Adepts, ambidexterity, improved combat skill, and other horrors Options

[Bearclaw]

I'm double checking, to make sure I haven't lost my mind.
If I take full ambidexterity,
Blades 6,
and use a knife in both hands, I roll 9 dice, right?
Now, if I take improved combat skill: Blades 6, I roll 18 dice, right?
12 + (12/2) = 18

[Zeel De Mort]

Yep, that's right.

Then there's combat pool to add in too..

[Nikoli]

Nope, 15

6 (main skill) + 6 (Power) + 3 (Half skill)

[A Rodent of Unus...]

Yep, that's exactly how it works. I used to think that Improved Ability didn't work since it only increases dice, not skill, but the description for Ambidexterity specifically mentions dice instead of skill, too. (Makes ya wonder why they bothered to distinguish between the two in the power's description to begin with.)

[Moonstone Spider]

My guess is so that GMs wouldn't try to make poor helpless adepts pay extra Karma to learn Edged Weapons 7, as they do for improved attribute when increasing an attribute with Karma.

Personally I think it's not all that sad. Once the Adept hits 12 die no mortal can possibly beat him in melee, 12 or 18 die it just doesn't matter at that point, the adept will probably kill you in one blow no matter what you do.

[Sahandrian]

Unless you shoot them while still out of reach.

[Arethusa]

Given that most SR fights take place in very close quarters, that's hardly ever an option for very long, if at all.

[CoalHeart]

I'm just waiting for someone to say.

I have Gun-fu/Gun-Kata and can fight him off in close quarters and still shoot him.

[snowRaven]

Of course, if this is a starting adept, you specialize in a specific weapon, and get that one extra dice. And you buy a weapon focus that you can bond later. Then there's counterstrike, in combination with quick draw(melee) and centering for extra successes/against penalties once you're an initiate grade 2.

Someone attacks you in melee combat and you quickly pull out two knives and counterattack - with 25 dice, plus the weapon focus and possibly combat pool on top of that.

[Nikoli]

Meanwhile, the guys partner double-taps your heart from 100 m away with a rifle

[snowRaven]

[Arethusa]

One cannot 'double tap' with a rifle from 100m away.

[CoalHeart]

[Mr.Platinum]

Smells like a munchkin to me.

[Phaeton]

[Glyph]

Of course, you can always start out with an adept of the magical way, and have a Force: 6 weapon focus that you already have bonded. 27 dice for melee, and if it comes down to ranged combat, you can manabolt them. Not as munchy as the dreaded 5 girl scouts with pointy sticks, but still moderately munchy.

[A Rodent of Unus...]

[Zeel De Mort]

He's presumably talking about real life. Which, of course, doesn't always compare exactly to the SR world. ;)

[A Rodent of Unus...]

Ah.

[Shadow]

Double Tap does not mean to shoot someone twice. It means to shoot them twice after they are on the ground dead/faking death.

Usually once in the head and once in the heart.

[A Rodent of Unus...]

So why couldn't you do that anyway? Sure, it might be a little harder to get a good angle, but that's what the laying prone modifier is for. Regardless, the context above was about shooting twice in rapid order.

[Zeel De Mort]

Well, I'm pretty sure that over here double tap does mean to shoot someone twice (while they're still up).

Anyway, in SR you can do either one, with a rifle, from 100m away. Great fun eh?

[Shadow]

The phrase ‘Double Tap’ got it’s start in the US army. Other countries may have borrowed it and changed their meaning of the phrase. But this is what it means.

After you have shot someone and they fall down, you shoot them again… twice. Hence the double tap. You do this to ensure they are dead.

Yes it means shoot them twice, but you do it after they are dead (or faking death).

To just shoot someone twice is not a double tap.

[Panzergeist]

Don't forget enhanced articulation and reflex recorders. Oh, and the 10-point ambidexterity, which lets you use 3 weapons. I'm working on a SURGEd adept with a prehensile tail who can use 2 swords plus a monowhip in a tailtip compartment. I think I can get at least 30 dice that way. He'll be like a human cuisinart.

[CardboardArmor]

You people disgust me. :D

Reading this thread got the smell of twink in my clothes and now no amount of washing will ever get it out.