Mystical Ninja
Race: Human (0 BP)
Attributes: 240
Body 3
Agility 5
Reaction 4
Strength 2
Charisma 2
Int. 3
Logic 4
Will 5
Edge 1
Essence 6
Magic 5 (3 spellcasting)
Qualities +5
Magic Adept 10
Incompetant (Pistols, Longarms, Automatics) +15
20 Spellcasting 5
12 Counterspelling 3
20 Infiltration 5
16 Dodge 4
16 Unarmed 4
12 Gymnastics 4
12 Climbing 4
12 Perception 3
6 Throwing (Knives) 1 (3)
Adept Powers:
Agility Boost 1
Ultrasound Sense
Great Leap (2)
Improved Infiltrate (2)
Critical Strike (2)
Spells:
Death Touch
Shatter
Prophylaxis
Imropoved Invisibility
Stealth
Mask
Resources 4 BP
Contacts 9 BP
I haven't fully fleshed this character out yet, or am even sure it's practical... Many "typical" ninja powers are not represented by adepts, so I came up with this mystic adept to use spells for the more outrageous effects. Chi-using hand to hand blows are represented by Touch spells. She'd overcast on them, all the way to force 6, as the drain is very low.
Too specific? The spell selection is very thematic, perhaps too so. Magic Fingers would make for an interesting number of diversions, or throwing knives from behind. Skills are somewhat limited, as HTH combat, sneaking and magic are pretty separate fields. No lockpicking, though there are Maglock Passkeys and autopickers for that. Plus Shatter.
Full Version: Critique this mystical ninja adept
This would actually work, i think.
Of course, there's the usual DS minmaxing suggestions (change the race to ork, drop LOG, raise CON and Edge), i guess you know the drill to make your character more effective by making him look like any character that underwent advice here.
Also, as usual, unless you have a lot of karma at hand, the character will be more efficient either as a pure adept or pure magician.
So far for the general stuff.
Of course, feel free to ignore it as long as it doesn't fit your concept or otherwise doesn't sound fun to play.
Now for the details :
Keep in mind that for ninja acrobatics, as well as all ninja modes of attack, you need STR.
You could easily boost that with the Improved Attribute spell and a spell lock as long as your natural STR is relatively low, however.
As far as the mystic stuff is concerned, you actually could represent chi attacks by adept powers.
Killing Hands, Critical, Elemental, Nerve and Penetrating Strike are just that.
There's even an adept power that lets you delay damage so that the victim dies of a heart attack a day later.
As far as i recall, though, all of these powers are in Street Magic and this build seems to be basic rules only.
You might want to pick that book up, it's certainly worth it.
Theoretically, Critical Strike enables you to do devastating damage in hand-to-hand combat even if you have a STR of 1, given a high enough Magic attribute.
If you want to go mystic adept just for the reason of cool hand-to-hand attacks that seem to defy laws of physics,, you might be better off with a pure adept.
BTW, what's the character's magic tradition?
He seems to be Logic-based.
The only genuinly Japanese tradition statted out in SR4 is Shinto Magic (also in Street Magic), which is Charisma-based, though i see no problems with a rational tradition without overly religious components for this character.
You might want to take a look at Wuxia for that and simply change the fluff from Chinese to Japanese, i think that would work out perfectly.
Another approach towards mystifying a ninja concept would be a spirit ninja.
This character would use spirits (most likely kami, but same diff) to boost his ninjatic skills (oh my god, did i just write ninjatic? Yes, i did...).
For example, Concealment instead of Stealth and Invisibility.
For non-combat purposes, that's way better to hide yourself.
Spirits of man could, combined with a decent spell selection, also do amazing things to boost attributes, initiative and various other stats.
I'm not even beginning to ponder the possibilities of a posession-based ninja.
Of course, one would have to design a new tradition for that...with Guardian and Task spirits, it would be easily possible to create an 80s television action series or high school anime ninja who is a normal schoolkid imbued with awesome ninja powers by the spirits of his ancestors (or whatever).
My, one could even take this further by turning the character into a friggin' drake.
I have to stop this line of thought before i get a cheesegasm.
Either way, SR is certainly a system allowing for convincing ninjas of any variety both from history and pop culture and however you finally implement the concept, as a full adept, magician, mystic adept or even a mundane biosam, i think it's on the right way.
Of course, there's the usual DS minmaxing suggestions (change the race to ork, drop LOG, raise CON and Edge), i guess you know the drill to make your character more effective by making him look like any character that underwent advice here.
Also, as usual, unless you have a lot of karma at hand, the character will be more efficient either as a pure adept or pure magician.
So far for the general stuff.
Of course, feel free to ignore it as long as it doesn't fit your concept or otherwise doesn't sound fun to play.
Now for the details :
Keep in mind that for ninja acrobatics, as well as all ninja modes of attack, you need STR.
You could easily boost that with the Improved Attribute spell and a spell lock as long as your natural STR is relatively low, however.
As far as the mystic stuff is concerned, you actually could represent chi attacks by adept powers.
Killing Hands, Critical, Elemental, Nerve and Penetrating Strike are just that.
There's even an adept power that lets you delay damage so that the victim dies of a heart attack a day later.
As far as i recall, though, all of these powers are in Street Magic and this build seems to be basic rules only.
You might want to pick that book up, it's certainly worth it.
Theoretically, Critical Strike enables you to do devastating damage in hand-to-hand combat even if you have a STR of 1, given a high enough Magic attribute.
If you want to go mystic adept just for the reason of cool hand-to-hand attacks that seem to defy laws of physics,, you might be better off with a pure adept.
BTW, what's the character's magic tradition?
He seems to be Logic-based.
The only genuinly Japanese tradition statted out in SR4 is Shinto Magic (also in Street Magic), which is Charisma-based, though i see no problems with a rational tradition without overly religious components for this character.
You might want to take a look at Wuxia for that and simply change the fluff from Chinese to Japanese, i think that would work out perfectly.
Another approach towards mystifying a ninja concept would be a spirit ninja.
This character would use spirits (most likely kami, but same diff) to boost his ninjatic skills (oh my god, did i just write ninjatic? Yes, i did...).
For example, Concealment instead of Stealth and Invisibility.
For non-combat purposes, that's way better to hide yourself.
Spirits of man could, combined with a decent spell selection, also do amazing things to boost attributes, initiative and various other stats.
I'm not even beginning to ponder the possibilities of a posession-based ninja.
Of course, one would have to design a new tradition for that...with Guardian and Task spirits, it would be easily possible to create an 80s television action series or high school anime ninja who is a normal schoolkid imbued with awesome ninja powers by the spirits of his ancestors (or whatever).
My, one could even take this further by turning the character into a friggin' drake.
I have to stop this line of thought before i get a cheesegasm.
Either way, SR is certainly a system allowing for convincing ninjas of any variety both from history and pop culture and however you finally implement the concept, as a full adept, magician, mystic adept or even a mundane biosam, i think it's on the right way.
I'm missing the MeleeGroup
No Ninja without Blades(Ninjato) or Clubs (Nunchuks as you americans call the Nunchaku )
with a traditional Dance
Medicineman
No Ninja without Blades(Ninjato) or Clubs (Nunchuks as you americans call the Nunchaku
)with a traditional Dance
Medicineman
Just picked up Street Magic today, actually. There are a number of interesting spells and adept powers, so I'll be changing things around shortly.
It's a Hermetic concept right now, going on the "ninja gladly adopt modern ideas to be more effective" notion.
Putting close combat and magic in the same character is tricky. I had Critical Strike for "ordinary" unarmed attacks just so it wouldn't be "hit someone with a spell or do nothing when you hit them." With the stats and points as tight as they were, there wasn't room for any armed combat skills (nor would they be as effective as a force 6 Death Touch). Though one aspect to the character is that she doesn't really need any weapons or gear to be very dangerous.
It's a Hermetic concept right now, going on the "ninja gladly adopt modern ideas to be more effective" notion.
Putting close combat and magic in the same character is tricky. I had Critical Strike for "ordinary" unarmed attacks just so it wouldn't be "hit someone with a spell or do nothing when you hit them." With the stats and points as tight as they were, there wasn't room for any armed combat skills (nor would they be as effective as a force 6 Death Touch). Though one aspect to the character is that she doesn't really need any weapons or gear to be very dangerous.
Humans start out with Edge of 2.
With unarmed: 4 to block with, and gymnastics: 4 for ranged full defense, your dodge skill is completely redundant.
Not sure how your GM would run it, but personally, I wouldn't let a player take ultrasound as an improved sense. I would probably make them do it like the biological version of ultrasound that you can get in Augmentation. Echolocation and hearing enhancement as improved senses, combined with the voice control power. That's me, though.
I think you pretty much already know his main weakness, since you stated it - namely, that stealth, unarmed combat, and magic spread him way too thin. And being a mystic adept only exacerbates that.
With what's there, though - I would get rid of climbing, in favor of the levitate spell. I would put that high Logic to some use and get an electronics skill, maybe specializing in MagLocks (yeah, passkeys are good, but for a sequencer, you still need to make an electronics test just to pop the casing off that sucker). I would consider getting the sorcerer quality, unless you plan on picking up conjuring later, as well as the sensitive system quality (if you're going to be pure, might as well get points for it).
I wouldn't bother with either great leap (because of the recommended replacement of climbing with a levitate spell), or with critical strike (3P damage really isn't much, especially when your touch spells are not only better, but get a positive modifier for touch only). Even ultrasound - you can get that in a pair of goggles. Agility boost: 1 and improved infiltration: 2 are both very good choices. The other 1.25, all kinds of neat possibilities - traceless walk and direction sense, or enhanced perception: 3 and improved gymnastics: 2, and on and on.
With unarmed: 4 to block with, and gymnastics: 4 for ranged full defense, your dodge skill is completely redundant.
Not sure how your GM would run it, but personally, I wouldn't let a player take ultrasound as an improved sense. I would probably make them do it like the biological version of ultrasound that you can get in Augmentation. Echolocation and hearing enhancement as improved senses, combined with the voice control power. That's me, though.
I think you pretty much already know his main weakness, since you stated it - namely, that stealth, unarmed combat, and magic spread him way too thin. And being a mystic adept only exacerbates that.
With what's there, though - I would get rid of climbing, in favor of the levitate spell. I would put that high Logic to some use and get an electronics skill, maybe specializing in MagLocks (yeah, passkeys are good, but for a sequencer, you still need to make an electronics test just to pop the casing off that sucker). I would consider getting the sorcerer quality, unless you plan on picking up conjuring later, as well as the sensitive system quality (if you're going to be pure, might as well get points for it).
I wouldn't bother with either great leap (because of the recommended replacement of climbing with a levitate spell), or with critical strike (3P damage really isn't much, especially when your touch spells are not only better, but get a positive modifier for touch only). Even ultrasound - you can get that in a pair of goggles. Agility boost: 1 and improved infiltration: 2 are both very good choices. The other 1.25, all kinds of neat possibilities - traceless walk and direction sense, or enhanced perception: 3 and improved gymnastics: 2, and on and on.
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