Shadowrun

Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Bastwolf on <08-03-12/0055:11>

Title: Class III SURGE Mystic Adept Street Samurai
Post by: Bastwolf on <08-03-12/0055:11>

Please comment I'm eager to hear your feedback!  ;D

NOTES: I could not for the life of me find out how to buy spells at character creation so I just used a simple system of (Logic+Willpower)/2 round up.
I put 4 points of magic towards Adept powers and 1 towards spellcasting with intent to make/buy foci later.
300BP

Name: Leo Ravenel
Alias: Bast
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Nationality: Canadian (English)
Lifestyle: -------
Karma Spent: 0
Physical Description: Tall, well built, Anthropomorphic (having human-like qualities) Wolf
Personality/background Coming Soon!!  ;)

Attributes

Body	Agility	Reaction	Strength
4	4	3	2
Charisma	Intuition	Logic	Willpower
1	4	3	4
Edge	Magic/Resonance	Essence	Initiative
2	5	6	7

Positive Qualities
Class III SURGE (15BP)
-Insulating Pelt
-Balance Tail
-Retractable Claws
-Low-Light Vision
-Vomeronasal Organ
-Natural Immunity (Viruses)
Mystic Adept (15BP)
Sensei (5BP)
Mentor Spirit (5BP) [Dragonslayer]
Negative Qualities
Class III SURGE
-Extravagant Eyes
-Nano Intolerance
-Impaired Charisma
Bad Rep (5BP)
Big Regret (5BP)
Lost Loved One (5BP)
Records on File [Italian Mafia] (5BP)
Vendetta (5BP)
Enemy (15BP)
Distinctive Style (Free)
Borrowed Time (Free) [RPing to remove]

Active Skills

Close Combat Skill Group	4
Sorcery Skill Group	4
Assensing	1

Knowledge Skills

Corporate Security	5
Italian Mob Operations	5
Information Hotspots	4

Language Skills

English	N
Italian	6

Adept Powers

Power	Cost	Level
Astral Perception	1	1
Combat Sense	0.5/ level	1
Mystic Armor	0.25/ level	4
Improved Reflexes	Variable	1

Spells/Complex Forms/Programs

Spell

Death Touch

Manabolt

Powerbolt

Lightning Bolt

Gear (800¥)

Telescopic Staff	500¥
Cheap Armor Vest	300¥
Cheap Comlink	Stolen

Contacts

Contact	L/C	Notes
Sensei	6/4	Dragonsalyer Adept (Initiation/ Close Combat)

[/spoiler]

Title: Re: Class III SURGE Mystic Adept Street Samurai
Post by: xpsxdonwojo on <08-03-12/0302:58>

So im fairly new to shadowrun, so there wont be any useful tips on the build; However regarding asthetics(sp?) portion I would switch retractable claws for just claws since canine claws usually don't retract. That will give you 5bp extra for the surge, I would personaly use keen-eared or fangs as they make more of a wolf like charactor. Or even elongated arms for the extra reach with your claws or staff.

Title: Re: Class III SURGE Mystic Adept Street Samurai
Post by: Mason on <08-03-12/0327:53>

You may buy any number of spells up to a maximum of twice the Rating of your Spellcasting or Ritual Spellcasting skills, whichever is greater. Each spell purchased costs 3 BP. Learning them once the game has started costs 5 Karma. I don't recall if this info was in the creation section or the magic section, but that is definitely the rule. That means your character maxes at 8 spells.

Also, I see you are using the BP system. The BP system has the small downside of not meshing totally with Karma advancement, and such it is more effective to get certain things at creation and other things after it.

My first question is, what books do you have access to?

Some general tips: It is more efficient to buy attributes at 5s and 1s at creation. This is because the costs at creation are static but during game play raising attributes costs New Rating times five karma. This means the stats get more and more expensive, so starting at high values minimizes costs later.

The same can be said of skills, to a lesser degree, so it is always best to get skills at 1s (or 0s) and at 4 or better.

Your skill list is a bit pathetic. You have very little that you can actually DO, and that means you will be very bored and unsuccessful in the gameplay at all times other than combat.

I mean, really, all the spells you have are combat, and they won't do jack with a casting Magic of 1. Even if you base max Force of spells off of full magic attribute rather than just casting magic, your dice pool is only 5 dice to hurl magic. Even mundanes won't have too terrible of a time shrugging off your manabolts.

Couple that with only 8 dice in your specialty of combat, and it is looking pretty bad. Especially with only one Initiative Pass, unless your GM wanted only one Pass.

You may only have one Knowledge skill at 6, and the rest at 4 or less. OR, you may have two at 5, and the rest at 4 or less.

You didn't indicate what your sensei actually teaches. You must indicate a specific skill  or skill grouping, IIRC.

What I didn't see a mention of is the BP total you are working with. Your totals are looking so weak, I doubt it can possibly be 400 BP. Let's see....220 in attributes. 84 in skills, broke even on qualities, 10 in contacts, 1 in gear, and 12 in spells....327 BP? did you post the whole character sheet?

Well, some things to add:
-Perception skill so you can't be surprised so easily
-1 point in each social skill - you defend socially with the same skill they used
-Dodge or gymnastics to move out of the WAY in melee
-The whole athletics skill group, for that matter, so you can move around the world, at least a 1
-The Stealth skill group so you can get the jump on your foes - surprise is crucial for melee characters, and mages who don't have invisibility need it too
-Some better Armor! You don;t want the GM to kill you!
-A commlink! It is also your cell phone!
-In Initiative Pass or two, unless your GM doesn't want them! Your IPs are the number of turns you take within each 3 seconds of fighting time, so building a fighting character without them will get you killed!

Some things to nix:
-Attribute Boost isn't a very good ability. You have to turn it on to get any effect, doing so causes Drain, and its effects are temporary. That 1 PP might do better elsewhere
-Rapid Healing won't be necessary unless you get shot up a lot, and then have to heal naturally. You can probably drop that power.
-You probably don't need Death touch and Manabolt and Powerbolt. Having a whole bunch of Direct Combat spells is a bad idea with a magic dice pool of 5, since your foes get Willpowr Plus Counterspelling. If their roll is better than yours, you suffer Drain but they are totally unhurt.

Title: Re: Class III SURGE Mystic Adept Street Samurai
Post by: Bastwolf on <08-03-12/1140:04>

Quote from: xpsxdonwojo on <08-03-12/0302:58>

So im fairly new to shadowrun, so there wont be any useful tips on the build; However regarding asthetics(sp?) portion I would switch retractable claws for just claws since canine claws usually don't retract. That will give you 5bp extra for the surge, I would personaly use keen-eared or fangs as they make more of a wolf like charactor. Or even elongated arms for the extra reach with your claws or staff.

Well unfortunately that would be up to the GM. In another campaign my GM let me have something like 30BP worth of qualities Free simply because it was realistic for my character. Being the GM for this campaign I feel doing that would cause some trouble with the rest of my party so I chose to do it by the book.

Title: Re: Class III SURGE Mystic Adept Street Samurai
Post by: Bastwolf on <08-03-12/1151:22>

Quote from: Mason on <08-03-12/0327:53>

What I didn't see a mention of is the BP total you are working with. Your totals are looking so weak, I doubt it can possibly be 400 BP. Let's see....220 in attributes. 84 in skills, broke even on qualities, 10 in contacts, 1 in gear, and 12 in spells....327 BP? did you post the whole character sheet?

Well, some things to add:
-Perception skill so you can't be surprised so easily
-1 point in each social skill - you defend socially with the same skill they used
-Dodge or gymnastics to move out of the WAY in melee
-The whole athletics skill group, for that matter, so you can move around the world, at least a 1
-The Stealth skill group so you can get the jump on your foes - surprise is crucial for melee characters, and mages who don't have invisibility need it too
-Some better Armor! You don;t want the GM to kill you!
-A commlink! It is also your cell phone!
-In Initiative Pass or two, unless your GM doesn't want them! Your IPs are the number of turns you take within each 3 seconds of fighting time, so building a fighting character without them will get you killed!

Some things to nix:
-Attribute Boost isn't a very good ability. You have to turn it on to get any effect, doing so causes Drain, and its effects are temporary. That 1 PP might do better elsewhere
-Rapid Healing won't be necessary unless you get shot up a lot, and then have to heal naturally. You can probably drop that power.
-You probably don't need Death touch and Manabolt and Powerbolt. Having a whole bunch of Direct Combat spells is a bad idea with a magic dice pool of 5, since your foes get Willpowr Plus Counterspelling. If their roll is better than yours, you suffer Drain but they are totally unhurt.

OK. I retracted the Boost Atributes and Rapid Healing for Improved Reflexes. I agree that is a much better choice. As for spells, my character is highly focused on combat which is why I have all those combat spells plus I chose the Dragonslayer mentor Spirit (just realized I forgot that on my sheet. no  wonder my totals were coming off odd.) which gives me a +2 to combat spells and a +2 to one social skill. Also I intend to build foci to improve my spells and spend any more points in magic towards my adept powers. Lastly, all my gear was stolen off of guards at the start of the campaign and we used a 300BP system.

I assumed the Sensei was a given contact since the quality states that you are connected with someone who can instruct you.