Character Critique: Haywire, Combat Mage build Options

[Fuchs]

This is a conversion of an old SR2/3 character.

Haywire

Picture

Haywire's background was that she was part of Ares' KE Bug Hunting squads, and left the corp after an operation went horribly wrong - she's persuaded it was sabotaged by a superiour to further his own career, and blames the corps in general for such a mentality. So, she received rather specialised and rushed training by KE to hunt insect spirits, not much law enforcement or other military training.

Haywire in a jungle

[ Spoiler ]

Game Stats: Haywire

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Game Stats: Haywire

Attributes: (240 BP)
Body:       4    30    
Agility:    4    30
Reaction:   4    30
Strength:   2    10
Charisma:   4    30
Intiution:  3    20
Logic:      4    20
Willpower:  4    30
Essence:    5.04
Magic:      4.0  40
Initiative: 7
Edge:       2


Skills: (134 BP)

Active Skills:          Rating     BP:    Notes
Spellcasting (Combat):    5        22    
Counterspelling:          3        12    
Astral Combat:            3        12    
Pistols (Semi-autom.):    3        14    
Automatics (Assault):     3        14
Dodge:                    3        12        
Perception:               1        4
Pilot Ground:             1        4

Skill Groups:     Rating    BP:    Notes                
Conjuring:          3       30    
Influence:          1       10

Knowledge Skills: (21 free BP)
Insect Spirits             3
Magic Theory               2
Rock Music                 2
Ares Corp Politics         2
Motorbikes                 2
Corporate Security Tactics 2
Magic Background           2

Languages:    Rating    Notes:
English        N        Native language
Spanish        3
Japanese       3


Qualities: (+10 BP)

Positive Qualities:
Magician    15

Negative Qualities:
Sinner    5
Moderate Addiction (Alcohol): 10
Spirit Bane: Insect Spirits: 10


Gear: (19 BP)

Name:        Notes:           Cost:
Survival Knife                   50
Ares Monofilamentsword          750
Stunbaton                       400
Shock Glove                     200

Ares Predator IV                350
+5 clips of regular ammo        175
+5 clips of ExEx ammo           800
+Silencer                       200
+Quick-Draw Holster             100
+Concealed Holster              100
Ares Alpha                    1’700
+ Gas-Vent System 3             400
+ Shock Pad                      50
+5 clips of regular ammo        420
+2 clips of ExEx ammo           840
+ 5 HE minigrenades             225      
+ 5 Fragmentation minigrenades  175
+ 5 Thermal smoke minigrenades  175
+ 5 RAID Gas minigrenades       250

Camouflage Suit (8/6)         1’200
+ Full Set of PPP (+2/+6)     1’000
Form-Fitting Body Armor (4/1)   900

SIM Module                      100
+ Skinlink                       50
Iris Orb O/S                  1’000

Medkit-6                        600

Suzuki Mirage                 6’500

                             18’710

Skillsofts:
Blades-2                      6’000
Athletics-2                   6’000
Infiltration-2                6’000

Fake SIN-4                    3’000
Middle Lifestyle              5’000

                             26’000

Total:                       44’710

Cyberware (all Alphaware):
Name:        Notes:                                  Essence:        Cost:
Commlink     Transsys Avalon (Response 4, Signal 4)     0.16         14’000
Cybereyes-2    
(Low-Light Vision, Flare Comp, Smartlink, Vision
Enhancer-2,Image Link, Eye Recording Unit)              0.24        18’000
Skillwires-3                                            0.48        12’000
Skillwire Expert system                                 0.08         6’000
            
Total:                                                  0.96        50’000


Spells (15 BP):    Cost:
Heal
Mana Barrier
Mana Static
Slaughter Insect Spirits
Manabolt


Contacts: (3 BP)
KE Sergeant (Infkuence 2/ Loyality 1)

Thoughts?

[crizh]

Got something against Insect Spirits?

From a purely maths pov, would you not be better swapping around blades and pistols?

If you end up in melee those extra 3 Dice could save your life whereas you have a lot of ranged options so losing a couple of dice from pistols isn't the end of the world.

[WearzManySkins]

Question on the Alpha, would you not need Heavy Weapons Skill to use the Grenade Launcher built in to the Alpha?

WMS

[Malicant]

You might consider replacing mana barrier with the offensive version, since it was developed by Ares for the purpose of kicking insect butt, if I recall correctly.

Also, Spirit Bane Insect Spirits is kind of (i.e. totally) lame. Those things hate you anyways. Unless the GM interprets it in a twisted way and Insect Spirits actively hunt that character. Then it is solid (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif)

You might want to consider to add assensing to the character, it tends to be nice to know how strong a spirit actually is. Or to be able to break the masking of a fleshform, or similar situations.

What are those melee weapons good for? You can't use them. Toss it out of the window.

A Fake SIN rating 4 costs 4 grand, not 3.

You have a Skillsoft (Athletics), which is a skill group, but those suckers have only single skills recorded.

That's kind of it after a quick glance (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Fuchs]

Question on the Alpha, would you not need Heavy Weapons Skill to use the Grenade Launcher built in to the Alpha?

WMS

The Alpha is an ares-made weapon, and a very good one, so I'd expect KE bug hunters to use it. The grenade launcher comes with it, but I don't expect Haywire to have had training in it (she'd have been using skillsofts, or agility in a pinch).

[Cthulhudreams]

What are those melee weapons good for? You can't use them. Toss it out of the window.

A Fake SIN rating 4 costs 4 grand, not 3.

You have a Skillsoft (Athletics), which is a skill group, but those suckers have only single skills recorded.

Err, he can thanks to the skillsofts that you go on to mention (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Malicant]

Yes, he can use the sword. With 6 dice. Unless he is fighting force 1 workers he will get hosed. And the other melee weapons he is throwing 3 dice. That is just asking to get killed.

[ElFenrir]

Also, Spirit Bane Insect Spirits is kind of (i.e. totally) lame. Those things hate you anyways. Unless the GM interprets it in a twisted way and Insect Spirits actively hunt that character. Then it is solid

This is how i'd count it. Spirit Bane means that spirit seeks out THAT character beyond everyone else, first. So yeah, the insect spirit might hate everyone in the room but it hates this character alot more, and thus goes after it. Since they are nasty buggers*rimshot* i'd let it go. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Malicant]

I don't think it is enough that she get's attacked first by Insect spirits to warrant that quality, since spirit bane should also effect you outside of combat. Like walking down a street and getting harassed by local spirits that have no real business with you.
Spirit Bane for anything but standart spirits tends to be less harsh then, well, Spirit Bane for standart spirits, since they are everywere and always ready to annoy the character, while threat spirits will be encoutered in combat most of the time and then it will be very likely they attack the mage (her) first anyway.

[suppenhuhn]

Imo this spirit bane fits pretty well with the character. Also not all insect spirits attack random people on sight, just consider mantids for example. Also there aren't that many more 'standard' spirits around normally that have the time and freedom to really annoy the character.

What the character really lacks, and what's pretty essential to her job would be assensing though.

[Malicant]

Also there aren't that many more 'standard' spirits around normally that have the time and freedom to really annoy the character.

What makes you think so?

[Cthulhudreams]

Yes, he can use the sword. With 6 dice. Unless he is fighting force 1 workers he will get hosed. And the other melee weapons he is throwing 3 dice. That is just asking to get killed.

Well, I guess thats true, but the character is clearly some distance from optimized. For example throwing the pistols score out the door, spending the points on bumping dodge, automatics and counterspelling to 4, and then moving the spec from pistols to dodge and going 'ranged' is a straight power boost with no downsides.

Also, just using manabolt in astral combat, and ditching the astral combat skill is another potential powerboost. use it to by the missing assensing.

And having the skillsofts at 2 rather than 3 is silly.

[suppenhuhn]

What makes you think so?

Might be the way i see it but i think most spirits prefer to reside on their metaplane unless they are summoned by someone or have business to do with metahumans. so i'd mainly consider free spirits to be what could make trouble and of that i think insects are maybe among the most abundant as they actually do want something off metahumans (which is their body (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ).
If you play spirits more like each lake has it's water spirit then ofc it's quite different but still the only thing that really changes things imo is if you take a spirit from your tradition that you actually do summon from time to time.

[Fuchs]

Well, I guess thats true, but the character is clearly some distance from optimized. For example throwing the pistols score out the door, spending the points on bumping dodge, automatics and counterspelling to 4, and then moving the spec from pistols to dodge and going 'ranged' is a straight power boost with no downsides.

Unless the campaign features a lot of situations where automatics are out of place, but pistols can be used.

Also, just using manabolt in astral combat, and ditching the astral combat skill is another potential powerboost. use it to by the missing assensing.

I assumed the training in astral combat was also to be able to escape better while astrally scouting (going full defense).

And having the skillsofts at 2 rather than 3 is silly.

Partly a cost issue (ran out of bp), partly to be able to keep 3 skills active at once.

The sword is there because its an Ares Product, and it can, together with the survival knife, be used for a number of purposes other than fighting. In combat, it's mostly meant to be used for defense (reach helps there a bit).

Assensing is lacking though.

[Cthulhudreams]

I'd have to run home and check, but don't some of the SMGs have an SA firemode? With the cut down barrel mod from arsenal, it is functionally the same as a pistol, and sports some additional options. Mostly just lets you roll with one firearms skill though.

But yeah, this is why its tough to critique a character. if you can throw down some background for the game, we might be able to help more. For example, i'd assume from the jungle thing that you were running in hellholes and thus the assault rifle was the weapon of choice, and the extra dice it that would be worth some very modest to negligible inconvenience else where.

[suppenhuhn]

Maybe go with a black scorpion, you could raise automatics by 1 then so you're just 1 point worse with your sidearm but 1 better with your main weapon and also could take assensing (spirits) 2

[Glyph]

As far as the spirit bane, I wouldn't consider it cheesy. Spirit Bane: Insect Spirits and Spirit Bane: Toxic Spirits are both acceptable - sure, there may be a bit less of them, but first, you're taking Spirit Bane for a whole class of spirits (something like Spirit Bane: Toxic Spirits of Man or Spirit Bane: Mantis Spirits might be too limited). And second of all, you're basically saying that whenever your group meets this type of spirit, they will attack your character first. That's a significant disadvantage, actually.

[twilite]

I'm not sure that the point count is correct.

First- you have a Magic listed of 4, at a cost of 40 BP, but if that is the correct magic rating then it would only cost 30 BP's as you get the first point free. Possibly there is a mistake in whatever program you used?

Second- the costs you have listed:
240
134
-10
19
15
3
That comes out to 401, so you'll have to lose a point in there somewhere.

Sorry for getting nit-picky on it- guess that's just what I'm like (IMG:style_emoticons/default/talker.gif)

[Cthulhudreams]

Magic has been brought up to 5, then gone to 4 because of the cyberwear

[Critias]

This character isn't slinging double-dice attacks with every piece of gear on her character sheet?! She's crap! What kind of nonsense is that? If you're not super awesome at everything, it's time to reevaluate whether or not a character's even worth wasting the forum's time and bandwidth over.

[Fuchs]

I'm not sure that the point count is correct.

First- you have a Magic listed of 4, at a cost of 40 BP, but if that is the correct magic rating then it would only cost 30 BP's as you get the first point free. Possibly there is a mistake in whatever program you used?

Second- the costs you have listed:
240
134
-10
19
15
3
That comes out to 401, so you'll have to lose a point in there somewhere.

Sorry for getting nit-picky on it- guess that's just what I'm like (IMG:style_emoticons/default/talker.gif)

Good catch on the BP, I don't use a program, so at times something slips.

The main problem I would see with the SMG is that it's a bit hard to sell to a bouncer of security guard "Yes, sir, it's a SMG, but I'll only use it as a pistol, can I go inside?"

There's no specific campaign yet for the character, apart from checking if I can covert an old SR3 character (well, the concept of it, the character was played for quite some time so I don't look for direct number conversion) I am looking to get a character ready for online gaming, in case a game opens up. So, the character should be versatile enough for standard games.

Main problem that showed is the lack of assensing, I missed that it cannot be defaulted. That will have to be corrected. Maybe reducing pistols 1 point.

The background is that the character was trained by Ares to hunt bugs, and her skills should represent this focus (Ares didn't waste much time on anything else, but some skills may be the result of standard training (pistols), or personal interest (pilot ground vehicle).

[Cthulhudreams]

With the pistols thing I can see where you are coming from. Conversely, I feel that if a licensed concealed carry SMG is going to be a problem, an unlicensed pistol is likely to be an issue too. PS: If you are planning on carrying the gun through security, a fake license is probably a good idea.

[DreadPirateKitte...]

Automatics includes Machine Pistols, many of which, like the Crusader, look like a regular pistol. Thats an Ares Crusader, which is IC, I'd say, for this Ares stylin' dude

[Fuchs]

So, the following changes seem in order:

Skillsoft Athletics corrected to Gymnastics.
SIN typo corrected to 3.
Contact reduced to 1/1

As far as assensing is concerned, one could drop pistols by 1 and get assensing 1.

Alternatively: Pistols dropped completely, points spent on Assensing (spirits) 2 and Automatics +1. Ares Predator, Stun baton, silencer and ExEx ammo for it replaced by Ares Crusader with internal smartlink/skinlink.