Here's my Sniper Samurai critique. The character is still a work in progress. As far as I know, I still have 5K in cash (1 BP) unspent. I kept it around just in case I felt like spending a little more on a grenade launcher, AR, or LAW.

There were some deliberate choices. One, I wanted my cyberarms to match up to my bod. That's a non-twinky decision, and I basically had to pay through the nose for it. Yes, I know it would be much more optimal to have one cyberarm, but I like the idea of matching cyberarms from an aesthetic point of view.

As a side note, I got 4 Karma for my character background (which I won't bother posting here... it's fairly long), which I immediately spent on my skill specialisations. To summarize briefly, TAZ was a genetic experiment at a Universal Omnitech research facility. She was born heavily deformed, and kept under observation because they expected rapid death due to cellular breakdown. Instead, she was liberated and raised by Kronstadt Neo-Anarchists. After hitting targets all across Northern Europe, things became a little hot, and she fled for North America, where she started running odd jobs for the Tir.

I know my character's weak points are... lack of skills, and being a horrible, horrible glass cannon. I roll 21 dice to attack, and defend with something like 8 dice. I'm not sure I want to pay the Essence to up-armor myself.

Name: TAZ
Race: Elf (Night One Genotype)

Attributes
BOD 4
AGI 7
REA 4 (6)
STR 3
CHA 4
INT 3
LOG 2
WIL 4
INI 7 (9), 2 Initiative Passes
Edge 2 -(10)

Skills
Automatics (Submachine Gun) 6 ( - 24
Longarms (Sniper Rifles) 4 (6) - 16
Etiquette 3 - 12
Perception 3 - 12
Stealth Skill Group 2 - 20
Athletics Skill Group 2 - 20
Heavy Weapons 2 - 8
Dodge 2 - 8

Knowledges (15 BP)
Neo-Anarchist Politics 3
Automatics background 3
Elven lore 2

Languages
German: N
English (Cityspeak) 3
Russian: 2
Sperethiel 2

Advantages: +15 BP
Biocompatibility (Cyberware) -10
Genetic Heritage -10
Uneducated +20 points
SINner +10 points (Krondstadt Freistadt, but monitored by Universal Omnitech)
Mild allergy to cold iron +5 points


Cyber costs - .5 Ess, 168000 (33.6 BP)

Wired Reflexes 2 (Alpha) - Ess 2.1, 64,000 Y

Obvious Custom Cyber Arm - Ess .9, 36,750 Y
+4 AGI +6000 +4 availability
+1 BOD +1500 +2 availability
Custom Casing +400 +2 availability
Cyberlimb Enhancements
+2 armor +600 4 capacity
+3 AGI +750 3 capacity
Cyberarm Gyromount +6000 4 Capacity
Datajack +500 1 capacity
Commlink (Hermes Ikon) +6000 2 capacity

Obvious Custom Cyber Arm- Ess .9, 26,750 Y
+4 AGI +6000 Y +4 availability
+1 BOD +1500 +2 availability
Custom Casing +400 +2 availability
Cyberlimb Enhancements
+2 armor +600 4 capacity
+3 AGI +750 3 capacity
Reusable auto-injector +500
Cyberarm Holster +2000 7 Capacity

Cybereyes Rating 3 - Ess .36 9500
Base 1000, 12 Capacity
- Low-Light Vision [2] +1000
- Thermographic Vision [2] +1000
- Vision Enhancement 3 [3]+ 4500
- Vision Magnification [2] +1000
- Smartlink [3] +1000

Genetic Optimization .2 (No Cost)
Reakt Ess .4, 24,000
Reflex Recorder (Automatics) .1 10,000
Skillwires 3 Ess .54, 6000

Other Equipment - 31625

* HK MP7 (MP5 rules) 650
- Integral smartgun link 650
- Personalized Grip 100
- Shortened barrel 20
- Skinlink 50
- Integral Gas Vent 2
- Concealable holster (-1 concealability) 75
Damage 5P, AP -, SA/BF/FA, RC 3 (4), 20 (m), 1545

*Ares Executive Protector (Smartlinked) 1500
- Integral sound suppressor
Damage 5P, AP - , SA/BF/FA, RC (1), 30 ©, 1500

SMG Ammo
- 100 Rounds EX-Explosive SMG ammunition 1000
- 100 Rounds Regular SMG ammunition 200

* Ares Desert Strike 3350
- Integral extended barrel
- Rigid stock with shock pad
- External smartlink (top) +400
- External silencer (barrel) +200
- Chameleon coating +1000
- Skinlink +50
Damage 8P, AP -3, SA, RC (1), 14 ©, 5200

Sniper Rifle Ammo
- 70 rounds EX-Explosive Sniper Rifle ammunition 700

FN 5-7C - 600
- Integral Smartgun Link +600
- Skinlink +50
- Loaded with Stick-n-Shock 160
Damage 6S(e), AP -half, SA/BF, RC 1, 20 © 1410
* Stored in Cyberarm Holster

Steampunk Line armor
- Overcoat 3/3 1000
- Vest 2/2 600
- Pants 1/1 600
Total: 6/6 2200

Half body Form-fitting Body Armor 4/1 900

Chameleon Suit 6/4 - 8000
- Themal Damping 4 - 2000
Total: 10000

Armored gun bag 6/2, 800

OS - Iris Orb 1000

Emotitoy, nonmobile (Rating 6) 600

Fake SIN Rating 3 3000 (Dame Alynne Smythe-Gordon, Tir Citizen)
Fake License Rating 4 (HK MP7) 400 (attached to above)
Fake License Rating 4 (FN 5-7C) 400 (attached to above)

1 month Squatter Lifestyle 500
1 month Low Lifestyle 2000

375 remaining
Low-light flashlight 200 (for gun)
Gas Mask 100
Flash-Bang 30
High Explosive Grenade 45

EDIT: Forgot to mention my contacts.
Drake of Alamais who is is a powerful mover and shaker in the Neo-Anarchist movement (Connections 6, Loyalty 4)
Tir diplomatic attache with anti-Monarchist leanings (Connections 3, Loyalty 1)

EDIT2: Changes made...

IIRC Night Ones have a Mild Allergy: Sunlight.

Since you have Athletics Group which has Gymnastics in it, drop the Dodge and put the points into some thing else, like perception. You can use Gymnastics Dodge instead of Dodge. Also Gymnastics uses Agility for the base attribute meaning more dice for the roll. Dodge uses Reaction less dice than Agility.

Uneducated Negative Quality can and will bite very hard.

If she is a sniper should the Automatics and Longarms skill levels be swapped?

Also Social Skills dice in the English Language are capped at your English skill level.

You can only have one type of Lifestyle also at creation.

WMS

Really? I don't recall reading this, I always thought it was good business to have several at chargen...

I see the character as having had some formal military training... with a heavy focus on Automatics before retraining as a Sniper. As part of a Neoanarchist militia, no less, where people are allowed to really focus on whatever they want to focus on.

Dropping Dodge... should I drop Reakt or swap it for Synch? Since Reakt only adds to Reaction, it shouldn't add to the Gymnastics Dodge. Unless the Gymnastics Dodge uses Reaction... it's rather unclear. It just says add your Gymnastics to your Defense roll, which implies that it's treated like a regular defense in every other way, using Reaction.

I think I'll can the Uneducated thing. I took to suggest the character was very uneducated. Could just lower Logic to 1, I suppose.

if you wanted to munch out a bit, you could take heavy weapons (assault cannons) instead of longarms (sniper rifles). you don't use any other longarms, so you wouldn't necessarily be hurting yourself; if you need an AR-like weapon, either fire bursts (automatic skill) or grab an LMG. and if the fit hits the shan, you can whip out a grenade launcher. assault cannons have superior range, damage, and AP to sniper rifles; i generally prefer to think of them as anti-materiel rifles rather than big guns.

your defenses aren't that bad. you roll 8 dice to dodge, but you also roll up to 12 dice to soak--more, if you're not scared of penalties (and with the number of dice you're rolling, you probably shouldn't be). you're not a meatshield, but you can survive long enough to run away.

I played a sniper sam back in 3rd ed and what I did for his main weapon (scratch built) was to take a sports rifle as a base, shorten the barrel, add a smartlink, a tricked out scope and a collapsible stock. The range was still plenty for the scale of most urban situations (you arn't going to be shooting someone for 3 or 4 KM out), still did more than enough damage to drop an unsuspecting target, but it was small enough that it could be carted around in a large briefcase and my GM ruled that it was easy enough to handle I could use it at close quarters too.

Just a suggestion of something that worked for me.

An Assault Cannon is something to aspire to later It's not like anybody's going to making the 18 Availability roll anytime soon for me in the party. As for right now, rolling 14 dice is probably more than enough to plant a grenade where I need it. Or plant a LAW up someone's tailpipe.

EDIT: My other thought is a modular cyberarm. Might be nice to take off that completely verboten gyromount.

Drop the reackt and get sythncardium instead, adds to gymnastics dodge:)

Yeah, but reakt adds 2 to reaction for dodging, which trumps...

Not at all, because I imagine his sniper is also going to need to know how to run, jump, ckumb and conduct other activities in the átheletics' skill group.

So we can either take gymnastics, which we are already going to want because our character is a ninja and then use sythncardium which has great synergies with our ninjaness AND makes us harder to shoot, or we can just do harder to shoot.

That and you can take synthcardium 3 too, which adds 3 to dodging.

wow, that's retarded. what the heck is the point of that rule?

True, Synthcardium is definitely a good choise, but for it to count when dodging you need to use full defense, for reakt, it adds to reaction, which you can always roll to try and get out of the way...
So for dodging purposes, it trumps...

I can only assume that Lifestyle as a whole does not quite encompass the same things as it did in previous editions. What I mean is that, in the past, Lifestyle represented one particular home base (or place) for the character, whereas in SR4 Lifestyle is (possibly) meant to encompass everything non-run-related, and as such bolt-holes and safehouses and such are supposed to be rolled into the one Lifestyle rating (and fluffed out by the GM and Player as needed). This could be because of the trend toward simplification evident in the new edition.

I don't do things this way myself. Just pointing out the quote because it was requested.

Like Fortune said, simplification. I just threw it out. There needs to be some kind of system for me to have multiple flats, even if I rarely use them. A safehouse is not safe unless I am the only one who knows about it.

For the Cybereyes, I would really think Radar Vision would be good to add in if you can squeeze out the capacity for it. Why? because if you can see THROUGH the wall your target is hiding behind, you just have to breach the barrier rating, you do not have to go to Intuition+Combat Skill. And when you et that Barret 121..that will be darn good

Augmentation's Radar Sensors are available in a non-cyber version in Arsenal.

Reakt is there for point efficiency purposes, to help me make the most of my Genetic Heritage. I don't feel like I need die pool boosts to Athletics and climbing, because of my currently crazy Agility. My die pools are big enough as it is for most tests.

Here we go:

Race: Elf (Night One Genotype) -- An UO-attempt at playing with rare genes I assume. I also assume it´s too late to go for another race.

Attributes
BOD 4
AGI 7 -- So far, 5(7) would be better. The arms make improvement expensive.
REA 4 (6)
STR 3
CHA 4
INT 3 -- This is were the points should go.
LOG 2
WIL 4 -- You shall not count to 4. Special permission to count to 5 may be granted for the less-efficient ones.
INI 7 (9), 2 Initiative Passes --Nope, you´ve got wired 2. You should, for a sniper, reduce it to Wired 1.
Edge 2 -(10)

Skills
Automatics (Submachine Gun) 6 ( - 24 -- You are not a sniper, you are a minor deity of SMG shootouts.
Longarms (Sniper Rifles) 4 (6) - 16 -- And with 10 skill ranks in Firearms skills, I´d buy the group at 4.
Etiquette 3 - 12 -- I consider Influence 1 to be more useful, and fitting to this build.
Perception 3 - 12
Stealth Skill Group 2 - 20 -- Disguise(Camouflage) and Infiltration might do the trick, you decide
Athletics Skill Group 2 - 20
Heavy Weapons 2 - 8 -- What for? Neither SMGs nor Sniper Rifles have underbarrel grenade launchers. Take thrown weapons.
Dodge 2 - 8 -- Dodge 0, Influence 1, Athletics 3

Knowledges (15 BP) --Pityful. Intuition will do them good
Neo-Anarchist Politics 3
Automatics background 3 -- What is this supposed to do? It is not the Armorer skill
Elven lore 2 -- Something along "Tir Traditions"?

Languages
German: N
English (Cityspeak) 3
Russian: 2
Sperethiel 2

Advantages: +15 BP
Biocompatibility (Cyberware) -10
Genetic Heritage -10
Uneducated +20 points -- Mayor Red Flag!!! Take combat paralysis, thats not even half bad for a sniper
SINner +10 points (Krondstadt Freistadt, but monitored by Universal Omnitech) --10BP say UO is sharing the data, IMO
Mild allergy to cold iron +5 points


Equipment severely shortened because of little comments:

Genetic Optimization .2 (No Cost) --Use it for another stat, or leave it be. Customisation can not be improved later.
Reflex Recorder (Automatics) .1 10,000 --You need that die? Wrong skill if the answer is yes.
Skillwires 3 Ess .54, 6000 --But no skills so far. Wait until you aquire a grown-up version ingame.
Fake SIN Rating 3 3000 (Dame Alynne Smythe-Gordon, Tir Citizen) --Could be rating 4 according to the errata.

1 month Squatter Lifestyle 500
1 month Low Lifestyle 2000 --only one "primary" lifestyle, secondary lifestyles take a flat payment to-be-agreed-upon with your GM


On the other things mentioned:
React is superior in normal combat, because it works without spending an IP on Full Defense. Your char should indeed take Synthacardium because it gets you into places. I´d consider Retractable Climbing Claws, too. I´d also cut the Cyberarm Holster and something else, and get a pair of modular obvious lower arms. Plug&Play...

Hmm, just some comments on the last post...

Some good advice from the last thread. I did want Stealth group for Palming. It's important to be able to hide your guns if necessary. And I should be able to palm a short-barrelled SMG under my coat with only a little bit of trouble.

I think when I made the character, I wanted to be a sniper, but realised that in the game, it's better to be the God of Automatics, and built my character accordingly. I also went a little overboard, and tried to crank my Automatics as high as I could go. I could go with Firearms Group 4, but I don't see much call for being able to use pistols... Machine Pistols are pretty good as it is, especially when fitted with Stick-and-Shock rounds.

Speaking of which, I should probably get some insulation on my armor. Will do that in my draft.

My Genetic Optimisation is obviously Agility. I mostly did that to raise my improvement cap, so I could theoretically max out my cyberarms even further later on. Or rather, I forgot to take advantage of it, because I could easily get Agility 8 base arms, with +3 Agility on top of that.

You don't get to use Agility for a gymnastics dodge, it's Reaction + Gymnastics (or Reaction + Dodge + Gymnastics vs a melee attack).

DS

Pistols are of much use because even Automatic Pistols are larger than heavy pistols. And with stick&shock, even light pistols can be used.
We have houseruled Firearms to include Heavy Weapons, try to talk your GM into it.

You really should buy Synaptic Accellerator 1. The one IP lost saves you 2.2 points of essence. Compensate by also buying Muscle Toner 2, for Essence 2,5, overall agility 9, 2 IP.

Alright, with the chorus of suggestions for downgrading to a mere 1 IP, I am going for it. I'm going to Synaptic Accelerator 1, and with all that extra Essence room, I'm ditching Biocompatibility. In the meantime, I've lowered my Agility and put a few more points into Intuition and Reaction... for more skill points. Also, having fewer initiative passes means it's becoming even more important to get in that one shot and go first.

Climbing claws... definitely a solid idea. I have enough room in my cyberarms to get those. Gecko pads are another interesting possibility.

I also went with the general firearms skill. Might leave the automatics specialisation for now, and pick up a Heavy Pistols specialisation. Since we all know heavy pistols rock. And the Savelette Guardian is king.

Thanks for all the help so far, guys. I went to one very twinky extreme with a ridiculous to-hit die pool, and now I'm ratcheting it back to something much more balanced.

Synthacardium adds specifically to Athletics Tests - I don't think a gymnastics dodge is an Athletics Test (i.e. the linked attribute of Gymnastics, being Agility, is not involved), it's a defense (Reaction) test in which Gymnastics skill is used as a DP modifier. Contrast with Enhanced Articulation, which is much broader: "any test involving Physical skills that are linked to Physical attributes."

DS

Alright. Here's the latest draft of the character. I put it behind spoiler tags so there isn't quite as much to scroll through.


3 BP remaining... could just stick it in Contacts and get another one (arms dealer, most likely). We do get a free contact with a Fixer for the game. Another couldn't hurt. Alternatively, I could get some wheels, and maybe a drone like the MCT fly spy. Also could get a replacement forearm without a highly illegal gyromount.

I also split the cost of the retractable climbing claws between my two cyberarms. Seems to make way more sense. The text of the item description implies you get them in each arm, anyway.

I like the new draft!

A cheap, disposeable set of wheels would be nice. Contact BP can be the best or the worst BP you ever spend, depending on the campaign. As you need to transport a sniper rifle, you should aquire a car from your first payout, if you don´t get it now.

I think my GM will be fair about contact BP. God knows, I've been really nice about it in the past. I mean, I had one character in a previous campaign have an AI as a contact.

Good point. Definitely should get a car. I wonder if it would be in bad taste to ask for a "DC Sniper" modification.

Hmmm...you playing in DC IRL? If so, likely. Truth be told, I'd give it to you.

Only went through the first half of the thread, so if this has been answered, discount this post.

Reakt adds to all defensive Reaction tests.

Gymnastic Dodge is Reaction+Gymnastic Skill (+Melee Skill / Dodge)

So, you *can* benefit from Reakt regardless if you are dodging with Dodge or Gymnastics.

having a flyspy to provide overwatch for you is a pretty good idea. if you're out in the boonies half a klick away from the rest of your team, early warning that someone's found you is vital. for 15k, i'm pretty sure you can pack in some higher-rated sensors and a high-end clearsight.

At the costs Flyspies and sensor upgrades run, I don't honestly see how you can afford not to have at least one.

For the record, though, my current character is a rigger/street sam hybrid, so drones are my backup all the time.

In the end, I did get a Fly-Spy. I plan to hide it in my smuggling compartment!

Look mommy, I´m an aircraft carrier!

Good plan, in many situations you´ll get away with carrying a weapon, but the spy drone will get you under surveillance.

I had this crazy image of having a hive in my cyberarm which was capable of launching and repairing bug drones!

you should put it in a cybertorso. cyberpunk version of Mushizo from Ninja Scroll.

I like the character, but I'd definitely go with the contact or the car. Just think out what kind of awesome contact you could get.