[All4BigGuns]

Okay, figured I'd put this up. He is rather specialized as a melee combatant, but he can sneak decently well.  Hits like a freight train.


== Info ==
Street Name: Zen
Name: Markus Vidal
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 5
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Ork Male Age 24 (as of 2073)
Height 6'4" Weight 255 lbs.
Composure: 5
Judge Intentions: 5
Lift/Carry: 14 (105 kg/70 kg)
Memory: 6
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 7
AGI: 5
REA: 3 (4)
STR: 7
CHA: 2
INT: 3
LOG: 3
WIL: 3
EDG: 2
MAG: 6

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   6
Initiative:                6 (7)
IP:                        1 (2)
Astral Initiative:         6
Astral IP:                 3
Matrix Initiative:         5
Matrix IP:                 1
Physical Damage Track:     12
Stun Damage Track:         10

== Active Skills ==
Blades                     : 4 [Swords]             Pool: 11 (13)
Climbing                   : 1                      Pool: 8
Escape Artist              : 1                      Pool: 6
Etiquette                  : 1                      Pool: 3
Flight                     : 1                      Pool: 8
Gymnastics                 : 1                      Pool: 6
Infiltration               : 4                      Pool: 10
Perception                 : 1                      Pool: 4
Running                    : 1                      Pool: 8
Swimming                   : 1                      Pool: 8
Unarmed Combat             : 6 [Martial Arts]       Pool: 14 (16)

== Knowledge Skills ==
Bars and Clubs             : 4                      Pool: 7
English                    : N                      Pool: 0
Gangs                      : 3                      Pool: 6
Mandarin                   : 4                      Pool: 7
Or'zet                     : 4                      Pool: 7
Shadow Community           : 3                      Pool: 6

== Contacts ==
Yun - Martial Arts Master (3 (, 6)

== Qualities ==
Adept
Biosystem Overstress
Low-Light Vision
Nano Intolerance
Sensitive Neural Structure
Sensitive System
The Warrior's Way

== Powers ==
Critical Strike Rating: 6
Improved Ability (Combat) (Unarmed Combat) Rating: 3
Improved Ability (Combat) (Blades) Rating: 2
Improved Ability (Non-Combat) (Infiltration) Rating: 1
Improved Reflexes 1
Killing Hands
Penetrating Strike Rating: 3

== Lifestyles ==
Tacoma Loft  2 months
   Comforts:      Middle
   Entertainment: Middle
   Necessities:   Middle
   Neighborhood:  Low
   Security:      High

== Armor ==
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit7/4
   +Carbon-Boron
   +Chemical Protection 6
   +Nonconductivity 6
   +YNT SoftWeave
Lined Coat                11/8
   +Carbon-Boron
   +Delta-Amyloid
   +Gel Packs
   +Nonconductivity 6
   +YNT SoftWeave
SecureTech PPP Armor (Ensemble)2/6

== Weapons ==
Monofilament Sword
   +Personalized Grip
   +Weapon Focus Rating 2
   DV: 7P   AP: -1   RC: 2
Unarmed Attack
   DV: 12P   AP: -3   RC: 0

== Martial Arts ==
Karate
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
Evasion
Finishing Move
Iaijutsu
Set-Up

== Commlink ==
Renraku Sensei (2, 2, 2, 4)
   +Renraku Ichi

== Gear ==
Contact Lenses Rating 3
   +Image Link
   +Flare Compensation
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
Earbuds Rating 3
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 3
   +Select Sound Filter Rating 3
Fake SIN (Bryan Garin) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Monofilament Sword) Rating 4
   +Fake License (Weapon Focus) Rating 4
Goggles Rating 1
   +Thermographic
Tag Eraser
Weapon Focus (bonded) (Monofilament Sword) Rating 2

[rasmusnicolaj]

Why both blades and unarmed?

Rasmus

[JustADude]

Why both blades and unarmed?

Rasmus

^ This.

With your strength, using anything other than your fists is actually a step down in damage potential. At Str 7, the best melee weapon in the game will be doing (8P DV, -2 AP) while your fists are at (12P DV, -3 AP)... you're spending 18 BP for the privilege of losing (DV 4P, AP -1). Drop Blades and use some of the points you just saved to take another MA for your third +1 DV for Martial Arts.

Combine that with a pair of Hardliner Gloves for your new Weapon Focus, to replace the sword. Since Hardliners are still Unarmed Combat you still get all those bonuses and can take Two Weapon Style so you can Full Defend and attack at the same time, using (14P DV, -3 AP).

Speaking of maneuvers, drop Iajutsu (no need to ready your gloves) and Setup and replace them with Two Weapon Fighting and the Ambidextrous quality... that way you can use Two Weapon Fighting without the offhand penalty.

Also, if you kill the Penetrating Strike and re place it with Elemental Strike, you end up with (14P DV, -Half AP), plus one of the Elemental effects. For a combination of style and substance I'd recommend one of the following:

• Blast: Knockdown bonus and, if your target has a Structure rating that's less than your base DV (technically "Force", but the Force is the base DV for an attack spell) it either gets knocked over, smashed, or sent flying... GM's discretion on exact effect.
• Water: Knockdown bonus like Blast, but instead of the extra smashitude, has a good chance of shorting out electronics.
• Fire: The classic "burning fists" image. Secondary fires may be an issue, though.

[UmaroVI]

Not everyone agrees about letting Hardliner Gloves use Critical Strike because it's not clear if Unarmed Combat and unarmed combat mean the same thing.

Setup is worthless. Two-Weapon Style and putting a glove weapon on your offhand is a good idea.

Penetrating Strike is worth about a third of its PP costs. If you really want to overpay for marginal extra effectiveness, freeing up points for Distance Strike is an option. It is comically overpriced, but it prevents your opponent from using their melee skill or dodge for defense against your punches. I'd probably reinvest the points from IA Blades and Penetrating Strike into Improved Reflexes, though.

[JustADude]

As Umaro mentioned, above the Hardliner Gloves + Critical Strike setup is indeed a quivocal situation.

My own interpretation of common sense and (for what little it's worth in the situation) my own real-world Martial Arts training, however, say that strapping a pair of gloves with knuckle reinforcements to your hands isn't going to change what you're doing enough to mess up your mojo... especially if it's a bonded Weapon Focus, which is designed to make Adepts better.

I mean you don't lose Critical Strike if you're wearing a pair of regular, every-day unarmored gloves, right?

However I admit that RAW, Common Sense, and How Things Really Work don't have a 1:1 correlation with each other, so I could be wrong.

[Leticron]

I'm with you on the common sense thing here.

But also in terms of rules, you still use the same skill "Unarmed Combat", so I don't think there is much room for interpretation.
I have much more trouble with TWS and a pair of gloves as technically or under the same statement you would still be unarmed. In terms of realism your movements don't change so the question why you shouldn't be able to use TWS without gloves comes to mind.

To be consistent I would either count hardliner gloves as weapons with which you then can use TWS (and make weapon focus out of them) but not Critical Strike or allow Critical Strike but not TWS (and probably do not allow the weapon focus thing either).

Personally I don't like the thought behind TWS as doesn't fit with my experience of how close combat works (I do escrima since 2001). When able to, you always use both hands, be it unarmed, with a weapon, or with two weapons. Even fencers (not the sporty guys, that's no combat) make good use of their offhand to grab, punch etc. But then again I have a problem with "full defense" but attack with your other hand!!! too, or to be more precise with its rules. Full defense as it is implemented implies "cover everything important, don't go down in a flurry of blows and pray he might just get exhausted". That leaves no room for a counter attack with your "other hand" (the one that didn't move in order to "suddenly" attack).
To cut a long story short, we changed TWS to a +1 dice modifier in close combat and specified it as the ability to use both hands armed or unarmed independently from one another (which is pretty difficult and more dangerous than just using 2 weapons). When going full defense or in any other situation in which your weapon (or unarmed combat) skill is doubled (like full defense) this modifier is also doubled. The bonus is probably too low to be realistic, but we left it as that.

[Edit]: Oh, and I have a couple of question for you. What do you want to do with him? What's his purpose/job in the shadows? He can kill most people with his pinky, that's for sure, but apart from that, what does he do? Many things kill, some with much less risk than unarmed combat, so in my opinion he needs something special to qualify as an alternative to a bunch of gangers, a car bomb or a sniper.

[All4BigGuns]

Setup is worthless. Two-Weapon Style and putting a glove weapon on your offhand is a good idea.

Reading the information in Arsenal, the Setup maneuver combined with Finishing Move appears to be a good strategy that could (no guarantees of course) increase the damage value by a great deal. Alone, yeah, I can't see much use, but in combination like that, I could see some devastating effect. The lack of Two-Weapon Style is just personal preference due to a dislike I have from dual wielding which stems from seeing it done way too much in other games and basically being tired of it.

Penetrating Strike is worth about a third of its PP costs. If you really want to overpay for marginal extra effectiveness, freeing up points for Distance Strike is an option. It is comically overpriced, but it prevents your opponent from using their melee skill or dodge for defense against your punches. I'd probably reinvest the points from IA Blades and Penetrating Strike into Improved Reflexes, though.

I don't see where this comes from. Penetrating Strike is one of the least expensive adept powers that affects combat at a lowly .25 per level. Granted, I wish it could go to rating 6, but I can see why it doesn't since I haven't seen any melee weapons with the AP one can get from it, and as the only thing that can really get a good AP value on unarmed and the fact that it's one of the cheaper powers pretty much puts adepts beyond the mundane in performing in melee.

Here is a tweak, since I could see that the redundancy of blades and unarmed can be a bit much. Dodge was added into the tweaked form because I remember occasions when I was told that I'd still get hurt for blocking a sword while unarmed.

== Info ==
Street Name: Zen
Name: Markus Vidal
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 5
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Ork Male Age 24 (as of 2073)
Height 6'4" Weight 255 lbs.
Composure: 5
Judge Intentions: 5
Lift/Carry: 12 (75 kg/50 kg)
Memory: 6
Nuyen: 0

== Attributes ==
BOD: 7
AGI: 5
REA: 3 (4)
STR: 5
CHA: 2
INT: 3
LOG: 3
WIL: 3
EDG: 2
MAG: 6

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   6
Initiative:                6 (7)
IP:                        1 (2)
Astral Initiative:         6
Astral IP:                 3
Matrix Initiative:         5
Matrix IP:                 1
Physical Damage Track:     12
Stun Damage Track:         10

== Active Skills ==
Climbing                   : 1                      Pool: 6
Dodge                      : 4                      Pool: 10
Escape Artist              : 3                      Pool: 8
Etiquette                  : 1                      Pool: 3
Flight                     : 1                      Pool: 6
Gymnastics                 : 1                      Pool: 6
Hardware                   : 4 [Maglocks]           Pool: 7 (9)
Infiltration               : 4                      Pool: 10
Perception                 : 1                      Pool: 4
Running                    : 1                      Pool: 6
Swimming                   : 1                      Pool: 6
Unarmed Combat             : 6 [Martial Arts]       Pool: 14 (16)

== Knowledge Skills ==
Bars and Clubs             : 4                      Pool: 7
English                    : N                      Pool: 0
Gangs                      : 3                      Pool: 6
Mandarin                   : 4                      Pool: 7
Or'zet                     : 4                      Pool: 7
Shadow Community           : 3                      Pool: 6

== Contacts ==
Yun - Martial Arts Master (3 (, 3)

== Qualities ==
Adept
Biosystem Overstress
Low-Light Vision
Nano Intolerance
Sensitive Neural Structure
Sensitive System
The Warrior's Way

== Powers ==
Critical Strike Rating: 6
Improved Ability (Combat) (Unarmed Combat) Rating: 3
Improved Ability (Combat) (Dodge) Rating: 2
Improved Ability (Non-Combat) (Infiltration) Rating: 1
Improved Reflexes 1
Killing Hands
Penetrating Strike Rating: 3

== Lifestyles ==
Tacoma Loft  2 months
   Comforts:      Middle
   Entertainment: Middle
   Necessities:   Middle
   Neighborhood:  Low
   Security:      High

== Armor ==
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit7/4
   +Carbon-Boron
   +Chemical Protection 6
   +Nonconductivity 6
   +YNT SoftWeave
Lined Coat                11/8
   +Carbon-Boron
   +Delta-Amyloid
   +Gel Packs
   +Nonconductivity 6
   +YNT SoftWeave
SecureTech PPP Armor (Ensemble)2/6

== Weapons ==
Unarmed Attack
   DV: 12P   AP: -3   RC: 0

== Martial Arts ==
Karate
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
Evasion
Finishing Move
Iaijutsu
Set-Up

== Commlink ==
Renraku Sensei (2, 2, 2, 4)
   +Renraku Ichi

== Gear ==
Contact Lenses Rating 3
   +Image Link
   +Flare Compensation
   +Vision Enhancement Rating 3
Earbuds Rating 3
   +Audio Enhancement Rating 3
   +Select Sound Filter Rating 3
Fake SIN (Bryan Garin) Rating 4
Goggles Rating 1
   +Thermographic
Tag Eraser

[Leticron]

Ask them politely if the rules say that or if it's just how they think unarmed vs armed melee combat works.

Even if it's just realism they would still be wrong as you take damage only if you fail but blocking different weapons is varies incredibly in difficulty (rule of thumb: the lighter the weapon the more difficult it gets). In general you step into their attack and try to block them at their wrists. As Shadowrun doesn't make any difference between Knifes and Swords and Claymores in the way combat works, I strongly advise you to just ignore the whole "unarmed blocks still do dmg" thing.

[UmaroVI]

Arsenal does indeed tell you Setup+Finishing Move is a good idea, but Arsenal is lying to you. Setup is an ultra-super-niche ability, and the only time it will ever help is if you have both an enormous, enormous dice pool advantage over your opponent, and also have extremely lousy damage compared to their armor. It's crap in general, and especially crap for your character because you have very high damage already. Finishing Blow isn't crap, though.

Penetrating Strike is -1 AP for .25 PP. -1 AP is about 1/3 as good as +1 DV, since each point of armor blocks 1/3 of a damage, on average. Critical Strike is also .25 PP, and just gives +1 DV.

[KommissarK]

Arsenal does indeed tell you Setup+Finishing Move is a good idea, but Arsenal is lying to you. Setup is an ultra-super-niche ability, and the only time it will ever help is if you have both an enormous, enormous dice pool advantage over your opponent, and also have extremely lousy damage compared to their armor. It's crap in general, and especially crap for your character because you have very high damage already. Finishing Blow isn't crap, though.

QFT on Setup. I've seen a guy try and do this, and then basically sulk the entire session when he realized this ability really didn't allow for anything useful. He'd end up over extending himself, without sufficiently taking out an enemy.

[All4BigGuns]

Anyone know if the Vicious Blow maneuver can convert the Stun damage done by Sweep back to Physical? That just sounds like a good idea if it'd work.

[UmaroVI]

It looks to me like it can. I don't think it's unbalancing either, but I can see it being useful.

[All4BigGuns]

It looks to me like it can. I don't think it's unbalancing either, but I can see it being useful.

I was thinking so, but that 'always' was giving me pause. Seems like a really good combo to me. 

[Glyph]

The most glaring weakness of this guy is that he has no ranged attacks.  Stealth is good, but it is not a substitute for having a ranged combat skill.  Being able to kill someone with one punch doesn't do you any good when they are all crouched behind a wrecked car across the street, and trying to close in with them will expose you to withering full-auto fire.

[All4BigGuns]

The most glaring weakness of this guy is that he has no ranged attacks.  Stealth is good, but it is not a substitute for having a ranged combat skill.  Being able to kill someone with one punch doesn't do you any good when they are all crouched behind a wrecked car across the street, and trying to close in with them will expose you to withering full-auto fire.

Yeah, but that one's intentional so that he has to be a team player, relying on his allies to give cover fire for him. I am, however, starting to feel very dirty whenever I look at his DV with a punch...