Hello chummers!

So here's the thing: I'm a SR4 GM and I've designed a couple NPC characters that I plan to use in my current campaign -or at least, that might come useful in certain circumstances.

The first one is an Saeder-Krupp operative, a troubleshooter of sorts. His job is to track down and eliminate Shadowrunners that have caused enough damage to SK assets for the corp' to take drastic measures -and we all know SK's tolerance to shadowrunners is low. He's a rather high-level prime runner, streetsam style, but without going too far in essence loss.

Race: Human
Body 4 +2 dice for damage resistance tests.
Agility 4 (7)
Reaction 5 (9)
Strength 3 (6)
Charisma 3
Intuition 3
Logic 3
Willpower 3
Edge 3

Athletics (Group) 2
Firearms (Group) 4
Electronics (Group) 2
Pilot Ground Craft 1
Perception 2
Dodge 4

English N
Portuguese 2
Spanish 2
Russian 1

Corporate Law 3
Corporate Security 3
Assault Rifles 2
Electronics 1
Spirits 1
Shadowrunners 3

Contacts: Saeder-Krupp (group) Loyalty 4 Connection 15

Positive qualities :
Magic Resistance (2)
High Pain Tolerance (2)
Negative qualities:
Combat Monster

Augmentations: Move-by-Wire System Rating 2 beta, Muscle Augmentation 3, Muscle Toner 3, Bone Density Augmentation (2), Synthacardium 3, Cybereyes rating 2 beta with Flare Compensation, Smartlink, Vision Enhancment 2, Vision Magnification, Protective Covers.
Gear:
Modified Ares Alpha with Gas Vent 3, Advanced Saftey Electro Shocker, Safe Target.
Modified Savalette Guardian with Personalized Grip, Lowlight camera, Ultrasound system.
HK 227x, cougar fineblade, & a bunch of standard, explosive and EX clips for these weapons.
A few frag grenades (including mini grenades) and smoke grenades.
Novatech Airware Commlink Response 3 Signal 3 Iris Orb OS: Firewall 3 System 3

Rover 2068 with Engine Customization Accel. and Speed, GridLink Override, GridLink.
Thundercloud Contrail with Engine Customization Accel. and Speed, Smart Tires.

Armored vest + Half-body FFBA (10/5).

I decided to be reasonable with the essence loss, but I could make this character almost legal by removing the MBW 2 beta and using reaction enhancers/wired reflexes 2 instead. I was also thinking of giving this guy a False Front implant with a good rating (and maybe voice-altering implant), to catch the PCs off guard if they meet him a second/third/whatever time. I could even have them develop a strong paranoia cheaply.

So, what do you suggest I do? How can I improve this character, not in terms of optimization, but surprises and flavor? Do you have any idea on how to make this character a memorable one, worthy of becoming a (moderately) recurring one?

He;s going to get mowed under by magic. Not just Combat spells, although they're goint to pose a problem. Spell Resistance helps, but raising your Willpower will help more.

I noticed that he has no social skills. That is a bad thing, since social skills are opposed by social skills. Without Con or Negotiate, He'll be wide open to social skills; without Intimidate, he cannot stand intimidation, and so on and so forth. Even buying the group at 1 will make a huge difference, as well as adding an emotoy furby.

Any as a piece of advice I give most everyone: your Edge is too low. You want your Edge as high as you can get it. It't too useful to pass up.

Sorry, but he is anything but a high-level prime runner. If you can almost legally build him with 400 points then he is a begining runner. So we gotta power him up some. Remember, if he is a company man, not paying for his stuff, and single handedly wacking some tough runners, then he is going to have some really high grade (Delta, Suite & Adapsin used for cyber) ware and equipment will be pretty much whatever he wants.

I would build him more like a Face, then add in stuff from the Sammy and Sneaky.

I don't have my books (at work) so a lot of the numbers are off the top of my head.

*Edit: Thought about it and the character needs some additional skills to help act as a lone wolf*



You got plenty of Essence left to play around with, so I would add stuff that allows him to change his appearance and blend in even better. He has skillwires and hot-sim so having several personality progs with supporting skills worked up that he can use for cover identities. He can do ok hacking and can rig a bit, which will help his lone wolf ability.

I would work it like this. Not activated and with a set appearance, he is sent to such and such a city to perform some such checks on the SK holdings there. Once there for a day or week, depending on requirements, he is activated. Activation lets him remember his full mission requirements and know where the SK setup stashes of gear for him are at. He would change his appearance and surface personality, perform his mission, the switch back and deactivate. Leave city finished his cover job and done.

He should do most of his killing by snipping, bombs, or drones. He will not have the capabilities to take on large number of PCs one on one unless you really twink out his gear. Try having him go about attempting to kill the PCs if they have done something to really piss SK off and let dump luck save them several times. ie: shot hits guy who steps in front of them at the last moment, PC sees someone trying to steal their car and it blows up before they get there, etc.

If you really want to be evil, he can do recon of the players several times while under deep cover (to foil mind reading if the PCs have it).

I didn't add it before, but if you want to be really evil then give him magic. Make him an Adept or Mage, have initiated 4 times and have a magic of 6. If an adept, use most of his initiated to net additional PP. Of course, if you do this then he will be down right scary to non-twinked players.

In a SR3 game I was running, a test-tube ninja showed up at one point. The PCs spent 3 game sessions running away, hiding, and trying to figure out why he was after them. Eventually they put it together and it tied in with something that they had been doing for a long time in the game.

Trust me, the tube ninja scared the crap out of them. Think of a non-magic type who could beat the crap unarmed in a fight 1-on-1 with unarmed specialist Physical Adepts. I think I'll build a new one since 4th now has genetics rules.

Meh. Personally, I don't consider a 400-point character a beginning runner. Typically, they have been doing what they've been doing long enough to be pretty good at it.

I would recommend against powering him up, myself. End-of-level bosses are kind of lame, and it's wasting a powerup, since nearly any lone wolf will need to do the aforementioned sniping/drones/etc. to be effective. The only way to make a character like this a recurring character is to make him fairly elusive. They shouldn't even see him at first - they should get a call from a frighted contact, have a safe house blow up, etc.

It's hard to do these guys well, though. There are lots of simple, basic, logical tactics that any would-be assassin could use, which would result in dead PCs and pissed-off players. The real challenge of this type of character is making him a credible threat without either cheap-shot killing the PCs, or making it look like you are using GM fiat to keep him from being tracked down by the PCs.

I think your original build is about right, within the overall power scale of the game. He is tougher than the company man contact from Runner's Companion, but not unrealistically so. He is more of a generalist than a typical runner, but that is balanced out by a few pieces of gear and 'ware that most runners wouldn't start out with. Obviously, he will need clever tactics to hunt down a runner team, since he is vulnerable to hackers, mages, and faces.