New Shadowrunner, Character Creation, Needs a Little Help Options

[Ramaloke]

So I've got lots of gaming experience but no practical shadowrun experience. That is to say that I've read through the books more than a few times but never gotten a chance to actually play... until now.

So after spending a few days agonizing over my allocation of BPs I've decided to come here for some critique.

The general idea is to bebop around combat with a spirit possessing her body, for now, once I get my first grade of initiation I'll be picking up the "Channeling" metamagic so I can retain conscious control while possessed. For now though she casts Improved Invisibility and Increase Reflexes and Sustains them, while the Spirit possesses her as a vessel (Dice Pool is 12 for Spirit of Man).

Here is what I got:

Build

[ Spoiler ]

Elf (30 BP)

Positive Qualities:
Magician (Voodoo Tradition) (15BP)
Mentor Spirit "The Dark King" (5BP)

Negative Qualities:
SINNER (+5BP)*
In Debt (+30BP)
Scorched (+5BP)

*Sinner is a requirement for the game, and so we all get it for "free", as in it doesn't count against our 35 BP Max for Negative qualities.

Total Qualities: +15BP

Attributes:
Body: 3 (20BP)
Agility: 2 (0BP)
Reaction: 3 (20BP)
Strength: 1 (0BP)
Charisma: 7 (40BP)
Intuition: 4 (30BP)
Logic: 4 (30BP)
Willpower: 5 (40BP)

Edge: 1(0BP)
Magic: 6 (65BP)

Total Attributes: 245BP

Skills:
Sorcery (Group) 4 (40BP)
Conjuring (Group) 4 (40BP)
Astral Combat 3 (12BP)
Assensing 3 (16BP)
Arcana 2 (8BP)
Dodge 3 (12BP)

Sperethiel N (Free)
English 3 (6BP) (Free)
French 2 (4BP) (Free)
Atlanta Street Gangs 2 (4BP) (Free)
Atlanta Security Companies 3 (6BP) (Free)
Security Procedure 2 (4BP) (Free)

Total Skills: 120BP (24BP of Free Knowledge Skills)

Spells:
Manabolt
Manaball
Heal
Increase Reflexes
Improved Invisibility

Total Spells: 15BP

Gear:

Padded Leather Armor (600)
Form Fitting Body Armor (Full Suit) (1600)
Renraku Sensei (1000)
Iris Orb (1500)
Simrig (1000)
Endoscope (250)
Mage Sight Goggles (2050)
R3 Earbuds w/R3 Audio Enhancement (330)
DocWagon (Basic) (5000)
Spirit Binding Materials (x10) (5000)
Magical Lodge R6 (3000)
Fake SIN (4000)
Skinlink (50)
Lifestyle Low (2 Months) (4000)

Total: 29880 NuYen (0BP, See the In Debt Negative Quality)

Contacts:
Talismonger (Loyalty 3, Skill 3)

Total 6BP

This post has been edited by Ramaloke: Dec 3 2010, 07:59 AM

[Whipstitch]

You're getting a bit too aggressive with the min-maxing for your own good, I'd say. Hard-capping two stats and taking a 30 bp metatype as a Magician is REALLY expensive. I'd highly recommend dropping Magic, Logic and Charisma down a notch each. That'll give you a lot more points to spread around on some combination of Body, Edge, Reaction and skills. I know that Body and Reaction sounds a bit redundant given that ideally you should be jacking up your meat stats via possession, but look at it this way: the difference between 7 Charisma and 8 Charisma isn't going to really have that big of an impact on your drain pools while a body of 3 nets you a better physical track and lets you stack on more armor before hitting encumbrance penalties. That's not a small thing considering that being possessed all the time can be pretty impractical. It takes an action to set that stuff up, which is a problem since you lack the Initiative and skills to really go first or even avoid getting ambushed. Not a good thing for a character that would have a rough time wrestling an angry house cat to a draw.

[Ramaloke]

Hrrm, I see your point. I was hoping that having a Sustained Armor & Increase Reflexes would counteract the low reaction and help deal with the armor issue. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Would it be more feasible to swap out Armor and Levitate for Improve Body and Improve Reaction? If she walked around with those sustained for "ambush situations" with a summoned spirit in the wings ready for possession?

If I had to make room I would rather drop Focused Concentration in favor of skill/stat boosts over dropping charisma.

This post has been edited by Ramaloke: Dec 3 2010, 06:54 AM

[Whipstitch]

BTW, I really want to stress this: I wasn't being facetious with the cat thing. According to Running Wild, a domestic house cat has a stat line of Body 1, Agility 3, Reaction 3, Intuition 3 and Unarmed Combat 2. Fragile 2 and the lack of extra IPs hurts it, but all things considered I'd put my money on the kitty if your character wasn't a mage.

As far as sustaining goes, that's still rather a band-aid solution. I would recommend getting rid of Armor for something else though.

[Ramaloke]

Ok, so how does this look:

Drop Charisma to 7, Drop Focused Concentration Quality and 2 Spells (Levitate and Stabilize, there are medpatches for stabilizing). Gain is 41 BP.

Increase Reflexes and Body each to 3, dump 1 BP into my contact. Cost is 41 BP.

More survivable?

-edit-

Add in dropping Armor and I can move that 1 BP from the contact into another point in the Dodge skill bringing my dicepool for that to 6?

This post has been edited by Ramaloke: Dec 3 2010, 07:06 AM

[Whipstitch]

That helps a fair bit, yeah. I'd take that 1 bp (or swap out some existing gear, whatever) and use it to buy some armor though rather than dump it onto a contact. With 3 body you can afford to wear up to around 8 ballistic if you wear form fitting body armor under some armor clothing. That'd net you a soak pool of 9 with (with mentor factored in but before armor penetration, natch) to resist physical ballistic damage attacks. Is that enough to square off against red samurai without summoning? God no. But you'll be a helluva lot better off against gangers or rent-a-cops wielding stuff like light pistols then you were before.

Anyway, I'd still say your sheet is kinda impractical in a few areas, but it's getting late and I'm sure other dumpshockers will chime in by morning anyway.

[Ramaloke]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I'll compile all the changes into the first post so that its all up to date and neat. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Makki]

Increase reflexes does not increase Reaction. furthermore, while possessed, your dual entity will have 2 ini passes already, thats mostly enough for a mage

drop magic by one (no reason for it) and invest the massive 25 BP in Edge 3 and Perception 1. You don't want to run around blind and deaf. The Edge points will assure you can jump, run, soak, infiltrate, shadow, etc

btw. with agi 2 and no infiltration, you have a 1/6 chance to critically fail, while sneeking around. that could mean tripping, falling and making so much noise, every guard in the building will hear you. or stumbling against the guard, while invisible.

[Medicineman]

Stunball instead of Manaball to give Your Char an Alternative to Killing ?

Padded Leather Armor (600)
Is he a Medeavel Reenactor ? Fresh from a LARP ?

with a Larpdance ( (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) )
Medicineman

[Ramaloke]

Increase reflexes does not increase Reaction. furthermore, while possessed, your dual entity will have 2 ini passes already, thats mostly enough for a mage

drop magic by one (no reason for it) and invest the massive 25 BP in Edge 3 and Perception 1. You don't want to run around blind and deaf. The Edge points will assure you can jump, run, soak, infiltrate, shadow, etc

btw. with agi 2 and no infiltration, you have a 1/6 chance to critically fail, while sneeking around. that could mean tripping, falling and making so much noise, every guard in the building will hear you. or stumbling against the guard, while invisible.

So if I drop Magic to 5 (+25 BP), and switch my Sorcery Skill group to Spellcasting 4 and Counterspelling 4 with no BP in ritual spellcasting (+8BP), and drop Improve Reflexes (+3 BP) I have an extra 36 BP to spend.

Up Edge to 3 (from 1) for 20 BP, put 2 into Inflitration and 2 into Perception? That'd put my perception dice pool to 11 (Intuition 4 +2 Skill +2 from Mentor Spirit and +3 from Rank 3 Hearing enhancement earbuds).

Does that "even up the rough spots" so to speak?

This post has been edited by Ramaloke: Dec 3 2010, 08:49 AM

[Makki]

that sounds pretty nice. maybe perception 1 and enchanting 1? since voodoo is probably one of the most famous enchanting traditions. and all possession traditions should be able to create vessels, don't they?

[Ramaloke]

So here is my updated character sheet.

Again, I appreciate all the help. Hopefully my runner will last long enough to earn up some Karma so I can buy back my sexy magic 6 and charisma 8, but I think the first thing Im going to be looking at (aside from spells) is getting my initiation done so I can pick up channeling. That'll help tremendously.

[phlapjack77]

If these stats reflect your concept really well, then go with it, I say....

..having said that, only a few things from my viewing (ymmv) * :

- In Debt(30) could be a huge disad, just like any 30 BP disad. Fit the concept or just "free points"?
- Edge of 1 really hurts - but if you're determined to keep it low, many people in previous threads have suggested the "Bad Luck" disad.
- having both sorcery and conjuring groups at 4 is a huge points sink. consider splitting them up into the individual skills you'll really need, maybe throw a spec. on a skill in there...
- summoning or binding or power or sustaining focus possible? if you can free up some points (and it fits the concept), these can be really useful.


* I'm not a professional min/max'er, nor do I play one on tv.

*edit* didn't see this latest post of yours - looks "better", although the full form-fitting includes "gloves, booties, and a hood" (not so inconspicuous). Go for half ffba...although a body of 1 doesn't leave many options unless you don't care about encumbrance.

[Ramaloke]

Yeah the in debt quality fits the character ontop of the free points. Actually most of the characters have the in debt quality. For my character specifically the story is this:

She was working for a corp doing some routine summoning/binding and everything was going well until a coworker who had been doing some research with a very top secret spirit formula disappeared. She sent out some spirit feelers to sort of get an idea of what happened... which was a bad idea. After tripping some astral traps the spirits she sent out were able to confirm only one thing, the corp was behind her coworker's disappearance and ultimately, death.

Now the corp was coming after her. Her house was burned down, her car was totaled, and she ended up in the hospital. Forced to take a loan to pay for her medical bills and get some resources together she's been trying to ply her trade to pay back the debt.

[Medicineman]

is it really BOD 1 or a Typing Error.
she'll have trouble wearing all that Armor
(padded Leather Armor is good for Distinctive Style You know ?)

with an encumbered Dance
Medicineman

[Manunancy]

Now the corp was coming after her. Her house was burned down, her car was totaled, and she ended up in the hospital. Forced to take a loan to pay for her medical bills and get some resources together she's been trying to ply her trade to pay back the debt.

Apllying for a loan requires a SIN and I doubt someone in her previous ligit position had one to spare - which would have made her extremely vulnerable to retribution.

Which means both th medics and the loaner were probably on the greyer side of the law. Active mage being a relatively hot commodity, it would help getting the loan, though odds are some organized crime outfit is likely to ask for some services to show some leniency toward repayment. And from the loaner's point of view, it might be better to have a mage on a leash than a repaid loan...

[Ramaloke]

is it really BOD 1 or a Typing Error.
she'll have trouble wearing all that Armor
(padded Leather Armor is good for Distinctive Style You know ?)

with an encumbered Dance
Medicineman

Nice catch, yes it was meant to be 3 (instead of strength 3)

Apllying for a loan requires a SIN and I doubt someone in her previous ligit position had one to spare - which would have made her extremely vulnerable to retribution.

Which means both th medics and the loaner were probably on the greyer side of the law. Active mage being a relatively hot commodity, it would help getting the loan, though odds are some organized crime outfit is likely to ask for some services to show some leniency toward repayment. And from the loaner's point of view, it might be better to have a mage on a leash than a repaid loan...

Well she has a Legit SIN and a Fake SIN as well, so either works. I've left some of the details up to the GM so that he can have fun with is evil plotting etc. Sort of a "Catch!" *tosses Hooks and Ropes*. He can make the plothooks as needed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

[Ramaloke]

*mispost*