[Seraph]

The thing as many others said before, being a sniper in SR is maybe not what i would prefer, but knowing it can be very nice. Longarms will grant you the worlds coolest weapon beside the sniper rifles and that is the shootgun. So go for a SWAT member or something instead of sniper.

Like the big pet said:
Drop logic, but not willpower. Having done sniper training i say willpower will be your best friend, and it truly helps ingame to. Not many fighter soldiers have low willpower. You will need to push forward, even when life sucks, thus willpower!
I would drop Agility by one to raise body i think.
Droc charisma to up Reaction or body.
Drop pistols since you have the automatics.
Drop longarms from 7-5 and loose the spec, you will be truly cool enough anyway.

Get athletics.
You have close combat, drop blades. Or vice versa
And last, you need high perception, bump it.

By now you should have a lot more BP to spend on other stuff. get more starting cash to get cool ware, Reaction boosters, Nano hive with Limbic, As a USAC military in 2070 you should be pretty pumped on either gear or drugs
Hope you get were you want to!

[PMC Scholar]

Well I've looked at all the advice thrown out there and I've reworked the sniper into a more PC friendly concept.  He's still an antisocial nutcase, but with wired reflexes and so forth perhaps he is  more of an all around murder machine albeit one that prefers to work from about  mile away  . 

Race: Human 0bp
Qualities: Restricted Gear (5bp; For muscle Toner), Uncouth(+20bp)

Attributes: 200bp
B:3  A:5(9)  R:4(6)  S:3  C:2  I:5  L:2  W:4  E:2  Essence: 0.8

Active Skills: 162 bp
Athletics Skill Group: 2
Longarms (Sniper Rifles): 6(+2)
Dodge: 3
Automatics: 2
Demolitions: 1
Infiltration: 4 (Urban +2)
Outdoors Skill Group: 3
Blades: 2
First Aid: 1
Armorer:2
Etiquette: 1 (Military +2)
Perception: 4 (Visual +2)

Knowledge Skills: 21 free
Infantry Tactics: 4
UCAS Military: 4
Security Procedures: 4
Gardening: 3
Geology: 2
Spanish: 3
Russian: 1

Contacts: 11bp
Arms Dealer (Connection 2 Loyalty 1)
Ex-Squad Mate (Connection 2 Loyalty 6)

Gear and Life Style:  42bp
Armory kit, climbing gear, survival kit, respirator (rating 6), 100 meters or rope, 200 meters of stealth rope, Fake SIN (Rating 6), 2 Fake Licenses (Rating 3; For ingram Smartgun X and Ruger 100), backpack, tent, sleeping bag, armor jacket, chameleon suit (w/ rating 6 thermal dampening, rating 2 fire protection and rating 2 chemical protection), medkit (rating 6), biomonitor, 2 Stimm Packs (Rating 6) and 1 month low lifestyle

Augmentations:
Cybereyes (Alphawear w/ rating 3 vision enhancement, imagelink, lowlight, smartlink, thermographic, vision magnification and flare compensation), Sleep Regulator, Datajack, Muscle Toner (Rating 4), Cyber-ears (Alphawear rating 4 w/ dampner, audio enhancement rating 3, select sound filter rating 2 and spatial recognizer), Reflex Recorder (Longarms), Enhanced Articulation, Wired Reflexes (Rating 2), Synthacardium (Rating 2)

Matrix Gear:
Renraku Sensai w/ Renraku Ichi OS (Programs: Analyze 2, Browse 2, command 1, edit 2, firewall 5, ECCM 3)

Weapons:
Survival Knife, Ingram Smartgun X (w/ concealment holster, 300 normal rounds and 4 extra clips), Ruger 100 (w/ external smartlink, 100 normal rounds and 8 extra clips), Franchi Spas 22 (w/ lvl 3 gas vent system, 60 flechette rounds and  20 normal rounds), Ares Desert Strike (w/ Chameleon Coating, Electronic Firing Mechanism, Integral Silencer, external smartgun system, bipod, 50 subsonic rounds 80 EX-Explosive Rounds, 100 Normal rounds and 8 extra clips), 4 thermal smoke grenades, 2 flash bang grenades.

[rasmusnicolaj]

Are you really sure you want cybereyes and ears? You could get the same effect from a pair of glasses/lenses and some ear buds for a little over 1.000 nuyen and that is essence free (sorry if that has already been discussed).

Also Fake License Rating 6 is over the allowed 12R.

Can you pehaps lower some of your skills from 2 to 1 and the raise something to 4? That is more karma eficient. Demolitions 1 is not much so maybe just drop it instead of having the potential to blow of one of your hands (isn't Demolitions linked with Logic?).

Oh and I love your Gardening skills.

Rasmus

[Crash_00]

I agree.

Contacts Rating 3  (150¥) + Image Link (25¥) + Smartlink (500¥) + Vision Enhancement 3 (300¥) + Skinlink (50) = 1,025¥

Glasses Rating (100¥) + Thermographic (100¥) + Low-light (100¥) + Flare Compensation (50¥) + Vision Magnification (100¥) + Skinlink (50¥) = 500¥

Earbuds Rating 2 (20¥) + Audio Enhancement 3 (300¥) + Spatial Recognizer (100¥) + Skinlink (50¥) = 470¥

Headphones 1 (50¥) + Select Sound Filter (600¥) + Skinlink (50¥) = 700¥

Only thing you'd need to get cyber is the Dampner and that is much cheaper to get (.1 Essence and 750¥).

The way first aid works, I'd suggest dropping the one in it and boosting one of your other skills higher (Dodge maybe). Likewise, I'd suggest dropping some of the specializations (it's much more efficient to pick them up after CC) and raising skills with the points. Demolitions is likewise useless to you at that low of a level when coupled with your low logic.

Proposed Changes:

Code: [Select]

Active Skills: 162 bp
Athletics Skill Group: 2
Longarms (Sniper Rifles): 6(+2)
Dodge: 4
Automatics: 2
Infiltration: 4 (Urban +2)
Outdoors Skill Group: 3
Blades: 4
Armorer:2
Etiquette: 1
Perception: 4
As far as other general suggestions, I have two.

A.) Restricted gear for cheap augmentations is probably not worth it unless its a one or two shot campaign. You'd still be at 18 dice with your longarms skill (21 if you take the time to aim at the target like a sniper would) if you drop Muscle Toner to 2. The two dice aren't going to be a big deal and can easily be picked up after CC (either 16k or 32k if your GM doesn't let you upgrade gear like Aug. implies).

B.) Pick up some more qualities. You can pick up another 15 points of negative qualities which would give you more points to spend on either positive qualities, skills, gear, contacts, etc. Think of how you want to play the character and pick up negative qualities that fit with it.

For your weapons:

A.) Pick up a personalized grip for your survival knife (100¥ and +1 die when using it).
B.) Give your SMG some recoil comp, or just ditch in and the automatics skills and sink more money into your longarms (shotgun specifically).

Suggestions aside:
Rating 6 SIN is higher avail than 12.
If your GM uses the armor mod rules from Arsenal about rating * 1.5, your chameleon suit is one point over max modification ratings.
By RAW, Shotguns can't accept Gas Vent systems.

[EmperorPenguin]

Edge is a good choice to boost, because if you want him to execute extremely challenging shots (like your heli/crosswind/3-sec window example) it pays to have some luck on your side.

[CanRay]

Make your own luck, and Snipe with a Panther Assault Cannon or Grenade Launcher.  Close counts when firing high-ex after all. 

OK, OK, I just like the big booms. 

[Weldûn]

Drop Apptiude Longarms and Longarms 7. It may be characterful, but he's still an amazing world class sniper without it... and he also has 18 build points to spend elsewhere. Where? Dunno offhand, but thats a damn fine trade for losing a die.

Possible places to spend those points.
- Raising Edge
- Dodge 4 with speciality
- Reaction enhancers plus Perception increasing 'ware
- Put the running and climbing together, buy Athletics 3

Hell, I'd rework that skill as well. Being world class is all well and good, but the 26 points spent in Longarms + Sniper Spec can be rolled into the 8 points in pistols and the 8 points in automatics. All up that's 42 points. 40 points buys the firearms group to 4, which when combined with agility of 9 gives you 13 dice before aiming or targeting assists. And 2 points to be spent elsewhere along with the 18 mentioned in the quote. This is while enabling the character to be a long range weapons expert who prefers a stealth approach. But this way he can use the right tool for the right job. A guy on a rooftop 500 meters away who lays down suppression fire can be a real lifesaver to a team in ways that a sniper wouldn't be.

[Mason]

I find that the weapon specialist build with a focus on sniping works better. that is, give him automatic weapons and a sidearm and a shotgun or two, etc. Basically, have one weapon of most types and bolster AGI and REA as much as you can. that way, when the team needs suppressing fire, your assault rifle can handle it. and when the team needs overwatch, your sniper is good for the job. and in those social situations in a secure facility, knowing how to use that sidearm or knife is crucial. For that reason, you may want to:

Dump the restricted gear and go for a slightly lesser version, and make upgrading that the character's first order of business for run proceeds.
Ensure everything is smartlinked.
Maybe do some basic weapon modding like Personalized grips on everything.
reduce skill values in high skills and increase it in low ones pertaining to this specialty. or just grab the skill group for firearms.
Add some RP value and personality to the build, perhaps with negative mental qualities. (to make him/her more fun to play)

[CanRay]

And a good backstory!