Wow. Now see, this is what I need – help with character builds. So I thank you for providing the feedback. Although…wow.
Anyhow, let me tackle the suggestions. I’m grouping some things together because they are just naturally grouped that way. So here goes:
You're a "face" with 0 Con? While there are iffy skill groups, Influence isn't one of them and if you are calling yourself a face, you really should have Influence 4.
Why do you have Cybertechnology? It's a very niche skill and you're missing much more useful things.
Pistols 3, Automatics 2, Palming 0 is not a good setup. Either be good with pistols, or be OK with Automatics and have enough Palming to hide a machine pistol.
Good points, all. I took care of this by selecting the Influence skill group at 4, and dropping Cybertechnology and Automatics altogether. I then increased Pistols to 4, so I now have (before tackling anything else, or adding anything else) 16 BP remaining.
Charisma is more important for a face than Logic is for a hacker. If you can't softcap both, you should be softcapping Charisma.
Even Willpower is bad, since stun boxes round up.
Again, good points. What I did was, because Willpower / 2 rounds up to 2 with a WIL of 3 (and Willpower / 2 is 2 with a WIL of 4), I dropped WIL to 3 and then jacked up CHA to 5. So both CHA and LOG are soft-capped at this point (if I understand what you mean by soft-capped).
"Data Search" is not a good choice of Codeslinger. It's not that important a test to be super awesome at, and very overpriced (compare to Analytical Mind). "Hack on the Fly" is a better use of Codeslinger, if you really want it.
Natural Hardening is terrible.
Well, the concept for the hacker was to be a data thief, so I thought Data Search would be good to get the +2 dice bonus to. However, after thinking on it with your suggestion, Hack on the Fly would be better because, in order to get to the data, I’d have to hack into the data storage node to begin with.
As for Natural Hardening, I thought the bonus to Biofeedback Filter would be good to have. But I took your suggestion and dropped it. This now gives me 26 BP to work with.
This puts me in a weird situation now. I have 26 BP to work with at this point, which means I could get rid of In Debt. If I do, I lose 20 BP AND I have to put 4 more BP into the starting Y to get where I’m at now, and I still have things to do based on your suggestions. So for now, I’m not doing this. I may revisit this later.
Simsense Booster is crazy expensive and not very good. PuSHeD, Encephalon, and a partial cyberlimb+nanohive+NeoCortical Nanites are all much more useful. Actually, all of those are better than Cerebral Boosters for you too.
You don't have Tailored Pheremones, but are a face?
Ok, I added PuSHeD and Encephalon, but I’m running into problems with creds now. I am now sitting at -23,625 Y, and if I remove the Cerebral Booster I’ll still be in the blackk at -3,625. Now, I can drop 5 BP into Y to get to the max of 50, which gives me 21,375 Y, and after taking the left hand and the nanohive I am sitting at 6,375 Y. I add the neo-cortical neural amplifiers to my gear at rating 2, and I’m back in black at -3,625. And that’s a quantity of 1 on those.
Now I add Tailored Pheromones at rating 1, and I’m seriously in debt at -18,625 Y. Wow, I’m gonna need to do some serious reconfiguring of gear, with the potential of losing my ride. But when I look at my skill ratings now…holy crap, dude. This is why I needed the help. 16 freaking dice for Data Search?
You are under-armored. First, you should probably wear at least a half-suit of FFBA, if not a full suit. Second, put on something over it. Third, add on PPP until you are at 6/6 for encumbrance.
Armor is something I struggle with. Not your description, but with all characters I try to create. I want to be wearing armor, but I hate losing the point(s) of AGI when donning the armor. So I try to find the best stuff that won’t get me to lose AGI. However…
I removed the form-fitting shirt, and then I added a form-fitting full body suit, which will be worn underneath the actioneer business clothing. I then added the PPP ensemble, which is really upping the B/I ratings, but severely affects AGI (dropping my AGI to 1 when it’s worn). This all also puts me at -20,725 Y. Yeesh.
The Cavalier Arms Sheriff is not a bad gun if your GM buys that the HP -2 to hit penalty is negatable with Recoil Compensation, but that means you need to get some appropriate mods for it: Firing Selection Change (SA), Personalized Grip, Underbarrel Weight, and a stock will cover it. It's not worth using otherwise and that goes double on a character with a fairly low dicepool.
The Onatori Arms Security Special is a bad gun. The Yamaha Sakura Fubuki with stick-n-shock is a good complement to the Sheriff (the YSF is good for SnS, SnS works against anything but vehicles and drones, and the sheriff is good against vehicles and drones).
You don't need 5 medkits. That's just silly
Changed the weapons to what you stated above. I wanted to have a light pistol – concealed, of course, in the concealable holster that’s part of the business clothes – for when the character meets Johnsons and others he comes across in his face role, but then be able to switch to the heavy pistol for when it’s needed. I should have been better at knowing what ammo is needed for the light pistol (SnS), and that’s on me for not reading through all ammo types properly.
As far as the medkits go…I was just trying to be prepared. This is another thing that I struggle with, because while I have a DocWagon contract, I don’t want to have to use it all that often. And medkits are cheap, so I thought I’d just pick up several of them to be on the safe side. But I dropped down to 1 medkit.
After all of this, I still have 21 BP remaining, but I’m sitting at -22,700 Y. I’ve put as many BP into Y as I can (50), so I have to find other ways to get my cashflow under control. The first thing I did was look at my vehicle, because I’m sure there are things in there that I really don’t need. The total cost of the vehicle as it sits is 58,500 Y, so I have to do something about that.
For starters, I dropped both Engine Accel and Engine Speed customizations, which was a total of 13,000 Y. He’s a hacker and a face, not a get-a-way driver or rigger, so these aren’t really needed. They are nice in the event he has to split quick, but not a necessity. So bye-bye to those.
The next thing to go was the upgraded pilot program. It’s a car, not a robot. And again, I’m not a rigger. And that was 10,000 Y that could be spent elsewhere (and that I really needed). And while we’re on the subject of things that the car really doesn’t need, I dropped the spoof chip and the add-ons for firewall, system, response, and signal. It’s a car, for pete’s sake. That’s a total of 10,500 more Y. And when you consider that, with the exception of the pilot program, I dropped from a modded 5 to a standard 3 in all categories, I think we can see that the money was NOT well spent initially.
So where do I stand now? 21 BP, and I’m in the red with creds at 10,800. So what to do with the money? Well, I decided to jack up the Nanohive to a rating of 2. I could have dropped In Debt at 20k and taken it again with only 10k, but that would leave me with 11 BP and the same amount of creds (800). I figure if I’m gonna start in debt, why not just stick where you’re at, right?
So, I’ve got 21 BP to play with at the moment, and the only skills I’ve taken so far that I can alter are Pistols and Pilot Ground Craft. I took Cracking at 4, Electronics at 4, and Influence at 4, so none of the skills in those categories can be increased at initial character creation. So what to take?
I decided that the guy needs to be able to get out of the way when the crap hits the fan because he’s not supposed to be a combat machine. So I took Dodge at 4, which leaves me with 5 BP to deal with. And after thinking on it, I took the Positive Quality of Genecrafted. 5 BP cost, but decreased the cost of the bioware my character has, leaving me with 3,800 Y to play with. So what to buy with the cash? Simple – a couple of hacked agents and a software programming suite (rating 3).
One thing you will notice is that I have not done anything with the 30 or so knowledge skill points. This is intentional - I want to get the meat of the character done first, and then work on what makes him who he is.
Anyhow, the updated character is in the spoiler below. I left the original character so people could see the changes even though I described them in this post.
Thank you for the critique on the original, and I welcome any more critique on the updated version.
== Info ==
Street Name:
Name: Unnamed Character
Movement: 10/25, Swim: 5
Karma: 0
Street Cred: 0
Notoriety: 0
Public Awareness: 0
Human
Composure: 7
Judge Intentions: 9
Lift/Carry: 5 (30 kg/20 kg)
Memory: 8
Nuyen: 0
== Attributes ==
BOD: 3
AGI: 3 (1)
REA: 3 (5)
STR: 2
CHA: 4
INT: 5
LOG: 5
WIL: 3
EDG: 2
== Derived Attributes ==
Essence: 1.10
Initiative: 8 (10)
IP: 1 (3)
Matrix Initiative: 14
Matrix IP: 3
Physical Damage Track: 11
Stun Damage Track: 10
== Active Skills ==
Animal Handling : 0 Pool: 4
Animal Training : 0 Pool: 4
Armorer : 0 Pool: 4
Artisan : 0 Pool: 4
Climbing : 0 Pool: 1
Computer : 4 Pool: 14
Con : 4 Pool: 9
Cybercombat : 4 Pool: 14
Data Search : 4 Pool: 16
Demolitions : 0 Pool: 4
Disguise : 0 Pool: 4
Diving : 0 Pool: 2
Dodge : 4 Pool: 9
Electronic Warfare : 4 Pool: 14
Etiquette : 4 Pool: 9
First Aid : 0 Pool: 4
Flight : 0 Pool: 1
Hacking : 4 Pool: 14
Hardware : 4 Pool: 14
Instruction : 0 Pool: 3
Intimidation : 0 Pool: 3
Leadership : 4 Pool: 9
Navigation : 0 Pool: 4
Negotiation : 4 Pool: 9
Parachuting : 0 Pool: 2
Perception : 0 Pool: 4
Pilot Ground Craft : 2 Pool: 7
Pilot Watercraft : 0 Pool: 4
Pistols : 4 Pool: 5
Riding : 0 Pool: 4
Running : 0 Pool: 1
Shadowing : 0 Pool: 4
Software : 4 Pool: 16
Survival : 0 Pool: 2
Swimming : 0 Pool: 1
Tracking : 0 Pool: 4
== Knowledge Skills ==
== Qualities ==
Analytical Mind
Codeslinger (Hack on the Fly)
Distinctive Style (10 pts)
Genecrafted
In Debt (20,000¥)
== Lifestyles ==
Middle 1 months
== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Encephalon Rating 2
Enhanced Protein Exchange, PuSHeD
Obvious Hand (Left)
+Nanohive Rating 2
Tailored Pheromones Rating 1
Wired Reflexes Rating 2
== Armor ==
Actioneer Business Clothes5/3
+Concealable Holster
Form-Fitting Full-Body Suit6/2
SecureTech PPP Armor (Ensemble)2/6
== Weapons ==
Cavalier Arms Sheriff
+Stock
+Firing Selection Change, Small Mod (SA)
+High-Power Chambering
+Melee Hardening
+Personalized Grip
+Smartgun System
+Trigger Removal
+Underbarrel Weight, Auto-Adjusting
DV: 8P AP: -4 RC: 3
Ceramic Knife
DV: 2P AP: - RC: 0
Unarmed Attack
DV: 1S AP: - RC: 0
Yamaha Sakura Fubuki
+Stock
+Smartgun System
DV: 4P AP: - RC: 1
== Commlink ==
Disposable Commlink (1, 2, 1, 3)
+Disposable Commlink OS
+Fake SIN (Public - Jesse Holton) Rating 4
+Subvocal Microphone
Disposable Commlink (1, 2, 1, 3)
+Disposable Commlink OS
+Fake SIN (Public - Conrad Veritas) Rating 4
+Subvocal Microphone
Erika Elite (5, 5, 5, 5)
+Novatech Navi
+Sim Module (Hot)
+Subvocal Microphone
+Armor Case Rating 10
+Customized Interface
+Hardening Rating 6
Renraku Sensei (4, 5, 5, 5)
+Iris Orb
+Sim Module (Hot)
+Subvocal Microphone
+Armor Case Rating 10
+Customized Interface
+Hardening Rating 6
== Gear ==
Ammo: Explosive Rounds (Heavy Pistols) x50
Ammo: Hollow Point Rounds (Heavy Pistols) x100
Ammo: Hollow Point Rounds (Light Pistols) x100
Ammo: Stick-n-Shock (Light Pistols) x100
Analyze (Hacked) Rating 6
AR Gloves
Armor (Hacked) Rating 6
Attack (Hacked) Rating 6
Biofeedback Filter (Hacked) Rating 6
Black Hammer (Hacked) Rating 6
Blackout (Hacked) Rating 6
Browse (Hacked) Rating 6
Command (Hacked) Rating 6
Corrupt (Hacked) Rating 6
Data Translation (Hacked) Rating 6
Datachip x15
Decrypt (Hacked) Rating 6
Defuse (Hacked) Rating 6
DocWagon Contract: Basic
Earbuds Rating 3
+Audio Enhancement Rating 3
+Select Sound Filter Rating 3
ECCM (Hacked) Rating 6
Edit (Hacked) Rating 6
Encrypt (Hacked) Rating 6
Expert Defense (Hacked) Rating 3
Expert Offense (Hacked) Rating 3
Exploit (Hacked) Rating 6
Fake License (Cavalier Arms Sheriff) Rating 4 x2
Fake License (Wired Reflexes) Rating 4
Fake License (Yamaha Sakura Fubuki) Rating 4 x2
Fingernail Data Storage x2
Firewall (Hacked) Rating 6
Glasses Rating 4
+Image Link
+Smartlink
+Vision Enhancement Rating 3
Medic (Hacked) Rating 6
Medkit Rating 6
Neural Amplifiers, Neocortical Rating 2
Nuke (Hacked) Rating 6
Purge (Hacked) Rating 6
Scan (Hacked) Rating 6
Sniffer (Hacked) Rating 6
Sniffer (Hacked) Rating 6
Software Programm Suite Rating 3
Spoof (Hacked) Rating 6
Stealth (Hacked) Rating 6
Track (Hacked) Rating 6
== Vehicles ==
Hyundai Shin-Hyung (Sedan)
+Amenities, Middle
+Anti-Theft
+Armor, Normal Rating 10
+Clean Car Coating
+Enhanced Image Screens
+Interior Cameras
+Oil Slick Sprayer
+Smoke Projector
+Spike Strip
+Vehicle Sensor