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combat medic troll cyber under construction, looking for feedback

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Raven Runner

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« on: <01-11-19/1431:14> »
Newer to SR, any feedback welcome.

Concept: troll combat medic, new to the shadows but knows the streets, easy guy to get along with, just wants to help everyone out. Decent with a pistol and a medkit and durable to boot. Definitely a "support" character. Not a heavy hitter, looking to be a solid asset to a less experienced team. Planning to expand into shotguns and sniper rifles in game.

Backstory: smart troll from Atlanta, got involved with a street fighting gang and was jacked up with ware, then realized he wanted to do good and broke with the gang, hid at a street docs and learned 1st aid and pacifism (role played but not quality), when things cooled down with the gang he went and did a stint with doc wagon, loved coworkers but struggled with corp life, so put in his notice and left on good terms, booked flight to Seattle for a new life, aiming to do good on the streets and make some cred. Was gifted a refurbished doc wagon helmet by his work buddies before leaving town and it's now his prized possession.

Have 25 extra karma atm, and have not done knowledge skills. Essence is at 3.45.

== Priorities == (sum to 10, obviously)
Metatype: B,3
Attributes: B,3
Special: E,0
Skills: D,1
Resources: B,3

== Attributes ==
BOD: 8
AGI: 5(6)
REA: 4(6)
STR: 5
CHA: 3
INT: 4
LOG: 4
WIL: 3
EDG: 1

== Derived Attributes ==
Essence:                   3.45
Initiative:                10 +3d6
Physical Damage Track:     12
Stun Damage Track:         10

== Limits ==
Physical:                  8
Mental:                    5
   Audio Enhancement [+3] (Only for Perception (Hearing))
   Medkit [+3] (Only for First Aid and Medicine)
   Medkit [+6] (Only for First Aid and Medicine)
   Vision Enhancement [+3] (Only for Perception (Visual))
Social:                    5
   Securetech PPP: Arms Kit [-1] (Must be visible)
   Securetech PPP: Legs Kit [-1] (Must be visible)
Astral:                    5

== Active Skills == (athletics group at 1, other skills showing base 0 have been bought at rank 1 w/ karma)
Etiquette (Street)       Base:5          Pool:8(10)
First Aid (Gunshot Wounds) Base:6          Pool:10(12)
Gymnastics               Base:0          Pool:9
Longarms                 Base:0          Pool:7
Medicine                 Base:0          Pool:5
Perception (Visual)      Base:4          Pool:8(10)
Pilot Ground Craft       Base:0          Pool:7
Pistols (Semi-Automatics) Base:3          Pool:9(11)
Running                  Base:0          Pool:8
Sneaking                 Base:0          Pool:7
Swimming                 Base:0          Pool:6
Unarmed Combat           Base:0          Pool:7

== Knowledge Skills ==

== Contacts ==
;Street Doc(2, 3)
;Fixer(3, 1)

== Qualities ==
Agile Defender
Natural Athlete
SINner (Corporate) (DocWagon)
Thermographic Vision

== Lifestyle ==
Hard up(Squatter)1 Month
   + Grid Subscription (Public Grid) [+50¥]

== Cyberware/Bioware ==
Biomonitor
Bone Density Augmentation Rating 3
Datajack
Internal Air Tank Rating 1
Muscle Toner Rating 1
Synaptic Booster Rating 2

== Armor ==
Securetech PPP: Arms Kit           +1
Securetech PPP: Legs Kit           +1
SWAT Helmet (doc wagon helmet)                        +3
   + Flare Compensation
   + Image Link
   + Smartlink
   + Vision EnhancementRating 3
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit            9
   + Auto-Injector
   + Fire Resistance 2
   + Nonconductivity 5
   + Biomonitor

== Weapons ==
Ares Predator V
   + Smartgun System, Internal
   Pool: 9 (11)   Accuracy: 5 (7)   DV: 8P   AP: -1   RC: 3
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 7   Accuracy: 8   DV: 7P   AP: -   RC: 3

== Commlink ==
Renraku Sensei(ATT: 0,SLZ: 0,DP: 3,FWL: 3)
   + Commlink Functionality[Camera, Micro, Chip Player, Credstick Reader, Earbuds, GPS Guidance System, Micro Trid-Projector, Music Player, RFID Tag Scanner, Shock- and Water-Resistant Case, Touchscreen Display]

== Gear: Equipped ==
Ammo: Regular Ammo (Heavy Pistols) ×50
Backpack (Good)
Certified Credstick, Standard
Earbuds Rating 3
   + Audio Enhancement Rating 3
Fake SIN (Larry Pain) Rating 4
   + Fake License (Doc Wagon Pro) Rating 4
   + Fake License (Driver's License) Rating 4
Flashlight, Infrared
HemostatiX Dressing
Light Stick ×2
Medkit Rating 6
Medkit Rating 3
Restraint, Metal
Slap Patch, Stim Patch Rating 6 ×5
Slap Patch, Trauma Patch ×5

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #1 on: <01-11-19/1611:09> »
A couple of thoughts:

Why not Muscle Replacement 1 instead of Musle Toner 1?  You'd free up 7,000¥. get a bonus STR point, and in turn your Physical Limit would go up.  Sure it'd eat more essence, but you have plenty!

The Corp SIN quality: of course there's nothing saying you can't use it... but your background doesn't sound like someone who'd have a Corp SIN.  Someone who "does a stint" with DocWagon would at best be Corp Limited, and probably not even permanently corp affiliated at all if the 'tour of duty' wasn't long in duration.

Agile Defender quality: I'm on the fence due to the larger picture. It's not a waste with 6 Agi and 10+3d6 initiative... My concerns: your average initiative score is 20.5.. juuuuust shy of 3 passes.  Using full defense when you only have 2 IPs isn't something you should be planning for but using only in emergencies.  If you lose the Synaptic Boosters for whatever reason, absolutely ditch Agile Defender too.  If I were to play this character, I'd want to squeeze at least one more point of initiative to make better use of Agile Defender.

Edge: it's a no brainer to spend 10 of your unspent Karma to start play with 2 EDG.  You need to spend edge to get edge back, and with only 1 edge you're stuck all the time holding onto it "just in case".

Remember Chummer's limitations: it pays to doublecheck its math.  For example, your pistol's Acc should be 5 (6).  It'd only be 5 (7) if you had an implanted smartlink.

Combat Medic Niche: the major issue with the niche you want to play is its potential irrelevance if the team has a magician along.  (although, that's pretty much every niche except hacker, so don't take it as a dig at your idea).  You'll absolutely want to have an answer for "what do you do that a Heal spell can't?".  Since you have karma left to spend, I'd suggest taking a rank in Cybertechnology.  You're not-bad with Logic, and being able to repair cyberware not only fits in directly with your niche it's a great answer for the question of why bring you along rather than a mage with the Heal spell.

Priority array:  I'm philosophically hostile to the Sum-to-10 optional rule, but I do recognize that it's pretty hard to build a character of an expensive metatype without using it.  So since you are using it, I'd consider dropping resources a bit to increase something else.  Both metatype (for more EDG) and attributes (since you want to be a logic skill user who's also good in combat) are attractive choices. Synaptic Boosters would be my first thing to cut to free up the money to lower resources... with higher EDG you can blitz and won't need 'ware for initiative, and with higher attributes you can take and better resist the addiction of combat drugs (pretty appropo for a pharma geek who's a former street gangster...)

Knowledge skills: My philosophy is to represent your background.  But if you're looking for something that helps you be a good combat buddy to have around, consider the Small Unit Tactics skill from R&G.  It's basically the D&D Bardic Performance ability ported into Shadowrun!
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Hobbes

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« Reply #2 on: <01-11-19/1943:19> »
If the rest of the table is rolling 10ish dice in their main gig, swell, carry on, but that's pretty low dice pools.

If at all possible get more Agility.

Get one combat skill to 6 plus Specialization.  Take points from the First Aid skill. 

"Medic" is all about the RP.  Wear the stuff.  Carry a Med kit, trauma patch, couple stim and Antidote patches....  Drive a Van with an Aeroquip Dustoff drone in back.  Pick up a bunch of Medical sounding Knowledge skills.  FWIW I've been playing 5th edition for several years, I might have seen 10 First Aid checks in all that time.  A Decker with a single point in First Aid is going to be as good or better than you are.

My suggestion is to throw 5 Karma at the Biotech Group Skill and call it a day.  With a Rating 6 Kit you'll still have 11 Dice.  Enough to stabilize someone.  If your team regularly needs someone to patch them up, they're doing something wrong.  And a decent Street Doc contact is going to throw a zillion dice at First Aid anyway.

Paramedics/Combat Medics don't fix people.  Stabilize the critical ones, get 'em on the wagon and to the "real" Doctors. 

Edit: Overall decent build though.

kyoto kid

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« Reply #3 on: <01-12-19/0154:23> »
...I'd consider swapping out Longarms with Automatics and ditching Pistols (lets you use Combat Rifles, SMGs, and Machine pistols saving skill points).

I agree with SSDR's suggestion for muscle replacement as it costs less and adds to +1 STR as well. The points saved from having only one firearms skill could go to raising his Unarmed Combat to get a better pool.  7 translates to an average of 2 hits which would be very easy to dodge.  An even better route to go would be to get a pair of Shock Gloves as those work on a touch attack (as well as have -5 armour penetration) and ditch the bone density.

I would also look at something better than the Urban explorer for armour  Right now he only has 15 total.  The basic armoured jacket (styled to look like a Docwagon jacket) would give him a total of 18 amour (12 [jacket] + 3 [helmet] + 1 [PPP arms] +1 [PPP Legs] + 1 [Troll dermal deposits]) while also having more mod capacity (12). 

With the funds saved from switching to Muscle Replacement, he could get a better commlink (at least a device 5 rating) to protect his wireless gear.  If someone tries to brick his weapons he only has 6 dice to defend against that (WIL and Firewall).  Also noise could be an issue with only a device 3 rating, I would a least get a receiver dongle  [Data Trails] which grants Noise Reduction 2).
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Marcus

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« Reply #4 on: <01-12-19/0527:51> »
A fine concept for sure. But the build needs work.
You have essence to burn, swap away from Bioware and get cyberware.
Your built a troll, and not taking advantage of what trolls do best, having huge strength and huge body.
You can make up for inherent low agility by packing good skill.
You should really focus down on some more serious armor, your gonna be the bullet magnet, might as well make sure they need cannon to do some damage.
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Raven Runner

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« Reply #5 on: <01-12-19/0820:44> »
Okay, current to do list includes...
- Up skill priority and lower resources priority
- Get automatics skill, ditch pistols and long arms
- Ditch agile defender unless I find a way to get a significantly higher initiative
- Look into drugs for upping combat ability and initiative
- Improve armor

Being a troll is costing a lot in this build and I'm not getting a whole lot out of that. I'm definitely creating this character because I think it would be fun to role play, and the stats are going to take a hit. I'm not really playing to troll strengths, and I'm not maxing primary runner skills. I'd like the character to be as effective as possible within the concept limitations, and I definitely don't want to slow a team down, but I know I'm not going to be on par with a troll street sam or something.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #6 on: <01-12-19/1005:55> »
A couple more thoughts:

If you do re-jigger your character to the point where you end up with monstrous strength, you likely won't even need the automatics skill anymore... just go all in on unarmed combat. If you do keep some sort of augmentation that allows you to do physical damage with unarmed attacks, your punches would do more damage than bullets anyway.

And if you must have a ranged option, you might consider Heavy Weapons.  You'll likely never out-shoot the elf assassin or the dedicated sammie, so why not go ahead and let them handle targets too far away for your troll arms to reach.  However neither of those characters will likely be able to manage a minigun or a missile launcher.  Even if you're not amazing at the skill, and even if it only comes up 1 run in 3, simply having the option gives the team flexibility to use (or not use) the "Troll with a frikkin cannon".

A minor quibble on the advice you were given about Securetech PPP: Bear in mind it doesn't stack with anything that already armors that location.  If you go with the ubiquitous armor jacket, the vitals and arms are armored and you can only use Securetech PPP on the legs.  If you go with full body armor, it's useless. (of note Chummer would let you stack Securetech on armor, so again double check the stats Chummer tells you)
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Raven Runner

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« Reply #7 on: <01-12-19/1030:40> »
Thanks!

Good to know on the armor stacking, makes sense.

At the moment this character mostly street legal, so I think automatics will help me be effective in combat without drawing too much attention otherwise where as a cannon might be pushing it. Also I figure if nothing else I can lay down a lot of suppressive fire.

I though about unarmed combat, issue there is that I don't want to be out front/in the open...hard to patch people up after a fight if I get geeked first. Being a heavily armored trog behind cover should help me stay in the fight a bit longer?

I need to read up on drugs more to see how that might work for my character, then will re-jigger in full force.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #8 on: <01-12-19/1044:37> »
I though about unarmed combat, issue there is that I don't want to be out front/in the open...hard to patch people up after a fight if I get geeked first. Being a heavily armored trog behind cover should help me stay in the fight a bit longer?

The rub in being a tough nut to kill hiding behind cover is finding a way to proactively contribute to the fight rather than just waiting for it to end and helping afterwards.

Some suggestions on how to help while keeping your character out of combat:

Leadership and/or Small Unit Tactics skill (will necessitate decent mental skills, which you may already have if you go all in on being a medic)

Hacking (not recommended unless you REALLY re-jigger... and even then many people will tell you hacking during combat is a waste of time. I don't agree, but that's potentially another whole thread)

Drones: This might actually work fairly well with the direction you're going... a drone with a Valkyrie Module is exactly the sort of thing that makes sense for your idea! You don't have to have Control Rig cyberware to operate drones.  And particularly if your Logic ends up being better than your Agility, you can use Logic as a combat stat via Gunnery.  And if you really like the idea, you could go ahead and invest in the Control Rig cyberware and not only be the medic but also the ambulance driver!
« Last Edit: <01-12-19/1049:06> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

kyoto kid

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« Reply #9 on: <01-12-19/1807:41> »
...yeah automatics makes the character rather versatile.  With a bit of Heavy Weapons skill he can use the grenade launcher (doesn't have to be explosive grenades) on an Ares Alpha as well a machine gun or Assault Cannon when he can get his hands on one.  Suppression fire is a great way to reduce the chance to help neutralise a group of foes. Getting an extended clip will give you more rounds to use (for an Ares Alpha it will give you up to three combat turns of suppression fire).  This can also be done with an SMG or even Machine Pistol as long as it has FA mode.

My character Leela loves using this option, often with EXEX handload ammo (raising the base damage of her Yamaha Raiden to 14DV and -3 AP) so not only do the oppos have negatives from the suppression fire, but likely from would effects as well which are cumulative.
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Marcus

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« Reply #10 on: <01-13-19/0558:10> »
A combat medic doesn't stay out of combat, and that's working as intended. You can easily achieve the concept and the soak without compromising your concept. Automatics is a great way to go, max it out, smartlinks, and there ya go. Dumping strength isn't the end of the world, a 5 is fine.  You want maxed First Aid, you want Automatics, you want a little athletics, some etiquette, and you're good to go.

It's ok not to be top initiative, the concept isn't a primary combatant, Reaction enhancers, Boosted reflexes (super cheap 10k), a beefy maxed out cyberarm with added armor and with a built in SMG, and your golden.
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Raven Runner

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« Reply #11 on: <01-13-19/1024:01> »
Thanks Marcus!

Is AR rigger viable with limited dice? Would help justify boosting Logic...I'm imagining a few walker drones I could direct around in place of automatics skills, wouldn't want to do VR though.

That said, the current concept is still seeming workable, so doing a overhaul later today or mid week and will post that once it's done.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #12 on: <01-13-19/1044:44> »
You can control drones in AR.  Jumping In requires VR, but Remote Control doesn't require Jumping In.

And instead of assuming Remote Control of your drone(s), you can just issue orders to them and let the drone's Pilot programs do things on autopilot... like scout out a building, shoot bad guys, even scoop up fallen comrades and shove them in the onboard Valkryie module to stabilize them!

A drone like the Paladin (from R5) is a way you could even contribute to people not needing medics in the first place!

You'd use Skill + Reaction to remotely control a drone, or just spend a Simple Action (technically, the Send Message matrix action) to verbally command the drone with instructions on what you want its Pilot program to do.

If your drone has a weapon, you'd fire it while you have it under Remote Control with Agility + Gunnery (covers all ranged weapons, from derringers to assault cannons) for conventional attacks or Logic + Gunnery if you've already established a sensor-lock via the Electronics Warfare skill.  Note that lock-ons impose a dodge pool penalty and can make up for not having burst or automatic fire available on your drone-mounted weapon.  Or they can stack with burst/autofire, and make SURE people don't dodge...
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Raven Runner

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« Reply #13 on: <01-13-19/1057:00> »
Cool thanks, might work up two builds then, one redo of the current build and one combat medic/AR rigger to see how that shakes out. Would push me to learn some of the matrix/rigging stuff too.

Marcus

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« Reply #14 on: <01-13-19/1802:59> »
Rigger isn't intensely skill dependent, it usually only requires gunnery and piloting in some form. The issue with rigging is money. Drones are not cheap, and you need to be sure you know what you want them to do.
There isn't anything wrong with exploring the concept just makes sure it fits with what you imagined the character to be.

SR builds are largely a function for players understanding of the system, it's easy to wander away from a core concept. So just make sure what your doing fits where you want to to go.
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