As we all know, there are many different possibilities as to what sort of character you wish to play. There aren't any restrictions, like in some other RPGs. I think this is great and quite interesting. So therefor, it would be interesting to hear what type of characters the fellow GOGers have chosen to play the game and its expansion as?

I remember playing DMS with a hulking male Troll. By the end game, his Body was somewhere at the end spectrum (can't remember for sure); he had a little bit of spells from all the categories (shaman, mage, chi), but his main focus was in the shotgun skill, pistol, and melee. Your average tank, I guess. No skill points in decking, no cyberware.

Dragonfall, I played as a male Ork. He was an average decker (not as good as Blitz, but still decent. Five programs and two ESPs.) He also had fairly high intelligence (7), quickness (7), and he used an assault rifle and occasionally, a sniper rifle. He had cyberware in his body, right arm, right leg and eyes which left him with an essence of 3.

Also, both characters had the same amount of charisma and two etiquettes: Shadowrunner and Street. I'd say the Troll was a better character, because of his absurd amount of HP and good shotgun skill. He would not go down very easily. At the final battle in Dragonfall, I had to chug cram in every turn after the minigun Ork entered the battlefield, in order to stay alive.

What about you? How were your characters? I noticed that in Dragonfall, Biotech skill opens a fair amount of extra dialogue options (a skill I had invested zero points in...). Also, I didn't see any dialogue options for the Shadowrunner etiquette, which made it a waste of karma. Gang etiquette would have served its purpose.

I was playing male human gunner. Maximum quickness, maximm pistols, a lot of dodge and body plus some int for more effective medkits use. First time i played for SMG's but later i realise that i love AP-free reloading and having 50% on crit dmg :)

I played a mage on both campaings. Mages are actually really strong combat-wise: some Flamethrower IV crits would cause up to 60 dmg. Plus great AoE spells.

Also in Dragonfall there were many times where Willpower and Spellcasting would open new dialogue.

For etiquettes the one I counted the most in Dragonfall was Gang, followed close by Corporate.

I checked Socialite and Street only one time each.

Academic would pop 2 times only, at the very end of the game.

And as already have been said, Shadowrun etiquette didn't appear even once.

I am new to this game and just wondering is there a good mage / shaman with a slight rifle usage build?

A mage with bits of shaman can work well since both need Willpower. Also there are some nice Shaman buff spells that can fit nicely with mages.

However, investing in rifle as a mage is a waste of karma since most spells will causa more damage and will have higher accuracy.

If you really want to use a rifle and still cast spells, a shaman class would be best since they lack damage spells.

Since when Shaman spells need willpower? Willpower is needed for Chi casting and Spell Casting, for Shamans Charisma is lead-stat and not willpower.
Fo shamans it is wise to Mix Rifles/pistols with Shaman casting/summoning, If done right, you can tank with summons (just watch out for "free summon spots"- they are signed as white skull-marks) and attack enemies from far.
As for me, i think pistol would be better idea, bcause it does not eat AP on reload, so You can still shoot+reload after summoning (when You have only 1 AP for disposal).

Also as in-game tip says "Jack of all trades is master of none", so going mage/shaman/sharpshooter will make Your character very versatile though useless char without most powerfull skills. I would advice going either Shaman with shooting skills either Mage with Shaman summons.

Yes there is, i just finished the game on very hard with this combo.
You will end up being a stronger version of Jake Armitage.
The rifle is incredible useful when fighting mages, since they have high willpower and are more resistant to you spells.

Thanks to all those replied. So it is better if I just go with mage/shaman right? So Would any of you suggest a list of must have spells from both the mage and shaman lists? Thanks.

Just buy the higher grade level spells. If You play wise (try to get money whenever You can), you'll be able to buy every spell, and use whichever You find more useful. Ofc some are more useful than others like Fireball (high AoE dmg with DoT), Heal is great spell that increase survivability a lot (just remeber to use it right after being hit hard). Shaman spell Haste is also great thing, and Barriers are good to put them in narrow passages like doors and corridors.

Also Consider playing Dwarf as thy're really good mages (yeah i know it is strange :-P)

Played a male elven swordsman. Focused on dodge and melee combat, with some points towards SMG's and a few in willpower.

This mostly came from the fact that I used to play a wood elven ranger in Neverwinter Nights 2, so..... far future alternate reality descendant I guess :P

Sorry for being a thread necromancer.

I play OC now and I am a female troll adept (max melee weapons + Ki powers). Being limited to melee is bad sometimes, but it is nice that you drain enemies AP on almost every hit.

When I have finished this, I want to play dragonfall.
There I thought about being a female elf with max rifles and drones and having a conversation like this:
Boy: Hello sweetheart, do you want to go out with me?
Me: Sorry boy, I already have my three russian friends. This is my AK47, this is the AK47 of my drone and this is my other drone with a AK47. Guns are a girls best friend.

question 1: Are those good characters? I have played many RPGs, but I am new in shadowrun and there is no manual. The first battle in the intro was the hardest because I had no idea how it works. I want to play on normal.

question 2: Magic looks very powerful. But is there a normal healing spell? Until now I saw only 1 and it heals only the last damage you have received. So I need medkits (and thus int) anyway.

Sound very much like good characters. No. All healing spells are just for the last hit.
But you don't need that much int for medikits, it helps a bit but isn't necessary.


And now that I'm on it..

My favorite build has been gunner decker, high int and decking skills, quite high quickness and ranged combat.
Had to skimp on the weapon skills, charisma, and what not, so I couldn't soak up much damage, or do the special attacks, but could use all the best ranged weapons and was an ace decker.

Thanks

This means in Dragonfall I will create my own version of "chicks with guns".
(Watch "Jackie Brown" if you don´t know what I mean.)

Some comments:

- Looks like there is no reason to play as human. All other races get ability bonusses and can have higher ability scores.

- It feels strange that dwarves are the best mages and elves are the best shamans. But orcs and trolls are still good for brute force and elves are still the best archers ( sorry, I meant shooters.)

Mind you. I personally don't like riggers. You lose action points, or whatever they were, when your droids do their thing, which means you don't do much yourself and have hard time keeping up with the party. Can be effective, but not fun to me, so I don't know how well that works.

Humans do get something.. was it extra skill points or what. If you don't completely focus on just one thing, you probably won't bump into the racial cap.

I like elves myself, because everything else seems to be a super thick hulk.

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And doesn't GOG version have a downloadable manual? There usually is one.
Apparently I dont own these on gog myself...

There is the Shadowrun Returns Wiki if you're still looking for a manual.

Then there is a primer for the world of Shadowrun. It is not very manualsy, but contains a lot of background information about the world.