Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Nautilust on <06-20-17/0415:42>
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Hi. I am making a Shaman and am trying to make a character that can walk into a building and get information and get into areas that we need. That can also break in and do the same thing if that fails. We don't have a face/infiltrator so I think that adding some expertise to our party mainly built of combat monkeys would be nice. My build is as follows.
Magic: A Skills: B Attributes: B Metatype: E Resources: E
Metatype: Human
Attributes
BOD 5/6
AGI 3/6
REA 1/6
STR 3/6
WIL 5/6
LOG 1/6
INT 4/6
CHA 6/6
EDG 3/7
MAG: 6/6
Limits
Physical: 4
Mental: 4
Social: 7
Skills
Influence Skill Group 5
Assensing 5
Astral Combat 5
Spellcasting 5
Summoning 5
Con 3
Locksmith 3
Palming 3
Sneaking 3
Pistols 3
Ritual Spellcasting 2
Binding 2
Running 1
Gymnastics 1
Swimming 1
Counterspelling 1
Perception 1
Qualities
Mentor Spirit: Seducer
Focused Concentration 5
Spells
Increase Charisma
Increase Agility
Improved Invisibility
Physical Mask
Stealth
Death Touch
Chaos
Chaotic World
Agony
Rituals
Prodigal Spell
I could use some suggestions for good negative qualities, i'm thinking about taking In Debt so that i can get more equipment to start with but beyond that I just have no idea what to pick to get it to 25 so that i have Karma for extra resources and spirit services.
I feel like my skills are a little too spread out, so i could use some help deciding what I should keep and what I should get rid of.
I would also like just general advice and tips i'm relatively new to 5th edition the last edition i played was 4th and it's alot different. I should note that I know that going with an Adept would probably make things a bit easier but we already have 2 Adepts, and i decided that i wanted to bring a little more magical expertise to the party. I may be talked into a Mystic Adept if anyone has a solid idea, but i'm going to stay a Shaman otherwise. Thank You.
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Welcome to the forum.
Some thoughts after a quick glance:
For this role an Elf would be ideal - more drain resistance dice and better social skills, but Human is fine too.
If you have access to Forbidden Arcana, I'd suggest taking Ancestor Shaman - this will give you a bonus to summon Spirit of Man and give you Channeling with the second initiation. Spirit of Man also have the very useful Influence power.
I'd recommend dropping Focused Concentration to 3 - and make use of lower force spells with reagents for more hits.
Your skill group is best invested into Stealth - Sneaking, Palming, Disguising are all very useful skills for an infiltrator even though you have access to Physical Mask, a mundane disguise is at times much more reliable.
Con and Leadership are both good skills to have, but Con and Acting will likely be your most important skills.
Drop your Strength and spend 10 Karma to raise it to two. No change in your Physical limit and you can invest the free points into Logic and Intuition for more Knowledge skills.
Your skills need a bit trimming and focusing:
Get Spellcasting and Summoning to 6 and add a specialization. Lockpicking is a skill you can pick up later, likewise Ritual Spellcasting - with such a low skill you won't lead any great rituals any time soon. Counterspelling 1 is also as good as useless. Starting skill points are valuable as buying low skills with Karma is a lot easier than raising the higher ones. Also, get specialties - those take a long time to train afterwards. Drop Binding as well for the moment. The low skill won't do you any favors.
Astral Combat can be useful with a high charisma character, but in general you'll have similar results by just using a a manaspell
Also, don't take death touch - Body is much more commonly high than Willpower and an unconscious guard is usually better than a dead one.
Never leave house without Heal and Levitate. Chaos, Chaotic World and Agony are pretty redundant
Stealth is also only really needed if you aren't good at sneaking (which you should be anyway) - get your spirit to use concealment on you while you are invisible for even better results.
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Have you looked at the Street Grimoire rulebook? the Shinto tradition has Plant and man spirits. Plant spirits have Magical guard and that is Counterspelling
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My build suggestion for a human Shaman Infiltrator.
Priorities: Magic A, Atts B, Skills B, Meta E, Money E
Attributes: Bod 3, Agi 5, Rea 2, Str 2, Cha 6, Int 5, Log 2, Wil 5, Edge 3
Pos Qualities: First Impression, Mentor Spirit (Seducer), Spirit Affinity (Man)
Neg qualities: tbd (should be near 25 points)
pools Skills rating
11 Assensing 6
12(15) Binding 6 + spec (Spirits of Man)
12(14) Spellcasting 6 + spec
12(14) Summoning 6 + spec (Spirits of Man)
10 Disguise 5 (Stealth Group)
10 Palming 5 (Stealth Group)
10 Sneaking 5 (Stealth Group)
6(8 ) Perception 1 +spec Visual
14(16) Con + spec Fast Talk
12 Etiquette 6
9(11) Impersonation 3 + spec Human
Spells: 10 of choice. Suggestions: Trid Phantasm, Imp Invisibility, Blast, Levitate, Magic Fingers, Physical Mask, Physical Barrier
Gear: Have to be frugal here. Only (up to) 20000 to spend
Karma: 10 Strength, 10 Logic, Pos Qualities 23, Money (up to) 7 karma
Other options: If you can somehow spend even less money, 2 karma could go to Locksmith 1. Mentor Spirit could be Raven or Dragonslayer). Could also change specs and Affinity to Spirits of Air. (Better at combat than Man)
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I echo most of what Jack said but i'd also add, Drop Astral Combat, spells work better. If you have a skill at 1 consider how critical it is to the concept and ether raise it, or accept that defaulting it isn't that bad.
2 1s in attributes on sheet is rarely a good sign, its fine not to make a combat monster, but log 1 and reaction 1, does not speak well.
A social limit of 7 on something that is primarily built as seducer build is on very low end spectrum.
Consider carefully, do you want to use magic in manipulation type effects?