A few more specific thoughts:
The character examples in the book are not very good, because they were designed before the final character creation rules were in place, and as a result they are … less than optimal. There was a thread where people re-did those examples per the actual rules, which could be worth reading through -- this link takes you to the page where the winning entries were chosen:
http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?;msg=409459;topic=21947.105There are a few common tricks to help you be good at what you are supposed to be good at.
- One is the ‘dump stat’ where you take an attribute not important to your character and buy it only at one or two (and if at two often only bought at one with attribute points, then bought up to two with ten karma points in the later part of character generation). So a Decker with low charisma, a street samurai with low logic, a magician with low strength, etc. It is nice to be well balanced, but it actually tends to make your group more interesting when characters have strengths and weaknesses.
- Another is to buy a skill at only one or two points, but take a specialization in the portion of the skill you are apt to use most of the time. So ‘Pilot Ground Vehicles’ at one, with a specialization in motorcycles. (A specialization costs one skill point in character creation, and gives you +2 on your skill within the specialization).
- At the other end of skills, a specialization can take a strong skill and make it really outstanding in a particular area, such as spellcasting at six, with a specialization in combat spells (giving an effective skill of eight when casting combat spells)
- With the higher three skill priorities, you get points for skill groups as well as for individual skills. Sometimes one point in each of a couple of skill groups which relate to attributes you have at a good level gives you some broad back-up skills. For example, shaman need high charisma to resist the drain from their spells, so can be good at social skills – and they may be set up to boost their charisma even further with a sustained spell. But you don’t always have the skill points at character creation to buy up those social skills. Having one point in each of the ‘influence’ and ‘acting’ skill groups won’t make you great at social activities, but if you have boosted your charisma up to 8 with a spell that still let’s you be decent at a whole pile of skills. Another common use is to buy the athletics skill group at 1, so that you have some chance at dealing with physical challenges on a run.
- Kind of the opposite of the above: sometimes you are good at just one skill in a group and don’t take anything else in the skills in that group, nor any other related skills. Taking etiquette five with no leadership or negotiation will at least let you attend social events without upsetting people , let's you gather information in a bar, etc., -- even if you aren’t in general a great talker. Taking ‘automatics’ at five or six with no skill in pistols or long arms (or any melee combat skills) lets you use machine pistols, sub machine guns, and assault rifles (and those guns all give you access to suppressive fire, which is a very useful thing for secondary fighters to contribute in combat). This doesn’t make you an all-around strong fighter, but lets you usually be useful in a fight.
- Sometimes you have the money for a kind of niche piece of cyberware or gear that isn’t too expensive, that will help you do something most people can’t. An internal commlink so you are never fully cut off from the matrix, a sleep regulator so you only need 3-4 hours of sleep a night, gecko gloves that let you climb pretty much any surface, a smuggling compartment built into your body, etc. Those little specialties can be very useful sometimes. On a similar note, mages and adepts may take a spell or adept ability which is somewhat niche for the same sort of reasons.
