Looks pretty solid overall. There might be some tweaks to make.
Thanks, and of course, that's why I come here. First of all, I just wanted to say I appreciate all the feedback you've provided for all of my characters so far. Really, than you.
How did you spend your starting karma? That's usually a key point, especially since you only get 25 karma in 5E. I suspect you bought the Sneaking (Urban) specialization with 7 karma, which - if true - I'm going to recommend against, but I'll wait until we have the full picture before saying for certain.
My bad, forgot to include the total. Here is the breakdown:
Positive Qualities: -25
Battle Hardened 3 (-6), Biocompatibility (Bioware, -5), Restricted Gear (-10), Sharpshooter (-4)
Negative Qualities: +25
AIPS (+10), Illiterate (+5), Phobia (Uncommon/Moderate, +7), Prejudice (Specific/Biased, +3)
Attributes: -10
Charisma 2 (-10)
Skills: -15
Locksmith 1 (-2), Navigation 1 (-2), Pilot Ground Craft 1 (-2), Tracking 1 (-2), Sneaking (Urban) specialization (-7)
I'd recommend hard capping one of your Attributes. Most people choose Agility, but a case can be made for Intuition as well. Agility affects your movement rate in 5E, so it's nice to have that high. I'd pull a point from Body, as armor is inexpensive and it won't have a large impact to your dice pool for soaking. Missions isn't trying to kill you; this character should thrive.
This is good advice, but I think I will actually hard-cap Intuition; the reason for this is because of the Pain Editor giving me +1 Willpower but -1 Intuition whenever active.
I just realized that dropping Body to 3 won't actually impact my Physical limit, and with 22 armor I agree that 1 point give or take won't make a huge difference. So I've put that back into Willpower for things like Spell Defense. I don't think the Ares Victory is a "full body armor" per se, so I've picked up the PPP Vitals kit for another +1 Armor just in case.
Sharpshooter is a bit of a pain. There are times when you just need to hit, and that's when Burst Fire and Full Auto are priceless. I took it and didn't like it, so I "bought" it off (even though it's a positive quality). Your miles may vary.
I mostly picked this up for the ability to always be using the Called Shot: Vitals option; +2 DV for -2 Dice Pool seems like it could be really strong, particularly as I've got a base 14 dice with the Assault Rifle; the +2 from the Smartgun would wash out the penalty, leaving only environmental modifiers which I've attempted to counter as much as possible.
There's also a couple of potentially strong called shots in Run & Gun, like Bulls-Eye Double-Tap/Burst (-10 AP with the Alpha seems pretty useful against spirits?) and That Hit The Spot; conditions like Winded and Stunned seem like they could be extremely useful in subduing a target, but perhaps it's just easier to fill the target full of Stick-n-Shock instead?
You have smoke grenades but no Throwing Weapons skill (and not really the Strength to get them that far), so I'd get a clip of smoke mini-grenades instead.
Heh, this one is actually intentional. I figured this would be a defensive technique more than anything; drop the grenade near myself or toss it into a room before breaching; with thermographic vision I can ignore penalties that my opponents may not be able to avoid.
Since you're mundane, the Jack of All Trades quality really helps after chargen. I'd prioritize that. Lots of people like the Agile Defender quality too, but it isn't that expensive so you could potentially afford that after gameplay starts even at double the cost. It's not that urgent since your Willpower is high enough to make Full Defense powerful even without it.
Agile Defender is really tempting, not going to lie. I figured I would have to/should be using Full Defense anyway because I'm likely to be getting at least 2, maybe 3 Initiative Passes per combat round and the +5 (+8 with AD) dice to defend could really help.
Jack of all Trades is an interesting one I hadn't considered. Definitely something that could be useful. I could save up 4 Karma by not spending it on two Rank 1 skills and pick up the quality after character generation for 4 skills. This would effectively be Karma neutral, and any skill raised (less than 6, obviously) would be that much less expensive.
The Designated Omega quality (Cutting Aces, p. 152) could fit his "general inability to think for himself... [n]eeds someone to tell him who to fight" personality.
This is interesting. I could definitely swap Illiterate for Deisgnated Omega; both a somewhat flavourful to be honest. I'll think about this one. Thanks!
Finally, any general recommendations for Matrix gear? I'm not sure if I should invest in more protective gear like a Sleaze dongle to help with running silent; with my atrocious Logic I don't see Running Silent being particularly effective, but I also don't know how much hacking opposition I should expect from Missions.
EDIT:
Changes in v2Reduced Body from 4 to 3
Increased Intuition from 5 to 6
Removed Tracking 1 and Navigation 1 to save 4 Karma for Jack of All Trades, Master of None quality, to be purchased once the game starts. This will pay for itself after just a few skill ranks are increased from 0 to 1
Purchased Gas Mask and added it to Ballistic Mask
Replaced Smoke Grenades with Smoke Bombs from Hard Target, as this is more the type of equipment I was looking for.
Purchased a Reloading Rail, a Miniwelder, and a Lockpick Set; also added Nonconductivity Rating 6 and Shock Weave to the Ares Victory: Big Game Hunter armour, as well as a Silencer/Suppressor to the Ares Crusader II
EDIT 2:
Just realized that Skeletal Pneumaticity is incompatible with Bone Density Augmentation. Removed the former.