[UmaroVI]

I think Cypher also didn't start with Electronic Warfare and instead bought 1 point with 4 karma. You really do want the 1 point in order to be able to use all those complex forms.

[Onion Man]

I think Cypher also didn't start with Electronic Warfare and instead bought 1 point with 4 karma. You really do want the 1 point in order to be able to use all those complex forms.

Good catch, I forgot that one in my tiers.

[Anela]

Okay here we go.  First off, thank you so much everyone for your help.  Squee I really liked  few things you had to say.   So here is my new build I really like how it is looking, i just want to make sure it looks workable and im not missing anything as I said just call me a big ol newb.  lol.  You boys have been great ( or girls) sorry its hard ot think of many other woman like me who would play.  Mostly because not many women in my circle ever would.

B 3
A 3
R 2
S 2
C 4
I 3
L 4
W 4
E 3
Res 6


Skills

Hardware 2 this is partly to support my story, my gm will call me on it
Cybertech 2
Negotiation 3
Etiquette 3
Electronic Warfare 2
Compiling 4
Registering 4
Gunnery 5
Hacking 5
Software 2

Qualities

First impression
Toughness
Distinctive Style lev 1
Day job med
Flashbacks uncommon
Paragon
lost loved one(brother)
poor self control light im cheating with this one
Big Regret

Weapons
HK PSG Enforcer
?


Gear
( I have alot)

2 medium sized drones ( cant remember the name atm it has legs haha)




Hopefully I didnt miss anything. 

I am really excited to play this as a character that spends more time focused on hacking but has the ability to snipe with the drone.  I am super excited.

I really really appreciate all the help.

Anela

[Anela]

Oh and I think technoshaman is a pretty good way to go.

[Onion Man]

Better add technomancer to your qualities list.

Which Poor Self COntrol?  Some are worse than others.

Which Paragon and for what bnus?

[UmaroVI]

I'll understand if you don't want any 1 stats, but you're not getting value out of that 3 agility; I'd drop it to a 2.

Being an elf technoshaman with a 4 charisma is like having peanut butter, jelly, and bread, and throwing away the bread. You should really have a 7 charisma.

I would drop the logic and willpower to 3. Logic 3 is what you need to keep your signal range "good enough." Willpower is good for extra stun boxes so you want an odd score.

Why do you have Cybertech? Is it an RP thing? Can you go down to 1 rank?

Unless you can scare up a few more points, I would drop Negotiation and Etiquette and just buy Influence 1. With a 7 charisma that gives you an alright 8 dice at this.

You really only need Electronic Warfare 1.

Software is what you use to thread and IMO it is worth Software 4. You do need Computer 1 at least or some CFs are unavailable to you, like Edit. If you want Hardware 2 for RP reasons, Software 4, Computer 1, Hardware 2 is reasonable and so is Electronics 4, depending on how hard up you are for BPs.

Toughness is straight up a very bad quality. If you want to be tougher, buy more Body. The reason is pretty simple: +1 body = 10 points. Toughness = 10 points. So you can get +1 body for all purposes (including wearing more armor) for the same price as getting +1 body for only some purposes.

If you want to cheese up some Negative Qualities, Sensitive System.

Skillswise, a point about the Hacking and Gunnery. If you eventually want them both at 6, or one 5 and one 6, you should start at 6/4 rather than 5/5 because of how the karma costs for raising them works. If you plan to never raise either skill, ever, 5/5 is a reasonable choice.

The Lone Star Strato-9 from This Old Drone is a really nice drone and I'd suggest having 1 ground drone and that rather than 2 ground drones.

[squee_nabob]

The single biggest problem right now is your mental stats. I won’t focus on ways you can save points to make the changes I’m suggesting (see my posts, or umaroVI’s).

You  need to figure out what stream you are going with and what mental stat will be your fade resist (this is stream dependent). You said Technoshaman was acceptable, which means you need charisma. Because fade resist is the cap on how good you can be, you should softcap your fade resist at least. Get Charisma 7.

Willpower is Firewall, because only other TMs and sprites can hack you (and you can stomp them with your registered sprites if they do), you don’t need a super high firewall.

Response is based on intuition, so as a hacker you don’t need intuition, and as a rigger you want high intuition. Compromising on a middle intuition is not half as good. Going first is very good, going last is sad (but not terrible because it lets enemies realize you are no threat and focus on more dangerous people), and you can spend your high edge to go first when you want to.

Signal is half your resonance rounded up.

System is determined by logic. Since system does not impact complex forms, and you can run all your CFs at once without problems, logic basically means “half the number of CFs I can start with”. There are 6ish good CFs so logic 3 is fine.

For skills:
2 hardware is fine. With a 3-4 logic you won’t be stellar at dealing with maglocks (the primary hardware task in my experience), and going to 4 hardware isn’t going to make you better than a specialist (or someone with neocortical nanites).

Software is very important since you use it for threading. I’d get that at 4. Data Search is something matrix characters are expected to do, so I’d get that at 4. With 3 skills at 4, consider Electronics 4. Computer isn’t bad either for when you need to make computer + edit tests (You can compensate for low computer with 12 edit and the low threshold for most edit tests).

I like Poor Self Control: Hack Secure Nodes 15pts. It is a 15 point refund for trying to do your primary job (of hacking most likely).

I don’t see your complex forms on the new sheet, and you still haven’t answered “why am I a TM? Why do I want program ratings higher than 6?” That’s the big question, because if you don’t want them higher than 6, play a mundane hacker. The ideal answer should be some combination of “I will remote control rig / I want stealth 12 and Exploit 12 for serious hacking”.

[UmaroVI]

Oops, ignore what I said about why you want logic 3 and listen to Squee about why you want logic 3.

There's also nothing wrong with deciding you want to be a technomancer, and then aiming to do the things technos are good at.

[squee_nabob]

I agree, and you can see my "Hackers vs. TMs" post about why to play a technomancer, but generally you are in it for the high complex forms. You could be in it for the sprites, but I view those more as a benefit (in the same way that you don't want to build a useless mage who can summon a really good spirit, you want to be a useful TM with useful sprites). 

[Anela]

Well after looking over all of this I started from scratch and came up with a really good feel for what I was working with.  I really like my new build however, I am going to have to put him on the back burner.  With the small group I have I do not think a TM will work well with the team.  Sigh.

Oh well I will get to play him one day.  I really appreciate all the help and do think from everything you have said and helped me with especially after reading through the books I really get a good feel for them.

Thankyou very much

[Artighur]

I keep reading that as a TM Rigger you need high Intuition but I really can't figure it out. Sure it helps if you are a Dronomancer but unless I'm reading correctly most Rigging action when jumped-in are based on the Drone's Response and not yours.

Am I missing something ?

[UmaroVI]

Yep: what you're missing is that you don't want to jump in, you want to VR Remote Control. The reasons why are:

1) Would you rather be rolling Response+Skill, where the response is the drone's response? This will be at best 4. You can pay to upgrade it as high as 6, but that's expensive and has to be done for EVERY drone. Or you can roll Command+Skill and it's easy to get yourself Command 12 as a technomancer.

2) Do you like taking real damage when your drones are hurt? Technomancers always hotsim so they can't avoid this.

3) The "complex actions for everything" is, surprisingly, not a huge deal. You can easily make sure your drones are always mounted with FA weapons and just use long bursts.

Of these, #1 is the biggest reason. The bonuses you get for jumping in look insignificant next to the huge dicepool boost you get for replacing Response with Command. The other big thing is that as a remote control rigger, you can easily do just fine with fairly crappy off-the-shelf drones that have a good weapon mounted, whereas as a jumped-in rigger you have to be upgrading the Response and Sensor and all that jazz on all your drones, which is very expensive.

[nojosecool]

I just want to chime in here and confirm that Onion Man is, indeed, not humble.

[squee_nabob]

To comment on UmaroVI’s posts:

1) Military drones (from WAR!) have 5 response, and can go to 7 but this is still worse than 12.

2) You want Full Bursts, not long ones. Long bursts are simple actions from FA weapons, Full Bursts are complex actions. Also you want high velocity because drones do not suffer recoil.

He is correct that remote control is for win and jumping in is for fail.

[Artighur]

What about your IPs ? Would you not drop to your meat IP since you are not jumped-in ?