[Lochtain]

Lady Grey - Female Troll Adventure Capitalist
Attributes
Bod. 8
Agi. 4 (6)
Rea. 2
Str. 9 (11)
Cha. 3
Int. 4
Log. 1
Wil. 5

Edge: 4
Essence: 1.65 (6)
Initiative: 6

Qualities:
+ Guts (5), High Pain Tolerance (10), Toughness (10)
- Mild Addiction - Bliss (5), Scorched (5), Simsense Vertigo (10), Prejudiced - Outspoken - Elves (5)

Skills:
Pistols 3 (9)
Longarms 1 (7)
Unarmed 5 (11)
Dodge 2 (4)

Intimidation 1 (4)
Infiltration 2 (
Drive Ground 1 (3)

Athletics 2
-Climbing (13)
-Gymnastics (
-Running (13)
-Swimming (13)

Outdoors 1
-Navigation (5)
-Survival (6)
-Tracking (5)

Knowledge Skills:
Seattle Gangs 2 (6)
Seattle Geography 2 (6)

Military 2 (3)

Sports 1 (5)
Club Music 1 (5)
Street Drugs 1 (5)

English (N)
Japanese 2 (6)
Or'zet 2 (6)
-Other- 1 (5)

Cyberware:
Muscle Replacement 2 (0.9 Essence) - Restricted
Comm Implant (Novatech Airware, Subvocal Mike) (0.2 Essence)
Shock Hand (0.25 Essence) - Restricted
Dermal Plating 2 (1 Essence) - Restricted

Bioware:
Bone Density Augmentation 3 (Essence 0.9)

Gear
Flashlight
Light Sticks (5)
Respirator (2)
Armorlined Coat
Ruger Super Warhawk + Lasersight - Restricted

Cash:
4510 Nuyen

Build Costs:
Race (troll): 40
Attributes: 200
Skills: 74
Skill Groups: 30
Knowledge Skills: 15 (15 free)
Gear: 18 (90.000 Nuyen)

Left Over: 8

My goal with this character isn't to be the "best", or anything like that. But I want my character to be able to take a few punches, and dish out some damage, and also not be entirely incompetent i social interactions.

A few questions:
What do I need to add? I have 8 BP left over, and I'm considering getting a Contact. Also, do I need licences for my Restricted items? Or maybe a fake ID.

Have I done anything wrong? Since this is my first attempt at character creation in Shadowrun, it's very probable that I've messed up somehow.

How do I calculate secondary stats, like Movement, carry capacity, Initiativ passes and so on? I'm having a bit of a hard time navigating the book.

Other than that, I just want general advice and pointers.

[Ethan]

Well, your character's going to HAVE to absorb a lot of hits since she has a Reaction of 2. That's kinda necessary when getting attacked.

Dodge, frankly, isn't worth it. You're adding a few more dice when you want to do nothing but save your hoop. And with your already low Reaction score, it's not going to pay off well. Also, you don't need any Piloting Skills to drive a car and so on. You just need it if you're going to be driving in combat or in a chase and so on, and you should have someone else do that.

You could probably live with 2 less points of strength and putting that into Reaction. Also, Toughness and High Pain Tolerance are less useful than you may imagine.

If you want to increase the damage done in Unarmed Combat, consider the Martial Arts from Arsenal. It's a Positive Quality you can take, plus it'll give you a few interesting maneuvers. It's interesting that you have a shock hand though. You could just wear the gloves, but this is cool and flavourful.

She has no Social Skills other than Intimidation. Really, you could get by with just 1-2 points in Etiquette. That should save you from most faux pas. I'd lower Charisma by 1 and boost Logic by 1--that kinda means she has a below average IQ.

Back to your combat skills, have you considered the Firearms skill group? Even at Rating 3 it could be useful to you. You'll be able to use nearly any weapon equally well.

Alternatively, since Lady Grey's big and strong, she can focus on Heavy Weapons. If you keep her Strength at 11, the optional rules in Arsenal gives her "free" Recoil Compensation of 2.

I don't have my books with me at the moment, so I can't point you to the relevant pages. I just use Chummer most of the time anyway. Google it!

[Operator]

Here are my immediate impressions.

• As Ethan mentioned, drop the Dodge skill if you keep the Athletics group and Unarmed Combat.
• When picking your skills and attributes, be aware that Karma costs for improvement will increase with the skill's level. For example, spending an extra 4 BP to start with Unarmed Combat 6 will save you 12 Karma in the future. For this reason, I would also suggest lowering Willpower to 3 and increasing Body to 9 for an additional box on the Physical damage track. This also frees up an extra 10 BP to allocate to another stat.
• Get another 10 BP worth of negative qualities. BP is scarce and precious enough to warrant maxing out the negatives.
• Consider swapping out Muscle Replacement for the bioware equivalents (Muscle Toner, Muscle Augmentation). The nuyen difference is not that great in character generation, and you'll save Essence* for..
• Initiative boosters. If you plan on being a combat-themed character in 4th edition Shadowrun, you need additional Initiative Passes. Look into Wired Reflexes + Reaction Enhancers (cyber) or Synaptic Boosters (bio).

* - When you have Cyberware AND Bioware implants, you only pay 1/2 Essence costs on the smaller implant set. As originally posted, your Bone Density Augmentation bioware would cost 0.45 Essence.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Besides what Ethan and the Operator has said (and I agree with most of his advice):

Get +1 Body (see below). Reaction should be higher because Initiative matters.

Guts isn’t that great an quality. I’m not sure High Pain Tolerance is worth 10 BP either. You should definitely loose Toughness and use those 10 BP on +1 Body (+1 Body is way better than Toughness).

You could do better with optimizing your skills. I would drop Long Arms and raise Pistols. I would also find the points for that last point of Unarmed because 4 BP is so much less than 12 Karma later. I would lower Atletic Group to 1 and just boost that with Synthacardium. And as mentioned spending 8 BP on Dodge won’t do you much good so just drop it (you can defend in melee with unarmed and use gymnastic for ranged dodge). I don’t agree with buying the Firearms group but that is a matter of opinion if you want to spend extra BP for greater versatility (I don’t think you need more than one way to kill people or maybe 2 if you want to throw in some heavy weapons combined with either pistols or automatics).

I would go for Muscle Toner and Muscle Augmentation over Muscle Replacement. I would get Wired Reflexes 2 and probably some Reaction Enhancers. An implanted Commlink isn’t that great. It cost extra and nuyen and it is hard to upgrade. Just skinlink your commlink. There are lots of essence friendly bioware for example reflex recorder. If you wanna boost your charisma linked skills tailored pheromones. Shock hand is nice but you could do the same with a shock glove and save some essence and nuyen.

You need contacts and a fake SIN and licenses are a solid investment. You could do better with your armor and weapons but I don’t know if you have access to Arsenal (and for that matter Augmentation).

Initiative is Reaction + Intuition. Your lifting is Body + Strength. Movement is as far as I remember a fixed value but I can’t remember where that is stated.

Rasmus

[Lochtain]

Updated build:

Lady Grey - Female Troll Adventure Capitalist
Attributes
Bod. 9
Agi. 4 (6)
Rea. 3 (5)
Str. 7 (9)
Cha. 2
Int. 4
Log. 2
Wil. 5

Edge: 4
Essence: 0.23
Initiative: 7 (9)


Qualities:
+
Muay Thai (3 - 15)
(+2 DV Unarmed, +1 Defense Unarmed)


-
Mild Addiction - Bliss (5)
Scorched (5)
Simsense Vertigo (10)
Prejudiced - Outspoken - Elves (5)
Allergy - Mild - Shellfish (5)
Braggart (5)


Skills:
Unarmed 6 (12)
Pistols 4 (10)

Intimidation 1 (3)
Infiltration 1 (6)
Perception 4 (8.)
Etiquette 2 (4)

Athletics 1
-Climbing (10)
-Gymnastics (7)
-Running (10)
-Swimming (10)

Outdoors 1
-Navigation (5)
-Survival (5)
-Tracking (5)


Knowledge Skills:
Area Knowledge: Seattle 3 (7)
Underworld 3 (7)
Gangs 3 (7)
Clubs and Bars 2 (6)

Military 2 (6)
Sports 1 (5)

English N
Or'zet 4 (8.)


Martial Arts Techniques:
Finishing Move
Full Offense


Cyberware:
Muscle Replacement 2 (1.6 Essence, Alphaware) - Restricted
Shock Hand (0.25 Essence) - Restricted
Dermal Plating 2 (0.8 Essence, Alphaware) - Restricted
Wired Reflexes 2 (2.4 Essence, Alphaware) - Restricted

Bioware:
Bone Density Augmentation 3 (Essence 0.45)
Reflex Recorder (Unarmed Combat)
Synthcardium (3)
Sleep Regulator


Gear
Flashlight
Light Sticks (5)
Respirator (2)
Ruger Super Warhawk + Lasersight - Restricted
10 Bliss
Electronic Paper

Shadowrunner Beginner's Kit. 3 BP (15,000y) Availability 12F (replacing the pistol with the Ruger)
-Fake Sin Rating 4 (4000)
-Fake License Rating 4 (Gun) (400)
-Fake License Rating 4 (Cyberware) (400)
-Novatech Airware Comlink with Isis Orb OS (Signal, Response, System and Firewall 3), Basic+ Suite [Analyze 3, Browse 3, Command 1, Edit 3], Encrypt Rating 3, Mapsoft (Seattle) Rating 3, Skinlink, Trodes, AR Gloves, Cold Sim Module. (3265)
-One month of Low Lifestyle (2000)
-Glasses Rating 4 with Image Link, Smartlink, Vision Enhancement Rating 3, Flare Compensation and Skinlink (1025)
-Earbuds Rating 2 with Audio Enhancement Rating 3, Spacial Recognizer and Skinlink. (470)
-Lined Coat with Insulation and Fire Resistance at Rating 6 (2200)

Cash: 2390 Nuyen


Contact:
Fixer (4,2)


Build Costs:
Race (troll): 40
Attributes: 200 (+30)
Positive Qualities: 15 (+4)
Negative Qualities: -35
Skills: 68
Skill Groups: 20
Knowledge Skills: 18 (18 free)
Contacts: 6
Gear: 44 (220.000 Nuyen)

Left Over: 8


So I swapped around a few Attributes (still not sure about Charisma 2, I'd like to have 3 ideally) and added Wired Reflexes.

I also messed about a bit with my skills, slimming down to focus on my main interests, and added Martial Arts (Muay Thai) from Arsenal.

What do you guys think?
Are there any Qualities that are very cost-effective for fighters?

Also, what ratings of fake SIN and licences do I need, and what items do I need the licences for?

EDIT:
I checked my build over again, and realized I'd missed a couple of things (the negative quality Braggart, Perception, and a few other things).

I also moved my stats around a bit again, reducing Strength and upping Wil. and Rea. by one each. I also looked over my skills, reducing Athletics and Infiltration to 1, and increasing Pistols to 4.

I did get the Synthcardium, Reflex Recorder and Sleep Regulator Biomods, and the Shadowrunner Beginner's kit that was in the Equipment Packs thread, which gives me a couple of licences and a fake SIN.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Your Strength is high if you are missing BP for other attributes. Remember that +2 strength only equals +1 DV so it isn’t that bad to lower strength with 2. Most attributes should be uneven as you almost always round up. That means Willpower either 3 or 5 because that is the different between an extra Stun Condition Box.

You could choose 5 BP extra negative qualities to have a few more points to spend on other things.

Your skills are best optimized (in regard to later spending karma on them) with 1 at 6 and then your important ones at 4. And the ones you can’t live without (ones you just want to have and ones you can’t default to) at 1. You should find the points to raise Pistols to 4. Maybe lower Infiltration to 1 (raising Infiltration to 2 with karma is cheaper than raising pistols to 4 with karma). You could also drop Athletics Group to just 1. That is 10 BP. Use some of them on money and get Synthacarcium R3 for +3 to Atletics skills. That actually is cheaper in BP and nets you a +2 bonus. If you have BP left Perception isn’t a bad skill to learn.

Remember that essence loss from bioware are halved because of all your cyberware so you could really benefit from som more bioware. A reflex recorder for your most important skill(s). And there are other cool bioware to.

Licenses are a little dependant on how your GM is playing it. Do you need a permit for every restricted item you have or can you for example get a firearms permit that covers all firearms in the restricted category? You could also get a driver’s license, a bounty hunter license etc. Also get a license for your cyberware if some of it is restricted.

I’m assuming you only have the main rule book. So I haven’t given advice on all the good stuff you could do with Arsenal and Augmentation.

Rasmus

[Lochtain]

I edited my last post with some of rasmusnicolaj's suggestions.