I have been working to create a stealth-based character, something I have not tried before. I am looking for a little help regarding active skills and physad powers. This is what I have so far.

Attributes: (I am not at my computer so I don't know if I have remembered these correctly.)
Body: 4
Quickness: 6
Strength: 5
Charisma: 5
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 3

Skills:
Stealth (Sneaking)- 3(5)
Pistols- 4
SMG- 3
Clubs- 4
Martial Art- 4
Athletics- 4
Electronics- 4
Electronics B/R- 2
Etiquette- 2
Interrogation- 4
Bike- 2

Cyberware: All Alphaware- 1 point of essence lost
Boosted Reflexes level1
Smartlink II
Internal Air Tank

Physad Powers:
Great Leap: 4
Cat Fall: 4
Astral Perception
Traceless Walk
Improved Attribute (Quickness)

She also has the Low Light Vision Edge, and Quick Healer but I forget the balancing flaws as I am not at my computer right now.

So any suggestions would be really helpful. She needs to sneak into places well, but also be able to fight. The most help I need is in the areas of skills and physad powers. Thanks.

Increase the Electronics B/R as those target numbers are often higher.

Shed one of the Guns and Clubs or Martial Arts.

Get a Negotiaitons (Fast Talk) skill.

Micorscopic Vision as a Physad Power.

Get rid of Astral Perception for now, IMO, unless your group really needs it. Magic Sense is cheeper, IIRC.

Spell Shroud and Enchanced Perception are nice for some games. Low Light Vision Edge can be a Physad power pretty cheep, but whatever.

The Improved Quickness is a waste, IMO. Put it into Improved Stealth.

Low Light Vision Edge can be a Physad power pretty cheep, but whatever.

Internal Air Tank?

Trolls make the best stealthy characters.

By stealth, you mean spook? Cat burglar ninja kinda thing?

Just skip the cyberware.

Ref 1 (2)
+4 dice stealth (1)
+2 dice athletics (.5)
+2 great leap (.5)
Traceless step (.5)
Microscopic, lowlight, FC, image mag (1)

(.5) left at your discretion. Maybe killing hands?

Your Charisma is way too high and your Willpower is too low. I'd split the difference: Chr 4, Willp 4

To crack a maglock, you have to use Electronic B/R, so crank that skill higher.

I'd skip the interrogation and SMG, raise your Etiquette skill.
(37) points

Athletics 6 ( 8 )
Stealth 5/Sneaking 7 ( 11 )
B/R electronics 5
Handgun 5
Unarmed combat 5
Etiquette 4
Bike 3
Negotiations 2 (Fast talk) 4

For your specialty skills, you want a 5 or 6. Secondary skills can rank between 2 and 4, depending on how important they are.

Some ideas.

-Siege

Thanks Kanada.

The internal air tank is for accidentally triggering traps that involve gas, perhaps gassing a room in order to take out guards, or for sneaking into places that would require going through water when Scuba gear would just be too bulky. Besides, it perfectly filled out 1 point of essence loss.

Thanks Seige. Yes, I was thinking of a cat burglar type, but I also wanted someone who could put up a good fight if she had too, which is why I added the SMG skill.

EDIT: And the Smartlink

Elf Adept.
BOD 3
QUI 6(9)
STR 2
CHA 4
INT 6
WIL 3
Stealth 6 (duh)
Athletics 3
Electronics 6
Eddiquite: Corporate 3(5)
Eddiquite: Lab technition 3(5)
Eddiquite: Medical 3(5)
Lockpicking
Pistols

Adept abilities:
1.5 Improved stealth 6
.75 Improved athletics 3
.5 Traceless Walk
3 Quickness Increase 3
.25 Low Light Vision

The internal air tank is a great idea for stealth types-- that way they never hear you breathing.

You still have to exhale.

~J

Buzzed:
What's with the Lab Tech and Medical Etiquette? Also I was hoping to keep the character human...no real reason, just character concept savvy?

Everyone:
My friend had a copy of SOTA 2063 which I believe contained the canon lockpicking rules, but he graduated. Could anyone explain these to me? Is it any more complicated than rolling anytime you encounter a lock? And does it cover maglocks, card keys, keypads, and any other form of electronic locking, or only old fashioned mechanical locks that no corp in their right mind would put on important rooms or cabinets?

Not to hijack my own thread, but I wanted to post a thought inspired by the internal air tank.

Would it be cool if there was a peice of cyberware that oxegenated your blood for you out of a supply stored in an internal airtank? That way you wouldn't even have to exhale.

Lockpicking is separate from Electronics (Maglocks) and Electronics B&R (Maglocks). Lockpicking only covers those rare tumbler locks like on an old fashioned safe, combination lock, or the (you know) key & arm kind.

You'd still have do something with the converted gas (C02). What you need is an internal scrubber/rebreather system.

Form-fitting armor with toxic seal. Not a guaranteed pass, but it'll knock the power down by 4.

-Siege

Do pieces of 'ware like Dermal Sheathing/Plating and Orthoskin knock down the power as well/knock it out entirely? They replace the skin (or go under, as for Ortho), thus hurting some of the nerve connections (at least, I remember reading that Ortho does for sure). Or is that only for feeling things?

For it to render you completely immune to the touch vector, you'd have to lose all communication from your outer shell to your body.

Dermal plate is solid armor underneath skin. Dermal sheathing is embedded in the skin, not replacing it completely.

Edit: Orthoskin still has blood vessels and conduits running from the skin to the blood stream which is how the contact vector hammers you.

-Siege

For a stealth character, stealth, electronics and electronics B/R, and athletics are the biggies (for lockpicking, it's a rare enough circumstance that you can just get a lockpick gun. If you are starting with high resources, you can get a MagLock Passkey and not have to worry about having high electronics and electronics B/R skills, either). For combat, probably pistols and either unarmed combat (shock glove is nice) or ONE armed combat skill. Etiquette and negotiation depend on whether he is purely a sneaky break-in type (in which case, keep them low) or will be geared towards infiltration, too (in which case, the Covert Ops Specialist in the main book is actually a pretty good example, although I would change a few things). Here is an example of a stealth character that I did once:

Shadow, Male Dwarven Adept
Breakdown
Attributes: 50
Skills: 43
Race: 5 (Dwarf)
Magic: 25 (Adept)
Resources: 0
TOTAL: 123

Attributes -
Body: 6, Quickness: 6, Strength: 4, Charisma: 3, Intelligence: 6, Willpower: 4, Essence: 6, Magic: 6, Reaction: 6.
Initiative: 6 + 1d6
Combat Pool: 8

Active Skills -
Athletics: 6, Biotech/First Aid: 1/3, Brawling: 4, Electronics: 6, Electronics BR: 6, Etiquette: 3, Lockpicking: 6, Stealth: 6, Throwing Weapons: 4.
Knowledge Skills -
Languages - English/Cityspeak: 4/6 (Read/Write: 2/NA), Japanese: 4 (Read/Write: 2).
Other - Engineering: 6, MegaCorp Politics: 3, MegaCorp Security: 6, Seattle Black Market: 6, Security Systems: 6, Underworld Politics: 3.

Adept Abilities -
Improved Abilities:
>Athletics - 6 Dice
>Stealth - 6 Dice
Improved Senses:
>Balance Augmentation
>Direction Sense
>Microscopic Vision
>Select Sound Filter
Spell Shroud: 6
Traceless Walk

Edges -
Blandness
Double Jointed
Perfect Time
Poor Link

Flaws -
Combat Paralysis
Pacifist (-2)

Lifestyles: 1 Low (1 Month Prepaid).
Credstick Balance: 700 Nuyen.

Contacts
Fixer (Level 1).
Tech Wiz (Level 1).

Gear
Weapons: 2 Splash Grenades of Slip Spray, 2 Slap Patches of Narcoject, 2 Flash, 2 Smoke, and 2 Gas(Neurostun VII) Grenades.
Armor/Clothing(Dwarf-sized): Ordinary Clothing (x 5).
Other Gear: Satchel Backpack (of 100 Nuyen cost), Electronics Toolkit, Lockpicks (Dwarf-adjusted), Medkit with 1 "Refill", Survival Kit, Wire Clippers, Ultrasound Detector, Pocket Flashlight, Metal Restraints (x 2), Telecom (100 Mp).

Description
Shadow is a lean, wiry dwarf with a short black beard. He dresses slightly conservatively, but not enough to stand out. He blends into nearly any crowd.

Background
Shadow is a savvy pro at breaking into secure facilities. He is thorough and methodical, although he thinks quickly on his feet. He tends to "freeze up" in combat situations, as he tries to avoid firefights. He prefers to be in and out without anyone even knowing that he was there. He even chose his street name to blend in - "We're looking for someone named Shadow." "Well, there are about 200 runners named Shadow." "Um, it's a male dwarf, kind of average looking." "Good, now you've narrowed it down to 40 or so."

Quotes
"Yup, one of those old Maxington-500 tumbler locks. They might as well have just tied a pretty red ribbon around it."

"No, I wouldn't call it _inaccessible_. Granted, the ultrasound detectors do complicate things, but it's still possible if I'm careful. Which I always am, of course."

"Don't mind him, now. He's just going to be sleeping for awhile."

"Your MagLock thingy didn't work? Damn. Guess that means I'll have to pop the casing off the little bugger and do this the hard way."

Way way way too generalized. Combine gun skills, lose interrogation, etc, etc. Look in the book, skills of 6 are common, nearly everyone of the archetypes has 2 or 3, those that don't have all their skills at 5.

A skill of 4 is not really stealthy at all.... if it's not at least a 6, you're just a generalist. Anyhows, a Stealth Adept should have at least 12 in stealth (+6 Improved Ability for 1.5 Power Points) and TracelessWalk. Remember that Stealth has ALOT of important skills under it, Alertness, PickPockets, etc. a skill of 12 is going to make a character the perfect thief (grab his badge) without ever being seen (hiding/stealth) and he'll notice everything (alertness) being next to impossible to ambush. And since the theft part (pickpockets) is resisted, not open ended, the TN to be caught is your skill (12) while the TN to succed is his/her Intelligence (never a 12 ). Stealth, is by far, the most point-worthy Adept Power around. Any adept I make, automatically has +6 to Stealth just because of its extreme versatility.

As for other skills, Electronics and Electronics B/R are the prerequisites for a thief character (as mentioned above).

Never a 12, no, but an Otaku can hit 11.

~J

I think the (1) was for 1 Power Point cost.

Sphynx

Sphynx was right -- I should have been more specific.

Sorry for any confusion.

-Siege

I've never agreed with the "Alertness" specialization of the Stealth skill.

The rationale being: If you know how to sneak, you know where to look for people sneaking since it's what you would do.

In fairness, almost every active skill could have an "alertness" specialization using that logic.

Player: I look at subject A and see if he has any hidden weapons.
GM: Use your handgun skill to compliment your perception roll (see logic above).

My GM has tinkered with the idea of a Knowledge skill: Alertness.

Specializations: Spot, Listen, Taste, Touch, Smell
Optional: Search, Scan, Alertness

The knowledge skill acts as a complimentary dice bonus to the base Perception roll.

-Siege