[Gryphynx (Sphynx)]

I imagine this character in our group is going to cause no small amount of controversy.  My first thought was similar to what I believe initial comments will be, but have been convinced otherwise once he was compared to other characters.

Character is a 32(64) Karma Prime Runner.  A Tao Monk Adept turned Shadowrunner.  After a corp destroyed his Monastery for the land it was on, he's vowed to avenge not only his school, but all people whose lives are destroyed by corporate greed.  His extreme change of personality has drawn the Shark Mentor Spirit to him, turning a once peaceful warrior into a savage berserk warrior...  His body is covered by tattoos of each animal that there is a style of Kung Fu for, each tattoo allows him, once he's mastered that style (via bonding) to access an Adept Power (Qi Focus).  Once activated, the animal tattoos seem to move about, heads turn, mouths open, etc.  Centered on his chest is a Tattoo of a Shark, this Tattoo seems to always be moving a bit, even when no Foci are activated.  When berserking, the eyes of the shark glow.

A) Attributes (24)
B) Elf (6 - 2 Magic, 4 Edge)
C) Adept (Magic 4)
D) Resources (150,000)
E) Skills (18)

ATTRIBUTES:

Body:

5

|

Willpower:

5

|

Edge:

5

|

Physical Limit:

9

|

Composure

8

|

Physical Condition Monitor:

11

Agility:

5

|

Logic:

5

|

Magic:

6

|

Mental Limit:

6

|

Judge Intent

6 vs 8

|

Stun Condition Monitor:

10

Reaction:

6 (7)

|

Intuition:

3

|

Essence:

6

|

Social Limit:

6

|

Lift/Carry

12

|

Overflow:

6

Strength:

5

|

Charisma:

3

|

|

Karma:

0

|

Memory

10

|

Initiative:

11 + 4D6

QUALITIES/KARMA: Code of Honor Gremlins 1 Distinctive Style (Tattoos) Uneducated Mentor Spirit (Shark) High Pain Tolerance 3 Quick Healer Perception 2 Etiquette 2 Force 4 Qi Focus: Improved Reflexes Force 4 Qi Focus: Mystic Armor 2 Force 4 Qi Focus: Improved Ability - Unarmed +4 Karma Carried Over	SKILLS: Unarmed: 6 (13/15) Gymnastics: 5 (10) Stealth: 5 (10) Perception: 2 (5) Etiquette: 2 (5) Free-Fall: 2 (7) Running: 2 (7) KNOWLEDGES/LANGUAGES: Kung Fu: 6 Parquor: 6 Japanese (N) English: 4 Mandarin: 4
POWER POINTS: Improved Reflexes, Level 2 (3 when Focus Activated) Killing Hands (Free from Mentor Spirit) Combat Sense: 1 Mystic Armor: 4 (6 when Focus is Activated) Improved Ability - Unarmed: 0 (2 When Focus is Activated)	QI FOCI (Tattoos) Bonded Improved Reflexes 1 (Force 4) Mystic Armor 2 (Force 4) Improved Ability - Unarmed 2 (Force 4) Un- Bonded Astral Perception (Force 4) Combat Sense 2 (Force 4) Improved Potential - Physical (Force 2) Light Body (Force 5) Missile Parry (Force 5) Natural Immunity (Force 5) Pain Resistance 2 (Force 4) Rapid Healing 2 (Force 4) Spell Resistance 2 (Force 4)

GEAR:

• Armor Jacket
• 2 Months Low Lifestyle

[DigitalZombie]

Remember you cant have more than magic score in bonded foci. you have 7, but magic 6.
And you cant have more combined foci force than magic times 5. (you have 28 out of a max of 30, so that one is good enough)
Maybe foci addiction negative quality would be fitting?
That list of un-bonded focii, are they bought or is a wish list for your character? I would not buy them, as you would need a crazy high magic score to be able to use them all.

[Gryphynx (Sphynx)]

Oi, did miss the rule about a maximum number of Foci Force at CharGen equal to Magic * 2.  Will have to tell him about that. 

Didn't read the other rules (though now that I know to look, I've found them).  So, his absolute maximum number of Foci would be 12 (as a 6th Grade Initiate), and a cap of 60 Force.  Will let him know. 

He's planning on never being Addicted, hence the high Willpower+Logic.  He won't have them always activated, just when he's needing them, and will roll for Addiction, but with a threshold of 2, doesn't think it'll be a problem. 

[Michael Chandra]

If using 10+ in Force at the same time during a run, you face an Addiction Test that week at Threshold 2 and a second the next week at Threshold 1, assuming you don't use the next run. At 5 willpower + 5 Logic that puts you at 10.40%+(100%-10.40%)*1.73%, aka 0.1040+0.8960*0.0173 chance to get addicted each time, which is pretty much 12%. I get 11.95% but due to rounding in the first two percentage numbers it's not entirely that. So on average you get 1 extra addiction level every 8 runs, and that's ignoring the 'got to use weekly/daily or face withdrawal penalties' from higher levels of addiction.

If you only use Force 9, the chance is 1.73%, which is ~1/60. At Force 8 and then two weeks (that's two weeks AFTER your first week in which you used) not 'using the drug', you wouldn't have to roll.

[Gryphynx (Sphynx)]

Wow, love the numbers Michael.  Fortunately for the player, our GM likes minimal dice rolling, so with the exception of combat turns, Buying Hits is something our group embraces.  If having this many Foci unbalanced the character, it might be a different story I suppose, but there's no feeling of imbalance here.  Anyhows, he and I are trying to "fix" the character, so maybe slow to respond now, and possible changes to the sheet over the next few minutes. 

[ImaginalDisc]

Wow, love the numbers Michael.  Fortunately for the player, our GM likes minimal dice rolling, so with the exception of combat turns, Buying Hits is something our group embraces.  If having this many Foci unbalanced the character, it might be a different story I suppose, but there's no feeling of imbalance here.  Anyhows, he and I are trying to "fix" the character, so maybe slow to respond now, and possible changes to the sheet over the next few minutes. 

Aside from the foci issue, I like the character concept.

Maybe I'm too much of a narrativist player and GM, but what really jumps out at me are his knowledge skills. He speaks three languages, is a world class expert on Kung Fu and parkour, but he doesn't know ANYTHING else?

I thought he used to be an isolated monk. Did he read the sutras?http://www.fodian.net/world/?

Does he know Peking opera?

Did he devour Hong Kong martial arts films of the 20th century which lead him to trying to join a kung fu monastery?

Does he know classic Chinese literature, or would a reference to The Water Bandits go right over his head?

Has he become radicalized partly because he studies history and sees his personal struggle in some kind of historical context?

It's a very cool concept and the character's power level is matched by a good story.  Maybe you can kill two birds with one stone by taking out points from foci and juggling them into knowledges somehow?

[Gryphynx (Sphynx)]

Thanks for the comment IDisc.    Perhaps this is just something from 3e for us, but we assume that our base knowledge is greater than our list of knowledges.  While possible that he's into Opera, Sutras, or 20th century kung fu movies, those aren't areas that would come into play often enough to matter.  Rather, our GM would just ask, "So, anyone here have any background in <insert rare topic>" which opens up a doorway to a player or 2 to explain their knowledge of this trivia and how they know these things.  Our use of Knowledges is for things that are Run related.  Using Gymnastics to run over rooftops could be boosted by our Parquor training.  Identifying the combat stance of an opponent to identify, roughly, their combat skill, could be rolled by a Kung Fu roll.  He may very well know much more than those 2 topics, but they're just not on his sheet. 

[ImaginalDisc]

Ah. My group tends to love their knowledge skills as a way of building background.

Our decker is is an expert in gang art, for example, the Street Sam knows his seafood, and the shaman loves American football. :-p

[The Smiling Bandit]

As for blah as the current growth options are for an adept, I think this is kind of a cool way to prep one for advancement. I would bond a force two focus now so he could use two without issues, then he can use three for the risk he's now running for two... Only thing that really jumps out at me is he is hitting up some pretty esoteric powers on his list of Foci before he gets to the powers that would offset his relativelylow unarmed damage.   A point of cyber might be way off theme but bone augmentation would be extremely synergistic. Three levels of bone density bioware has him hitting and resisting damage like an orc way quicker than you can buy it with pp....

[Gryphynx (Sphynx)]

Thanks Bandit.  Pretty sure I'm not gonna talk him into Cyber.  He's plotted out all 12 Magic with me just over the past hour, he's got his next 200 karma spent in his head I think.    But, I will indeed mention it to him. 

[ImaginalDisc]

Thanks Bandit.  Pretty sure I'm not gonna talk him into Cyber.  He's plotted out all 12 Magic with me just over the past hour, he's got his next 200 karma spent in his head I think.    But, I will indeed mention it to him. 

Alternately, you can let the player get very creative with environmental damage, knocking people into things, throwing them about, etc. IT's more work the GM, but can make for exciting scenes.

Think Jackie Chan.

[The Smiling Bandit]

It's munchkin status fo sho but think about it... Aluminum bone lacing for. 8 as alpha ware is basically worth 3 pp.. 2 levels critical strike and roughly four levels of mystic armor... Then you have great options for the . 2... Smart link or platelet factories or one point of alpha ortho skin....

Which brings up a point.... This char has NO ranged?

[ImaginalDisc]

For combat purposes some thrown with nasty knives and grenades would not go amiss.

[Gryphynx (Sphynx)]

He showed me his Karma Expenditure list, seems it's closer to 500, not 200.  o.O

13	Initiate Grade 1 (2PP)	Traceless Walk, Wall Running, Critical Strike - Unarmed
8	Qi Focus	Astral Perception
8	Qi Focus	Pain Resistance 2
8	Qi Focus	Rapid Healing 2
35	Magic 7
8	Qi Focus	Combat Sense 2
16	Intiate Grade 2 (2PP)	Improved Ability - Unarmed 4
40	Magic 8
8	Qi Focus	Spell Resistance 2
19	Initiate Grade 3 (2PP)	Improved Ability - Unarmed 6, Mystic Armor 6
45	Magic 9
4	Qi Focus	Improved Potential - Physical
22	Initiate Grade 4 (2PP)	Improved Ability - Unarmed 8, Mystic Armor 8
50	Magic 10
10	Qi Focus	Missile Parry 5
25	Initiate Grade 5 (2PP)	Improved Ability - Unarmed 10, Mystic Armor 10
55	Magic 11
10	Qi Focus	Light Body 5
28	Initiate Grade 6 (2PP)	Improved Ability - Unarmed 11, Mystic Armor 11
60	Magic 12	Improved Ability - Unarmed 12, Mystic Armor 12
10	Qi Focus	Natural Immunity 5

Total cost: 482 (Plus other Karma expenditures of course). 

[sn0mm1s]

1) If played according to RAW, I think Code of Honor + Shark Mentor spirit is going to result in a good deal of lost karma and don't really mesh well.
2) I think he is going to be underwhelmed with his damage output, killing hands will rarely come into play for him outside of spirits and critters with ITNW since armor levels will generally be well above his damage output.


I am not sure what level of game/opponents you will be running against your players - but if you send him against any competently made prime runners I wouldn't expect him to live long.