So. Yes. I'm absolutely nuts. I've been playing SR online (as I live in the middle of BFE...) off and on for a while. And usually been playing as low damage stealth/electronic types. I wanna flex some muscle this time around, and I wanna do it in a fairly odd way. I want to use a bow. Not only that, but I wanna use a bow as a non-adept. Nothing against adepts, it's just that I tried a mage once, and awakened characters tend to be an absolutely bitch when it comes to karma. So. Given my absolute non-knowledge of combat ware, how can I kick ass as a mundie Robin Hood?

Part two of the question. Is it even possible to do drugs without killing yourself? Kamikaze looks very tempting and a very good alternative to RI ware, not to mention some bitchin' adds, like free pain resistance and increased stats. I wanna be an addict, but I don't want to die inside a year of it.

Teeeeach me! Please?

I'm not very good, but I know some basics:

What chargen system is being used? What are the rules concerning Cultured Bio? And do you want a certain species? A troll with lots of Muscle Augmentation can kill tanks with a bow.

Regardless of race, you'll want most of the same stuff a normal Street Sammy gets: High init, high physical stats. Cybereyes with LowLite+I-Lites+FlareComp are the standard. Wired-2+Trigger come in handy. Enhanced Artwinkulation, MuscleAugment to Racial Max and some MuscleToner. If Cultured Bio is allowed, you'll probably want a Cultured Suprathyroid Gland, and then whatever amount of MuscleAug and MuscleToner that gets you to the Racial Max. If you can't afford everything, focus on getting your Strength as high as possible.

If this isn't a character to be used with one specific GM, you'll probably be better off without doing drugs. You can always inquire from the GM who's running the game where he stands with drugs. If he enforces the canon rules for addiction, you can forget it. If he's a bit more lenient, Jazz and Cram can be useful.

Can bows be Smartlinked? If they can, get SL-2 too.

bows can, indeed, accept smartlinks, and any other targeting device you'd put on a firearm. there's a thingy in CC that lets you.

Well: The classic mundane robin-hood is actually a troll. If you max-out your strength with mods then you can get a base range and weapon power that rivals a sniper rifle.

Ah, sorry about that.

1) Priority system. Good old thing.
1.5) I'm not adverse to being a trog.
2) No clue on the bio. I do know there's no overstress, and there's no essence holes, just for simplicity sake. I play on a MUCK, and I'm not saying which one. Like I said, I live in the middle of BFE. And with that, rules change all the freaking time, as do GMs. There's also an Avail 8/Rating 6 rule for Chargen instated.
3) Good move on the drugs. I might still carry some around for emergencies.

Anyways, back to the meat. If I don't plan on upgrading from Wired 2, can't I get RI 3 instead? Every damn sam and his brother around here is a twitch monger with pistol skill.

What I *really* need to do is either make nice with an enchanter to get some magic arrows, or find a stable running group.

It would be more of a John Little than a Robin Hood.

Sorry magic arrows are not Canon possible in SR.

Anchored spell focus?

Exceptional + Bonus Strength Troll, starts at 12 with RacialMax of 17. Then add MuscleAugmentation-4 and SuprathyroidGland = 17 Strength. Not very difficult or costly. You'll then do 22S with Ranger-X Dikoted arrows.

Anchored Spell Foci arrows are certainly possible, but they cost a fortune and aren't that much more efficient than just plain Dikoted Ranger-X arrows.

Pardon my French, but Holy ****, you can dikote arrows. I didn't even THINK of that. Hell, I oughta learn some Chem just so I can poison them. Oh. Frag, I forgot to mention this. For future reference, no edge/flaw system, either. Heh. Like I said, I definately need to get another online group. Like, something consistent. To be fair, for all the time I've been there, I've only gone on something like four runs.

But, daaaayum. I'm liking this already. I might as well spec in a melee weapon with all that strength, too. Friggin' sweet.

BTW, any reason to NOT spec in bows? 'Cause, frankly, I don't plan on using a crossbow.. well. Ever.

If no edges are allowed, then you're probably stuck with ... 15 Strength? Yep. Put a 6 in Strength, +4 from Racial mod, +4 Muscle Augmentation, +1 Suprathyroid Gland, and you're at Racial Max 15. Only 20S.

Yeah, might as well get a decent melee weapon skill in addition. Or better yet, dual Dikoted Handblades (26M) or Spurs (23S).

Why get handblades or spurs when snap blades are cheaper and cost no essence?

Mmm. Might wanna get some dikoted tomahawks, too. Dikote freaking rules. Ooooh. Hell. I should get a filter. With all that bio, I'm ripe for chemical ownage...

I don't think Forearm Snap Blades get the dual-weapon Strength bonus. That's 7 less Power right there. I think that's a good reason to get Handblades (if you plan on fighting mainly APCs) or Spurs (if you plan on fighting mainly metahumans).

Hmm. Why the handblades for the APC? APC=Armored Personell Carrier or something? I r teh nooblar, plz. Are those two advantageous over having, say, a dikoted polearm? Then again, I can't exactly hide a polearm.

At 26M with the dual Dikoted Handblades, you can do 2L damage to a vehicle with 12 points of hardened armor. The Wallhacker, a character concept with nothing else going for it than huge strength and dual Dikoted Handblades, could easily take out vehicles with 21 points of hardened armor, including all APCs and most LAVs.

A Dikoted Polearm still only does (Str+4)D, or 19D in this case. That's 3 less points of hardened armor you can punch through, plus there's the concealability thing. The higher Damage Level and huge Reach might be worth it, though.

Hmm. I think. I might actually be insane and go for the polearms. Partially because that gives me access to staves, giving me the ability to do some much-needed stun damage. I can't kill EVERYBODY.

Just most people. Hmm. I still think that RI might be better than wired 2. I don't plan on being uber fast, and that'd save me some much needed essence and cash. Sure, there's no stress points on bio, but healing is already gonna be a real bitch.

What's RI? If you don't plan on being very fast, get Boosted Reflexes-1 -- with Enhanced Artwinkulation and Suprathyroid, that's already +2+2d6 in addition to your unmodified Reaction.

If you aren't getting Priority A in Resources, you won't afford a lot of the stuff mentioned here. And if you are getting A in Resources, you might as well get at least AlphaWired-1+Trig.

Ah. Boosted reflexes. That's what I meant. Sorry. BR and Wired stack?

EDIT: Yes, I'm getting Res A. I hate not getting Attr A as a troll, but I'll live with it.

No, they don't. Boosted can stack with Synaptic Accels though.

Nope, BR and Wired don't stack. Reaction Enhancers stacks with everything but Move-By-Wire, BR and Synaptic Acceleration stack, Artwinkulation and Suprathyroid Reaction boost stack with everything by M-B-W.

Qui4/Int4 Troll with Boosted-1 + Artwink + Supra = 6+2d6. Qui4/Int4 Troll with Wired-1 + Artwink + Supra = 8+2d6.

*starts to drool as he stares at numbers*

Er. Kay. But, yeah. If I cut back on the speed stuff, should I double up on a filter? With such a high BI, and such low essence, I'm just asking to be Narcojected.

I wouldn't know. Chemical weapons are very rare in my games, so neither I or any of my players have ever really bothered with any kinds of filters.

Heh, thanks for all the help.

Now, if I could figure out how to completely compensate a Vindicator shot.

Vehicle mount with 8 points of Recoil Compensation.

You'll be better off with a RPK HMG + GasVent IV + Gyromount though. I think the designers were (rightly) afraid that they might make the miniguns too deadly, so they overcompensated.

Heh. Damn. I originally wanted to use heavy weapons, and I thought the Vindie sounded awesome.

Just a thought. Let's say I use a vindie. Couldn't I target my enemies with the compensated shots... and let the other ones go stray where they may?

Not sure... Ruleslawyers: Is this allowed?
Assuming you've got 8 points of RC on a Vindicator, fire the first 8 rounds at one target as normal, and then switch targets and fire at a wall for the next 7 rounds. Looking at pp. 115-116 in SR3, this should be allowed. Perhaps you could even "switch" targets back to the same guy, so the following 7 rounds would be fired at the original target, but at +16 (+14 from doubled recoil of 7 uncompensated shots, +2 from switching targets).

This is why I house ruled autofire HARD.