NEWS

Elf Driver/Mechanic

  • 17 Replies
  • 5528 Views

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« on: <08-21-11/0106:26> »
Hi guys,

I wanted to play a rigger-type character but without the drone related things, so i decided on making an way of the artisan adept who focuses on driving and being a mechanic.
Since it's a character that joins an ongoing campaign it was allowed to be made with 450BP

What are your thougths on this character ?

Body 3
Agility 4
Reaction 5 ( 8 )
Strength 3
Charisma 3
Intuition 3
Logic 5
Willpower 5

Mechanic Skill Group 4
Pilot ground craft 6
Automatics 2
Dodge 2
Arcana 1
Enchnating 1
Navigation 2
Armorer 4
Artisan 1
Gunnery 1

Knowledge skills:
Automechanic 5
Border patrol routes 3
Smuggling routes 4
Local junk yards 4
fantasy sims 2
gang identification 2
gang turfs 4

Sperethie N
English 3
Japanese 2

Qualities:
Severe allergy to clamfish
sensitive system
weak immune system
adept
artisan's way
gearhead (car)
mentor spirit (artisan)

adept posers:
imroved refflexes rank 3
impr ability pilor ground craft rank 3
impr ability automotive mechnic rank 2

Gear
ak-97
armor vest
pimped SUV
pimped bike

contacts
junkyard dealer L1 C2
Fixer L 2 C 5
Ancient gang leader girlfriend L 6 C 5 (+17 points for ancients group.


So what do you think ? I will also be able to apply about 50 to 60 karma to this character, any suggestions where it should/could go ?

Thanks in advance.

« Last Edit: <08-21-11/1921:54> by sisetpasheri »

The Big Peat

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 349
« Reply #1 on: <08-21-11/0411:42> »
You haven't recorded your Magic or Edge scores.

What does your character do with his driving skills. His knowledges would seem to indicate smuggling.  Is he a smuggler? A racer? A rich gearhead? A courier? That would help focus the character, particularly as his skill selection seems all over the place. What's his secondary focus, other than going vroom and tinkering with things?

You don't seem to have spent your discounts from taking Way of the Artisan.

Improved Reflexes is a massive points sink. Its main benefit is the 4 initative passes, not the plus three to reaction. Since you are weak like baby at combat, you are getting zero benefit from it. I'd restrict myself to Improved Reflexes 2 at most and even then, I'd strongly consider bumping up combat skills to benefit from this.

My suggestions:

Redraw him slightly. Concentrate on the idea that this guy does a lot of smuggling. Not only does he drive great, but he can talk his way past border guards (providing they're not too sharp) and he can handle himself when it all goes tits up. I get the feeling this is where you were going anyway.

Put up Agility and Charisma. Reduce Strength and Willpower to pay for this. At the moment, he is getting absolutely nothing from Strength 3, it'll be fine at 2. Willpower 5 is nice, but 3 will do - Charisma 5 will probably do more good (and also make him not the most uncouth and unlovable elf ever). The Agility thing is a strong recommendation, the charisma is a mild one.

Dump Arcana and Enchanting as skills. I'd probably lower Armourer to 1. If I could find points for more active skills I probably would. I'd consider dumping Dodge to 0 - 2 dice probably won't help you that much if you need to go full defensive, and full defensive is rarely a good option if thats all you're getting. I would change automatics to pistols - you can fire them while driving and they're more concealable which is good if you're a smuggler. I'd try to raise whichever firearms skill you use to 4. 4 + higher agility + smartlink = respectable combat ability, which means your initative passes will be of use, instead of a bit jokeshop. I would also try to include at least some of the following skills: Con (for talking past border guards), Palming (for cheating body searches when body smuggling); Etiquette (just 1 point to pick up a speciality later, could be done later), some other Pilot Skills (you've got the reactions, use them! could pick them up later though), First Aid (its always fairly useful, and you've got the logic to use it - could just buy a medikit though).

Drop Improved Reflexes at least a little. If you're not that bothered about combat, there's an advantage somewhere that boosts reaction quite cheaply while not giving IPs (pretty much ever) - worth looking at. If you are bothered about combat, keep them, but you only need rank 2 really. Huh, wait, its a favoured power for Artisan's Way... its still pretty damn expensive though, I'd still go with only rank 2. A power you might like to look at here is Attribute Boost. Yes, its a short term boost, but for when you absolutely need and want Reaction 12 or something silly like that, there's nothing else like it.

Gear - I presume you've missed off the SIN/Licences/Commlink and other standard must have stuff. If not, buy them. In general, its easier to find nuyen then it is to get karma. I'd probably pimp my vehicles less to begin with, but thats your call.

Karma spend! First, lots of specialities are always fun and good with karma. Cheap and very useful. Its also a good idea to bump up any skills you have at 1 to 2 as that is also cheap and useful. Elsewise, the big obvious flashing light route of advancement for your character is raising your Magic score. You probably won't be able to do that straight up unless its the only thing you do, but you can at least initiate and get a metamagic and be a bit of the way there - I'd strongly recommend Masking.

Hope this helps.

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #2 on: <08-21-11/0513:27> »
oh yes sorry about those two
Magic is at 5
edge at 3

The concept was that of a ex-Ancient ganger who still has good ties with the organisation as a whole and a close personal relationship with one of the leaders, who operates a shadowgarage in puyallup.

Tha one discount i have used is only paying 3 points for the impr reflexes.
It seemed to me automatics made more sense for an ex ganger then pistols (maybe machine-pisyols ?)

The arcana and enchnating are there because his main passion is creating things and i wanted to go into creating foci next to operating a garage.

UmaroVI

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2655
« Reply #3 on: <08-21-11/0723:24> »
I'm actually going to disagree on Improved Reflexes - if you are doing meat driving, you do need the passes. Only 1 IP means you cannot, for example, fire weapons while in a vehicle because you have to spend your 1 IP driving. With 4 IPs you can fight/dodge on the first 3 and then drive on the 4th and be fine.

You have a whoooole lot of skills at 1 and 2. Remove all of them, buy a few of them (like Gunnery and Dodge) at 4, and then spend karma to buy the ones you actually want at 1.

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #4 on: <08-21-11/1622:01> »
oh and i just noticed that the willpower is a typo that's only at 3
gearwise i took the basic package from PAKS, a sav guardian (changed to pistols), a pimped rover SUV, a pimped racing bike, (to many mods on both for a full listing  unless you really need it for some reason) and the cheapest commlink and os
plus fake sin rating 4 and fake license rating 4
« Last Edit: <08-21-11/1629:09> by sisetpasheri »

The Big Peat

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 349
« Reply #5 on: <08-21-11/1838:56> »
In reponse to Umaro's point - I concede I hadn't particularly thought through their usefulness in car driving situations, which isn't combat, but the points about the cost of taking IR 3 instead of 2 and the point about making sure you can do something with these passes stand. Even with the discount, its a full power point and over to spend on the extra initative point and point of reaction, which is a considerable whack at character creation. It greatly restricts the available options and can always be taken later.

Also as things stand, this character is fairly useless in his extra IPs. He dodges his car pretty well (I think, I actually needed the rules on this the other day and couldn't find them and had to go with common sense) but shooting wise he is weak sauce. A dice pool of 5 or 6 doesn't accomplish a great deal. If siset is going to go with lots of IPs, then he should make certain he can have some fun with them.

I'll point out now that Improved Attribute Reaction would only cost .75 theoretically (GM pending), as that boosts from 5 to 6 and doesn't exceed the maximum, so he could still get Reaction 8 if he wished.

siset - If you don't mind me asking, why is this guy running? Seems like he'd be far more happy just running a small Shadowrunning supermarket. Mainly just curious - but remember, he's got to have something to do on runs other than drive - and he can't craft mid-run. And you can never get everything you want right at the beginning. If you're happy with what you've got, then all power to your arm. But it seems counter-intituitve to me, and your guy could have some frustrating days as he currently is.

Automatics does make sense then, but a machine pistol which can be fired one handed makes more sense than the assault rifle. Think SMGs can be fired one handed too now I think about it. And for the love of the gods, whatever you do take, take it at higher than 2 unless it ruins the character.

Your adept powers list doesn't add up. As far as I can tell, you've spent 4.25, leaving you .75 you could spend and a discounted power you haven't taken up.

Anyway, I believe that covers my general thoughts on your character. To summarise; focus him a bit more, be more useful in combat, strongly consider some of the marginal-benefit point sinks, and make him more of a ganger.

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #6 on: <08-21-11/1904:57> »
Well indeed it doesn't add up right now, i was saving those:
you can only take one discounted power per two points in magic, so i was saving the .74 till i get magic 6, then buy mulittasking and eidetic sense memory with discount for .75 and for th other point i was thinking either astral vision or mystic armor.

I allready tolok your advice and lowered his strenth, raising his agility and charisma, i also ditched the skills you recommended and the mentor spirit (didn't seem to do much for adepts anyway) and took the skillsyou suggested.

agility is now 4, pistols 4 and lenses with smartlink. the sav guardian was also modded to give 4 points of recoil comp, so with impr refl 3 i can aim and burst each round without penalty (and a bonus for aiming), after wich i would need to change clips.

Shadowstarr

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 31
« Reply #7 on: <08-21-11/1908:06> »
This character is shaping up pretty good, don't really have any suggestions just wanted to say this topic has been very educational.  Was always under the assumption that you weren't a real rigger without the control rig.   

-SS

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #8 on: <08-21-11/1912:42> »
Well I just hit upon the idea with way of the adept and wanting to play a good driver that doens't play around with drones and i think is somewhat "immune" to hacking since he's doing it all manually .

Also with an adept i have some liberty to tune my powers any directions i might want him to go later, like gunslinger, martial artist or even just plain artist :)

UmaroVI

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2655
« Reply #9 on: <08-21-11/1952:52> »

I'll point out now that Improved Attribute Reaction would only cost .75 theoretically (GM pending), as that boosts from 5 to 6 and doesn't exceed the maximum, so he could still get Reaction 8 if he wished.


That actually doesn't work - Imp. Attribute Reaction and Improved Reflexes do not stack.

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #10 on: <08-22-11/0330:12> »
So i reworked the character a bit and this is what I have now :
Body 3
Agility 5
Reaction 5 ( ! )
Strength 2
Charisma 4
Intuition 3
Logic 5
Willpower 3

Edge 3
Magic 5

Mechanic skill group 4
Pilot ground craft 6
Pistols 4
Con 1
Palming 1
Etiquette 1 (Street 3)
Navigation 2
Armorer 1
Artisan 1
Gunnery 1

Where would I be putting the 50-60 karma I'm still gonna get ?

The Big Peat

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 349
« Reply #11 on: <08-22-11/0358:31> »
Keep the speciality for the karma spend. So much cheaper.

The Karma spend... well, depends where you want to take him. Personally, I would be boosting skills, specialities and magic if I could here.

@ Umaro: So it doesn't. I just treat the RAW as being so stupid there I mentally rewrote it totally.

UmaroVI

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2655
« Reply #12 on: <08-22-11/0627:14> »
Remove all the 1-2 rating skills, then spend your karma to buy them. Spend the BP you saved on either another stat point (probably Intuition?), more Edge, or buying 1-2 of those skills at 4 right out of that gate (like Gunnery).

Spend the rest of the karma on specializing all those skills.

If you have more karma after that, drop the Strength to 1, increase Intuition by a point, and then spend 10 karma to buy the Strength back up.

Does your GM allow the PP for metamagic option?

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #13 on: <08-22-11/0639:24> »

Does your GM allow the PP for metamagic option?

What's that ?

sisetpasheri

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 8
« Reply #14 on: <08-22-11/0746:45> »
my current skill pool for driving a car is 6 skill + 8 reaction + 3 from adept power = 17

How does this compare to other riggers ?
« Last Edit: <08-22-11/0803:49> by sisetpasheri »