[Hakeashar]

This is my 2nd attempt at a SR4 character and with help from one of the current players, 500 bp buy, this is what we've come up with.  I'm primarily concerned about my combat abilities, or more to the point, survivability since I have such a basic combat capability.

Speaker Adept
Street Name:  Cat (rewrite of previous character)
90   Race/Magic
75   Female Shapeshifter Tiger [+1 Rch (critter form only), Enhanced Senses: Hearing, Smell, Lowlight vision]
15   Physical Adept [Way of the Speaker]

260   Stats (Bonuses already added in)
10   5 Body (start 4/max 9[13])
10   6 Agility (start 5/max 8[12])
40   6 Reaction (start 2/max 7[10])   
20   5 Strength (start 3/max 8[12])
40   8 Charisma (start 1/max 6[9]) (+3 - Biosculpting)
30   4 Intuition (start 1/max 5[7])
30   4 Logic (start 1/max 5[7])
30   4 Willpower (start 1/max 5[7])
10   2 Edge
40   6 Magic (start 1/max 6) (+1 - Initiate Grade 1)
-0-   5 Essence
-0-   12 Initiative (reaction+intuition+SynBoost 2)
11    Physical Damage Track
10    Stun Damage Track

15   Changeling (Surge III) [30 pts positive; 15 pts negative metagenics]
15   Glamour (RC, p113)
10   Vomeronasal Organ (RC, p116)
 5   Thermographic Vision
-10   Nocturnal
-5   Thrill Seeker

65   Positive Qualities (GM specifically removed the 35 pt restriction here)
25   Arcane Arrester
15   Pheromones (lvl 3) [Metagenetics] (GM allowed crossover from Bioware/Genetech to metagenetics)
10   Photographic Memory
  5   Astral Sight
  5   Linguist
  5   Speed Reading

-65   Negative Qualities (and here)
-30   In Debt (30k)
-10   Criminal SIN
-10   Spirit Bane:  Man
-10   Spirit Bane:  Water
- 5   Incompetent (Hacking)

98   Active Skills
60   Influence group to 6 (Con, Etiquette, Leadership, Negotiation)
6   Unarmed Combat to 1; Martial Arts to 3
8   Dodge to 2
8   Perception to 2
8   Shadowing to 2
8   Disguise to 2

24   Knowledge & Language Skills (24 free bps)
2   Sperethiel (Elvish) to 1 (3)
2   Or’zet (Ork) to 1 (3)
2   ASL to 1 (3)
2   English
4   Acting to 2
4   Dancing to 2
4   Modeling to 2
4   Singing to 2
--   Laotian, Tagalog, and Tao 1 (3) [Linguist + Linguistics used in game]

Adept Powers (5 spent)
1.5   Kinesics (lvl 3)
.75   Commanding Voice (lvl 4) [Speaker’s Way]
.5   Melanin Control
.75   Facial Sculpt (lvl 4) [Speaker’s Way]
.5   Voice Control
.25   Linguistics
.5   Empathic Healing
.25   Improved Scent

12   Contacts
Acting Talent Agent (connection 3/loyalty 3)
Trideo Executive (connection 3/loyalty 3)

25   160k nuyen (spent:  Bioware - Synaptic Booster lvl 2)
---   Biosculpting (lvl 3) (Told not to worry about the nuyen costs associated /shrug)

I realize a number of rules might have had a nose snubbed at them, but that's how the GM wanted to run it, just trying to fit in with the current set of runners (which individually have about ~30-50 karma over me)
Thoughts/recommendations welcome.  I was attempting to make a face that could change so many things about herself it would be extremely difficult to track her.  I know the criminal SIN and the Glamour's distinctive style work against that, but the SIN is applicable to her past and the style could be changed with each different persona.  And eventually I'll work towards getting Erased and Masking/Advanced Masking.

[UmaroVI]

Major issue: Shifters cannot accept sub-deltaware. So no synaptic boosters.

[UmaroVI]

Commanding Voice doesn't have levels.

The reason you are bad at fight is that you are trying to fight in shapeshifted form, but have no adept powers to back that up. It is something you can be OK it if you are willing to devote a hefty chunk of adept powers to it. You need to either free up the PP for that, and also the BP to get a good Unarmed skill, or alternatively swap Unarmed for Automatics and just shoot people.

[Netzgeist]

Also, maximum skill group rating ar chargen is 4 (your Influence is 6).

[Hakeashar]

Okay, thanks Umaro and Netzgeist.


I've reread Commanding voice.  Fixed that, saved .5 power point .. figuring out what to spend it on.
I don't see in the Core book or 20th Anniversary book where it says max group rating is 4.
Would you please give me the book/page on the sub-deltaware rule?

[Alex]

You may only have one Skill at lvl 6, or two at lvl 5 according to the rulebook. A skill group have at-least 3 skills. So by getting a skill group at 6 you are breaking the rule with at-least 2 skills. And I think it actually stands somewhere  that skill groups may not be lvl 4, but I cant for my life remember were.

Also

In practice, this means that shapeshifters can only accept
deltaware implants, and only in their natural animal forms. These
implants do not carry over to their human form, but they don’t
disappear either—they’re simply not available while the character
is in human form.

ofc you and your GM can chose to totally ignore these rules if you want, after all its your game and you should run it the way you like it.

[Netzgeist]

It also say explicitly that you can only have skill groups at rating four during chargen. I'm not with my books right now, but I can post the exact page and section tomorrow.

[All4BigGuns]

Page 84 in SR4A: (emphasis mine)

Skill Groups
Skill groups are groups of related skills collected in a larger category. For example the Firearms skill group includes the Longarms, Pistols and Automatics skills. A skill group allows a character broad proficiency rather than specific expertise, and may appearl to players who wish to portray their characters in broader strokes. To acquire a skill group for your character, you must pay 10 BP per level of expertise you wish to acquire. (Since skills groups contain three or four skills together, this is actually cheaper than purchasing each skill individually.) Starting characters may raise skill groups to a maximum rating of 4. Skill groups may not be broken up into individual skills for further improvement and specializations may not be taken for group skills at character creation--although as always individual gamemasters are free to allow this option.