[DrCoras]

Hey everyone,

I'm a bit of a newbie here, having mainly played DD3.5 and Pathfinder for the last who knows how many years. I am playing with the group I usually play with, so we are all learning as we go except the GM, who is experienced. We were told we all know each other, no getting to know you period, but we didn't have to grow up together.

Right now we have a Troll bruiser, a technomancer(can't recall race), an Elf Face, an Elf Stealth Street Samurai and me!

Now, the GM did ask that one of us have some type of astral affinity even if not a magician, and since I tend to be the type to write a story for a character and then create them, it was handed to me.

I have decided I want to make a Sasquatch Adept. The basic story is that I was training under the Shaman of my clan to take over when he died since I was the son of the eldest(kinda like chief) even though I showed minimal aptitude toward spirit summoning. It seemed the only thing I was good at was the most basic of astral abilities, punching and defending. The shaman just pushed me too far too fast and wildly overestimated my abilities, until one day I summoned a spirit I couldn't control. Not only that, it was a malevolent spirit, and it ended up killing several of my clan members before the Shaman was able to banish it. Since it killed my father, I didn't have the protection of a leader on my side and I was cast out.

Since we all live in Denver, I just treated it like we lived in the forests at the base of the mountains through the Rockies and I went to Denver when I was exiled, a broken and dejected 'Quatch. I ended up seeing the face getting attacked by some humanists and stepped in to help and since she knew sign language, we've been buds ever since.

I was thinking about Meta(A) Attributes(B) Magic(C) Skills(D) and Resources(E) since I will have limited skills and resources having been living on the streets and coming out of the forest. Our face(the one I helped) is Resources(A) and has vowed to take care of me(she's a den mother character).

Does this seem like a good start? I know it will be difficult to play with uneducated, but it just makes sense for the character and I would rather have a tough time and play my char, than to have it easy and be playing a stat sheet.

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated and as I have Hero Lab already, I will be picking up the Shadowrun stuff in there as well. I already have the Core and Run Faster and we were told the rest of the 5e books are fair game too as long as we choose things that match our background.

Thanks in advance everyone!

Sean

[Vassago]

Hi Sean! Welcome to the game, and the forum! I'm pretty new here too, but it's an awesome resource.

I love the character idea! Seems like it'll be a ton of fun to roleplay.  I like that you minimized conjuring, having low magic can be tricky with spirits. As a shaman, you'll have astral sight and travel inherent, and maybe focus your spell selections around personal and party buffs to maximize your sasquatch attributes.

One suggestion you may want to look at: consider being an Adept instead. You can use a power point for astral sight (or do sasquatches already have it? Dunno). Astral sight and Killing Hands is all you need for spirit combat, or you could weapon specialize and get a weapon-focus to make it magical. You might overlap in combat with the Troll, but there's some fun synergy in melee with a team-mate, and back-fisting spirits into the aether will be your department.

Flavor wise, adepts still can take mentor spirits, and get unique bonuses. You might have fun with either a savvy mentor spirit that's helping you adjust to civilization- or, a mentor that's equally fish-out-of-water in the environment, and lean into the connection between the two of you for both feeling like outsiders.

Sounds like you guys are gonna have a great game! Let us know how the character comes along

[Kuirem]

I don't recommend a Sasquatch to start Shadowrun. Even as a human there are so many things to handle if you are more familiar with fantastic settings : The Matrix, the Corporations, the Astral… NPC and PC have completely different reactions that they do in D&D and players aren't some murderhobos on a quest but rather professional that has a to maintain a reputation and a living.

Sasquatch are a special case in a special universe. They will be hunted for their fur, their abilities or for whatever nasty reason, yes Run Faster mention that they integrate into society fairly well but here you aren't exactly in society, you are in the Shadows where dignity is measured in Nuyen (some might argue that it is in corporations too, they are right). On top of that you will have a hard time to communicate with others, you can't be sure you won't be separated from your Face or she will be disabled. It's not impossible to play but you add layers of difficulty on an already tricky setup. Is it not enough? Dual Natured is added to all that, Dual Natured means that you are a permanent target for any Astral Threat and you are much easier to spot if there are magicians, adepts or spirits around. Of course it depends on your GM but realisticly if a security company realize that there is a Sasquatch around they will send their best Mages and Spirits and with only Adept Powers you will have a hard time to defend yourself if at all.

All in all I strongly recommend to go for a Troll instead, they are extremely close mechanically and still suffer from a fair share of racism but they aren't the oddity Sasquatch are and you won't have to deal with the annoying Dual Natured. You can even keep your story with a tribe of outcast trolls or even move them as a close-to-nature troll gang somewhere in the city (which is a good way to justify some contacts).

That's all for the metatype now let's talk about the role. With D Skills I suppose you are going for a Physical Adept. As far as I know Physical Adept can not summon spirits so your backstory is a bit off the mark (though Sasquatch might be able to do that, I don't know them well enough), at "best" you might have draw attention from some bad spirits in the area (Insect, Blood…).

If you are willing to sacrifice some of your Edge you can swap Skills and Magic priority to be more versatile. With D you will be limited to three skills at 6 and one at 4, that's not much since you generally want at least: Ranged Option, Perception, Sneaking, Etiquette. As a physical Adept I assume you will add a Melee option on top and with 20 Karma already spend in Sasquatch (if you keep it) you will run very thin for your skills.

[Thanael]

Read the SR5 math you need to know thread . I also like this reddit about primary and secondary roles

Agree with not using Sasquatch for a first char. Maybe look into shifter for same outsider role, but a bit more communication and blending in abilities. Or look Into some method to mitigate communication and integration  problems. (Masking spell?)

[DrCoras]

I'm fine with not using a sasquatch as long as I can still take dual natured as a quality. That is an integral part of the backstory. And uneducated is also semi important.

The character will be a physical adept and I know they can't summon, but that is part of the fluff. He basically skewed slightly more magical than the rest of the clan so the shaman assumed he was going to develop into a mystic adept but he fouled up many of the things he should have been able to do, until his huge Supreme foul up.

He will absolutely have no bioware or cyberware.

And for the mentor spirit I was thinking mountain. It makes sense considering he grew up in the forests in the Rocky mountains.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions so far!

[Thanael]

..the most basic of astral abilities, punching and defending. The shaman just pushed me too far too fast and wildly overestimated my abilities, until one day I summoned a spirit I couldn't control

Physical adepts cannot summon spirits..

[Vassago]

Physical adepts cannot summon spirits..

Totally true, but I don't mind it for fluff. Mystic-adepts use sorcery, and especially playing as a wacky meta-sapient, I could see some tradition of Conjure-adept. You could go with the story of the trauma of the event burning out that aspect permanently, and mechanically just use Phys. Adept rules.

Plus it's your first character in a friendly game. Play the way you like, get a feel for the numbers and how the system goes. Then, if you need to optimize, or abandon ship and go with something different altogether, you'll have some experience. Depends on the focus and temperment of the other players too.  Be nice, have fun

And at least put some thought into the Negative Quality Addiction-Mild (DeepWeed). You're playing in Denver afterall, and a Sasquatch-sized joint gets me right in the feels.

"And here we have trid footage of the suspected shadowrunners.., more on this developing story tonight at 6."

[Kuirem]

Note that Uneducated can be taken by anyone. For Dual Natured you are left with 4 solutions :

• Shapeshifter: The safest one for a new player I think since they can blend easily, their appearance and behavior are still a bit animal but it doesn't stand out too much.
• Metasapiant: Nagas, Sasquatch… I've already explained why it's complicated.
• Infected: An other risky one since most are treated like undead in D&D and shot at first sight. Some have an easier time to blend (Banshee to give an example, read the descriptions) especially with the help of technology, makeup and magic.
• Drakes: This one can be found in Howling Shadow. While they have quite a high cost in Karma it's a good choice for what you want to do since they are Dual Natured but looks completely human outside of their Dracoform.

Also special mention to Changeling, although they do not have Dual Natured they can take the Astral Hazing quality which have a thing in common, it makes you easier to spot in the Astral.

Of course nothing stops you from discussing with your GM to get access to Dual Natured as a Quality so you aren't restricted to a particular metatype. It could be part of a Changeling or just linked to your backstory (an accident with a possession spirit?).

[DrCoras]

Awesome information!

I will definitely NOT be summoning during our gameplay and was not looking to go full on magic user, so I was definitely looking at a physical adept. I am still having a tough time grasping the idea of a magician here, so I am trying to ease my way into magic.

Vassago, I LOVE the picture, that's exactly the look I was going for, but I definitely want to blend more in the background, silent giant and if people are hunting me for my fur, that's not going to be possible.

Kuirem, your suggestions are great! I decided to go with a shapeshifter, since infected and drakes don't really fit my backstory. I am going to be a bovine (mountain bison) with a similar story, just tweaked a little.

Only problem I am having is that Hero Lab seems to have trouble with them. It lists a maximum magic of 5 and also does not show dual nature as a quality and won't let me take Assensing due to that. With the Sasquatch I wasn't having all these problems with my character creation!

I only purchased Core and Run Faster so those are the only Hero Lab modules I purchased as well, but before now I found it made the figuring a lot easier. Is the dual natured for shapeshifters official or is it just something they are supposed to eventually announce?

Thanks so much for all the help, it has been very valuable!

[Kiirnodel]

Hero Lab is functioning without much of the clarifications for Shapeshifters yet.

The inclusion of Dual Natured, Regeneration, Allergy, and Vulnerability are still considered Provisional at the moment, so Hero Lab won't include them.

The max Magic of 5 issue is that the chart is formatted oddly, making it seem like the Magic Rating has a maximum based on the type of Shifter that you are. Comparing that chart to the others shows that the column currently marked with the "MAG" at the top is probably supposed to be for Edge, and that MAG is referring to the column where all the shifters have just a "1" which indicates that they have an innate magic score.

A solution if you want to make corrections is to use the Editor and copy/edit the shifter you want to have.

[DrCoras]

Hero Lab is functioning without much of the clarifications for Shapeshifters yet.

The inclusion of Dual Natured, Regeneration, Allergy, and Vulnerability are still considered Provisional at the moment, so Hero Lab won't include them.

The max Magic of 5 issue is that the chart is formatted oddly, making it seem like the Magic Rating has a maximum based on the type of Shifter that you are. Comparing that chart to the others shows that the column currently marked with the "MAG" at the top is probably supposed to be for Edge, and that MAG is referring to the column where all the shifters have just a "1" which indicates that they have an innate magic score.

A solution if you want to make corrections is to use the Editor and copy/edit the shifter you want to have.

That's exactly what I plan on doing. Maybe even edit in dual natured from one of the other metssapients.

Do you know what the innate magic of 1 represents? Does it give an extra magic point during character creation? I couldn't find a reference to what it specifically effects in the book.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it!

[忍]

A starting magic of one isn't a bonus of any sort. It just means you are a magical entity. It is a special attribute which can be increased with points from the Metatype priority.

If you choose not to become a mage or adept then your Magic attribute will only be relevant for things like critter powers or Mana barriers.

[Pap Renvela]

A starting magic of one isn't a bonus of any sort. It just means you are a magical entity. It is a special attribute which can be increased with points from the Metatype priority.

If you choose not to become a mage or adept then your Magic attribute will only be relevant for things like critter powers or Mana barriers.

And if you choose to be a mage or adept then the MAG you get from the priority pick replaces the 1...

[DrCoras]

Excellent! More valuable information.

Well, I have decided I am definitely going to play a Bovine Shapeshifter and I will either be an Adept or a Mystic Adept, but even if I go the mystic adept route I am still only going to be an adept with a few spells.

Since magic is a bit tough to wrap my head around I may end up just going regular adept and save the Spells for my next character.

Thanks again everyone, I am learning as I go! Now I just need to learn how to edit the Shapeshifters in HeroLab to add the provisional changes and fix the max magic snafu.

[Kiirnodel]

Well, copying the race should be pretty straight-forward. The only roadblock is that you'll have to manually copy the data, rather than making a copy and doing some slight edits.

If you open up the editor, the race is on the Race, Metahuman subtab of the Race tab.

If you hit the New (Copy) button, you should see Bovine Shapeshifter close to the top of the list. Now, when you copy it, the editor will tell you that you can't save it. Which is fine, you can use it to go through the data and see what you need to change.

Next, hit New (Blank) to make a fresh blank race. Name it something like Bovine Shapeshifter (Errata). From there, just go through the Copy and fill in all the information the same way. The Magic is actually a scripted event, so you can just not add that. Otherwise make sure you go through and copy everything else.

Once you have everything copied (make sure that the tags and bootstraps also match), then you can also add the Dual-Natured, Regeneration, Allergy, etc) as bootstraps also.