Your Opinions, if you will?, GunFu Character Need Opinions on aspects Options

[Gothic Rose]

Righty, in a soon to be started SR4 game, I'm going to be playing a character. This character is an Adept. A Gun-Fu Adept. Some of you may remember some threads I started awhile back about all this. Well, I made some slight changes to the character (in that I got rid of Aptitude Pistols) which freed up 10 BP, and I wanted opinions on what to do with it. As well as some other opinions.

The basic concept is a gunfighter face - very good social skills, even better Face Shooting Skills.

Now, I'm going to reveal something I haven't really revealed before, because at least 1 member of my gaming group comes here on occasion - however, I'm going to hope that he doesn't look here...

[CALYPSO, PLEASE DON'T OPEN THE SPOILER, THANKS.]

There. Warning is done.

[ Spoiler ]

Some may remember my character as a male, masked gunfighter. While the character is indeed a gunfighter with a mask (with a shatload of sensors in it), the truth is, is that he's...not a he. She is the daughter of one of the members of the House of Lords, who ran away from Britain to be a Shadowrunner, because she thought it would be "fun."

She's an expert tournament shooter - she's always had a knack for guns - and, seeing as how she's positioned in the social elite, she's quite good with talking to others. Her father (who, in his youth, Ran the Shadows in Hong Kong, sort of a sowing the wild oats phase for him) accepted her desire, although she doesn't know that, and contacted an old friend from Hong Kong, who now works as a fixer in Seattle - Baeman, an old friend, viewed as family, pretty much. The character, Seris, knows Baeman from his visits, and treats him as an Uncle - in fact, she calls him Uncle (or Uncle Baeman). He's very well connected, and cares about Seris, so he wants to look out for her. He's agreed to take her on as one of the Runners under his wing.

She's quite good - but completely green. Hell, she hasn't even killed a man yet. She doesn't want her father to get in trouble for her actions, so she's hiding her identity - she wears a mask she had created in England that has a lot of gizmos in it (including a voic synthesizer), and is pretending to be a male. A human male. She's an elf. Needless to say, her charade will ultimately fail - however, she doesn't think it will (naive girl that she is). So there you have it. I'll still be referring to the character as a he outside of this spoiler block, just in case.

Now, I'm having some problems. With the new errata, the Attribute Boost power became icky, and I no longer want it. This leaves me with the following Adept Powers:

Improved Ability (Ettiquette) (Level 1)
Improved Ability (Pistols) (Level 2)
Improved Reflexes (Level 2)
Kinesics (Level 1)

If you add that up, you get 4.75 PP spent - I have a Magic of 5, so .25 more to spend. Any suggestions?

Also, my skills are as follows:

Perception: 2
Pistols: 6; Specialization: Revolvers
Dodge: 4
Stealth Skill Group: 2
Athletics Skill Group: 2
Influence Skill Group: 4

I have Athletics, which includes Gymnastics - should I even bother with the Dodge skill? Or should I go for an Unarmed Combat skill, instead, and just use Gymnastics to Dodge if I need to?

I've got 10 BP to spend - I'd -like- to get a little more Nuyen, to increase the sensors of my Sensor Suite, perhaps, or buy some other toys. I'm not sure yet, though. I can't spend any more on Attributes (well, I could buy a point of Edge, I suppose. My Edge is 3 starting.)

Thoughts/Ideas/Suggestions/Nasty Horrible Comments?

[Liper]

any contacts?

[ElFenrir]

well, for .25, you can add an extra die to Perception or another social skill. Attribute Boost isn't that icky IMO even with the errata...i always played it like you couldn't boost past your maximum rating anyway. But if your Agil is already tweaked to a good 6 or something, then it may not be necessary.

So yeah, I learned Perception is always good to have.

Since your character is a gunfighter, remember, Unarmed Combat doesn't help you dodge bullets. It only helps in melee. Dodge helps every which way. I would tell maybe a mainly melee character to stick with a melee skill...but if your mainly a gunfighter, just go for the Dodge. On full ranged defence, you get React+Dodge(im guessing you have a decent reaction), on full melee def, you get Reaction+Dodge+Dodge. Good stuff.

One nice thing about SR4...you aren't forced to take a melee skill if you don't want one anymore(in SR3, no melee skill=a serious beating if anyone decided to hit you due to the defense roll and default penalties. In SR4, there is Dodge.)

And Edge is gooood. But so is nuyen. That's totally up to you. And yes, don't forget a good contact if you havn't gotten on yet.

[Gothic Rose]

As far as contacts, he has 1 - Baeman. He's new in town, so his fixer is the only person he knows - currently, it's 4/5 loyalty/Connection, although I tentatively planned on upping loyalty to 5 (essentially, family...)

Stats are:

Body 4
Agility 6
Reaction 5 (7)
Strength 2
Charisma 6
Intuition 5
Logic 2
Willpower 3
(Initiative) 10 (12)

Edge 3
Magic 5


[character is built w/450 BP, hence the over 200 spent on phys/mental]

I'm contemplating dropping Willpower down to 2 and raising charisma to 7. It's more economical, since I really want Charisma 7, and it'd be ridiculously expensive in game.

[ElFenrir]

Thats true. If it's in character, go for it. But keep in mind, Willpower 2 is asking for a manabolt...however, again, if it's part of the character to have under average willpower...by all means go for it.

I admit i fall sometimes into the realm of 'in game use' and 'character' battles sometime...i wanted that willpower 2 for a couple of my people but was always afraid of eating a manabolt to the face.

But you have a point when you say the Charisma of 7 will be very expensive later,(21karma!), while a Willpower 3 will be a more respectable 9. Plus the Cha 7 will be very helpful with the Influence group.
Another thought for that last .25 point, would be to up

[ Spoiler ]

disguise, to help with the concept.

And that's a pretty powerful fixer there, sounds good.

[Gothic Rose]

That's a good idea for the .25 PP, I might do that.

[Ophis]

Nice to see him back, he's looking cool as ever. The slight variation I stole for my campaign is doing well but no one has rattled his secret yet.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Gothic Rose]

Ophis: Heh. Glad you decided to take the idea. :P As you can see, I'm using Baeman : :grinbig:

@ Rotbart: That was my original thought, although I'll wait until after chargen to buy that specialization - my opinion w/SR4 is that you should only take specializations at chargen when they're integral to your character concept (hence my specialization w/revolvers, which I see as integral, since I originally pictured him w/revolvers.)

I've decided that I should drop the Improved Ability: Ettiquette, and instead take another level of sweet, sweet Kinesics, thus putting my magical abilities at:

Improved Ability (Pistols) (Level 2)
Improved Reflexes (Level 2)
Kinesics (Level 2)


Thoughts?