[Baron Samedi]

Hi all, i'm new to the board so first i'd like to say i'm quite impressed by the amount of knowledge displayed. I'm sorry if my english is bad but i'm not a native speaker.

I've been trying to make a character that suits me and i fail to make it really viable, i'm asking for advice.

I'm trying to make an adept (possibly a mystical adept) that would fullfill the role of healer (with first aid, empathic healing and regeneration) and of face while being able to do something in fight (i was thinking mostly commanding voice + a backup against drone or so)

I noticed it's quite hard to get regeneration, you're either shapeshifter or infected. I'm not really into the shapeshifters as they're dual natured, i feel like they are only viable as mage. So i was trying to make  something out or the banshee which in my eyes seemed like the easier infected race to play.

The campain is quite far but i already know we're suppose to work for some kind or corporation related to horizon which deals with medecine. The GW specified we had to have some kind of background that makes us dependant on the corpo, i though they could provide blood and possibly essence drain so it seemed like a good idea.

How would you make the character blend easily ? i thought maybe Alleviate Allergy, Heal, improved reflexe and improved charisma seemed like nice spells for this char?


Do you have any ideas on how i could make such an expensive option viable ?

[Blue_Lion]

Regeneration is a self only power only a few ways to get it all with big down side. Magical healing with spells may be a option.

[UmaroVI]

So, infected are very, very hard to make work well because they are so expensive.

I can give you advice but I want to make sure it's pointing in the right direction, because I'm not really sure what your priorities are.

Banshees pay through the nose for some very small stat boosts, some very, very serious drawbacks, and a few very good abilities (Fear, Mist Form, Essence Drain, and Regeneration). Note that you're also capping your Magic one lower to be one which is a serious hit. That said, they are just weak, not awful, and you can make a playable Banshee. But it sounds like you picked Banshee as something that met some criteria, rather than because you specifically wanted Banshee, so I want to warn you about this.

If you do want to play an Infected, I would think about Nosferatu. They look more expensive, but actually aren't; including the difference between Human and Elf base, they pay 55 more points, but get 80 more points of stats, and on top of that they get some notably better powers. The big thing is that unlike Banshees, a Nosferatu can lean almost completely on their innate powers to be effective.

If you just want Regeneration, a generally better (and less wierd) option is to be a Possession mage, get Invoking and Channeling ASAP, and have a Great Form Plant Spirit possess you. This gives you Regeneration, among other things. It does have the drawback of not kicking in a few adventures down the road when you can afford the two initiations, but it's got a lot less drawbacks than Infected and doesn't require as much screwy stuff.

There's also a funky option where you make a mage (either Materialization or Possession), pick a tradition that gets Plant, plus one of Guardian, Man, or Task, Invokes a great form Plant and a great form Guardian/Man/Task spirit, has the second spirit Endowment the Endowment power to the plant spirit, and then has the Plant spirit Endowment its Regeneration power. This is harder to pull off - you have to be able to get Great Form spirits of two types, which means you can't just lean on Specialization - but it doesn't make you Possession-dependent, and it has the side effect that you can actually grant Regeneration to a bunch of people, not just yourself, which is nifty.

[Glyph]

I think what he wants to do is use empathetic healing, then regenerate the transferred damage.  Which may or may not work, depending on whether the GM considers the transferred damage to be "magical" or not (since regeneration can not heal magical damage).  I would carefully sound out the GM about this - some GM's would consider this exploiting the rules, and if they do, I would not take it.  An effective combo is not worth getting on the GM's hit list.

UmaroVI is correct about nosferatu being a better buy than banshees.  So are vampires, actually.  If you are getting banshee because you want to play an elf for the Charisma bonus, then look at the infected stat modifiers again - banshees don't get any additional Charisma, but vampires and nosferatu both get +2 Charisma.  So a human vampire or nosferatu has the same Charisma advantage that an elven banshee does.  Despite costing a net 10 more points than a vampire (when you figure in the attribute modifiers), a nosferatu might be a better choice for a healer/face, since they also get that bonus to their Logic attribute.

[Blue_Lion]

The banshie and vampire can drain essence witch can used to boost stats including magic (tempory but if you feed on allot of essense you could if you wanted push your magic up to 9 for a day.)
The best way to get regeneration i think whould be one of the shape shifters. Cost a bit more than the goblin, most have stat changes but does not have loss of essence. The other ones eat up allot of points pluss shape shifters dont need to kill people to live. The abilty to turn into a animal is also a pluss. Eagle mages nasty snipers. Ask abouta  owl and use low light instead of vision mag. The bear is the high end with a starting bod of 7 13 max lots of dice to regen with. But low agi and reaction along with most mental stats. Fox low end has to many physcal penitlies for an adept.  Wolf may be a better choice at 55 points but no stat schanges. 60 points eagles get vision enhancment 2 vision mag and bonus to cha. I whould look at shape shifters before infected.

[Baron Samedi]

@Blue_Lion well the idea was to stack different sources of heal : first aid, heal spell, empathic healing (+ eventually painkiller) and then regain the lost life with my regeneration.

I might be mistaken but i really thing the dual nature of shapeshifter make then too susceptible to astral combat.

@Glyph  I know this combo is subject to interpretation, i'll talk about it to my GM don't worry, i'm not that kind of player.

@ UmaroVI : I'm definitly considering  your last option which is simply awesome,I would never have thought of it alone,  in this last case i guess there's no point to keep empathic healing if i can provide the whole team with regeneration...

I'm gonna try to build something around this idea, Thanks again, i'll post a draft af the character later.

[CitizenJoe]

I might be mistaken but i really thing the dual nature of shapeshifter make then too susceptible to astral combat.

Infected are also dual.

I want to say the only non-dual regenerating is a rock worm.

[blackangel]

Sorry for my english, it's not my NL too 

In fact, conjuring an ally with endowment and regeneration will nearly solve the problem.

For a possession tradition you need channeling to have another kind of boost.

BA

[Blue_Lion]

True you can be attacked in astral combat but the essence loss is a big isssue. Read shadow run 20th anv pg 68 Essence - charters with magic  or resonance atributes are subject to penilties if they have a essence lower than 6. for each point of essence below 6, the charter looses 1 full point from her essence and a full point of magic. So with essence loss you run the risk of loosing magic atribute. In addition there are great social risk to be an infected. Depending on how your gm runs things he might even use the rule from the old sr4 main book where any essence loss is loss of magic.

Roll playing wise infected are often hunted down, more so than shapeshifters. In adtion there are other penilites, such as needed to attack other mettahumans to live.
Daul natured suffer no penilty for beein on both planes, and can see on both planes allowing your face to see the aura of the people he is talking to see there curent state. Also you can see what is on the astral plane and may even be able to fight it with normal unarmed.  Both have there draw backs but as long as you have the training for astral fight or have a mage with a spirt watching over you, beeing attacked from astral plane is the lesser of the two. As an adept you can also use say a weapon focus to help you out.
Then there is a matter of points, you can quickly fall short with spending 150 to make a human into a vampire. After 200 for base stats that is 50 for skills gear and what not.(magic is not part of the 200 point cap) so if you then need first aid, and medical training socail skills such as negation, and etttiicet. does not leave much left over combat skills gear let alone contacts. As regen works off body, and magic you whould want them both high to start with. then as a face you need a high chasma so even only rasing each 4 times that is 120 points spent on stats then you will need logic of what 3 raises so that puts you at 150 l(110 if you dont count magic) you will need intution to use perception to see what is going on so that is at least 2 raises 170 now will whould be nice to have so 2 raises on that 190 agilty to it 1 raise, 200 reaction 1 raise 210, str 1 raise 220(180 not counting magic) that leaves you 30 points for skills so negoation 3, etticet 3, that is 24 points gone placing you at 6 points for medicen contacts and gear. Not realy allot to work with.

[Blue_Lion]

I might be mistaken but i really thing the dual nature of shapeshifter make then too susceptible to astral combat.

Infected are also dual.

I want to say the only non-dual regenerating is a rock worm.

Ummm no they use to be but lost that in 4th ed. Think now only the ghoul is doul natured.

[Blue_Lion]

Sorry for my english, it's not my NL too 

In fact, conjuring an ally with endowment and regeneration will nearly solve the problem.

For a possession tradition you need channeling to have another kind of boost.

BA

That whould work but he wants regen for a charter at start that will take a few runs to set up. karma cost and all.

[Baron Samedi]

I might be mistaken but i really thing the dual nature of shapeshifter make then too susceptible to astral combat.

Infected are also dual.

I want to say the only non-dual regenerating is a rock worm.

Well all infected are not dual sir Banshee is not, nor is Vampire.

@Blue Lion I see you advocate the shapeshifter quite a lot, i'll give a second look 

[Blue_Lion]

I might be mistaken but i really thing the dual nature of shapeshifter make then too susceptible to astral combat.

Infected are also dual.

I want to say the only non-dual regenerating is a rock worm.

Well all infected are not dual sir Banshee is not, nor is Vampire.

@Blue Lion I see you advocate the shapeshifter quite a lot, i'll give a second look 

Np all is good people can disagree i just think spending over 100 points on race when I am always having trouble with getting the last few things as is could be bad handicap.

[JustADude]

Somethng else to think on: Nosferatu have special abilities that give them a 3x Natural cap on their drained Essence (normal is 2x), and raises their Essence Loss interval to 1 every 6 months (normal is per month). So, bigger essence reserves and longer to burn through them, plus great stats and powers. What's not to like?

Also, since you're doing Logic skills and the Mystic Adept thing anyway, you can take Mind Over Matter to replace you Agility with your Logic in tests, saving more points.

[Blue_Lion]

Somethng else to think on: Nosferatu have special abilities that give them a 3x Natural cap on their drained Essence (normal is 2x), and raises their Essence Loss interval to 1 every 6 months (normal is per month). So, bigger essence reserves and longer to burn through them, plus great stats and powers. What's not to like?

Also, since you're doing Logic skills and the Mystic Adept thing anyway, you can take Mind Over Matter to replace you Agility with your Logic in tests, saving more points.

The 50 points for magic edge and skills if you max out the base stats point allot ment. As an adept he will need magic. He needs the skills etticet, negoation, medicen and first aid to make the charter the way he wants so it limits him to much on points for skills. He could take realy crapy stats but he needs 3 high stats to be good at what he wants to do. i think my estimet was bas stat mod to make it work was 180 + say 30-for magic that is 210 and that is with no edge change. Then throw in race 360 adept is 5 points so you are sitting at around 365 now if you max out negitive qualites with no other positive that is 65 for gear, skills and contacts. now he needs at least 4 skills if he made them all say level 4 that 64 points and he still does not have any skills to help in combat. Why bring him, he is only good as suport and worthless during the actual run. oh wait is mystic adept 5 or 10, and he still had sno spells.