A Techwiz up for critique...comments?, the guy with WAY too many skills Options

[ElFenrir]

Well, im trying to do up my techwiz here, 4e style. I had the original incarnation in 3e, but didnt get to play him too much. He had a silly amount spent on skills then, and now he's up to 170 BPs on skills alone...and id even like to get him more if possible. Methinks Skillwires MIGHT be a good way to go with this guy...


Im not going to list all of his equipment yet; but ill figure out where im going with that. Ill list the purchased cyberware. (and we dont play with availability or cultured limitations, hence a couple pieces that normally you wouldnt start with.)

[ Spoiler ]

Name: Kjell Valentin
Alias:
Age: 27
Race: Human
around 5'11'', 185lbs(w/cyber)
Hair,eyes: long white-blonde, pale blue(cyber, picked to resemble natural)
Residence: Denver(Hometown: Piteå, Sweden-later lived in Göteborg)

Attributes:(190 BPs)
Body: 4(6) +2 dmg. resistance, +1 Impact armor
Agility: 3(4/7)
Reaction: 3(4)
Strength: 3(7)
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 4
Logic: 4(6)
Willpower: 3
Essence: 2.4
Initiative: 7( 8 )/1

Negative Qualities: Sinner(+5)
Moderate Allergy/(+10)

Skills(174 BPs)

Pilot Ground Craft(Wheeled): 4(+2)
Pilot Aircraft(Remote Operations): 2(+2)

Mechanic Skill Group: 4
Electronics Skill Group: 3
Armorer: 2
Cybertechnology(Cyberlimbs): 3(+2)

Pistols(Semi-Automatics): 2(+2)
Exotic Melee Weapon(Leg Blade): 3
Dodge(Ranged): 1(+2)

Infiltration(Urban): 1(+2)
Perception(Visual): 2(+2)

Etiquette(Street): 2(+2)

Knolwedge/Language skills:(24)

Engineering(Mechanical): 4(+2)
Chop Shops: 3
Heavy Metal Keyboardists: 2
Safehouses: 3
Beer: 2
Denver Junkyards: 3
Cyberlimb Manufacturers: 2

Swedish: N
English: 4

Resources: 42 BP(210,000 nuyen)

Cyberware:

Control Rig
Reaction Enhancers(1)
Cybereyes(Rating 4), with image link, recorder unit, low-light, thermographic and flare compensation, Vision Magnification, Vision Enhancement 3 and Smartlink
Aluminum Bone Lacing
Datajack

Obvious Cyberleg(Custom):
Body 6
Agility/Strength 7(2 Cap)
Retractable Blade(3 Cap, Str/2+2 dmg)
5 free cap

Bioware:
Muscle Toner(1)
Cerebral Booster(2)

Gear: TBA. I picked him up a rigger-adapted GMC Bulldog Stepvan so far, with some drones, and a few kits/shops. Ill need to see how much the leg is going to cost before i delve into anything more. Also got an armored jacket and an Ares Predator 4 with some clips of regular, gel, and AP ammo, with an Erika Elite commlink modified for hot sim, with a good OS. All the rest ill figure out after his leg is all taken care of.

Contacts(15 points, 9+6 for Charisma, we use the Chax2 Free Points), Doc Davison, C3/L3, Street Doc
Fritz ''The Cat'' Reynolds, Junkyard Owner/Chop Shop Master, C2/L2
''Spanky'' Mcgee, Fixer, C3/L2

Quick Background: Young Kjell always loved how stuff worked; even when he lived in the small place in northern Sweden. He moved to Göteborg(Gothenburg) after his parents began working with Erika; he was able to attend a technical school as an early teen to further fuel it. He really liked vehicles the most; though he liked about any kind of electronic. for his 18th birthday, he recieved a car; soon after this he managed to have a run of bad luck on an icy road and crashed; losing his right leg. Of course depression hit for awhile, he could get around on his prosthetic, but it wasn't the same; he spent most of his time shut up in his attic room tinkering with things. But soon he, through the help of some rather large benefits his parents had, was able to get a working cyberleg two years later. Soon enough his parents moved to Denver on buisness; he went with them. He attended a technical college there; when he was 24 and graduated, he began working odd jobs around, and could afford his own apartment. His parents ended up flying back after their time was up; but he liked Denver alot and decided to stay.

He soon got bored with the day-in, day out thing, and during a meeting with his friend, who was a cybertechnology expert...and street doc on the side, he was introduced to some folks who needed his help...and thus became involved in a world which paid him quite well...with its downside. He likes to say he works as a 'freelancer', for whoever needs his technical expertise; he's a whiz with anything drivable, flyable, sailable, and then some, and he's not bad with computers, and can even do some modifications on weapons, though he'd like to study more of that. Between him and old' Doc Davison, the street clinic doc, they improved on his cyberleg until it became his 'baby' project, which he works on trying to improve as much as his van. Kjell isn't a hardened criminal, but as he started getting more involved in the underworld, the underworld started getting more involved with him, so he learned some tricks of survival. He isn't EXACTLY sure when he ended up turning to a more shady lifestyle, but it did happen.

Anyhow, im still figuring a good street ailas for him and a few more background points, like we did in the old days of Shadowrun with the 20 questions.(which we were big believers in.) He does, as you can see, have a LOT of BPs spent on skills...and he's still missing a few i'd like him to have(Pilot Anthroform, since he has some drones as such, some Negotation as well, and a Gunnery skill.) Of course, he can always grow later; i can always have him practice piloting the anthroform drones and get some tutorsofts so i can pick them up with Karma. I have to figure his allergy; i won't lie, i needed the extra BPs. Come to think of it, there's still plenty of room for him to grow, and thats even with spending alot on skills.

The bit of physical ware(muscle toner, bone lacing) was gotten so he could try to ''catch his meat bod'' up a bit with his really tweaked out leg. It's nothing too extensive, and i don't see him getting much more ware in the future, to be honest...though I am still debating the Skillwires at rating 3 or something.

So, questions? Comments? Anything i should do differently or am i forgetting anything?

[Tarantula]

You cyberlimb you can't start with. Base is 3 for all of those, you've added +4 to them, which means its +12 availibility (+1 each upgrade) which means with a cyberlimbs base 4 availibility, you can't start with it.

[ElFenrir]

I mentioned above; our group doesn't play with availability. :)

I'd make it all level 5/6/6 if i had to play in a game that used it; but as of now, we play with ''anything goes''.

[noonesshowmonkey]

I think that skillwires would probably fit him really very well. While he sounds like the hands-on type that would prefer to really know how to do things, he also likes to tinker... His skills also seem to be setup as a general handy man. One of the best ways that a character like this could save themselves time would be to get a skillwire set so they could look up specs and data sheets for projects without having to use a commlink and use the skillwires to augment their skills and memory. I can imagine that a guy like this would really enjoy being able to call up that kind of auxiliary information.

Imagine being able to indulge any technical curiosity on a whim? To let imagination and talent guide your thoughts and the skillwires guide your hands. It would be totally awesome.

Further, his background suggests a depressed period where maybe his studies put considerable strain on him. Maybe the skillwires were acquired then for the wrong reasons and he has since rehabilitate himself and the use of his skillwires for more productive ends?

I think that it jives pretty well and would let you fill out his knowledge skills with tons of cool stuff.

- der menkey

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter."
~ Ernest Hemingway

[Simon May]

[noonesshowmonkey]

NULL

[Simon May]

Sorry, I didn't finish reading your post before I responded. In fact, I stopped right before your explanation on hwy he'd have them, which is great backstory, BTW.

[ElFenrir]

Well, I think its a damned cool idea, myself, when you put it that way. He has so many skills as it is i didnt want it to go into cheeseworld which was what i was afraid of(yeah, hes got a well twinked cyberleg for hitting something but it's only used if necessary...he more or less likes to 'play with it to see what he can do') but i could indeed see him with that depressive bout for awhile(can happen when you lose a whole limb.)

Skillwires 3 or 4 wouldn't be hard to come by, and i could indeed think of varied activesofts and knowsofts he'd like to have. He likes to learn things, and know them on his own, but having a ton of stuff he hasn't gotten a chance to learn yet at his fingertips would be great; i was thinking of things like locksmithing and knowledges ranging from microtronics to backgrounds on something mundane like old computer engineering. As mentioned the Anthroform Pilot(perhaps he just came across his little spider walker drones and never piloted anything like that before, and can't wait for his tutorsoft to finish to try them out).

And he definately is the hands-on type. And he almost has a tinkering compulsion; nothing is good enough ''right out of the box''.

Ill do a little working with the softs here and see what i can get him.

[Tarantula]

Might as well make it 9/9/9 at that point then.

[Fortune]

[ElFenrir]

[Tarantula]

Make it custom, you can have it be 9/9/9 and have full capacity too.

[Fortune]

[Tarantula]

Ah, I guess I forgot about that, you're right, nevermind.

[ElFenrir]

Ok, I even have a little confusion here. I know about the capacity issue; again, which is why i wanted to keep it to 7/7/7. Each attribute is one above the human maximum.

In SR4, it says that the capacity the augmentations take up is Ratingx1(Ratingx2 for armor).

Im guessing this does not count the base 3 of the cyberlimb. But...for a custom cyberlimb, it says that the starting custom limbs can have attributes up to the normal maximum.

So, would the capacity taken up by a custom cyberlimb with a 7 body be 1(since its a 6 base), or would it be 4 (assuming base of 3 plus 4?)

For the SR4 stock cyberlimb, since it starts at 3/3/3, raising it to 7/7/7 would indeed be 4 capacity for each stat(12 total).

In my limited augmentation knowledge, does a custom cyberlimb, as im reading it, assume to START at 6/6/6 if you so choose? (ie, get custom limb and pay 13,500 nuyen, or 4,500 for each attribute, to go from a base 3 to a base 6?)

Sorry if it sounds a bit confusing, but i just want to clear this up.

If its how i think, 7/7/7 will cost 3 capacity total, IF i buy the custom cyberlimb at a base 6/6/6.

which would work wonderfully; since i do want to have the built in toolkits. If i had to drop it to 5/5/5, i'd do it, but id want to keep a measure of augmentation since he's spent alot of time between him and the street doc tweaking it in all kinds of ways.

[Tarantula]

"If its how i think, 7/7/7 will cost 3 capacity total, IF i buy the custom cyberlimb at a base 6/6/6."

Correct. The limb will also be a base of 16 availability, and cost a grant total of 28,500¥ plus the enhancements.

[Ryu]

You should look into hydraulic cyberlegs when you stat this one out. It would give you some special mobility and is IMO better than a few points of armor.

[ElFenrir]

Hydraulic jacks DO look cool. But im thinking i kind of need them in both my legs to really...do anything. I mean, he could have stuck them in the cyberleg for some reason...perhaps they looked cool or something, but while he likes to tinker, he would be more inclined to put something in that more immediately useful.

Well, I lowered the Body to 6(no Cap), keeping Agl/Str at 7 at the moment, but i believe i might drop them to 6 as well(since it's frees up all the Capacity). The blade takes 3, and he's got 5 cap left in the leg.


Reading the SR4 book(i think next week im buying Augmentation, be it hardcover or -pdf...ive been putting off the pdf just in case they get the real one in my local store, since i like to have the book), i find most tweaks to limbs are just weapons. The built-in toolkits of the past aren't there. I can, however, get a Small smuggling compartments(2 cap each, but for micro sized items), or a Large for 5 cap, which can fit a pistol...im wondering if i can negotiate if it can fit a few electronics tools since they aren't too big(a few screwdrivers and the like probably wont be as big as a heavy pistol).

If i decide to get both a Large and Small compartment, ill drop the leg to 6/6/6, if i just get the Large, ill keep it as it is now.

Going to retweak his sheet up after i see what i can do about the skillwires. I DO really like that idea. Thanks for the input so far. :grinbig:

[Ryu]

Well, you could use two lower leg-replacements. And spare yourself some headaches by adjusting the custom cyberlimbs to the stats of the rest of your body. At least do not waste capacity for some special cases where you might use a single limb.

You could reserve capacity for a comlink in one leg, it can communicate wireless with the datajack you already have if there are disputes about placement.

And do wait for augmentation. You might want cyberhands. Just saying. For me it was a toss-up between legs (hydraulic jack) and replaceable cyberhands. The legs won...

[ElFenrir]

Well, the leg is part of the story. I dont know if i see the accident where he lost both of his lower legs and both of his hands. The leg came to mind, so im not really caring about ''maximum efficency'' as ''cool stuff i can do with this one leg''. It sort of turned his depression around when he got it over a normal prosthetic, due to his mechanical interests and meeting the streetdoc.

Hmm...though he's got 5 remaining capacity(possibly 7 if i make it 6/6/6), so there MIGHT be room for the storage compartment AND a commlink. Would be nice.

Trust me when i say the cyberhand sounded cool too. Tools in the fingers? Yes, please! But, i think i like the leg only for him in the end. Though, theres nothing saying he cant have a fingertip compartment or two in his natural hands.

And the stat increases came from, him, again, tweaking the leg. Again, why not? he worked with his doc to basically design a 'monster' so to speak. And since 6/6/6 doesn't cost any capacity in a custom cyberleg, no harm, no foul.

[Grinder]

[ElFenrir]

[Tarantula]

[Simon May]

Yes, but any rebellious teenager is going to pay for aftermarket add-ons. It's like buying a zippy honda or mazda and juicing it up for street racing.

[Ryu]

But he only lost one leg to the accident, not keeping that last foot natural was the sensible thing to do, easier to balance, more toys...