Noob questions about Street Sams, Need help with a character Options

[Tetsuyama]

Hey all,

Just getting ready to start a character in a currently-running SR4 campaign, and the team apparently needs a Street Sam of some variety. I've been leaning towards a somewhat bizarre Ork. Based on comments in other threads, I'd say that he's not even a particularly well-twinked gunbunny. A fair amount of what I've put together was cribbed from various of the archetypes; I've posted his stats (and background) below for critique, but I've got some specific questions so I can tune him better.

How much does a typical Samurai spend on equipment? How much of it is on communications equipment? What kind of hacking abilities do I need to keep me upright so I can cover the team's escape? What do you do about Stun Damage, since I'd guess it's probably a fair bet that your armor will drop some significant percentage of the hits to take from Physical to Stun?

The build below doesn't include 15 Karma that he gets or 12,000 :nuyen: in equipment that he gets to buy on the street after creation. I'm kind of figuring on bumping his CHA up one, not sure what to do with the rest -- maybe save some to buy off the Addiction?

Comments are much appreciated!

[Konsaki]

Personally i wouldnt have Dodge6 unless you plan on running for your life often. You only get to roll Reaction for ranged defense unless you spend a complex action to use Dodge. Running is a free action so you can run and dodge at the same time.

Also your Cerebral Booster is ILLEGAL. Your logic of 1 means you cant even get a booster. 1/2=.5<1= No booster

[GrinderTheTroll]

Max 50BP on nuyen, so 250k is your upper limit.

My group's sam spends 250k, lol.

[Ophis]

[Edward]

Incompetent hacking wont be much of a problem, you can avoid cyber combat easily enough and you still have access to the computer skill so you can do anything the system will let you do. Your team hacker can stet you up with IC an a secure PAN (if you don’t know other chars back-story a previous teammate set it up, no shortage of threads on how to do it around hear)

I also wouldn’t bother with dodge, the only time you will ms it is when you want to go total defense against ranged weapons (witch isn’t very often) I would however bump athletics and perception a little, there is no such thing as being to observant.

A mild addiction wont cause you a problem, carry a hip flask and don’t get drunk to the point of penalties on a run. Personally I think mild addictions are free points there to easy to work around.

Other stuff you want, a few good guns, at least one pistol you can conceal and at least one automatic weapon. I would take the Aries Alfa for the integral grenade launcher a light pistol, a heavy pistol and an SMG. Also pick mele weapons to sute your style

Get contacts and or glasses with vision mods you want to add, including smart link. Get ear buds with everything you can put in them (so cheep)

Get at least one fake sin. A private investigator license is really useful as it comes with ID that will get you accepted with a good story. Also it’s a good reason to have a concealed carry license.

Edward

[Xane]

Is it just me....or does it seem like 3/4 of all the orks in the shadows are Human Looking? *snickers*

If I were making the same though, I'd try and balance the attributes a little better. Never liked having a 1 in anything. Then I'd get the Boosts that I could with Cyberware or Bioware

It also looks like you spent part of your 200 points on Edge. You buy edge AFTER your initial 200 point allotment to attributes.

[Teulisch]

First- Edge is NOT part of the 200 point limit on attributes, its seperate. you have another 10 to put in attributes.

Second- get the full 50 BP of gear for your sam! you should have around 200,000 :nuyen: in alphaware and bioware.

Third- i agree that dodge does not need to be 6. you may want to swap dodge and infiltrate.

with the knowledges..... why does a charisma and logic 1 ork know so much about politics? I would expect him toknow more about sports and music. you may want to think about what your character would be interested in, as opposed to just what you think you want to roll more dice for.

its a very bad idea to leavy any attribute at 1- it means you cannot default. thats a big problem. my suggestion to change your stats- intuition and will at 3, charisma and logic at 2. then add the bioware to get logic 2(4). you keep the same number of knowledge skills, but now you can default to 1 dice for important things like negotiate (used to get new gear, and resist con), intimidate, and such.

my own suggestion for cybernetic perfection:

Cyber/Bio: (totals: 4.26e (1.8 bio(1/2), 3.36 cyber), 216,500 :nuyen: )
Cybereyes(Rating 4)[flare comp, low light, thermo, smartlink, mag, VE 3, ultrasound sensor] alpha, 0.4e, $33,500 [15/16]; Cyberears(rating 3)[AE 3, dampner, SSF 4, spatial recognizer] alpha, 0.32e, $22,000 [10/12]; Datajack- Alphaware- 0.08e, $1000, Olfactory Booster r3 alpha, 0.16e ($6000); wired reflex 2, alpha, 2.4e, $64,000 (+2r), Crebral booster 2 (.4e, $20k),
bone density (+2 resist damage) std, .6e, $40k (punch damage- Str/2+1= 5p),
Muscle augment 2, .4e, $14k, +2S; Muscle toner 2, .4e, $16k, +2A

(some may argue the entire ultrasound in eye- but its a small difference in essence if its not in there).

[Squinky]

First thing I would do is drop Strength down to 5, unless you plan on upping it in the future (if you do, get str cyber enhancements too.) because damage is rounded up, odd numbers get you the same as even. You could put that point towards upping your logic maybe....

Lose dodge totally, and pump up your athletics skill group some more. Then you will have the choice of using gymnastics to dodge, or using a weapon skill to parry (which you have) and also have a good skill that lets you jump around like a monkey (along with a running , climbing, swimming, skills that other archtypes tend to ignore a lot).

Human looking!!! Man, I know this is a personal preference, but orks look cool! They are scary dudes! Why would you want to lose that? heh...

The last thing I would say is you need more cyber+bio. Think reaction enhancers, reflex recorders and I would really recomend getting some bone lacing or bone density to help keep you from becoming roadkill...

[Tetsuyama]

Wow! Thanks for all the comments! I'll try to reply to most of them... :eek:

Many of you suggested maxing Gear. Done!

Xane: I suspect you're right. The earliest revision of this character had Human Looking, Blandness, and Uncouth. He probably would have been more interesting, but almost certainly a lot harder to play. And with those he probably wouldn't have been much of a team player, and since I need him to work in to a currently running team, this is probably better.

Teulisch: It might be better to make his knowledge skills particular to Minneapolis; my original concept was actually more "gengineered" corper pet project, turned essentially in to a jacked-up assassin. As such, I had originally thought that he'd spend all his time figuring out whose toes he could (or needed to) step on both in the street and in the corp to further his master's goals. Given that he's no longer quite what he was, I'll swap around the knowledges. Any thoughts on Orthoskin?

Squinky: Reduce Strength, check. Lose Dodge, check. Bump Athletics, check. Had to drop the Human Looking to make the points work out. Since I definitely don't have the points for Blandness, which was part of the original concept, I'm not that attached to Human Looking.

I'll post the new one a little bit later, as I've got to run some errands, but his new stat block is (in new canonical BARSCILWE order, without enhancements): 5, 5, 5, 5, 2, 3, 2, 5, 2. I'm leaning towards Orthoskin (3), so if he's wearing an Armor Coat, I think normal rounds from Assault Rifles will probably turn in to Stun (hence the higher Willpower); even Explosive rouds may turn in to Stun if Carl does well on his Reaction test (and he finds some decent cover).

In light of the above, does 5 Willpower seem too high? And a perhaps bizarre question: assuming Carl has Cybereyes and ears, and goes skinlink on his personal gear, is there any reason that his implanted commlink which is just to transfer information between items and operates in hidden mode should be a particularly nice one? Then his "handheld" can run though contacts and earplugs and whatnot, and be nicer and more resistant to hacking. Is this more or less the generally accepted operating procedure?

And a quick skill list:
4 Close Combat Group
4 Firearms Group
2 Athletics Group
1 (3) Etiquette (Street)
4 Infiltration
1 Perception

And new Knowledge list:
3 Underworld Politics
1 Corporate Politics (since he's been out of the game a while)
2 Urban Brawl Schedule
2 Safe Houses
2 Mercenary Hangouts

Same Languages as before. Good/bad?

Thanks again for all the suggestions! Again, I'll try to post an updated version a little later today.


Edited to add bold to specific names for responses. Should make reading easier.

[Vasili]

May I suggest dropping spanish, and getting Or'Zet (the Orc language)? That will make dealings with your own people much easier and more pleasant. You'll be dealing with enough racism from norms, you don't need goblins looking down on you too.

[Edward]

Or'Zet isn’t that common. But I do like it. my human character has it (although not having the right moth shape he has a dreadful ascent)

Edward

[Crusher Bob]

The ork langauge should be about as common as Eperanto, no one would speak it as a native langauge.

I'd consider dropping the Firearms group for pistols 4 and automatics 6, and then buing some specializations from your bonus karma. Buying specializations with BP is not efficient.
Having the other guns skills is useful, but you are better off getting the heavy weapons skill so that you can really use the GL mounted under your alpha.
I'd then drop the close combat skill group for unarmed and (maybe clubs), and use the remaining points to buy heavy weapons (grenade launcher spec) and thrown weapons (grenades spec). You are the street sam, this means that you need to be the guy who can use the big guns.

Next, used reaction enhancers to max out your reaction, as reaction acts as passive defense when you are being shot at, you want as much reaction as possible.

Next, remeber that INT is part of how fast you go, being able to go first, is very important, as you should have maxxed out reaction (9) having a high INT may not be as important, but you need to be speed compeittive with all the other gun bunnies.

You don't need to cram so much stuff into your body these days, since you can get a set of goggles + earphones that give you most of the sensory enhancements available with cybereyes.

If for you 12 karma, you can get 6 specializations, which are one of the best deals going:

something like:

automatics (assault rifles)
pistols (semi-autos)
heavy weapons (grenade launchers)
thrown weapons (grenades)
etiquette (street)
pilot ground vehicle (car or motorcycle, to taste)

[Tetsuyama]

Crusher, I took a lot of your suggestions and incorporated them in to Carl's latest revision.

I rooted around on the boards a bit, and the consensus seemed to be that Wired Reflexes and Reaction Enhancers are compatible. I'll talk it over with my GM to make sure though - if they're not, I'll have more money for hard-to-find EX-Explosive ammo for the Alpha. :D

So here's Carl (pre-Karma expenditure, and without having spent his post-chargen 12,000 :nuyen: ). He'll probably pick up more ammo and some heavier armor with that cash. I'm also planning on saving some of the money to buy a Sleep Regulator, since that seems like some nearly requisite hardware.

[jklst14]

Since it only costs 6 karma to raise a Stat from 1 to 2, you could drop both your Charisma and your Edge to 1 then use your 12 bonus pts of karma to raise them both up to 2 later.

Doing this would give you 20 extra BPs to play with. You could then raise some of your other stats or raise your Athletics group to 4.