[SwampFox]

Hey all, put together a Wolf Shaman, and I'd like some input on his build.

500 BP build

Name: Nathan Longstrider
Street Handle: Lobo
Race: Changeling Elf (SURGE III) - 30 BP
Sex: Male
Nationality: Denver area NAN (currently based out of London)
Lifestyle: Low
Karma Spent: 0

Physical Description: Lobo is a tall, rangy thing, just shy of six feet and rather scrawny looking, like a furred scarecrow.  He's covered head to toe in a thin pelt of light gray fur that darkens at the tips, with the hair on his head falling in a shaggy mane that he keeps off his shoulders.  His irises are dark red with amber sclera,though they're usually covered by a pair of shades; and he has a canine tail to complete the appearance.  He usually wears a worn Urban Explorer jumpsuit with a suit of form-fitting armor (both modified for his tail of course) under his clothing.

Background:  Lobo's been running the shadows for years, but has recently come into a string of bad luck.  While in Denver he was hired in succession multiple times by a pair of shaman that had a fierce rivalry.  In the end, Lobo was going to quit his contract with his current employer, when the shaman who had hired him first sprang a devastating trap on his rival, catching Lobo in the crossfire.  Things might have gone alright, had it not been for the mana surge that occurred during the spell-fight.  The spells and spirits the two rivals had been throwing at each other overloaded, and when the dust settled, nearly a hundred people had died (including the two rivals) and Lobo was caught in the agonizing throes of SURGE.  When he managed to make it back to his place, it was to find out that the Tribal Council had placed a bounty on his head, as well as sole blame for the massacre.  Panicking, he fled North America, burning through most of his contacts and savings to do so.  Now he's in London, trying to start from scratch and swearing to himself that the next slot who makes him the butt of a "Werewolves of London" joke is going to eat a Lightning Bolt with his tea and crumpets.

Attributes

Body          Agility          Reaction       Strength
5/6 40BP     4/7 30BP       4/6 30BP      1/6 0BP

Charisma   Intuition       Logic           Willpower
8/8 75BP      4/6  30 BP     2/6 10BP      5/6 40BP

Edge   Magic/Resonance   Essence   Initiative
1           6 50 BP                    6              8, 1 pass

Note: The group I'm playing with has homeruled away the cap on positive and negative qualities, so long as they tend to balance out.

Positive Qualities
Magician - 15 BP
Focused Concentration 2 - 20 BP
Mentor Spirit - 5 BP
Astral Chameleon - 5 BP
Erased 2 - 10 BP

SURGE III - 15 BP
Positive Traits
Arcane Arrestor
Thermographic Vision
Negative
Unusual Hair
Extravagant Eyes
Vestigial Tail

Negative Qualities
Vindictive + 10 BP
Combat Monster +10 BP
Mild Allergy (Silver) +5 BP
Sensitive System + 15 BP
Slow Healer + 10 BP
In Debpt (10K¥) +10 BP

Active Skills
Infiltration 4 - 16 BP
Spellcasting 5 - 20 BP
Counterspelling 4 - 16 BP
Ritual Spellcasting 2 - 8 BP
Binding 3 - 12 BP
Summoning 3 - 12 BP
Pistols 2 (Specialization: Heavy Pistols) - 10 BP
Assensing 3 - 12 BP
Pilot Groundcraft 1 - 4 BP
Data Search 3 - 12 BP
Perception 5 - 20 BP
Arcana 3 - 12 BP
Influence Skillgroup 1 - 10 BP

Knowledge Skills ( [Logic + Intuition] x 3 free points)
Street Knowledge: Thaumaturgical Bookstores - 2
Street Knowledge: Local Gangs - 2
Area Knowledge: London - 3
Area Knowledge: London Shortcuts - 2
Academic Knowledge: Parazooloogy - 3
Languages:
English - Native Language
Sioux - 2
Or'zet -2
Sperethial - 2

Cyber/Bioware
N/A

Spells 24 BP
Stunbolt
Physical Mask
Lightning Bolt
Stunball
Heal
Magic Fingers
Improved Reflexes
Powerbolt

Gear (52150¥)
Combat Spell Fetish - 200¥
Rating 3 Fake SIN - 3000¥
Rating 3 Fake SIN - 3000¥
Rating 3 Fake Gun License - 300¥
Endoscope - 250¥
Rating 6 Autopicker - 1200¥
Glasses - 25¥
- Vision Enhancement 3 - 300¥
- Flare Compensation - 50¥
- Image Link - 25¥
- Smart Link - 500¥
- Vision Magnification - 100¥
Pocketmage Library Rating 3 - 1800¥
Iris Orb Comm model - 1000¥
Erika Elite System - 2500¥
- Data Search Optimization 3 - 300¥
- Data Search 6 Program - 600¥
Yamaha Growler Bike - 5500¥
- Spoof Chip - 500¥
- Morphing License Plate - 1000¥
Force 3 Sustaining Focus - 30,000¥

Armor (2650¥)
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit - 500¥
Form-fitting Body Armor (full-suit) - 1600¥
PPP System (Forearm/Shin Guards, Vitals Protector) - 550¥

Weapons   (410¥)
Ares Predator (w/ smartgun system) - 350¥
3 Clips regular ammo - 60¥

Total Gear cost - 56210¥

Contacts
Contact                                              C/L
Papa Midnight (Fixer/Talismonger         2/1
Davy Jones (Transatlantic Smuggler)    2/1
Watson (Street Doc)                            1/2

Lifestyle
Low (One month Paid)

[Vyth]

i got a couple questions for ya:

did you use a char gen program? (if so what one)

and how'd you get 8 initiative? 0_o think daisybox may have more bugs than I thought it's always initiative 1, passes 4
no matter what

[SwampFox]

I made this up on my own, no char generation program used.  And I got 8 Initiative because I have a Reaction of 4 and an Intuition of 4.

[Vyth]

so as i thought, another glitch in daisybox... ;_;

1 strength is a bit low... but 1 edge from what I hear is definitely not going to work.  I, like you, feel it's a dump stat... i mean
why waste good BP on a use once every blue moon thing, right?   Many others disagree... and for the life of me i cannot
find the pert of the book that covers using edge but, I wasn't too impressed with it.  Was there edge in 2ed?  i don't
remember but i swear there wasn't and it worked fine.

also, autopicker and combat fetish are restricted, you might want a medkit even with heal spell, your sorcery group at rating
4 is only 16bp but conjuring rating 3 is 30bp?

oh, and i forgot... you gots no ammo, chummer.

Hope you don't take it personaly

[SwampFox]

Thanks for the catches.

In regards to the Edge, I can buy that up as I gain Karma.  Regarding the restricted gear, the only thing that matters when buying gear is the level of restriction.  Neither of those are above a 12, so I can access them at character generation (at least that's how my gaming group interprets that rule).  As for the Medkit, I don't generally buy those until later on in the game.

Other than those couple of bits, does he seem viable as a character?

[Vyth]

looks like you got 21 knowledge skill points to use but only used about half, and your contacts are a little sketchy, but
plenty of time to build on the contacts in game I guess.

Seems ok to me. If you do got more knowledge points floating maybe some security procedures or paranormal critters?
would suck to get hosed by a basilisk cuz you didn't know they can see/kill astrally.

Re-reading, says cannot have a availability higher than 12.  Should mean anything 13+, (R) and (F) items are off
limits at start-up without the qualities of course.  Subject to GM's approval as always

[UmaroVI]

No, that means anything above 12. 8R or 8F is fine. "Restricted Gear" is poorly named. Otherwise, shadowrunners couldn't start play with guns.

You appear to have hardcapped 3 attributes (Body, Charisma, and Willpower); you can only hardcap one (did you remember to pay 25 rather than 10 for the last point)?

Agility 4, pistols 2 does not actually make you good enough at shooting to justify spending all those points on Agility. You can kill people with your spells. Infiltration on the other hand is worth it and it seems like you really should have that.

You really want Spellcasting 6, even if you have to break the skill group and buy Counterspelling and Ritual Spellcasting separately.

Banishing is a trap option. Buy Summoning and Binding separately, ditch Banishing.

Buying skills at 3 is very karma-inefficient when you want to raise them, try to get them to 4 if you can.

Reaction and Intuition would both be good to have at 5.

Your commlink's system is too low to run Data Search 6. Get the Optimization program option (unwired) to make it work.

You cannot have fake Licenses higher rating than your fake SIN.

You should check how your group actually runs Arcane Arrester. If you run it RAW where it only limits force-based effects, you should for sure get Increase Reflexes and a Force 3 Sustaining Focus.

You should seriously consider a force 4 Power Focus and Restricted Gear. It's a big upfront power boost, and it's not all that inefficient because it is 4 bp to bond now whereas it would be 32 karma to bond later. If your GM is really, really free with money and you see yourself saving up for a force 6 one later, that might be a good reason not to get one at chargen.

Your armor is off. You should probably be using PPP (minus the helmet), FFBA, Urban Explorer Jumpsuit, and gel packs to get to 15/13 (12/12 for encumbrance). If you go down to 5 body drop the gel packs and the PPP leg and arm casings.

[SwampFox]

Thanks for the advice again.  I took a lot of your suggestions into effect.

In regards to the pistols skill group, when you tack on the specialization and the smartgun system inherent in the Predator, that give me a total of 10 dice to roll for my pistols skill.  Not a lot, but enough to at least make firing the gun worthwhile.

The group I play does follow the rule that you can only use half your total BP to improve attributes, so I couldn't up my Reaction and Intuition any further, though I at least made sure they didn't fall any further.

The reason I didn't up my spellcasting all the way to 6 was because I had my Perception at 5 already, and you can only have a single skill at 6, or two skills at 5 at chargen.  And the reason I didn't learn the full alotment of spells that I could have was so I could bind that Sustaining Focus.

So, any more feedback from anyone?

[eshoup1]

You have a lot of Charisma but not a single social skill.

I am of the opinion that Spellcasting 6 & perception 4 > Spellacasting 5 & perception 5. But that is just personal preference.

This may not be an issue... but right now you have 4 combat spells. That seems like overkill.

Something to think about. You only have 4 dice for defense. Now that I am thinking and reading about it, it appears that you can default on dodge when going full defense and when using melee dodge. So I guess you can get to 7 dice. I have never used ritual spellcasting ot arcana in a game. I understand that these skill have some really good uses, but I have never had the opportunity to use them. I would consider poaching some BPs from those skills to invest in gymnastics or dodge.

[SwampFox]

Hmm, I'll probably end up poaching some BP from Ritual Spellcasting to purchase a rank in the Influence skill group, so he's not completely inept in social situations.

Perception is a very important skill with the group I play with, so I'd rather be able to spot the ambush before it happens and take them down with a slightly weaker stunball, then walk into the ambush and have to take them down individually with powerful stunbolts.

Lobo is primarily built around being a combat mage.  The combat spells he has are all for different purposes.  Stunbolt to take a single enemy alive for questioning, stunball to drop a group, Lightning Bolt to seriously eff up any drones he encounters, and Powerbolt when he needs to destroy something right then.  I also ascribe to the credo that there is no overkill, there is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

As for the defense... there's a reason he bought an endoscope.  Duck behind some cover, nudge the lens around the corner, and blast them from safety.

EDIT: Made the modification to Lobo's sheet.  Anyone else have any advice?

[Vyth]

would it be safe to assume the high charisma means your opting for that as your drain stat?

[SwampFox]

Yeah.  As I said before, he's a Shaman tradition as well as a combat mage, which makes the best use of his Mentor Spirit's advantages.

Anything else?