[Foren(sick]

Hello everyone,

a friend of mine recently came up with the idea to master a Shadowrun 5 campaign. Pretty quick we found four players and the necessary equipment and went on to character creation. Because none of us has much knowledge about SR I'd like to you have a quick look at the character I created and maybe point out a few mistakes or bad decisions i made.

The 5e Core Rulebook is the only available ressource.
Here is the charactersheet chummer5 printed out:



Thanks in advance for your help

Felix

[Duellist_D]

Looks pretty decent for a first time Character.
 A few pointers:
Drop "Improved Physical Attribute (Agility)" and get Attribute Boost "Agility" instead (1 Level, maybe 2).
Usually gives the same result, for a lot less PP.
You can invest the freed up points in use full stuff like Infrared Vision and other neat things.

You got a License for Automatic Weapons, but you are carrying a Pistol, also upgrade it to lvl 4
Ditch Gelrounds and grab normal Ammo instead.
Stick and Shock is for weapons with little to no inherent AP, so its the right choice for Pistols.
Grab a Predator for when you need more firepower.
/edit: You don't have a smartlink, grab a Browning Ultrapower instead, it comes with a Laserpointer.
The Super Warhawk would be an alternative, but you would be missing the two dice from your specialization.


Grab an armored Jacket and a Helmet for when you know it will be loud.
Rating 1 Medkits are useless.
Grab a Rating 3, its the highest level that is still concealable (pouch sized).
Get ear buds with mods to further increase your perception skills.

Since you are using the German rules:
Grab "Attribute Strength".
With the latest printing (A5 Softcover) they changed how it works so it now DOES increase your Dicepools, making it actually useful.

IMHO Doc Wagon Contracts are a waste of Money but your experience might vary.

Edit2:
Connections can't have a higher combined influence and loyalty rating than 7, so you would have to drop that a bit or ask your GM if its okay

[Foren(sick]

Thanks for your quick response!

I changed the points you mentioned, but i needed to downgrade my SIN and license because i was low on funds.

There were two things I could not find in the book:
1. I couldn't find the infraredvision for pp, maybe another source? I took traceless walk instead.
2. I don't know what you refer to with "Attribute Strength".

Anyway my updated charactersheet looks like this:

[All4BigGuns]

Don't worry about the Attribute Boost. Get Improved Ability with your favored combat skill instead, and don't ever go back to Attribute Boost. Stick with going for the one you dropped when you Initiate--so you don't have to worry about Drain. Don't mess with Voice Control or Wall Running--they're just 'nifty tricks' not really useful for anything. Use the Power Points from those for more Combat Sense.

[Duellist_D]

Thanks for your quick response!

I changed the points you mentioned, but i needed to downgrade my SIN and license because i was low on funds.

There were two things I could not find in the book:
1. I couldn't find the infraredvision for pp, maybe another source? I took traceless walk instead.
2. I don't know what you refer to with "Attribute Strength".

@1 You can get every sensory enhancement you could get with sensors via the "Improved sense" Power, including lowlight and thermovision

@2 I meant "Attribute Boost: Strength".

All4bigguns tips are very combat centric. Attribute Boost works with every Skill linked to the attribute and the drain is very low anyways (1-2 to resist).

Reducing your SINs level is a very bad idea. Grab an additional negative Quality to free up the Nuyen you need.
Another thing that you can look into are the mentor Spirits.
If you find one that fits your concept, they offer nice Bonuses and Character Depth.

[Glyph]

The Raven mentor spirit might be a good fit for your character.  You get +2 dice for con tests, and get traceless walk and a level of voice control as free powers - since you had both of these powers picked already, it basically gives you 1.5 more power points to play with.

[Foren(sick]

The raven mentor spirit seems indeed pretty interesting. didn't even read the book to that point yet. Even though I could imagine a situation where the disadvantage could be pretty awful. Like I'm having lunch with Mr. Johnson and a waitress spills soup on his suit and I have to steal his credsticks while helping him cleaning up.

The Cyber-/Bioware part in the Improved Senses Power I must've overlooked, shame on me. Maybe I can save a bit of money this way to upgrade my licenses again.

Regarding the money: I already converted 10 Karma to 20k Nuyen, so I have no way of achieving more ressources without reassigning my priorities, correct me, if I'm wrong.

I think, I will stay with Attribute Boost, because it frees up so much pp to be used for other powers. And sometimes even nifty tricks can be brought to good use.

Thank your for all your advice, I'm going to update my charactersheet as soon as I am back home.

/edit1: orthographic mistakes

[Duellist_D]

Keep in mind to activate the German Rulebooks in Chummer5a.
Raven had some functional changes in 5eGer to tune him down to the level of other Mentor Spirits, compared to the English version.
Sadly, you are correct on the Nuyen side.
If you are only playing with the core Book, you can't get more money.

Well, can't be helped.
It's probably going to be less of a problem than I'd think it is.
Rest looks good so far.
Decent pools considering the restriction on only the core book in more than one area, not useless in combat.
Seems good to go.

[Foren(sick]

Final charactersheet - Ready to play.

[Dwagonzhan]

Some notes the Attribute Boost vs Improved Physical Attribute thing.

+Attribute Boost is fantastic for Combat builds because most AGI skills are Combat Skills, and you rarely need the boost for more than a few turns in those situations anyway (combat is typically quick and lethal in Shadowrun).
However it always requires an action to set up (the drain is negligible so long as it's kept to Rank 1-2). But since you're limited to one attack action per Combat Turn, this isn't as big an issue as it was in prior editions.

-For non-combat builds, Attribute Boost is much worse in general. It can't be used for any Extended Tests because the duration is so short.
In your case, it's useless for bolstering Sneaking and Lockpicking because those tests are ongoing. (you don't suddenly stop sneaking just because you made it past a camera, guard or other witness, and any non-trivial Lock Rating will require an Extended Test.).

It's usable for Palming, albeit a bit dicey with only 4 turns or so (24 seconds) on average. Depends on how strict your GM is about the timing and the nature of the Palming attempt.
Random pickpocket or plant job in a crowd? Easy.
Getting close to Someone Important (TM), especially in a "public" venue or place with plenty of witnesses? (possibly a corporate party) That requires a solid distraction or Con Test to get an opening.
12-24 seconds may not always be enough; so don't assume Attribute Boost will always work there.

Of course, being creative and improvising is always your best option as an Infiltrator; far more-so than just relying on gadgets and powers. I played a very similar kind of Adept for years, and it has always been the least rote and the most fun.

+Improved Physical Attribute actually improves the attribute as if it were an Augmentation (and counts towards your Augmented Maximum).
Since you're starting with maximum racial AGI, Improved Physical Attribute is a REALLY GOOD long term investment. But it's super pricey.

Another option is to combine the two at Chargen.
Take Improved Physical Attribute (Agility) AND get a Rating 2 Qi Foci (Tattoo) with Attribute Boost (AGI).
The Foci costs 6k Nuyen and 4 Karma to bond (total equivalent Karma Cost of 7; much cheaper than Initiation!)

For 14 Karma equivalent (or 12k Nuyen + 8 Karma), you can get two such Foci: One for STR, and the other for AGI; and you can switch them on/off as needed to stay out of Foci-Addiction range.
(BOD and REA are bad picks for Attribute Boost, for reasons I won't get into here)