I want to run a game and for some reason while discussing it with one of the players he wants to be a technomancer with a handfull of drones(the little toy ones from unwired) each equiped with a comlink and filled with agents.


Does this even work with Technomancers? lol

Yes.

It's a bit unusual because TMs are used to working more with Sprites but it's quite legitimate.
Agents can be bought and used by everyone (Hackers,Mages,Trolls with LOG1 ,even TMs )

with a bit of an unusual dance
Medicienman

the one advantage agents have over sprites is summoning and services... and in many cases the burden on the TM while using more than one

Heck I've had a tm with a nexi stashed out in a corp office running as a data dump with several fetch modules for legwork (and as a virtual meet spot... with ice that made the azzies drool...plus sprites to boot!)

Agents count against the limit on programs in a node and the programs used by agents count against the load as well.
Sprites dont ever max out the load on a node making a Sprite Summoner a very dangerous template.

6 Fault Sprites will eat enemies in short order so a zerg rush style offense will be nigh impossible to counter without throwing a TM against the team.

Agents can be spoofed into getting effectively mind controlled as can sprites but to do it to sprites you must be a Resonance creature. As a lover of TM's I'd rather force an opponent to be a TM to spoof my Sprites so I would not use Agents. Besides, the powers of Sprites especially Sleuth Sprites for data gathering makes them do work much faster than a Fetch.

of course, there's nothing that says a TM can't have both. if 6 fault sprites are scary, then 6 fault sprites with 6 agents alongside them is even more scary.

And don't forget the TM himself along with those 12. Seeing as if built right the TM himself is a matrix God. And then he has a bunch of little demi-matrix-gods that are his sprite, and a bunch of priests that are his agents.... and I think I just came up for the flavor of my next technomancer... Hehe... God complex

care to post a build for that one? I'm just learning the technomancer rules and its a bit daunting (read just learning the matrix rules along with unwired and technomancer stuff) or could you not do it in 400BP?

I second that emotion....or something...

Yeah, can totally be done. May not quite be to godhood right from the start, but fairly close. Lets see some basic stuff:
Elf
Str 1
Agi 3
Bod 3
Rea 2
Int 3
Cha 8
Log 3
Wil 5
Res 5

Qualities:
TM (Charisma stream)
Paragon (01)
Analytical Mind
SURGE for metagenic improvement charisma.

Skills:
Compiling 5
Registering 5
Cracking 3
Electronics 3

CFs:
Attack 5
Shield 5
Stealth 5
Exploit 5
various others

Equipment:
commlink 3-4 ratings
Rating 3-4 agent
Various programs 3-4

That's 13 dice for compiling/registering (5 skill + 5 stat + 1 01 + 2 VR) Could throw on specs to give you 15 dice on a particular type of sprite (Fault, paladin, tank?). Could also switch to a 4/6 spread on the skills instead of 5/5 if you wanted. A rating 6 sprite will on average hit you with 6P drain, and you will on average resist 4 of that. Will take a while to build up your army, but totally doable. Can customize to your liking of course.

For summoner TM's I suggest Home Ground (Bionode).
That will help both summoning rolls.
If you have time to Register sprites then Codeslinger: Register Sprite is a great thing.

for submerging strongly consider a 'sprite link' or two.

Add an E-dog and a pet feral AI. Pikachu! I choose you!

Good suggestions. No need for a sprite link though, just take a free sprite as a contact.

why such a low logic though? I must be missing something about technos that allows the logic to be damned low.

Standard RAW for all matrix actions:

Skill+complexform/program
The use of Logic as a hit cap, or of stat+skill program rating max hits is an optional rule that very few people use.

Your TM or Hacker could have a 1 logic according to the rules.

Yep, only problem with that is a low system rating, but luckily there is only like one thing that uses system rating for a TM, and that is matrix damage resistance, which shouldn't happen often with a good shield program and decent int/willpower.

I was thinking more of it being a limit on starting complex forms or is that a misread? Is it just better to thread them in game?

Oh, yeah, you'll be limited to 2x complex forms, but the important ones are stealth, exploit, shield, analyze, and attack. The others you can usually get away with threading.

The best way of handling this is IMO having drones with upgraded Response and Pilot ratings commanded and supported by a sprite. Nasty surprise for opponent hackers.

The best benefit to a setup like this, is sprites don't take any processor load up in the system they're in, meaning a handful of registered sprites can turn the tides pretty easily on an already laggy, contested system.

Plus, if they have an account on your drones, they can just resonance shortcut right there at the first sign of trouble. Its like the internet version of the astral gank squad.

So what they do their own version of jacking out and appear back in the drone? Im not clear on how that would work.

ok old thread resurrected. How do i get a charisma stream to produce fault sprites? Since that was the original idea or is that a misunderstanding of the ability. THe summoner build posted above is good but cant get those massive numbers of fault sprites which form the scary portion of his abilities, though his ability to get into things is downright nasty.

By RAW you can't. No Stream that uses Charisma has fault sprites. Though that doesn't stop you from inventing a really cool Stream all your own and try to pass it off to your GM as a "roleplay" change as well as munckinizing your character a bit.

Resonance shortcuts, actually. Sprites can kind of teleport around the matrix, but only to their technomancer(or places where they have accounts). Its actually pretty limited, resonance users(sprites AND tms) definitely don't have the ability to hack anything through the resonance. It functions more like a 'set it up ahead of time' thing.

Sprites can't jack out. Where would they go? Offline? No. They CAN get cyberfragged. I believe the actual term is Crashed, and means they won't be showing up ahead for a while.
They can also log into other nodes, and move around the matrix.

Also, its not so much logging out as..

okay, so you have drones. These drones are connected to the technomancer(subscribed), so they can be Commanded and Rigged.
This technomancer has a few sprites hanging around(registered).
Someone hacks into his drone, but triggers an alert, so the TM knows there's an intruder. (ARC:notify admin)
Instead of sending an Agent, or a Spider, or launching some IC to defend the drone, he just...... sends a sprite to help out.

Where it really gets nasty is when you realize that Sprites don't contribute to program load. This means your drone won't start to lose Response(and for drones, Response is a lot of your dice pools) when a sprite moves onto the node.(okay, there IS a distinction between being Loaded onto the node, and Logged into it). This means you drone can be full up on Autosofts, without worrying about using processing capability to carry some IC around.


The unwired Echo, Sprite Link.
Also, i -seriously- recommend getting a technomancer network as a Group Contact, and a friendly free sprite contact.(recompiling is a submersion ordeal). Getting your first submersion/echo for 8 karma is nice

What do you think is so nice about Fault sprites?

electron storm from 6 fault sprites plus the idea of lagging out an enemy system with 6 agents before sending them in.

There is an Echo that grants an additional sprite type.