Best Munchkin Type Options

[Demon_Bob]

I couldn't find any poll of simular nature to look at, and was wondering what everyones opinion was.

[Link]

It's unanimous :grinbig:
I think they all work.

[Wounded Ronin]

Mages are responsible for the most exploded games in my experience as a GM. Then again it could just prove that I'm not good enough at defeating mages.

[hyzmarca]

A full magician with enough grades under his belt can become any other archetype except for adept, due to the relative uselessness of absurdly high magic ratings in SR3. The best munchkin is a magician with the right combination of cyberware and bioware.

[Glyph]

Awakened characters are only broken at ultra-high Karma levels, but that puts them out of the munchkin category, since most munchkins don't really have that long of a life expectancy.

[Kagetenshi]

Mages get broken late-game. Riggers, on the other hand, are a military-grade archetype in a corp-grade game right out of chargen—their advancement curve just levels off a little sooner.

~J

[Grinder]

Every charactery type has the potential to become a munchkin's wet dream. Mages later in the game, Adepts and Riggers easily from start on.

[DireRadiant]

Players, not archetypes, are munchkins.

Now if you asked which archetype a munchkin is likely to choose, then the answer is all of them, any of them can be munchkinized.

[Kagetenshi]

But some of them are vastly less easily munchkinized. For example, Deckers have two real approaches that I'm aware of for munchkinizing, both of which are easily and reasonably sealed off: abuse of Validate, and abuse of the paydata rules. Additionally, the lack of familiarity with the Matrix most GMs seem to have lends itself to creating inappropriately difficult hosts, further damaging that archetype's ability to munchkinize. Is there something else I'm missing that they can do?

Contrast with Riggers. Their power is entirely reasonable (certain details may be argued, like the exact workings of vehicle armor), and removing it is not reasonable, but either the Rigger is going to be more powerful than everyone else or Rigging has to be made more expensive, removing the ability of PCs to play viable Riggers. No easy solution.

~J

[mfb]

mage/shamans get my vote because if they're played well, it's hard to counter them with anything but another mage or shaman. there are ways to do it, but the easiest and best way to deal with a mage/shaman is to have a mage/shaman of your own.

[Telion]

well, a mage is nice, but a good rigger can perform every other archtypes builds.

Also, riggers while dependent entirely on nuyen, they can be in the action while their meat is entirely somewhere else, so if a mission is drekked, they will live another day.
at least this is my subjective view.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Kagetenshi]

I amend that to "no easy, decent solution".

~J

[Lindt]

Heh.

Adepts IMO are the most munchkin-ized that I see. Tossing 20 dice right out of chargen is pretty much THE definition.

[djinni]

[Wounded Ronin]

[Darkest Angel]

None are inherently broken, they can all be horribly abused, but it always makes them a one trick pony.

[Kagetenshi]

[djinni]

[Kagetenshi]

Heh, I thought it was incumbent on the one making the extraordinary claim to provide the proof? Take a look at some of the builds that have been posted here, or the rules for Validate, or SotA:64 and the social skill powers.

~J

[Taran]

I'm Kage's GM, and his rigger Alex is redonkulous. She took a deadly wound a few RL years ago that slowed her down a lot (it hasn't healed yet, she's been busy), but she's still a phenomenally effective scout, bullet hose, and (if it ever came down to it) decker. Oh, and a capable face, too. Now that we're 3 years in the other characters have more or less caught up, or at least found their own specialties, but at zero karma she was downright terrifying.

[djinni]

[Glyph]

But he wasn't claiming that you could be a hyper-specialist in several different areas - he was only claiming that you can do some significantly overpowering things without overspecializing. I don't take that to mean being a super-marksman who is also a super-decker and a super-face. I take that to mean making a super-marksman who has the normal social, stealth, and other skills to not be a one-trick pony who is useless outside of his specialty.


One example of such a character: the resources: A dwarven sorcerer with the Dragonslayer Totem and a Force: 6 stunbolt focus. Despite all of the dice that he can pump into this attack, and the relative ease of soaking Drain, he can still be well-rounded. With Attributes of 24 (28 after dwarf bonuses), he can have high Intelligence and Willpower without being hobbled in other Attributes, and with 27 skill points, he can take Sorcery: 6 and still have 21 points to spread around on stealth, athletics, social skills, etc. He can have a nice selection of spells, and even get some sustaining foci (such as Force: 1 increase reflexes +3 dice and Force: 5 improved invisibility).

A simpler example: the adept marksman who gets improved ability: 6 in a ranged weapon. That character has only spent 6 skill points, and half of his adept power points. There are plenty of options left for such a character to take - being a marksman will be far from the only thing that such a character can do.

[djinni]

since you think well rounded, or average are overpowering, then I'll stop you right there.

[Kagetenshi]

Attributes:

Strength: 2

Body: 2

Quickness: 7

Intelligence: 7

Willpower: 6

Charisma: 6

Reaction: 7 +1d6 (13+4d6 while rigged)

Essence: .2

Bio Index: 0

Pools:

Combat Pool: 10

Control Pool: 13

Karma Pool: 1

Good Karma: 0

Total Karma: 0

Skills:

Stealth 4

Gunnery 6

Etiquette 3

Electronics 6

Electronics B/R 6

Computers 6

Car 6

Car B/R 6

Rotor Aircraft 6

Rotor Aircraft B/R 6

Resources: ¥1,000,000 worth (¥4,000 remaining as of this character revision)

Cyberware:

Vehicle Control Rig (Level 3) (5 Essence)

+6 to Reaction while rigged, +3d6 to Initiative while rigged, TN to default from Vehicle skills to Reaction reduced to +2, -3 to Driving Test TNs.

Cybereye (Alphaware) (.08 Essence) (single)

Replaces organic eye, allows .25 Essence worth of eyemods implanted free (.12 used)

Imagelink (Alphaware) (.08 Essence) (Half in cybereye)

Displays images or text from outside source in field of vision

Microscopic Vision (Alphaware) (.04 Essence) (Half in cybereye)

-2 to applicable Build/Repair tests.

Smartgun-II Components (Alphaware) (.24 Essence)

Sans induction pad, eye display (superseded by Imagelink), Limited Simrig (superseded by VCR simrig), with Rangefinder

Datajack (Alphaware) (X2) (.32)

Allows DNI control of linked devices, allows information to be transferred.

Bioware:


Gear:

Weapons/Ammo:

Great Dragon Launcher

Ammo 1, SS, 2.75 Kg, by rocket/missile.

Great Dragon ATGM (x1)

Intelligence 4, 20D (AV), Blast -5/meter, 2d6 Scatter, 3 Kg

MMG Rounds: 1,000

Sporting Rifle Rounds: 100

Misc.:

Remote-Control Deck (Rating 6)

L5 Encryption

External Transducer

Vehicles:

Ares Roadmaster

Hand. 1/7, Speed 99, Accel. 3, Body 5, Armor 5, Sig. 2, Auto 2, Pilot 1, Sensor 5, Cargo 15, Load 1,209, Seating 2+1b, Entry 2d+1x, Fuel Diesel (250l), Econ. 5.2 km/l

Electronics Port x4 (Remote-Control Deck, R6 deck w/L5 Encryption installed) (Cyberdeck port, no deck installed) (Satellite Dish, fixed-base) (Radio, Flux 6, Rating 6 radio installed), Concealed Armor, Rigger Adaptation, Remote-Control Interface, Drive-By-Wire 3, Power Amplifiers (L6), Contingency Maneuver Controls 3, Small Pop-Up Remote Turret (Empty, Smartlink-II), Photovoltaic Chameleon Paint, Runflat Tires (5/3 armor), L5 Encryption

Lone Star Strato-9 (X5)

Hand. 3, Speed 100, Accel. 9, Body 2, Armor 0, Sig. 4, Auto 0, Pilot 2, Sensor 5, Cargo 1, Load 20, Fuel Jet (220 l), Econ. .4 km/l, S/B 5 min., VTOL

ECM 2, External Fixed Hardpoint w/ MMG (Gas Vent 3, 500 rounds ammo, Smartlink-II), Remote-Control Interface, Rigger Adaptation, L5 Encryption

(One with Ares MGL-12 instead of MMG)

A. S. LDSD-41

Hand. 4, Speed 75, Accel. 5, Body 2, Armor 3, Sig. 10, Auto 0, Pilot 3, Sensor 1, Cargo 3, Load 14, Fuel Electric (35 PF), Econ. 5 km/PF, S/B 5 min., VTOL

SunCell Power, Remote Control Interface, Rigger Adaptation, Remote Micro-turret (Remington 950 (10 rounds, SA, 9S), Smartlink-II) L5 Encryption

Renraku Arachnoid

Hand. 3/3, Speed 2, Body 0, Sig 12, Auto 0, Pilot 1, Sensor 1, Cargo 0, Load 0, Fuel E (10 PF), Econ .5 KM/PF


Lifestyles:

High, 4 months

Low, 5 months

Contacts:

(L2, Mechanic/vehicle/drone parts seller)

(L1, Weapons dealer)

Edges/Flaws:

Sensitive Neural Structure (-4): reduces Willpower by 2 for purposes of resisting dump shock/BTLs/black IC.

Bad Karma (-5): 2X normal karma required to increase karma pool.

Cursed Karma (-6): When karma pool is used, roll 1d6: on a 1, effect is opposite of intention.

Phobia (Common, Severe) (Large dogs) (-5):

Allergy (Common, Mild) (Sunlight) (-3):

Allergy (Common, Severe) (Certain common commercial cleaning substances) (-5):

Good Reputation (2): -2 to social skill tests.

Exceptional Attribute (Quickness) (2): RML changed to 7, Racial Max to 11

Extra Attribute Point (Intelligence) (2): Intelligence increased to 7

Connected (Vehicle and Drone parts) (5)

Vehicle Empathy (2): -1 to Handling while in physical contact with a vehicle.

There you go.

~J