[aridun64]

Below is an augmented adept build that I am working on an looking to improve and tweak so any help would be most appreciated.  If i were to tweak it any more I would more than likely try to be an ork instead of human (that way it frees up some build points



Name: N/A
Alias: N/A
Archetype: Adept Assassin
Metatype: Human
Sex: M
Age: 27
Nationality: N/A
Lifestyle: Low
Karma Spent: 0

Build: 400 BP


Attributes
Body: 4
Agility: 5 (7)
Reaction: 3 (5)
Strength: 4 (7)
Charisma: 2
Intuition: 4
Logic: 1
Willpower: 4

Edge: 4
Magic: 5 (4)

Essence: 5

Initiative: 7 (9)
Passes: 1 (3)

Armor: 10/9 (11/11 With Helmet)
Physical Condition: 10
Stun Condition: 10

Qualities
Adept
Invisible Way (Improved Ability [Physical], Improved Senses)
Martial Arts (Arnis De Mano, +1 DV on Blades attacks)
Martial Arts (Sangre y Acero, +1 DV on Blades attacks)
Restricted Gear (One Piece, Muscle Augmentation 3)
Poor Self Control (Combat Monster)
Addiction (Moderate, Betameth)
Spirit Bane (Spirits of Man)
Spammed


Active Skills
Athletics Skill group 3 (4)
Blades (Knives): 6 (7) (+2)
Pistols (Semi-Automatics): 1 (+2)
Con (Fast Talk): 1 (+2)
Intimidation (Physical): 1 (+2)
Stealth Skill group 4
Infiltration: 4 (6)
Shadowing: 4
Palming: 4
Disguise: 4
Perception: 2 (3)
Dodge (Ranged): 1 (+2)
Pilot Ground Craft : 1
Throwing Weapons (Knives) 3 (+2)

Knowledge Skills
English N
History (American): 2 (+2)
Literature (Science Fiction): 2 (+2)
Magic Theory: 3
Security Procedures: 3
(Local Area) Gangs: 3

Adept Powers
Improved Reflexes Level 2
Improved Ability (Blades) 1
Improved Ability (Infiltration) 2
Improved Ability (Climbing) 1
Improved Ability (Gymnastics) 1
Enhanced Perception 1

Augmentations
Muscle Augmentation (Rating 3)
Muscle Toner (Rating 2)

Maneuvers
Off-Hand Training (Blades)
Two-Weapon Style
Iajutsu
Disarm

Gear [15 BP|75,000 Nuyen]
Throwing Knives x 20
Two Ceramic Knives (Reach 0, DV7P, AP -1 w/ personalized grips)
Two Cougar Fineblade Long Knives (Reach 0, DV 8P, AP -1 w/ personalized grips)
Two Vibro-Blade Knives (Reacho 0, DV 8P, AP -2 w/ personalized grips)
Savalette Guardian (DV 5P AP -1 SA/BF RC 2 12( c ) w/ int. smartgun, personalized grip, silencer, quick-draw holster and 5 clips regular ammo and 5 clips EX-Explosive ammo)
Bike Racing Armor (4/7) w/ Ruthenium Polymer Coating
Bike Racing Helmet (+1/+2)
FFBA Full Suit (6/2) w/ Non-Conductivity Rating 6
Sony Emperor W/ Renraku Ichi OS and Subvocal Microphone [1350]
Contacts (Rating 3 w/ Image Link, Low Light Vision, and Smartlink)
Goggles (Rating 4 w/ Image Link, Low Light Vision, Smartlink, And Vision Enhancement [Rating 3])
Earbuds (Rating 3 w/ Audio Enhancement [Rating 3])
Autopicker (Rating 6)
Miniwelder
Gas Mask
Respirator (Rating 6)
Medkit (Rating 6)
Survival Kit
Gecko Tape Gloves
Rappelling Gloves
Grapple Gun
Microwire (200m)
Stealth Rope (200m)
Catalyst Stick
Fake SIN (Rating 4, "Jonathan Fist")
Suzuki Mirage
Low Lifestyle (1 Month)
Betameth (10 Doses)

Contacts
Terence Strong (3/3) - Brotherhood of the Iron Crescent (10,000 Daggers) Handler Turned Fixer

[UmaroVI]

Definitely one of the better characters I've seen. A few points:

I'm not really sold on the value of that Restricted Gear. It's only 24000Y for that Muscle Augmentation 3; you're paying basically triple-price there. If you're going to get Restricted Gear on this guy it should be for something like Rating 4 Alphaware Muscle Toner.

You should be able to hit 11/9 armor (I assume no softweave is on purpose). Slap on a Tactical Neck Insulator, by which I mean a Moonsilver line scarf, for the extra point of ballistic armor.

As you noted, ork would save a significant amount of BP for you.

Dodge is redundant; Blades is passive defense and Gymnastics is active defense.

You should be using either Pistols, or Throwing, not both. Probably Pistols, but if you really want Throwing for thematic reasons, focus on that. If you are going to have throwing, use good throwing weapons like Nets.

You are really not getting your money's worth out of invisible way. First, each Improved Ability is a separate thing, so you can't apply the discount to all of them. Second, even if you did, that would be like .25 PP saved. Warrior's Way would help you way more.

I am coincidentally not a big fan of all those Improved Abilities. Improved Physical Attribute would help you more. So would having a higher level of Improved Reflexes.

[Ted Fast]

I am a noob-stick when it comes to Shadowrun but I have to ask you something.

Why do you have both a pair of Fineblades and Vibro-Blades? Are you afraid to run out of batteres for the Vibro-blades?

Also It seems to me that favoring pistols over throwing knifes would be handy because you can't add Ceramic/Plasteel Components or Chameleon Coating to throwing knifes.

[Tsuzua]

Also It seems to me that favoring pistols over throwing knifes would be handy because you can't add Ceramic/Plasteel Components or Chameleon Coating to throwing knifes.

While that's true for ceramic, you can chameleon coat your knives.  It seems pretty expensive though.

[The Big Peat]

Not that the OP appears to have taken either. Personally, if going with Pistols, I would make sure I had some good stealthy choices in there - some of the non-metal holdouts, or the Ares Light Fire, seem obvious choices.

I agree with Umaro that taking Restricted Gear for Muscle Augmentation 3 seems not worth it. You can always drop Willpower or Body by 1, boost Strength to 5, and have the same starting strength, the ability to reach Strength 9 without paying through the butthole, more points to play with and not really lose a lot.

[Ted Fast]

Also It seems to me that favoring pistols over throwing knifes would be handy because you can't add Ceramic/Plasteel Components or Chameleon Coating to throwing knifes.

While that's true for ceramic, you can chameleon coat your knives.  It seems pretty expensive though.

Aww I done glitched  but I mentioned it because the assassin has Ruthenium Polymer Coating and lunging around items that are not coated reduces the perception penalty from Ruthenium Polymers.

[Tecumseh]

I plugged this into Chummer and I'm coming up with 420 BP. Here's the breakdown I see:

Primary Attributes: 190 BP
Edge / Magic: 60 BP
Qualities: -5 BP net (30 positive / 35 negative)
Contacts: 6 BP
Nuyen: 15 BP
Skills: 146 BP
Martial Arts: 8 BP

Switching from human to ork would solve the problem immediately. The build points for the attributes you've listed here plus the metatype cost would be 230 BP for an ork, instead of the 250 BP you've spent here. Plus you get low-light vision.

Umaro's right that taking The Warrior's Way will save you far more power points than The Invisible Way. Applying your discounts to Improved Reflexes 2 and Improved Ability (Blades) will save you 0.75 power points, versus less than 0.25 if you apply the discounts to two of the Improved Ability (Non-Combat) powers.

Power point discounts aside, you passed up the best feature about The Invisible Way, which is the Unseen Hands power. For 0.5 power point, you get 1 extra dice for each of the four skills in the Stealth skill group (up to a maximum of 3).

If you want to get fancy, and if your GM allows it, you could take both The Warrior's Way and The Invisible Way. You would have to free up 10 BP for the quality, which would be easy to do. As the other posters suggested, remove Restricted Gear (5 BP) and Dodge (6 BP with its specialization) and you'll even have one extra BP to spend on nuyen/toys. Your adept powers could end up looking something like this:

Improved Reflexes 2 (discounted) = 1.875 pp
Improved Blades (discounted) = 0.375 pp
Unseen Hands = 1.500 pp
Enhanced Perception = 0.250 pp

These could be mixed and matched to your preference. In the situation above, you wouldn't even have applied the discounts from The Invisible Way yet, but they would be available to you for when you get your hands on another power point. (Technically you could apply the Invisible Way discount to Enhanced Perception, but the amount it would save wouldn't allow you to purchase anything additional at the moment.) Again, run that by your GM first to make sure that two Ways + bioware augmentation is acceptable.

Outside of that, I might trim back on some of the specializations, since they're inexpensive to purchase once the game begins. I understand the desire for Con, especially since it can pair well with Disguise, but your Charisma isn't exactly legendary. I would put those points towards Perception or Throwing Weapons.

If you choose to keep Throwing Weapons over Pistols, you might want to make an investment in some grenades. They're not subtle for an assassin, but they can cover your escape if things go bad and they provide firepower and special effects that throwing knives can't duplicate. A simple smoke grenade, combined with your strong Infiltration skills, could get you out of a lot of jams.

[All4BigGuns]

Or he could find the money somewhere for rating 5 empathy software to 'shore up' his conning. 

[Xzylvador]

Taking two of the Adept Ways, is it allowed by RAW? If so, do the discounts have to be on different powers or can they give a double discount on one?

[Tecumseh]

It's not specified in Way of the Adept. I'll let Critias jump in here, if he likes, or I'll simply post a link to his unofficial errata where he gives his opinion on the matter (the third question on the second page). Short answer: if you're GM's cool with it, go for it.

[All4BigGuns]

I know that the next time I run the game, I'm ruling things in keeping with his original intention of the Ways being free.

[Ajax]

Also It seems to me that favoring pistols over throwing knifes would be handy because you can't add Ceramic/Plasteel Components or Chameleon Coating to throwing knifes.

While that's true for ceramic, you can chameleon coat your knives.  It seems pretty expensive though.

Huh? What? Where is it written that you cannot add the Ceramic/Plasteel Component modification to melee weapons? Since, in the real world ceramic knives do exist. My boyfriend has a very nice set of Kyocera ceramic knives in his kitchen.  I'm not aware of anyplace you can buy ceramic combat knives, mind you, but I'm not a professional, international black-ops operator... my Fixer is named "Al" and he works in the sporting goods section of the local Gander Mountain.

[Ted Fast]

Also It seems to me that favoring pistols over throwing knifes would be handy because you can't add Ceramic/Plasteel Components or Chameleon Coating to throwing knifes.

While that's true for ceramic, you can chameleon coat your knives.  It seems pretty expensive though.

Huh? What? Where is it written that you cannot add the Ceramic/Plasteel Component modification to melee weapons? Since, in the real world ceramic knives do exist. My boyfriend has a very nice set of Kyocera ceramic knives in his kitchen.  I'm not aware of anyplace you can buy ceramic combat knives, mind you, but I'm not a professional, international black-ops operator... my Fixer is named "Al" and he works in the sporting goods section of the local Gander Mountain.

Well the Ceramic/Plasteel Components reads as follows: "This modification replaces the metal components of a gun with ..."

Menwhile Chameleon Coating has the following text: "A coating of ruthenium polymers is added to weapon (sic)"

So RAW there is a difference but when I would allow ceramic melee weapons (other then the knife) .

[Ajax]

That is only because all of the modifications in Arsenal were written with firearms in mind, but GMs should allow their players to apply any of the modifications to other weapons, within reason. This is supported by the text itself ("These rules may be used to modify any type of weapon, though they are primarily intended for modifying firearms." [Arsenal p.148]) and plain old common sense. If I can buy a ceramic kitchen knife at the mall in 2012, my international assassin should be able to custom order a ceramic katana from his black-market armsdealer in 2072.

[Ted Fast]

That is only because all of the modifications in Arsenal were written with firearms in mind, but GMs should allow their players to apply any of the modifications to other weapons, within reason. This is supported by the text itself ("These rules may be used to modify any type of weapon, though they are primarily intended for modifying firearms." [Arsenal p.148]) and plain old common sense. If I can buy a ceramic kitchen knife at the mall in 2012, my international assassin should be able to custom order a ceramic katana from his black-market armsdealer in 2072.

True, true it's just that I try to keep it RAW on this forum. Still I guess that he would only need to add Chameleon Coating to the longblades, the ceramic knifes and vibro-blades are about pistol size.