It has been forever since I made a combat oriented PC. Most of mine have been hackers, medic mages, faces, just general support stuff. Now I am trying to make a build for an adaptable fighter who can fight in almost any situation except the matrix (and with enough nuyen I may be able to do that too.) So hear it is, the dice pools range from 9-13 which I know is kinda low but I've been trying to think of modifiers, specifically unarmed, to mitigate that. So what can you guys see that I can change?

Metatype: Dwarf

Role: Adaptable fighter

Build: 400



Point Break Down:

Stats: 160

Race: 25

Skills: 146

+ Q’s: 30

-Q’s: 35

Resources: 58

Contacts: 16



Stats:

Body: 3 (+2 for resisting damage)

Agility: 4(6)

Reaction: 4(5)

Strength: 3(5)

Charisma: 3(4)

Intuition: 4

Logic: 2(4)

Willpower: 3

Edge: 3

IPs: 2



Active Skills



Athletics Group 1

Close Combat Group 2

Firearms Group 3

Influence Group 2

Infiltration 4

Heavy Weapons 3

Armorer 3

Perception 3

Throwing Weapons 3



Knowledge Skills: Still thinking for these, Ideas would be appreciated.



Qualities: 32/35

Biocompatability 10 (Bioware)

Martial arts (2) 10 – Capoeria + 1 Gymnastics dodge/Krav maga Take aim as free action

Maneuver 2 – Iaijutsu

Born Rich 10



Hung Out to Dry 10

Day Job 10

Lost Loved One 5

SINner 5

Big Regret 5



Implants:

Attention Coprocessor 2 Alpha

Synaptic Booster 1

Reflex Recorder Group x 2 (Firearms/Close Combat)

Cerebral Booster 2

Muscle Toner/Augmentation 2

Tailored Pheramones 1

Synthcardium 2

Bone Lacing Ceramic

Contacts:

L6/C4

L3/C3

Your draft looks more like a polyvalent Face / samy than a pure fighter. Of course you could save lots of points by cutting through the social, but let us assume this is what you want. Yet there are plenty of BP to save.


You need to break this one: you want higher Gymnastics than that to compensate for the Dwarf REA penalty.


No need for the group here: who wants both Blades and Clubs? One weapon skill and Unarmed are enough to cover all situations. With your lowish STR, Unarmed might even be useless.


Same here: there is little need for both Long arms and Automatics. Actually, you could even do without Pistols as each of the other categories also gives access to handguns.


You don't need this: even the bunch of bioware you took only totals to 2.5 Essence, and you have plenty of room left. Your limiting factor is money, not Essence.


That is very expensive for mere +1: the last synthacardium level is better than your Capoeria for and only costs 2 BP. Even buying the skill is cheaper.

Implants:


Why alpha? It is only 0.15 Essence since you chose to go with major Bioware.


This is useless for you: your only Logic based skill is Armorer.

Your Body is too low. You cannot even wear decent armor with it. For a fighter, even Body 4 is on the low side, but that's the bare minimum.

Bye
Thanee

drop Born Rich for another point of Edge, because that's what you need in a fight
i don't think Close Combat Group is useless. i like it. attack with a knife/sword, parry with a rifle, plus you can fight unarmed as a last resort after everything went wrong!

I disagree with removing Biocompatibility. It is an investment in the future. If he plans on cybering up a lot more in the near future, that will be a nice perk. Much like picking up Adapsin as soon as he can.

I'm a little confused as to why all your numbers look so low. Without having to waste points on additional special attributes or secondary skills like magic or technomancers do, you should be able to afford a full 50 points in resources and still have some killer skills and attributes. It does look like your trying to specialize in two areas as others have said, but investing in a decent commlink and the best Empathy program you can buy, and you won't have to ever worry about casual social encounters again. Just give yourself an Influence skill of 1 and a decent CHA and your set. Leave the face-ing for a more specialized character.

Using the Close Combat group like that IS pretty cool - if your skills are all specializations, which doesn't play too nice with grouping.

If you have, say, unarmed(martial arts +2), clubs(improvised +2), and blades (knives +2), then you have some options for mixing up your attacks/defenses.

Otherwise, with a group, it really doesn't matter which skill you use, since the dice pools are likely all the same.

which is 6 karma after your first run...

To be honest, I usually just pick one melee skill and stick to it. Blades are generally the most dangerous close combat skill and are nice if you intend to use injection vector toxins, but for the most part I tend to lean toward Unarmed and Clubs from a sheer practicality standpoint. That's because I value the defensive dice melee skills bring to the table more than I value their ability to deal damage. Unarmed and Clubs are simply a bit easier to improvise with thanks to shock weapons, subdual,* and the ability to get melee hardened firearms. You lose out somewhat on raw damage value that way, but you can still avoid attacks just fine that way and tasers will give you some modest punch without necessarily having to shoot for 5+ strength.

*Escaping from a hold can actually be somewhat difficult if you're facing a buff opponent and you don't have Unarmed yourself.