[Top Dog]

Most initiative boosters say what they don't stack with, usually not listing combat drugs. But Synaptic Boosters do state that they stack with no other initiative bonuses at all. So it seems he is correct.

[JakeConhale]

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.

I'll look into it though I've been told that attributes should be highest as karma can be a lot harder to find than nuyen as time goes on. (Especially with how often my group meets). I'm just not seeing anything thus far that would justify making such a shift in resources, there's nothing quite that expensive I would consider make or break.

For the record, your recommendation of Wired Reflexes 2 Alpha is not possible - that would be 14R and simply not available without the Restricted Gear quality, same goes for Aluminum Bone Lacing (which is what I think you mean by "ABL")

My current build (reply 20 on page 2) uses Used Orthoskin 4, not sure why one would just max that out at 2 though.

I'll ask my GM about the synaptic booster compatibility with Kamikaze, the way it's worded I can see someone interpreting it as referring just to 'ware, not drugs. (I mean, I can see wired reflexes being limited by technological limitations, perhaps the wires can't keep up with the signals, but why would the body's inherent system suddenly become incompatible with a drug that worked fine before?)

Now that I'm looking into it though, Used Titanium Bone Lacing is juuuuust within my budget if I drop just about every non-essential item (shock gloves, bayonet, HE grenades, shock weave, etc.... though taking out the Smartlink would fulfill about half of what i would need....but it would drop my Essence to 1.5, which I consider getting into the danger zone) Ugh, time to go stare at a spreadsheet some more.

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

You are getting an extra 37 or something karma right??? So Prime Run Build (gets you availability 15 & an extra 50k) subtract 10 from the extra you get... simple. Use Sum to Ten build system....

A. Resources B. Skills B. Attribute E. Magic E. Metatype

Body 5 [2]
AGI 6(9)
Rea 5 (10)
STR 2 (4) 10 Karma
Will 4
Log 2 10 Karma
Int 5
Chr 1
EDG 3
Ess 0.05
Ini 15+3d6 (14+3d6 with Pain Editor on)

Physical Condition 11 Boxes
Stun Condition 10 Boxes (11 with Pain Editor on)

Limits
M 5
P 8
S 3

Qualities  -23/+25 still more available
Positive
Restricted Gear- (B ) Pain Editor
Biocompatibility  (Cyber) [Augmentation 4th until Chromed Flesh:July]
Agile Defender
Negative
Cyberpsychosis (Augmentation 4th until Chromed Flesh:July]
In Debt ¥75,000

Augmentations
Fingertip Compartment  (A)  .07  ¥3600 (MonoWhip goes here)
Wired Reflexes 2  (A)   2.1   ¥178800
Reaction Enhancers 3    .9   ¥39000
Muscle Toner  (U)         .75   ¥72000
Aluminum Bone Lacing  (A)  .7   ¥21600
SmartLink  (A)                  .14      ¥4800
Datajack.  (A)                  .07      ¥1200
Muscle Augmentation 2   .4     ¥62000
Pain Editor  (B )                .21     ¥72000
Reflex Recorder (Automatics)  .1   ¥14000
Reflex Recorder (MonoWhip)   .1   ¥14000
Orthoskin 2 ( A)                   .4.          ¥14400
          Totals         Essence= 5.95     ¥497400

Skills 36/5 (13 used)
Automatics (Assault Rifles) 6 (7) (+2)
EWP (MonoWhip) 6 (7)


Gear
(Nice dressed armor) total armor value: 18
Mortimer Berwick Suit (Biomoniter installed)
Mortimer Argentum Coat
Forearm Guards

(Slum dressed armor/Running armor) total armor value: 18/21
Lined Coat/Armor Jacket (Biomoniter installed)
Ballistic Mask
Forearm Guards
Secure PPP legs kit
Secure PPP Arms Kit

You have ¥77600 to spend on armor, guns, commlink, & monowhip


The point with the combo of Cyberpsychosis & Pain Editor always turned on is that you are dead inside. Your are just playing a FPS with your body up to including a Health Bar keeping track with the Biomoniter. Just try not to talk to anyone that you can help, glitches suck & critial glitches turn you into an NPC for an unspecified amount of time. You will have 14 defense dice (23 w/full defense) & 25/28 Damage Soak Dice, so hard to hit & hard to hurt. You seem to want to go Mil Spec but without cyberlimbs to use as Armor Sinks the real benefit of Hardened Armor is lost since you can't jack your Armor score into the sky. Restrictive will really cut down on your mobility as well as being obnoxiously obvious anywhere but Chicago or an active warzone.

Sidenote: if you play with the Pain Editor permanently on as far as your character goes than you should be able to use 10 dice instead of 9 for your Kamikaze addiction tests. You are going to fail those, so don't start with an Addiction to it & save your Edge to Reroll dice that didn't get a hit. Like seriously save your Edge for that or Burning 1 point to not die. Question... why didn't you burn an Edge point to not die with your last character?

[JakeConhale]

I'm sorry but.... where the heck are you getting this stuff? This is the first I've heard of "Cyberpsychosis", I have no idea what you're talking about with that Fourth of July stuff, and this is NOT a prime runner build, as with all other characters in the run this is a standard character, just with a little additional karma to play catchup. I don't want to spend karma on Restricted Gear as, after thinking about it, it's wasting Karma over nuyen. Unless i went for something really rare like heavy mil-spec armor or the heavy laser gun, I couldn't feel like I was justifying it. And bilingual is one of the core character concepts, throw that out I might as well be building a completely different character. I want the additional 3 edge for two reasons - survival and more fuel for the Common Sense quality.

As for why I didn't burn an edge for the last character - that's because he didn't die. He got knocked out and, over the course of the run, resulted in him losing the following:
1. Newly acquired laser pistol was just left on the ground during the extraction
2. Last remaining Ares Duelist drone destroyed by police
3. Heavily modified Ares Roadmaster with most of my gear inside, including 3 tool shops - destroyed by police while on autopilot escaping a crime scene as I couldn't cancel the last directive. Even if it was salvageable, it was impounded.
Net nuyen loss was about 100,000, all I had left was the clothes on my back and my lifestyle. (And that's not including how my teammate was trying to let me bleed out rather than heal me so as to curry favor with a former fixer.)

The character is still alive, but after being so effectively dismantled, most thought I might as well just build a new character and get on with it. I think burning an edge was the only thing which kept the boulder from actually crushing the character's skull in the first place.

Now back to the current character, the former French Legionaire...

Now, I'm currently planning to go Used Titanium Bone lacing, though it's going to cost me a number of minor gear (weapon personality, combat knife, shock gloves, medkit, etc). Just enough nuyen left to change up the armor. How's this: I get the Urban Explorer suit + helmet + all three securetech PPP. I'd love to go for the Riot armor, but I simply do not have enough nuyen unless I want to start deleting 'ware.

Counting Orthoskin 4, Ti BL, and all that armor, I come out with 3+4+13 = 20 armor total. If possible, I'd also wear the lined coat to help conceal gear like my machine pistol or rifle-on-a-sling, putting the deleted items on my wishlist for the next run. I've never been sure what actually counts as full body armor - there's the explicit "full body armor" in the core rulebook and the mil-spec armor is described as being fully enclosed, but is that it? Do other armors, such as the Urban Explorer, Bike Racing armor, or Riot armor count as "full-body"? Does that mean I can equip all three pieces of the Securetech PPP over the Urban explorer?

If there's no problem with this, I'll prep a new build, I think we're closing in on the end goal.

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

Cyberpsychosis & Biocompatibility are in Augmentation book which is 4th edition. Chromed Flesh comes out in late July/early August which will be the Augment book for 5th edition. If you are so super serious about wanting Mil Spec Armor... go full cyberlimbs, with Biocompatibility  (10 Karma gets you 10% reduction on Cyber) & Alphaware it'll cost you 2.8 essence. That way you can really stack Armor... 8 starting with 12 possible. Toss in some aluminum bone Lacing, huff some Kamikaze & call it a day. That way not much can get through to Physical & the special effect of Mil Spec is that it's Hardened Armor so Stun damage doesn't count. You will be one very slow walking tank that will take high level sniper rifles, missles, or other advanced high powered military equipment to put down. It's just not the usual game that uses that... though Chicago & active war zones would be appropriate, maybe in Boston you could get away with right now.

Also.... not sure why Bilingual is so important but ok. The thing I would like to say is that one of the main points of joining the French Foreign Legion is to become  someone else. To run from trouble & get a new identity, so keeping both SINs doesn't work thematically or mechanically since you only have 1 SIN at a time. But if being Canadian and bilingual is important keep it. It's Quebec that's French right???

[ZeldaBravo]

Cyberpsychosis & Biocompatibility are in Augmentation book which is 4th edition.

It's not that I discourage you from using previous edition in your games, but it is wise to assume that the person whom you are giving an advice to plays 5e rules if he states that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be bitter or something.

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

Cyberpsychosis & Biocompatibility are in Augmentation book which is 4th edition.

It's not that I discourage you from using previous edition in your games, but it is wise to assume that the person whom you are giving an advice to plays 5e rules if he states that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be bitter or something.

True enough... using a Quality or 2 from a previous edition Splatbook just didn't seem like a big deal to me. Wasn't really thinking about it, the 5th edition Splatbook comes out in 2 months so it'd fly in the game I play in and any game I'd be running. If it was required we'd just modify the character up or down as needed when Chromed Flesh is released.

[JakeConhale]

Yeah, I'm not dealing with 4E. Sure, I got the morph chip and spoof plate, but that's it. I have enough trouble keeping track of 5E without delving into translating over components.

I'm not sure you read my last post, I said I'm not going with mil-spec armor (I said if I was to use restricted gear, I'd have to do with something really expensive/rare like heavy mil-spec armor). What I am going with, currently, is:

• Used Orthoskin 4
• Used Titanium Bone Lacing
• Urban explorer jumpsuit
• All three Securetech PPP add-ons

That is, assuming, that the securetech PPP is compatible with Urban Explorer. All told - that gives me 20 armor. I can put Riot armor on my wishlist. My GM has previously allowed me to wear a lined coat over the jumpsuit to conceal equipment, so I'll double check the encumbrance rules, but it looks good.

[Hobbes]

As was said upthread you want to soft cap Intuition.  Str, Logic, Will, or Cha drop two of them to two to bump up Int. 

Addiction to Kamikaze is suicide.  Literally the most addictive substance in the basic book.  You've got about a 4 month life expectancy, give or take, depending on how rehab goes in month 3.  Pick something easy to shake like Heroin. 

Armorer Shop is a decent sized investment for an RP hook.  Tool Kit will get you everything you'll every want to roll dice on, and Medkits save lives.   

You don't need Biker armor for the Bike helmet to blend in, you need a bike  : )    Personally, I prefer either Ares Wild Hunt (Gear Access) or Mortimer of London (Concealability Bonus), the quintessential Pink Mohawk vs Black Trench coat  YMMV.  I keep the Secure tech, Forearm guards and other add on's stashed in the bike's saddle bags and pull them out when the group is going heavy. 

I think it was mentioned upthread already but Specialization in SMG > Assault Rifle at most tables.  Given that your last character was tooling around in a Roadmaster with a Laser Pistol that may not apply. 

Juggle your combat drugs between runs.  RAW if you alternate, one week on Jazz, next week on Cram you technically put off addiction tests indefinitely.  Although any GM paying attention will slap you with the book eventually. 

Last Edit: With a Str of 3 you likely want to stop at +4 worth of additional Armor from Gear.  Helmet is +2, Securetech Arms and Legs or Forearm Guards and Securetech Legs.  If you drop Str to bump Int Helmet and Forearm Guards and done. 

[JakeConhale]

Took me a couple times reading that section to realize I'd be over, yeah, so good call on the encumbrance.

So, ditching the vitals as that's the most expensive piece, I can keep the arms and legs and still have 20 armor (+3 BL, +4 Ortho, +13 worn). With the saved nuyen, I can recover the shock gloves, though the survival kit is a close second.... I'll go with the forearm guards as you suggested - more capacity than the Securetech Arms kit.

Thanks for the heads up on the addiction. I'll take out that quality along with On File used for padding (seriously, along with the 2 SINs that was overkill) and replace it with Big Regret. My character's story is that someone from the French Embassy is blackmailing him to do jobs, this will just be formalizing it. Say, while in the Legion, there was a massacre - bad intelligence led to the destruction of a civilian village, which the soldiers then burned to cover up, or something equally bad.

I'll get some Jazz and Cram, see how that works out. looks like I'd still have to spend one week sober to burn down the addition timer.

I'll grab one Logic and one Charisma to put Intuition at 5, I don't want to touch Strength and definitely not Willpower - I don't want to be a walking tank who gets knocked out at the first blow.

[zarzak]

I'll grab one Logic and one Charisma to put Intuition at 5, I don't want to touch Strength and definitely not Willpower - I don't want to be a walking tank who gets knocked out at the first blow.

Having Body and Will are even numbers is pretty much useless, as you gain additional boxes at odd numbers.  So right now you have 4 will - you'd either want to drop that by 1 or raise it by 1 (likely drop by 1, as it sounds like you need the points elsewhere).

[Top Dog]

I wouldn't exactly call it useless - the main benefit of Body and Will is still better soak/mental defense. By the time you get to that last box of damage an extra body will add you, things have already gone wrong.

Still, even numbers of Body and Will are worth quite a bit less than odd numbers.

[ZeldaBravo]

If you want a lot of armor then Ares Big Game Hunter+Helmet+PPP arms and legs=18 armor right there. And it will not even encumber you (if you stay at str 3). Sweet bonuses like gear access and free resistance included.

[Whiskeyjack]

I wouldn't exactly call it useless - the main benefit of Body and Will is still better soak/mental defense. By the time you get to that last box of damage an extra body will add you, things have already gone wrong.

Still, even numbers of Body and Will are worth quite a bit less than odd numbers.

It's not entirely useless, no. But WIL 4 is going to benefit fewer rolls than increasing INT will. +1 die isn't much, ever, sure, but over time that +1 INT is going to potentially bring more benefit more often on Perception tests, defense tests, Street Knowledge, and boosting initiative than +1 WIL is going to occur with (predominantly) rolls to resist Illusion spells and direct Combat spells.

[JakeConhale]

Well, I checked in with my GM. He rejected me using the SecureTech PPP with the Urban explorer armor, citing it being a jumpsuit as counting as being full body. Can't really say I disagree with him on that one. I'm waiting to hear back about the forearm guards, hopefully those will go through.

Big Game hunter is kinda outside my budget unless I want to start dropping 'ware, its looking more and more like I'm locked into my final configuration as is.

My current attributes are:
Body 5 + 3 From Used Titanium bone lacing for DMG resistance test
Agility 6
Reaction 5 +2 from Synaptic Booster
Strength 3
Will 4
Logic 2
Intuition 5
Charisma 2

I don't want to pull any more logic and/or charisma for the will power (and definitely not strength), so I'm thinking that's pretty much done. Reaction and Intuition to for initiatve (along with the Synaptic booster +2D6), Agility for combat, and body and armor for enduring damage. I want to keep logic to help with armorer tests, and Charisma is useful for etiquette. I just need to rejigger my skills listing (i was told Etiquette 5 was overkill, maybe split that into Ettiquette and intimidation or something. I'll figure it out then post the latest configuration.