Shadowrun Play > Character creation and critique

How would you create an adept hacker in 6E?

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Aria:
With the advent of the external version of the cyberjack (cyberhack) it may be possible to create an semi-effective AR hacker adept?  Right?  Although given the cyberhacks seem to be limited in scope would it be more cost effective to pair a deck with a high end commlink and not worry about the other benefits of a cyberjack?

Thoughts?

Hobbes:
Probably need Stolen Goods or a longer campaign for the nuyen needed, but sure.  Could have before too, losing 2 PP isn't to jam in a CyberJack isn't world ending depending on what you're trying to do with the Adept stuff.  Honestly Way of the Burn Out is pretty solid for a Hacker.

Really depends on what your build goals are, and what dice pools you're targeting.  Attributes are going to be a pain.  Some compromises required if you're trying to be a gun bunny plus hacker.

Aria:
Not so much gun bunny plus decker, just want to try and build a decker that doesn’t have to follow the conventional builds… was possible in 4E and in 5E, 6E has made it harder with the cyberware requirements

Will have a go and see what I can come up with :)

MedicWolf:
If you want something slightly different, and don't mind not having the best deck in the sprawl, consider this.

Sum to Ten, with priority A Attributes and Nuyen, priority in D Metahuman and Magic, and Priority E in skills.  This gives you 5 Magic/PP (until we install some cyberware), tons of nuyen, and plenty of stats to divide up how you like.

Having only 10 skill points hurts, but we'll fix that with activesofts.  Buy the rank 6 versions of Skilljack and SkillWires, but get a Used version of the cyberware.  For only a little bit more essence cost, you cut the price in half, for a total of 1.32 Essence and a mere 120k nuyen.  Then, start with four Rank 6 activesofts at 30k nuyen each in order to give yourself some secondary skills depending upon what other roles you want your adept to fulfill.  Want to help in a firefight?  Choose Close Combat and Firearms.  Want to be the team's face?  Try Influence, Con, and Perception.  Want to drive/rig on the side?  Piloting!  Your starting 10 skills points should probably be 6 Cracking and 4 Electronics, or vice versa, so that you can still spend edge on them (with skillwires, you only get to spend edge if you're going wireless).  Or pick whatever fits your character's backstory and makes sense to you!  Maybe you pick 5 Athletics and 5 Con, and use activesofts to manage your Electronics/Cracking.

You'll need at least a datajack, and a delta grade one for .05 essence for 2.5k nuyen is a steal.

Your remaining 207,500 nuyen can then be spent on a combination cyberdeck and commlink/cyberhack (Cyberhacks have a better firewall, unless you're using Banshee's amazing unofficial rules, but they're also much more expensive, and there are commlink accessories in Hack and Slash that make the two almost even), as well as whatever secondary roles you've chosen. Medic, Face, Infiltrator, Sniper, etc.  If you want to be a solid but not expert decker/adept/rigger, consider a deltagrade Control Rig for .5 essence and 75k nuyen (This keeps you from spending more than 2 starting essence.)

Which is important because power points!  With 5 starting magic, and between 1 and 2 essence lost, you're down to 3 PP.  I'd strongly advise Improved Reflexes 3 for the +3 Reaction, +3d6 initiative dice, and 3 additional minor actions (5 total).  Best of all, these work with AR!  You'll lose these actions if you ever go cold or hot sim VR and leave meatspace, but you keep your AR focus.  The biggest drawback of this route is that while you might have the same number of actions as a decker with their very, very expensive cyberjack running in hot-sim, you won't get the edge advantages (consider the Jack Jockey positive quality from hack and Slash to compensate).

The last step is, of course, Karma.  You have a number of options here.  You can get more Power Points from Initiating a few times, or even just buying Rank 6 Magic outright.  You can get Specializations/Expertise for your starting two skills.  Buy yourself a 2nd or 3rd Edge rank.  15 karma gets you 30k nuyen which gets you another rank 6 activesoft.  Heck, maybe buy some foci for later bonding (3 magic limits you to Force 3 at a time).

In the end, you end up with a pretty reliable, versatile adept.  You won't be the best decker in the game, but you also won't be sitting on your butt for 90% of it while you wait for some Matrix spotlight.

EDIT:  If you don't really care about secondary roles or skills, go Metahuman (C), Attributes (A), Skills (D), Magic (D), and Resources (C) and skip all the cyberware.  You get +4 Attribute/Edge points and +3 PP (starting magic 6 with no essence loss), in exchange for reduced skills (16 skill points instead of 34 or so) and 57k less nuyen.

Aria:
Thanks!  Both excellent, and don't seem to rely on 'Stolen Gear' (arguably a broken quality)

I have two SR5 hacker adepts which I might try working up, one with each option... granted one of them is a pixie which will add some wrinkles (and I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea <runs from the flaming pixie hate> )

Generalists can sometimes fall short but I think the future versatility of being an adept mitigates that, and D pool requirements are generally less onerous in 6E so it should be doable :D

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