Charecter Advice Infiltrator Options

[jmeis982]

I'm running an infiltrator in a somewhat large group game and am looking for some advice on how to improve my character.

Here is the Build:

Race: Elf
Agility: 5(7)
Body: 3
Reaction: 5(7)
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 4
Logic:4
Willpower:3
Edge:3
Essence: 2.1

Qualities:
Blandness
Murkylink
Incompetent:First Aid
Sinner
Prejudiced (Mages, Outspoken)
Records on Hand - Mitsuhama

Fake Sin (4)

Skills:
Athletics Group 3
Close Combat Group 3
Electronics Group 2
Cracking Group 3
Stealth 3
Automatics 2
Etiquette 2
Perception 2
Pilot Ground Craft 1
Pistols 1

Knowledge Skills:
Corporate Politics 3
Finances 2
Fine Cuisine 3
Modern Theatre 2
Safe Houses 2
Security Systems

Languanges:
Sperethiel (N)
English 3
French 2
Spanish 2
German 2

Cyberware:
Reaction Enhancer (2)
Wired Reflexes (1)
Math SPU
Muscle Augmentation (1)
Muscle Toner (2)
Cybereyes (3) - Flare Comp, Smartlink, Thermograph, Vision Mag
Obvious Lower Arm - Custom Agile (4), Agility Enhancement (3), Datajack, Biomonitor, Ceramic Cyberspur

Commlink
Hermes Ikon w/ Novitech Navi
Response 4 Signal 3 Firewall 3(5) System 4
Analyze 3
Browse 4
Command 4
Edit 4
Encrypt 3
Scan 4
Armor 4
Attack 2
Biofeedback Filter 3
Black Hammer 2
Decrypt 2
Defuse 2
Exploit 3
Medic 3
Spoof 2
Stealth 3
Track 4
Purge 4

I currently have 13 Kharma and approx. 20000 Nuyen to spend. The rest of the group consists of a Rigger/Hacker, a mage, a face, a weapon specialist, and a face. I'm mainly looking to become more perceptive. His background is he's a shadowrunner that moonlights as a bit actor. He is the party infiltrator, and I'm looking to make him better.

**edit**
Strength 2(3)

He's an established character, when the group started out he was the group hacker, hence why so many points were put into his hacking skills. For other Gear I line up with the Template in the corebook, though I also have an natima optima AR, a Car w/ smuggling compartment

[Summerstorm]

Hm... what i love for an infiltrator is an internal radar system. I enables you to look through walls, find perfectly where guards are and where they face. Also it pretty much lets you see with very few dice substracted, even in complete darkness. The level 4 system (Lets you look through barriers with 20 structure...) just costs 0.3 essence, 12k NY. An "Attention Co-processor" is cool too, though. Both Augmentation page 36)

Also you could try to get the quality "Perceptive" (+2 to ALL perception tests) it is just 10 karma, i think (If your GM likes you).

Or you can get the genetreatments for intuition- based skills... but they are expensive, and the cheap one makes you prone to distraction.

Edit: Oh and you could upgrade your eyes. Vision Enhancement is always nice (and cheap). And care to rip out your ears, too?

[Machiavelli]

Fake SIN (4) doesn´t work on character creation if i remember correctly. But it would be possible that they changed it in an errata or the new version...in this case, simply ignore my comment. I would ask the GM if you can split up the Stealth-skill-group during CC, and raise "infiltration" a little bit. 3 seems a little bit low for me, but i am a PG, so you can ignore this comment, too, if you are not one of us.^^

[StealthSigma]

Depending on how you plan on infiltrating, the 3 ranks in the Stealth skill group could be a significant waste of BP.

If you are being infiltrating a location where being seen is a bad thing, then all 2 to 3 of the skills in the group are worthless. Palming and Disguise are totally pointless, and Shadowing is questionable. What's the point of concealing an object if the point is for your person to not be seen? You likely won't be using all 4 skills regularly, just infiltration, maybe shadowing. I'd recommend dropping stealth group to 1, then taking the 20 BP and spending it on 3 ranks in infiltration, with a specialization and having 6BP left over to use elsewhere.

If you are infiltrating something while under observation, then palming definitely becomes useful, and disguise and shadowing are questionable.

[DuctShuiTengu]

Your character's Strength seems to be missing. There's also no mention of gear outside of your cyberware and commlink (and programs). Some of what I'm going to suggest may be rendered moot by those things. Also, without knowing whether this is a game in progress or a new character being made, some of these suggestions may not be feasible.

1) If you don't have it already, I strongly recommend getting armor with a Ruthenium Polymer Coating (the Chameleon Suit from the core book has one built in) and Thermal Damping. Skill alone is no substitute for skill and gear.

2) You seem to be putting a lot into being able to work as a hacker as well as the infiltration specialist. With the group already having a hacker, this is likely not needed, though if it's a direction you want to go and it's not hamstringing your character's ability to keep up, go for it. For my covert-ops adept, I went with the hacker-on-a-chip - a decently high-rating agent with the appropriate programs to be able to get access to a system without setting off alarms (Exploit and Stealth are the main ones needed here). Going this route would allow you to take the points from the cracking group (and potentially a lot of the programs you're currently carrying) and use them in other areas.

3) Again, if you prefer the flavor of cybereyes, stick with it (my hacker uses them), but you're better off going with glasses and contacts. A pair of contacts with Flare Comp, image link and Smartlink, with a set of glasses (or goggles if you want to be extra certain of them not falling off) loaded with thermographic vision, vision enhancement, and vision mag (total cost: 1375 with goggles, 1300 with the glasses) gets you everything your cybereyes have and more for significantly lower cost (and no loss of Essence).

4) Get something with Ultrasound and run it in passive mode. So far, ultrasound and already knowing it's there seem to be the only way to detect motion sensors.

5) While I like it a great deal (there's something to be said for the ability to kill your opponent with whatever you lay your hands upon), the close combat group isn't really cost-effective; too little difference in what can be done with the three skills.

6) Earbuds (or headphones if you prefer) make a quick and easy way to improve sound-based perception tests.

[ZeroPoint]

5) While I like it a great deal (there's something to be said for the ability to kill your opponent with whatever you lay your hands upon), the close combat group isn't really cost-effective; too little difference in what can be done with the three skills.

This. While its nice in concept, most characters don't ever see themselves carrying a club weapon, blade weapon in addition to being deadly unarmed. I would consider splitting it up. If you want all three, pick one that will be your main. and put 1 rank and a specializtion in the others, or plan on picking up a specialization during play. for example, you could get:
blades 3 [knives] (for concealability, or swords if you want pure damage)
clubs 1 [batons](for a handy stun baton)
and unarmed 1 [martial arts]
for a grand total of 26 BP, leaving you 4 BP extra and with respective skills at roughly the same dice pools, and better with your selected weapon.

just an example of course but something to think about...if you havn't already started that is

Its a little more complicated, its a more effective use of BP, and its also a little more realistic I think. Most people in martial arts training will learn how to be effective with each weapon, but will be better at one particular thing.

[Mr. Unpronouncea...]

Fake SIN (4) doesn´t work on character creation if i remember correctly. But it would be possible that they changed it in an errata or the new version...in this case, simply ignore my comment.

That's an old errata - the availablity should be rating x 3, not rating x 4 (as was listed in the original printings & pdfs.)