Yes, he specializes in shooting, infiltrating and electronics. Somewhat of an oxymoron

Anyway, the purpose of this character is to easily infiltrate any building and bypass all electronic security systems and locks to get what he needs. He will do this silently and with proper weapon defenses. He is also good at using computers and searching for information when necessary.

Without further ado:

Jon
Human
26
Male
Init/Pass: 14/3
Lifestyle: Squatter

Qualities:
Sensitive Neural Structure +5BP
Scorched +5BP
Enemy (Ares Corporation) +10BP
In Debt (22500) +15BP
Restricted Gear (3 Times) -15 BP

Attributes:
Body 2
Agility 5+4
Reaction 3+6
Strength 1+4
Charisma 1
Intuition 5
Logic 5
Willpower 1
Edge 6
Initiative 6

Skills:
Stealth Group (4) +1 Reflex Recorder +1 Enhanced Articulation (For Physically-linked Skills)
Athletics Group (4) +1 Synthcardium +1 Enhanced Articulation
Electronics Group (4)

Pistols (6) +1 Enhanced Articulation +2 Smart-Link
Long Arms (4) +1 Enhanced Articulation +2 Smart-Link
Perception (4) +3 (Visual --Vision Enhancement) +3 (Aural -- Audio Enhancement)

Lonestar Procedures 4
Corporate Security Systems 5
Corporate Politics 4
Ares Macrotechnology Corporation 4
Knigth Erant Procedures 4
Safe Houses 3
Firearms Design 3
Action Movies 3

Equipment:
Ares Desert Strike (Loaded with 14 EX-Explosive Rounds)
Chameleon Suit (8k)
1 Microtransceiver 6 (1200)
1 Metalink (100)
Earbuds with Audio Enhancement 3 (310)
Goggles with Ultrasound and Vision Enhancement 3 (1300)
Contacts with Low Light and Smart Link (650)
Gecko Tape Gloves (250)

Carried:
1) Ares Predator IV in Concealed Holster (With 1 additional fully loaded EX-Explosive clip)

2) Form-Fitting Body Armor Half-Suit under normal clothing

3) Goggles

4) Contacts

5) Earbuds

6) Commlink

Modified Weapons:
Predator has Electronic Firing Mechanism (2), No Trigger, Silencer (2), and Improved Range Finger (1)| RC = 1 | -7 Sound Tests | -1 Conceal Overall | Cost= 2.8k
Ares Desert Strike has External Smartgun System Underbarrel, Improved Range Finder (1), Ruthenium Polymer Coating(2), Sling, No Trigger and Internal Silencer (2) | RC = 1 | -6 Sound Tests | +2 Conceal Overall | Cost = 6.2k

Bioware/Cyberware:
Muscle Toner 4 (Restricted Gear)
Muscle Augmentation 4 (Restricted Gear)
Synthcardium 1
Enhanced Articulation 1
Reflex Recorder (Stealth Group)

Move-By-Wire 2 (Restricted Gear)
Reaction Enhancer 2

Contacts:
Big Earl:
He runs a bar in downtown that caters to a select few who call themselves "Shadowrunners". While he doesn't know much about them, he does catch a few pieces of conversation while serving their beers. I first met Big Earl when I happened to hear about shadowrunning. We had a good chat and he seems to be a nice guy, but who knows. I go to his bar roughly once a week to hopefully catch some shadowrunners and learn the ropes.

+1 Loyalty +3 Connections



-----------

This guy was a former military man who joined Ares and was part of their unofficial hit squad. He quit that gig after he realized how crappy his life was and now he's on the run from Ares and at the moment hiding in an abandoned loft. He is pretty depressed that his life has turned out the way it has (hence Willpower 1) and he really doesn't like to talk much although he's average looking (hence Charisma 1). Other then that, he is very analytical and very good at physical activities. My background is pretty long and explains him in more detail. He's just started Shadowrunning so he has no etiquette at the moment. He'll be getting that very soon as he finishes some runs.

Thanks for the help.

He's fast and pretty good with his weapons, but he's a glass hammer in the extreme. A body of 2 is not high enough. And a mage will waste you instantly with a willpower of 1. All that edge won't help you if you only re-roll one dice. But I'm not a big fan of edge-heavy character creation. I'd suggest putting all (or just some) of those edge points into body and willpower. Probably to increase your bod to 4 or 5 and your willpower to about 3. Also, you have a good Reaction, so you should invest in Dodge to keep yourself alive. Find 10 points. Get two levels of dodge, and a specialisation in (Ranged Combat). Also, with a body of 2, you're going to be facing encumberance modifiers for all the armour you're wearing.

Also, Enhanced Articulation doesn't add to combat skills (I think it's a bit silly, but the game makes a distinction between physical and combat skills). So you don't get that bonus to your pistols/long arms.

You haven't bought an Operating System for your commlink. Also, you better hope you're not running anything over that commlink, because you will be hacked with such pitiful ratings and no programs or IC.

I love Edge-heavy character creation, myself, but I still gotta agree with Sir_Psycho on this one. Nice as it is, it still isn't essential, and it usually has to be gutted whenever you do a character who is really good at more than one area.

Your character is really crippled in Body, Willpower, and Charisma. Not in an "interesting to roleplay" kind of way, but in a "this character will have a hard time surviving" kind of way. Body and Willpower have already been touched upon. Charisma of 1 and no social skills is also bad, because a Charisma of 1 means you can't even default on social skills. You really need a Body of 4, a Willpower of 3, and a Charisma of 2.

So how to get them? I would reduce Edge to 2 for 40 of the points you need. Now let's look at skills. The Athletics and Stealth skill groups are gold, but do you really need the entire Electronics group for someone who specializes in break-in? I would get the hardware skill at 4 with a specialization in Maglocks, and computer at 1, to save 18 points, 10 to raise your Attributes and 8 for later. For information searches, just use a Browse program. Now, you are actually not bad off against ranged attacks. You have a 9 Reaction for passively dodging, and you can add more dice from your Athletics skill group to do a gymnastics dodge for full dodge. But you still have little capability for melee defense. I would lower the Athletics skill group by 1 (3 is still good). Use those 10 points, plus the 8 remaining from earlier, to buy dodge: 4 with a specialization in melee (at rating: 4, your move-by-wire will be able to add its full +2 bonus to the dodge skill, since skill enhancements are limited to skill x 1.5).

As far as 'ware goes, Sir_Psycho is right about the limited effectiveness of enhanced articulation. I would get rid of it. Instead, get 2 more points of synthcardium and reflex recorders for your pistol and longarms skills. It will cost the same, but be 0.1 more in Essense cost.

Thanks for the tips guys!

I thought synthcardium is also limited by the 1.5x modified dice pool rule?

I reduced Logic to 2, increased body to 5 and deleted Enhanced Articulation. In its place, I bought +2 Cerebral Booster and +1 Synthcardium. My Willpower still is low indeed. Charisma will increase as I gain karma

I'll go and edit my character some more based on your suggestions, Gylph.

does being 22,500 give you +15 bp? That seems a little high since 5k is 1 bp. I would say +1 bp for every 5k you are in debt. Also where is your fake SIN? No fake SIN could really bone you since every time it is needed Ares will be in your team killing.... well you in fact.

Negative Quality in debt gives you 15k and you have to repay 22.5k. It bestows 15BP.

Instead of:

Muscle Toner 4 (Restricted Gear)
Muscle Augmentation 4 (Restricted Gear)
Enhanced Articulation 1 WARNING:DOES NOT ADD TO COMBAT SKILLS!
Reaction Enhancer 2

I suggest:

Muscle Toner 2
Muscle Augmentation 2
Suprathyroid Gland (Restricted Gear)
Reaction Enhancer 1

SirPsycho´s desired Dodge skill can be paid for by the leftovers, you need it with an MBW. Echo Glyphs attribute target levels. Edge is an afterthought, unless you are working under the karma system. Logic can likely stand a reduction, too. If you want more dice for your hardware skill, consider a cerebral booster.

Some notes on skill groups:
- I would get Firearms 4 instead of the pistols/long arms combo. OTOH, if your campaign needs that kind of min/max, you need to seriously beef up damage resistance.
- Electronics is a very nice group, keep that, if need be at a lower rating.
- Influence 1 needs to be on the list, see defending against social skills

The synthcardium only gives a dice pool bonus, rather than raising the skill, so it doesn't fall under the 1.5 x skill cap. Move-by-Wire does fall under the cap, since it actually raises the dodge skill itself. This is significant, since the dodge skill is doubled for melee full defense.

Ah, ok. Thanks!

For Edge, I thought it would be very useful for those situations where I'm breaking into a maglock box and I need to score 4 successes to deactivate the alarm (it might happen!) but end up failing the roll (since even 12-13 dice is not always guaranteed!) so I'd need edge to ensure I don't trigger an alarm.

By the way, does the +2 dodge dice work with autosoft dodge skill?

Comments based on original stats posted:

1) Safety first, stay alive. Body 1 and Willpower 1 is great for karma efficiency but as those are often your last line of defense against damage, you got to be alive to get that karma, see?

2) Attributes: 1 or 5. Skill Groups: 1 or 4. Skills 1 or 6.

3) Logic or Intuition. One or the other.

You have Intuition linked skills in the Stealth Group which is absolutely critical, so I'd lower Logic to 1. You can make do, like Glyph said, with Hardware and Computer. You can boost Hardware to 6 to compensate for a lower Logic if you reduce Pistols down to 4. I would take the points gained to pump Body and Willpower. Personally I'd lower Reaction down to 1 and boost Willpower up to 5.

I assume that you will be shooting (at least at first) from a stealth position. If so, then I'd reduce Pistols down to 4. Personally if I am soft maxing both Stealth and Intuition, I won't bother with Perception; but that would depend on individual GMs.

Hi guys. I've done some modifications to my character using all your feedback. I think he is now more optimized to a purely infiltration and gunning role but I don't think he would have done well in electronics and the like anyway. I will make it a development goal for him to branch out into these areas while at the same time developing some decent shadowrunner social skills.

Here is the revised version:

Jon
Human
26
Male
Init: 12/3

Qualities:
Sensitive Neural Structure +5BP
Scorched +5BP
Enemy (Ares Corporation) +10BP
In Debt (22500) +15BP
Restricted Gear (3 Times) -15 BP
Magic Resistance (2 Times) -10BP

Stats:
Body 5+1
Agility 5+4
Reaction 1+6
Strength 1+1
Charisma 1 (I will be buying emotion software a little later for this)
Intuition 5
Logic 1+2
Willpower 5
Edge 6
Init: 12/3
Magic Resistance: 2

Skills:
Stealth Group 4
Athletics Group 4

Hardware 6 +2 Maglocks
Pistols 4 +2 Heavy Pistols
Long Arms 4 +2 Sniper Rifles
Perception 4

Lonestar Procedures 4
Corporate Security Systems 5
Corporate Politics 4
Ares Macrotechnology Corporation 4
Knigth Erant Procedures 4
Firearms Design 3

Equipment:
Muscle Toner 4
Suprathyroid Gland
Synthcardium 3
Cerebral Booster 2
Reflex Recorder (Stealth Group)

Move-By-Wire 2
Reaction Enhancers 1

Armor:
Chameleon Suit 6/4 + Thermal Dampening 6
Form Fitting Half-Body Suit 4/1
(I'm going to buy accessories later so that I will have 12/10 armor altogether)

Weapons:
Ares Predator IV
Ares Desert Strike

Modifications to weapons:
Predator has Electronic Firing Mechanism (2), No Trigger, Silencer (2), and Improved Range Finger (1)| RC = 1 | -7 Sound Tests | -1 Conceal Overall | Cost= 2.8k
Ares Desert Strike has External Smartgun System Underbarrel, Improved Range Finder (1), Ruthenium Polymer Coating(2), Sling, No Trigger and Internal Silencer (2) | RC = 1 | -6 Sound Tests | +2 Conceal Overall | Cost = 6.2k

Carried:
Ares Desert Strike (Loaded with 14 EX-Explosive Rounds)
Chameleon Suit (8k)
1 Microtransceiver 6 (1200)
1 Metalink (100)
Earbuds with Audio Enhancement 3 (310)
Goggles with Ultrasound and Vision Enhancement 3 (1300)
Contacts with Low Light and Smart Link (650)
Gecko Tape Gloves (250)

Contacts:
Big Earl:
He runs a bar in downtown that caters to a select few who call themselves "Shadowrunners". While he doesn't know much about them, he does catch a few pieces of conversation while serving their beers. I first met Big Earl when I happened to hear about shadowrunning. We had a good chat and he seems to be a nice guy, but who knows. I go to his bar roughly once a week to hopefully catch some shadowrunners and learn the ropes.

+1 Loyalty +1 Connections


----

Right now I know there are a few weaknesses. Namely, his charisma is still very low. I am going to say that he's really depressed right now and at best average looking so it leads to a low charisma score ATM. I am going to make it a priority to buy influence skill group and emotion software as he develops as a shadowrunner. I think it makes sense that as he becomes more in tune with shadowrunning, he'll develop the necessary social skills as a shadowrunner. Emotion software will serve as a temporary fix to this problem.

I've also had a hard time deciding whether or not to scrap my edge focus and concentrate more on core attributes. I think I've done a decent job at balancing out my attributes with the only notable exception of charisma (which I tried to outline above). I think edge will serve my character well in those tough times where I mess up on critical rolls and need some special help. Such an ability is unmatched by any sort of cyberware/bioware modification unlike all other attributes. My guy is very very heavily dependent on these modifications but ultimately he turns out to be pretty well balanced with only a few weaknesses now.

So, I tried to fix his greatest flaws (low social skills and resistances) and I think I was moderately successful. I think his resistances will be 18/16 for Phys/Impact and 15/7 for Willpower Stun and Magic Resistances. The only real compromises I had to make are a temporary loss of reaction (7 instead of 9), -2 to pistol skills, no dodge skills and -3 to STR. The electronics subgroup was probably outside the scope of this character anyway and I believe he has a well-rounded role as an infiltrator first, gunner second. I was thinking of just buying activesoft dodge software and forgetting about melee specialization. I can still use my +2 from MBW with activesofts, right? Ultimately, I don't think dodge will even matter at this point because 1) I'm going to be stealthed most of the time and 2) My resistance rolls are now exceptional such that I can probably shrug off some serious damage regardless. The STR attribute appears not to have any consequence to my character besides lowered athletic performance, but the increase in athletics skills from synthcardium as well as gecko gloves should compensate for any shortcomings.

One thing I was thinking of doing was to just scrap some of the thermal dampening and buying emotionsoft right off the bat. I'd be able to purchase rating 6 emotionsoft for approximately the cost of 4 levels of thermal dampening, but I don't know if that would be a wise idea since I'm primarily a stealther and not a talker. I could just buy emotionsoft a little later.

Please tell me if I need to modify anything else.

The suprathyroid gland adds to Agility, too, so you only need a base Agility of 4.

Actually I just decided to reduce Muscle Toner to 2 and replace it with the Barret Model 121 as the restricted gear. I now have 3.2k left over so I'll buy the emotion software.

One thing though: in the description for the Model 121, it says it is a "heavy sniper rifle". Does that mean it would not be usable for daily use (ignoring the fact that it's a huge gun)? Also, why does the gun have a recoil modifier of -2 if it can only fire in SA mode? Wouldn't it be impossible to have a need for -2 recoil?

edit: Thanks for the tip, Gylph. I'll note it. In fact, I'll probably swallow a -2 Agility deduction and just get Influence skill group (1) in conjunction with emotion software to overcome my deficiency in Charisma.

The Barret in SR is based off that .50 cal rifle used for anti-material kinda stuff, which also happens to work well in blasting people to bits. Its about as subtle as carting around the old school SR Assault Cannon. Its not a 'hunting rifle' kinda rifle, its a 'rifle I'll use to kill cars or other kinda vehicles with'. (Lookup Youtube Barrett M82) for some fun vids.


In terms of story with the char, to me, there seems to be a disconnect with the electronics hacker aspect, and a 'long rifle' aspect. A guy who has to inflitrate and break into stuff on site, would probably rely on (my opinion) closer ranged stuff, like pistols, or close quarter kinda rifles/sub-guns. A sniper-rifle won't do him any good on trying to escape after infiltration, and would probably alert people too much if used BEFORE he tried his infiltration/break ins. You're using a weapon that's intended to blast things from like a mile away. Plus its not very subtle, sound or effect wise.

Mechanically, carting around a sniper rifle gives you a big bang for your buck, but its heavy, not concealable, unless you break it down (I suppose) but then it wouldn't be readily available for emergency use, and doesn't seem to be as useful without proper bracing.

Toturi was sarcastic. Minmaxing to that degree is not universally accepted.

Ah, but RAW it is and sarcastic I was not. All of my Prime Runner NPCs are all created following Toturi's Secret Recipe and my Equal NPCs are perfectly viable PCs too. I practise what I preach.

My sincere apologies. I meant no disrespect, honest misunderstanding.

It has 2 points of recoil compensation becouse that what the bipod gives, it's doesn't matter if the gun needs it.
Actually my Sasha has a Ares Desert Strike with an internal bipod not becouce the gun needs 3 points of recoil compensation, but becouse i thinks she would get a bipod for her sniper rifle.

I admit, this is just me, but...I'd be questioning why the character has so many natural 1's.

A 1 I can get. even 2 1's I can get. But 4 1's means they REALLY either A. Had to not care, or B. be deficient. Now, others might disagree with me; attributes are a very subjective thing. But while it's a game, and it's not meant to be ''totally realistic'', I would have some things to wonder:

For someone that has Superior-in SR4, VERY Superior natural Body and Agility, how are they so naturally weak and unreactive? IMO, beefing up Body and Agility THAT much would at the VERY least result in 2's in Reaction and Strength. It's just me, though. I always am wary when I see the Agility 5(9) Strength 1(something) character. I'm sure almost everyone minmaxes to a point, sure, I do it, my friends to it, tons of folks I know do it..but that goes to really blatant-land.

Likewise, if your character digs Logic things...I mean, if you explain they ''really like computer stuff but were always kind of slow...so they bought some ware to realize their dream'', I'd accept that. Low Logic/high Intuition is very likely, as is the other way around. They aren't as ''connected'', IMO, as the physical attributes. Especially with that high score in Athletics...HOW did he stay so naturally weak and unreactive when studying the entire Athletics group that well?

(Some things CAN be explained. A longtime steroid junkie(Severe addiction), could very well have Strength 5 and Body 1, due to deteriorating health. But that's a rather extreme example. I've seen some boxers that could probably be considered Body 2, strength 5(strong but don't take hits as well, but aren't in bad health).

Charisma of 1? Ok, so your character is rather socially inept. That happens. Now, if said character had Charisma 1(4) from Tailored Pheremones, a bunch of Emotion ware and a crapload of Social skills...well, ok, if there's a good story behind it, I'm all ears, and I could run with it.

I guess, if I were the GM(which I'm not), I would have the biggest problem with that Attribute spread. Now, what I personally would do is try to shave up 20 BP to raise Reaction and Strength to a 2 so it doesn't look so...twinked. Now, I don't mind low physical attributes if you explain that your character ''is a total couch potato that doesn't pay attention to their physical health''...but why is Body and Agility so high, in that case? I'm not saying all four physical attributes fit together 120%, but IMO, when you pay THAT much attention to two of them, some natural ability OUGHT to trickle down to the other two. And 2's are out of this world; in SR4; a 2 is the baseline ''average joe'' stat. I could happily believe a pair of 5's and a pair of 2's...but a pair of 5's and a pair of natural 1's I'd require explaining about.

Now, the skill list looks good for what you want, IMO. I don't mean to sound like I'm tearing the character a new one but those physical attributes seem awfully twinky to me.

One minor thing which occured to me, wouldn't the entire Ares Corporation be a somewhat higher level of flaw than 10 points?

Personally I'd scale it down to something a bit less huge. Perhaps a division or a manager within the corporation?

The Sniper rifle you have comes with an imaging scope, so for 100 Nuyen you could get the Image Magnification upgrade. Which is a much cheaper and more effective way to solve the range penalty than Improved Range Finder (which costs a full 1000).

I'd also have to agree with Voran about the Sniper Rifle in general, it's not practical for sneaking around with inside a building. Which means either he'll be leaving it outside or not even taking it along for most missions. Something in the way of a Submachine gun would be much better, personally I'm a big fan of the FN P93 Praetor with the electronic firing and Gas vent 3 upgrades. Lot of RC for a reasonable price, meaning when the sneaky stealth pistol approach fails you can fall back on full auto firing (and as an added bonus the Praetor has a nice ammo capacity too).

Hi guys,

Thanks for the constructive feedback. I guess I went overboard on the attribute spread. For the sake of balance I'll just decrease Edge and modify my attributes so they are more in line with something more realistic.

As for the sniper rifle, I though I could just sling it on my back somewhat tightly (using some mechanical sling that winds up automatically to a preset level) and still have great flexibility.

A submachine gun seems to go against the character's theme of silent death and infiltration. I plan on being both a long-ranged and short-ranged fighter with great infiltration skills. So even if the mission called for scouting over large plots of land, I'd still be able to do so with confidence that I could fight well at long range with silent precision.

edit: For Ares Corp, I suppose it would make more sense to specify the division looking for me. Thanks for that

I'm pretty confident (but not completely, as I have no books with me) that Enemy must be a specific person (a character built by your GM), who seeks to do you harm on a regular basis, and whose resources and connections are determined by the level of Enemy.

I think you might be more accurately looking for Wanted - although that implies than anyone who knows that you're wanted might come after you.

Hmmm perhaps the easy break down option would work better then? That way the gun can be broken down into small parts and transported in a bag.

The trouble with having it on a sling is that while it's great for moving around outside if you need to go through vent shafts or do much climbing it'll get in the way. (Climbing less so, but if you're trying to climb up the side of a skyscraper then any distractions are a bad thing).

Nah you can have a corporation too.

"The Enemy may even be a group or organization, rather than a single antagonist or rival"

SMG +silencer (or suppressor whichever it is, im to lazy to look) = silent death. Heck today the MP5 is the stealth weapon of choice for many.

Barret = OMG WTF WAS THAT?! death. There is no silent precision with a barret. Only a loud, messy, obvious death punctuated by a large anti subtle muzzle flash.

Trust me if you want long range subtlety then just get another sniper that can be silenced. In my opinion if your going to be an up close stealth character why not just go for the SMG? At its core SMGs are faster pistols with more ammo and better control. Plus I noticed you spec'd in heavy pistols which are also something that arent very stealthy. There's a reason their called HEAVY. The sound they make is ear cracking and even with a silencer would still make a noticeable thud that only the most lax (or cowardly) of rent a cops wouldn't check out.

And Skillwires are your friend.

It makes it so easy to be at least fair with any skill.