[FST_Gemstar]

As many know, I love technomancer hybrids. 

I have been working on a new technomancer face character. Basically a well-dressed face really only focusing on smooth socials, intimidation, his pain inducer, and using sprites to boost said pain inducer and social rolls as well as using sprites to hack basic devices (character himself does not have matrix skills). 

He is just coming up flat for me, and  I would love some assistance on improving. I have only been able to make him work in Sum-to-ten (Priority would be preferred, but it was just hard). 

I am second guessing the pain inducer, as net hits don't seem to add to effectiveness, making all of the bonuses less valuable. Is there something else menacing to use?

Barebones: 

Karma: 10 Strength, 10 Logic,  5 Nuyen, 25 PQs, will need -25 NQs.

No negative qualities, contacts, knowledge skills yet. Still has 25k nuyen for basic runner gear. 

Will likely rely on lots of Psyche/Cram, and diagonistics running on suit and the pain inducer. 

== Info ==
Street Name: Tickles
Name: Unnamed Character
Movement: 16/32
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Human
Composure: 10
Judge Intentions: 9
Lift/Carry: 5 (30 kg/20 kg)
Memory: 8
Nuyen: 24480

== Priorities ==
Metatype: E(0) - Human
Attributes: B(3) - 20 Attributes
Special: B(3) - Adept, Magician, or Technomancer
Skills: C(2) - 28 Skills/2 Skill Groups
Resources: C(2) - 140,000¥

== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 6 (
REA: 3
STR: 2
CHA: 5
INT: 4
LOG: 2 (3)
WIL: 5
EDG: 3
RES: 3

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   5.00
Initiative:                7 + 1d6
Rigger Initiative:         7 + 1d6
Astral Initiative:         
Matrix AR Initiative:      7 + 1d6
Matrix Cold Initiative:    4 + DP + 3d6
Matrix Hot Initiative:     4 + DP + 4d6
Physical Damage Track:     10
Stun Damage Track:         11

== Limits ==
Physical:                  4
Mental:                    5
Social:                    7
   Vashon Island: Synergist Business Line [+1] (Must be visible)
   Vashon Island: Synergist Business Line Longcoat [+1] (Must be visible)
Astral:                    7

== Active Skills ==
Compiling                  : 4 [Task]      Pool: 7 (9)
Con                        : 5 [Fast Talk]          Pool: 10 (12)
Disguise                   : 2                      Pool: 6
Etiquette                  : 1 [Street]             Pool: 6 (
Exotic Ranged Weapon       : 6 [Fichetti Pain Inducer] Pool: 14
Intimidation               : 1 [Torture]            Pool: 6 (
Negotiation                : 5 [Bargaining]         Pool: 10 (12)
Palming                    : 2                      Pool: 10
Perception                 : 1 [Visual]             Pool: 5 (7)
Registering                :6  [Task]
Sneaking                   : 2                      Pool: 10


== Knowledge Skills ==

== Qualities ==
Agile Defender
Drug Tolerant
First Impression
Jack of All Trades Master of None
Quick Healer
Technomancer

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Cerebral Booster Rating 1
Muscle Toner Rating 2
Narco
Tetrachromatic Vision

== Armor ==
Vashon Island: Synergist Business Line
   +Custom Fit
   +Concealable Holster
Vashon Island: Synergist Business Line Longcoat
   +Custom Fit (Stack)
   +Holster

== Weapons ==
Fichetti Pain Inducer
   +Personalized Grip
   +Smartgun System, External
   Pool: 14   Accuracy: 6   DV: Special   AP:    RC: 2
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 7   Accuracy: 4   DV: 2S   AP: -   RC: 2

== Commlink ==
Living Persona (ATT: 5, SLZ: 4, DP: 3, FWL: 5)

== Gear ==
Contacts Rating 2
   +Camera, Micro Rating 1
   +Smartlink

== Vehicles ==
Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbit (Subcompact)
   +Sensor Array Rating 2

[Kuirem]

You have trouble building it into Priority because you are trying to be good at too many things at once : Gunner, Face and Techno. So the first thing is to realize that you will have to be average at some stuff.

I think you forgot that B - Techno start with 2 Resonance skills at Rating 4 for free.

I think Pain Inducer damage is increased by the net hit : the CRB mention the "modified Power", if it is the same as the "modified DV" it means the power after applying the bonus damage from the attack test.

If you want to focus on Sprites you will need a better Resonance. As your character is right now you will be limited to Sprites 3 if you don't want to take physical damage and you won't even get much task out of it, you can't even register them!

First thing I would do is get A - Special to raise Resonance and start with 5 Compiling/Registering. Lower Skills to D (alternatively drop Resources to D and sacrifice some wares) and now you can use Priority with A - Techno; B - Attributes; C - Resources; D - Skills; E - Metatype.

For your attribute drop INT to 3 to raise LOG to 2 and get some karma back, you will need it for your skills or your Nuyen (depending of which one is at D).

For Skills I will assume that you took Priority D. You are really short on Skills for a Face so you will need to specialize. Since you are going for a torturer I would probably drop Con and get a good Intimidation and Negotiation with some Etiquette with Karma. For example :

• Compiling 5
• Etiquette (Street) 2 (with Karma)
• Intimidation (Torture) 4
• Negotiation (Bargaining) 4
• Perception (Visual) 2
• Registrering 6
• Sneaking 3
• Exotic Ranged Weapon (Fichetti Pain Inducer) 5

For your wares Muscle Toner and Cerebral Booster are suboptimal. You don't need that much AGI since you are not a full fighter (especially since you don't have much initiative to back it up) and you can raise your dice pool with Sprites. I don't see the point of Cerebral Booster on a 2 LOG.

What you need is :

• Initiative : Synaptic Acceleration is my favorite, it's expensive but worth every nuyen. Boosted Reflexes is cheaper but will hurt your essence badly so only pick it if you go for Prototype Transhuman.
• Smartlink : Put it in your meat directly for that extra dice.

So if we pick Smartlink, Narco, Synaptic Acceleration, Tetrachromatic Vision we still have 0.1 Essence to spend without losing an extra Resonance. Maybe some Thermographic Vision? Other interesting choices are stuff that can be targeted by Diagnostics, a Balance Augmenter for example to get extra dice at Gymnastic Tests or a Skilljack level 1 coupled with a Skillsoft Networks basic to be able to speak all languages for cheap (talk about it with your GM in case he disagree on how it works).

For your qualities if you follow my wares proposition you might as well drop Agile Defender since it is a difference of 1 dice. I recommend to pick Profiler instead since you can just compile a Data Sprite to do Matrix Search for you.

[FST_Gemstar]

Whoops.. I deleted registering from the post. That's where my missing skills are. 

I am ok with overcompiling/registering sprites and risking physical damage. I could go Resonance 4/Edge 2 and play it more safe and stick with Res 4 sprites.

Yeah the 'ware is is suboptimal... My issue was that  I was needing ways to boost defense tests, at least on Full Defense, so going high Agility with Agile defender seemed prudent. I guess I don't need the Extra Logic, but as sprite herd limit is limited by Logic, having 3 slots seemed nice. This character could just get by with Logic 2 though, (task sprites in pain inducer and suit). The higher Logic was also nice because the character was built as a drug user, which is why I didn't pick up the synaptic booster. Cram + Narco gets the character more for less. character runs on Cram/Psyche when in the thick of it, giving +2 Reaction, +2 Intuition, +2 Logic, and +1D6 initiatve. A nephritic screen would do a similar job.


I do like your skills spread. Skills D is usually my least favorite skills slot (currently it is C for this character). I will look into seeing if Skills D will free up my priority selection better.

[Kuirem]

Synaptic Acceleration is compatible with Drugs (contrary to Synaptic Booster) so you can use it along with Cram and Psyche for +2 REA, +2 INT, +2 LOG, 1+2D6 initiative, +1 Defense Test.

If you really want to raise your defense pool it is worth to consider getting Exceptional Attribute (WIL) and get WIL to 7. It will give you an extra Stun condition, give you a better Full Defense AND Full Matrix Defense, give more dice to resist both Psychological and Physiological addictions. Also if for you are attacked directly in the Matrix you roll WIL x 2 to defend as a Techno (WIL x 3 in Full Matrix Defense) so you will be really hard to take down.

[FST_Gemstar]

A lot of my technos go super willpower, I am just not sure I can pump up will for this character.

I always forget synaptic acceleration and be comboed with drugs...

[Novocrane]

Synaptic Acceleration is compatible with Drugs (contrary to Synaptic Booster) so you can use it along with Cram and Psyche for +2 REA, +2 INT, +2 LOG, 1+2D6 initiative, +1 Defense Test.

Sort of, but that depends on drugs not being interpreted as 'temporary augmentations'. If they are, raising initiative or initiative dice shuts it down completely.

If a character has an augmentation that increases their Initiative or grants any Initiative Dice, synaptic acceleration has no effect

[FST_Gemstar]

enhancement vs augmentation dilemma.

[Kuirem]

Augmentations mean Wares. This is mentioned at multiple time in the CRB notably page 23 :

A few of us are lucky enough to get that edge through magic.
For the rest of us, there are augmentations.

Each time you get one of these augmentations, you give up a piece of yourself

That’s why the spellslingers and adepts among us are cautious about how many augmentations they get

There are two primary types of augmentations: cyberware and bioware.

So doesn't matter how you interpret Drugs it is fully compatible with Synaptic Acceleration that only shut down if you have other augmentations (i.e wares) that affect initiative.

[Whiskeyjack]

Augmentations mean Wares.

This.

It doesn't help that this seemed to be a much more explicit term of art in past editions, meaning ware (and best exemplified by the titular 4e book, Augmentation). This edition a lot of times the terms are used more casually/interchangeably, but there are still a lot of places where it seems to be intended to use that term of art of "ware," versus a general lay definition (where enhancement and augmentation are more synonymous).

[Marcus]

It's good to see things haven't changed while I have been away. Looks very nice. Still waiting on the dang techno book I see /sigh.