Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Senko on <05-20-14/0059:57>
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Given my failure to make a shaman/decker I figured I'd try and work out what roles go together. So here's what I have so far in primary/secondary format. Feel free to correct if I'm wrong.
Shaman/Face
Decker/Rigger
Decker/physical adept
Face/sniper
Street Sam/mage
Rigger/Sniper
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Decker/Rigger
In order to do either one of these really well in a way that utterly fulfills the role, you need Resources A. They're more something where you pair two characters together.
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I'd have thought you need resources or magic A for everything except a physical adept to be honest.
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Not really: humans can easily afford a lower Magic priority if they think other stuff is more important. My Missions character, for instance, has Attributes A, and is therefore well-rounded attributes-wise: 3/3/3/3/5/4/5/6.
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Oh there are exceptions I just feel in general you want either magic or resources at A.
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There's a difference between "most of the time" and "everything", though.
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Oh there are exceptions I just feel in general you want either magic or resources at A.
This might be your prefrence … Other players prioritise differently depending on their way of gaming or how their GM interprets (or just ignores) certain game aspects
And btw. I cannot think of a reasonable concept to make a Street Sam/Mage mix work.
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Tank/enchanter (using the crazy high troll body to withstand bullets and heal drain from preparations)
B&E/rigger (if the table plays with those rules stating that its agility for sneaking/duelist blades/gunnery etc) (pg 238)
And of course minor roles like medic/armourer/EOD/forgerer etc would benefit from a hermetic mage/hacker/rigger and other logic builds
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Given my failure to make a shaman/decker I figured I'd try and work out what roles go together. So here's what I have so far in primary/secondary format. Feel free to correct if I'm wrong.
Shaman/Face
Decker/Rigger
Decker/physical adept
Face/sniper
Street Sam/mage
Rigger/Sniper
Mage/decker (mage primary) is very hard to pull off even as a hermetic but decker/mage (decker primary) is a lot easier if you use your actions on decking stuff, with magic as buff/backup/"passive" (summoning, support stuff + sustaining, instead of spellslinging).
It's important to keep in mind that not all shamans have to be faces, and not all faces have to be shamans (Sams can do it quite well).
Decker/rigger actually is not easy due to the wide variety of skills needed. And both decks and good RCCs are expensive (setting aside the expense of the control rig). Drones and vehicles can be expensive. So it really depends. Deckers can usually make great First Aid healers though with their high Logic.
Decker/physad works pretty well since powers are almost entirely passive.
Face/sniper I don't think is a great combo, I don't think a sniper hanging back will be able to do the cool stuff with Leadership or Intimidation at that kind of range. The skillsets don't match well unless the face also does B&E and would have Con, Disguise, Impersonation.
As an aside, the "sniper" is...a skill set that is valuable (stealth and longarms) paired with an archetype (the loner who hides high above and shoots in ambush from long range, after staking out a blind) that is largely impractical on runs. Most shadowrun combat, in my experience, occurs at short-range, frequently indoors, and it is the players who are usually ambushed, not the enemies. Not to say the sniper archetype doesn't have value sometimes, just that it usually doesn't work out the way most people envisions hen they think "sniper." Sniper rifles are still incredibly useful at short-range firefights, if bulky enough for concealability to be an issue.
Street sam/mage: hahaha noooooo. Sams are dependent on losing Essence for power vs mages are dependent on having high Essence....yeah that's a big no. However, if you're a Mystic Adept gish, you might have the right idea with the right pairing of spells and PP.
Rigger/sniper: same issues with snipers in general, except in the case where your actual "sniper" is a flying drone or four, that's more viable...until your drones get shot down, but that's the perpetual issue with the rigger. I'm not the most up on riggers and Remote Control vs Jumped In being better.
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Street sam/mage: hahaha noooooo. Sams are dependent on losing Essence for power vs mages are dependent on having high Essence....yeah that's a big no. However, if you're a Mystic Adept gish, you might have the right idea with the right pairing of spells and PP.
On that one, I have to disagree. A mystic adept could easily play the street sam/mage role. They pick adept powers to augment their physical abilities and spells to give them versatility.
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Street sam/mage: hahaha noooooo. Sams are dependent on losing Essence for power vs mages are dependent on having high Essence....yeah that's a big no. However, if you're a Mystic Adept gish, you might have the right idea with the right pairing of spells and PP.
On that one, I have to disagree. A mystic adept could easily play the street sam/mage role. They pick adept powers to augment their physical abilities and spells to give them versatility.
I agree with you on the Mystic Adept thing (thought I made that clear in my post). I just meant, pairing a traditional low-Essence, ware-dependent sam with a full magician is just a bad recipe because of all the ware gimping magic. If you want to pair sam and mage, Mystic Adept is the only real viable way (and even they might take <1 Ess worth of ware for boosts like cybereyes, without a huge deleterious effect).
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Don't forget about Hermetic magician/mystic adept with any of Armourer, Medic, or Mechanic. Depending on how you make the build you can be either a support-focused build, or just have support as backup so you can give another reason to the checkpoint officer when explaining why you're trying to get across Denver.
There's also some synergy between a physical adept (or street sam) with something more of a close-combat focus and a breaking and entering expert.
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My GM and I rolled up a Technomancer/Face.
Pretty much useless physically, but a beast with sprites or socially.
The real limiter with this one is skill points. Skills A wasn't nearly enough.
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Street sam/mage: hahaha noooooo. Sams are dependent on losing Essence for power vs mages are dependent on having high Essence....yeah that's a big no. However, if you're a Mystic Adept gish, you might have the right idea with the right pairing of spells and PP.
On that one, I have to disagree. A mystic adept could easily play the street sam/mage role. They pick adept powers to augment their physical abilities and spells to give them versatility.
I agree with you on the Mystic Adept thing (thought I made that clear in my post). I just meant, pairing a traditional low-Essence, ware-dependent sam with a full magician is just a bad recipe because of all the ware gimping magic. If you want to pair sam and mage, Mystic Adept is the only real viable way (and even they might take <1 Ess worth of ware for boosts like cybereyes, without a huge deleterious effect).
You did; my apologies. I was replying while still half asleep. I'm surprised you didn't get a lecture on imaginary elephants; I've been told it's quite hilarious.
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Haha no worries. Just was concerned that my post was unclear or poorly phrased.
Don't forget about Hermetic magician/mystic adept with any of Armourer, Medic, or Mechanic. Depending on how you make the build you can be either a support-focused build, or just have support as backup so you can give another reason to the checkpoint officer when explaining why you're trying to get across Denver.
That is a pretty handy combo. Character that can do First Aid and then slap on a Heal spell for the remainder. Former DocWagon SINner maybe...
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Oh I'm well aware others may do things differently that was an explanation of where i was coming from nothing more.
I agree sniper seemed an odd choice but I've seen it a few times both on forums and in the books so I included it.
For the street Sam/mage its not a magic heavy build just a few simple spells that don't need a lot to work e.g. detect life.
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Former DocWagon SINner maybe...
That's an awesome idea for a character, DocWagon security. A combination of magical mercenary and field medic who's job it was to ride as protection when they had to go into Barrens-esque areas. Assist the Docs when possible and defend them when necessary. Heal, Stabilize, Oxygenate, Detox, Levitate (who wants to take the time to break out a big stretcher in the middle of the Barrens?), a few defensive and offensive spells...and a few machine pistols. That's going in the "to play later" file!
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You can actually be decker secondary without investing in high end cyberdecks, high attributes and a wide array of skills.... as long as you focus on hacking devices with a direct connection to gain access to the security host and from there use the direct connection to other security devices. you are mostly only looking at opposing rolls in the 4 dice size range. if your main role have a decent physical initiative you can do most (if not all) your hacking from AR.
not very useful for hacking into and/or messing with protected files in high rating hosts (you need a dedicated decker for that), but still very useful at controlling stuff like elevators, cameras, sensors, maglocks, alarms....
probably better synergy for characters with a focus on logic, intuition and/or willpower
- but a bit of hacking can go a long way for a B&E character
(trained to sneak and climb etc. to reach slaved devices to gain access).
likewise almost all archetypes can benefit from ordering around a few spy drones
eyes in the sky and all that
or a rotor drone with a silenced sniper rifle to shoot unaware guards
don't really need a control rig or any of them pilot and gunnery skills to benefit from that...