I wouldn't put "viable" and "technomancer" on the same sentence.
Hehe. This is why I like lower Resonance technomancers who do not matrix things. Even for matrix specialists like this character, the lower Resonance forces a more decker like play, and less of a reliance on high fade complex forms and sprites.
Your natural Resonance maximum is your Essence
rounded down. For every point (or fraction thereof) of
Essence lost, both your current Resonance Attribute
and your maximum Resonance Rating are reduced by
one. If your Resonance ever reaches zero, you lose the
Technomancer quality and all Resonance abilities.
With all that cyberware you have no current Resonance.
That is RAW, though you missed the weird part about the essence/resonance loss rules only applying "after character creation," which I don't think anyone plays by. I usually treat Resonance like Magic now, as I don't see why they are different mechanically and don't think they are intended to be. There was just some awkward writing in the technomancer section. I used to play that if Resonance ever hit 0 though, then the character is no longer a technomancer, but this is not equivalent for magic. You can still buy up your Magic rating back to your current maximum, even if are at Magic 0, and if that is fair for Magicians, I began to believe it was fair for technomancers. So for this character, who starts with Resonance 1, I can see having to spend the 5 karma buying up Resonance again to 1. However, Point Buy rules are weird, as buying the technomancer quality starts characters off at Resonance 1. Who's to say that you couldn't buy the quality after you get all the cyberware? Max Resonance would be 1, but the quality comes with Resonance 1, so the 'ware doesn't affect it ('ware brought down max Res to 1). Or as the character only wants Resonance 1, just take the quality, and then buy up that Resonance back to 1 with 5 karma. EIther way, by RAW with the awkward "after character creation" clause or by the point buy rules, I see that Resonance 1 either is either free or costing another 5 karma.
Even if Resonance had to stay above 1, would it not be ok to buy up to 2 for every point of 1 essence of essence loss? That's a difference of 100 karma (going up to 6) or 50 karma (going from 1 to 2 five times).
This is definitely a big issue for this concept, so if it is not legal, than it is not as possible.
Your natural Resonance maximum is your Essence
rounded down. For every point (or fraction thereof) of
Essence lost, both your current Resonance Attribute
and your maximum Resonance Rating are reduced by
one. If your Resonance ever reaches zero, you lose the
Technomancer quality and all Resonance abilities.
With all that cyberware you have no current Resonance.
He is at 1.19 essence, giving him a resonance of 1. That sounds bad, however. Wouldn't be able to use any remaining essence for more cyber, or you would lose the resonance altogether. I don't know enough about 'mancers to comment on the effectiveness of this character, other than the 3 resonance skills are calculated skill rating + resonance, of which you have a 1. But you only took one of them anyway at a rating of 3 + specialization, sounds quite low.
Skills felt low to me too, but as Technomancer abilities are limited by Resonance (sprite level max is Resoance x 2 and Complex Form level max is Resonance x 3), the character is incapable of the sprites and complex forms that require a lot of dice to throw at, so I think he can survive with fewer skills. In terms or Resonance abilities, with Resonance 1, the character can only compile sprites of level 2 or less, with level 2 causing physical Fade. As machine sprites are his primary sprites, with specs, he rolls 6 vs 2 dice to compile a level 2 sprite and 7 vs 4 dice to register it. This felt like enough for off hours sprite rolling. For in the moment use compiled sprites of other types, he would likely only call on them for their special abilities, so level 1 sprites would suffice, giving 4 dice vs 1 die compile rolls. He has some edge to use if need be too. Software is used for complex forms, but this character only has and intends to use Static Veil, which calls for a one or two hit threshold test, not an opposed test. With specs he rolls 6 dice for it, so can easily get that one hit, while that 2 hit is a bit harder, it is not out of range. He could even try a few times, even with penalty, as he is likely to resist the Fade just fine.
The Resonance 1 really just lets this character hack without a deck, and use what would have been invested in a deck to boost attributes, which in turn also raises living Persona limits and skill test dice pools. Drugs can be used like slow acting cyberprograms to alter these limits/pools further to help with the kind of work he expects to have to do when doing a hackjob.
In terms of essence, I was assuming that .19 essence above 1 was still valid for use the way a Magician would have without losing a Magic rating.
