[Ernie55]

Hi All,

Thought I'd post up the character that I've been working on for a while. The background is coming along on him, but the vague idea is he's an adept with a bit of a gambling problem. He uses his magical abilities to cheat/distract people with fancy card or chip tricks and when he gets caught using his powerful throwing ability to deal with fallout.

He's supposed to be fairly low-key, can pass relatively un-noticed because he isn't overtly dangerous but can pull it out of the bag when necessary.

Any critique on my crunch would be greatly appreciated and I'll try and finalise the background so people can laugh over my awful writing ability.

== Info ==
Street Name: Shuffle
Name: Beckett Edwin
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 6
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 1
Public Awareness: 0
Elf Male Age 26
Height 6'2" Weight 10st5
Composure: 9
Judge Intentions: 13
Lift/Carry: 9 (75 kg/50 kg)
Memory: 4
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 4
AGI: 5 (7)
REA: 4 (5)
STR: 4 (5)
CHA: 6
INT: 4
LOG: 1
WIL: 3
EDG: 1
MAG: 5

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   5.01
Initiative:                8 (9)
IP:                        1 (2)
Physical Damage Track:     10
Stun Damage Track:         10

== Active Skills ==
Con                        : 4                      Pool: 15
Disguise                   : 2                      Pool: 6
Escape Artist              : 1                      Pool: 8
Etiquette                  : 3                      Pool: 14
First Aid                  : 1 [Combat Wounds]      Pool: 2 (4)
Gymnastics                 : 1                      Pool: 8
Infiltration               : 1                      Pool: 8
Locksmith                  : 1                      Pool: 8
Negotiation                : 1                      Pool: 12
Palming                    : 1                      Pool: 9
Perception                 : 1                      Pool: 9 (12 if it's Audio or Visual)
Throwing Weapons           : 6                      Pool: 13
Unarmed Combat             : 1 [Parrying]           Pool: 8 (10)

== Knowledge Skills ==
Alcohol                    : 3 [Whiskey]            Pool: 7 (9)
Area Knowledge: Seattle    : 4                      Pool: 8
English                    : N                      Pool: 0
Gambling Dens              : 2 [Poker]              Pool: 6 (
Japanese                   : 1 [Speak]              Pool: 5 (7)
Sperethiel                 : 1 [Speak]              Pool: 5 (7)

== Qualities ==
Addiction (Moderate) (Alcohol)
Adept
In Debt (5,000¥)
Low-Light Vision
Prejudiced (Common, Outspoken) (Rich)
The Artist's Way
Weak Immune System

== Powers ==
Enhanced Perception Rating: 1
Enthralling Performance (Con)
Improved Reflexes 1
Kinesics Rating: 3
Missile Mastery
Nimble Fingers
Power Throw Rating: 2

== Lifestyles ==
Middle  1 months

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Attention Coprocessor Rating 3
Muscle Augmentation Rating 1
Muscle Toner Rating 2
Tailored Pheromones Rating 2

== Armor ==
Actioneer Business Clothes5/3
Lined Coat                6/4

== Weapons ==
Shock Glove
   Pool: 8   DV: 5S(e)   AP: -half   RC: 0
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 8   DV: 3S   AP: -   RC: 0
Yamaha Pulsar
   Pool: 6   DV: 6S(e)   AP: -half   RC: 0

== Commlink ==
Disposable Commlink (1, 0, 0, 3) x2
Renraku Sensei (2, 2, 2, 4)
   +Renraku Ichi
   +Suite: Basic+ [Analyze 3, Browse 3, Command 1, Edit 3]

== Gear ==
Earbuds Rating 1
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 3
Fake SIN (Beckett Millen) Rating 4
Fake SIN (Eric Chipman) Rating 2
Glasses Rating 3
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
   +Flare Compensation
   +Image Link
Medkit Rating 6
Nanopaste Disguise (Small Container) x2

Think I had about 5ishK Nuyen to burn, but wasn;t sure what to buy...

Ta

Ian

[emsquared]

I'd drop my BOD by 1 if I was you, you'll have the same number of Phys Soak boxes and since you're not a primary combatant, the extra armor doesn't justify the spending of BP here over, say, CHA (for better facing) or AGI (for better combat/stealth/other pools) or REA (for passive dodge + initiative).

You've spent 32 BP towards Influence Group skills, but not bought the group, as a result you're worse at them as a whole (missing out on crunch) than if you'd just purchase the Skill Group and missing out on free Karma. Either buy it at 3 and bank 2 BP or scrounge up 8 more BP to get it at 4. Similarly, you've spent 16 BP on Stealth Group skills but not bought the group, again as a result you're missing out on crunch and free Karma. Escape Artist is a very niche skill and not worth spending BP on it, IMHO. If you plan on getting cuffed up a lot, YMMV, I guess, but weigh it with yourself if limping in on this right now is necessary, when you could be getting a great deal on skill point purchases via Skill Groups. You're dumb as shite, drop the First Aid and leave it someone who won't kill their teammates trying to help them (get a First Aid Kit instead). Drop Locksmith, buy an Autopicker - invest in this later if you need to. I'd help out my Perception if I was you, the details are important to a Face and especially to a Gambler... Drop the specialization in Unarmed Combat, it's cheaper to buy it post Chargen.

Regarding your Way and your Powers. You've chosen the Artists's Way, with this way you can't use Improved Ability (Con) as is not an Artisan skill, it is a Social skill. Furthermore, mathematically Artist is a horrible Way IMO the majority of it's discounted Powers are low PP density (Speaker's Way is similar in this regard). Case in point; as is you have saved 0.5625 PP with Artists (or Speakers, although you can't actually save this much with either Way at present), if you picked Warriors, you could save 0.625. That being said, depending on where you are going with your Character/Powers (more combat vs. more face), you may still get more out of Artists/Speakers by virtue of simply not buying expensive Powers, but if you ever intend on getting another level of Improved Reflexes or Combat Senses or an Improved Combat Ability - consider going with Warrior's. Just do some planning and do the math.

Also, all this brought to my attention that you have apparently bought 6 MAG (unless you have a bunch of Adept Geasa)? Don't buy 6 MAG at Chargen, buy 5, take the ESS hit, decrease your number of Powers. Hard-maxing MAG is a waste of BP on it's own, not to mention then turning around and burning that investment with ESS loss...

Speaking of ESS loss, get rid of the Attention Coprocessor, Perception is so easy to boost with Contacts and skill purchases, it's not worth it to burn your extremely valuable ESS/MAG on this. Also, am I missing something, where is your REA boost coming from?

[Ernie55]

Hi Emsquared,

The BOD 4 was because originally I was looking at taking an armour jacket. Removed that but didn't change up my stats, ta for pointing it out! The Rea comes from the adept improved reflexes, it's like WR.

You make a good point about skill groups, originally wasn't sure how much intimidating I was planning on doing but with the other potential changes I might try and get Influence 4 and Stealth 1. Can cut escape artist. Are autopickers illegal? I thought having lockpicking helped with the not being overtly suspicious. Will have a tinker with the skills and see what I come up with

The mag/ess thing sounds sensible, and with tweaking the way I could probably get most of the powers I'd like. Do you have any suggestions as to what I could use my little bit of essense for? I think I'd spent about 0.8 on the muscle toner/aug and the pheremones, so can get 0.2 in bioware or 0.4ish on the Cyber-side.

Thanks very much for the input though!

[Makki]

keep the Artist's Way. Don't just pick The Warrior's way for better discounts if you're not a true warrior.
keep the 0.2 essence empty and fill it later on with some beta/delta grade ware. You want some room to put your money into.

[UmaroVI]

Speaker's Way is quite bad, but Artist's Way actually isn't. Astral Perception, Enhanced Perception, and Kinesics are all useful expensive powers, and it gets you access to Creative Eye. It's very hard to boost your Intuition, and Intuition is quite useful. Warrior's Way would get better PP savings, but by contrast it has one of the most spectacularly terrible powers in existence as its Way-only power. If you plan to make the investment in Creative Eye down the road, Artist's Way is a good choice.

Another Way option that fits your character concept better than Warrior and is useful would be Invisible Way. Invisible Way has really awful power discount selection, but Unseen Hands is extremely good and makes up for that.

[emsquared]

The Rea comes from the adept improved reflexes, it's like WR.

Oops, of course, sorry I've been on vacation for a week. My game slipped a little!

Are autopickers illegal? I thought having lockpicking helped with the not being overtly suspicious.

Autopickers are restricted, but probably so is a lot of stuff you have, and while it will add to your Locksmith skill, at Chargen an Autopicker should do you fine. If you want to boost the skill later, do it later - not worth it out of the gate, IMO.

Do you have any suggestions as to what I could use my little bit of essense for? I think I'd spent about 0.8 on the muscle toner/aug and the pheremones, so can get 0.2 in bioware or 0.4ish on the Cyber-side.

If you're keeping it to 1 ESS loss, it's gonna be a little rough for you since you need STR as well as AGI, and Social Skills. Depending on what is more important for your character; Facing or being able to take someone down with a single coffee mug, I make the following recommendations: Facing focus = 1 level of Toner, 1 of Aug and 3 Pheromones (you can get higher grade 'ware later to stuff more STR and AGI into the same ESS). Thrower/combat focus - 2 Toner, 2 Aug, Reflex Recorder (Throwing), reworking Attributes so that your STR is 5 base (so maybe drop CHA 1?). Or something in between those two sets. I wouldn't take any cyber at all, none of it does anything so important for you that it's worth the ESS.

If you're going into two ESS loss, you really might want to see if you can make the financing of Synaptic Boosters 1 work. Then you'd still be able to double up on Toner and Aug AND get Pheromones at 3 AND a Reflex Recorder. Again, stay away from cyber.