[Jordan]

Hello all,

First time on the forums and relative newcomer to Shadowrun - two or so starter missions into the game and looking for some critiques on my character. He's the team's B&E/stealth guy but is also pulling double duty as a fighter. Looking for any thoughts or criticisms you might have. Cheers.
Stats in the box 

Personal Data
Alias:          Freddie Quicksilver | Scott Pinkerton
Name:         B-3
Total Karma:       25
Current Karma:   7
Street Cred:      2
Notoriety:         1
Public Awareness:   1
Current Edge:      2/2

Various Statistics
Walking Rate:       10m
Running Rate:      25m
Swimming Rate:   5m
Lift w/out test:      60kg
Overhead Lift w/out test:   30kg
Weight:         81kg
Height:         1.87M
Sex:            Male
Age:            23
Metatype:         Human
Physical Damage:   11
Stun Damage:      9

Attributes:    200 BP
Agility:      6(9) [18 Karma to up from 5 to 6]
Body:      4(5)
Reaction:      5(7)
Strength:      3(6)
-----------------------
Charisma:   2
Intuition:      5
Logic:      2(4)
WIllpower:   2
-----------------------
Edge:      2
Essence:      3.5
Magic:      NA
Resonance:   NA
-----------------------
Initiative:      10(12)
Init. Passes:   2
-----------------------
Composure:   4
Judge Intent:   7
Lift/Carry:      11
Memory:      6

Qualities:   -15 BP
Positive:    15 BP
Restricted Gear
Born Rich
Negative:    -30 BP
Allergy       (Uncommon/Mild - Chocolate)
Compulsive   (Mild - Chainsmoker)
Big Regret
Scorched
Vindicative

Skills:      146 BP
Athletics Group:   2 (+1dpm: Synthacardium)
Stealth Group:      4
Electronics Group:   2
Automatics:      4 (+2dpm: Smartgun)
Blades:         4 (+2dpm: Reach)
Perception:      3 (+3dpm: Audio/Visual Enahncers)
Dodge:         3
Driving:         1(3) (Specialty: Motorcycles)
First Aid:         1 (+1dpm: Medkit)

Contacts      9BP
         L|C
Fixer:      2|3
Fence:       1|2
Streetdoc:   1|3

Gear      57 BP (285,000 Nuyen)
Weapons -                5325 Nuyen
Combat Axe
   w/Chameleon Coating
Forearm Snap Blade
FN HAR
   w/Chameleon Coating
   w/Concealable Holster
   w/Smartgun Internal
   w/Sound Suppressor
   w/Shockpad
   w/Skinlink

Ammo - (Clip cost included)      2205 Nuyen
Stick-N-Shock       (2 Clips)   
Ex-Explosive       (1 Clip)
Regular         (10 Clips)
Tracker (Security)   (1 Clip)

Armor                  11900 Nuyen
Base:
Form Fitting Armor
   w/Vitals Protector
   w/Nonconductivity Lvl. 6
Option 1:
Urban Explorer
   w/Helmet
   w/Ruthenium Polymer Coating
Option 2:
Armor Vest
   w/Helmet
Accessories:
Smartpouches (6x)

Bioware & Cyberware         185000 Nuyen
Supathyroid Gland
Muscle Augmentation Lvl. 2
Muscle Toner Lvl. 2
Cerebral Booster Lvl. 2
Synaptic Booster Lvl. 1
Synthacardium Lvl. 1

Vision Enhancement            1175 Nuyen
Contacts
   w/Image Link
   w/Smart Link
Goggles
   w/Lowlight
   w/Vision Enhancement Lvl. 3
   w/Vision Magnification
   w/Flare Compensation

Audio Enhancement          910 Nuyen
   w/Audio Enhancement Lvl. 3
   w/Select Sound Filter Lvl. 3

Medical Gear               26940 Nuyen
Medkit Lvl. 6
   w/Medkit Supplies   (6x)
Antidote Patch Lvl. 3    (2x)
Trauma Patch
Tranq. Patch Lvl. 6      (2x)
DocWagon Gold

B&E Gear               12995 Nuyen
Autopicker Lvl. 6
Cellular Glove Molder Lvl. 3
Keycard Copier Lvl. 4
Sequencer Lvl. 4
Glue Sprayer
Chisel
Wire Clippers
Miniwelder
Glass-cutter
Scentless Cigarettes (9x)
Laes Cigarettes (2x)

Survival Gear               1500 Nuyen
Chemsuit Lvl. 2
Climbing Gear
Gecko Tape Glvoes
Grapple Gun
   w/Standard Rope (200m)
Survival Kit
Respirator Lvl. 6

Commlink                  6600 Nuyen
Transys Avalon w/Iris Orb
   w/Common Use Lvl. 3
   w/Datasofts Lvl. 6 (5x)
   w/Mapsofts Lvl. 6 (5x)

Electronics               1712 Nuyen
Tag Eraser
Emotitoy
White Noise Generator Lvl. 5
Datachips (12x)
Handheld Radio Signal Scanner (Lvl. 6)
AR Gloves
Biometric Reader
Skinlink
Subvocal Microphone

Vehicle                  7500 Nuyen
Hyundai Elvenstar
   w/Spoof Chip
   w/Morphing License Plate

Lifestyles & Licenses         21238 Nuyen
Low [3 months]
Fake Sin Lvl. 4
Fake Sin Lvl. 3
Fake Licenses Lvl. 3 (15x
Gear Enhancement
(One quick thing about the Chameleon Modifications on my weapons and the skinlink on my gun. At character creation, the GM allowed me to buy the modification at 125% normal cost and then pay 25% of the tool (Kit, Shop, or Facility) necessary to attach the mod. I don't get to keep the tools this way, but I also don't have to make the tests and move around my skill points. Story wise, GM is saying I know a mechanic who will install them for me.)

[UmaroVI]

You have a skill redundancy - Blades can be used for passive melee defense, and Gymnastics for active defense, so you don't really need Dodge.

I'm surprised you haven't run into trouble with maglocks - 6 dice is not enough to reliably get past a half-decent maglock. Also, 2 willpower is asking for mages and spirits to own you. A 3rd point would cost you 9 karma (since you seem to be using the old costs) and get you an extra Stun box too.

A lot of your skills have no specialty - that would be a good use of karma.

Combat Axes are much less good weapons than Vibro Blade Swords. Either way, get the Personalized Grip mod.

You should also probably look into better guns, for which I will point you to the automatics users in my sig (Ronin in particular).

I would also take a look at the Spook in my signature, if you haven't already, for a similar character to compare to.

[Ronin]

I agree with UmaroVI, particularly that Willpower 2 is like holding a sign saying "hey mages, geek me" and a smart GM will exploit this time and again.

Also the Restricted Gear qualiity is generally seen as a waste of BP.  You'll soon be able to obtain such equipment in the shadows, ask your GM and they may even give you the gear as a reward for a run instead of nuyen or as a bonus for doing an exceptional job.  I believe in Shadowrun skills and attributes are often more powerful than gear, this isn't Traveller.

[All4BigGuns]

You have a skill redundancy - Blades can be used for passive melee defense, and Gymnastics for active defense, so you don't really need Dodge.

I'm surprised you haven't run into trouble with maglocks - 6 dice is not enough to reliably get past a half-decent maglock. Also, 2 willpower is asking for mages and spirits to own you. A 3rd point would cost you 9 karma (since you seem to be using the old costs) and get you an extra Stun box too.

A lot of your skills have no specialty - that would be a good use of karma.

Combat Axes are much less good weapons than Vibro Blade Swords. Either way, get the Personalized Grip mod.

You should also probably look into better guns, for which I will point you to the automatics users in my sig (Ronin in particular).

I would also take a look at the Spook in my signature, if you haven't already, for a similar character to compare to.

With his Electronics skill group, I think you're forgetting that a maglock passkey/sequencer adds its rating to the dice pool. All he needs to do is find the money somewhere to get rating 4 of either or both (or pick them up later in game) and BAM! 10 dice, which will reliably get past a lock in a couple turns.

I agree with UmaroVI, particularly that Willpower 2 is like holding a sign saying "hey mages, geek me" and a smart GM will exploit this time and again.

Also the Restricted Gear qualiity is generally seen as a waste of BP.  You'll soon be able to obtain such equipment in the shadows, ask your GM and they may even give you the gear as a reward for a run instead of nuyen or as a bonus for doing an exceptional job.  I believe in Shadowrun skills and attributes are often more powerful than gear, this isn't Traveller.

Who calls Restricted Gear a waste of points?! In my opinion, whoever says that doesn't know what in blazes they are talking about. I think it's one of the best qualities in the entire game.

[UmaroVI]

Restricted Gear's value depends on what you're buying with it. Using RG to get MBW 2, rather than Wired Reflexes 2, might be sensible - you are paying a 5 bp surcharge, but you're not buying a 32000Y = 6.4 bp item that you eventually chuck, either. But using Restricted Gear to buy a gun that costs a few thousand nuyen or something is a bad move, yeah.

Maglock passkeys and sequencers do not work like that. Maglock Sequencers are useless if you can't open maglocks yourself because you have to open the maglock to use the sequencer. Maglock passkeys can bypass Cardreader maglocks (but are useless against Keypad maglocks) and are totally independent of your own skills.

I'd be concerned about being a B&E guy who has terrible odds of getting past a low-end maglock (say Rating 2 Maglock with Rating 4 Anti-Tamper system and Keypad - 650Y, Availability -) without setting off an alarm.

[CitizenJoe]

I don't know if it changed in 4ed, but the combat axe is 2 meters long and thus falls into the category of pole arms.  Edged weapons only go to 1 meter length.

[Jordan]

Thanks for the responses all! I hadn't actually run into a maglock issue yet - the one we came across we already had the key to - but it's a good suggestion. Would you say drop the electronics skill group and get 5 for Hardware? Then drop dodge, put 1 more point into Automatics, Blades, and Perception Respectively?
For the Will, I'm planning on using the Karma from a mission were almost done with to up that to 3.

Oops - That puts 3 skills at 5. So Hardware 5 and then use the dodge points for 1 point into perception, first aid, automatics.

[UmaroVI]

Yes, that's a good idea, although it is better for karma-efficiency reasons to have put one skill at 4 and two skills at 1 rather than have all three skills at 2 so keep that in mind.

[Crash_00]

Umaro has already pointed you in the right direction, the only thing I have to add is raise your edge. It might seem like a dump stat at first, but when you play with a high edge you'll realize just how important it is. Your edge affect both how many times you can use edge and how many dice you get when you use edge. So a five edge player can add five dice to a roll on five separate occasions. Right now you're only able to use edge twice, and only get two dice each time. You're about as unlucky as possible.

Only other thing I'd really comment on:

(One quick thing about the Chameleon Modifications on my weapons and the skinlink on my gun. At character creation, the GM allowed me to buy the modification at 125% normal cost and then pay 25% of the tool (Kit, Shop, or Facility) necessary to attach the mod. I don't get to keep the tools this way, but I also don't have to make the tests and move around my skill points. Story wise, GM is saying I know a mechanic who will install them for me.)

Unless your GM is using house rules, you can buy weapon and armor mods at character creation normally. You don't have to make the tests to install them at creation or pay fees to have them installed (just like you don't have to pay surgery fees for your cyberware implants or instruction costs for your skills to be at their starting levels).

Who calls Restricted Gear a waste of points?! In my opinion, whoever says that doesn't know what in blazes they are talking about. I think it's one of the best qualities in the entire game.

90% of the time it is just a waste of points. Most of the time the character can put those points into contacts (to get more gear for you later) or advantages that they can't get after creation, and be ahead in the end. The only time restricted gear is not a waste is if it is used for an item that will never get replaced. Most of the cheaper ware (anything under the 60k mark) will eventually get ripped out and replaced with something of a higher grade (either naturally better for the essence (ie Synaptic Booster instead of Wired Relfexes) or a better ware grade (alpha instead of standard)). Yet cheap ware is what it gets spent on 90% of the time (the biggest offenders are Muscle Toner and Muscle Aug at 4 which are 14k and 16k worth of restricted gear that will undoubtedly get upgraded in the near future). A good suit of MilSpec armor isn't a bad choice for RG since its not likely to get replaced by anything, but its still not the best use of the points because its only about 60k for a fully triple decked out suit of Heavy MilSpec armor. Attributes, Skills, and Advantages that can't disappear/become outdated are far more advantageous uses of resources at character creation. The best way I can say to look at it, is like a bill. 5 BP is worth 25k. Find out what percentage of your purchase that is and think, do I really need to pay that much interest on it to get it at the start. 9 times out of 10 the answer is no when people actually stop to think about it. The average run usually yields around 5-7k for beginners. Three runs in you can usually afford to start slapping in upgrades to Muscle Aug and/or Toner. Ten runs in should leave enough to afford a serious piece of ware or some alpha upgrades.

[Mäx]

RG is especially good for thinks like muscle toner 4, as thats what you want to have anyway, 32k is gonna take a while to get together ingame and then on top of that your pretty much flushing down the toilet the 16k you spend on getting a rating 2 toner at chargen.

[Captain Karzak]

Under attributes, you say that you spent 18 karma to raise agility from 5 to 6. This is wrong. It costs 30 karma.
The karma cost is 5x the new rating of the attribute. Old core rule books erroneously list a x3 instead of x5, but this was changed by errata. The new core rulebook (20th anniversary edition) already has this errata incorporated.

As for restricted gear, I agree with what UmaroVI said.

Under skills, you list a +1 dpm for first aid. Shouldn't that be a +6 b/c your medkit is rating 6?

If your character is pulling double-duty as a street sam, you might want 3 IP's instead of just 2. IMO, for most characters Synaptic Boosters are not a sensible buy at chargen. They are a fantastic goal to work towards, but you are almost certainly going to want a third IP, and that would require you to flush the 80K you spend on Synaptic Boosters I down the drain.

You could buy some second-hand bioware. This would save you an appreciable amount of money - however Cultured Bioware can never be second hand.

[Crash_00]

RG is especially good for thinks like muscle toner 4, as thats what you want to have anyway, 32k is gonna take a while to get together ingame and then on top of that your pretty much flushing down the toilet the 16k you spend on getting a rating 2 toner at chargen.

Assuming you play where you can't upgrade implants, and must replace them for any improvement, which is not at all what I get from the rules (which are admittedly murky since they use the term upgrade to refer to both improving rating and improving grade, the later of which does involve stripping out the old ware), you're still paying much more in the end.

32k + 5 BP (25k) = 57k
16k + 32k = 48k

In addition, most street sams are going to be better off looking at it in this angle:
16k + 64k  = 80k
So that they can get the rating 4 in Alphaware.

[UmaroVI]

There's no indication in the rules I am aware of that you can "upgrade" 'ware by paying the difference in cost. Can you quote any rules pointing to this?

Certainly if you play with being able to upgrade, Restricted Gear is a very bad quality for anything but ye olde Force 4 Power Focus.

[Crash_00]

Aug, pg.12
If you want legal ’ware, bodyshop chains are your best option
for speedy and efficient implantation, especially if you’re looking
for a minor enhancement or an upgrade to existing implants.

Aug, pg.128
Essence holes are important when replacing or upgrading
implants. If a character replaces an implant with one of a higher
grade, the new implant may well have a lower Essence Cost than
the old one and the character will develop an Essence hole that
she can fill with further augmentations. Likewise, upgrading an
implant often increases its Essence Cost

As I said before, things are worded horribly (as normal for Augmentation), but there is at least as much support for being able to upgrade implants rather than flat out replacing them. The key area of haziness is actually the way they use the word upgrade. Half the time it seems to indicate an increase in rating, while the other half the time it seems to indicate an increase in grade (similar to how Augmentation uses Normal as both a grade, which its not, and a classification of bioware). Those who don't think ware should be upgradeable most often point to these sources:
Aug, pg. 128
Most augmentations, whether bioware, cyberware, genetech,
or nanocybernetics, have an associated Essence Cost. When
a character has an implant removed to be replaced or upgraded,

Aug, pg.32
While most second-hand cyberware surfaces when former users
upgrade implants and sell off their old ’ware,

I take the later to refer to upgrade as in putting in a higher grade of ware (ie replacing your normal Muscle Toner with Alphaware Muscle Toner). For the former, a careful reading will show that it never actually says that old ware is removed and tossed out then completely replaced with new ware (that is considered an upgrade). It states that the implant is removed to be upgraded. All it shows is that when upgrading where it has to be removed, then upgraded, then slapped back in (meaning that you have to go through both removal surgery and implantation surgery still for the upgrade).

Keep in mind as well that they don't refer to getting an upgrade (meaning an upgrade for the character) but instead refer to upgrading the implant itself (making the implant better). As I pointed out before, even without being able to upgrade ware, RG still isn't a good deal. You end up paying a high premium on the item just to have it now and, more importantly, using up 1/7th of your available Postive Quality points on a piece of gear that will, most likely, get replaced within a couple dozen runs.

[UmaroVI]

Well, it depends on what it is. Using Restricted Gear to get something at the level you eventually want it, rather than starting with a a version you have to toss, makes sense if the thing you have to toss costs 25000Y or more.