Hello,

Im happy there are forums for this game because im truly lost and mystified at how complex this game is at times. Im a pathfinder vet so not my first roleplaying game but still this ones character generation is overwhelming. Anyway. I made the following character as a face for my buddies game. First session went ok but since I fully expect this character to come to an untimeyy demise Ide like to know what I did wrong.

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 4 (6)
REA: 5 (7)
STR: 1
CHA: 5
INT: 3
LOG: 1
WIL: 3
EDG: 3
MAG: 5

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence: 5.0
Initiative: 8 (10)
IP: 1 (3)
Astral Initiative: 6
Astral IP: 3
Matrix Initiative: 3
Matrix IP: 1
Physical Damage Track: 10
Stun Damage Track: 10

== Active Skills ==
Animal Handling : 0 Pool: 2
Animal Training : 0 Pool: 2
Archery : 0 Pool: 5
Artisan : 0 Pool: 2
Automatics : 0 Pool: 5
Blades : 0 Pool: 5
Clubs : 0 Pool: 5
Con : 4 Pool: 14
Disguise : 4 [Cosmetic] Pool: 11 (13)
Diving : 0 Pool: 2
Dodge : 1 [Ranged Combat] Pool: 8 (10)
Escape Artist : 0 Pool: 5
Etiquette : 4 Pool: 14
Forgery : 0 Pool: 5
Gunnery : 0 Pool: 5
Gymnastics : 0 Pool: 5
Heavy Weapons : 0 Pool: 5
Infiltration : 2 [Urban] Pool: 8 (10)
Instruction : 0 Pool: 4
Intimidation : 0 Pool: 4
Leadership : 4 Pool: 14
Locksmith : 0 Pool: 5
Longarms : 0 Pool: 5
Navigation : 0 Pool: 2
Negotiation : 4 Pool: 14
Palming : 2 Pool: 9
Parachuting : 0 Pool: 2
Perception : 4 Pool: 7
Pilot Watercraft : 0 Pool: 6
Pistols : 6 [Semi-Automatics] Pool: 12 (14)
Riding : 0 Pool: 6
Shadowing : 0 Pool: 2
Survival : 0 Pool: 2
Throwing Weapons : 0 Pool: 5
Tracking : 0 Pool: 2
Unarmed Combat : 0 Pool: 5

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Contacts ==
ID Manufacturer (4, 4)
Paramed (3, 4)
Slumlord (3, 3)

== Qualities ==
Adept
Allergy (Uncommon, Mild) (Avocado)
First Impression
In Debt (25,000¥)
Incompetent (Pilot Ground Craft)
Restricted Gear (Rating 1)
The Speaker's Way

== Powers ==
Commanding Voice
Facial Sculpt Rating: 4
Improved Reflexes 2
Kinesics Rating: 2
Nimble Fingers
Voice Control

== Lifestyles ==
Middle 1 months

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Muscle Toner Rating 2
Tailored Pheromones Rating 3

== Armor ==
Armanté designer fashion 0/0
Armor Clothing 4/0
+Ruthenium Polymer Coating
Bodyline casualwear(Spinrad Industries)0/0
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
Leather Jacket 2/2
Lyric of Portland (Telestrian)0/0
Victory (Ares) 0/0

== Weapons ==
Ares Predator IV
+Quick-Draw Holster
+Personalized Grip
+Smartgun System
Pool: 14 DV: 5P AP: -1 RC: 1
Unarmed Attack
Pool: 5 DV: 1S AP: - RC: 0
Yamaha Sakura Fubuki
+Hidden Gun Arm Slide
+Spare Clips
+Personalized Grip
+Smartgun System
Pool: 14 DV: 4P AP: - RC: 1

== Commlink ==
Hermes Ikon (4, 0, 3, 3)

== Gear ==
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Heavy Pistols) x90
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Light Pistols) x80
Ammo: Subsonic Rounds (Light Pistols) x80
Contact Lenses Rating 3
+Vision Enhancement Rating 3
Fake License (Smartlink) Rating 3
Fake License (Yamaha Sakura Fubuki) Rating 3
Fake License (Ares Predator IV) Rating 3
Fake License (Smartgun System) Rating 3
Fake License (Muscle Toner) Rating 3
Fake SIN (Cinder Gundicks) Rating 3
Fake SIN (Keyser Soze) Rating 3
Glasses Rating 4
+Smartlink
+Image Link
+Tag Eraser
Medkit Rating 6
Nanopaste Disguise (Small Container)

a few observations from my first session. I do not have the skill to use the medkit apparently. Oops. I wasnt relegated to much of a shooty role as it was sort of a op where we acted like we were supposed to be there in order to steal something else. Only yo be attacked by a third party. We booked when we got the important bit.

I would heavily recommend you to invest some in the athletics group, just remember the old idiom 'You don't have to be the fastest, just faster then the slowest person around' Currently you can't even roll for any str or log based skills without spending edge... Which puts you in a really bad spot when you need to for example leg it

Other then that... Dogde is of very dubious use if you only got 1 IP as you're giving up any option of retaliating and you're still only defending against one attack.

If you're using BP it's cheaper to just get the influence group and split it up later.

Depending on how high profile your game is Automatics is superior in every way to pistols... (everything from maxhine-pistols to assault rifles)

On a personal note, If I was your GM that avocado allergy would rear it's face fairly often, just for comedy factor and because you're a cheeky bastard

I have 3 IPS i thought. Ill look into athletics. though. I did do the Influence group but i did not do the stealth group which may have been karma sink.

So... Did you build the character with karma or BP?

BP. Sorry. 400. up to 12 legality without restricted gear.

Usually if you are going to be using 2 of the skills in a group, you may as well pick up the whole group. This is especially true of groups like Influence or Stealth where there are 4 skills in the group, rather than the usual 3. You do have 3 IPs as you have the Improved Reflexes adept power. Your skill list would be easier to read if you filter out the skills with 0 ranks. You can do this in Chummer by going to Tools>Options and then clicking the Character Printing tab and unchecking the box that says Print all Active Skills with a total higher than 0.
You would be better off for a beginning character to add the colour changing option from Attitude (which you must have based on the clothing you have on the character) rather than ruthenium polymers on your Armour clothing. Colour changing works like the cammo option only you can program in multiple patterns so it gives a -2 bonus rather than the polymers -4 but it only costs 175¥ rather than the 7500¥ the polymers cost. You could add the colour changing option to all your clothes for that price.
Your commlink is kind of useless. No software installed and no OS, or perhaps only part of the OS? No sim module, no trodes, no sub vocal mike, no earbuds. This means you use it like an actual phone and have to manually manipulate the thing. So it also means no tac nets or free action unloading of your smartgun, and no smartlink bonus either. Your commlink is the centre of your PAN so you should spend some cash making it useful and safe. Add encryption to it and have analyze always running and it should be safe enough and then slave all your wireless gear to the thing. If you are really worried about a hacker hitting it, buy an agent to run on it and have your own team hacker slave it to his commlink for added protection.
Not sure I'd let in the allergy to avocados simply because it isn't very likely to show up. It's like allergies to bee stings or peanuts. Just how often is that ever going to be relevant to what is going on in game? Are you breaking into a guacamole factory on a routine basis? Roaming the farmlands of Aztlan or Chile? Trapped in some cave where the only food supply is avocados?
For me allergies have always been like the examples given in earlier editions, things like gold, silver, sea water. Things that come up and have a game impact. Sure in the real world you aren't likely to ever encounter someone with an allergy to gold but in SR, gold is a key component in the alloy that is orichalcum and therefore if you get hit with a weapon focus, bang goes the allergy. Or if you are a magician, you do without that alloy in your foci and don't use weapon foci.
A character with a strength of 1 and logic of 1 better have a good back story on why these stats are so low and yet they have managed to make it into the shadowrunning world. A logic of 1 means you are pretty damn stupid. You may be able to get people to like you with the high charisma and tailored pheromones but damn, nothing clever or really even coherent is going to come out of your mouth. Was this guy dropped on his head repeatedly as a baby or have a penchant for eating paint chips as a child? Did he never move or exercise? Why are these stats so low? And the wrong answer is cuz I needed the points for something else. Two dump stats is really pushing things.
Of course this feedback is based on such a character being introduced to my games. Your GM is obviously fine with it so take it with a grain of salt but do keep the role playing effects of such a character in mind.

Dump stats in SR4a is generally not very benefiting as it's essentially free skills and SR is all about skills... That str is going to come back to bite you, especially as you can't cram in a bunch of ware to quick fix it.

Some of this has been covered but;
First, you should decide what your thing is. You've made a sub-optimal face who's really good with pistols and is really fast. If you're solo or on a small team, it's probably a good thing. On a larger group, you could probably lose a couple of points in combat ability and greatly improve your specialty as well as making a better, more capable character.
Let's see what we could do to make him a better face who's also decent at combat and as an infiltrator.

Use the influence group. Big point savings there.
Drop 1 level of increased reflexes. Use the points for improved ability for etiquette and con. And infiltration.
Drop a couple of points off pistols and boost infiltrate.
Boost your athletics. Drop dodge and use gymnastics dodge when necessary.
I don't like the cyber, but I know a lot of other people use it. It just seems like you spend a lot of points to get that magic of 6 so you can spend a lot of points on money to buy cyber to take away your magic. Spend the money on a good commlink with an agent and good programs, greatly increasing your abilities to get in and out of places (about 50,000 will get you a system that will let you through a lot of locked doors with no work on your part). You could spend the magic point on 1 level of increased agility, and get night vision.
The extra money could be turned into a couple of points in strength, body and logic.
If you don't have chummer to help you experiment, you should get it. It's a free program and everyone uses it.

Or decide you love your guy, and just go with it. But really, if you're going to focus on combat, your body needs to get to at least 4.

Thanks guys. Ill definitely look into it. I do have chummer. I might just roll with it for now and when he meets an untimely demise. If he lives a while ill invest in the upgraded comlink.