Technomancer Build Review Options

[Evilref]

New Campaign (which I'll be posting about separately), everyone's new to 4th ed, some have experience of 1st-3rd. One player's set on playing a technomancer, despite me suggesting a hacker might be more well-rounded for his first character (he's never played Srun before). This is also my first experience of having a TM character so I thought I'd throw up what I've helped him develop and see where there might be any holes.

Human: 0BP
Technomancer: 5BP

Body: 3
Agility: 2
Reaction: 2
Strength: 2
Charisma: 5
Intuition: 5
Logic: 5
Willpower: 4

Edge: 3
Resonance: 5
Initiative: 7
Essence: 6

Attributes: 200, Edge: 10, Resonance 40=250 on Attributes

Positive Qualities
Codeslinger
Paragon
Erased
Analytical Mind

Positive: 30


Negative Qualities
Media Junkie (Moderate)
Reality Impaired
Big Regret
Pacifist 1
Vindictive

Negative: 35

Active Skills

Electronics Group: 3
Cracking Group: 3
Compiling : 2
Registering : 4
Dodge : 1
Pistols : 1
Perception : 1
Etiquette : 1

100BP on Skills

Complex forms
Analyze (5)
Browse (4)
Edit (4)
Armor (5)
Attack (4)
ECCM (4)
Exploit (5)
Stealth (5)
Scan (4)
Spoof (4)

Complex Forms: 44 BP

6 BP on Equipment : 30k
(Low Lifestyle, pistol, armour, gridlinked car, contacts, binoculars, vr games, commlink etc)

(10 points of free contacts as a House Rule)

[Jaid]

it's not horrible, but a few things to consider:

in the cracking skill group, you have cybercombat, electronic warfare, and hacking. do you really need to be good at cybercombat and electronic warfare that badly? if not, i'd invest fully in hacking, and rely on other sources for electronic warfare... and hopefully avoid cybercombat as well (with the crazy stealth possible, shouldn't be too hard). if cybercombat can't be avoided, hopefully you've got access to sprites that are as good or better than this in cybercombat. at the very least, i would suggest breaking the skillgroup, and only keeping cybercombat and electronic warfare at lower levels

the extra skill points should go to improving your electronics group skill (but not necessarily the group, see below), hacking, compiling, registering, and maybe one or more of the meatworld skills (i'm a big fan of having decent ability at telling lies, for example). or the CFs. more on that in a bit.

i would also recommend taking a look at the electronics skill group. yeah, you want at least 3 of the 4 at some level, which means you are technically saving karma. sort of. but the real question is, do you even care about hardware? or, do you care about it enough to buy it higher than 1? do you really need the full 3 on data search? i bet you could do fine with 1s in both, if you even take hardware at all. instead, invest specifically in computer, and software (software is *extremely* important for a technomancer). if you're not the greatest in data search, well... i bet you've got a sprite with good data search and browse. or at the very least, you'll be able to thread your browse pretty high.

you haven't mentioned what type of technomancer this is: personally, i'm going to suggest you only keep his fading stat particularly high of the regular attributes. yes, your other mental attributes have uses, but they're also expensive. at the very least, drop something by 1 point, and beef up the CFs to 5s across the board. in the end, your CFs are going to be the thing that costs you the most to improve. crazy as it may sound, if you boost your resonance to 6 at chargen as compared to 5, it only takes something like 7-8 CFs going from 5-6 to *more* than offset the increased BP cost as compared to karma cost. your complex forms are really inexpensive in chargen; they are going to get hideously expensive the second you start getting karma. as i recall, the only thing with a better ratio in terms of BP:karma is binding a power focus. i'm not saying you need 6 resonance or anything... i'm just saying buy them while they're cheap. (note: i am also not saying you shouldn't get resonance 6, by the way... it's much more important for a technomancer than magic is for a magician)

qualities: he's a vindictive pacifist? also, i'm not convinced codeslinger is worth it. +2 to one action? you can buy +1 to an entire skill group for 10 BPs. +1 to almost every action you'll ever make sounds like a much better deal to me.

now then, to the CFs specifically:

1) ditch armor, get shield. (or, if cybercombat is intended to be a focus of the character, just add shield)
2) boost them all as high as they can go, whether that be 5 or 6.
3) you can probably lose scan. i would suggest command instead; it's one of the forms where rating *really* makes a difference. if you could see this guy threading browse every time he wants to do a data search, i could see ditching that too, for something else... possibly black hammer or blackout. psychotropic threading ftw! (in fact, if you do choose to lose the cybercombat skill, i would suggest losing attack; black IC will let you control people's brains, and is therefore useful vs helpless targets. attack hopefully won't be used much. either way, it's up to you)

now then: as might be expected, this is largely advice that may or may not apply to this specific technomancer. it will tend to make for a more powerful technomancer, in my opinion, but since that is not the only goal of roleplaying, it may or may not apply; YMMV.

[Evilref]

Thanks for the exhaustive response

in the cracking skill group, you have cybercombat, electronic warfare, and hacking. do you really need to be good at cybercombat and electronic warfare that badly? if not, i'd invest fully in hacking, and rely on other sources for electronic warfare... and hopefully avoid cybercombat as well (with the crazy stealth possible, shouldn't be too hard). if cybercombat can't be avoided, hopefully you've got access to sprites that are as good or better than this in cybercombat. at the very least, i would suggest breaking the skillgroup, and only keeping cybercombat and electronic warfare at lower levels

Okay so Hacking to 6, dropping the others and rely on sprites for cybercombat.

the extra skill points should go to improving your electronics group skill (but not necessarily the group, see below), hacking, compiling, registering, and maybe one or more of the meatworld skills (i'm a big fan of having decent ability at telling lies, for example). or the CFs. more on that in a bit.

The player likes the idea of his character being able to 'mess around with electronics', hence wanting the whole electronics group. One of the concepts, and hence the media junkie, is someone who's a news/information addict, finding out about everything.

you haven't mentioned what type of technomancer this is: personally, i'm going to suggest you only keep his fading stat particularly high of the regular attributes. yes, your other mental attributes have uses, but they're also expensive. at the very least, drop something by 1 point, and beef up the CFs to 5s across the board. in the end, your CFs are going to be the thing that costs you the most to improve. crazy as it may sound, if you boost your resonance to 6 at chargen as compared to 5, it only takes something like 7-8 CFs going from 5-6 to *more* than offset the increased BP cost as compared to karma cost. your complex forms are really inexpensive in chargen; they are going to get hideously expensive the second you start getting karma. as i recall, the only thing with a better ratio in terms of BP:karma is binding a power focus. i'm not saying you need 6 resonance or anything... i'm just saying buy them while they're cheap. (note: i am also not saying you shouldn't get resonance 6, by the way... it's much more important for a technomancer than magic is for a magician)

Obviously not a drone-technomancer and nor is he conceived to be a phys-adept-by-any-other-name technomancer once biowires and multiple init passes become available. As for other types, if you mean for pure hacker-style technomancers do you have any examples of 'types' I can show to the player?

qualities: he's a vindictive pacifist? also, i'm not convinced codeslinger is worth it. +2 to one action? you can buy +1 to an entire skill group for 10 BPs. +1 to almost every action you'll ever make sounds like a much better deal to me.

His original concept had both sensitive system and nano intolerance. I kicked those around with him for being far too min-maxing given he had no intention of ever using cyberware or nanites so we rejigged it a bunch. The vindictive-pacifist idea is someone who never forgets a grudge, goes out of his way to get back at people who have 'wronged' him, but is a bit of a coward as far as physical combat goes.

now then, to the CFs specifically:

1) ditch armor, get shield. (or, if cybercombat is intended to be a focus of the character, just add shield)
2) boost them all as high as they can go, whether that be 5 or 6.
3) you can probably lose scan. i would suggest command instead; it's one of the forms where rating *really* makes a difference. if you could see this guy threading browse every time he wants to do a data search, i could see ditching that too, for something else... possibly black hammer or blackout. psychotropic threading ftw! (in fact, if you do choose to lose the cybercombat skill, i would suggest losing attack; black IC will let you control people's brains, and is therefore useful vs helpless targets. attack hopefully won't be used much. either way, it's up to you)

Switched armor to shield, dropped scan for command

Isn't attack more useful all around given black hammer and blackout don't work on progs, agents, sprites, IC or anyone running in AR?


Once again, many thanks for the advice. Some tweaks below:

Intuition 5->4
Complex Forms all to 5
Dropped Codeslinger

Active Skills
Computer : 4
Data Search : 4
Hardware : 4
Software : 4
Compiling : 2
Registering : 4
Dodge : 1
Pistols : 1
Perception : 1
Etiquette : 1
Hacking : 5
Con : 1
First Aid : 1
Forgery : 2
122 BP in skills now

[Jaid]

if you have no cybercombat skill, you won't be hitting with attack vs. anything that can dodge much anyways... in comparison, even a cybercombat of 1 will be enough to let you thwack someone completely unskilled with blackout threaded to have... oh, say, technomancerphobia. whereby exposure to technomancers makes them much more willing to do anything it takes to get away from said technomancers.

or smacking someone's memory away for a bit.

or giving them a compulsive behaviour of telling the truth.

there's all kinds of terrifying stuff you can do to people using psychotropic stuff. and technomancers can thread them all. on the fly.

so sure... attack is more widely useful within the matrix for matrix combat. but the stuff you can use it on but can't use black IC on, you're probably better off just subverting, crashing, etc. psychotropic effects will make you useful outside of the matrix also; it basically let's you hack people's brains to a limited extent.

(on a side note, remember to carry around trodes with a simsense module everywhere you go; they're not for you, they're for the people you meet and want to brainhack. if you don't travel with everyone else, have an extra set to give to the other part of your team (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

[Evilref]

if you have no cybercombat skill, you won't be hitting with attack vs. anything that can dodge much anyways... in comparison, even a cybercombat of 1 will be enough to let you thwack someone completely unskilled with blackout threaded to have... oh, say, technomancerphobia. whereby exposure to technomancers makes them much more willing to do anything it takes to get away from said technomancers.

or smacking someone's memory away for a bit.

or giving them a compulsive behaviour of telling the truth.

there's all kinds of terrifying stuff you can do to people using psychotropic stuff. and technomancers can thread them all. on the fly.

so sure... attack is more widely useful within the matrix for matrix combat. but the stuff you can use it on but can't use black IC on, you're probably better off just subverting, crashing, etc. psychotropic effects will make you useful outside of the matrix also; it basically let's you hack people's brains to a limited extent.

(on a side note, remember to carry around trodes with a simsense module everywhere you go; they're not for you, they're for the people you meet and want to brainhack. if you don't travel with everyone else, have an extra set to give to the other part of your team (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

And suddenly I'm undecided as to whether I want to pass that trick on to the player or let him figure it out for himself.

Thanks again for the assistance.

BTW What different 'types' of technomancers are there, other than the obvious hacking/rigging (and advanced phys-ad style with submersion)?

[The Jake]

I'd find a way to get Hacking 5 and Software at 5, but that's just a personal preference. All other advice is solid.

- J.

[Jaid]

ah. yes. well, what i actually meant by "type" was "i can't remember the correct word for streams for some reason" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) as i recall, i was trying to tell you to keep your drain attribute high, but you could afford to lower the rest... i just wasn't sure what your drain attribute was and couldn't remember the technomancer equivalent of traditions (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

that being said, you could quite possibly have a technomancer who is focused on matrix assassinations; that is, actually killing people using heavily-threaded black IC.

in general, i would tend to suggest you have something more specific than just 'hacker' when designing someone. after all, how many street sams started off as street sams? odds are good they started off as, say, gang members, martial artists, military special forces, pit fighters, and so forth. this is especially true for those who don't get to choose what to become; a rigger or hacker has to specifically cultivate the skills, get the 'ware installed, buy the equipment/software, and so forth. a technomancer just wakes up one day and their central nervous system is a computer, and they know how to hack stuff. most likely, there are more technomancers who consider themselves to be digital artists than there are technomancers who have deliberately and specifically cultivated their skills as a shadowrunning hacker. to that end, what 'type' of technomancer could also be construed as meaning "what is it that you intend to do with your ability as a technomancer". and in many case, odds are good that their first goal was not "sell my services of matrix breaking and entering to the highest bidder". a drone rigging techomancer probably doesn't see themselves as being a drone rigger... far more likely, they think of themselves as a drone collector, a drone racer, a mechanic, or something else related.

of course, that's probably not quite what you meant, and it definitely isn't what i was initially referring to; just something to consider. truthfully, it applies to pretty much any archetype.

[PirateChef]

Codeslinger is worth it, but only if you apply it to threading. It makes it that much easier to get that stealth to such a crazy level that you don't need anything else as much. Also, in the long run, guy who starts with Codeslinger is going to be just slightly better than guy who does it, b/c even after we both raise our skills to whatever level, I still have that little bit extra.

[Jaid]

Codeslinger is worth it, but only if you apply it to threading. It makes it that much easier to get that stealth to such a crazy level that you don't need anything else as much. Also, in the long run, guy who starts with Codeslinger is going to be just slightly better than guy who does it, b/c even after we both raise our skills to whatever level, I still have that little bit extra.

hmmm... might be worth it for threading (if you've already picked up analytical mind). not sure threading is technically in the list of matrix actions, but it probably should be, so i'll agree it has it's uses. i would also accept it's usefulness for "control device" (that is, remote controlling drones using the command program/CF).

otherwise, well, once you've got more than enough dice pool to accomplish your task, it doesn't much matter how much extra you have. and for a technomancer, those BP can be better spent in any number of other places.