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[Gilliam]

Hey all, just thought this would make an interesting discussion starter, for all the mage-y people out there.  I really enjoy playing magic characters in shadowrun, particularly shamans, in either 3rd or 4th edition, mainly because they give me an interesting outlook for a character that I then have to keep consistent.

Idle fancy has me wondering what totems other people like.

My personal favorite right now, and for the forseeable future, is Dog.  I like the mechanical bonuses, which are cool, but not overpowering, and the disadvantage actually works with how my characters tend to deal with leaving friends behind.  I find it helps to have a character around who's a really group-oriented guy as well.  I see a lot of runner groups full of shady loners in trenchcoats and sunglasses... it's hard to be cohesive that way.  A dog shaman along can really help break the ice of a group dynamic.

[Fortune]

At the moment, my favorite (for SR4) is Adversary.

In SR3, I really took a shine to Leopard.

Oh, and Totems (Mentor Spirits) are not just for Shamans anymore.

[ROOTless]

Adversary is really nice in 3rd too, mind you.

Ofcourse, I usually play Hermetics, when I do play.

[Fortune]

I don't have a lot of my SR3 books anymore, and I'm gettin' old so I can't remember just what Adversary was like in SR3.

[mercy]

I like the king of the dead

[Zone]

I like the avians usually.  I've used Raven and Owl a lot as npc characters.  I tend not to play spell chuckers myself.

[Gabriel]

At the moment, my favorite (for SR4) is Adversary.

In SR3, I really took a shine to Leopard.

Oh, and Totems (Mentor Spirits) are not just for Shamans anymore.

Holy FRAG!!!!! Fortune's BACK!!!! Damn chummer, I missed seeing you in this neck of the sprawl! It just hasn't been the same without your shining personality and easy good humor.

As for the question, I've always liked Dog and Cat. These totems seem particularly well done in SR3. The idiosincracies (sp) of the concepts strike VERY close to home for me and my characters. Of course, since I always RUN the fraggin' games, I've never had the chance to run one as a PC. Damn the luck!

Gabriel

[ROOTless]

I don't have a lot of my SR3 books anymore, and I'm gettin' old so I can't remember just what Adversary was like in SR3.

can't remember the drawback (yeah, getting old), but +2 to combat and manipulation spells was nice.

[Fortune]

Damn chummer, I missed seeing you in this neck of the sprawl! It just hasn't been the same without your shining personality and easy good humor.

Why thank you, kind sirrah.

I found the drawbacks to Adversary in SR3 ... possibility to go Berserk (as Bear) when wounded plus must succeed at a Willpower [8] test to be friendly and/or civil to authority figures.

[ROOTless]

yeah, you're right.
Better make sure to deeply anarchistic if you want to go for that totem.

[F3.1]

Advesary and and King of the Dead (Graveyard King, whatever) are cool. My favorite though was gargoyle. Sneaky, plotting, gathers information before striking, and scary as hell when it watns to be. My favorite part though was that you can interpret it a number of differnet ways. malevolent, a guardian, a spy, a hunter, etc.

One of my favorite characters was a Chaos mage that followed Gargyole named Havoc. Very contradictory because he had the Impulsive flaw. Which, BTW, is a HELL of a lot of fun when combined with Daredevil.

[kv]

I've always been a fan of the "Coyote" totem. I don't play a lot of shamans, but I always liked the independant loner ideal.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Personally I prefer shamans to mages. I love the connection to magic that shamans embody. Mages are to magic what a college student is to a career; whereas shamans are more akin to the shade-tree-mechanic, no formal education, but damn good with what he does. And I like the idea that spirits are embodiments of aspects of places/events/emotions and shamans use that to fuel thier magic. The totemic idea, in my opinion, was at it's best in 1st and even 2nd Edition SR. I don't like the fact that you have PAGES of totems now. I understnad why you have it that way, in that different culturs would per forcehave different animals emobying different natures and therefore different totems. But I still loved the Indian feel to the original storylines.

Anyway, I'm still going with Cat and Dog.

Gabriel, Mundane

[Zone]

I used a Rat shaman in the story you see excerpts from in another area.  Surprise, surprise, he betrayed his cohorts.  Rats, never trust 'em.

A Snake shaman shows up as a healer, but I use damn little magic in the story, mostly because I don't use it when I'm in game and really never got behind the mechanics in a thorough kind of way.  I like the physad because all his magic is internal, no real casting.

[bull30548]

SR3 Wolf
The reason why is it is easier to play in a group dynamic if they knwo you going to be uber loyal.
SR4 Raven
This one was fun for the mechanical bonuses and you had to make a Willpower roll not to take advantage of someone else's misfortune (i.e. automatic wisea$$).  

Oh and SR4 you could take a totem as a mentor spirit even if you were hermetic.  The line definantly got blurred with SR4.