Building a Face:, No rush, but this time, it's mostly from scratch. Options

[Generic_PC]

I'm planning on building a face for my current shadowrun game. My character recently got geeked, and I've decided I'd fill our weakest niche. Currently, I've got an Elf. I don't normally play elves, so this is a step for me. But... thats about it. I was looking at a Mystic Adept, but I have no idea how to build an adept or a mystic adept.

My goals for this:

Be an awesome Influencer.
Be at least average with some form of weapons. Automatics is the good old standby, but If doable, I'd like longarms.
Be well connected. I'd like to spend a lot of points on contacts.

There aren't too many house rules, but for now, just basic ideas and advice (especially on Adept powers) would be nice.

[Marwynn]

Kinesics, Voice Control, and Commanding Voice are sure bets. Cool Resolve works too as doese Eidetic Sense Memory, which comes in handy as does Linguistics.

If you want a "Social Chameleon" that can also double as a spy, then pick Facial Sculpting, Melanin Control and Memory Displacement. Of course this'd work better if he was human, or looked human. As a Mystic Adept you'd also be able to use the nifty spells like Sterilize, Fashion, and Makeover to fit in almost anywhere.

Don't neglect Astral Sight. It's costly but worth it.

You should be able to grab one decent firearms skill.

[Generic_PC]

I think Mystic Adept looks best. I would be willing to switch over to human...

Attributes: I probably want a body of 3. A strength of 1. An agility of 3, and a reaction of 4. Charisma of 5, Logic, Intuition and Willpower of 4... Thats... 200BP.

Magic of 5, edge of 5. Thats another 70BP. Magic is split 3 ADept/2 Spellcasting?

[MikeKozar]

As a Mystic Adept, you'll also have access to subtle spells like Control Emotions, Mob Mood, and Influence. If you can get enough power behind it, it could make negotiations go much smoother. If you cast spells mostly out of one school (like Manipulation) you might try and score a spellcasting focus - they should cost you 15k & 8BP per level, and give you a bonus to spells cast in that category. It's pricey, but if mind games are your bread and butter it might pay off.

Backstory can help a lot - you could actually be a professional negotiator, maybe an ex-corper who used to be assistant to a Mr. Johnson until things went bad and you had to disappear. That would give you a good reason to have lots of interesting connections and plenty of social skills, with enough street smarts to not get eaten alive in the first week. It also gives you some potential enemies to make things interesting.

<EDIT> Tailored Pheremones. Must have.

[Moxie]

I've made a few mystic adept faces, here's some advice in no particular order.

I tend to make heavy adept side, and light on magic, then use spirits of man or something to cast for me. Skills, and other items I'm sure you can fine tweak as needed, so I'll just talk about the magical stuff I've learned from lurking/searching (Thanks to all who've been a part of various threads)

29 BP: Power Focus 4(4 BP Bound, 20 BP Cost (100,000)), Adds Rating to all Force based powers. Restricted Gear (5 BP)
-Raises force of your spells, that means, you can use Mage 1/Adept 4 for example, and be able to use Force 5 spells effectively with 1 hit in spellcasting.

Adept Geasa: An optional rule in Street Magic, but definitely nice to save you 25% of your points in adept powers. I like to take everything as geasa (gesture or ritual) except for Commanding voice adept power.

Commanding voice (adept power, Street Magic): This power is like orgasm, but without the messy shortcomings. It stuns everyone who doesn't resist your leadership roll vs their willpower + leadership. Best part is, if you target multiples, they just get some lousy dice extra rather than being up to your leadership. And as an added RP/combat benefit, depending on the hits, you can give 5 word commands like, "Throw your weapons to me!" (Yay, free weapons)

Class Surge II (Runner's Companion): Glamour (15) and Nasty Vibe (5). (and 10 negs of whatever, impaired logic, and critter spook is what I've done). Gets you 3 more social dice. Alternatively, I like taking Celerity, just because... running away is sometimes the best social out.

Empathy Software 6 + Camera: Arsenal has this combo, but basically you can get a social bonus up to the rating, for the low low price of 3000 nuyen.

While adepts can get silly high dice with kinesics, and improved social ability, remember the latter is capped at half your rank.

Are you using the free contact rule? It may not be much of an issue if you've got high charisma to start off with... I'd definitely recommend a technomancer contact though who can give you a cracking sprite to use, or can do the legwork for the matrix for you, since I noticed faces sorta fail at the whole matrix bit.

Finally, get Masking initiation as fast as you can, it'll help immensely to keep the fact you're doing mystical magical mumbo jumbo on the general populace influencing them.

Edit to add: Astral Sight is great, but if you really wanna save on points and such, you can try the masking bit to hide yourself... OR be a pixie. Pixies got a lot of stigma, but they do have the insanely high charisma like elves do, are bless with astral sight, and can even hide quickly to run away for 35 BP.... Of course, if you use vehicles like a bike and vehicle mask with it, you could look human disguised as a Mai Otomo Drone at least.

[Generic_PC]

Don't wanna fool around with SURGE too much. Just a thought. Anything out of the Runner's Companion needs to be approved. This might make some of these harder.

I'll ask about Geasa. See how ameable the GM is.

How much does Mystic Adept get me? Spells like Orgasm, Mob Mind, Influence, Sterilize and Fashion are all good.

Conversely, how much does Mystic Adept hurt?

Currently, assuming all goes as planned, I want this character to be part of a gang which has recently died and left the center of London uncontrolled by any gang. He would have been a go-between for multiple gangs.

Obviously, Tailored Pheromones is gonna be dropping my magic a point. I might as well expliot the hell out of that last .4 (Up to 0.5 Cyberware Essence, pretty much. That gives me 0.95 essence lost.)

[Marwynn]

Smuggling compartment?

Don't forget Alter Memory and good ol' Trid Phantasm, Levitate, and Magic Fingers. The Drain might kill ya, but it might also save ya.

[Moxie]

Orgasm is fun for sure, and so are the rest of those spells. I just dislike using mind stuff on people since I want to keep the fact I'm a mage hidden a lot of times, and without a way to mask my spells without some initiation, commanding voice is my standby 'gun/spell' as a face type. That said, yeah, my character can cast with the power focus, and stand out like a huge bulb on the astral doing so... But, on the first few runs, you hope there isn't a specialized mage out to destroy your stuff or you, or just do your face bit.

On the 'mystic adept hurting' its more about the above for me. Yes, I can bust of the mage spells via my spirit of man or the like to help out. Enhancement needed for the hacker? Analyze Device. The samurai doesn't have 4 IPs? I'll sustain an Increased Reflex. Drones are pouring out of the woodwork and we need to hide? Trid Phantasm will hide us all. But with it all, I use my spells as a solution for when talking, guns or the face doesn't work out for me.... But I want to be 'magically mundane' was the feel I was going for.

If you want to become good with a gun instantly, try using the Attribute Boost Agility adept power, and then use edge to explode it or the like. Basically, rock bottom agility, then when you get into a fight, bam! You bust out the gunbunny stuff.

Just take Martial Arts 1 (5 BP): Krav Maga: Take aim free for another +2 dice to hit. That should get you up to a reasonable dice pool with an elf... 2 agi, 2 take aim 2 smart link 2 skill 2 specialized? = 10 dice + attribute boost hits (2 to 4 extra) = 12 to 14 dice or so. Its roughly 11 BP (take the specialized outside of char creation) to get this effect.

The last thing, if you're gonna do the face-change disguise bit, might be getting a false front (I forget which book) but it allows you to change your mass and disguise yourself on the fly... I never looked hard into it though since I got dizzy trying to figure out what I needed to program the thing to work.

[The Jake]

Mention totems. For Mentor 5BP, you get to select a totem which can give you +2 to your social skill of choice (I'm a fan of Con personally but Negotiation also works a treat).

If I'm summoning spirits and want to be awesome in combat, I'd go for a Possession tradition, get Invoking and Channelling and make sure I get a massive Great Spirit to possess me so I can go to town. Who cares about Krav Maga when you have Unarmed Combat at FORCE and Immunity to Normal Weapons at FORCEx2?

- J.

[Generic_PC]

Smuggling compartment?

Why?

I'll need to get the Masking Initiation ASAP as a Mystic Adept. What path should I go for? There is a couple house rules regarding them, but I don't have them off hand. Presumably a Cha+Wil Tradition that has spirits of man?

And I'm focusing in mostly manipulation spells... so... the Shinto Tradition looks awesome. Pg. 41 of Street Magic. Drain is Wil+Cha, and Manipulation spells are set by the... Spirits of Man.

I could be a Japanese Immigrant.

However, Shinto isn't a Possessing Tradition...

[The Jake]

Why?

I'll need to get the Masking Initiation ASAP as a Mystic Adept. What path should I go for? There is a couple house rules regarding them, but I don't have them off hand. Presumably a Cha+Wil Tradition that has spirits of man?

Cha tradition mandatory. Spirit selection comes down to personal preference. If you really want to split hairs, you can create your own with GM approval but that's really laying the cheese on thick.

- J.

[Generic_PC]

Nah. Shinto looks fine. It'll be fun apoligizing to the kami that are in everything.

Praying to the kami in my gun...

How many drain dice should I be looking for? Also, How many spellcasting/summoning/binding dice, for low force stuff?

Thinking about taking a severe case of the gremlins... Thoughts? How bad will this hit me?

[Moxie]

I think I based mine off Voodoo if I recall, just changed one of the spirits, custom is the most min/max route and I noticed... Did basically a luck theme with it, sort of the whole, you get cursed you get it back in a karmic retribution.

And voodoos can oddly be used to both enhance and curse traditionally. She had fuzzy dice, poker chips, etc, as pieces of her magic lodge and foci (sadly, she didn't get to play much, we quit like 1.5 sessions in online, GM was very lax, and we were mostly new).

Anyway, the crunch behind it is simply, 2 spirits for me. Man to be able to cast any spell I knew for me, and Task for the ability to have it do various hacking things or drive a vehicle for me. But I really like swiss army characters and that was a good way for me to get it.

[Moxie]

Drain dice is 12 (Elf) typically. 7 charisma +5 willpower

Spellcasting, the reason to keep it high is spell versatility. You only get to learn 2x Spellcasting rank max of spells... So 6 in it means 12 spells, 5 only 10, etc.

Summoning is okay at a lower skill level, since its Summon + Magic vs the force of the spirit, which typically, you're only gonna do 1 of, and let Power focus handle the rest to 3 or 5.

Binding, I have no experience in sadly.

Gremlins seems like a very fun concept and negative, I do not have any personal experience though, so feel free to tell me how it goes. Though if you wanna cheese out you could do...

Day Job (negative) + Fame (Positive, for more social). Combined, they give you an extreme nuyen push by multiplying the dayjob by the Fame (again though, runner's companion, but funny for a Charismatic type to be well known).

[Justin]

Cha tradition mandatory. Spirit selection comes down to personal preference. If you really want to split hairs, you can create your own with GM approval but that's really laying the cheese on thick.

- J.

As far as I can tell from the books, they encourage you to create your own tradition. The rules for creating your own traditions are first in the book, outlining everything-- but then give "example traditions" to give you an idea of what to do, and give you something to default to if you don't want to spend the time on it.

But then again, I'm new. And the books are often vague.

[Jack Kain]

I'd advise AGAINST tailored pheromone, sure the bonus sounds nice but I find it best to be able to remove all forbidden gear from your person. As the face you may often have to represent the group in plenty of places. My face once had to walk into Knight Errant posed as a lawyer to meet with the Johnson.

On commanding voice
When using the command "throw your weapons at me" be sure they don't have any knives... or grenades.

DO NOT cast spells on directly on your Johnson because if they find out you can kiss payment and future work goodbye. And plenty will have magical security who may fry you and ask questions later if they notice you casting a spell. Maybe you can get away with it a few times especially with masking. Try and avoid doing anything that might blow the run before you even get the job.

Do not forget some combat skill, All teams run into fire fights eventually and when that happens you shouldn't be hiding under a table because your useless when your mouth fails. I'd advise pistols they are concealable and easily explainable.

Dress for success and the situation, my own face adept as three suits of armor depending on needs
An Auctioneer Business Suit for whenever high class and style is a must. Such as meeting the Johnson in that upscale club or restaurant.
Armor Jacket, for general combat purposes, when on the road or in the low-end part of town. Or when I know shooting and stabbing are going to be 100% unavoidable. Go for the best armor your body can support.
Chameleon Suit when sneaking into some place is required.

Arsenal may allow you to combine some of these effects as the chameleon suits ability is available as an armor modification. And form fitting armor could boost up the protection of the Business Suit.

Empathy Software works by reading body language, Kinesics works by both controlling your own body language and reading the body language of others. Your GM may decided the two don't stack. Just pointing that out because it may come up.

Things like Glamour and such are nice abilities but just because your the face doesn't mean you want to be remembered.

When picking your contacts having one or two who are blackmarket suppliers of some kind of good are helpful. My face does most of the negotiations for gear acquisitions and fencing. Even keeping a percentage for himself like a NPC fixer would do. Though My GM even has with some rules for buying blackmarket goods at a discount, through successful negotiations. And selling swag above the basic 30% price by making the negotiations more difficult.

[The Jake]

I'd advise AGAINST tailored pheromone, sure the bonus sounds nice but I find it best to be able to remove all forbidden gear from your person. As the face you may often have to represent the group in plenty of places. My face once had to walk into Knight Errant posed as a lawyer to meet with the Johnson.

Depends. Bioware scanners are much harder to come by. Failing that, Genetic Optimisation works a treat.

DO NOT cast spells on directly on your Johnson because if they find out you can kiss payment and future work goodbye. And plenty will have magical security who may fry you and ask questions later if they notice you casting a spell. Maybe you can get away with it a few times especially with masking. Try and avoid doing anything that might blow the run before you even get the job.

Detection spells work though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Do not forget some combat skill, All teams run into fire fights eventually and when that happens you shouldn't be hiding under a table because your useless when your mouth fails. I'd advise pistols they are concealable and easily explainable.

Dodge is all you really need if you want to be conservative. If you're not a possession based tradition, I would agree with one skill.

Empathy Software works by reading body language, Kinesics works by both controlling your own body language and reading the body language of others. Your GM may decided the two don't stack. Just pointing that out because it may come up.

As a face, your concern isn't about what modifiers stack. Your concern is about hitting the 20 dice ceiling cap so ridiculuously easy, it isn't funny. Seriously. Pornomancer (SR4) builds shot into 40 dice IIRC.

Things like Glamour and such are nice abilities but just because your the face doesn't mean you want to be remembered.

Makeover, Physical Mask, Alter Memory make short work of this failing.

When picking your contacts having one or two who are blackmarket suppliers of some kind of good are helpful. My face does most of the negotiations for gear acquisitions and fencing. Even keeping a percentage for himself like a NPC fixer would do. Though My GM even has with some rules for buying blackmarket goods at a discount, through successful negotiations. And selling swag above the basic 30% price by making the negotiations more difficult.

Good call.

As a Mystic Adept, take Mentor: You want mentor. 5BP for bonus to your best skills and most utilised spells. Umm yes please. Good totems, Moon Maiden, Seductress, Trickster, Dragon are best given you get bonus to Illusion spells and +2 on Con. Dragon gives you +2 to Manipulation and Negotiation (also useful). Bull, Dragonslayer, Gryphon are als ok secondary choices, but their bonus dice on spell pool isn't the best (unless you want bonus dice on Combat or Binding tests.

Also take First Impression. Trustworthy is debatable when combared to SURGE and getting Glamor and Nasty Vibe but its still not bad.

If you want cyberware, pay the cost to get a major bodysculpt and get a bonus to your appearance and it does stack with First Impression IIRC. I'd also look at Genetic Optimisation. As mentioned before, I think tailored pheremones are less likely to be detected unless walking into the most EXTREME secure facilities. Failing that, look at the nanoware that adds to Intuition (neocorticals I think it is?). Most of the Opposed Checks rely on Intuition to detect falsehoods and also used by Perception.

- J.

[Thanee]

Class Surge II (Runner's Companion): Glamour (15) ...

While pretty cool, that one is hardly subtle (not sure if you can turn it off, but I don't think so; of course, illusion magic can basically "turn it off"). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Just take Martial Arts 1 (5 BP): Krav Maga: Take aim free for another +2 dice to hit.

Don't you have just one Free Action per Turn?

Bye
Thanee

[Jack Kain]

You don't need a bioware scanner to detect tailored pheromones. An olfactory scanner will do the job just fine.
Its not the implant that's detected its the pheromones your giving off. I would think an olfactory scanner would be fairly common right up along side MAD scanners/

[Moxie]

For the "Throw your weapons to me" The 'to' I mentioned is very important... 'At' means, well, the knives, even improvised guns, can probably hurt you if you get pelted. You can also say 'near' as well.

As for Glamour, yeah, I use the whole facial sculpt, fake sin, etc route to appear as different, but its a different type of face... No real impersonations, just, different personas each job. Heck, even physical mask + makeover are fine, especially makeover since you can cast and forget it with enough prep time anyway.

[Ol' Scratch]

Glamour is definitely a BadThing™ for a runner, and especially a typical Face. Faces aren't just negotiators and people persons. They're masters of the entire social scene. They need to be able to blend in with a ground as much as they need to be able to stand apart from it when they want to. Glamour completely screws that up, and no type of disguise is going to hide it since it's not a physical looks sort of trait. It'll even pierce magical veils such as Physical Mask, since that does nothing to hide such metaphysical characteristics. The same is true of Nasty Vibe, Critter Spook, and all those similar metagenic qualities.

Glamour is total win for a rocker though, especially one like Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Hmm. I really, really need to find a "pink mohawk" game now. I haven't made a rocker in ages.

[Generic_PC]

I'm not picking up Glamour or Nasty Vibe. I'm skipping SURGE altogether.

I'm looking at a Basic Elf or Human. Mystic Adept, probably Shinto Tradition and Dragon Mentor Spirit for the +2 to manipulation.

Of the couple spells I've chosen earlier in the thread, Sterilize, Mob Mood, Fashion, and Influence are all Manipulation. The only other spell I have chosen is Orgasm, which is nice for distractions. It's illusion.

I could re-spec, but Dragon looks like the best choice. Considering I need a Spellcasting of 3, what should my last spell be?

[Ol' Scratch]

I know you were skipping it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) That reply was aimed at the people who recommend it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Moxie]

Few options, if you haven't gotten extra passes, maybe Increased Reflexes? Assuming you get the Power focus to use it okay, it'll be nice to actually fire your gun or use commanding voice more than once a turn.

Otherwise, I also enjoy Makeover or Physical Mask. The first is useful for prep or on the fly disguise, while the second is nice for your street sammy to not look like he's cyber'd up to the gills (or for yourself). Makeover also has the additional benefit of not needing to be sustained or anything which is awesome.

I also really like Detect Life because no matter how hard someone tries, they can't really defend against that one. Useful for before entering a building just to see how many people maybe inside. Or in the case of meeting someone face to face, how many buddies they're bringing... And remember, ninjas while stealthy, don't have enough willpower to typically resist this.

[Generic_PC]

Actually, Increased Reflexes is a good idea. I'd prefer to avoid spending enough essence that I end up lower than 5.