Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Chalkarts on <04-21-19/1614:08>
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Could a completely unaugmented human make it in the shadows?
No magic, no Cyber, no Bio, no drugs, just a dude with high,skills,attributes,and cash.
What kind of build could survive?
How is Hawkeye Still alive?
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The secret is to have maximum edge. Don't know if that's as reliable as augments or what have you.....in fact, I feel more comfortable trusting in augments or magic. But hey, you play it and tell us how it goes.
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I don't know that you can build a workable Hawkeye w/o augmentations...
but a Domino build probably would work. Human, max edge, plus lucky.
The way Edge works in Shadowrun, luck IS a superpower.
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I don't know that you can build a workable Hawkeye w/o augmentations...
but a Domino build probably would work. Human, max edge, plus lucky.
The way Edge works in Shadowrun, luck IS a superpower.
I was actually considering an edgelord as a viable possibility, but the more I looked at it I wondered if I would enjoy more as unaugmented Joe Normal, or if an edgelord adept would hilariously bloody insanity.
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If you want to go for an edgelord adept, I'd recommend maxing out your magic before your edge. Edge takes no downtime to improve, but magic does.
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Joe Normal could theoretically work as a sniper. You can still use gear to make (non-optimized) use of smartlink bonuses. You won't get the Agility someone with augmentations has, but if you have exceptional attribute and max level it's still no slouch. Many of the bonuses you can get to sneaking come from gear, so eschewing augmentations isn't a killer in this area either.
Added bonus: if you're sniping from half a klick away, odds are virtually nil that you'll be spotted, and thus no dodge pools.
Kind of one dimensional, but if you insist on swimming so hard upstream, one dimensional relevancy is probably the best you can hope for.
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Ah, but that ignores that most combat in Shadowrun is close-quarters, and usually inside a building. Hence why most "snipers" are just regular streetsams and gun adepts who take Longarms instead of Automatics and use shotguns more often than not.
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So the detective concept was often played this way, sometimes weapons master/sniper did as well, and Cat bugler/infiltration specialist.
Is it possible to do this? Yes. That said it take a couple things, Edge is the best way, luck of 8 can do a heck of lot for you.
If you don't want to go that way There are a couple rarely used Advantages. One is Adrenaline surge another is lightening reflexes. If you really watch a lot of SR combats, most are over very quickly. Adrenaline surge lets you go first regardless of total. This gives you a running chance. Don't get me your losing out on action economy, and it's not perfect, there are ways to tie this. But it's not horrible
Lightening reflexes is a method for chasing the more traditional rout this 20 point quality is basically wired reflexes one with a quality cost in place of a essence cost and cash cost. +1 to initiative rating and +1 defense tests and +1 initiative die. It doesn't actually boost reaction and doesn't stack with anything else that boosts initiative. But that allows an unaugmented PC to hit 12+2d6 and that's effectively in spitting range of base augmented human.
Add in a stun baton, maxed skill and spec and a good agi and now you're looking at something like 13 to hit, which if the weapon accuracy is, 4 is slightly over cap, custom grip to boost accuracy to 5 and your now just slightly under optimal pool. Add club martial art, and you can inch out some advantages.
Pile on more arts and you could achieve competence at minimum, and with enough karma reasonable levels of effectiveness.
Now sure that isn't hell on wheels level effective but it's not bad. Add good edge back in and that build could very effective quickly.
Gun with a laser sight, would give you similar options.
Enough karma and you could make real go of it.
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Edge is a superpower and don't let anyone tell you differently. I think an unaugmented human with Edge 7 or 8 is highly viable.
That said, Edge is a superpower that plays out differently at each table. At a table which focuses more on the narrative and doesn't roll a lot of dice, or at a table with regular Edge refreshing, with Edge 7+ you can Edge just about every single roll you make during a session. That's powerful.
If you play at a table with long, running gun battles with lots of combat turns and lots or rolling, or where Edge doesn't refresh very often, then Edge 7+ is still potent but you have to be more selective about its use.
In my experience, Edge can be especially potent for Faces, who often have a few key rolls over the course of an adventure (the negotiation roll, maybe an etiquette roll, maybe a con roll), so it's easier for them to know when to apply Edge to its maximum effect. Then, during combat, they can use Blitz, which gives them a 90% shot at three initiative passes and an outside shot (~10%) a fourth pass depending on their REA+INT and how well they roll. That's more than enough to let them 1) act first, 2) use full defense if they get attacked (along with Too Pretty to Hit) to stay alive, and 3) have plenty of passes to either attack or use Leadership on their teammates. Suppressive fire can be hugely valuable, even with a relatively modest dice pool. It's more of a support role in combat, but still very helpful to the overall effort.
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Honestly, not using drugs at all is risky. But you can use Blitz for initiative, and you obviously need Full Defense like Tecumseh says, and if your Willpower sucks you'd want to get Agile Defender. Use Cover and Take Aim well, go Automatics because you need bursts to put on negative defensive modifiers, Hawkeye Quality will be useful too.
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Could a completely unaugmented human make it in the shadows?
No magic, no Cyber, no Bio, no drugs, just a dude with high,skills,attributes,and cash.
What kind of build could survive?
How is Hawkeye Still alive?
A completely unaugmented mundane Elf Face is a perfectly survivable character.
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Mostly what everyone else has said, and a few other thoughts:
- very table dependent. At one that is very focused on combat it would be harder.
- Beyond what has been mentioned, I think a mundane, unenhanced, human can work as a Decker. You lose a couple of points of noise reduction, maybe logic boost, maybe using cyber to boost your out of combat performance. But i think you could make a viable decker.
- I've played with Adrenaline Surge, and it is certainly potent.
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Unaugmented human hacker does work too. You are capped in your attributes, but maybe you have a friendly mage player in your group that is ready to help you out. Don't forget: SR is a team game.
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A quick note on the unaugmented hacker: in early editions you absolutely needed a datajack in order to hack.
So there was no tradition of unaugmented hackers. Now trodes provides a functional DNI, it is sometimes hard to remember that a datajack isn't necessary (although they are still good)
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Yeah, but a character with only a datajack is, while technically augmented, not really augmented like most player see it.
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Could a completely unaugmented human make it in the shadows?
No magic, no Cyber, no Bio, no drugs, just a dude with high,skills,attributes,and cash.
What kind of build could survive?
How is Hawkeye Still alive?
Viable option for sure, just won't have the biggest dice pools around.
Attributes-A (24)
Skills-B (36+5)
Meta-C (Human-5)
Cash-D ($50K)
Spec-E (Mundane)
Here is a basic Face type that I think would be able to get by in combat, stealth, or social situations.
Body-5
Agility-5
Reaction-4
Strength-2 (Raised w/ Karma)
Willpower-3
Logic-3
Intuition-5
Charisma-6
Edge-7
Limits: P5, M5, S8
Group: Stealth-5
Automatics-6 (MachinePistols+2)
Con-6 (FastTalk+2)
Etiquette-6
Negotiation-6 (Bargaining+2)
Perception-6 (Visual+2)
PilotGroundCraft-1 (Wheeled+2)
$50K will net you a basic Car/Bike, a Fake SIN-4, & weapons, armor, comlink, & lifestyle.
14 Social Dice & 11-14 in Combat depending on what weapon your using isn't amazing but it will get you by.