After reading through The Wireless World, a few Technomancer related questions have popped in to my mind that I'm having trouble finding the answer for.

1) The archetype's one big disadvantage over hackers seems to be the inability to store information, however, what stops a Technomancer from simply bringing along a comlink and transfering the information he finds in to it during a run?

2)

a- Page 235 states that another Technomancer can Spoof a Sprite in to following an order. *snip* EDIT: Question 'a' removed. Hasty reading lead to a (realy) dumb question.

b- Does the Spoofing Technomancer need to make the normal Matrix Perception check?

c- Would this use up one of the Sprite's tasks?
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PS - It would be a shame to waste a perfectly good topic. If anyone else has a Technomancer related question, feel free to post it.

Their otehr big disadvantage (if you could call it that) is their inability to use programs or hardware. They have to buy up their persona with karma, and have to get new (or upgrade) complex forms with karma. Like mages, they are way more karma-based than nuyen. A hacker could use karma to raise his hacking skills, and use his money to buy better commlink stuff or better programs. A technomancer has little use for money, but needs karma like a mofo.

True, but the Technomancer dependance (and slow advancement) on Karma is balanced out by other abilites. Sprites, for example, are *huge* now. A Hacker needs to spend a lot of money or time to get a good Agent but a Techno can simply whip one up in a Complex Action, and then Register it with a few hours of work.

Second big ability: Threading, and don't forget about it. That allows you to take a CF that you think you'll need *sometimes* (like Decrypt) at rating 2 or 3, and then if you hit a situation where you really need it, you can Thread it up to a good rating. This can also be done even if you don't have the CF *at all*, but (I think) it is less Drain (Fading) if you already have the CF.

THe drain is however many hits you make, and if you thread somethng beyond your resonance score it turns into physical fading. Something like that. Depending on which way it determines drain, it's minor physical or else not so much worse than a mage wen they're a little more desperate than usual.

Technomancers also don't have a separate Matrix Condition Monitor.

one difference also is that technomancers take a lot longer to 'reboot' than for hackers. But the other abilities, like threading, out weigh this.

Think about it this way, a technomancer can (concievably) have a resonance of say 12, meaning that they can have complex forms up to 12. If they're willing to take some hits and build back up, they could have a logic of 9 (6+3 Cerebral booster), giving them 21 dice. A top of the line system rolls at the most 12 dice (from firewall+analyze). Where as a decker, sorry, hacker, can only bring their programs up to 6, and whatever they can max their logic out at.

Keep in mind a commlink can be upgraded, so a superior system can remedy this problem for hackers.

However, your Technomancer has to rely on magical logic boost if they don't want to shatter their Resonance 12 - bioware still reduces essence, which does affect resonance. you'd lose one or two points through this.

Might not matter too much, but some people like the whole point thing.

level 3 base (as in, not even Alphaware) Cerebral Booster rating 3 is only .6 essence. Heck, do it at alphaware for 60k, and you can eve nsqueeze in a Control Rig. That gives you three extra dice at the cost of one for the lowered resonance, which can be earned back. I still, personally, don't really get the whole 'cyber detracts from resonance', but whatever. It seems like a very good idea for the logically minded technomancers.

But as I understand it, you can't write a program over rating 6. The catch is that on pg 240, creating your own code, it shows costs for up to rating 6, and the threshold on extended tests, but it doesn't specifically state one way or the other.

Now, back on pg 225 , it says "some cutting edge or miliraty can rank higher" , although it never actually states the top end, assuming that there is one. Now, this is kinda important information to have. For one, because a program can't run on a system with a lower rating. So if there's a rating 7 program out there, it stands to reason that there are rating 7 systems. or higher. Now, if you're going to try running S-K Prime , that kind of thing is important information.

I suppose that this is the kind of stuff that may be covered in the new MAtrix book, but with only slight rewording, they could have given us all of that to start with.

In the mean time, as it's written, an experienced technomancer can beat FastJack. Jack's programs can only go up to 6 (so far), and his logic is of course limited. Where the technomancer has the same skill rating limit, the same logic limit, but can blow him away with programs, through a high resonance and threading, or seriosly tough complex forms. And that just ain't right.

Logic doesn't matter for Matrix tests, just your skill and your program/complex form rating.

sorry, my mistake, but that makes the point even more poignant really, since then the highest you're getting is 7 instead of 9.