[gourry187]

creating a (slightly) cyber adapt and I was hoping for some advise.  I have some nuyen, BP, and power points left I'mnot sure to spend on.

BackgoundKinapped as a child before the age of 10, young Kit entered the Yakuza sex slave trade.   Upon reaching maturity (around age 14) it was discovered that she was awakened and too valuable to use as a mere service doll.  After years of abuse, she became docile and easy for her masters to meld into an assassin who could cause paralysis in her victims after enthralling/seducing them into a vulnerable poition.
This ceased when she was ordered to pacify a street doc who refused to enhance some of their soldiers.  Unable to kill him (for whatever reason) she returned in failure.  A now more empowered Kit lashed back at her captors but was easily overmatched by their numbers.
Now a liability, she needed to be illuminated but rather than outright remove her head, to respect the services she did in the past, they merely removed her hands just above the wrists dumping her in streets leaving her for dead.
Finding the kind street doc who had opened her eyes to what she could become, he took her in and addressed her wounds.  With her strength returned she took to the streets to seek revenge on those that disfigured her leaving the doc to not endanger him and only finding solace when intimately connected to another person.
Creating a new persona, she earns a meager living, she takes gigs at local clubs singing as her “talent” enthralls the customers and the occasional shadowrun.  Now aware of her survival, the disgraced Yakuza who left her for dead, have put mark on her head.

*semi final revision* - open for more critizism

Name:	Kit		BP cost
Race:

Elf[/t][/t]  30       

Special

Adept[/t]  5       

special

foci bond[/t]  2  force 1 weapon foci   

special

foci bond[/t]  2  force 1 weapon foci    [/t]         

Body

[/t] 3 20       

Agility

[/t] 5 20       

Reaction

[/t] 3(5) 20       

Strength

[/t] 3 20       

Charisma

[/t] 5 30       

Intuition

[/t] 4 30       

Logic

[/t] 2 10       

Willpower

[/t] 3 20       

Edge

[/t] 3 20       

Magic

[/t] 5 40        [/t]         

Active Skills

[/t]    Knowledge Skils (18) 0 

Athletics Group

[/t] 3 30  Night clubs 3 3 

Climbing

[/t]    Yakuuza Politics 2 2 

Gymnastics

[/t]    Music   3 3 

Running

[/t]    Pron Sims 1 1 

Swimming

[/t]    Street Rumors 2 2 

Unarmed

[/t] 2 8  Cybernetica 1 1 

(nerve strike)

[/t] (4) 2       

Blades

[/t] 5 20       

(cyber implant blades)

(7)[/t] 2  Language Skills   

Archery

[/t] 2 8  English  N 0 

(bows)

[/t] (4) 2  Japanese  3 3 

Infiltration

[/t] 3 12  Russian  2 2 

Artisan

[/t] 4 16  Chinese  1 1 

Computer

[/t] 2 8       

Etiquette

[/t] 3 12       

Pilot Ground Craft

1[/t] 4       

(motorcycles)

[/t] (3) 2        [/t]         

Contacts

[/t]         

Club Owner

[/t] 4/3 7       

Doc Shiney

[/t] 2/4 6        [/t]         

Qualities

[/t]         

Sangre y Acero MA (Cybernetica)

5[/t]  +1 DV to Blades attacks   

off-hand training

[/t] 2  martial arts manuever   

two weapon style

[/t] 2  martial arts manuever   

day job

[/t]  -5  club entertainer   

Big Regret

[/t]  -5  child prostitute   

Poor Self Control - Compulsion

[/t] -5  Flirt with those charisma 4+ (m/f) 

Addiction - Mild

[/t] -5  Intimate Contact   

Wanted

[/t]  -10  Yakuuza      [/t]         

Nuyen

65000[/t]  13       

Total BP used

[/t]  400        [/t]         

Cyberware

[/t] Rating Cost Capac essence      [/t]         

Synthetic Lower Arm Left

S[/t] 1200  0.45     

customized agi +2

[/t] 3000      6     

Spur (retractable)

S[/t] 1800      [3]     

Armor

[/t] 1 300      [2]     

Synthetic Lower Arm Right

S[/t] 1200  0.45     

customized agi +2

[/t] 3000      6     

Spur (retractable)

S[/t] 1800      [3]     

Armor

[/t] 1 300      [2]      [/t]         

Gear

[/t]         

Collapsible Bow (STR Min 3)

[/t] 375      4R     

Smartgun Modification

[/t] 375      6R     

Explosive Head Arrows (x10)

[/t] 100      9F     

Incindeary Head Arrows (x5)

[/t] 275      12F     

Weapon Focus - spur (Force 1)

[/t] 10000      10R     

Weapon Focus - spur (Force 1)

[/t] 10000      10R     

Fake SIN (rating 5)

[/t] 5000      5F      [/t]         

Goggles (rating 4)

200[/t]      --     

Image Link Vision Enhancement

25[/t]      --     

Smartlink Vision Enhancement

500[/t]      4R     

Vision Magnification

100[/t]      2     

Thermographic Vision Enhancement

100[/t]      6     

Form Fitting Body Armor - Half-Body

900[/t]      7 4 / 1 Shadowrun Wear   

Secure Tech PPP Forearm Guards

200[/t]      6 +0 / +1 Shadowrun Wear   

Armor Vest

[/t]  600      4 6 / 4 Shadowrun Wear   

Renraku Sensei Comlink

1000[/t]      -- RES 2 / SIG 4   

Mangadyne Dea OS

800[/t]      -- FIRE 2 / SYS 3   

Matrix Firewall Program (rating 6)

3000[/t]      --     

basic+ common use program suite

400[/t]  analyze 3, browse 3, command 1, edit 3 

Skinlink

50[/t]      6     

Subvocal Microphone

50[/t]      6     

AR Gloves

250[/t]      --     

Earbuds (rating 1)

10[/t]      --     

Audio Enhancement (rating 3)

300[/t]      2     

Bike Racing Helmet

200[/t]      --  Casual Wear   

Armor Jacket

900[/t]      2 8 / 6 Casual Wear   

Low lifestyle

1 month[/t]  2000      --      [/t]          [/t]         

Vehicle

[/t]         

Thundercloud Contrail motorcycle

5000[/t]      --     

Run Flat Tires x2

500[/t]      4     

Motorycle Gyro stabalization

1800[/t]      4     

Chameleon Coating

6000[/t]      2      [/t]         

Nuyen Left

[/t]  1390        [/t]         

Adapt Powers

[/t] level point cost       

Imroved Reflexes

1[/t] 1.5  +2 Reaction, +1 IP   

Nerve Strike

[/t] 1       

Enthrallin Performance

[/t] 0.5       

Kinesics

1[/t] 0.5       

Improved combat ability

1[/t] 0.5  blades     

[gourry187]

first I need to apologize on my total lack of formatting skills (ack wtf happened?)

secondly I found 1 major booboo . . .

forgot to add the customized cyberlimb to make them equal my natural AGI
+2 AGI to each @ 3000 nuyen

leaves 1790 nuyen and 397 BP

[GrimWulf]

Were you looking at adding the critical strike bonus to your spurs?  Because they wouldn't count as unarmed.

[eshoup1]

Well, she does have unarmed combat at 5. So, there is some skill to use critical strike.

As for what to do with the last 3 BP... consider grabbing a fake SIN. Also think about adding injection arrows to your arsenal. A STR min 3 collapsable bow does 4P damage AND THEN 10S if loaded with narcoject on a hit if you get past their armor.

Otherwise, that's a pretty intense backstory. But there is a lot for a GM to play with. So good job and I hope you have fun running with this character.

[gourry187]

Were you looking at adding the critical strike bonus to your spurs?  Because they wouldn't count as unarmed.

no critical strike to make Nerve Strike more effective
btw, when calculating STR/2 do you round up or down?

[eshoup1]

btw, when calculating STR/2 do you round up or down?

According to pg 148 in SR4 you round up when figuring STR/2 for purposes of calculating melee damage values

[eshoup1]

I am not sure how to say this but...

As I said before, I think you have a really good backstory. And I realize that your cyberhands and spurs are a big part of that background. But from a strictly min/max point of view... you seem to be spreading a lot of points around for melee combat. I realize that this fact is kind of the norm for melee expertise. But something to think about would be a way to better integrate your Adept Power Points (which only augment your unarmed attacks) with the martial arts qualities and maneuvers you have (which only augment your cyberspur). This is purely my opinion but I am not sure the critical strike is doing you that much good. What about kinesics from pg. 188 of SR4? It would help with the seducing side of your character.

Again, I think you have a solid character, I am just pointing out some things to think about.

[gourry187]

I've been mulling over what to spend my last 0.5 points for adept powers.  Kinesics would work pretty well. 
Even though I have cyber arms which make the unarmed attacks P rather than S, I typically look at unarmed as a non-lethal mode (using nerve strike).  Nerve strike does no damage so there is no soak and rather, they take direct REA or AGI reduction so the low STR won't be too detrimental.
(STR/2 +2) will insure 4 AGI (or REA) reduction + extra form net hits.  My goal is render an opponent imobile within the 2 iniative passes.
However when it comes to overpowering armor, the lower STR is a major fault which is why I uped the cyber combat style MA and weapon focus.
the spurs are (STR/2 +3) with the MA will insure 6P to soak (without counting net hits).  TBH thats not alot of damage comparably.

[eshoup1]

Even though I have cyber arms which make the unarmed attacks P rather than S, I typically look at unarmed as a non-lethal mode (using nerve strike).  Nerve strike does no damage so there is no soak and rather, they take direct REA or AGI reduction so the low STR won't be too detrimental.
(STR/2 +2) will insure 4 AGI (or REA) reduction + extra form net hits.  My goal is render an opponent imobile within the 2 iniative passes.
However when it comes to overpowering armor, the lower STR is a major fault which is why I uped the cyber combat style MA and weapon focus.
the spurs are (STR/2 +3) with the MA will insure 6P to soak (without counting net hits).  TBH thats not alot of damage comparably.

After re-re-reading the nerve stike power on pg. 178 of street magic I am totally confused as to how it works. To quote: "instead of inflicting damage, each net hit reduces his opponent's Agility or Reaction (attacker's choice) by 1." My reading of that is that the net hits and only the net hits decrease your opponent's Agility. So you would still do your base damage and then instead of using the net hits to increase the damage you use them to reduce your opponent's Agility. This would imply that any increase in your DV of your unarmed attacks has no impact on your ability to use nerve strike. But as I said before, I am confused by the way the power is written. So it is very likely that I have missed something somewhere. I apologize for not being fully versed in this power.

Going back to your goal of rendering opponent's paralyzed in two turns... Think about grabbing the "finishing move" maneuver found on pg. 159 of Arsenal. This maneuver allows you to take an extra attack now in exchange for skipping your attack on your next action phase. This can greatly decrease the life span of opponents. Something to think about for your last 3 BP.

[Charybdis]

I think that the combination of Spurs and Physad Unarmed powers is an unnecessary overlap...I'd recommend choosing one or the other:

Options:
A) Doc Shiny was only able to implant 'standard' Cyber-hands... no spurs but could have grapple options, hidden compartments or other modifications
- Primary combat component is via Unarmed Physad powers... critical strike, penetration, nerve strike, maybe elemental strike as well, which can all be far more damaging that spurs (and more flexible with Stun/Physical and concealment capabilities)

B) Doc Shiny implanted hands and spurs
- Primary combat component is Spurs (Blades skill) plus injected toxins...
- maybe one day get weapon focus/foci replacements in the spurs.

Whichever path you take, you'll recover 12-20 BP from reducing either Unarmed/Blades skills accordingly, which could be pumped into Attributes, Qualities (Way of the Adept perhaps?)

I do have a few queries on the PC:
- How did a recovering club-singer get access to Ars Cybernetica combat style 'after' the Yakuza? Without any contacts in the area, and with only a Fake SIN, it seems an unlikely ability to just come across...
- You have 4 points of Magic assigned to powers, but an attribute of 5.... still another full 1.0 power point remaining... Maybe: spent on Enhanced Perception, another rank of Improved Reflexes, Improved Combat Skills, Critical strike x4 (Unarmed attack @6P base damage) etc etc
 
 

[gourry187]

I think that the combination of Spurs and Physad Unarmed powers is an unnecessary overlap...I'd recommend choosing one or the other:

Options:
A) Doc Shiny was only able to implant 'standard' Cyber-hands... no spurs but could have grapple options, hidden compartments or other modifications
- Primary combat component is via Unarmed Physad powers... critical strike, penetration, nerve strike, maybe elemental strike as well, which can all be far more damaging that spurs (and more flexible with Stun/Physical and concealment capabilities)

B) Doc Shiny implanted hands and spurs
- Primary combat component is Spurs (Blades skill) plus injected toxins...
- maybe one day get weapon focus/foci replacements in the spurs.

Whichever path you take, you'll recover 12-20 BP from reducing either Unarmed/Blades skills accordingly, which could be pumped into Attributes, Qualities (Way of the Adept perhaps?)

I do have a few queries on the PC:
- How did a recovering club-singer get access to Ars Cybernetica combat style 'after' the Yakuza? Without any contacts in the area, and with only a Fake SIN, it seems an unlikely ability to just come across...
- You have 4 points of Magic assigned to powers, but an attribute of 5.... still another full 1.0 power point remaining... Maybe: spent on Enhanced Perception, another rank of Improved Reflexes, Improved Combat Skills, Critical strike x4 (Unarmed attack @6P base damage) etc etc

In reagard to obtaining the combat technique, I was figuring that the a street doc versed in cybernetics might have connections (being 4) to some kind of underground cyber brawl where she could pick up skills on using her new lower arms.
I am only using 4 points because of the cybrware.  As per SR4A pg 177

"Anything that reduces a character’s Essence will also reduce Magic.  For every point (or fraction thereof ) of Essence lost, the character’s Magic attribute and her Magic maximum rating are reduced by one."

Therefore when the characters essence was lost her magic rating would actually drop to an augmented 4 and her new max Magic would be 5 (unless I'm misreading that).

As far as the Options go, those are thngs to consider.

[/size][/font]

[Glyph]

Yep, the cyberware takes a point off the Magic. 

Hate to say it, since losing the hands is such an integral part of the character, but I don't really see the Agility boost to a lower cyberarm working in combat, or anything but manual dexterity skills such as lockpicking.  I agree with Charybdis that you're spending too much on two overlapping abilities (spurs vs. unarmed).  It would probably be more effective if you focused on the spurs, with non-lethal melee relegated to something your character uses in less dangerous situations.  But by all means keep both if that is how you envision her - it will cost you effectiveness in combat, though, which may or may not really be a factor depending on the challenge level of the campaign's opposition.

With melee skills to block with, and gymnastics that you can use for ranged dodge, you really don't need that dodge skill.  Might want to use those points to pump up bows, your sole ranged skill.

I can't tell from your sheet - remember to allocate some build points to bond those weapon foci, if you haven't already.  Also, purely by RAW, they only add to attacks (not blocking), so you really only need (and can benefit from) one of them.  But check with your GM too, because that is one of those areas where GMs override the RAW with some common sense (why wouldn't they help blocking, too?).

[Charybdis]

In reagard to obtaining the combat technique, I was figuring that the a street doc versed in cybernetics might have connections (being 4) to some kind of underground cyber brawl where she could pick up skills on using her new lower arms.
I am only using 4 points because of the cybrware.  As per SR4A pg 177

"Anything that reduces a character’s Essence will also reduce Magic.  For every point (or fraction thereof ) of Essence lost, the character’s Magic attribute and her Magic maximum rating are reduced by one."

Therefore when the characters essence was lost her magic rating would actually drop to an augmented 4 and her new max Magic would be 5 (unless I'm misreading that).

As far as the Options go, those are thngs to consider.

[/size][/font]

You are entirely correct... I rarely use Cyberware, and forgot to look at those numbers.

Nice work

[gourry187]

Yep, the cyberware takes a point off the Magic. 

Hate to say it, since losing the hands is such an integral part of the character, but I don't really see the Agility boost to a lower cyberarm working in combat, or anything but manual dexterity skills such as lockpicking.  I agree with Charybdis that you're spending too much on two overlapping abilities (spurs vs. unarmed).  It would probably be more effective if you focused on the spurs, with non-lethal melee relegated to something your character uses in less dangerous situations.  But by all means keep both if that is how you envision her - it will cost you effectiveness in combat, though, which may or may not really be a factor depending on the challenge level of the campaign's opposition.

I'm going to have relook at it a bit.  I just realized that with the cyber arms she would no longer do nonlethal while unarmed.  Likewise I'm still looking for better clarification but if taken (literally) as written, the nerve strike would actually still do base damage with only the net hits reducing AGI or REA.

With melee skills to block with, and gymnastics that you can use for ranged dodge, you really don't need that dodge skill.  Might want to use those points to pump up bows, your sole ranged skill.

I can't tell from your sheet - remember to allocate some build points to bond those weapon foci, if you haven't already.  Also, purely by RAW, they only add to attacks (not blocking), so you really only need (and can benefit from) one of them.  But check with your GM too, because that is one of those areas where GMs override the RAW with some common sense (why wouldn't they help blocking, too?).

Re-reading the FAQ it would appear that gymnastics can actually be used to parry with full defense . . . go figure.  As far as bonding . . . and re-reading I indeed did not pay the cost (2BP x Force) to actually bond the foci . . . great catch.
Looks like I need to re-evaluate a few things.

[Cass100199]

I would rework the character to just go pure adept. Go something that combines Typhoid Mary and Maverick (Marvel Comics) and maker her tough as hell and a sword swinging (slightly) psycho.