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[5E] First Char: Street Samurai

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Zodd

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« on: <09-18-15/0527:35> »
Hello all,

Friend just began some mission running in SR5 for our group and i ended up with a Street Sammie (not complaining, everything is new, so everything is cool :D )
This is what i came up with after a while. It is a primarily melee fighter and a tank, with some ranged capability. Are there any glaring newbie mistakes made in this build ? I am aware i could of pumped my armor higher by abusing cyber hand/feet but not gonna do that, it has a funny taste in my mouth when i even think of it.

So basically just came in to ask veteran players of Shadowrun is there anything that i missed ? Not necessarily asking for how to optimize the build further, as this char is already considered the strongest one at the table and i do not want to make the disparity even greater then it already is, as that would make it un-fun and dangerous for rest of the gaming table in case GM ever decides to throw something at me (he already threw grenades, dealt some damage) . So without further ado here is the build:

Priorities:
A - Money (450k)
B - Attributes (20)
C - Race (Ork)
D - Skills (22)
E - Magical (Mundane)

Hiroshi Aozora; Male; Ork; 180cm; 83kg; Brown eyes; Black hair;

Attributes:

Body       7   (4 base, 3 points)
Agility    5   (1 base, 3 points)
Reaction    5[+1]   (1 base, 3 points)[+1 from synaptic booster]
Strength    5    (3 base, 2 points)
Charisma    2    (1 base, 1 point)
Intuition    3    (1 base, 2 points)
Logic       3    (1 base, 2 points)
Willpower    3    (1 base, 2 points)

Edge      2    (1 base, 10 karma)



Qualities:

Positive Qualities:
Bilingual   (5 karma)
Toughness   (9 kartma)

Negative Qualities:
SINner (Corporate - Renraku) (25 karma)


Contacts(6 points):
Grak "The Drek" 3/1 (4 points)
Zara J      4/4 (2 points, 6 karma)



Skills(22):

Automatics    3     [Spec: SMG]   (4 skills)
Blades      6[+1] [Spec: Swords]   (7 skills)[+1 from reflex recorder]
Etiquette   1     [Spec: Corporate]   (2 skills)
Gymnastics   3         (3 skills)
Perception   3         (3 skills)
Pilot G.C.   1         (2 karma)
Running      2[+1]         (6 karma)[+1 from reflex recorder]
Sneaking   3         (3 skills)
Heavy Weapons   3         (12 karma)



Cyberware and Bioware:

Cyberware:
Bonelacing (Aluminum)                           (1e; 18k ¥)
Cybereyes (Rating 3 with: Image Link; Flare Compensation;            
       Low Light Vision;Smartlink;                   (0.4e; 30k ¥)
   Thermographic Vision; Vision Enhancement R3)
Dermal Plating (Rating 2)                        (Alpha; 0,8e; 7200 ¥)
Obvious Full Right Arm (Armor R2; Customized Agility R6;
         Customized Strength R6; Enhanced Agility R3;         (1e; 93500¥)
         Enchanced Strength R2)
Obvious Full Right Arm (Customized Agility R6; Customized Strength R6;
         Enhanced Agility R3; Enchanced Strength R2         (1e; 92300 ¥)
         Submachine Gun)

Bioware:
Platelet Factories                           (0.2e; 17000 ¥)
Synaptic Booster R1                           (0.5e; 95000 ¥)
Reflex Recorder (Blades)                        (0.1e; 14000 ¥)
Reflex Recorder (Running)                        (0.1e; 14000 ¥)


Street Gear:

Armor:
Armor Jacket (Fire Resistance R6; Nonconductivity R3; Insulation R3)         (4000 ¥)
Helmet (Fire Resistance R3; Nonconductivity R3)                  (1600 ¥)

Armor Vest

Weapons:
Katana                                 (1000 ¥)
Ingram Smartgun X                           (800 ¥)
Cyber Submachine Gun                           (See Full Right Arm)   
Ares Alpha (Gas Vent 3 System)                        (3250 ¥)


Gear:
5x Spare Clip (Yamaha raiden)                        (25 ¥)
5x Spare Clip (Cyber Submachine Gun)                     (25 ¥)
5x Spare Clip (Ingram Smartgun X)                     (25 ¥)
320 Ammo: Regular (Submachine Gun)                     (640 ¥)
250 Ammo: Regular (Assault Rifle)                     (500 ¥)
8x minigrenade: High Explosive                        (800 ¥)

Earbuds (R3: Audio Enhancement R3)                     (1500 ¥)
Medkit R6                              (1500 ¥)
   2x Supplies                           (200 ¥)
2x Slap Patch: Trauma                           (1000 ¥)
Hermes Ikon                              (3000 ¥)
DocWagon Contract, Basic                        (5000 ¥)

Trid Projector                              (200 ¥)

Tool Kit (Armorer)                           (500 ¥)

Fake SIN/License:
Fake Sin R4 (Bounty Hunter):
   Fake Linceses R4 for: Possesion of Firearms, Possesion of Augmentation;    (12400 ¥)   
               Concealed Carry;
Fake Sin R4 (Security):
   Fake Linceses R4 for: Possesion of Firearms, Possesion of Augmentation;    (12400 ¥)
               Concealed Carry;


Suzuki Mirage                              (8500 ¥)

Lifestyle (Middle x2)                           (10000 ¥)


Essence: 0.9
Money spent: 449865
Money Left: 135

Karma:
+25 (Starting)
+25 (Corporate Sinner)
-10 (edge)
-5 (biligual)
-9 (toughness)
-6 (contacts)
-20(skills)
Karma left: 0

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #1 on: <09-18-15/0701:29> »
Toughness isn't a very worthwhile quality.

You could have higher on combat dice pools; your LOG isn't doing much at all for you, and more AGI and INT are always nice.

Getting bone lacing typically means going unarmed, so you're getting less value out of it taking blades.

The cyber arms really are not doing a lot for this build. They're best to shore up physical stay weaknesses which you don't have.
Playability > verisimilitude.

Zodd

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« Reply #2 on: <09-18-15/1008:33> »
I understand and agree with what you said to a point.

But i got to ask, what's with everyone not liking cyberlimbs outside of 1 STR/ 1 AGI builds ? If they are so bad, what's a better option ? For the cool effect, and an effective Agi 9/ Str 10 for attacks, the price seems okay to me, so i am confused on this one.

Bone lacing is there for added 4 dice on damage soaks, as well as defaulting on unarmed when i am unable to enter with the katana (8 dice pool defaulting seemed ok to me, especially as i plan to put a couple of points into unarmed later on)

As for LOG, well i went with rounded out char, so basically just lowered CHA to represent him not being a good conversation keeper as he is straight and to the point kind of character.

ikarinokami

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« Reply #3 on: <09-18-15/1034:44> »
I understand and agree with what you said to a point.

But i got to ask, what's with everyone not liking cyberlimbs outside of 1 STR/ 1 AGI builds ? If they are so bad, what's a better option ? For the cool effect, and an effective Agi 9/ Str 10 for attacks, the price seems okay to me, so i am confused on this one.

Bone lacing is there for added 4 dice on damage soaks, as well as defaulting on unarmed when i am unable to enter with the katana (8 dice pool defaulting seemed ok to me, especially as i plan to put a couple of points into unarmed later on)

As for LOG, well i went with rounded out char, so basically just lowered CHA to represent him not being a good conversation keeper as he is straight and to the point kind of character.

because you don't get the movement rate for cyber limbs or the physical limit increase, so it becomes an issue of efficiently spending your limited resources. so if you have good natural agility and/or strengh it's a waste to spend invest even more resources into a cyber limbs.

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #4 on: <09-18-15/1049:24> »
I wouldn't call 8 dice defaulting good, but you also said you were the most powerful character in the group so you can look at yourself as maybe a good example of a tougher enemy the group might face with some mooks.

Even so the value of bone lacing is reduced if unarmed isn't your primary melee skill. Also look at bone aug as it saves you Essence

Can't believe I missed it but you have no initiative enhancement. That makes you a fairly bad Sam to be honest as one of the cornerstones of the sam is going first and going often. You want wired reflexes and REA enhancers.
Playability > verisimilitude.

ikarinokami

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« Reply #5 on: <09-18-15/1056:32> »
I wouldn't call 8 dice defaulting good, but you also said you were the most powerful character in the group so you can look at yourself as maybe a good example of a tougher enemy the group might face with some mooks.

Even so the value of bone lacing is reduced if unarmed isn't your primary melee skill. Also look at bone aug as it saves you Essence

Can't believe I missed it but you have no initiative enhancement. That makes you a fairly bad Sam to be honest as one of the cornerstones of the sam is going first and going often. You want wired reflexes and REA enhancers.

he has synaptic boosters rating 1

Hobbes

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« Reply #6 on: <09-18-15/1156:57> »
You should have enough Essence that you could go with Used Muscle Replacement 3 if you drop the Cyber limbs.   Leaves you with Agility and Str of 8 for all tests.  Athletics, sneaking, movement, lift/carry, that your cyberlimbs don't help with.  And should put another 100k in your pocket, possibly enough to bump up Synaptic Accelerators.  If you're short on Essence you could swap out Dermal for Orthoskin.  Something to consider.

Skills, generally low ratings should be bought with Karma.  For Skills D I like to stick to the basics.  Automatics (SMG) 6 (8), Sneaking (urban) 6 (8), Perception 6, Blades (Knife) 1 (3).  And then throw 10 to 20 Karma rounding out skills.  Swap around Automatics, Blades if you want.  Or drop Blades for Unarmed (Cyber).  TL;DR, pick three skills and max them out.  Use leftover points for specializations, buy everything else with Karma.

Stats, Cha & Logic could be dropped to 1 and raised to 2 with Karma.  Frees up 3 stat points for Agility, Intuition and/or Strength. 

Positive Qualities, as stated Toughness isn't that good.  Bilingual I've never thought worth 5 Karma given how cheap language skills are.  For Samurai's I like Perfect Timing (and Armor with Gear Access) *or* Ambidexterity (for SMG/MP in one hand, knife in other).  Basically so you can swap between Melee and ranged without losing an attack action.  If Perception or Stealth aren't one of your Maxed out skills Catlike or Perceptive can help out.   
« Last Edit: <09-18-15/1320:22> by Hobbes »

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #7 on: <09-18-15/1219:49> »
I wouldn't call 8 dice defaulting good, but you also said you were the most powerful character in the group so you can look at yourself as maybe a good example of a tougher enemy the group might face with some mooks.

Even so the value of bone lacing is reduced if unarmed isn't your primary melee skill. Also look at bone aug as it saves you Essence

Can't believe I missed it but you have no initiative enhancement. That makes you a fairly bad Sam to be honest as one of the cornerstones of the sam is going first and going often. You want wired reflexes and REA enhancers.

he has synaptic boosters rating 1
Missed that. Still, meh.
Playability > verisimilitude.

Csjarrat

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« Reply #8 on: <09-18-15/1928:29> »
I'd be very tempted by the cyberware compatibility quality, really let's you squeeze a few extra implants out of that essence which is golden for a street Sam. If you've got decent physical stats, it's pretty decent to take a half arm for the toys like gyro stabilisers and slide holsters as well as shock hands and deus ex arm spurs. It doesn't impact on your decent stats but brings a toolbox of useful stuff along to a fight without duplicating investments of resources.

Also, put some toys on your guns. Powered folding stock, improved rangefinders, personalised grip, flashlight, sling etc. Make it your own :-) I'd pick up the met blue defender commlink instead of the ikon, better firewall for defending your kit, otherwise an internal router Aug is a good option for leaving stuff off wireless but retaining their benefits
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Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #9 on: <09-18-15/2027:59> »
I like the Internal Router, but .7 Essence is a big chunk. On the other hand, it'd be easy enough to get it in play as betaware or even deltaware. Low base availability and pretty cheap nuyen-wise. Deltaware puts it at availability 12, 35,000 nuyen, and .35 Essence...not bad at all. Upgrade your smartlink and datajack to delta at the same time and you can squeeze that little bit extra in.
Playability > verisimilitude.

Zodd

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« Reply #10 on: <09-19-15/0735:12> »
Well as i previously stated we are new to Shadowrun, so i really don't want to over do it on a first run - if we get wiped, then we will see what we shall do - how we shall proceed with new characters and will we bump them to the new heights.

@ Hobbes - Used grade for cyberlimbs while in corebook and not alternative rule can be a cheese, as it would allow for used Titanium Bone Lacing.
As for Muscle Replacement 3 Used i have considered it, but if i was not to run with cyberlimbs for coolness effect and cause a part of me think Used is a bit of a cheese, i would of went Muscle Toner 3 and Muscle Augmentation 3 Used as well, as it bumps the cost in essence from 3,5 for Muscle Replacement to 1,5 for both (while it is double the price of Muscle Replacement, it leaves me a lot more Essence to play around with to add Orthskin, etc).

For skills i tried to do that as much as possible, but simply i wanted all of the skills there. At first i had like 40 karma from Negative qualities, but then back tracked and saw that max is 25, so had to pull 15 karma out of the skills.

As for stats, i was already dried up for karma as you can see above, so pulling 20 karma out of nowhere to spend on 2 stats was not a possibility, and i come from mindset (that my group shares), i simply don't like to dumping stats, cause as much as it makes sense mechanically, it doesn't make for a very fun character if you've got LOG 1 and CHA 1 - not being able to connect the dots nor speak without people's brow furrowing in frustration cause of your screechy voice or however you put low CHA. Positive qualities i am of the same mind that Toughness isn't that great, but i wanted a positive quality to represent me being tanky and it was either Toughness or High Pain Tolerance. As for Bilingual it goes with a characters story. He was Japanese working for Renraku, and before he could join into the Red Samurai's, he got struck by Goblinization turning into an Orc, so he was shipped away from Headquarters in Japan to arcology in Seattle and has lived there since, with his training within corp being so heavy into combat, he was provided with some basic augmentations of his choosing (since Money as Priority A) and let out onto the street soon after to work as a Shadowrunner and an informant.

Being a wannabe Red Samurai it seemed like a proper idea for him to wield katana - problem is that except for personalized grip and gecko grip, there aren't really that many melee weapon accessories.

@Csjarrat - I know what you mean! Biocompability is awesome quality, so is prototyle transhuman - all tho prototype transhuman can be broken if taken with adept or mage or shaman, as per how i read, it gives 1 essence of bioware implants that do not count toward your Essence of 6, which means, it shouldn't lower Magic neither, but alas, no karma for such things - in some regard picking Orc gimped me cause i couldn't put Skills C that would free up some of my karma, on other hand Orc gave me 5 extra stats so my Attributes B comes ahead of Human with Attributes A.

As for toys on guns i got gas vent 3, and while that is far cry from anything special, rest of accessories for guns are relatively cheap - both nuyen and availability wise, but i will be getting a few of them in.

Internal Router sounds awesome! But being how both GM and me at first thought that my cyberarms could be hacked, and later me debunking that idea as i read through the book sufficiently (neural networking for the win) i would like to leave him some venue of approach - so i am fine if he shuts off my smart link.


Edit: As i was writing this and frequently leaving it to sit for 10-15 minutes i completely skipped probably most important thing - Thanks for all the input guys! You are awesome

SlipperyChummer

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« Reply #11 on: <09-19-15/1227:58> »

Obvious Full Right Arm (Armor R2; Customized Agility R6;
         Customized Strength R6; Enhanced Agility R3;         (1e; 93500¥)
         Enchanced Strength R2)
Obvious Full Right Arm (Customized Agility R6; Customized Strength R6;
         Enhanced Agility R3; Enchanced Strength R2         (1e; 92300 ¥)
         Submachine Gun)

Little oversight there.

Zodd

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« Reply #12 on: <09-20-15/0927:30> »
Care to elaborate please ?
What oversight ?

Whiskeyjack

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« Reply #13 on: <09-20-15/0943:18> »
You have two right arms.
Playability > verisimilitude.

gradivus

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« Reply #14 on: <09-22-15/1657:14> »
If you're really gonna put a sub-machinegun in a cyberarm, go with an Ingram Smartgun or something similar.
And I don't see a need for the second arm.
By getting rid of it, and finagling your purchases, you can up to Synaptic Boosters 2.
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