So you make a mage or mystic adept. You give them skillwires rating 5 using Restricted Gear. This costs exactly 1 essence. You can still cast force 4-5 spells without overcasting. You take the Analyze Device spell, and a force 4-5 sustaining focus, using another Restricted Gear quality.

You pirate every skillwire available.
You cast analyze device on whatever object you're trying to use. You could potentially have a gun and just sustain analyze device for it until you need to use something else.

Assuming 4-5 hits on your analyze device spell test, your dice pool for nearly EVERYTHING is now 9-10+linked attribute.

Is there anything that would prevent this build from working well? Obviously you have to take a complex action and potentially drain to switch devices.

Thoughts? Fears? Recommendations?

Skillwire are not a device anymore after you implant them. They are a part of you. (Maybe flimsy... BUT DON'T you DARE to disagree *g*)

Damn, that spell alone is total bullshit. How does understanding something make you that much better at using it?

Perhaps the topic title was misleading. I don't mean to actually cast analyze device on the skillwire implant. Although that could be very clever and game breaking if your GM allowed it. I literally meant to just have the skillwire rating 5 to possess every skill at once, and then cast analyze device on whatever object you're trying to use at that moment.

You would need 4, 5, 6+ hits just to beat most Object Resistances, of course. Do the net hits start counting *after* that?

Given the Force (and Focus) required and the trouble of changing devices, it's not that good (or bad). Better than a kick in the teeth, though.

You don't analyze the skillwires
you analyze:
The Gun
The Commlink
The Car

It's pretty ludicrous really.

I mean, you do have to stop between *everything* you do and cast a high-Force spell into a high-Force Sustaining Focus. In Shadowrun, it's almost never enough to be good with *one* piece of gear at a time. You need to be good with 6 or so at once.

I agree that the spell is pretty bullshit. I mean, if you do it on a commlink, is that +X to all Matrix actions?

I wish I could re-title the post. The build name was posted in the same spirit as the build names used in GuildWars. I'm not actually saying to analyze the skillwires. Although you arguably could, that would be stupid. The spell is stupid enough as it is.

I don't think the Object Resistance uses up hits in its Threshold, any more than the Threshold in Increase Reflexes does, or Hardened Armor uses up weapon hits. It just means you need a minimum to do anything at all. If you surpass that minimum, you have the full effect.

EDIT: Ah. Sorry. I just actually read the Analyze Device spell. Net hits only.

Hm... did i skip something again? Ok... well, let's see:

There is possible abuse with that spell on "low-OR" devices though. Is a knife a device? Maybe a bow? Maybe a crude lockpick (Or 2-3?) Maybe just a stick (going into a fight with a "club" and +6 dice on attack and defense...)

I mean.. Device just means "machine" OR tool,yes?

It's 'device or equipment'. Which is a whole problem by itself, but oh well. They might as well just say 'object'.

A modern Knife or a lockpick would have a threshhold of 4.

Here is the table

Natural Objects 1
(Trees, Soil, Unprocessed Water)
Manufactures Low-Tech Objects and Materials 2
(Brick, Leather, Simple Plastics)
Manufactured High-Tech Objects and Materials 4
(Advanced Plastics, alloys, Electronic Equipment)
Highly Processed Objects 6+
(Computers, Complex Toxic Wastes, Drones, Vehicles)

Like I said, 4, 5, 6+ Threshold for basically anything. Unless you're using bricks.

Yes they do OR is all or nothing its quite mad at times. I quite sure all the hits are still net hits due t how spell casting works. As powerbolt hit just as hard at foce 6 beating OR or not. Same nethit terms.

That is why you are not using a modern knife. Also, i know the table.

But with some creativity: Use an obsidian knife (out of one whole stone) Sharp as hell, still only OR2. Overcast a Analyze spell and take all those beautiful hits and knifefight an melee-adept with weapon focus to death. *g*

Now you're just making things up. Also, there's a reason we don't use obsidian knives: they suck.

Wonderfully sharp, but brittle. Better off using an actual glass knife, taking ranks in Blades(Knives), throwing(Spears), Pilot Ground Vehicle(Motorcycle), and Pilot Watercraft (Kayak).

Just watch out for skateboards.

Indeed, Doc Chase.

you can, furthermore, combine this with the built that lets you obtain any skill soft in the books for 10% of the listing price in 2 days game time . .

Yeah, but I don't know of any skillsoft in Being Badass(Inuit).

Its etiquette(badass) Inuit is just a racial issue that might also have some crunch modifers in some cases.

Dodge 4 + Personalized + DIMAP + PlusCode R3
Melee Combat 4 + same

Pretty much all you need :0

If I'm not mistaken it would be Aleut rather than Inuit.

Whatever. At some point, all Badassery converges anyway.

You probably aren't. I'll have to look at my book again - I start reading about the Deliverator and just wish my car could be that badass.

I wish my pizza could be that badass.

Mmm. A pizza with a 3 in Badass. I'm going to have to make pizza this weekend. I know it. Three pizzas, one without cheese. Slightly less badass, but roommate dietary restrictions to consider.

...Come to think of it, I think there were maybe...five people who didn't have serious ranks in Badass in that book, and the only ones who survived were the ones who got that pizza.

Oh. My. God.

This thread has really lost its meat balls.

Wait, Analyze Device actually does something?

*blink*

I think the bonus from Analyze Device is pretty whack in most cases. For something like a gun, I can see it helping with B/R tests, but combat tests? Its not the gun you need to understand in that case, its tactics, timing, mobility, and so on. A smartlink can already perfectly predict the bullet trajectory, so what more can Analyze (gun) do? Might as well let Analyze (armor) help with damage resistance!

I think a few people mentioned how thresholds work, but I thought I'd post the RAW here:

A basic folding knife is an alloy with a Threshold of 4. Even if you manage to get 6 hits on a Force 6 Analyze Device spell, you only get 2 extra dice. IMO, even a really skilled magician will have a difficult time regularly getting enough to make this spell worthwhile - especially on more complex objects.

hmmm, I guess I misunderstood how the spell works. oh well.

As a side note, isn't it weird that a maglock and a folding knife have the same threshold?

Depends, a maglock might have a computer in it. But if the knife it made of fun alloys and things, it's reasonable that they're similarly hard to mess with.

Yes.

Why? It's magic, and those knives are high-tech. If you wanted (and managed to find) an iron knife, it'd be less that 4 OR. It'd also suck.

A maglock is obviously more high tech than a knife.

Because electromagnetic circuitry is more high tech than fancy alloys.

It's not about 'high-tech'. It's about 'unnatural'. Fancy alloys can be *very* high-tech, in addition.

Magic *is* arbitrary, but it's not like these rules are totally inexplicable.

Yeah, magic and its interaction with physical objects has never been about how technologically advanced the object is. It has to do with how processed and out of its natural state it is. A maglock and a knife made of alloys are both very processed objects and far away from their natural state, which would be their individual elements.

An obsidian knife would make an excellent focus, but not the greatest weapon. Well, I guess that depends. Are weapon focus obsidian knives even breakable?

Just as breakable as normal obsidian knives. Foci do not get special damage resistance.

Many of those type of items are nanotech built now, as well, adding in a new level of "unnatural".