I do not believe minmaxing is a dirty word. I minmax, and sill I roleplay as much as anybody else in our group. I don’t steal the spotlight from anyone else, and don’t mess the powercurve enough to make others insignificant. Don’t you like to buy things on sale? How good does it feel to buy something on Black Friday? I bought a TV 2.5 years ago so cheap that its street price just last month reached what I paid! Does paying more for things make you a better roleplayer? What do sale prices have to do with Shadowrun?
There are items that are “on sale” at Chargen. You can get them later, but you will pay more for them. Why pay more if you don’t have to? Would you do that in real life? These items are high-values attributes, skills, and qualities (karma costs double after chargen). For this example we pick a shaman/face (might as well get double duty out of Chr).
This guy is a primary Face, and a backup everything else. His goal is to be a Fence when he retires.
Priorities:
Metatype: C – Elf (3) put 2 in magic and 1 in edge
Attributes: D – 14. Make the best of it by splitting it as: 6,4,4
Magic: Mystic Adept (accept no substitute) Magic 4, 8 skills
Skills: 46/10. There is no other minmax choice. Skills A is the best bang for the buck
Resources:6000. You don’t need much money (see below)
First let’s talk about “Extraordinary Ability”
This should always be taken! You have to take it for you magic score or you highest ability (depending on where you want your emphasis). For an Elf, this is Chr. For a Troll, this is Str. For a sniper, this is Agil, and for a decker, it is Logic.
Abilities:
Every ability you take should be taken to the max. Priority must be given to abilities that define your role, and those that have a high max from your race. A rule of thumb is to spend your points as 5,4,4,4,4,remainder. That first “5” should be a “6” if your “Extraordinary Ability” is not magic.
Our Elf’s stats therefore are:
Body 1 Agility 6 Reaction 1 Strength 1
Will 5 Logic 1 Intuition 1 Charisma 9 (exceptional)
Magic 6 Edge 2
All the 1’s are unfortunate, but it is cheaper to raise them later than in chargen.
Skills:
As you must have guessed, all skills are taken at 6 (with specialization) or not at all. Group skills are spent the same way as regular skill points. Ignoring where each skill goes (feel free to adjust), 46 + 8 (magic) = 54. There are 7 maxed skills in 49 (6 skill + 1 spec), which leaves a remainder of 5. You always take a specialty if you can, since it will cost you 7 after chargen (except where you can’t, like for exotic melee weapon Monofilament Whip). Here is how I spread those skill points; these can be moved around, but you should not violate the above rules (if you want to minmax):
Groups:
Sorcery (Counterspelling, Ritual, Spellcasting) 6
Electronics (Computer, Hardware, Software) 4
Skills:
Monofilament Whip 6
Perception (search) 6
Sneaking (urban) 6
Con (Fast talk) 6
Negotiation (Black Market) 6 note that we have 20 dice here counting adept power!
Assencing (Signature) 4 - this is where I put the remainder
Summoning (man) 6
Hacking (Host) 6
Knowledge:
Gear Values (4) I copied this one from the NPC fence stats in the book
Given the lousy stats, you will not be the primary hacker/muscle/utility, but if those players do not show up (always happens), you can fill in for them. Sure beats having to make the DM meta-give you a decker/thief/healer because Bob did not show up.
Positive Qualities:
Adept powers 6 (cost 30) must get them at chargen; will never get them later
Extraordinary Ability Charisma (cost 14) feeling so pretty!
Focused Concentration1 (cost 4)
Spend 2 karma for $4000 to start with a whip
Negative Qualities: (try to avoid screwing yourself or notoriety – need 25)
Allergy - Seafood mild (cost -10)
Allergy – Silver Moderate (cost -10)
Sin – National (cost -5)
Gear:
Only 1 item: Monofilament Whip. $10000
Can spend your spare change on a throw-away level 1 commlink
First order of business is to get the armor off the first punk your spirit kills. Take his commlink too, and make it yours with your Electronic/Hacking skills.
Lifestyle street (upgrade as soon as possible)
Eventually get an Argentum Coat for that +1 social skill
Adept powers: PP cost
Astral Perception 1
Combat Sense 2 1
Mystic Armor 3 1.5
Adrenaline Boost 1 .25
Enha Accuracy(Mono) .25
Critical Strike(mono) .5
Improved Ability (Neg) 3 1.5 I like this one for 3 dice on negotiating
Spells (pickem):
Physical Mask
Armor
Levitate
Improved Inv
Increase Willpower
Increase Chr
Increase Reflexes
(Getting the feeling that I am planning to use Quickening?)
You can replace any with some combat spells, but I figure at the beginning the plan is to summon a spirit every dawn/dusk and have them ready for combat.
Contacts:
Pick a bunch of 4/3 or 3/4 contacts. Make sure one is an OrganLegger so you can sell him the Street Samurai bodies your party will kill. Thought: Buy a duffle bag that blocks RFID/transmissions (Faraday Cage) and put dead bodies in it. Your spirit will fly them to the OrganLegger (who will have his own Faraday Cage / scramblers if he is to be in business for long).
Long term Karma plans:
Obviously Initiate and Quickening to cover those low stats until they can be raised.
Speaking of raising them, it will take 140 karma to raise all those 1’s into 3’s (including the 2 edge). Yes, that is a lot, but nothing compare to paying for that 9 chr after chargen.
Keep an eye out for the other characters, and make sure you are never better than them in their selected role. A good way to do this is to be a better utility guy (use your Face skills to get them the best gear, buff them, etc).
Quick thought on realism. You can justify anything. You can’t imagine a back story that covers all those 1’s? Here is a quick try:
Born to humanist parents, ELF <fill in name> was hated. Only his unnatural chr kept them from abandoning him or worse. He stayed in the basement, playing with a computer he made with parts he put together (he was not a natural –> Low Logic, but he kept trying –> high skill). He never moved or saw the sun. His only joy was his elder sister who come to him, and let him play with her Monofilament whip (she was a humanist enforcer). One day there was a commotion upstairs: other humanists got wind of ELF. They came crashing into the house to lynch him. While the mom cries upstairs, the delay is all ELF needs to crawl out the basement window; on his way out the sister gives him her whip, with a kiss goodbye. Eventually, starving, sleeping in a ditch, he Awakens. Later, he finds his way to CITY.
Add details to taste…