[UmaroVI]

He's actually not supposed to have those: you only need Rigger Adaptation to jump in, not to remote control. The Info Savant uses either Remote Control or Machine Sprites.

[raggedhalo]

Really? I had thought it was necessary for remote control too. (Another) +1 to you for correcting me!

[Tarnish]

Does the Spirit medium lack binding or am I missing something?

[UmaroVI]

Yes. This is mostly because Binding is the sort of thing that new players tend to just not use (and can't usually make use of until they finish an adventure), and partly because picking up enough Binding to get things done is easily handled with karma. There's no practical issue with binding on that character (or any of the mages, really).

[Scruff1W]

Excellent post! I already made two runners based off your templates, so thank you very much. 

Binding spirits seems only worth it if you plan on Invoking (metamagic) them or making them an Ally Spirit. Please correct me if you disagree.

[Tsuzua]

Excellent post! I already made two runners based off your templates, so thank you very much. 

Binding spirits seems only worth it if you plan on Invoking (metamagic) them or making them an Ally Spirit. Please correct me if you disagree.

Binding's pretty strong.  1 spirit buddy is really good, a small army of spirit buddies is better.  Binding also gives you access to the fairly handy Aid Sorcery service*.    If you do want to go down the binding route, you'll want to be a charisma mage so you can have lots of bound spirits. 

Binding's nuyen cost ultimately doesn't matter much if you're a pure mage.  You'll rapidly be looking into useful money sinks. Binding's main drawback is the drain.  A force 6 spirit rolls 12 dice so you're likely taking 8 boxes of damage (likely physical).  But it could spike to 12.  However since binding is 100% downtime, all that matters is that you don't get KOed or killed while binding.  If you're still standing, you can get medkitted and/or nap for a few days before your health matters. 

You do want a extremely good drain roll (12+ dice) before you go down the binding route.  Since having a high drain roll is extremely useful for a mage in general,  this isn't as much of a cost. 

You can easily live as a mage without binding.  However, it's respectable choice to be a binder.  It's more useful than banishing at least.

 *- It does need to be at a force equal to the spell's force.  So it's not especially handy for combat spells since you'll need to have a bound force 8 spirit for your force 8 stunbolt.  Due to hits being capped by force as well, mystic adepts do the best here since they'll have smaller dice pools than full mages.  But a +5 to health or detection can be handy to make sure you cap out on hits.

[JustADude]

Binding spirits seems only worth it if you plan on Invoking (metamagic) them or making them an Ally Spirit. Please correct me if you disagree.

Being able to whistle up seven Force 6 spirits, whose services don't expire, is pretty useful... of course, that's the most practical for a Charisma Tradition mage.

[Carz]

(From InfoSavant & TechnoShaman sample characters)
"Also, you might consider threading up a Tacnet. You yourself cannot use it, but your drones and teammates can. "

I'm wondering why a Technomancer can't benefit from the Tacnet/Tacsoft?

From base, maybe I can see it since they won't be using trodes and such, but I'm thinking they just buy the SimRig Complex form (Unwired, pg 136), and then use that to add in their natural senses to the Tacnet that they themselves are running. As per Unwired pg 125 under Natural Senses, it says, "Visual, audio, or olfactory senses recorded via simrig each count as a sensor channel." If they have the Smartlink Complex form (Smartlink is listed under the Cybernetic Senses section as a valid channel) and a smartgun (to provide the actual sensor input), they can get the minimum 4 senses to be part of a Level 2 Tacnet.

Am I missing some other rules part that makes this setup not work?


Thanks!
Carz

[JustADude]

(From InfoSavant & TechnoShaman sample characters)
"Also, you might consider threading up a Tacnet. You yourself cannot use it, but your drones and teammates can. "

I'm wondering why a Technomancer can't benefit from the Tacnet/Tacsoft?

From base, maybe I can see it since they won't be using trodes and such, but I'm thinking they just buy the SimRig Complex form (Unwired, pg 136), and then use that to add in their natural senses to the Tacnet that they themselves are running. As per Unwired pg 125 under Natural Senses, it says, "Visual, audio, or olfactory senses recorded via simrig each count as a sensor channel." If they have the Smartlink Complex form (Smartlink is listed under the Cybernetic Senses section as a valid channel) and a smartgun (to provide the actual sensor input), they can get the minimum 4 senses to be part of a Level 2 Tacnet.

Am I missing some other rules part that makes this setup not work?


Thanks!
Carz

Not that I can see... and alternate vision modes from eye gear and other sensors slaved to your bionode would count as senses, as well. That means it's easy-peasy to get up to the 8-channel requirement.

Great, now I want to make a blind Technomancer that uses drones to see.

[Tsuzua]

The technomancers can totally join a tacnet in the sense of getting enough sensor channels.  It's more what will they do once they have it?  They ought to be hiding in their rigger cocoon and fight via their drones.  In small groups, I can see hooking up the technomancer just to meet the minimum member threshold.  The drones themselves have the channels to join a tacnet.  I suspect UmaroVI assumes that when command rigging, the drone needs the channels not you. 

[UmaroVI]

Pretty much. The technomancer really shouldn't be buying those complex forms either; it's very cheap to just slap on enough sensor channels to join a tacnet, if you so desire, although I recommend doing it after gameplay starts because technomancers are always very tight at chargen. It's more that the technomancer really wants their drones on the tacnet, but they themselves should be trying to hide in a rigger cocoon where the tacnet doesn't really matter.

[Carz]

Cool, that makes sense. UmaroVI's note was meant to be a tactical suggestion based on party role.

I just have a PC in my game that is becoming a technomancer (modified latent emergence), who currently fills a team role of second gunman (and will have to for a while longer), so he would likely be interested in tacsofts when I introduce that to the game (new group, just learning all the rules). I just wanted to make sure he could use them, if he chose to.

Thanks all!
Carz

[Dinendae]

Raggedhalo,

Unfortunately, this is one of those issues.

What happened is that, in SR4, it was definitely capacity cost equal to rating. Then in SR4A, there's a clusterfuck where different editions of the book and the pdf and everything sometimes do and don't have that line. The Changes Reference errata clarifies that it is supposed to be everything costs 1 capacity, except Ultrasound which costs 2. I did not discover that last stealth errata until now, so I'm fixing that one.

Out of curiosity, has there been a clarification on this by one of the developers? Is it audio enhancement rating = capacity like the SR4A book says, or is it each enhancement (except Ultrasound) costs one capacity, like the Changes .pdf says? If there has been a clarification either way, could someone please point me to it? I am making up several Missions legal characters for the next game and I want to make sure I get them correct, so that I do not need to have to adjust them during the game. Thanks!

[UmaroVI]

Not as far as I know, no. I wouldn't hold your breath for errata.

[Dinendae]

Not as far as I know, no. I wouldn't hold your breath for errata.

Well, crud! I was really hoping to have the characters all ready to go (as is), without having some last minute tweaking to do. I guess I'll just adjust the audio enhancement ratings downwards, so that they match what Hero Lab says they should be. It doesn't make much sense to me though; there's more space in an earbud to place enhancements than there would be in a contact, due to the thinness of the lense.