Does anyone have any experience with making/running an adept who focuses on his skull muscles? Analytics, Enhanced Perception, high Intuition/Logic, etc...

Any pointers, advantages, disadvantages, easy segues into or from other adept archetypes (like face)?

I'd imagine that someone, somewhere has tossed analytics into a face build to create a viable gumshoe.

A little preliminary crunching nets
Int5 + Perception 6 + Visual Spec. 2 + Improved Ability Perception 3 + Enhanced Perception 5 + Enhanced Vision spectacles +3 = 24 dice for visual perception to notice clues and then (whatever you roll to solve puzzles, Int + Logic?) + Analytics (plus any bonus(es) from ware like mnemonic enhancer or cerebral booster) to decipher said clues. Now to convince a GM that a deerhunter can totally count as a helmet and to find a troll sidekick to write down my adventures.

Or just go for broken villainous and play Moriarty

I havea character that was a LS Detective (homicide) that had the latenet Awakening quality and just awakened, so I've been looking at this my self. Go w/ the vision mag and hearing mag adept powers. Also check out some sort of olfactory boost, eidetic memory sense, definetly Analytics.

I tried once. Adept with analytics, eidetic sense memory, multitasking, nimble fingers (for the second free action while not actualy engaged in combat), kinesics for any leftover points. Cerebral booster, mnemonic enhancer. High intuition and logic. Perception enhancements (hadn't actually decided whether cyberware or adept power). Addiction to psyche.
Like a human computer, aka mentat.

Stopped though because my GM would probably hate a char that can't do anything except knowing everthing better than anybody else. I decided to bring him as a focal point for a future campaign, a mere (meta)human who actually thwarts the plans of a great dragon. For this, the PCs will be collecting seemingly unrelated data, hitting unusual targets etc. I think that really has possibilities .

Of course, with the right GM I think it would also make an awesome PC. With a GM who justs makes the (non-combat) tests more difficult for people with many dice, it's pointless (I have seen a few of those).

Well, I was thinking that using gear for the sense specific perception boosts would be more economical than buying the powers. But hey, now I can make a guy just like The Sentinel, only he can do other stuff too! Like not suck. (worst...show...ever!)

I guess I'm really trying to see how economically this can fit into a face build and still have enough bps left over for survival of those fun-filled situations private dicks always find themselves in.

The char I have started w/ cyber because he didn't have any magic, so those were some of my first thoughts. The sense powers aren't very expensive, so I guess it depends on 1) If you care about not always having them available, and 2) how long the campaign is going to go on, if you can count on being able to upgrade your powers.

This is something from SR3 that doesn't appear to be in SR4 yet (previously it was in Man & Machine -- perhaps this time around it will be in the new Armory book). The Chemical Analyzer tongue cyberware, combined with either a high Chemistry skill or a good Chemistry skillsoft, would let you analyze things by tasting them. You could dip a finger in a liquid, bring a bit up to your tongue and analyze it yourself.

Combined with the following bioware, Digestive Expansion and a Nephritic Screen (Man & Machine in SR3, but in the main SR4 book now), they would allow you to go to bars or opium dens or wherever and drink or smoke with other people, while remaining unaffected yourself, something that Sherlock Holmes did every so often.

Perhaps you could take a Severe addiction to Nicotine and a Mild addiction to Cocaine. Sherlock Holmes took cocaine about once a week. He never had a problem with it during a case, but whenever he was just sitting around the house with nothing to do, he would inject himself with some to "stimulate his brain from this lethargy". He was also a prolific smoker. When he was thinking about a problem, he'd stay up all night and smoke while thinking about it -- Watson would some out and the air would be "blue with smoke". Sometimes the smoke about Holme's chair would be so thick that Watson had a difficult time seeing Holmes at first. Those two addictions would give you an extra 15 BP. So you smoke your pipe several times a day and in between runs, once a week, you inject a little of the liquid white stuff into your veins.

Some abilities are cheaper when purchased with adept powers, while others are cheaper when purchased with cyber/bioware (since each point of essence taken by cyber/bioware makes you lose one of your adept points). True, as time goes on you can use Karma to initiate and get more adept points, but as time goes by you can use nuyen to buy better grades of cyber/bioware, so you can pack more into what space you have.

my detective has the classic rough edge cop neg wualities. :Addiction - Mod- Alcohol, cigarettes, mild - strip clubs.

Holmes' addiction actually grew rather debilitating eventually. He began spending so much time in opium dens that Watson gave up on the sidekick gig and went back to practicing medicine. For a while at least. In the Victorian mindset opium = BAD, while cocaine just = medicine for the fun impaired Those evil, evil Chinamen...how dare they tempt the English with such a profitable and legal method of degrading the workforce's ability to work for near slave wages!

Sorry for the aside, Holmes was my Junior Colloquy at undergrad.

It seems all the great detectives have addictions of some sort. At least all of Chandler's. I highly recommend his short stories for SR inspiration btw. There's a great one that starts off with a dude getting out of the shower to find an intruder in his hotel room, flicks his towel as a distraction, shoots said intruder, and then calmly destroys all evidence of the shooting (including stamping the bullet casing flat before flushing it) and checking out. One cold, murderous cat he is...a page later you learn he's a cop.

Not yet, but I'll search for one. It would be a great resource...

Right, so far just a page of quotes.
http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/html/c...handlerisms.htm

"Dead men are heavier than broken hearts "---The Big Sleep (Chapter
I put the duster away folded with the dust in it, leaned back and just sat, not smoking, not even thinking. I was a blank man. I had no face, no meaning, no personality, hardly a name. I didn't want to eat. I didn't even want a drink. I was the page from yesterday's calendar crumpled at the bottom of the waste basket "---The Little Sister (Chapter 25)

"Eddie Mars wanted to see me."
"I didn't know you knew him. Why?"
"I don't mind telling you. He thought I was looking for somebody he thought had run away with his wife."
"Were you?"
"No."
"Then what did you come for?"
"To find out why he thought I was looking for somebody he thought had run away with his wife."
"Did you find out?"
"No."
---The Big Sleep (Chapter 23)

"I never saw any of them again - except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them." ---The Long Goodbye (Chapter 52)

And one of my all time favorites:
"I'm an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard." --"The King in Yellow"

Until I can find a page hosting any of his short works go to your friendly local library and look for the black American Heritage Library collection of his work. Straight up awesome with a lemon twist.

And I can see this kind of character being rather hard to GM for, as said GM will have some new types of obstacles to toss the PCs way.

But wth an experienced GM I don't see it being too frustrating.

As a physical adept, he can buy the Astral Perceptoin power. I think it's only a -2 dice pool modifier if he walks around astral perceiving all the time.

if you really wanna be Holmes, you're gonna need some enhanced strength. dude was buff, according to The Adventure of the Speckled Band.

i forget, does SR4 have rules for using Small Unit Tactics? if so, you might consider picking that skill up, along with enhanced ability for it (if allowed) and Centering. play up the prediction-through-observation aspect.

No SUT that I've seen yet. Love to see it. Closest thing off the top of my head is Leadership (s) tactics. Effect though, dunno.

speckled band, bends that fire poker right? Or maybe I could just loko at the link. Used to watch/read all the old Holmes stuff. Liked The Dancing Men the best. Weird title now that I think of it, but cool story.

Here's one rough version of an adept P.I. Probably all kinds of ways you could make one, though.

Sherlock Holmes was also quite fit and a very good boxer. It was probably mentioned, but a character built along these lines should also have a broad knowledge base regarding detective work, especially obscure knowledge. There was one story where Holmes said he had memorized the tread pattern of something like 27 different makes of bicycle tires, yet in another, he became enraged at Watson when Watson told him something about the latest astronomical observations of the other planets. Why? Because such facts meant nothing to him and would only clutter his mind and distract him from essentials, like the bike treads.

So, you might also want to consider some negative mental qualities to help round the character out.

Sherlock Holmes may have been a complete mundane, but there's no way you could make him, even with 500 build points. It would be easier in SR3, where it is a lot easier to make a skill monkey with high Attributes all around, but you would still need high Build Points and lots of Karma afterwards to do the character justice.


He did have a bad drug problem at one time, though. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a medical background, so he was able to present it pretty realistically. I like how it happened slowly, over the course of the stories, rather than having Holmes suddenly turn into a dope fiend.

Holmes said something about the sun going around the earth and Watson corrected him -- saying that was a Hellenistic idea and that the earth actually went around the sun. Holmes replied something about how he didn't care for such useless information as it didn't affect dective work. I've always thought that Holmes response was partly because he didn't want to admit that he'd finally been shown up by Watson, that Watson actually knew a bit of trivia that Holmes didn't know.

Many times Holmes told Watson something like, "You're really valuable to me, Watson. Your insights, your observations on cases." "Oh, they're that good?" "No, they're so bad that whatever you surmise, I assume the opposite and am lead instantly to the truth of the matter." Holmes, in my opinion, just couldn't let himself be shown up by Watson.

My friend had made a pretty awesome Ork mechanic fellow, who was an adept along these roads. Could build better than just about anybody around. Was highly effective.

Adepts are a funny thing...hand to hand adepts, in the new SR, are i think about equal in ways to cyber. Each has things they can do and can't(well, out of the box anyway). Same for gun adepts(tho ive seen gun adepts get even crazier at times.)

However, when it comes to faces, detectives, and anyone doing mental/building/social aspects...Adepts trounce their mundane versions. A mundane or even lightly cybered detective just cant come close to a tweaked up adept version.

I suppose this is where people have complaints about the adept getting too powerful. Back in the day it seems that only the 'physical' adept was ever created, so you didnt see their power potential. After these were uncovered the adept had a whole new light.

I'd suggest taking the Mystic Adept route. Try for Quickening as a way to get semi-permanent enhancements to your Mental Stats and possibly add in a few Detection Spells for fun.

List of desirable powers:
Analytics (the king)
Enhanced Perception (the queen)
Multitasking (free Observe in Detail!)
Improved Senses?
Improved Ability for perception/various combat skills
Kinesics for schmoozing and womanizing

List of desirable (probably minimally invasive) ware:
Cerebral Booster
Mnemonic Enhancer


List of desirable gadgets:
Sensory boosting contacts/earbuds

List of desirable active skills:
Perception
Pistols, Unarmed, (Exotic Weapon: Whip for that cold, efficient kill?)

List of desirable knowledge skills:
Forensics, Chemistry, Parazoology, Business (accounting), Security Procedure, Area Underworld, Street Drugs, Gam Appreciation

Help me flesh 'em out fellas! This field seems to have numerous goodies out there that cost little but add a lot. So I'd really like to focus on all those nickel and dime bits that are out there.

Right, back to studying instead of wishing I actually had analytics to help me in Contracts...Stupid mundane brain.

Word, I'll add them to the lists, but Sustenance seems like it would only be of marginal use. Plus that would rule out the scene where a landslide of sunflower seed shells spills out of my Ford Americar at the end of the stakeout.

Let me guess, character name: Fox Mulder

Thank you, I shall take the karma and put it towards learning a new spell: Defeat Law Professor, a sustainable detection spell that will allow some basic telepathy and precognition to defeat their every argument. Muhahaha!

And less Fox, more Naked Gun.

Sustenance also alleviate your need to visit the restroom, so it's well worth it for a stakeout .

I'd also throw on Living Focus. Its like a swiss army knife if you know some mages. Want some detection spells to make your investigation easier or maybe you need some combat punch? Plus you can farm out some of the sustaining penalties.

Erm...can someone please enlighten me as to why Living Focus would be a sane use of a full power point for an adept?

Also, I'm trying to see how a dedicated "brain" stacks up against an adept with a more traditional focus, but with two points or so of his power tossed into the brain category and a couple more attribute points into Intuition. I already know a decent face/brain can be made, but I'm looking for other alternatives. Stupid running out of BP...

My main criteria are for the character to possess dicepools of at least fifteen in primary focus activities, and twelve in supporting roles. So far Perception seems the easiest to pump into the stratosphere, with face duties lagging a bit behind. (something about Charisma really only being good for socializing. What the hell? Why can't my shiney teeth distract the opponents and give me free dodge dice?)

I made one that wasn't an adept.
Nmeumonic enhancer 3(I can't remember how to spell it )
logic booster 2 ( can only have it at that level at the beginning.)
logic 6
int 5
2 know skills at 5 the rest at 3 (except the last one at 2)
He was still pretty fraggin good in the meet/meat world, could default to most knowledge skills better than most professionals in any field and had decent skills in everything else.
His name was Encyclopedia Brownie cause he was a dwarf.

Very well then. Good call on the tailored pheromones too. I blanked on combining them with kinesics. Or really using bioware for much besides increasing reflexes via that tasty, tasty synaptic accelerator. Damn you, you beautiful and expensive whore of an initiative increaser! Damn you and your 32 bps to hell!

Living Focus and two sustaining foci = combat sense & improved initiative. Also allows you to pop in a mix of health/detection spells depending on your contacts and less than friendly party mage.

24BP my way or 30+ the standard, its all style.

What I don't like about Living Focus is that it gives the sustaining penalties to the adept, who will generally be using that spell to sneak, attack, etc. It's better when a support mage who isn't actively engaged in other things is soaking the penalty, or when the mage puts a sustaining focus on the adept. The last thing an adept needs when sneaking or attacking is to suffer a -2 dice penalty on all actions.

That's why you bond two sustaining foci, since support mages are few and far between. All I'm trying to say is BP-wise Improved Reflexes-1 is more expensive than Living Focus and two Sustaining foci. This way also makes you 50% more independent, which is a strong trait amongst fictional detectives. You can make this really distinctive when you get quickening metamagic. I don't spit out the best option, just the intriguing ones.

Reading the power, I don't think it gives an adept any special ability to bond or use sustaining foci. It only gives the adept the ability to take over the sustaining of a spell that has been cast on him/her by a mage. To go the sustaining foci route, you would need to be a mystic adept.

Went to the rules on this to check. I'll admit that its interpretive and your GM mileage may vary.

To put a spell into a sustaining focus "...the spell must be cast through the focus, which then sustains it." Under the power it states the adept becomes "...like a human sustaining focus."

Any magically active character can bond foci, they are not limited by you actually being able to get use from them.

Cross referencing entries between the power and the focus I'd tend to disagree. To further muddle and move on, nohting restricts the adept with this power from learning quickening. All you need to quicken a spell is a spell that you are currently sustaining.

Remember also that the person casting the spell can get tracked for actions you undertook and will be leary of casting spells on strangers for this reason.

Back to the reason for a brain taking this power. When a brain gets in combat he should be ducking for cover and sustaining spells for the mage, not the other way around. Smart people stay out of the crossfire.

It's not necessarily "brain" focused, but an Adept with the Astral Perception power, INT 5, Enhanced Perception 5, and maxed out Assensing(Psychometry) 8, can, even with some negative modifiers, throw enough dice on a vigorous handshake, to discern a distinctly uncomfortable amount of information.

Very much so. And a very cool concept for a P.I. I might add. And one hell of a scary add on for a face (who should be pumping perception a little bit anyway) that would let him dominate almost any meeting.


And now I move to an interesting point in considering Brains and Faces. With incomparable social skills, mental faculties developed to an inhuman level, assisted by the best technology money can buy (ware or otherwise), why in the name of Tom Dowd would any of these characters be stuck running the shadows? Take the aforementioned astral perception/assensing technique, add Kinesics, a high charisma (elf anyone?), good skills and some tailored pheromones. All this is doable for a starting 400bp character. Now, why shouldn't this character's first action in game be to walk up to the nearest corporate recruiting office, hand over his resume, and apply for the job of President of the World? The level of social manipulation possible with these characters makes standard shadowrunning tactics unnecessary. Need an extraction? Just talk to the two corporations and negotiate a deal they'll both be so happy with they toss you an extra 100k and 3 virgins. Data snatch? Just ask the target's security hacker to give it to you? Wetwork? Take commanding voice and order the target to take his own life. Or just date the target, dump him/her, and, as soon as this luminary force that eclipsed all he'd ever known before or will ever know again is gone from his life, he'll be reaching for the elastic in his underwear before you can say, "Hey, I didn't think that curtain rod could support his weight either!"


So those examples may be a little extremely exaggerated, but any of these dudes could easily land themselves cushy executive-type jobs pulling down high six figure salaries. Your average street monster doesn't have that kind of career choice available. Even mages don't, for the most part at least. And after a few years, a couople of grades of initiation (in the corp's initiatory group, natch), well these adepts will start waltzing on up to the corner offices and the big, big bucks.

Man, analytics is just too damn awesome for a corp exec.

Hmm...too bad improved ability assensing isn't an option.