Chaos Mage, Just wanted to make sure bases get covered Options

[Regiment]

Not asking for a build or anything...

Just was hoping to get a list of a few things not to forget when making this character, or a few tips and tricks to make it fly better, since it's a bit spread out.

Here's the thought:

Chaos mage type.
Reading in Street Magic, I kinda dug on the whole technophile mage concept. Has a thing for gadgets, loves AR, even some basic hacking-as-a-hobby and matrix skills. But, overall, is a well rounded mage for the group focusing on combat, and even subscribing to The Outpost or MET2000 SubContractor Node for training and virtual combat to get tips from the pros and keep an edge.
So what would be some of the better options for this character starting out?
What would some of the better tricks known by you pro's be?
More importantly, what would be essential and not able to be left-out or forgotten?

Thanks in advance, I look forward to it all.

[knasser]

Hmmmm. So much depends on what you personally want to achieve. It also depends a little on the nature of the game. In my games (and I think most people's), you certainly need to be able to manage at least some social graces (read: etqiuette). And Perception is vital for all characters.

Mage specific though: decide early on if you're going to go cyber or not. It costs you that point of Essence and thus Magic, but you can get a lot for it and a Chaos mage may have less issue with the idea than a Shaman. For example: cybereyes. As a human you don't have natural low-light or thermographic. Goggles wont substitute because they can't be used for spellcasting. Paid for with Essence cybereyes, however, can. You could squeeze some Orthoskin in there too, but that's a lot of cred. Some people liked Skillwires but the cost has gone through the roof post-errata.

In terms of Conjuring, Binding and Spellcasting, these can eat up the points. Don't feel obliged to max things out, but do pick up specialisations for each of them. For Chaos Magicians, all of the spirits are similar(ish) i.e. you don't have Guardian or Task spirits, so pick whichever suits your fancy. But Fire spirits can be pretty offensive and Spirits of Man have a lot of utility. If you think you'll be relying on spirits a lot, grab a spirit focus. Be warned in advance that Binding spirits all the time can eat into your profits a lot. It is probably also worth picking up a specialisation in Counterspelling (Combat Spells) as well. Magicians bleed BP, so look for every good bargain you can get. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

On the subject of foci, (a) check if your GM cares about Focus addiction (b) decide how important stealth is to you because until you get to your second initiation and (assuming you decided to), you have spent TWO of your precious metamagics on Masking and Extended Masking, then you'll shine like a Christmas tree on the Astral with multiple Foci.

Spell selection. Manaball is the first thing anyone turns to when they want to show Magic rules are broken, so that probably means you should get it. Get an Indirect Combat spell for emergencies. As that most often means drones, get an Electricity based one. Drain is a killer but it's effective. Also the secondary effects are useful against Counterspelling enemy magicians that you can't get through to with Direct Combat spells.

Really, your spell selection is going to be something that depends massively on what you want to achieve. I prefer Deflection to Armour though. And you're going to want some way of getting more IP. With lots of money you could get Synaptic Boosters (ouch!) Or you could get a sustaining focus for half the price and have the possibility of more IP. I'd prefer the latter myself, though there are disadvantages. Improved Invisibility and Levitate are very useful and fun. Mask and Trid Mask are also great for inventive players.

If you have gone the cyber route and you're wondering what else you can spend the rest of that 1 point essence hole on after you got the cybereyes, other options are: Platelet factories (good for overcasting) and the rather good Damage Compensator for when the dice don't love you on your drain test.

It's such a big area, but I hope the above is useful.

K.

[Neraph]

My greatest suggestions for cybering a mage is starting with a R4 (5 with restricted gear) Alpha-Grade Skillwire set. Costs 0.64 Essence. And now you can get Personalized, R3 Pluscode skillsofts, running in a cluster (which will help reduce the cost).

Another idea I had kicking around was a cyber-forearm that was a Power Focus, with spurs inside it that were a Weapon Focus.

EDIT:

Magicians bleed BP, so look for every good bargain you can get.

That was exactly my thinking when I did the skillwires build. And what's interesting is that (technically) if you Skill-Cluster two skills that run at rating 1 (two level 1 skills, or two skills of a higher rating that, due to Pluscoding, run as level 1), they effectively run at 0 capacity.

It's kind of expensive, but you can get 330,000 nY on a chargen character (50 BP cash, 10 BP Born Rich, 10 BP cash, -30 BP In Debt), which will help you start with 8-ish r4 Skillsofts (r3 Pluscoded, Personalized).

[Larme]

Just be aware that under the current errata, activesofts cost rating x 10k, not 3k. Neraph prolly knows that, what with suggesting 330k resources, but a lot of people are still using the old book and haven't downloaded (or thoroughly perused) the errata. But yeah, if you really throw your yen into it, you can still make a pretty diverse character using skillwires. And mages might be a good candidate for that, because almost all of their power is from spending BP. They can get foci that help a lot, but a mage can get by without foci.

[Shinobi Killfist]

If I wanted to throw the big dice(and it was allowed) out of the gate for magic I'd probably take restricted gear power focus 4. Total cost is 29 BPs and you get 4 dice for all your magic attribute related tests.

5 magic, 5 spellcasting, 5 summoning =14 dice at the two main things you do, toss spells and summon spirits.

But for things I don't want to forget spellcasting, counterspelling, summoning all 4+. The heal spell, an attack spell, levitate. Perception, assensing, and etiquette.

Things I'm willing to forget.
Ritual magic, I like the flavor but I never use it and rarely useful.
Banishing: just stunbolt the spirit its easier.
Binding: This one is a bit more useful, but it costs a lot of nuyen to bind a spirit and any spirit at a useful force can be brutal on the drain resistance. I'd rather summon a force 6 spirit on the fly than bind a force 4 spirit in advance. And a force 4 spirit is almost painfully easy to summon on the fly, so why bind and waste 2,000 nuyen and ave 6 drain. I still usually take it, but I'm not that bothered about getting it to a good skill level. If I can fit it in sure, but otherwise nope.
Astral Combat: I totally dig the flavor, but again just stun bolt the thing.

[Larme]

If I wanted to throw the big dice(and it was allowed) out of the gate for magic I'd probably take restricted gear power focus 4. Total cost is 29 BPs and you get 4 dice for all your magic attribute related tests.

5 magic, 5 spellcasting, 5 summoning =14 dice at the two main things you do, toss spells and summon spirits.

But for things I don't want to forget spellcasting, counterspelling, summoning all 4+. The heal spell, an attack spell, levitate. Perception, assensing, and etiquette.

Things I'm willing to forget.
Ritual magic, I like the flavor but I never use it and rarely useful.
Banishing: just stunbolt the spirit its easier.
Binding: This one is a bit more useful, but it costs a lot of nuyen to bind a spirit and any spirit at a useful force can be brutal on the drain resistance. I'd rather summon a force 6 spirit on the fly than bind a force 4 spirit in advance. And a force 4 spirit is almost painfully easy to summon on the fly, so why bind and waste 2,000 nuyen and ave 6 drain. I still usually take it, but I'm not that bothered about getting it to a good skill level. If I can fit it in sure, but otherwise nope.
Astral Combat: I totally dig the flavor, but again just stun bolt the thing.

Don't leave out specializations and mentor bonuses in your dice pool calculations, those are some of the most important and cheapest ones. So figure out which school and which spirits you like the most, and then choose specializations and mentors accordingly. Spellcasting (combat) and a mentor with +2 to combat spells could net you 18 dice with the setup you just proposed...

But it's equally important not to forget about drain attributes. It is drain, not the casting/summoning pool, that is the primary limit on a mage's power. After all, when pulling up a spirit, they only roll Force against your Attribute + Skill. You pretty much never fail to summon a spirit, even when overcasting. The concern is, does it knock you out or kill you with a lucky roll? Since you're a Logic tradition, it's almost obligatory to grab Cerebral Booster II. And while you're at it, some cybereyes and a trauma damper. Having 4 Magic instead of 5 barely matters compared to the additional drain soaking, and the ability to cut through vision penalties.

Banishing shouldn't be left behind IMO. The thing is, once you're talking about a force 8 spirit or greater, they start to outclass you in magic. A force 10 would be practically impossible to cast on, but not terribly difficult to banish, since if it's unbound it only resists banishing with 10 dice.

Binding, I think, is overrated. Mages need a lot of money for such things as foci. Once you start to initiate, foci become all the more critical -- a centering focus is the holy grail of drain resistance, and a shielding focus is sweetness incarnate. If you spend all your money on bound spirits, you're basically buying bombs that cost thousands of nuyen. Yeah you can drop them and devastate the enemies, but they're not that efficient because they cost so much. It's better to let the streetsam go nuts on them and spend some nice cheap bullets, or throw spells, or an unbound spirit. Even if your unbound spirit dies, you can just toss in another one. Don't get me wrong, binding is nice to have, but more I think because of the special bound spirit services than for use as a general combat tool.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Don't leave out specializations and mentor bonuses in your dice pool calculations, those are some of the most important and cheapest ones. So figure out which school and which spirits you like the most, and then choose specializations and mentors accordingly. Spellcasting (combat) and a mentor with +2 to combat spells could net you 18 dice with the setup you just proposed...

But it's equally important not to forget about drain attributes. It is drain, not the casting/summoning pool, that is the primary limit on a mage's power. After all, when pulling up a spirit, they only roll Force against your Attribute + Skill. You pretty much never fail to summon a spirit, even when overcasting. The concern is, does it knock you out or kill you with a lucky roll? Since you're a Logic tradition, it's almost obligatory to grab Cerebral Booster II. And while you're at it, some cybereyes and a trauma damper. Having 4 Magic instead of 5 barely matters compared to the additional drain soaking, and the ability to cut through vision penalties.

Banishing shouldn't be left behind IMO. The thing is, once you're talking about a force 8 spirit or greater, they start to outclass you in magic. A force 10 would be practically impossible to cast on, but not terribly difficult to banish, since if it's unbound it only resists banishing with 10 dice.

Mentor spirits are good and if they fit your character concept take one. I like to specialize in game not a char gen, its a personal preference, but it feels right to me.

And yes, drain attributes are very important. I'd say the minimum is 10 dice for a starting mage.

At the high level of spirit yeah banishing may pan out a bit more effective, but that much potential drain on the fly isn't something I like to gamble with unless my other options are out the window. That and I'm cursed when rolling against spirits. My GM routinely rolls 4 successes on a force 5 spirit when I'm summoning. I'd hate to see what he'd roll if I tried to banish a force 10 spirit. He frequently critically fails when rolling for sprites though, so I should become a TM.

[knasser]

If you come up against a Force 10 spirit, you'll probably find that Social skills are a better chance than Banishing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) The joke amongst my players is that "Begging for Mercy" is a valid specialisation of Negotiation and that "Away" is a valid specialisation of the Running skill. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

There's a Force 9 in one of the published adventures and It. Is. Scary.

K.

[Shinobi Killfist]

If you come up against a Force 10 spirit, you'll probably find that Social skills are a better chance than Banishing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) The joke amongst my players is that "Begging for Mercy" is a valid specialisation of Negotiation and that "Away" is a valid specialisation of the Running skill. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

There's a Force 9 in one of the published adventures and It. Is. Scary.

K.

Depends on what you are packing. If your shooter is really good stick and shock can handle force 9. You are probably rolling against 11 dice on the dodge. That isn't easy to overcome with stick and shock but 4 net successes would do it. A long burst to increase damage and the spirit wont be reducing it down to a 2 or 3 damage. I actually like the single shot taser sometimes since its base electric DV is 8. If the spirit is not backed up by a mage and counterspelling stun bolt is still a viable option. Force 10 stunbolt and 3 net successes and it goes poof. 3 net is a bit hard to come by when rolling against 9 dice and even harder when rolling against 9 dice +counterspelling, so yeah its not a instant win so banishing comes into play since chances are it only has 1 or two services to get rid of. I wish weapon focuses were an answer but when you are going against 11 reaction + 9 for its skill means you have to be absurdly good to just hit.

I'm not really cheesing it to hard and my Sam in my sunday game rolls 15-16 dice for firearms/heavy weapons. So far I have been able to handle force 8 spirits with relative ease, and force 9 when I'm packing heavy weapons. If I had been tweaking my character instead of broadening his scope, I'd probably be rolling 20 dice Now if I get jumped by the spirit I'm SOL since I'm running in fear for the rest of the fight.

So to sum up for this thread as a mage how I look at it is.
For spirit combat
No to astral combat
no to a weapon focus
Yes to stun bolt
A potential yes to banishing on the high end of spirits.

[knasser]

I've ruled that Stick N' Shock doesn't have any effect on spirits normally. It makes no sense to have something without a nervous system affected by electrical stun weapons.

[Shinobi Killfist]

I've ruled that Stick N' Shock doesn't have any effect on spirits normally. It makes no sense to have something without a nervous system affected by electrical stun weapons.

I just look at it as elemental damage, and spirits aren't immune to that. I can see the logic, but spirits are already absurdly powerful IMO, so I see no need to help them out further. But in that case, I'd just have to go into my truck and pull out the really heavy weapons. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

[knasser]

I just look at it as elemental damage, and spirits aren't immune to that. I can see the logic, but spirits are already absurdly powerful IMO, so I see no need to help them out further. But in that case, I'd just have to go into my truck and pull out the really heavy weapons. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

Well then that's a good thing. Because players love few things more than something they can really unload full auto fire from an MMG, or use rockets on and really do some damage as opposed to just killing someone and wasting five boxes of overkill. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The thing with Stick N' Shock is that it isn't "Elemental Damage" as you get from Indirect Combat spells, etc. It's a separate effect based on the human nervous system. The same lack of considering this would also lead to Fire Elementals burning to death, sea spirits drowning and inhabited Stone Golems being choked. I just see Stick N' Shock as a bit of an unintended loop-hole and don't want a world where everyone just goes: "oh it's a spirit - let's tazer it." Anyway, I think there was a big thread on this recently which I missed, so no sense in re-opening it here if so.

Good catch on the Cerebral Boosters.

K.

[Ryu]

Binding, I think, is overrated. Mages need a lot of money for such things as foci. Once you start to initiate, foci become all the more critical -- a centering focus is the holy grail of drain resistance, and a shielding focus is sweetness incarnate. If you spend all your money on bound spirits, you're basically buying bombs that cost thousands of nuyen. Yeah you can drop them and devastate the enemies, but they're not that efficient because they cost so much. It's better to let the streetsam go nuts on them and spend some nice cheap bullets, or throw spells, or an unbound spirit. Even if your unbound spirit dies, you can just toss in another one. Don't get me wrong, binding is nice to have, but more I think because of the special bound spirit services than for use as a general combat tool.

Binding is there to put a bunch of different good cards up your sleves. Summoning is much more important - one spirit at a time is usually enough, and if your character is build to take a bit of drain, force 3-5 services are almost free. Even if you discard several unneeded services summoning a different spirit.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Binding is there to put a bunch of different good cards up your sleves. Summoning is much more important - one spirit at a time is usually enough, and if your character is build to take a bit of drain, force 3-5 services are almost free. Even if you discard several unneeded services summoning a different spirit.

Its just a stuipdly expensive card up your sleeve.

[Regiment]

Thanks for all the good info...

What about the techie side? what skills should be taken there, and what's the minimums to not be worthless?

Also, is there any other enhancements that reduce drain or give a magical boost?

Eventually, I'd like to go ahead and make the character more broad spectrum, and include initiation, astral stuff, etc.

As well, the outlook of doing something like modifying his AR view to draw mystical patterns in his vision or something for casting/summoning/ritual... if this were enhanced to actually draw in AR around him (ie. his own personal nodespace or his home). Would this have any weird impacts? or any strange skills have to be taken to make it happen?

Bah, this may be a neat idea, but don't know if it'll pan out lol... just too much weird crap involved.

heh, thoughts?

[Shinobi Killfist]

I am not to up to date on the matrix side of things. But as a hacking hobbyist, I'd just take the Cracking and electronics groups at 1 and rely upon gear. Being a mage is expensive so I would not want to put too much into a side project. Heck I'd be tempted to go hacking, computer, and data search at 1 and default the rest. You aren't a hacker, you are a mage who dips into hacking as a hobby.

[Neraph]

Thanks for all the good info...

What about the techie side? what skills should be taken there, and what's the minimums to not be worthless?

Off of Skillwires, I would suggest only taking Magic active skills (Conjuring, Sorcery, Assensing...), and relying on the 'wire for everything else. And I would suggest r4 Skillsofts (r3 Pluscoded, Personalized) (46,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) /per, 36,800 after mail-in rebate [Skill-Clustered]) in Perception, Automatics (covers Machine Pistols [close range], SMGs [medium], and Assault Rifles [long range]), Dodge, Close-Combat skill of your choice (unarmed is good; it can't be stolen from you), and maybe one other skill.

Since you've already reduced your Essence 0.64 (r4 [IIRC] Alpha-wires), you can fit some more things in there as well. I'd suggest Trauma Damper + Platelet Factories (helps with drain, and getting shot), and they'd only add another 0.20 Essence drain (only counting 1/2 the cost as bio will be less). And a datajack.

Effectively, you'll be looking at all your magic-active skills at 4, Spellcasting at either 5 or 6, and another skill (summoning?) at 5 (if spellcasting not at 6). And then you'll have Perception, Automatics, Dodge, CQC Skill, and maybe something else (negotiation, infiltration, shadowing...) running at 5 (4 skill +1 Personalized). A really strong character, out of the box, with only one way to go: up.

You'll also be able to use all that karma for only raising Magic-related things and stats, and you can use all that pesky cash you'll be getting on 'softs, instead of just growing a nest-egg like all other mages.

Another idea is to buy a TacNet and have some MCT FlySpies running it over an encrypted signal so you get those neat bonuses.

[knasser]

As well, the outlook of doing something like modifying his AR view to draw mystical patterns in his vision or something for casting/summoning/ritual... if this were enhanced to actually draw in AR around him (ie. his own personal nodespace or his home). Would this have any weird impacts? or any strange skills have to be taken to make it happen?

That's great flavour text. I really like it and am getting a feel for how you see your character now. Possibly look into Geasa in Street Magic. They're usually quite awful for PCs, but maybe you could work out one based around your technology or AR. That would be interesting and flavourful.

K.

[Ryu]

Its just a stuipdly expensive card up your sleeve.

That entirely depends on your campaigns payout - I wouldn´t agree for our table. Occasionally investing 3k¥ into high-quality backup that is available everywhere and anytime is worth it. There is also stuff that you NEED a bound spirit for. The services you gain last quite a bit longer if you use summoned spirits whenever summoning is not an issue, and one spirit is enough.

[Regiment]

Heh, you guys are badass...

Makes me wish the Type O quality was cheaper (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

So here's the augmentation list I should be choosing from, right?
(granting that GM will prolly let me avoid starting restrictions because the others have been playing a while)

Cyber Forearm (obvious) w/Cyberspurs, Large Smuggling Compartment(Geared to hold commlinks mostly so that it's implanted, but they are removable/changeable, -and because I didn't know what else to put in it- Radio Signal Scanner 6 and a Tag Eraser (figured both would be a [1] capacity)
Essence: 0.45; cost: 17,100; (more if I turn them into focuses)

*Eyes rating 4 with all the goodies
Essence .5; Cost: 10,850; cap left: 3 (can tone this down I'm sure, but just looking at the extreme options)

Ears rating 3 with goodies
Essence: 0.4; cost: 7300

*Skillwires (rating and costs depending on what essence is available and still end up losing only 2 points)

*Skillwire expert system
Ess: 0.1; cost: 3000

And maybe a Datajack w/skinlink if it needs rounding off
Ess: 0.1; cost: 550


For Bioware:

*Trauma Damper Ess: 0.2 Cost:40,000
*Cerebral Booster (1-3) Ess: Rat x 0.2 Cost:10,000 x Rat
Synaptic Booster (1-3) Ess: Rat x 0.5 Cost:80,000 x Rat
*Platelet Factories Ess: 0.2 Cost:25,000
Sleep Regulator Ess: 0.15 Cost:10,000
*Orthoskin Ess: Rat x 0.25 Cost:30,000 x Rat
Pain Editor Ess: 0.3 Cost:40,000


Ok... so that's way too much stuff... and previous post list the * as priorities.

That about sum it up?

What level on the booster and skillwires minimum and target to shoot for?

[KCKitsune]

If you have a cyberlimb get an auto-injector. It cost NO capacity and if your GM allows it you can put wonderful things like a Trauma patch and Saviour Nanites (suspended in liquid) in the limb.

As for what level Synaptic Booster; level 1 for starters and if you can upgrade to level 2 later on... if you can get access to Delta grade 'ware.

[Mäx]

Heh, you guys are badass...

Makes me wish the Type O quality was cheaper (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

So here's the augmentation list I should be choosing from, right?
(granting that GM will prolly let me avoid starting restrictions because the others have been playing a while)

From that list i would propably co with these

Eyes rating 4 with all the goodies
Ears rating 3 with goodies
Cerebral Booster 3
Synaptic Booster 1
Platelet Factories

[KCKitsune]

IMO, some of these are nice, but too overblown...

Eyes rating 4 with all the goodies... you can get away with level 2

Ears rating 3 with goodies... Level 1 is all you really need. Everything else can be done with micro-sensors

Cerebral Booster 3... not bad, but expensive Essence-wise.

Synaptic Booster 1... perfect

Platelet Factories... go with the Trauma Dampener. It removes one box of physical damage and eliminates 1 box of stun damage.

-----------------------------------

Now if you want to go 2 points into your Essence then the above are fine, but you only want to blow one point I would recommend the following (all alpha grade):

Cyber-hand w/ Commlink, Datajack, biomonitor, auto-injector with 6 extra does. Now if you can convince your GM to allow bulk modification to be that your cyberhand includes your wrist and maybe a tiny part of the lower arm then you can squeeze in a nano-hive.

Cybereyes with Thermo, lowlight (or vision mag), flare comp, & Vision Enhancement 3

Cyberears with Audio enhancement 3 & Dampener

Trauma Dampener

Synaptic Booster 1

All this costs only 1 point of essence. It will be expensive, but very worth it... IMO.

[Larme]

If you've got a whole team of people who have already been playing, you really don't need skillwires. You only need skillwires if your team is short handed and they need a jack of all trades. And with the cost of activesofts, it really is going to suck up your entire nuyen pool to get a reasonable number of skills. Probably not worth it. KCKitsune has some better suggestions.

-----------------------------------

Now if you want to go 2 points into your Essence then the above are fine, but you only want to blow one point I would recommend the following (all alpha grade):

Cyber-hand w/ Commlink, Datajack, biomonitor, auto-injector with 6 extra does. Now if you can convince your GM to allow bulk modification to be that your cyberhand includes your wrist and maybe a tiny part of the lower arm then you can squeeze in a nano-hive.

I'm not quite sure what good any of these pieces do you. You're spending money, you're not getting much back. Cyberhands with gizmos in them are neat, but not efficient.

Cybereyes with Thermo, lowlight (or vision mag), flare comp, & Vision Enhancement 3

The most efficient setup is lowlight + eye lights, that turns full darkness into partial light, and eliminates all penalties for parital light. Thermo doesn't really help, it's slightly better under one condition, like glare or something, but not by much. Flare comp and vision enhancement are nice. Vision mag is ok, you can take it or leave it, but it's not essential because you're not shooting guns.

Cyberears with Audio enhancement 3 & Dampener

Trauma Dampener

Synaptic Booster 1

All this costs only 1 point of essence. It will be expensive, but very worth it... IMO.

Cyberears are optional, you may wish to skip the hand and the ears and save the essence for something better, like a pain editor some day.

Trauma dampener is of course amazing for a mage.

Synaptic booster is a bad idea though. Expensive and not that worthwhile -- it makes a lot more sense to cast Improved Reflexes at 3, and sustain it with a sustaining focus. That gives you +2 passes instead of +1, and lets you keep that extra essence. You don't have to fill up the whole point of essence just because you can. Making an efficient build is about cutting away everything you don't absolutely need, because every point counts, especially on a mage.

Also, what about Cerebral Booster? You're a Logic tradition, so it's the single best piece of ware you can have.

[Neraph]

Honestly, all you need to start with (and get the most mileage out of) are r4 'wires, Platelet Factories, and Trauma Damper. You can putt around in-game to afford Delta for the rest of it, keeping all your Essence loss within 1 point. The 'wires have the absolute most flexibility, and you can duplicate the rest (minus like Cerebral Booster or a couple other pieces) with other tech (like glasses/contacts and whatnot [drugs as well]).