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Priority Build Apprentice

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Blazrath

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« on: <08-02-17/0704:03> »
So, now that I have some time on my hands instead of being periods of time being busy and with the Forbidden Arcana book out, decided to come back to Shadowrun and hit the boards once again. But I have to admit I am a lil rusty to some things, hahahaha. Note, I haven't really fleshed out the where too much so that when I submit him into a game, I can kinda tailor to the area he'd be running in.

Since being dual natured right off the get go, I figured I'd do more of a Occult Investigator type of character with focusing on Detection Spells and really like the idea of doing Tarot Based Magic for a lil bit of random fun when I get to Tarot Summoning. I tried to emulate something that was less professionally conditioned from the get go and more of a hands on, living in the streets learning type of deal, with him in a way self sabotaging his chance of maybe getting out easy by almost being employed by Lone Star. Which unfortunately they've kept the records on him from his evaluation and application, but when you're young and stupid... But he's learning now

Anyways, this is what I came up with, if ya wanna suggest a better build and such, only have 2 things with that. Gotta be an Apprentice and sticking with the Tarot Tradition, besides that deconstruction can commence. Also taking suggestions for Runner name. I also have 4 Active Skill Points free right now in case the GM is feeling generous and allows the Apprentice to take like Ritual, Banishing, Counterspelling, etc and if not got extra points to put in skills.

Priorities: A(Skills), B(Attributes), C(Magic), D(Resources), E(Metatype)

Attributes:
Human

Body: 2(+1 Karma)
Agility: 4
Reaction: 3
Strength: 3
Willpower: 4
Logic: 5
Intuition: 4
Charisma: 4

Magic: 3
Edge: 3

Limits
Physical 4
Mental 6
Social 6
Astral 6

Qualities:

Hawkeye 3
Mentor Spirit (Snake)5

Consummate Professional -3
Emotional Attachment(Personalized Tarot Card Deck) -5
Family Curse -5
Insomnia -10
Records on File(Ares)&(Evo) -2

Skills:

Stealth Group 5(9)
Influence Group 5(9)
Arcana 3(10)
Assensing 4(8 )
Astral Combat 4(8 )
Automotive Mechanic 1(6)
Blades 2(6)
Con 2(6)
Escape Artist 2(6)
Intimidation 1(5)
Longarms 2(6)
Perception 4(9)
Pistols 4(8 )
Running 1(4)
Spellcasting 3(6)
Summoning 3(6)
Tracking 3(8 )
Unarmed Combat 2(6)

Knowledge Skills:

Astronomy 1(6)
Black Markets 2(6)
German 1(5)
Magic Traditions 3(8 )
Magic Theory [Street] 2(6)
Russian 3(7)
Shadow Community 1(5)
Sperethiel 2(6)
Spirits 3(8 )

English: N

Magic:

Apprentice(Detection and maybe Fire?)
Tarot Card Tradition (Willpower+Logic Drain)

Spells:

Analyze Truth(8/10)
Catalog(8/10)
Clairvoyance(8/10)
Detect Individual(8/10)
Detect Magic(8/10)

Weapons:

Ares Lightfire 75
-Personalized Grip
-4x Spare Clips
-80 Ammo
Damage 6P, RC 2, AP -, Conceal -2, Acc 9

Franchi Spas 24
-Gas-Vent 3 System
-Sling
-Holographic Sight
-Personalized Grip
-Melee Hardening
-10 Stick-n-Shock
-30 Ammo
Damage 12P, RC 5(6), AP -1, Conceal +6, Acc 8

Knucks
Damage 4P, AP -, Conceal +0, Acc 4

Sword(Longsword)
-Weapon Focus +1
-Personalized Grip
Damage 6P, AP -2, Conceal +4, Acc 7


Gear:

(Runner Clothes)
Auctioneer Business Clothes, Nice Gloves, Watch, Socks, Shoes, Hat, Ballistic Mask(chemical protection +4, custom)
(Everyday)
Good Pants, Shirts, Socks, Shoes

Spellcasting Focus, Detection +2 (Tarot Card Deck)
Quick Draw Holster(Blade)
Erika Elite Commlink
Certified Credstik Silver
Fake SIN(4)
-Concealed Carry Permit(4)
-Large Blade License(4)
-Mage License(4)
-Pistol License(4)
-Private Investigator License(4)
-Shotgun License(4)
Key Lock(6)
3 Restraints, Metal
Backpack(good)
Contacts(2)
-Smartlink, Flare Compesation

Remaining Nuyen: 2353

Lifestyle

Low, Hard to find, Workspace
Doc Wagon Basic

Contacts

Shark Lawyer 3/2
Armorer 2/3
Infobroker 1/1

Thanks
« Last Edit: <08-02-17/0848:59> by Blazrath »
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Marcus

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« Reply #1 on: <08-02-17/0720:18> »
If you're gonna go skill A you really need to avoid penny packeting like this.
Max those skill that are important to the build and just buy less important skills with karma, or just default.
distributed like this skill A is much-less effective the attributes A.
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ShadowcatX

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« Reply #2 on: <08-02-17/0846:12> »
You should definitely go attributes A, skills B, and tighten up your skills, be actively good at some things rather than being bad at everything. Also, instead of body 2, strength 3, go with body 3 and strength 2.

Also, ask yourself, why would someone hire this guy for a job? Why would hardened criminals want this guy on their team? Right now I don't really have an answer for that.

Change your spell casting foci for a sustaining foci (and get better at magic the old fashioned way, raise your attribute and skill). Also take a couple levels of focused concentration, being able to sustain a couple spells will be very useful.

On the topic of spells, get better ones than detect individual, detect magic, and catalog.

Blazrath

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« Reply #3 on: <08-02-17/1948:12> »
So I was trying to do more of a tracking and occult investigator type of person, which is why I spread out first into Mage and Face territory, but I can see needing to trim down on skills and such. Though I should ask what Detection Spells would you be sustaining?

Initial trimming
Body: 3
Agility: 4
Reaction: 3
Strength: 2
Willpower: 5
Logic: 6
Intuition: 5
Charisma: 4

Magic: 4
Edge: 3(+1 karma)

Influence Group 5(9)
Arcana 1(9)
Assensing 5(10)
Palming 1(9) +Karma
Perception 5(10)
Pistols 4(8 )
Sneaking 3(7)
Spellcasting 6(10) Detection
Summoning 6(10)
Tracking 5(10)
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gradivus

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« Reply #4 on: <08-03-17/0010:53> »
I'm not a proponet of you need20DP,
but you should be hitting at least a 12 in whatever it is you do as your thing.
That doesn't mean every skill at 12...
but governing stat 5 plus 6 skill +2 specialization is 13...
something should be there.
 
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Blazrath

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« Reply #5 on: <08-03-17/0100:30> »
Well, with all Detection Spells I'm hitting 14 dice(4 from magic, 6 from skill, 2 from specialty, 2 from Mentor Spirit), have 11 dice for dealing with drain, Dealing with Mr. Johnsons is at 11(Negociations/Etiquette 9, Consummate Professional +2) and have 4 10s. Saying need to cut further to get specializations?
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ShadowcatX

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« Reply #6 on: <08-03-17/0728:48> »
Analyze device is a neat one that can get you a couple dice to a lot of rolls if you don't have to worry about sustaining it. Combat sense can help keep you alive. Detect life extended area can get you a vague idea of what is around, and sure it picks up non-threatening things but that can be worked around. Mind probe is a solid spell, though not one you necessarily need to sustain for forever.

I would drop the 20 karma to buy your 4th point of edge and use it on either positive qualities or skills. You are a mediocre face for dealing with the Johnson and lack of con puts you right out of face territory now. First impression plus a couple points of con will help.

Your concept is rough to work with, logic is a bad drain stat when going face, it also has no synergy with hunting people down. (Thinking about it, if most of your spells are low drain or cast at low force I would probably take logic to 4 and charisma to 6 to further the face part. Maybe use a fetish on your higher drain spells.) Not saying you shouldn't or can't do it, but that it is suboptimal mechanically so there is only so much that can be done. This guy will be more of an every day Joe than a Shadowrunner, which is fine, but mechanically if you are teamed with serious runners it may be hard to have a niche. I would talk to my play group.
« Last Edit: <08-03-17/0753:34> by ShadowcatX »

Marcus

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« Reply #7 on: <08-03-17/1449:57> »

The ideal dice pool should be 3 x limit, of course that goal isn't universally achievable. But it's worth, considering, there is no point in investing in raising a limit until you have reached a die pool that is 3 times your current limit. This particularly relevant with weapon accuracy. Getting a pool of 21 is generally far to cost inefficient. But a pool of 18 for a character's central roll, is usually very doable. That difference being a limit 6 vs a limit 7. I'm just saying try and keep an eye on the big picture. Resource are for buying pools, and then the resulting average successes they roll.

This concept breaks down in social as it's much easier to mess with those limits and pool, and in the other direction magic.
Magic is fairly hard mess with resource wise getting 12 dice in spell casting isn't to bad, getting to 16 dice a specific spell category is doable, and going up further is possible but diminishing returns is well along it's way at this point.
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Blazrath

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« Reply #8 on: <08-03-17/1517:35> »
So I've been doing some tweaking and think I can get it to work. I switched back to Skills A and Attributes B, making me need to tighten up on a couple of things. I've also toyed around with swapping resources for meta to be able to get magic 6 right off the bat.

Bod 3
Agi 3
Rea 3
Str 1(+1 Karma)
Cha 5
Int 5
Log 4
Will 4

Edge 2
Magic 6

Limits
Phys 4
Mental 6
Social 7
Astral 7

Skills
Influence 6
Stealth 4
Arcana 5(Any suggestions on a focus?)
With keeping the Snake Mentor spirit, this goes up to 11 and a focus up to 13, thus helping me identify magical objects
Assensing 6
Cause if you can see Astrally, might as well be trained.
Con 6
Going with Shadowcat's advise to be able to actually be a decent face
Perception 6
Kind of needed if trying to pull of someone who can investigate.
Pistols 5
Yeah, still kinda weak on the Dice Pool, but I figure you still need a physical piece to carry around.
Spellcasting 4(Detection)
With the focus and mentor spirit, I'm hitting 14 dice when casting the only type of spell I can cast.
Summoning 4(Focus on Spirit)
So with Apprentice only being able to summon one type of spirit, the focus would help with technically all summons and bring it to 12 dice.
Tracking 6(Urban)
Cause sometimes you gotta do it the old fashion way.

Now, bear in mind I am getting Consummate Professional from the Assassin Primer which gives me +2 dice to all social interaction rolls when dealing with an employer. So when talking to a Mr. Johnson about contracts, payment for the job, yada yada, I'd be hitting that 13 dice on all social rolls.

Then essentially I have 35 karma to play with after that to get stuff like spells, foci and other stuff, so I think I'm balancing that tight rope, but what does the public say?
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ShadowcatX

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« Reply #9 on: <08-03-17/2042:44> »
I once saw a post about dice pools for Johnson's for missions. The season it was discussing the lowest negotiation dicepool a Johnson had was 12, and one went up to 20.

Sphinx

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« Reply #10 on: <08-03-17/2055:00> »
I once saw a post about dice pools for Johnson's for missions. The season it was discussing the lowest negotiation dicepool a Johnson had was 12, and one went up to 20.

The basic Mr. Johnson in SR5 (p.391) has Negotiation 8 + Charisma 5.

There are four different "Mr. Johnson" builds in Bloody Business (pp.157-158):
Mr. Johnson (Corporate, Elf): Negotiation 6 + Charisma 6
Mr. Johnson (High-Level Initiate, Human): Negotiation 8 (+2 Bargaining) + Charisma 6
Mr. Johnson (Law Enforcement, Dwarf): Negotiation 7 + Charisma 5
Mr. Johnson (Prominent, Ork): Negotiation 7 + Charisma 5

So yeah, you can expect Mr. J to roll 12 dice or more.