[Bewilderbeast]

This guy is very much a work in progress. Any feedback is appreciated.

PEPPERFACE

Metatype: D (Human 3)
Attributes: C (16)
Magic: E
Skills: B (36/5)
Resources: A (450,000)

ATTRIBUTES

Body 3
Agility 2
Reaction 3 (4)
Strength 2
Willpower 5
Logic 6 ( 8 )
Intuition 4
Charisma 2
Edge 5
Essence 3.0

Qualities: Insomnia, Corporate Limited SIN, Codeslinger: Hack on the Fly

KARMA EXPENDITURES
+25 Karma from Negative Qualities
-10 Karma for Positive Qualities
-10 Karma for Strength 1 -> 2
-10 Karma for Charimsa 1 -> 2
-10 Karma for Agility 1 - > 2
-6 Karma for First Aid 2
-2 Karma for Perception 1
-2 Karma for Pilot Ground Craft 1

SKILLS
Electronics Group 5
Hacking 6
Pistols 6 (7)
Cybercombat 6
Electronic Warfare 6
Demolitions 6
Etiquette 6
First Aid 2
Perception 1
Pilot Groundcraft 1

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
English N
French 3
Eco-Terrorism 4
Matrix Crime 4
Computer Science 3
Matrix Security 3
Bomb Design 3
Data Havens 2
Neo-Anarchism 1
UCAS Politics 1

CYBERWARE
Alphaware Right Synthetic Full Arm (-24,000, -.8 Essence) w/ Cyberdeck Slot (-6,000), Agility Enhancement 3 (-23,400), Armor 1 (-7,200)
Cerebral Booster 2 (-.4 Essence, -63,000)
Alphaware Wireless Reflexes Rating 1 (-1.6 Essence, -46,800)
Datajack (-.1 Essence, -1,000)
Reflex Recorder (Pistols) (-.1 Essence, 14,000)

GEAR
Renraku Tsurugi (-214,125) w/ AR Gloves (-150) and Satellite Link (-500)
Renraku Sensei (-1,000) - Slaved to Novatech Navigator
Micro-Transceiver (-100)
Fake SIN 4 (-10,000) w/ Licenses for Cyberdeck 4 (-800), Firearm 4 (-800), Concealed Carry 4 (-800), Cyberware 4 (-800), Driver's License 4 (-800)
Capacity 4 Glasses (-400) w/ Smartlink (-2,000), Vision Magnification (-250), Vision Enhancement 2 (-1,000)
Capacity 3 Earbuds (-150) w/ Audio Enhancement 3 (-1,500)
Ares Predator V (-725) w/ Hidden Arm Slide (-350), Gas Vent System 3 (-600)
Yamaha Pulsar w/ Internal Smartlink (-360) and Concealable Holster (-150)
Honda Spirit (-12,000)
Rating 6 Medkit (-1,500)
Computer Hardware Shop (-5,000)
Bomb Making Kit (-500)
Middle Lifestyle (-5,000)


COMMON USE PROGRAMS (-480)
Browse
Edit
Encryption
Signal Scrub
Toolbox
Virtual Machine

HACKING PROGRAMS (-2,500)
Baby Monitor
Blackout
Decryption
Defuse Demolition
Exploit
Fork
Hammer
Lockdown
Sneak
Stealth

260 nuyen remaining

[Bewilderbeast]

Things I consider central to the character:

1. At least one cyberarm
2. Really good decker with skill in demolitions, too.
3. Pretty locked into Resources at Priority A; necessary for a cybered decker, but also fits the character/background.

Things I'm thinking twice about:
1. Wired Reflexes Rating 1. Worth it?
2. The character's combat-worthiness overall. His main role is obviously decking, with secondaries being fire support and demolitions. Demolitions is obviously a corner case, but again, central to the character. I was trying to salvage some combat ability out of the guy, but not sure how successful I've been.
3. Utter lack of infilitration abilities (whether Sneaking or Face-like stuff) is a concern, but it's an aspect of the character I'm starting to enjoy. He's a good hacker, but will need to lean on his team to get him into facilities and past security checkpoints. Or is he hopelessly gimped in this area?
4. Synthetic cyberlimbs: just plain stupid? Obvious ones offer more capacity, but I kind of like the idea of a guy 'wared to the gills who shows no obvious 'ware.
5. I keep oscillating between Skills B, Attributes C and Skills C, Attributes B. Which is going to give me more bang for my buck?
6. Right now his other cyberarm has capacity 2 still available. An ultrasound sensor is a very attractive option, but I'm not clear on what the advantage of a Rating 6 ultrasound sensor is over a rating 1. Otherwise, I think I might just snap up a smuggling compartment.
7. Should I sacrifice Cybercombat and rely on Hacking/Hack on the Fly entirely? That was the smart thing to do in SR4, but I'm not sure which approach comes out ahead in SR5.

[Xenon]

reflex recorder should be for the skill pistol (and not the skill group firearms).

you are spending 1 skill point in perception 1, which would only cost you 2 karma if you used that instead (but you are fresh out of left over karma anyway).

the only agility skill you have is pistols and that will use the agility of your cyberarms no matter what your natural agility is... so you could move one point of agility to intuition (which is used for your physical and matrix initiative, your perception skill as well as a lot of matrix actions).


1. wired reflexes 1 is pretty decent. it move your physical initiative from 1d6+8 (which will be one action phase 50% of the time) to 2d6+9 (which will be 2 action phases 100% of the time with a [small] chance of 3 action phases). It will also increase your hot-sim matrix initiative from 4d6 to 5d6.

3. your job will be running the matrix. taking care of security cameras, locating patrols, sending up the elevator etc. you are also got decent skill for leg work using  matrix search (while the face use his contacts). You will be fine i think (would not hurt with some sort of etiquette though - guess you canstay in the van when it is time to infiltrate a high society dinner party).

4. not really anything else you could fit in them that would benefit you anyway.... might as well run with synthetic. shrug (but you can also get obvious and use an armored jacket or duster + a pair of gloves; you don't have any etiquette anyway...)

5. attributes give more post chargen karma for the buck. but deckers are often very starved for skill points at chargen unless they go A or B in skills. at least if they want to be good at a second role expect decking.

6. i don't know what the difference between a rating 1 ultrasound sensor and a rating 6, but you can't afford a rating 6 ultrasound sensor anyway. Post chargen you can, down the road, replace your rating 2 armor with rating 3 in one of your arms. that will take up 1 capacity. smuggling compartment for a secondary backup light pistol (like a Fichetti Security 600 which come with 30 bullets in one magazine, perfect if you are stripped of your heavy pistol - or a streetline special hold-out pistol made of composite materials which make it even harder to detect with MAD scanners).

7. you might get away without cybercombat as a technomancer (as she can use sprites instead). as a decker i would take it for sure. you don't need it but you can use it to brick devices, kill IC and fight security deckers and riggers. i'd say it is more important than electronic warefare....

[Bewilderbeast]

Thanks for the feedback.

I was aware that the Reflex Recorder is just for Pistols... that's just a typo. Derp.

If I wanted to swap out Attributes B for Skills B, what 4 Attribute points would you recommend getting rid of? I could drop Agility to 2, but anything else I either really need or are already cutting it close with.

As far as cybercombat goes, fighting IC just strikes me as dumb. They only exist in a host, and the host can just re-load a defeated IC next combat turn. I need Electronic Warfare for the Hide action, which seems to be your only recourse when spotted by a Host.

If I were to conceivably get into cybercombat, I'd probably just slap three marks on the enemy via Hack-on-the-Fly, Format Device, and Reboot. A roundabout way of doing it, but the end result is just as good. It doesn't quite fit the character, though... he should be able to take a script kiddie in a stand-up cybercombat fight, so I'll probably keep it for now.

I'm really not satisfied with the low Computer, Hardware and Software scores, as well as the complete lack of Etiquette (does not fit the character at all). At this point I'm thinking I'll probably go Skills B, Attributes C, if I can figure out which Attribute points to cut.

[JackVII]

I'll look over the sheet in full in a bit, but just wanted to note that it only costs 15 karma to raise your Skill Group from 2 to 3. The chart in the book assumes you are starting from a base of 0. To figure out the cost, you subtract the cost of the desired end value from the cost of the starting value. If you are just increasing the Skill Group rating by 1, you simply pay New Skill Group Rating x 5 in Karma.

ETA Suggestions/Comments
- Anything that boosts your meatspace initiative is helpful. If you plan on being in combat, it's helpful to have a high meatspace initiative so you can be effective in both physical combat and AR-based cyberstuff. You don't always want to drop like a sack of potatoes in order to do stuff in the matrix. Alpha Wired 1 is pretty solid. I'm also not sure if we ever got confirmation that Wired Reflexes boosts your Matrix Initiative. I'm inclined towards it not improving Matrix Initiative.
- I would only go with one cyberarm. If you're using pistols, you're only going to need one anyway. The main problem is that synthetics have terrible capacity. The minor problem (although it kind of helps) is that you can't get an alphagrade cyberslide at chargen due to availability, so that's out. If you try to consolidate everything else into one cyberarm, you're going to come up one point over. I would suggest getting rid of one point of armor.
- If you do swap your skills/attributes, I'd lose a point in Body, Agility, Reaction, and Charisma or Strength. The Agility/Strength are basically accounted for with your cyberarm. Reaction is going to just be a loss. Charisma is a bit of a dump-stat for you anyway. For Body, with the essence and money savings from losing one of your cyberarms above, I'd get Aluminum Bone Lacing. It essentially adds 4 dice for Damage Resistance tests. Any stat you drop to one can be brought up to two using the karma savings you get from adjusting the SG issue (plus you should have more SG points, so you may not be spending any of your 30 Karma to boost your skills).
- I'd probably keep Cybercombat. Data Spike can be pretty damn useful. If you're IN cybercombat, the Hack on the Fly, Format Device, Reboot Device thing may not work very well as the target may very well be monitoring their marks and erasing them as you place them. It works well outside of combat, but not necessarily inside combat. Plus, if you slapped three marks on something, your Data Spike is doing anywhere from 3 to 9 additional boxes of damage depending on what programs you and the target are running.

P.S. I believe the rating of the Ultrasound Sensor acts as a Limit to your test, but it may only apply if you're using Electronic Warfare to replace Perception. Not sure on that one.

[Xenon]

doesn't look like deckers have much use of software tbh (set and disarm data bombs and if you want to replace the firmware if someone format your device). technomancers need it for threading any and all complex forms... but you need at least a little bit of hardware skill to repair your cyberdeck from matrix damage. is it still hardware if you have an internal headware cyberdeck...? Computer skill, however, is VERY good to bump up (i even have "leg work" characters that are not deckers that invest heavy in Computer skill just because it is so good when used for matrix search etc).

That 2 point in a skill group you get at skills C is a bit hard to utilize as a decker... you rather have cracking and electronics groups at rating 4-6... guess you could use the group for some lower prio skills, but there are no skill group for perception or demolition.... Influence 2? But if you split up Electronics for a high-ish computer skill and a decent hardware skill you run out of standard skill points since you only have a priority of C...



Dropping natural strength or charisma to 1 will have a quite big affect your already small physical and social limits (but you don't really have any skills that use a physical or social limit to start with so it might not be such a big issue after all).



Yes, we never got an official answer if wired reflex provide an initiative dice for astral projection, cold-sim and/or hot-sim matrix VR or not; But in SR5 there is nothing written that would prevent it as far as I can see. You don't benefit from the reaction augmentation though (since initiative attribute is based on double intuition or intuition + data processing).

[Bewilderbeast]

I'll look over the sheet in full in a bit, but just wanted to note that it only costs 15 karma to raise your Skill Group from 2 to 3. The chart in the book assumes you are starting from a base of 0. To figure out the cost, you subtract the cost of the desired end value from the cost of the starting value. If you are just increasing the Skill Group rating by 1, you simply pay New Skill Group Rating x 5 in Karma.

Wow, thanks for pointing this out! I thought the karma price for that skill group was a bit steep... I was completely reading that whole section wrong. Again, thanks for pointing this out to me.

- Anything that boosts your meatspace initiative is helpful. If you plan on being in combat, it's helpful to have a high meatspace initiative so you can be effective in both physical combat and AR-based cyberstuff. You don't always want to drop like a sack of potatoes in order to do stuff in the matrix. Alpha Wired 1 is pretty solid. I'm also not sure if we ever got confirmation that Wired Reflexes boosts your Matrix Initiative. I'm inclined towards it not improving Matrix Initiative.

Yeah, I got it primarily for AR hacking viability. It's good to know that Wired Reflexes 1 will still be good. I was afraid it would be Wired Reflexes 2 or go home.

The minor problem (although it kind of helps) is that you can't get an alphagrade cyberslide at chargen due to availability, so that's out.

Good catch, and rather disappointing. I just think cyberarm slides are cool! I might go for a single, non-alpha obvious cyberarm and try to cram everything into that one. Or I might do one synthetic and cut some stuff. Still trying to decide.

Thanks for the feedback, both of you. Going to take another pass at this guy. I think what I'm going to do is swap Attributes and Skills, drop Agility to natural 1, drop Charisma to natural 1 and buy them both up with karma. Then I just have to figure out where to cut that last Attribute point...

[JackVII]

Wired Reflexes 2 would be much better but, depending on how your GM views drugs and whether they are an augmentation (I'm of the opinion they are not), you can always carry around some Cram or Kamikaze of other initiative booster to help you out. I built a combat decker with the primary role of bricking the crap out of stuff/secondary role of tossing grenades with his cyberarm.

I'd slide the third one from Body and then pick up Aluminum Bone Lacing for an additional 4 damage resistance dice. The major problem is that you would lose a net two boxes of physical health between the lost cyberarm and the reduction in BOD. Tough decision.

[Bewilderbeast]

Okay, he's updated. Still finalizing gear, obviously. Lost a cyberarm, but overall I feel he's improved. I ended up taking the extra attribute point out of Reaction. For some reason I just didn't like the idea of bone lacing with this guy, and I didn't want to dip below 10 physical boxes, so I didn't want to drop body.

[JackVII]

Looks good. You're missing 1 skill point (I'd actually take it as a specialization to Etiquette).

[Xenon]

Wired Reflexes 1 is competitive with the alternative that would be synaptic boosters 1. But I feel that synaptic boosters 2 quite a lot better than Wired reflexes 2, even if you could get alpha wired 2 at chargen (1 essence and 190k at 10R vs 3(!) essence and 149k at 12R or 2,4(!) essence and 186k at 14R with alpha).

Then again, synaptic boosters can not be combined with anything (be it drugs or magic) while wired reflexes can be combined with everything (except bioware).

...and I didn't want to dip below 10 physical boxes, so I didn't want to drop body.

You have 11 physical boxes right now (cyberlimbs add 1 box each).

...you could also skip the cyberlimb and get your agility from rating 3 used muscle toner for .75 ess and 24k, headware deck for .32 ess instead of taking up capacity in a cyberlimb and a point of armor or two with alpha orthoskin for .2 essence and 7,5k per rating (standard grade if you want rating 3 and used grade let you take it up to rating 4). Also, maybe bone density augmentation could be an alternative to bone lacing...?

You're missing 1 skill point (I'd actually take it as a specialization to Etiquette).

(The specialization is "worth" 7 post chargen karma. You could also use it to raise etiquette to 6 (which is "worth" 12 post chargen karma)).

[JackVII]

You're missing 1 skill point (I'd actually take it as a specialization to Etiquette).

(The specialization is "worth" 7 post chargen karma. You could also use it to raise etiquette to 6 (which is "worth" 12 post chargen karma)).

Sure, but if he anticipates doing more corporate stuff than anything else, he gets a 1 die improvement over simply going Etiquette 6. It also depends on what his post chargen priorities are. If he isn't expecting to ever improve his social skills again,

[Bewilderbeast]

Updated with gear. Post-chargen plans are to pick up a specialization in Etiquette (High Society) for background reasons, so I decided to put the extra skill point into Etiquette.

Pretty happy with this guy as he stands now, but let me know if I'm made any glaring errors or forgotten some important gear.

[Rotor]

I'm not nitpicking but curious : I don't see imagelink in your vision enhancements. You don't need it for AR?

[Xenon]

You get a AR if you have DNI (without image link and ear buds etc). You also get a "super AR" experience (taste, smell and taste) if you have a sim module (which he have in the cyberdeck -it is even modded for hot sim).

(Red box on p.222)