[Longes]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to SR5, and I'm trying to build a technomancer. The problem I run into however, is that a TM seems to be worse than hacker on every front, especially if Black IC comes into play (Stun AND Physical, brrr). Am I missing something? Can someone provide a decent Technomancer build for study?

[Elektrycerze3]

Hoi.

You are not alone Consider reading this topic. Quick summary: Drain codes are seriously off; TMs are weaker than Deckers. Some folks debate the latter.

[Longes]

I'm also VERY confused by the following paragraph (SR5, p.250):

If you’re a technomancer, you have a Resonance attribute. This attribute represents how connected you are to the Resonance. Your Resonance rating affects all of your Resonance abilities and your living persona. Your natural Resonance maximum is your Essence rounded down. Whenever you lose Essence (after character generation), you lose an equal amount of Resonance, rounded up. If your Resonance ever reaches zero, you lose the Technomancer quality and all Resonance abilities.

Does this mean what I think it means? That technomancers lose Resonance for every fraction of Essence?

[Elektrycerze3]

Does this mean what I think it means? That technomancers lose Resonance for every fraction of Essence?

That is probably a mistake. It has been submitted for Errata, so don't worry. On the other hand, if your GM insists on reading it that way, you can always augment the hell out of your TM during character creation, as by RAW it doesn't affect Resonance.

[Longes]

you can always augment the hell out of your TM during character creation, as by RAW it doesn't affect Resonance.

It does.

In game terms, this means that any fraction of Essence loss reduces a Magic or Resonance attribute rating by 1.

[Elektrycerze3]

It does.

As p.249 is specific and the character creation chapter is general, some people argue otherwise. But only as a joke at some bad wording. I'm not saying that it's RAI, just that there are some weird things in the book, which you shouldn't take at face value.

[firebug]

Judging by how it affects MAG and RES in older editions, it's always been "Each point of Essence lost lowers your MAG or RES by 1, including fractions."  So if you have 5.5 Essence, your RES will be lowered by one.  But until you hit 4.999 Essence, you can add more augmentation without penalty.  This is backed up by the example on page 278.  RES and MAG are mechanically extremely similar, so it likely was simply poor wording that confused you.

[Michael Chandra]

You probably want to discuss it with the GM, but you got "magic and resonance were like it in sr4, and magic is like it in sr5, so people don't think there's any reason to not have it in sr5" as your support argument.

[Pollution]

Quick and dirty summation of this.

1) If you have a 5 RES and you take a 0.1 essence hit for cyber (essence 5.9), you now have a 4 Res. 
2) once you have already taken that first hit, you can now go ahead and lose as much essence you want, up to 5.0 (so another 0.9 points available for lose without further Res losses.
3)  AT ANY POINT after you lose that first bit of essence, you can spend Karma on Res making it a 5 again.
    3.a)  If you had a 6 Res, took a data jack and then had a 5 Res as a result you can STILL spend Karma to bring it back to a 6 (it doesn't lower your max, just your current).

Now, as the Res question has been answered, here's a couple of things that make a TM WILDLY better at hacking than a Decker.

1) Diffusion of Firewall.  need to hack?  Hack away with the system losing as many hits as you got in your roll (net hits).  Firewall is the defense for almost everything you'll be doing, so...yeah, nice.  Oh, and btw, it's an UNDETECTABLE modification to his stat.  So the system/Decker is unlikely to swap his stats after you do this.
2)  Infusion of Firewall.  going to get into it with a Spider or Decker?  Infusion of FW boosts your FW rating.  Again, as most offensive actions that you'll encounter in cyber combat are defended with FW, you'll have better defense.
3) Transcend Grid.  Must have. Good effect, low drain code. You can always thread it at level 5 with no harm for yourself. It removes the penalty of the Public Grid. That's very useful.
4) Puppeteer.  This one is much easier if you push the limit with edge. Then you can use it at level 1, so the fading is only 5. If you get 3 net hits on the oppose test it mean you can tell the device to invite marks, which can instantly give you 3 marks on a device without you being seen by GOD or even by the device's owner. Very powerful. In combat, you can make a Decker Data spike HIMSELF if you get those 3 hits.  Remember, the owner of a device/persona automatically has 4 MARKS on those items (data spike would mean an extra 8 to his attack on himself...ouch)
5) Resonance Spike. It doesn't build up OS, also it doesn't count as an attack action, so won't notify the owner. So if you need to stealthily brick something, this is as good as it gets. Fading is a bit high on it though, making it less reliable than normal data spike. BUT, if you can see it, you can attack it.  In a combat, you can brick a set of cyber-eyes and give your enemy a -4.  Good for boss fights where the Big Bad is a sam.
6) Cleaner. Must have. As far as I know, this is the only way to modify OS.

Ah, you say, but some of those are sustained CF's and you'll take a negative.  True, BUT, you can have a sprite sustain those CF's as a simple action and it only eats 1 favor for every (Sprite Rating) rounds.  On top of that, you can have your sprite ASSIST you in the treading of the CF in the first place, adding (Sprite Level) in extra dice for your roll (Rating 6 Sprite helping a Resonance Spike would be kinda nifty)

There's a TON of things a TM can do that a Decker can't.  And for the record, a TM can do EVERYTHING a Decker can do (except be PART of PAN, though he can defend it still, and with Infusion of FW, he can do it better than a Decker.)

[Longes]

Quick and dirty summation of this.

1) If you have a 5 RES and you take a 0.1 essence hit for cyber (essence 5.9), you now have a 4 Res. 
2) once you have already taken that first hit, you can now go ahead and lose as much essence you want, up to 5.0 (so another 0.9 points available for lose without further Res losses.
3)  AT ANY POINT after you lose that first bit of essence, you can spend Karma on Res making it a 5 again.
    3.a)  If you had a 6 Res, took a data jack and then had a 5 Res as a result you can STILL spend Karma to bring it back to a 6 (it doesn't lower your max, just your current).

Now, as the Res question has been answered, here's a couple of things that make a TM WILDLY better at hacking than a Decker.

1) Diffusion of Firewall.  need to hack?  Hack away with the system losing as many hits as you got in your roll (net hits).  Firewall is the defense for almost everything you'll be doing, so...yeah, nice.  Oh, and btw, it's an UNDETECTABLE modification to his stat.  So the system/Decker is unlikely to swap his stats after you do this.
2)  Infusion of Firewall.  going to get into it with a Spider or Decker?  Infusion of FW boosts your FW rating.  Again, as most offensive actions that you'll encounter in cyber combat are defended with FW, you'll have better defense.
3) Transcend Grid.  Must have. Good effect, low drain code. You can always thread it at level 5 with no harm for yourself. It removes the penalty of the Public Grid. That's very useful.
4) Puppeteer.  This one is much easier if you push the limit with edge. Then you can use it at level 1, so the fading is only 5. If you get 3 net hits on the oppose test it mean you can tell the device to invite marks, which can instantly give you 3 marks on a device without you being seen by GOD or even by the device's owner. Very powerful. In combat, you can make a Decker Data spike HIMSELF if you get those 3 hits.  Remember, the owner of a device/persona automatically has 4 MARKS on those items (data spike would mean an extra 8 to his attack on himself...ouch)
5) Resonance Spike. It doesn't build up OS, also it doesn't count as an attack action, so won't notify the owner. So if you need to stealthily brick something, this is as good as it gets. Fading is a bit high on it though, making it less reliable than normal data spike. BUT, if you can see it, you can attack it.  In a combat, you can brick a set of cyber-eyes and give your enemy a -4.  Good for boss fights where the Big Bad is a sam.
6) Cleaner. Must have. As far as I know, this is the only way to modify OS.

Ah, you say, but some of those are sustained CF's and you'll take a negative.  True, BUT, you can have a sprite sustain those CF's as a simple action and it only eats 1 favor for every (Sprite Rating) rounds.  On top of that, you can have your sprite ASSIST you in the treading of the CF in the first place, adding (Sprite Level) in extra dice for your roll (Rating 6 Sprite helping a Resonance Spike would be kinda nifty)

There's a TON of things a TM can do that a Decker can't.  And for the record, a TM can do EVERYTHING a Decker can do (except be PART of PAN, though he can defend it still, and with Infusion of FW, he can do it better than a Decker.)

3.a) It does lower the maximum.

1) Software + Resonance [Level] vs. Willpower + Firewall. Because of the sustaining penalty, you have to thread this form at the minimum Level (2 (penalty) + defender's average hits + 1 (to actually get benefit)). Assuming a ganger with Will 3 + Firewall 3, that's Level 5 minimum. Which is 6S Fading, just to get 1 penalty die on defender's rolls.
2) The only worthwile Infusion.
3) Yep. It's okay.
4) Let's say that Giant  Enemy Decker has Firewall 5 and Willpower 4. He gets 3 average successes on the defense test. We have Software 6 and Resonance 6. We have 4 average successes on the attack test. That means, that even spending the Edge, Technomancer, on average, will only get a Free Action. That's weak. Really weak.
5) I'd say that damage notifies the owner, even if the attack doesn't. "Good for boss fights where the Big Bad is a sam." Unless his eyes aren't slaved to a DR5 comlink, or to a cyberdeck.
6) Yep. However, it is Permanent, so you need to Sustain it Level turns until the effect works.

[Crunch]

5) I'd say that damage notifies the owner, even if the attack doesn't. "Good for boss fights where the Big Bad is a sam." Unless his eyes aren't slaved to a DR5 comlink, or to a cyberdeck.

The rules don't indicate whether it does or not, but every indication we get is that Resonnance is hard to spot. My rule of thumb for my house games is that the owner gets an error report, but that they don't get any indication what caused the error to occur.

[Longes]

5) I'd say that damage notifies the owner, even if the attack doesn't. "Good for boss fights where the Big Bad is a sam." Unless his eyes aren't slaved to a DR5 comlink, or to a cyberdeck.

The rules don't indicate whether it does or not, but every indication we get is that Resonnance is hard to spot. My rule of thumb for my house games is that the owner gets an error report, but that they don't get any indication what caused the error to occur.

That's what I mean - the owner knows that he was attacked (if the attack was successful), but he doesn't know by whom or how.

[Crunch]

That's what I mean - the owner knows that he was attacked (if the attack was successful), but he doesn't know by whom or how.

He knows that there's an error in the device. I'm not sure he knows it's an attack. That could be the difference between a security rigger immediately scrambling to respond and putting it on his to do list as a maintenance issue.

[Longes]

Oh, and Pollution... It's not nice - telling me my own words from Reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/1p7ciz/sr5_complex_form_analysis/.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Also for sustained things, remember focused concentration works for technomancers as well.  And as they don't have access to sustaining focuses it is arguably better for them than mages.  The technomancer in our game is rocking the matrix pretty hard. 

This is more funny and not a indication of  how good hackers are, but in a published 4e/5e/ adventure a hit squad comes at you wired to incinerate with thermite charges to destroy the evidence of their bodies.  They go off when their bio-monitors register them as dead on unconscious, 4 of them died before they got to fire a shot the last one was trying to manually activate his device to no avail as the technomancer had shut that one off so they could interrogate him.   Go go wireless matrix.