Rate my Build, Orcish Combat Druid Options

[JFixer]

Crommcruach - Corwyn Krum
Orc - 17 - Male - Mid Lifestyle (2)

Body 7
Agility 2 (1)
Reaction 3 (2)
Strength 3
Charisma 2
Intuition 5
Logic 4
Willpower 5

Edge 2
Essence 6
Magic 5
Initiative 8 (7) (11)

Assensing 1
Spellcasting 6
-Combat Spells
-(Bear Spirit +2 to Health Spells)
Counterspelling 3
-Combat Spells
Arcana 1
First Aid 2
-Drain
(Medkit R6)

English N
Or'Zet 4
Gaelic 5
Magical Theory 5
Ancient Religions 4
Awakened Critters 3
Magical Groups 3
Nature 3

Restricted Gear (Foci) 5
Restricted Gear (Foci) 5
Magician 15
Mentor Spirit (Bear) 5
Sensei 5

Spirit Bane (Fire) 10
Debt (25)
(37,500Y - 3,750Y)

Spell DV
Shell (Personal Armor Spell) +1
Enhance Reflex (Personal Init) 0
Increased Willpower -2
Increased Intuition -2
Resist Pain DV-4
Heal DV-2
Power Bolt +1
Stunbolt -1
Magic Fingers +1
Improved Invisibility +1

Hermes Icon w/ Iris Orb OS
Response 4/System 3/Firewall 3/Signal 3
Browse 3
Edit 3
Encrypt 3
Analyze 3
IC Program 3 (No loads... yet...)
Seattle Mapsoft 6
VR Games Library (Six games)
Inner Space -COMPLETE- 6 (Instructional book series on the nature of astral space and YOU!)

Dodge Scoot w/ Morphing License Plate and Spoof Chip

Urban Explorer Armor w/ Helmet, Chem 3, Fire Res 6 (6/8)
Full Formfitting Body Armor Suit w/ Nonconductivity 5, Insulation 4 (+6/+2)
Ballistic Shield (+6/+4) w/ 5x Rating 4 License for 5 SINs
----------------------------------
Total (18/14 Armor, +3 from Shell Spell, 21/17, +2 Dice resist damage from Bear Spirit)

Sustaining Focus F5 (Bound) Orichalcum Circlet w/ 3x Rating 4 License for 3 SINs
Sustaining Focus F5 (Bound) Orichalcum and Gold Bracer (Holly and Ivy design) 3x Rating 4 License for 3 SINs
Sustaining Focus F3 (Bound) Stone Medallion w/ Orichalcum Sickle/Moon design inset 3x Rating 4 License for 3 SINs

FAKE SINS (Licenses are for all SINs except Hopson and Krueger)
Jon Hopson (my 'bein legal' SIN, used for apartment, doc wagon, etc) 3
Thom Krueger (backup 'Bein Legal' SIN, incase something happens to Jon.) 3
Sholz Gzot'mir 3
Pete Ross 2
Molly Gump 2



Sim Module
Skinlink
Subvocal mic
Nanopaste Trodes
Emotitoy (Minidrone) 5 (Flint - the miniature gargoyle!)
Contact Lenses w/ Flarecomp and Imagelink
Handheld Scanner - Geiger-Counter, Camera, Motion Sensor
Magical Lodge F6
Datachips x10
Inline Skates

Docwagon Contract - Basic (1yr)

Contact Conn/Loy
Magathwyn (Sensei) 3/5
Allistair (Fixer) 3/2

Berserker Drawback (Bear Spirit)


This character trumps up and sustains Shell, Intuition, and Willpower at three on sustaining focuses, giving him a Drain Resistance pool of 16. Then casts, and possibly recasts, his personal range Enhance Initiative spell to raise his Initiative Passes to the threshold of 4. That spell remains sustained. With a spell-casting pool of ten, a soak pool of 30 ballistic, and the ability to turn invisible (lowering his spellcasting to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) he never makes a dodge roll of any kind, but can usually KO a target in one hit with an overcast Force 9 Stunbolt, and then soak the paltry 3 Drain without flinching. He mops up at the end with his parners capping unconcious trolls, or by Powerbolting them himself. By the end of the fight, he can supe up his own First Aid to take care of a couple drain, heal a couple physical damage on himself and his compatriots, then lays on a Resist Pain spell to deal with whatever wound penalties remain. They're ready for the next fight, with him often in the lead. Heaven help anyone who holds a visible grenade on a web-belt, etc, against his magic fingers spell...

Advancement: Quickly raising edge, agility, and unarmed combat, his next new spell becomes 'Decrease Intuition'. He picks up a small amount of Perception to capitalize on his fantastic intuition, and then begins the storyline advancement of his Spiritual Awakening. With each level of Conjuring/Banishing/Binding/Astral Combat he picks up a rating of Initiation, eventually specializing in Beast Spirits and becoming 'the total package'. Having gone into debt to purchase black market stolen Sustaining Foci from his own tradition, he has a lot to learn about people, the natural world he supposedly is charged to protect, and the two-faced dealings of corporate and underworld figures he has embroiled himself with.

Notes: Raise body, or pick up another Sustain Foci and the Increase Body spell, and get Combat Armor ASAP. Make sure it's fire resistant. Fire spirits no likey druid.

[Drogos]

Couple of quick notes:

-Your increase spells must be cast at a Force equal to or greater than the attribute they are increasing (In your case, Force 5). So your sustaining foci are no benefit to you there.

-Edge is supremely useful, especially for a caster. You may want to consider an increase.

-I tend to dislike Aptitude and in this build especially so. For the extra 1 die you get, it's far more worthwhile that you take those 14 BP and sink them into your lacking Counterspelling skill.

-You sunk a major amount of Nuyen in Fakes. Does your group go through like 2 a mission or something? Use the couple of BP from trimming down to 3 SINs for just about anything else.

[JFixer]

Ah, see I missed that. Looks like I need to possibly shift Aptitude to be two goes at Restricted gear, and pick up the F5 Sustaining Foci for the idea. That should eat up the BP for the SINs too.

EDIT: Ah... does that mean I can push those attributes to the full 9 as well, since it's a F5 spell?

[Drogos]

Yep, as long as you get the hits.

[JFixer]

Okay, edited the build.

Dropped the mage-sight goggles, raised the debt, dropped the aptitude, pulled up the counterspelling a little, dropped the (unused basically) strength in favor of another edge. Two restricted gear focus 5 (full rating!), bound them, and makes a bit more sense for the debt. Got rid of a lot of fake licenses. (less SINs, one less bit of restricted gear.)

The number of Fake SINs was because the character really has no other way to get them... so if I'm going to be going through them at 1/2 runs, I need to have them in advance, or rely on favors from friends.

This mage IS a KO tank, tagging people with Stunbolt at uber-high levels, soaking the drain, and shooting them 4-8 times per turn.

[InfinityzeN]

I really don't like this character build. He has no social skills, no driving skills (are you planning on letting the auto pilot handle that Dodge Scoot all the time?), no weapon skills, no physical skills, no stealth skills, etc. A character that is basicly a highly focused one trick pony is kewl if your game is slanted that way, but seriously restricts the usefulness or ability to function of the character away from their choosen specialty.

Also, with the toy... I would double check how the GM is handling them (going by RAW or using HR) and if he is going by RAW, spend the $100 more to get a rating 6 one. If you don't ask him though, don't be surprised by whatever reaction you get from him when you pull it out.

*Edit*
Also, your Fixer contact should be able to get you new fake SIN (or at least connect you with people who can get you one for a small fee...)

[JFixer]

The EmoToy is a pet. It is not intended to be used for dice bonuses in /any/ way. I just want a little gargoyle that crawls around on me and leers at people.

He has plenty of social skills. He has the same social skills as /everyone else/. Remember, 0 rating just means that you don't have any special training in it. He's a religious icon and a pious adherant to a newly resurfacing animist religion. If you check out the builds in the book, you'll see that the only common social skill is Etiquette and several of them don't even have that. And yes. I intend to fall off the Dodge Scoot several times during his career.

Weapon Skills = Stunbolt and Powerbolt
Infiltration/Stealth Skills = Invisibility
Magic Fingers = allows manipulation of objects behind glass, far away, and out of reach. From invisibility. Four times a round.
Heal = Settles him nicely in the position of party medic, as well as the primary guy with the gun.

My becca is talking about putting together a magicians group, and setting up an astral/infiltration specialist, and a summoner/face to go with him. Three runners, full team, all magic.

He's a little dense and surly when it comes to social interactions, sure, but he's an /orc/...

[InfinityzeN]

That works if it is what you want. Just sometimes you can't use magic. And when you can't use magic, the character really can't do anything else.
I should have said that there is nothing wrong with the build per say, it is just something that would tweak off my min/max alert in my game.

As for the toy, your use works good then. And looking at it, I see you have it listed as the minidrone version rather than the non-mobile. Going to give him a name and personality?

[JFixer]

His name is Flint, and he is a gruff, bouncy little creature that likes to posture and leer. He makes unintimidating little 'Rar!' noises.

[Ryu]

You are aware that each Sustaining Focus is attuned to one spell category at the time of binding it? (I assume that you are, but better safe than sorry.)


- I would say that Body 7 and Willpower 5 are not really needed. Body 6/Willpower 3/ Edge 5 would offer more utility.

- Your social pools are mostly at 1. Mechanically undesireable to use.

- You might underestimate the effect of needing three complex actions to power up for combat, and that of flagging "I am the mage" until you have advanced masking and initiate degree 5.

- If you keep the body of 7, the Shell spell offers little bang for the buck (I assume it goes into the F3 sustaining focus.) I would also drop the sustaining focus slated for Increase Willpower, as your battle plan does not require that many dice for drain resistance (Looking at around 14 dice without).

- Stunbolt is good, for it has little drain and is hard to resist without spell defense. On the other hand it leaves terribly strong signatures, causes physical drain (overcasting), and can be negated completely. Your effective combat spellcasting pool won´t be 13 (visual mods, wounds, background count), and counterspelling can help against what is left. I would include an alternative to the `bolt spells.

[JFixer]

I had originally intended to use the Sustaining Focus for only one spell each anyhow, which was the Increase Attribute spells. And yes, Shell on the lower end focus. You think I should drop the WP for Influence SG 1? I want the character to have significant resilience, because toting that much armor, he's got /nothing/ to defend with. I could, concievably, lower the intuition as well, and simply rely on the F5 increase spells to give me the drain resistance I'm looking for... but I intend to overcast with him alot. A Force Nine stunbolt will take out anything living, and Powerbolt takes care of the rest, including killing the stunbolted guys if I have to.

30 ballistic soak is my only defense. This character doesn't get a single die to dodge with. (Sustained spells remove all hope of a dodge pool) Anything I cut out of that means he's mince if he gets tagged. It doesn't take an uber-build to go (HvP + Called Shot 4dmg =16dmg, 2x/Rnd), and XX rounds make it 17/-2ap, leaving me with 28 dice to soak 17 damage, which isn't good odds. Odds are on 10 Hits with thirty dice.

Should he be carrying a shotgun loaded with Rock Salt and waving it menacingly while powerbolting people? Remember the body keeps me from going into negatives from the armor penalties.

Spellcasting pool isn't going to be 13 anyway, more like 10, or 8. Sustained Reflexes spell drops from 11/13 to 9/11, sustained Invisibility drops from 9/11 to 7/9... Nine dice on an overcast stunbolt will /still/ take out your average sam/troll anyway, and so will six... or five... even from penalties. Three successes is quite sufficient, and one is often enough.

What I really need is a spell that makes you immune to stun damage in the same vein as a Pain Editor. With his armor values, all he ever takes is stun...