What makes special ops people so tough in Shadowrun terms is not just their high skill, but their
breadth of skill. They really are not a good example to put in the skill descriptions, because they are not just a single high skill, but also a high linked Attribute and lots of complementary skills. The hyperbole at the higher level skill descriptions doesn't help, either (because in game terms, a single die is about a third of a success - there is not a whole lot of difference between Mr. Elite and Joe Average, really).
A skill of 6 in pistols is someone who uses his gun in combat situations on a regular basis, who spends a lot of time at the range, who does things like reloading or switching targets instinctively, who can shoot without hesitation or doubt even in the chaotic swirl of combat. Considering that street samurais act as the muscle for groups of covert intrusion specialists, dealing with intrusion countermeasures and hostile fire from multiple targets on a regular basis - well, I wouldn't see a skill of 6 as being out of line for many of them.
I must have missed something in the character creation section of the book. Plus I'm more or less a newbie with SR.
How on earth do you get some many dice for a starting character, and is it really going to be too difficult to survive unless I'm pooling around 15 dice?
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My main skills come in the groups which maxed at level 4
So most of my dice pools are 7 or 8 dice.
I also haven't opted for boosting stats or skills via implants or magic (The character is actually a Mystic Adept)
Was actually thinking I'd made a fairly well rounded character and would be able to succeed at most of the tasks but after reading the posts here I get the impression I'm really going to struggle.
The reason for the apparent disconnect is that Shadowrun is a game where technology and magic make people superhuman - that's one of the main themes of the game, and the rules reinforce this by giving many cheap, easy dice pool bonuses to magical characters and people who augment themselves.
Your character's dice pools seem relatively low because he isn't
augmenting them with anything - they are straight-up skill and Attribute dice. On the other hand, 7 or 8 dice are a decent enough dice pool for lots of things - it is a decent dice pool for social skills (for a non-face), sneaking around, climbing over a chain-link fence, sprinting for extra distance, performing first aid (assuming you have a rating: 6 medkit, which every runner should - a rating: 2 medkit is for going camping, not for when you know people are going to be shooting at you), and a lot of other tasks. So don't think a dice pool in the 7-8 range is useless.
Where dice pools tend to be higher is in the areas of magic, social skills, and combat - not so coincidentally, these are also the skills that you will be using against people who get to roll to resist them, and the skills that have a lot of potential negative modifiers. The street samurai's 15 dice for pistols might seem impressive, but what about when he is fatigued, lightly wounded, in a dark alley with a searchlight glaring down from above, trying to switch targets so he can get a shot at each of the two guards, who are crouching down behind partial cover? Suddenly he has a lot less dice to throw down.
So 7 or 8 in those areas may be fine for someone who just wants to be well-rounded. Good enough to fit in at the biker rave without embarassing his ganger friends, or to sell a hot corp car to the local chop shop. Good enough to shoot from behind cover to help the street sam out a bit. But if it is one of your core specialties - if you call yourself a mage, or a face, or a street samurai - then you need more of an edge. With things like muscle toner, the improved ability adept power, magical foci, and similar things, you can boost the base Attribute plus skill dice pool into the high teens, or even higher.
Just be careful, because while someone without enough dice can feel useless, someone who spends too much on being good at a single thing can wind up with glaring weaknesses and lack of ability in other areas. It can get to the point of diminishing returns - but don't assume anyone rolling 20 dice must be a one-trick pony, either. It is quite possible to be very good at something, and still be moderately well-rounded.
