[Top Dog]

Regarding cultured Bioware not being available as used - that was my initial concern specifically due to the whole cultured aspect. I asked the GM, he didn't disallow it, and I'm not above using something like that in my favor. Worked better than having Lvl2 Wired Reflexes (less essence, about the same price, never need to "activate"...)

I don't believe I can use Small Unit Tactics, though I will inquire. The GM posted some custom rules, here's what he said:

Use Your Own Damn Tactics: You cannot use the team tactics rules from Run & Gun to get the bonuses described in the book. However, these are generally good tactics so feel free to actually implement them, just don’t expect to get random bonuses other than what naturally occurs from acting upon a good idea.

Your GM is throwing you a bone then on used Cultured. If your campaign allows it, go ahead, I guess.
The Small Unit Tactics is understandable, and then there'd be little (mechanical) point in getting it. Getting a general knowledge skill might still be flavorful

My medkit is level 3, isn't that as powerful as it can get while still being something you can store rather than having to lug around?

Your R3 medkit will be throwing 6 dice to heal people. That makes it very unlikely to even get past the 2 hit threshold (the first 2 hits are wasted), let alone heal any significant amount. Having a R6, even if you can't always bring it along, is almost always better.

My plan for using the light armor is so that, on runs, I may be able to wear the armor beneath the lined coat to disguise it. No helmet, of course, but it'd be one heck of a surprise to anyone trying to take a shot at me or throwing a punch to my midsection. *CLANG* GM said Medium and Heavy would definitely not be concealable in such a fashion, though the additional Hardened Armor makes me salivate.

Yeah no. Light armor is light for Milspec armor. See the pictures - it's still very, very bulky, much more so then even full body armor. It is not even remotely concealable.

[Vibral]

Ok, this has been covered quite a few times but I would knock down your combat skills to as few as necessary. (I will admit I am FIRMLY in automatics only territory)

Smartlink and a Datajack are nearly the most efficient skill boosting ware in the game and being able to not run your stuff wireless can be a large boon.

18 Armor isn't impressive and while the armor is being downplayed by your GM (and I wish my GM would let me get away with those types of shenanigans) you are also paying Karma for soak dice. The CHEAPEST resource in the game. If your GM will let you cover MilSpec Light armor would he let you conceal Murder armor?
Murder Armor 13 Base
Gel Packs +2
Forearm Guards +1 (can also store equipment like a auto injector or bio monitor OR my personal favorite a mini welder)
Custom Ballistic Mask +2
Helmet (your choice) +2ish
20 Armor (assuming you have enough points in strength to support this and I didn't go into cyber limbs or the other stackable armor items.)
All for MUCH cheaper then you are paying for the MilSpec armor as you are effectively paying ¥20,000 Extra for it due to the Karma cost.

[Whiskeyjack]

Ok, this has been covered quite a few times but I would knock down your combat skills to as few as necessary. (I will admit I am FIRMLY in automatics only territory)

I will say you can get close in all ways but conceivability with Longarms. But not all in one gun like the Alpha, which even has a built in grenade launcher.

But you have to use choke settings on shotguns, which means not-slugs, which means crap -AP. And to hit one thing super hard, you need a rifle, which means SA at best.

Yes, Automatics uber alles...that said the auto-shotgun is pretty cool.

[Vibral]

I will say you can get close in all ways but conceivability with Longarms. But not all in one gun like the Alpha, which even has a built in grenade launcher.

But you have to use choke settings on shotguns, which means not-slugs, which means crap -AP. And to hit one thing super hard, you need a rifle, which means SA at best.

Yes, Automatics uber alles...that said the auto-shotgun is pretty cool.

Hell Yeah! Underslung grenade launcher on your FA shotgun and you are CLOSE to as awesome as you can get with an Alpha. Though if I could mod my Sniper Rifle for FA fire and mount a grenade launcher under the barrel I would be SOLD on longarms instead of Automatics.

[zarzak]

I have to agree with all the other calls to cut down on your gun skills:

If you think of a real soldier, they are not experts in every type of firearm imaginable.  They specialize in a few types - you'd want to be the same.  Automatics and Longarms pretty reasonably covers everything.  Then you can get other skills that round the character out: tracking, sneaking, specializations, etc.

Also, like others have said: you can't take a negative quality twice.  So you can have only one national SIN (dual-citizenship isn't really a 'thing', at least mechanically speaking.  RP-speaking I think you could use your one national SIN that way).

[JakeConhale]

Okay, I rebuilt the character, nixing the Restricted Gear quality and switching over to Biker Armor and a motorcycle. Think it turned out pretty well. Didn't touch the base attributes though. Swapped out the knucks with shock gloves to facilitate his moonlighting as a bounty hunter - the better to immobilize the target. To reiterate - my GM has granted me 39 post chargen karma to help catch up to the other players. I'll double check with my GM, but I believe he's where I got the idea of 2 SINs to reflect multiple citizenship (UCAS by birth, French through the Foreign Legion)

Thoughts?

------------------
Attributes (A):
------------------
Body   5+2 (Bone lacing on DMG resistance tests)
Agility   6
React   5+2 (Synaptic Booster)
Strength   3
Willpow   4
Logic   3
Intuit   3
Char   3
Edge (Human - D)   5

Initiative: 10 +3D6 (2 from Synaptic Booster)
Mental - 5
Physical - 7
Social - 5

------------------
Qualities (Negative):
------------------
Addition (mild) - Kamikaze
Day Job (10 hours - Bartender)
Dependents (slacker sister - "Caroline")
Driven (on finding a "Benedict Arnold" style traitor from his old unit, reunion will involve lots of sharp, red-hot, pointy things)
National SIN (France)
National SIN (UCAS)
On File

------------------
Qualities (positive)
------------------
Bilingual (French)
Common Sense
Jack of All Trades
Perceptive I
Toughness

Post-character creation:
Firefight - Close quarters defense against firearms
Quick healer

------------------
Contacts:
------------------
Bounty Hunter - "Electra Coyote"   Con:2   Loy:3 (Can act as a fixer and knowledge resource on the criminal underworld)
France Embassy Official - "Mathis"   Con:3   Loy:1 (is blackmailing my char as an intelligence asset, but occasionally provides support to engender some goodwill)

------------------
Skills (C):
------------------
(5) Etiquette
(6) Automatics - Spec: Assault rifle
(5) Heavy weapons
(5) Sneaking
(5) Perception - Spec: Visual
(1) outdoors (group) - survival(W), navigation(I), tracking(I)
(1) Athletics (group) - gymnastics(A), running(S), swimming(S)

Post creation skills:
(1) Blades
(3) Unarmed
(3) Armorer - primarily used to repair armor

------------------
Items (B)
------------------
(1) Biker Armor
[1 - armor] AR gloves
[1 - armor] Shock weave
(1) Biker Helmet helmet
[1 - helmet] Audio system
(1) Contacts
[1 - Contacts] Vision: Flare
[1 - Contacts] Vision: image
[1 - Contacts] Vision: Low light
(1) Lined coat
(1) Earbuds
(1) Ballistic Mask (Modified William Shatner mask, if anyone gets that reference...)

(1) Datajack
(1) Smartlink (implant in natural eye)
(1) Bone Lacing (Standard)   Aluminum
(1) Lvl2 Synaptic Booster (Standard) (Changed from "used" because it was kinda making me feel uncomfortable)
(1) Lvl 3 Dermal plating (Standard)

(5) Credstick (standard)
(1) subvocal microphone
(1) Hermes Ikon commlink

(1) Ares Alpha Assault rifle
(1) Ares Crusader II Machine pistol
(1) sling (assault rifle)
(1) Quickdraw holster (machine pistol)
(1) Weapon personality (C-3PO)
(1) bayonet (assault rifle)
           
(12) Regular (MP) x10
(100) Regular (assault) x10
(12) APDS (Heavy) x10
(3) Flash-pak
(12) GL: HE grenades
         
(1) Survival knife
(1) Combat knife
(1) shock gloves

(1) shop [armorer]
           
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Restricted Cyberware)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Restricted Bioware)   
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Firearms)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake license (Concealed Carry)
(1) Lvl 4 Fake sin ("Pierre Devereaux")
(4) Restraints   Metal
(1) survival kit
(1) medkit (lvl 6)
(1) Biomonitor
(1) Flashlight (standard)

(4) Drug: Kamikaze
(1) lifestyle (low)      -   2200 per month
(1) Spoof chip + Morph plate
(1) Suzuki Mirage - gunmetal gray)

Starting nuyen - 1400

------------------
Knowledge skills
------------------
(4) Military Procedures (Foreign Legion)
(2) Sports - Cricket
(2) DeeCee Arms Dealers
(2) DeeCee Drug Dealers
(2) DeeCee Money Launderers

post char creation knowledge:
(1) Small Unit Tactics (as flavor, if not necessarily practical, I'll clear with my GM who disallowed any benefits from using the actual tactics)

Total remaining karma: 0
Total 'ware augmented armor: +5

------------------
Gear wishlist:
------------------

• Second skin (stacked with Biker Armor)
• Ear Damper implant
• Spacial recognizer, either ear implant or in biker helmet
• Fly-Spy drone

[Top Dog]

In case it hasn't been asked yet - you know that buying PQ post-chargen costs double karma?

Second Skin doesn't stack with Biker Armor, just with Zoe lines.

Speaking of Biker Armor, what is that? Do you mean Bike Racing Armor? Because that's actually quite terrible. Your Lined Coat actually has better protection. Granted, Biker is cheap and might be thematic, but meh. There are much better options.

R3 Dermal Plating costs you 1.5 Essence and 9000 nuyen. If you switch that to Used Orthoskin, you spend a bit more (4500 more) but save over a half point of Essence. The extra money can be recouped by, for example, making the Bone Lacing Used as well. That saves you a net 0.3125 essence, at no difference in cost.
If you have money leftover, you could also spend a bit more and get Used Orthoskin 4 at the same Essence cost. If you nééd more money, you can leverage that extra essence to turn your datajack and smartlink to Used (granted, that's not exactly a big windfall). Mind you, if you need money, ditch the Shop - you don't really need more then an Armorer Kit at your level of skill.

You don't need a subvocal microphone - sending messages directly via DNI is easy and safer (subvocal can still be overheard; it's actually a fairly minor penalty). Not that having a backup mic is a bad idea. Same goes for AR gloves and Image Link, except for the being overheard.

Having no Agility increase really will hurt you, like others said. In the long end, you can of course fix that by, well, getting that. I can't really see any glaring options that let you afford one earlier... At least not with this attribute array.

One of the downsides is a non-stellar attack pool. Luckily, you have Automatics! You can just spray people with bullets and give them -9 dodge. Except you have no recoil compensation to speak of. So get some Gas Vents going or something.

[Whiskeyjack]

You want more INT. It goes to dodging. It goes to initiative. It goes to Perception. It is supremely more valuable for this character than either WIL 4 or LOG 3.

Etiquette 5 is tremendous overkill. If you want a social skill for this character I would go with Intimidation. 1-2 etiquette will easily suffice.

Why do you want Blades? Your STR is not high enough for it to be viable.

16 dice on ARs is good. I'd recommend switching the specialty to something you can more easily concealed carry legally though like SMGs or MPs. Fact is the AR can't be taken on all runs depending where they are but most clubs will allow you to carry an MP.

[Top Dog]

Hmm you're right, it's 16; I forgot the smartlink. That's good enough.

I disagree on SMG/MP vs AR though. MPs are a sidearm, and won't do that well in "proper" combat (although it'll do well in clubs and such where you can't really take an AR - but where there's no heavy armor). SMG's are slightly more powerful, but at the cost of significant less concealability and being barely less likely to get the police called compared to Assault Rifles.

If we stick to non-Forbidden weapons, Assault rifles give 2 DV and -2 AP over the best SMG (and 3 DV over MPs). That may not seem like a lot, but when shooting at a typical ganger with 18 or so soak, that makes it 2P vs 5P (before net hits) on average, and then it's suddenly a big difference.

That's not to say he shouldn't get SMG or MP specialization. If he does plan on ending up doing a lot of infiltrations or hanging out in higher-security, then yes, it's worth considering. But overall, it's certainly not an automatic sell - and for this character, I'd say Assault Rifles are the better bet.

(Of course, having a backup MP is still a good idea - 14 dice will still be able to do quite a bit of damage - but specialtywise, meh).

[Whiskeyjack]

My experience is that it's much easier to conceal or talk in an SMG than an AR. Particularly as the main ARs you'd want--the Alpha and the Raiden--are Forbidden.

[JakeConhale]

In case it hasn't been asked yet - you know that buying PQ post-chargen costs double karma?

Sure do! 25 Karma from negative qualities, 24 spent on positive qualities, 20 karma spent on post char creation karma at double cost, 1 spent on knowledge skill, and 19 spent on additional skills using Jack of All Trades. Why, is there a calculation error in there somewhere?

Second Skin doesn't stack with Biker Armor, just with Zoe lines.

Drat

Speaking of Biker Armor, what is that? Do you mean Bike Racing Armor? Because that's actually quite terrible. Your Lined Coat actually has better protection. Granted, Biker is cheap and might be thematic, but meh. There are much better options.

Yeah, meant Bike Racing Armor. Chose it because of the helmet, really, and because it blends in. Other armors with helmets are usually unavailable to me right now (Mil-spec, swat, security...) Other contenders are the Riot armor, which seems rather.... obvious, and the Urban Explorer Jumpsuit, though that looks a bit better and cheaper, if I can find one in black. Just terrified of headshots, ya know? (And can embed so many audio/visual enhancements in the helmet)

R3 Dermal Plating costs you 1.5 Essence and 9000 nuyen. If you switch that to Used Orthoskin, you spend a bit more (4500 more) but save over a half point of Essence. The extra money can be recouped by, for example, making the Bone Lacing Used as well. That saves you a net 0.3125 essence, at no difference in cost.
If you have money leftover, you could also spend a bit more and get Used Orthoskin 4 at the same Essence cost. If you nééd more money, you can leverage that extra essence to turn your datajack and smartlink to Used (granted, that's not exactly a big windfall). Mind you, if you need money, ditch the Shop - you don't really need more then an Armorer Kit at your level of skill.

Did just that - turned all my 'ware save the synaptic booster to used, switched the dermal plating to orthoskin 4 (used), and changed the shop to a kit. That shop was mainly just to support the original mil-spec armor anyways, but it's good to have. I want to keep my starting essence above 2 if possible, so that I have room to add new 'ware later on and keep some social limit.

You don't need a subvocal microphone - sending messages directly via DNI is easy and safer (subvocal can still be overheard; it's actually a fairly minor penalty). Not that having a backup mic is a bad idea. Same goes for AR gloves and Image Link, except for the being overheard.

Having no Agility increase really will hurt you, like others said. In the long end, you can of course fix that by, well, getting that. I can't really see any glaring options that let you afford one earlier... At least not with this attribute array.

One of the downsides is a non-stellar attack pool. Luckily, you have Automatics! You can just spray people with bullets and give them -9 dodge. Except you have no recoil compensation to speak of. So get some Gas Vents going or something.

Not sure what you're getting at with the recoil compensation. Both the Ares Alpha and the Ares Crusader II come with built-in RC 2, the Crusader even describes itself as being a gas-vent system. May be able to apply such to the rifle, though, for a mere 600 nuyen that seems like a steal.

Okay:
New starting nuyen: 3650
New Starting essence: 2.125

[Whiskeyjack]

You want everything to have a Gas Vent 3 and pick up whatever other RC mods and gear you can. Otherwise expect to spend a lot of passes not shooting to reset RC. And get Personalized Grips from Sail Away Sweet Sister. 100 nuyen for 1 ACC is a huge steal.

[Top Dog]

In case it hasn't been asked yet - you know that buying PQ post-chargen costs double karma?

Sure do! 25 Karma from negative qualities, 24 spent on positive qualities, 20 karma spent on post char creation karma at double cost, 1 spent on knowledge skill, and 19 spent on additional skills using Jack of All Trades. Why, is there a calculation error in there somewhere?

No error that I know of. Just saying that getting PQ's after chargen is expensive. But it might still be worth it.

Speaking of Biker Armor, what is that? Do you mean Bike Racing Armor? Because that's actually quite terrible. Your Lined Coat actually has better protection. Granted, Biker is cheap and might be thematic, but meh. There are much better options.

Yeah, meant Bike Racing Armor. Chose it because of the helmet, really, and because it blends in. Other armors with helmets are usually unavailable to me right now (Mil-spec, swat, security...) Other contenders are the Riot armor, which seems rather.... obvious, and the Urban Explorer Jumpsuit, though that looks a bit better and cheaper, if I can find one in black. Just terrified of headshots, ya know? (And can embed so many audio/visual enhancements in the helmet)

There's a regular helmet in the base game that you can get, fits with everything. Some armors have their own, which sometimes come with benefits (like the full-body armors that come with a +3 helmet), but Biker armor has the same +2 as the regular helmet.

That shop was mainly just to support the original mil-spec armor anyways, but it's good to have.

That's fair - just saying it's a good thing to save on if you're low on cash (shops are easy to buy later on).

One of the downsides is a non-stellar attack pool. Luckily, you have Automatics! You can just spray people with bullets and give them -9 dodge. Except you have no recoil compensation to speak of. So get some Gas Vents going or something.

Not sure what you're getting at with the recoil compensation. Both the Ares Alpha and the Ares Crusader II come with built-in RC 2, the Crusader even describes itself as being a gas-vent system. May be able to apply such to the rifle, though, for a mere 600 nuyen that seems like a steal.

2 isn't that much if you go and spray a lot of bullets. I mean, it's a fair start, but even a simple action FA burst gives an instant -6 recoil to compensate (and you now have 4 points total compensation, including strength and such).

There are a lot of very cheap ways to get recoil compensation. Don't have easy access to Run Faster right now, which adds a bunch of new ones, but adding Gas Vent 3 and a Shock Pad to the Ares Alpha will give you a total of 8 recoil compensation. That means that you'd have a -4 on your second burst, instead of the -8 you'd have now (with a -2 on the first for the current one as well).

(The Crusader does indeed come with a builtin Gas Vent, so you can't stack that with a new one, but you can still get other mods).

And yes, Personalized Grip is another very good purchase.

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

Nobody else seems to have mentioned this.... Synaptic Booster & Kamikaze don't stack for Initiative!!! You have the Essence so get Wired Reflexes 2 (alpha costs an extra 29.8 & saves .6 Essence) & Reaction Enhancers 3, that way you can use the Kamikaze to boost up to +5D6. Switch your Attributes & Resources around.... you can get way more than 4 points with the additional cyberware.. Drop Logic & Charisma (maybe Strength as well) to 1 during Charge & buy them back up with you extra Karma. Drop Dermal Plating & go with Orthoskin 2 (max), get used Muscle Toner 3 (Used saves ¥24,000 & costs .15 Essence), ABL should be Alpha (¥3600 to save .2 essence, Worth It), some Reflex Recorders would also be helpful. Also use Sum to Ten build so you can drop Metatype from D to E & Raise Skills from C to B. It should be Resources A/Attributes B/Skills B/Magic E/Metatype E. Those skills will be way more useful than Edge, just use Edge for rerolling failed important rolls. Might also want to take the NQ In Debt, each point up to 15 gets you an extra ¥5000, you owe 10% of ¥7500 per point every month... just pay it off with nuyen & karma a point at a time.

[Whiskeyjack]

Pretty sure drugs stack with everything.