Optimization Advice for a Combat Hacker, Help me build a Hacker and the Greatest Swordsman in the World Options

[WhiskeyJohnny]

I'm rolling my first runner for an upcoming game, and, being new to the system, I was looking for some optimization advice. I want to build a combat hacker, someone who can make an effective Hacker/Street Samurai (and/or gunbunny, if that's possible). I'd like to play a human with a high edge, but I'm willing to entertain other possibilities. As far as hacking goes, I envision him doing most of his hacking before the run, probing a system to find weaknesses, creating a backdoor account that he can exploit during the run if need be, and obtaining building plans, video feed, and other tactically useful information. Perhaps he'll have a couple of drones for reconnaissance/fire support. That said, I'd like him to be able to go toe-to-toe with spiders/IC if need be, but I don't want him to be in full VR all the time (at least not during the run).

As far as how to get my skills, I was thinking about using Active Skillsofts to shore up what I can't get a chargen. That brought me to cyber- and bioware, as I understand I need Skillwires or Move-by-Wire in order to run Skillsofts. This of course brought me to the question of essence cost reduction, as I suspect I'm going to be running a heavily cyber- and biowared character. What can I do to reduce the essence cost of my wares, especially at chargen? Can I run cyberware and bioware at the same time, or is it of greater benefit to focus on one or the other?

The other things about this character that are necessary would be: enough social skills to not make a fool of himself, maybe to act as an off-face, because the campaign is supposed to have a strong social element and enough artistic ability to make him a talented painter, for fluff reasons. Additionally, I only have access to the core rulebook, Runner's Companion, and possibly Augmentation.

I also would love a rundown of the basics of Shadowrun 4e optimization. I understand that it is more efficient to buy your stats at chargen and diversify skills as you improve, is this accurate? How many dice should I have in my dice pools? How many initiative passes should I have?

Thanks!

This post has been edited by WhiskeyJohnny: Nov 7 2010, 02:12 AM