So a while back I posted the nuts and bolts for a character I was putting together for some gaming at GenCon. After processing the critiques, and especially after revisiting the processes of healing, I decided to re-work from the ground up. In the end, this is the character I used in a pick up game at GC.
I decided I wanted something of a unique feel, so I went with a Salish Dwarven "Ninja". Not so much a ninja in all of the aspects, but someone geared towards infiltration and stealth. It occurred to me that I'd not seen a dwarf cast in that role, so I rolled with it.
I haven't fleshed out the bio enough to post yet, but the basic concept is that he was a scout for the Salish-Shidhe council during the conflicts with the Tsimshian. In the aftermath of the absorption of Tsimshian, he's come to Seattle to assist with the Salish smuggling activities in the area. He's not ONLY about fortune, though. I just haven't decided what his "noble cause" is as of yet. Both his Fixer and his Smuggling contact are Salish as well.
Still not sure of the Adept powers. The last 3 I picked are very negotiable, but the others I'm pretty sure I want to keep.
Also, at the last minute I beefed up his social abilities simply because at a gaming table I tend to get involved a lot in social situations and sometimes "take the lead".
Name: Kelly “Mad Dog� Maddock
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Metatype: Dwarf (5 BP)
Height: 3’5�
Weight: 185
Hair: Black, Shoulder-length with Pony-Tail and Eagle Feather.
Eyes: Grey
Markings: Tribal Nanotats above both biceps.
B: 4 A: 4 R: 4 S: 4 C: 4 I: 4 L: 4 W: 4 (200 BP)
Edge: 4 (30 BP)
Magic: 5 (40 BP)
Essence: 6
Initiative: 8
Attributes:
Adept (5 BP)
Sensitive System (+15 BP)
Spirit Bane/Water (+10 BP)
Allergy: Uncommon/Moderate (+10 BP)
Skills:
Stealth Group: 3 (30 BP)
Athletics Group: 3 (30 BP)
Archery: 3 (12 BP)
Etiquette: 2 (8 BP)
Dodge: 3 (12 BP)
Unarmed Combat: 3 (12 BP)
Perception: 1 (4 BP)
Locksmith: 1 (4 BP)
Knowledge Skills: 24 Free (+2BP)
Language-Salish: N
Language-English: 2
Academic-History: 2
Academic-Security Systems: 2
Academic-Megacorps: 2
Street-Shadowrunning: 2
Street-LocalGangs: 2
Interest-Flatscreen Vids: 1
Contacts:
Fixer: 3/2
Salish Smuggler: 3/2
Shadoweb Gossip: 2/4
Adept Powers: 5 PP
-Mystic Armor 4 (2 PP)
-Killing Hands (.5 PP)
-Elemental Strike-Electric (.5 PP)
-Eidetic Memory (.5 PP)
-Spell Resistant (.5 PP)
-Counter Strike (.5 PP)
-Penetrating Strike (.25 PP)
-Commanding Voice (.25 PP)
Gear: 25,000 (5 BP)
Glasses 25
-Low Light 100
-Smartlink 500
-Image Link 25
-Flare Comp. 50
Contact Lenses 50
-Vision Enh. 3 300
Ear Buds 10
-Audio Enh. 3 300
-Spatial Recog. 100
Camo Suit (8/6) 1200 (Colours: Black/Urban Camo)
-Non-Conductive 6 1200
Light XBow 600 (Internal Smartgun)
Heavy Xbow 750
-External Smartgun 400
Injection Bolts x 20 1000
20x Narcojet 1000
Renraku Sensei 1000
-Renraku Ichi OS 600
-Subvocal Mic 50
-Skinlink 50
Fake SIN (3) 3000
Fake SIN (3) 3000
Certified Credstick 25
Autopicker (6) 1200
Maglock Passkey (3) 6000
Sequencer (2) 400
Low Lifestyle x 1 Month 2000 (450 Starting Nuyen)
Sundry Clothes 65
Full Version: Character Critique: Redux
Commanding voice uses the leadership skill, which your character does not have.
I would recommend replacing your mystic armor with combat sense to make better use of your counterstrike power. Counterstrike is a great power, but it is best when combined with combat sense. That is because combat sense gives you more dice for defending, which means that you have more net successes to add to your next attack. But if you keep the mystic armor, counterstrike will still be helpful.
Critical strike is superior to penetrating strike. With critical strike, you do an extra point of damage instead of a point of AP. So both are equally likely to overcome armor's resistance. However, penetrating strike only takes away one of their armor dice for resisting damage. Critical strike is an extra point of damage that the target has to soak, which generally takes about three dice on average. Generally, penetrating strike is only good to take after you have maxed out critical strike.
Other than that, a solid generalist with an average dice pool of around seven or so, comparable to the covert ops specialist in the book. I can't really comment on his power level, since that depends so much on the GM, and on what kind of characters the other players make.
I would recommend replacing your mystic armor with combat sense to make better use of your counterstrike power. Counterstrike is a great power, but it is best when combined with combat sense. That is because combat sense gives you more dice for defending, which means that you have more net successes to add to your next attack. But if you keep the mystic armor, counterstrike will still be helpful.
Critical strike is superior to penetrating strike. With critical strike, you do an extra point of damage instead of a point of AP. So both are equally likely to overcome armor's resistance. However, penetrating strike only takes away one of their armor dice for resisting damage. Critical strike is an extra point of damage that the target has to soak, which generally takes about three dice on average. Generally, penetrating strike is only good to take after you have maxed out critical strike.
Other than that, a solid generalist with an average dice pool of around seven or so, comparable to the covert ops specialist in the book. I can't really comment on his power level, since that depends so much on the GM, and on what kind of characters the other players make.
Also, I'd settle on either Elemental Strike or just Penetrating Strike. You get the half AP from using Elemental Strike and you get secondary effect to go along with it.
But I'd reconsider Electricity. You have, with Killing Hands, the ability to deal 'lethal' physical damage and with Electricity you're turning it back to Stun damage. Albeit with halved Impact armour, which will be countered by nonconductivity.
I would remove Penetrating Strike, get Critical Strike since you're only doing 2 points of damage at base, and then maybe some other Elemental Effect. As it is you're better off using Shock Gloves. They'd probably last longer too. If you're feeling powerful you can go with Sonic and ignore all armour, but Flaming Fists or Blast Fists (with the extra knockdown) are cool too.
With only 2 points of damage and even with halving Impact armour (average is 6, so it'll be a 3) you'll need 2 net hits to deal physical damage. One point in critical strike reduces that to 1, and two makes it reliable enough. Combined with either Level 3 Penetrating Strike or an Impact-halving Element.
I'm not that big a fan of Counterstrike, situations often change and sometimes you may not be able to attack with your next action. And of course, sometimes you want to go Full Defense. I'd take the points here and apply it to Critical Strike, or apply it to Combat Sense or even Improved Ability Gymnastics. Besides, with just one level of Counterstrike, you're only getting +1 to your next attack IF you successfully Parry/Block. Not that good a deal.
I'd split Mystic Armor as well to L2, and get Combat Sense L2.
Alternatively, get Traceless Walk at 1 power point.
You wanted an infiltration specialist right? How about one that doesn't trigger motion detectors and can't be heard moving through his footsteps? Get the Chameleon Suit, -4 to perception tests, get the thermal dampening upgrade on it, and you have a hard to see and hard to hear and thermographically detect lil' devil bastard.
I'd also consider upping your Perception. It's hard to be sneaky when you don't know what you're sneaking from.
But I'd reconsider Electricity. You have, with Killing Hands, the ability to deal 'lethal' physical damage and with Electricity you're turning it back to Stun damage. Albeit with halved Impact armour, which will be countered by nonconductivity.
I would remove Penetrating Strike, get Critical Strike since you're only doing 2 points of damage at base, and then maybe some other Elemental Effect. As it is you're better off using Shock Gloves. They'd probably last longer too. If you're feeling powerful you can go with Sonic and ignore all armour, but Flaming Fists or Blast Fists (with the extra knockdown) are cool too.
With only 2 points of damage and even with halving Impact armour (average is 6, so it'll be a 3) you'll need 2 net hits to deal physical damage. One point in critical strike reduces that to 1, and two makes it reliable enough. Combined with either Level 3 Penetrating Strike or an Impact-halving Element.
I'm not that big a fan of Counterstrike, situations often change and sometimes you may not be able to attack with your next action. And of course, sometimes you want to go Full Defense. I'd take the points here and apply it to Critical Strike, or apply it to Combat Sense or even Improved Ability Gymnastics. Besides, with just one level of Counterstrike, you're only getting +1 to your next attack IF you successfully Parry/Block. Not that good a deal.
I'd split Mystic Armor as well to L2, and get Combat Sense L2.
Alternatively, get Traceless Walk at 1 power point.
You wanted an infiltration specialist right? How about one that doesn't trigger motion detectors and can't be heard moving through his footsteps? Get the Chameleon Suit, -4 to perception tests, get the thermal dampening upgrade on it, and you have a hard to see and hard to hear and thermographically detect lil' devil bastard.
I'd also consider upping your Perception. It's hard to be sneaky when you don't know what you're sneaking from.
Admittedly, my combat focus with this character will be the Crossbow, not the unarmed combat. I do, however, want him to be effective if he has to get into physical combat.
As far as the elemental strike goes. I like the idea of stacking stun and physical damage - same reason I use the narcojet and heavy Xbow - if the guy is still standing, he's usually taking some SERIOUS penalties.
Also, I was thinking the electric would be good for incapacitating electronics in a pinch. My understanding was that elemental strike adds elemental damage on top of what you already do, is that correct?
Sonic would be cool, but not stealthy....which is another reason to go electric, it's not loud or flashy.
Where's Traceless Walk? Somehow I missed that, it'd definitely be neat.
As far as the elemental strike goes. I like the idea of stacking stun and physical damage - same reason I use the narcojet and heavy Xbow - if the guy is still standing, he's usually taking some SERIOUS penalties.
Also, I was thinking the electric would be good for incapacitating electronics in a pinch. My understanding was that elemental strike adds elemental damage on top of what you already do, is that correct?
Sonic would be cool, but not stealthy....which is another reason to go electric, it's not loud or flashy.
Where's Traceless Walk? Somehow I missed that, it'd definitely be neat.
If I recall correctly Elemental Strike adds no damage, it converts the damage you do into damage of that element with appropriate modifications and secondary elemental effects.
Chris
Chris
| QUOTE (MadDogMaddux @ Aug 22 2007, 11:52 PM) |
| Admittedly, my combat focus with this character will be the Crossbow, not the unarmed combat. I do, however, want him to be effective if he has to get into physical combat. As far as the elemental strike goes. I like the idea of stacking stun and physical damage - same reason I use the narcojet and heavy Xbow - if the guy is still standing, he's usually taking some SERIOUS penalties. Also, I was thinking the electric would be good for incapacitating electronics in a pinch. My understanding was that elemental strike adds elemental damage on top of what you already do, is that correct? Sonic would be cool, but not stealthy....which is another reason to go electric, it's not loud or flashy. Where's Traceless Walk? Somehow I missed that, it'd definitely be neat. |
Traceless Walk is in Street Magic, p. 180. You also don't leave behind footprints, how cool is that?
Elemental Strike is really a converter of damage. You deal 2 points of physical damage it turns into 2 points of Electrical damage that halves Impact armour when you strike something.
Wish it added stuff. But it's a bit more beneficial for direct punching. A bit show-offy though. Electricity would be fairly unstealthy, it'd be cackling and chirping and so forth. Sound is still Stun damage too, which is alright since there's very little to counter it. If you're thinking of using it against Drones and such, it could work. But again, you could duplicate it with a pair of Shock Gloves; skinlink those and you can turn them on and off when necessary.
You could consider Cold/Ice damage. It won't have the same effect against Drones but if your GM lets you, you could gum up lubrication, mess around with working parts, even punch through frozen armour turned brittle.
But Fire, Electricity, and Ice are all countered by rather easy-to-find armour upgrades.
| QUOTE (MadDogMaddux) |
| Admittedly, my combat focus with this character will be the Crossbow, not the unarmed combat. I do, however, want him to be effective if he has to get into physical combat. |
MadDogMaddux
Earlier this summer I tried to make an inflitrating adept that was good at both range and close combat. What I found was that, with only 400 BP, you can only be mediore in both. Meaning, that your really just average at everything and not good at anything what so ever.
My recommendation would be to sit down with the people who you will be gaming with prior to chargen, and discuss what each of you would like to play, and how all of you can attempt to cover as many skill sets as possible. If you only have 3 ppl in your running group, then a generalist would be good. However, if you are in a 5 or 6 man group, your generalist will be overshadowed constantly at everything he does because the specialists will be throwing 10-12 dice while you throw 7-8. Then as you gain karma, you have a tough choice as to where to allocate points, while they continue to boost their primary abilities. You can guess were that will leave you.
-Mystic Armor 4 (2 PP)
-Killing Hands (.5 PP)
-Elemental Strike-Electric (.5 PP)
Great powers. Elemental strike electricity is cool, but the special effect is easy to avoid. I´d probably go for "blast/wind" (don´t know how it´s called in english).
-Eidetic Memory (.5 PP)
-Spell Resistant (.5 PP)
Those are gimmick powers - important information can be stored digitally and spell resistance 1 will do you little good. I would at least consolidate to spell resistance 2.
-Counter Strike (.5 PP)
-Penetrating Strike (.25 PP)
-Commanding Voice (.25 PP)
My suggestion: Use voice control (0.5) + enhanced hearing + echolocation sense to gain magical ultrasound. Echolocation is an implant from Augmentation that allows just the same combination via ware.
-Killing Hands (.5 PP)
-Elemental Strike-Electric (.5 PP)
Great powers. Elemental strike electricity is cool, but the special effect is easy to avoid. I´d probably go for "blast/wind" (don´t know how it´s called in english).
-Eidetic Memory (.5 PP)
-Spell Resistant (.5 PP)
Those are gimmick powers - important information can be stored digitally and spell resistance 1 will do you little good. I would at least consolidate to spell resistance 2.
-Counter Strike (.5 PP)
-Penetrating Strike (.25 PP)
-Commanding Voice (.25 PP)
My suggestion: Use voice control (0.5) + enhanced hearing + echolocation sense to gain magical ultrasound. Echolocation is an implant from Augmentation that allows just the same combination via ware.
I didn't think all electricity effects were necessarily stun. I thought that certain ones like stick and shock, and tasers were stun since they were designed to be that way. However throwing a hair dryer in your bath or getting hit by lightening certainly doesn't seem like stun over flow to me.
| QUOTE (klinktastic) |
| My recommendation would be to sit down with the people who you will be gaming with prior to chargen, and discuss what each of you would like to play, and how all of you can attempt to cover as many skill sets as possible. If you only have 3 ppl in your running group, then a generalist would be good. However, if you are in a 5 or 6 man group, your generalist will be overshadowed constantly at everything he does because the specialists will be throwing 10-12 dice while you throw 7-8. Then as you gain karma, you have a tough choice as to where to allocate points, while they continue to boost their primary abilities. You can guess were that will leave you. |
Yeah, that's good advice. Thing is that right now I don't even have a shadowrun group to play with. I figured my best shot is to look for a place that does SRMs and have a generalist so I can always fit in.
Barring that, I want him to be sneaky and deadly witht he Xbow. The unarmed combat is primarily a backup which I chose on account of all the UC candy an Adept can get.
So if I can spec him for infiltration, but give him some good social skills too, and make him an Xbow user in combat, I'd be happy.
| QUOTE (DTFarstar) |
| If I recall correctly Elemental Strike adds no damage, it converts the damage you do into damage of that element with appropriate modifications and secondary elemental effects. |
Despite what the cartoons say, getting hit by lightning is not stun damage.
Elemental Attack adds the secondary effects to the attack, it does not convert physical damage to stun damage.
You only have one initiative pass. In my experience, that's a fatal flaw. In combat you'll only get to do a third of the stuff of your average starting street sammie, and you'll be sitting around bored while he goes. Plus any serious opposition will smack you down.
Unless this is some kind of seriously low-powered game that all the other players are on board with, get improved reflexes 2 to start with and then build up the esoteric powers from there.
Unless this is some kind of seriously low-powered game that all the other players are on board with, get improved reflexes 2 to start with and then build up the esoteric powers from there.
The problem with that is if he hardmaxes to Magic 6, IR 2 eats up 3 of his Power Points. Bioware is the quickest way to get it, even if you pay through several orifices for it.
If he's a ranged specialist, the points in Unarmed combat seem a bit of out whack as you could get a few more dice to throw with being ranged. You don't really need a lot of power to be passable at defending yourself at unarmed combat.
Buster, how does that work exactly? You're telling me that Electrical Elemental Strike, if Killing Hands is chosen to deal Physical damage, will deal Physical Damage but with Electrical effects (such as possibly shorting out electronics)?
The entry is a bit vague on this. The general assumption is converting it to elemental damage.
If he's a ranged specialist, the points in Unarmed combat seem a bit of out whack as you could get a few more dice to throw with being ranged. You don't really need a lot of power to be passable at defending yourself at unarmed combat.
Buster, how does that work exactly? You're telling me that Electrical Elemental Strike, if Killing Hands is chosen to deal Physical damage, will deal Physical Damage but with Electrical effects (such as possibly shorting out electronics)?
The entry is a bit vague on this. The general assumption is converting it to elemental damage.
Marwyn, how it works is that elemental strike doesn't "convert" the unarmed attack into an elemental attack, but only adds the secondary effects of an elemental attack to the killing hands.
One thing elemental strike never addresses is what the effective Force of the secondary effect will be - I would probably use the adept's Magic rating, myself.
One thing elemental strike never addresses is what the effective Force of the secondary effect will be - I would probably use the adept's Magic rating, myself.
But how would that work with say Blast? The secondary effect, apart from the windshear, would be the knockdown test. Would you then apply the physical-only unarmed damage as part of that test since the elemental added effect didn't really deal any damage on its own.
Oh, Street Magic errata, wherefore art thou?
Oh, Street Magic errata, wherefore art thou?
Normally you add the Force to the damage for purposes of determining knockdown for blast - thus my quibble with the rules not telling us what the efffective Force for elemental strike is.
I would rule that the "effective force" is the base DV of the attack.
Reasoning: A spell has force = base DV.
Reasoning: A spell has force = base DV.
Right now I've dropped Unarmed Combat and dropped the UA oriented Adept powers.
Dumped the extra skill points into Perception and Locksmith.
Adept Powers:
Mystic Armor 4
Traceless Step
Improved Ability: Agility
????
Man, I wish I could take Improved Ability:Intuition, as that's key for most of the stealth stuff, as well as perception.
I guess I could give him a lower base score for Agility, use the extra point to boost Intuition, then give him Improved Agility twice?
Dumped the extra skill points into Perception and Locksmith.
Adept Powers:
Mystic Armor 4
Traceless Step
Improved Ability: Agility
????
Man, I wish I could take Improved Ability:Intuition, as that's key for most of the stealth stuff, as well as perception.
I guess I could give him a lower base score for Agility, use the extra point to boost Intuition, then give him Improved Agility twice?
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