So, I made this human face/streetsam type character that has raptor cyberlegs + hydraulic jacks + Ars Cybernetica MA.

Installed blades in the feet (raptor legs with no claws? blasphemy ) so when everything is summed up, I get a good 7P damage if I jump or kick someone with the blades.

To my knowledge, when kicking/punching someone its counted as an unarmed attack. However it makes no sense to me that if my PC were to run and leap at an enemy that it would ONLY do 3S damage just because his strength is a bit on the low side. This is with intent to not kill the target, just bludgeon him to unconsciousness.

I managed to think of a way to 'sort of' make this work in my favour but I thought I'd run it by you guys to see if its sound (or if there's a better trick to this, I would love to hear it!)

Method: First I declare a knockdown, and use my jump/unarmed dice to execute it. Assuming I pass, the target gets knocked down but doesn't get any damage. BUT using the Sweep MA maneuver, I can deal damage from the knockdown as if I am attacking with a melee weapon, but the damage will always be stun.

Or would it simply be easier to just SHOOT the poor sod with a taser? (my pistols is horrible btw)

Afaik You would use the legs str not your natural str (unless the GM rule that you use your upper body aswell, in that case the average of the three)
Invest in some optimisation and enhancements for your legs and you can easily have your racial augmented max in them (enhancement cost capacity, optimisation just increases availability)


Worth noting is that your footblades uses an exotic weapon skill, not blades or unarmed... But you knew that already

You should also look into redlining cyberlimbs (aug.) and try to convince your gm to lessen the damage

Take the Vicious Blow maneuver and declare its use when you do your leap on an enemy, though honestly if you managed to pull it off that you're going raptor legs first I'd still call that Physical damage instead of Stun without Vicious Blow. The Kick Attack maneuver can also be fun, though by its wording by RAW it's only for "Unarmed Combat Tests wen using a Kick Attack."

Foot Anchors instead of spurs down the length of the a raptor leg is a fun thing to do, I think. More than twice as expensive as a regular spur, but the same capacity and damage as a weapon, plus other fun stuff you could do with them (like punch holes in things up to a Barrier rating of 10).

Or raptor jumping on to the side of a moving truck and deploying the anchors?

I'd allow it just because it's fun!

I hope the claws are retractable - otherwise trying to kick someone unconsicous sounds like a great way to get a messy death instead. Oh and raptor legs with blades are definitively leaning toward the pink mohawk side of Shadowrun - it's an highly unusual outfit that makes linking your kills to yourself far easier as the pool of suspects for ripped up victims is a fairly narrow one.

Yeah, trying to get edged melee weapon damage by using the sweep maneuver is cheesy, gaming-the-system crap. I would allow the +2 Strength increase that raptor legs get for kick attacks to apply, though.

Well, the anchors are, but if you had bladed talons on it you could just knuckle them up. Not that it really matters, using a cyberlimb for unarmed combat, short of grappling and subduing, is always Physical damage.

As for them being Pink Mohawk... Kid Stealth is the epitome of pink mohawk (and the originator of the legs)

And said raptor/Kid Stealth legs are popular on the club scene, which would suggest that those who had the nuyen to spend would have them if they had cyberlegs already. They are modular equipment, anyway, so you're still gonna have a pair of regular legs when 'black trench coat' is required.

Yes, the claws are retractable. I wouldn't try this if they weren't

I'm loving the foot anchor idea though! I shall never fall off a building/moving vehicle/team mate ever again.



I think if I were to directly go to just unarmed stun damage directly it would be only a very puny 2S (plus legs) it would be a 3S as far as I understand, unless I'm screwing up the calculation somewhere.

I have a dude who utilizes these-he's sort of a strength monster though, so if he needs to go 'un-fatal', he'll often either just grapple them(he still has a high Unarmed Combat, and subdual combat is very effective), or yeah, he'll knuckle the talons up and kick them with the flat of his foot or the shin Thai style. (For a picture of ol' Samael, this is him-http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/TheCarpenter/OC---Samael.jpg . No, I didn't draw this. And yes, this is after, ahh, some wetwork. ) We don't play with Availability limits at the start so they're very strong-but even if you're more of a medium strength speed based guy you should do just fine for knocking out.

And yes, the anchors are very useful as well. My fella does have a set of regular legs, though he still sticks out anyway due to his skin(we do play the game a little less black trenchcoat.) His role is either A. the team's intimidation specialist(managed to get a nice Charisma for him as well being an elf), B. the 'Hulk' role of 'Scary near eight foot tall dude whom they throw at problems they need to make go away in any way possible', or C. 'Scary dude they throw at problems to leave behind a reminder that the rest of the problem should go away, like, now, lest they end up as red squishy stuff.'

That first part about intimidation is rather good actually-cyberware DOES give initmidation benefits, and weirdo cyberware may well do that too. Sometimes a fight can be avoided just by scaring the pants off of the other guy without even having to go into knockout mode.

Samael looks like quite the scary combat monster. Thanks for the idea on intimidation though, I really should try it out when I get the chance

I forsee a rather large hole in my wallet after I get the upgrades everyone suggested

I might add a note that while there are some rules on cyberware and intimidation, GMs may use them differently-so check on that. (Essentially, while obvious cyberware gives negative modifiers to a lot of social situations, it can give bonuses to intimidation for the same reasons it gives negatives.) Of course, there are situations where neither would count-for example, if your hanging out at a Cyberbar with a bunch of heavily cybered Urban Brawl players after a game, you probably wouldn't get the bonuses there-but nor would they possibly give a rat's arse about another dude's heavy visible cyber so you likely wouldn't get the negatives. (Each situation is variable, and again, up to the GM in question.)

Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention my fella has-Hydraulic Jacks. It lets him essentially jump much higher(well, gives extra dice for that.) Makes his trademark 'Death from Above' attack that much more spectacular. (They actually have good points though-the extra Jumping dice are nice.)

So far, my GM hasn't pulled the 'you look strange' card yet (but then the only obvious bit of cyber I have is just the legs) so I guess that's on the list of things to check out with him.

Oh yes, the jacks are like the best thing. Pity I didn't have much cash to get them at higher ratings (they're only rating 2) but they seriously make so much difference. Esp when you're using your jump to close the distance between you and the object getting away that an' a big investment in the Athletics skill group.