What most deadly character can you create?, ... with crazy amount of Karma Options

[Kremlin KOA]

[blakkie]

[blakkie]

Here. Make sure to slog through the 3 pages as the whole of the relavent conversation is wound in among the rest the thread.

[Kremlin KOA]

Okay I agree that it SHOULD be limited to the midified skill rating.. only that in the RAW it sdays it does not modify the skill only provide bonus dice to roll... and then sets it;s own cap which is greater than the modified skill cap

I know of the fact that a similar cap existed in SR3

but until they errata it the cap is where it is... even with all that a starting hackadept could start with hacking at 10 dice and all other computer stuff at 6 dice... still maing him better than fastjack :P

oh and if you go the way of ALL major NPCs suddenly become adepts... well I guess they did say it would end up more like exalted

[blakkie]

[FrankTrollman]

[Feshy]

Hmm... How about the following example of "most deadly?"

Elf Magician w/ Charisma 8, Willpower 5, Summoning 6, Binding 7 (aptitude), both with specializations in Fire Spirits. Mentor Spirit (Fire Bringer). A magic rating of 6. A decent edge score. A well-connected talismonger contact. And an Improve Charisma spell.

We'll be reasonably conservative in going over the availability (a charisma 8 elf can get a lot of successes in tests to find gear) and stick with force 4 foci.

Force 4 Power Focus, Force 4 sustaining focus (health spells).

Since you'll have to raise one of the skills from 4 to 6 after chargen, and bind your foci, you have to spend 66 karma. That leaves you with ~234. Initiate :) You'll hit magic 11, with a few karma to spare.

Cast your improve charisma spell until you get 4 hits. This brings Charisma to 12.

For summoning Fire Elementals, you get 25 dice. For binding, this is 26. Summon a dozen!! force 11 fire elementals, and bind them. Use edge if necessary; most times it won't be. You'll likely have a very high number of services. Their stats will be

Bod 12, Agi 13, Rea 33 (or 14, if you are sane), Str 9, C, I, L, W, Edg 11. They will have skills at rating 11. Thus, they can use their 11 DV ranged attack with 24 dice to hit -- about the equivalent of 40 dice if they use edge. And, of course, their hardened armor will make them almost invincible.

If you're feeling adventurous, or have edge left over, summon some of them at higher force, and risk physical damage. Adding 5 edge to your binding test gives you even odds against a force 18 fire elemental for the binding test.

And one in the chamber -- don't forget to summon one spirit (unbound) no more than 8 hours before the encounter, to bring your total elementals to a baker's dozen.

I'd give this summoned army equal odds against the army of mindless grenade tossers. If edge was used to grab a force 18 or two, I'd even give it decent odds against loyalty six Lofwyr. Unless, of course, someone dispells the charisma spell, and turns 1/3 of the spirits loose...

It's worth noting that force 11 spirits aren't out of the realm of possibility for starting characters, either...

[Azralon]

[Feshy]

[Azralon]

I'm not using grenades, silly. Foam.

EDIT, Fun Facts Follow:

166 kg of Rating 15 foam explosives would cost 249k nuyen.

Assuming a mere 3 hits on the Logic+Demolitions test, that brings the DV of the whole wad (if it was set off all at once) to 18 x 12.88 = 231 DV. Circular blast formula says the total radius of effect is about 116 meters.

If I wanted to split up the foam among the 71 zealots, they'd each get 2.33 kg. Assuming 3 hits on the Demo test again, that's an approximate 27 DV per toadie.

I think I'd put the foam into chest-mounted shaped charges and tell them to hug the targets if they can (to get the half-armor trick). If not, at least die facing their victims.

[Kremlin KOA]

dress them in black Lycra
give them white face paint
Claymore Mimes

[Azralon]

Ow.

I think you just did Essence damage with that.

EDIT: Crap, now he's got me picturing them wielding cream pies made of explosive foam.

[Feshy]

Ah, the brokenness of Foam. That does turn the battle back to your favor, but it's not un-winnable. The elementals have the advantage of range, and can "unmanifest" with a held action to escape a blast. It'd be an interesting and extremely destructive battle.

That said, Foam is totally broken.

1 kilo of Commercial Explosives will do 3 DV. doubled against barriers it's on, it MIGHT break a moderate door.
9 kilos (about 20 lbs, picture a hefty bag of sand) would do 9 DV. An entire 20 lb bag of explosives laying on the chest of a normal human, set off... probably won't kill him.

1 kilo of rating 15 foam will do 15 DV. Doubled against barriers, 1 kilo will absolutely destroy a steel beam, and will most likely bring the steel re-enforced concrete pilars of modern highrises down buckling. Needless to say, it will also kill a person, whereas the "sack - o - boom" would not.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want 20 lbs of even the most primitve explosive (Black Powder) set on my chest. Presumably, corps of the 2070's can out-produce the ancient chinese, so this value seems quite low to me.

On the other end, I shudder to think at the power that must be contained in a 1kg package of foam that could take out a multilane suspension bridge. I think that has to be well into the "nu-clear" (to quote the US pres.) range of output, and that little won't even begin a cascading reaction (assuming plutonium or the like).

[Critias]

Yeah, commercial explosives have always been a little (read: a lot) wonky in Shadowrun. I remember doing math in some previous edition, and coming up with the fact it took more than 2 kilos of basic C-4 (or whatever) in order for an explosion to break through whatever sturdy glass jar you carried the C-4 (or whatever) in.

Something's wrong with that.