebral Booster at rating 3 adds 3 points to Logic tests, which really increases the chance of resisting drain (and therefore allows powering up spells to some degree).
And a Pain Editor lets Onyx completely turn off all pain sensations at will. This means no more penalties from any wound modifiers, the ability to keep going even when the Stun track is filled in and a small bonus to Willpower - but also a reduction to Intuition, some perception pools and most importantly, an inability to know how badly hurt one is (at least without using a biomonitor or actually looking closely at ones wounds). Still, it means he can be unaffected for a while when one of those powerful spells does cause drain (or he just gets shot).
Other stuff
Most of the remaining things are pretty standard fare - commlink, fake SIN, certified commlink, bug scanner etc. Of note is the Biomonitor which makes it easier to avoid accidentally dying while the pain Editor is on.
Adding it all up
In terms of cost, the total comes to 185,700 Nuyen, which means 18 Karma. Bonding the focus adds another 4 Karma at this stage, for a total gear-related Karma cost of 22.
The Augmentations also take up 0.9 Essence, which leaves 5.1 Essence and reduces Magic by 1, to 5.
Spending our Karma
After martial arts, gear and qualities, we have 40 Karma left.
Increasing Agility and Reaction from 1 to 2 costs 10 Karma each, leaving us with 20.
Those go into one point of Perception, and specialisations in Sorcery (Spellcasting), Conjuring (Summoning) and Close Combat (Unarmed), using it all up.
Finishing it up
Contacts
This was tricky - with a Charisma of 1, neither Connection nor Loyalty rating of contacts can be higher than one (there is an optional rule that allows spending Karma to increase this maximum, but there is no Karma left to spend). Contacts with both ratings at 1 are barely worth getting, and in particular there is no way to get a Fixer that is normally a must-have (because a Connection 1 Fixer isn’t much use). Anyways, I ended up with the following 3 Contacts, all Connection 1, Loyalty 1, meaning they don’t know many people and their relationship with Onyx is at the moment purely business.
Click is an Elf Decker from Tir Tairngaire, who has to leave rapidly after getting involved with some anti-government forces. They got into Seattle at the same time which is how they met.
Alison Jenn is a border agent willing to skip the credential checking part of her job for the right price. She helped both Onyx and Click to get across the border and may be willing to do more business in the future.
Nightshade is a thief and shaman who occasionally runs the shadows. She may introduce him to her Fixer or some other Shadowrunners if it seems useful to her.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Unarmed: 4
Shock Hand: 5
Astral: 14
Defense Rating
Physical: 5
Astral: 2
Initiative
Physical: 4 + 1D6
Astral: 11 + 2D6
Notable Dice Pools
Casting Combat Spells: 15
Casting other Spells: 13
Summoning Spirits: 11
Resisting Drain: 14
Attacking Unarmed: 6
Attacking in Astral Combat: 9
Condition Monitors
Physical: 11
Stun: 11
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 8 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT