[Jackleg Rooster]

My wife's friend has an idea of a shinto priestess that punches demons to death. I really like it as an idea but am unsure the best way to go about it. So far I'm thinking mystic adept with element aura (fire) + critical strike + killing hands (for bypassing ITNW) + element strike (fire) + the martial art Kiai for +3 DV to attacks of will. Seems a strong contender for ghost punching but might be wandering into one trick pony areas.

Any ideas for this that isn't gimped to anything that's not punching a ghost?

[Netzgeist]

I may be completly wrong on this, but I always though killing hands and whatever couldn't be used in an attack of will.

My suggestion, make a real charismatic face [what about an Elf SURGEd with Metagenetic Improvement (Charisma)] with a natural Charisma of 9 and a DV of 9 in attacks of will? If it's a mage-face build, then have a high Banishing and Willpower (in order to make the attack of will hit), and there you go (remember that will hurts demons more than raw force)...

But I don't really know if one can make a real good Mage/Face.

[Glyph]

An attack of will is what a mundane is stuck with.  An adept is much better off using killing hands and a normal unarmed attack - much better dice pool, and with things like critical strike, much better damage as well.  The only problem with an adept spirit puncher is that they can only do this well against materialized spirits.  For astral spirits, they run into problems - they need astral sight to see them, then astral combat to fight them (typically a lower dice pool), and they are stuck in their meat body while their opponent can move in any direction, including up.

[wylie]

you'll need ot purchase astral perception, being a mystic adept. I would recommend assensing as well.

you may not need all the 'fire' powers, except as fluff.
killing hands, yes. critical strike yes
high unarmed/ martail arts YES

the rest is based on the flavor of the character.

also, look things she may be doing when not fighting 'ghosts'. pick some strong 2ndary skills to fall back onto to keep her from becoming a one trick. like stealth or negotiation

 let us know how she turns out.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Mystic Adept with astral sight and stunbolt/powerbolt for dealing with spirits that are not materialized.
Dont take Banish.

And then adept punshy stuff for the rest (or melee with a weapon foci).

Rasmus

[TheNarrator]

My wife's friend has an idea of a shinto priestess that punches demons to death. I really like it as an idea but am unsure the best way to go about it. So far I'm thinking mystic adept with element aura (fire) + critical strike + killing hands (for bypassing ITNW) + element strike (fire) + the martial art Kiai for +3 DV to attacks of will. Seems a strong contender for ghost punching but might be wandering into one trick pony areas.

Any ideas for this that isn't gimped to anything that's not punching a ghost?

The Critical Strike, Killing Hands and Unarmed Combat skill will serve well against normal adversaries as well as spirits. (I'm not sure how important the elemental stuff is, but if the player wants it for style/character purposes, then go for it.) Distance Strike would let her launch ki blasts as a ranged combat option, but it's absurdly expensive, so you probably shouldn't bother. (Archery as a ranged combat option would kinda fit the shinto priestess thing, but maybe I'm just thinking that because of Inuyasha.) You probably should skip the Kiai thing: attacks of will are something you only need to do if you don't have Killing Hands. If fighting spirits is going to be her things, then Astral Perception is probably a must, so she can spot them when they're immaterial. Enhanced Perception to improve her ability to detect them and other threats.

Needed skills? Unarmed Combat, Assensing, Perception are musts. Athletics would be handy. A ranged combat skill of some sort. After that, it depends on what other roles she's going to take on besides ghost-punching. Stealth? Influence? It's up to the player.

Oh, and it probably ought to be said even though we usually take it for granted: she'll need Increased Reflexes to get additional initiative passes. Going only once a turn is no good for a combatant.

[JustADude]

(I'm not sure how important the elemental stuff is, but if the player wants it for style/character purposes, then go for it.)

Elemental Strike basically takes Killing Hands and adds an elemental effect on it. Fire is, of course, AP -1/2 I & burnination. However... depending on how one defines "Force" when applying an elemental effect to a punch... I'd probably recommend Blast over Fire, since it has the same Physical DV & AP -1/2 I and has better elemental side effects. Plus, on a personal level, I think an explosive "Knuckle Bomb" blast effect when you hit someone is even more awesome than burning fists.

Since Force = DV for elemental Combat spells, I'm working on the assumption that, for Elemental Strike, the final DV (i.e. after Critical Strike, MA bonuses, etc are applied) of the attack would be treated as the Force, since there's no other real way to translate it.

That means that, since Blast has the same "add Force to damage dealt" effect as Water and she'll be swinging at least 10 DV after Critical Strike and MA mods, she'll be able to knock even trolls flat on their rumps with ease. But wait, there's more! If the target is an object and your Force is greater than the target's Structure rating, it's automatically (to quote the book) "knocked over, shattered, shredded, or otherwise swept away." That means, with a Strength of 3+, she'll be able to smash holes in anything up to the Structural Material (Brick/Plascrete) level without any sort of damage test. That includes things like doors, most walls, chain-link fences, and freakin' trees.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't mean for that to turn into quite such a tangent. Still, the point stands.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Element Aura from street magic p. 173:

This spell creates a rippling aura of elemental energies around a subject’s body. Each element requires a different spell (Flame Aura, Electrical Aura, Cold Aura, etc.). This fiery aura does not affect the subject, but increase the DV of any melee attacks by the caster’s hits. Attacks are treated as Cold, Electricity, Fire, or some other elemental damage (see p. 155, SR4, and pp. 164–165 of this book), as appropriate to the aura, and are resisted with half Impact armor.

I personally like Sound for this

Sustained in a force 3 sustaining foci it would add +3 to DV.
+3 DV from martial arts and as much as possible from critical strike 

Rasmus

[Critias]

Keep in mind that spirits are tough to punch.  Not because they're exceptionally good in melee combat, not because an adept can't rack up the dice needed to KAPOW them into next week, etc, etc...but because they're spirits, and you only have normal human-ranged arms.  A great many of them have no reason at all to ever close to melee range, much LESS to stay there while you wail on them.  They are kiters second to none, and you only have stubby little human arms to try and KAPOW them with.

[Chrona]

I personally like Sound for this

Damn that must be loud

[Mason]

Honestly? I think a full Adept fits your concept better, unless she really wants to have spells. Then use Martial Arts qualities to add more DV to Unarmed combat.

Without using Adept Way qualities:
Magic 6:
Critical Strike 6 (1.5) +6 punching damage
Killing Hands (0.5)
Astral Perception (1)
Elemental Strike (0.5) (one element)
Increased Reflexes 2 (2.5)

Later purchases: up Increased Reflexes to max. Buy more element strikes. Increase critical strike. Buy Distance Strike for 2 PP.

[Thrass]

I'ld go elf and try to get mind over matter in
thing is I can't seem to get distance strike, mind over matter, astral perception critical strike killing hands and an initiative enhancer into 1 character with BP rules...

but I squeezed at every end and came out with this:
Elf, surge 2 --> metagenetic improvement charisma, genetic optimization charisma

BOD: 3
AGI: 5
REA: 5
STR: 1
CHA: 9
INT: 2
LOG: 2
WIL: 5
MAG: 5

positive qualities:
10bp mystic adept
10bp way of the ways
10bp surge class II
5bp martial arts

mystic adept : 3 points in adept 2 points in mage
walking the ways (custom way discount)
martial arts: +1dv
mystic powers: distance strike (way discounted, geas); Astral perception (geas); Mind over Matter charisma-> strength (way discounted, geas); critical strike (2)

get the following spells:
improved reflexes; Sound Aura (elemental aura);

get bone density augmentation rating 3

you can cast improved reflexes at force 4 for 4 ini passes...

you do 9p  + 1dv from martial arts + the hits you got on Sound aura
you do 9p on an attack of will
therefore I'ld not go for extra damage for attacks of will with the martial arts but for real attacks... also I think attacks of will wont mix with distance strike

it's a shame there is no way that has distance strike on it's list... otherwise maybe you would be able to actually squeeze in a real way bonus right now it's just a discount


this is a half baked character concept...
it works under the following assumption:
- you can distance strike
- with your unnarmed melee damage form your bones (str/2+2)
- while replacing strength with charisma (which may be more RAI then RAW)
- while using martial arts
- and the Elemental Aura Spell to augment your damage (elemental strike is forbidden for distance strike elemental aura needs to be discussed with your gm)
- you are allowed to use geas on adept powers (I always try to take praying for 1 hour in every 24 hours depending on the magic tradition)


If you think you got enough damage you could drop the martial arts and go for spirit mentor maybe bear which'ld give you another 2 dice to resist physical damage and might fit the concept if you take a shaman tradition which goes well with your charisma

body is not that high but you get +3 body for damage resistance tests from the bone density... still if you want to wear good armour you probably need to work in more body or go for formfitting or something

this is the most I can get out of the mystic adept approach I think

critical strike leaves room for improvement as well as martial arts... you can easily get another 2dv from martial arts...

if you happen to go for one of the other peoples builds: consider hardliner gloves from Arsenal...
they don't stack with bone density but could free up 0.5 power points for killing hands + 0.25 power points for 1 level of critical strike (or just add another 1dv)



all in all I think 12 possible points of attack of will power (9charisma +3 from martial arts) with a maximum dice pool of 12 for attacking (willpower6 + banish6)
will not cut it because a typical force 6 spirit has 8-10 reaction + 6 unnarmed combat which is higher then your attack pool
with unnarmed combat you can get a higher dice pool with a skill that fits more purposes and combine it with distance strike which reduces your opponents dice pool to reaction which is 8-10 for a force 6 spirit
all while being able to punch him up from 5 meters distance which gives you a little more room to fight those spirits


btw sound is one of the nastiest elemental attacks that you can get


edit:
forgot to mention the full offense maneuver which can get you another easy +2 to attack dice pool while not fighting in melee
and maybe ground fighting but since you need to get into the 5 meters range you cannot get boni from lying prone against ranged attacks

[Jackleg Rooster]

quick and dirty outline i threw together. still 8 BP and 2.1875 PP left on the table. wondering to throw on some cyber for body/armor. probably some legs to eat those 2 PP or arm of awesome to help with the punching.

also thinking of a custom shinto variation that allows posession and probably trades man for guardian. (since it looks like im gonna end up GMing this game thats kosher with me.) The end goal there would probably be channeling an ally spirit or some such.

p.s. fashion is for awesome anime transformation! and light as the element is by request. nothing like a big glowing target...

== Info ==
Street Name:
Name: Unnamed Character
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 5
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Human
Composure: 10
Judge Intentions: 8
Lift/Carry: 6 (15 kg/10 kg)
Memory: 7
Nuyen: 0

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

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   6
Initiative:                6
IP:                        1
Astral Initiative:         6
Astral IP:                 3
Matrix Initiative:         3
Matrix IP:                 1
Physical Damage Track:     11
Stun Damage Track:         11

== Active Skills ==
Archery                    : 1 [Bows]               Pool: 5 (7)
Assensing                  : 4                      Pool: 7
Climbing (Athletics Group)                  : 1                      Pool: 2
Con(Influence Group)                        : 1                      Pool: 6
Counterspelling            : 4                      Pool: 5
Dodge                      : 4                      Pool: 7
Etiquette(Influence Group)                   : 1                      Pool: 6
Gymnastics (Athletics Group)                : 1                      Pool: 5
Leadership(Influence Group)                  : 1                      Pool: 6
Negotiation (Influence Group)                : 1                      Pool: 6
Running (Athletics Group)                   : 1                      Pool: 2
Spellcasting               : 4                      Pool: 5
Summoning                  : 1                      Pool: 2
Swimming(Athletics Group)                   : 1                      Pool: 2
Unarmed Combat             : 6                      Pool: 10

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Qualities ==
Hung Out to Dry
Low Pain Tolerance
Mystic Adept
Records on File (Renraku)
SINner (Standard) (UCAS)
The Warrior's Way

== Spells ==
(Tradition: Shinto, Resist Drain with WIL + CHA (10))
[Elemental] Aura (Light)   DV: (F÷2)+3
Detect [Life Form], Extended (Spirits) DV: (F÷2)+1
Fashion                    DV: (F÷2)
Increase Reflexes          DV: (F÷2)+2
Levitate                   DV: (F÷2)+1

== Powers ==
Critical Strike Rating: 5
Elemental Strike (Light)
Killing Hands

== Lifestyles ==
Low  1 months

== Armor ==
SecureTech Shin Guards    0/1
Vashon Island: Steampunk Dressing Gown (Ensemble)6/5


== Weapons ==
Bow (Rating 3)
   +Laser Sight
   +Personalized Grip
   DV: 5P   AP: -   RC: 1
Unarmed Attack
   DV: 9P   AP: -   RC: 0

== Martial Arts ==
Boxing
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks
Karate
   ++1 DV on Unarmed Combat attacks

== Gear ==
Ammo: Arrow (Bows) Rating 3 x10
Sustaining Focus (Health) (bonded) Rating 3
Sustaining Focus (Manipulation) (bonded) Rating 3

[Thrass]

use the 8BP to get a contact...

[JustADude]

...Mind over Matter charisma-> strength...

As mentioned in other threads, this doesn't work.

MoM only substitutes the rating during tests, and the general consensus is that your damage isn't a test.