Hi!

I've got a new game coming up soon and wanted some advice on characters in SR5.

No house rules in effect as far as I know (unless the following is one). We can initiate during char gen and if you get Exceptional Attribute to buff a stat and have spare bonus points you can buy it up with the bonus points. E.g.: ExAtt Magic raises magic to 7, spend 3 human BP to raise magic from 4 to 7.

Tone will probably lean toward Pink Mohawk most of the time with some (probably random) spikes on the Mirrorshades side of the fence.

I was considering the following and wanted some advice on how to realise them.

Note: I don't voluntarily use cyberware, like some people are afraid of spiders the thought of removing a limb voluntarily and replacing it with robot parts squicks me out. Bioware is fine.

1. A cat burglar, stealth, agility, lockpicking and probably needs decking skills too as many locks will not be mechanical

Problem here being that Bioware is costly and a Deck is costly and you need a lot of skills and they have to be decently high to be plausible.

2. "I'm a cowboy. On a steel horse I ride!". Cowboy aesthetic, basically a gunbunny adept/paracritter hunter. Gonna have pistols (pair of quick draw holstered Ruger Super Warhawks as those are revolvers) and longarms (a rifle described as a lever action and a shotgun). Could be Bioware or Adept.

3. A body mod subculture rocker type fellow. Mostly I want to use badass Qi Foci tattoos and mix that with cats eyes and funky ears etc. So Adept/Bioware, mainly a physical fellow, probably made his living pre-Running as a musician with a failed rock-group.

Any suggestions on how to mould the SR5 priorities system into shape?

How do you go about mixing 'ware and magic on an Adept?

How do you go about being capable of small hacking jobs (i.e.: opening a locked door, disabling a camera, etc. with a DNI cable) without being a full blown Decker? Or how can you make a Decker really awesome at the physical stuff?

We'll be running from some Missions style stuff and I hear rumours that the cash payout on those is crap? How would that affect building a character assuming you would not really be able to buy any 'ware or costly gear post creation?

To me it looks like you should be playing mystic Adept
with exceptional Attr MAG and 7 Powerpoints
(and no 'ware at all !) you could become a ...."magic Powerhouse" !
You could combine 1 and 3 :
a cat Burglar with Qi Foci
one possible way could be:
Prio A Skills 46/10
B mystic Adept
C Human (3)
D Attributes 14
E Resources
-------------------
or:
A Attributes 24
B Mystic Adept
C Human (3)
D Skills 22/0
E Resources

with a mystic Dance
Medicineman

For the Cat burglar . . Troll. No, really, look up the ultimate mundane climber.
Sure, it's SR4, but i am guessing it will work similarly in SR5.

In 5th Edition, Maglocks can be opened without hacking/cyberdeck via the Locksmith skill. You litterally open the lock case and mess with the innards to get it to open for you, all with the Locksmith skill.

For the rest of it, like hacking cameras and other security systems, well you're team will need a Hacker, and probably a half way decent one. If no one wants to play one, talk to the GM about taking one as a Contact that you guys can hire to watch your matrix backs on runs where you think you'll need it. If you take the Hacker as a low Contact , high Loyalty character, you can probably negotiate discounts for his work. Also, make sure the team Face tries to negotiate with Johnson to ensure the Hacker's fee is considered a coast of business, or to just have him hire the hacker directly.

Troll is very high on the priority list though for an excessive strength. I could robably get a dice pool capable of most climbing tasks with a human and a good gymnastic skill.

In people's experience are there really huge numbers of situations in which climbing really needs a massive Strength of 10 or something? Could I instead get away with spending 2 karma and Y3k to buy an Attribute Boost: Strength Qi Foci to last me a few rounds while I climb?



The second of those two is probably easier to work with as I don't even know how an Attribute 14 even works. You'd be using your PPs just to make your basic stats sit in the slightly above average camp required to do your job well.

Atts A (24)
Mys Ad B (Mag 4, 7 spells)
Skills C (28/2)
Human D (3)
Resurces E (Y6k)

ExAtt Mag, spend 3 racial bonus points for magic 7, spend 35 karma for PPs. 14+35 = 49karma spent...1 karma for Y2k.

Really tight on the money, probably going to have to narratively be a couch surfer or something at the start.

Ignoring MysAd (if, for example, I don't want to cast spells)

Atts A (24)
Skills B (36/5)
Mag C (Adept, 4, rating 2 skill)
Human D (3)
Resources E (Y6k)

ExAtt Mag, 3 bonus points for magic 7, initiate and choose a PP. 14+13 = 27 karma spent. 10 karma for money. Leaves 13 karma for stuff.

Gives a good base of 24 attributes, 36/5 skills, 8PP and Y26k to spend on top of a human basic stat block. Probably the easiest one to mould.



Hmm, contact/contract hacker could well be a better option.

Good to know I could actually open a door without a Y205k piece of kit...

So, Maglocks are no longer defeated with the Hardware Skill? That is odd, since a Maglock is an electronic device, which is what you would use Hardware for.
Makes it easier for the Burglar, though. I guess...

TJ, I reviewed the Maglock rules (363) because I was also alarmed by the conclusion you reached. Turns out that locksmith is only half the story for maglocks, though the text is pretty vague on how exactly to resolve them.

There are a few key quotes:

"Maglocks are often accessible via the local network (wired or wireless) and may be monitored by a security hacker/rigger."

"The first step to bypassing a maglock is to remove the case and access the maglock’s electronic guts. This requires a successful Locksmith + Agility [Physical] ..."

There is no second step listed. However, in the previous paragraph on transponder embedded keys, picking a lock sucessfully "requires a successful Hardware + Logic [Mental] ..." test.

Taking all of this together, I think you need to open up maglocks with locksmith and then hack them using standard decking rules. Clarity is light on the ground though.

EDIT: turns out I was super wrong. See below.

So opening locks does require Y205k of kit...if I had that kind of cash to splash why would I be picking locks in the first place

Ok so that kind of rules out Adept cat burglar. It would have to be Decker with a side of physical skills and...I don't want to have to read the matrix chapter in that much depth!

It depends.
Maglocks break like anything hit by a Troll.
Or the Master-Key. Combine with electronic Warfare to snuff out alarms and a silence spell and you are good to go!

Maglocks used to be opened two ways (illegally )
A) via Hacking
B) manually.
In SR4A it was Hardware and LOG (first to open the case , second to rewire the innards/cables and maybe a third time to close the case again to not leave any obvious traces)
Now in SR5 the only difference in opening the Maglock manually is that you use Locksmith instead of Hardware and AGI instead of LOG for the first Roll.
( using Locksmith instead of Hardware is ok ImO because a Maglock is a Lock. Using Hardware in SR4A was also Ok because it is an electronic device) thats all, thats how easy it is !
Well, thats how I read the rules and how we're going to do because we like our Game easy and streamlined
@Xy....
You should create the Adept Cat Burglar ( I would tell you to make a mystic Adept,You could use Spells like physical Mask, improved Invisibility,Magic Fingers,Silence,Confusion/Chaos or summon Spirits with Movement or concealment Powers. But hey, its Your Char )

with an easy Dance
Medicineman

No, it doesn't. With all due respect, pragma needed to keep reading into the Keypad and Card Reader listings on page 363 to find the next step. It's (yet more) bad editing, because the second step in both cases is to make a second Locksmith roll:

1) Open the lock housing (page 363)
"The first step to bypassing a maglock is to remove the case and access the maglock’s electronic guts. This requires a successful Locksmith + Agility [Physical] (Maglock Rating x 2, 1 Combat Turn) Extended Test."

2) Deal with the Anti-Tamper electronics, if any: (page 363)
"In order to bypass the anti-tamper circuits, an additional Locksmith + Agility [Physical] (anti-tamper system rating) Test must be made. If this fails, an alarm is triggered."

3) Depending on the type of maglock....

3a) Keypad (page 363)
"rewiring the circuits—another Locksmith + Agility [Physical] (Maglock Rating x 2, 1 Combat Turn) Extended Test. A maglock sequencer (see p. 448) may also be used instead; "

"3b) Card Readers (page 363/364)
They can be defeated using the same method as for keypads—by removing the case and tampering with the works. Maglock passkeys (p. 448) may also be used to defeat cardreaders and don’t require breaking the case open. "

Note:
Biometric maglocks (Print scanners, Voice Recognition, DNA scanners, Facial Recognition) can only be opened by providing an appropriate sample (fake or real) not by opening the lock system. (page 364) Gear/meathods are listed for doing all of this, but some of it gets a bit complicated, typically requring knowing the lock is in the way and having a sample/etc prepped for bypassing it.

A starting out dedicated non-hacker B&E character should have:
1) Lockpicks, preferably stashed away on your person as a backup.
2) Autopicker, rating 6
3) Cellular glove molder rating 4 (for making fake finger prints)
4) Keycard copier, rating 6
5) Maglock Passkey, Rating 4 (faster than opening the device if you know it's weak.)
6) Maglock sequencer, rating 4 (max for a starting character.)
7) A Hardware toolkit for dealing with transponder keys. Also useful for hiding your lock picking gear in when pretending to be a repairman.
8) a Disguise toolkit for bypassing facial recognition sensors, and of course for just concealing who you are.
9) Voice Modulator cyberware, Rating 4 (max for starting character, to bypass voice recognizers.) ...Or the adept power equivalent: Voice control (page 311.)
Bonus) (used) retinal duplicator eyeware (at the highest rating you can afford, to bypass retinal scanners.)

The retinal duplicators are very expensive and need a decent rating to work, but the rest of the kit is actually fair cheap, voice altering cyberware included.

Skill wise:
Locksmith does a lot of the heavy lifting.
Hardware is needed for transponder embdeded physical keys, although someone else present might do this instead.
Disguise is needed for facial recognition, although someone else could put the disguise on you.
Chemistry is needed for DNA sampling locks, although this is done in advance and might be handled by a contact or other team member.
Impersonation might be needed for Voice recognition tests, depending on method used. (Adepts with voice control will need it)

Thanks for the catch, Blackjaw. I agree wholeheartedly.

Or just get out your engineering calculations and get points in Demolitions.

No lock is proof against enough C16.

....oO( & a silence Spell )

Hough!
Medicineman

Who said all cyberware is voluntary? If you lost an arm in a car accident, and you couldn't get a clonal replacement, would you accept a cyberarm or go without?

@Tanegar
it Xy....himself that has a Problem with Cyberware,so his chars won't get any.
It Ok ImO to not use anything that you as a player don't like !
So, cyber is no option.

with an optional Dance
Medicineman

I did say voluntary. I don't begrudge needing a replacement because circumstances have cruelly robbed you of your natural one. Me personally (and by extension a character in a game I choose to play) would still rather they got biologically grown replacements...

So it look as if, once again, the cat burglar is on the cards. Better make sure Lockpicking is rated highly.

The MysAd would work, I'll check if anyone else in the group is planning on being a Mage, if not then I'll probably do that. Otherwise Adept version. I'll draw something up for both and stick them in here shortly.

Just in case you were wondering what a 6 Agility & 6+ Gymnastics can do for you.

You mean AGI 7 and Gymnastics 11 with specialisation Summersaults (20 Dice Pool)and the use of Edge to exceed Limits ?!!
....oo(I just realised he's jumping on small trampolines....)

HokaHey
Medicineman

Alright. Done some more reading.

The GM has gone on holiday so I can't ask for specifics from him but I am making the following assumptions.

The game is newish runners and our opposition is unlikely to be Professional Rating 5+ unless we get HTR all over us. So I am looking for stats in the Professional Rating 4 region for the opposition.

That means:
To Hit Me:
About 12 dice ~ 4 hits, therefore I need to get about 15 dodge dice (5 hits) to not be hit
To Damage Me:
Assume 10DV after weapon+ammo+net hits, therefore I need armour+body of about 30 to soak that (not going to happen, focus on not getting hit)
To Detect Me:
About 6-10 dice ~ 3 hits, therefore I need to get about 12 dice (4 hits) to sneak past

To Hit Them:
About 8 dice to dodge ~ 3 hits, therefore I need about 12 dice (4 hits) to hit them, any weapon with Acc4+ should be suitable
To Damage Them:
About 13-16 dice ~ 5 hits, therefore need a DV (with net hits) of 6+, basically any weapon will do

Security Systems. I am extrapolating the Maglock rules (remove outer shell, defeat countermeasures, rewire system) to allow me to disable cameras, alarms, gun turrets, sensors, etc. If this is not the case to your knowledge of the rules then please tell me as I'm making this a major focus of the character!

Building a Run recommends setting security ratings at about equal to the device rating of the deck carried by the decker. I am going to assume that would be extended to Maglock ratings, etc. as well. Highest possible rating a Deck could have at character gen is 4 (Sony CIY 720) so I will assume the security systems I meet with be rating 1-4.

Key Locks, Transponder Keys, Maglocks all need Locksmith+Agility [mental] (rating or ratingx2, combat turns) and/or Hardware+Logic [mental] (rating or ratingx2, combat turns). That means about 8 net hits required, bearing in mind my dicepool degrades each time I roll by one dice a dice pool of 12 to start with should be enough to cover most security system threats.

Alarms, Lighting systems, switches all require Hardware+Logic [mental] (5, 1 minute) so the 12 dice should cover that as well.

Wires and Beams require Escape Artist+Agility [physical] with no fixed threshold but these are not extended. I will assume 4 as the threshold and thus needs 12+ dice

Motion, Sound and Vibration sensors can be defeated by moving slowly using the Infiltration(???)+Agility [physical] (3). I assume Infiltration is meant to be Sneaking. That requires about 9 dice.

Spotting and finding security systems however also needs to be done. The numbers commonly thrown around are thresholds of 2-3 with some things going 3+. I will assume 4. Thus 12 dice on perception tests as well.

Now. My entire thought exercise here is littered with assumptions (bad!) but I;ve got nothing else to go on for trying to intuit what a 'suitable' dice pool is so it'll have to do.

This means I need
Agility+Sneaking ~ 12
Agility+Locksmith ~ 12
Agility+Escape Artist ~ 12
Logic+Hardware ~ 12
Intuition+Perception ~ 12
Reaction+Intuition ~ 15
Agility+Weapon Skill ~ 12
Armour to take the edge off being hit
A gun with DV6+ and Acc4+
A host of small lockpicking and hardware tools

So now how to make this happen.

Attempt no.1 Adept.

Attributes A (24)
Skills B (36/5)
Magic C (4, rating 2 skill)
Race D (Human 3)
Resources D (Y6K)

Assume 25 points disads.

Spend 14 Karma on ExAtt Magic, spend 3 racial bonus points on magic = Magic 7. Initiate once 13 karma, choose PP = Magic 7/8 and 8PP. Spend 10 Karma for money = Y26K. 37 karma spent. Leaving 13 karma to spend.

B3, A6, R5, S2, W4, I5, L5, C2, Ed2, M7, Es6 using all 24 attribute points.

I could drop Strength to 1, raise Willpower to 5, spend 10 karma for Strength 2...or leave it at 1 and buy up in play if there's an important Quality to take. But really...Strength 1? I don't think they'd be able to even carry most of their equipment. God I hate linear character gen followed by non-linear character growth. I know that Willpower 5 is vastly more efficient than Strength 2 AND helps in my primary concerns more AND I can easily buff strength in a way buffing Willpower can't be...but Strength 1 is ridiculous. Linear followed by non-Linear creates absurd player incentives. But when it costs 16 attribute points to be average at every attribute I can see why people might min max.

Skills...wow. I have almost no idea where to even begin with these. A quick skim of the Skills chapter reveals the following things as stuff I want.

Automatics, Gymnastics (Climbing), Perception (Visual), Blades (Knives), Running (Sprinting), Sneaking (Urban), Con, Negotiate, Etiquette, Locksmith (Maglock), Hardware, Disguise, Impersonation, Armourer, Demolitions, Computer, Industrial Mechanic.

The skills from Disguise onwards are 'nice to haves'.

Blades 2 (Knives) gives me 4 dice for 3 skill points. Locksmith and Hardware are my signature abilities so both to 6 and a specialty for 14 skill points. Sneaking 3 (Urban) is 4 skill points for 5 dice. Perception 3 (visual) is another 5 for 4. Athletics skill group at 5 for all of my SkG points.

That's 25/36 spent and all my Skill Group Points.

Automatics is a nice generic gun skill that covers from pistol sized to rifle sized so...5 and a specialty in something (suggestions?) for 6 points, leaves me with 5 skill points to go. One point in each of Con, Negotiate, Etiquette, Armourer and Demolitions? Mostly as that first point is a 2 dice swing.

Now for 8PP.

Improved Reflexes 3 for 3.5 (it's silly good...)
Combat Sense 1 for 0.5 (the first point in this means always test vs. surprise AND +1 to dodge)
Traceless Walk for 1
Improved Agility 3 for 3

Comments or suggestions on those? I could go for maximum Agility by dropping Traceless Walk...but that +1 dice is less appealing than just outright ignoring a host of security and the big buffs to sneaking around.

Anything that costs 0.25 is cheap enough to grab easily in play as a Foci as they only cost Y3k and 2 karma. 0.5s potentially are as well at 4 karma and Y6K but Y3k and 2 karma is essentially a guaranteed payout on even the easiest run making them really easy to get. Things that are 1 force are also easier to use as they can be activated in any number of combinations without hitting the 'exceed magic, take addiction test' point while having a single larger foci like an Improved Attribute requiring 4 force would not have the same flexibility that activating and deactivating the other foci allow for.

Finally cold hard cash. Y26k.

Any suggestions welcome.

To be honest, we had a troll ninja sword adept in one of our 4E games. Traceless step, something berserk like 18 Stealth dice before gear, and he one-shot a young dragon in one of the old skool adventures we converted over. The trying to figure out how the 8ft+ tall monstrosity could possibly hide as well as he did, we just imagined that his innate magic made him look like a large-ish coat rack to people looking for him while he was hiding. "Huh, I've never noticed this coat rack here before. Sure is in a handy place, though. *tosses coat on the ninja's head*" It became a pretty good running gag in our group.

I ran out of cash before getting vision mod glasses, but here's something to get you started: $26,000 buys you:

1 Month Low Lifestyle ($2,000)

Hermes Ikon Rating 5 Commlink ($3,000)

Certified Silver Credstick ($20)

Subvocal Mic ($50)

Glasses capacity 1 ($100)
+ Imagelink ($25)

Goggles capacity 3 ($150)
+ Imagelink ($25)
+ Thermographic ($500)
+ Flare Compensation ($250)

AR Gloves ($150)

Tag Eraser ($450)

Fake SIN Rating 2 ($5,000)

Chameleon suit ($1,700)
+ Thermal Dampening 2 ($1,000)

Steyr TMP Machine Pistol ($350)
+ Laser Sight ($125)
+ Suppressor ($500)
+ 1 Spare Clip ($5)
+ 30 APDS Ammo ($360)
+ 30 Stick & Shock Ammo ($240)

Forearm snap-blades ($200)

Autopicker Rating 6 ($3,000)

Cellular Glove Molder Rating 4 ($2,000)

Keycard Copier Rating 6 ($3,600)

Lockpick Set ($250)

Hardware Toolkit ($500)

Gecko Tape Gloves ($250)

Climbing Gear ($200)

alternately, if you can get the cash together (it will require moving around your priorities), you can replace some of those adept powers and free yourself up to spend elsewhere.

for example, with 72k nuyen and 0.75 essence, you can get rating 3 (used) muscle toner.
alternately, for 96k nuyen and 0.6 essence you can get the same thing, unused.
you can't quite pull off the rating 3 improved reflexes equivalent, but you *can* pull off rating 2 synaptic boosters for 190k nuyen and 1.0 essence (this option strongly encourages you choose used muscle toner rather than standard grade, though, as 286k nuyen is just above resources B)

depending how heavily you invest in resources (i wouldn't go higher than B, maybe even just C), you could then pick up stuff like platelet factories and bone density augmentation to make you tougher, as well as giving you a stronger melee attack.

(note: this is all bioware, for the record, per your request).

you can cram a fair amount of stuff into just 2 points of essence, which is costing you 2 PP. so long as you gain back more than 2 PP, you have a net positive.

also, as a general rule, i feel like attributes at priority A is a very high price to pay. i suspect you'd get more mileage out of something "crazy" like:

skills A (lets you pick up more of those "nice, but not required" skills as well as raising your core skills in some places to compensate for lower attributes)
resources B (to afford at least two core pieces of gear, note that this also saves you some karma as you'll have leftover cash after those two core pieces of gear)
magic C
race D
attributes E (yes, i know it looks like an awfully small amount to spend on attributes. and it is. but it can be done).

and then spending karma on raising your lower attributes instead of on initiating, qualities, and nuyen (bearing in mind that the synaptic boosters and muscle toners are getting you 5.5 power points worth of stuff, but losing only 2 power points to get it... although you do lose out on the very top tier of improved reflexes this way.

so, for example, if you invest a bit less heavily in supercharging your magic attribute in advance, you could start with "only" 4 power points, but have basically an extra 2.5 PP to spend as you see fit. like using it for danger sense, or critical strike, or improved ability/potential, or voice control (useful for bypassing biometrics), or light body (useful for making impressive leaps) or wall running, or extra levels of combat sense (limited to 3, though)

you can even take an extra step by using bioware to augment your strength, should you so choose. heck, you may even decide to go for 3 points of essence into bioware.

not saying you "have" to take this route. but in general, mixing some bioware in can get you some pretty impressive results. you do lose out pretty much permanently on that one last initiative die, and can't stack reaction (note: you can't stack reaction with the adept power either), unless your GM thinks the official rewards are dumb or you manage to swipe some stuff in your downtime to the point where you can afford synaptic booster 3. personally, i'd trade 1d6 initiative and 1 reaction for 2.5 points of adept powers, but then, i'm not everybody.

an alternate concept would be to start off with 2 points of essence in bioware and only a single point of adept powers, by going attributes C, magic D, race E. you'd gain 4 points of attributes at the cost of magic attribute... on the other hand, your magic attribute would be very easy to raise with karma (depending on your GM's interpretation, you may be able to start increasing your magic at the discounted cost during chargen).

Mixing is something I considered but not for the 'core' stuff like Agility or Strength.

The sheer financial cost means that they will essentially never improve again after character gen. Going from rating 2 Muscle Toner to rating 3 costs Y96k for a single extra point (some can be recouped by selling the rating 2 I'd have installed to start with). Compared to the low cost of Initiating in comparison (13, 16, 19, 22, 25, etc.) and choosing a PP each time I can rapidly raise those attributes doing that much faster than saving up for Bioware.

Out of interest how would you spend those E attribute points?

I could see switching Race and Resources giving Magic 4 and 1 bonus point and having Y50-Y70k depending on karma. Getting up to 2 points of Bioware means I would have a magic rating of 2/4 and one bonus point making that 3/4. No need for ExAtt Magic saving 14 karma. Initiate twice for 29 karma gives me magic 3/6 and 5PP.

I looked at only the rewards section of Sprawl Wilds (as I know the GM is planning on running one of them so didn't look at the mission content, don't reveal it!). Cash rewards seem pretty rubbish. Karma's not great either.

Edit: Also, how many programs can a Rigger Command Console run? I was considering finding a way of getting a 'scratch built junk model' for Y1.4k and having it run a Wrapper program and then running stuff on silent and slaving to the commlink as my matrix protection package. That way stuff like Tag Erasers or keycard copiers etc. won't show up as what they are.

Gunslinger adepts can easily be the most potent shooters in SR5. So far, I've seen three different people have come up with them, indedpendently.

A few suggestions:

Don't buy Improved Agility. The payoff isn't worth it. Instead, get Agility Boost 1; it's a little less reliable, but on the average it'll work out as well. By only getting one level, the drain will be negligible.

So, what do you do with those PP you just saved? Buy Improved Combat Skill, and Increased Accuracy if you can afford it. That'll boost your dice pool even further than before, and you'll be able to use more successes.

That's...actually a good idea if I'm reading it right.

Get Willpower+Body of 8 dice and a single rank deals Drain 2, which with 8 dice to resist means you can just buy the hits.

The issue is the Simple Actions to activate every few turns. (Does it last rounds or Initiative passes?)

The boost lasts for a number of Combat Turns equal to twice the number of hits you get. So unless you get into really long fights, shouldn't need to pop it too often.

When the boost runs out, you take Drain equal to the level of this power, so again deferring the drain can be handy for not effecting the opening shots.

Make sure you check with your GM about buying hits. Some don't allow it at all, and most do not allow it for resisting damage.

It's true, but if your Willpower + Body is over 8, you're not likely to take any drain in the first place. And even if you do, it's only 2 boxes, you can sleep that off in an hour. The risks are extremely minimal, even if you can't buy successes.

With that newfangled knowledge I could drop the 3 Improved Attribute Agility points and spend them on a host of other interesting things.

OR because the Magic investment is now lower I could focus on getting some more cash.

Also I've just read the Climbing rules and they use Strength primarily! I thought they used Agility. Climbing comes under Gymnastics and Gymnastics is an Agility skill...but Agility only seems to be used for Jumping.

Weird.

Strength has more passive benefits than Agility but could arguably rely on Attribute Boost as well. Grab Wall Running and buff Strength a little bit. A good way of ascending 2-3 meters rapidly and grabbing on with Gecko Tape or similar tools adds a really nice bit of verticality to a fight and my movement.

Magic 7 and Attribute boost 1 is 8 dice so just buy 2 hits, get +2 to Ag and Str from some other source (PP or Bioware) and I'm getting the maximum +4 augmentation bonus.

Resources C, Magic D is Adept 2. Race E is Human 1. That nets me Magic 3/6 and 140,000 nuyen. Bioware Strength 2 and Agility 2 is 0.8 essence and 127,000 nuyen. Leaving me with Magic 2/5.

That gets me Enhanced reflexes 1 for 1.5 and both Strength and Agility Attribute Boosts for 2x0.25.

Magic 3 and Initiating once costs 28 Karma and nets me 2 more power points.

Make sure to take note of the oddball rules for Attribute Boost. Many people argue that the way it is written precludes the boost from being applied to anything other than dice pools. I don't like it, but I tend to agree with the interpretation, so don't expect extra damage, base movement, damage boxes, etc. as a result of Attribute Boost, just extra dice for tests related to the Attributes.

General interpretation is that run programs on an RCC use up the share rating (although only autosofts are explictily shared with linked drones), but it's a bit unclear, as much of the rigging rules are. That means a Scratch built junk can run 1 cyberprogram, such as Wrapper, but it's not the most efficient way to do it in terms of price or bulk. The cheaper & smaller option is to get a Shiawase Kanmushi "bug" drone. Drones can run a number of cyperprograms equal to half their pilot rating rounded up. (P269) A bug micro-drone is the size of a cockroach and is only $1,000, making it easier to carry than a laptop sized RCC, slightly cheaper, and more efficient with 2 program slots instead of 1. As a bonus, it's tiny spy drone you might find other uses for.

...and it doesn't seem weird that people that are wandering around with computers on their heads (Commlinks) are instead choosing to walk around with a small robotic flying bug so that they can run their computer programs?

Can you use the drone without an RCC?

Drain for Attribute Boost Level 1 is ONLY 1 point of Drain (not 2 drain, as many people are suggesting (Unless I missed an Errata)... it is equal to the Level of the Adept Ability).
And you cannot buy hits for Drain.

you can give the drone orders from a regular commlink.

as to attributes E, well, for the character you have, i'd probably drop logic, intuition, and willpower down to 3, lose a couple points out of reaction, drop strength and charisma to 1 each (boost them back to 2 for 10 karma each), probably drop 1 point of agility, and from there it starts to get a bit tough to make decisions. personally, i'd lose a couple points off reaction, buy it to 2 for 10 karma, and then invest a few power points in combat reflexes to get my dodge pool back up to respectable levels, as well as magic resistance to compensate for lower willpower.

on a side note, you can get rating 3 *used* muscle toner at chargen. and unlike initiative enhancers, they don't say they don't stack, so you could in fact combine them with improved agility if you ever wanted to improve your agility using adept powers.

(you could also invest in boosting your strength the same way; in fact, you save even more with boosting your physical attributes by going bioware than you save from replacing improved initiative, and that's saying something considering improved initiative is pretty expensive. and takes less resources as well. you also have the option of bone density for body, at least as far as damage resistance tests are concerned).

with that said, the attribute boost route is also definitely an option. and if you find it comes up short, you can always sacrifice a point of magic for bioware later (you're capped at +4, but only initiative boosters don't stack).

one thing i will add though: if you do go for attribute boost, i highly recommend you invest in faster healing (the quality, not the adept power). honestly, it's a pretty decent purchase for anyone, it's just even better if you are ever going to be taking drain or fading at all.

also, if you're *completely* nutso, you can theoretically get uncapped initiative boost with the adrenaline boost power. of course, the drain every round if you do boost your initiative dramatically higher using it is not exactly nothing... but it is also completely reliable =P

(too bad you can't pick up magician centering. imo, adepts with powers that cause drain should be able to...)

I'm away from my books right now, but isn't the minimum drain for anything 2?

From looking through the various Drain sections, it looks like minimum drain is set by whatever action caused it (Spellcasting, Conjuring, Adept Powers, etc)> Adept Powers don't mention a minimum value, the others do. The generic Drain section doesn't mention a minimum either.

Attribute Boost specifically tells you that Drain is equal to Attribute Boost Level.
Errata does not change that.

In fact, all the Adept Drain Powers are specifically at Power Level (Of course, there are not a LOT of them currently).

Like Jack said, that's something of a special case. But at any event, it's only 1 drain, not worth arguing over. If anything, it proves my point that the drain is a non-issue.

That's more of an issue with the fact that Commlinks are unable to run programs while RCCs, Decks, Vehicles, and Drones all can run programs. I personally think they should have had a nice low program capactiy too. Right now, to be good at Matrix Searches (Browse cyberprogram) you either need a big computer with drone features and remote controls, a big scary cyberdeck, or a vehilce/drone. That's just strange to me too, but it's the rules for now.

As pointed out by Jaid already, you can issue orders or remote control a drone with just a commlink. RCCs provide extra features (like autosoft sharing or signal scrubbing.) You'd need a Vehicle Control Rig implanted to jump into the drone for rigging, but anyone could simply own a drone and give it orders (letting it use it's pilot program or on-board autosofts) to actually take actions.