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Gunslingin bad ass?

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zombizzle666

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« on: <04-17-11/1909:10> »
New to shadowrun, somone check out this character tell me what you think, give me some constructive crit.  He's basicly designed to be like a gunslinger from The Dark Tower series.

Name:  John Farson  Metatype: Human Language: High Speech(english) N Sign Language:3

Bod:3 Agi:4 Rea:4 STR:3 Char:4 Int:3 Log:3 Will:3 Edge:4 Ess:6 Ini:7 IP:1

Skills
Chemistry:2 Armorer:5 Close Combat:4 Demolition:3 Dodge:3 Firearms:4 First Aid:3 Hypnosis:2 Perception:3

Knowledge
Military:3 Survival:4  Astrology:2 Street Drugs:4 Undead creatures:2

Qualities
Ambidexterous:+ Guts:+ High Pain Tolerence:+ Will to live:+ Addiction(deep weed, Mild)- Allergy(gold, moderate)

My most common weapons I carry are a colt manhunter w/ quick draw holster and a katana, with some frag grenades. and I have an armor jacket.

Operator

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« Reply #1 on: <04-17-11/2045:34> »
Here's a couple of warning flags that I would raise to your first draft.


1) Are you planning to be Awakened (adept) or augmented (street sam)?

2) Your character's stated focus is on gunslinging. Why are you sinking 40 BP into Close combat? If you know for sure that you will only use blades in close combat, elect for the Blades skill at 4 BP/point.

3) Dodge is redundant if you plan on picking up Gymnastics or the Athletics group.

4) If you're actually looking to use Survival in game instead of simply having knowledge of its techniques, be mindful that it is an Active skill.

Glyph

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« Reply #2 on: <04-17-11/2143:55> »
Sorry, but this guy isn't badass, not by shadowrunner standards.  He's about the same level as a Lone Star Lieutenant, only he's only got a laser sight on his gun instead of a smartlink, and doesn't have any cyberware.  He's okay at fixing other people's guns, but with a dice pool of 9 for ranged combat, and only one initiative pass, he is far from a front-line combatant despite all of the points you have sunk into combat skills.  I'm not saying he's bad - he's tough by normal people standards.  But compared to the tweaked-out vatjobs and gun-fu adepts, he might feel outclassed.

Shadowrun is a game of magic mixing with technology, and both of these things give incredibly cheap, powerful boosts.  Unaugmented mundanes have a tough life, constantly having to survive by quick thinking and clever tactics, against enemies that outclass them in a stand-up fight.  If that's what you're going for, a kind of Deckard in Blade Runner kind of thing, great.  But otherwise, you might want to consider being an adept or getting some augmentations.

Critias

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« Reply #3 on: <04-18-11/0319:03> »
While your character might be completely awesome in some campaigns (all depending on the power level and image the GM has in mind), when I think about the Gunslinger from The Dark Tower, etc, I imagine an Adept.  Period.  Now, in my defense, I imagine an adept for an awful lot of character concepts...but the Gunslinger in particular has a mystical/magical/honed-to-perfect sort of feeling to him, with a six-gun in his hand, the link of the Ka-Tet, and all that assorted awesomeness.

That, combined with the fact that your character as written is a little sub-par in your average game, combined with the fact that magic or chrome is needed by most characters to give them their edge, combined with the fact Shadowrun is (unfortunately) often a game of specialists rather than generalists, combined with a super cool character concept that lends itself well to specialization...I'd make a few changes.

Now, first things first, I'll admit I haven't finished the Gunslinger series.  So maybe he whips out a sword and cuts dudes up later on, and I just didn't get that far, but I'm gonna go by what I've read.  So the first step would be to pare down your concept a little bit.  "Gunslinger."  Done, right?  So let's take that, and focus there -- at least as a starting character! -- to give you a few more dice to sling in the situations you really need to be able to sling 'em.

Biggest thing, kill the skill groups.  Close Combat Skill Group is, sadly, something of a trap built into character creation.  Firearms Skill Group isn't much better, because (for this guy) you've got a solid "six-gun" sort of character concept, right?  So both those groups are gone, and BAM, you're sitting pretty on 80 points.  Change Dodge to Gymnastics, flat out (you'll use Gymnastics to dodge ranged attacks and be able to jump around like a reasonably fit human being, and you'll use a close combat skill for dodging in melee, so you don't need the Dodge skill itself at all).  Drop a point or two of Armorer (you can specialize in Firearms later to get the dice back, very cheaply), and nix the Hypnosis (you'll be able to replicate cool mental tricks with adept powers, a little bit), and suddenly you've got about 90 points to play with.  That's a lot of change.

Adept and 5 Magic is going to run you 55 of those points, but it'll be worth it.  The other 35, I'd buy up just a Pistols skill and a single close combat skill.  Clubs (you can use your guns in close combat with it), Blades (if you want to stick with the katana thing, for some reason), or Unarmed Combat (probably the weakest of the three, but you can bolster it significantly with adept stuff later).  Just pick one.  Buy that one close combat skill and Pistols up to 5 apiece, and you're okay for close to mid-range combat.  Then I'd take a good long look at the social skills and pick one or two to invest the rest of the "leftover" points in.

With your Adept powers, flat out, you're going to want at least two things for your Gunslinger concept:  Improved Reflexes, and Improved Ability (Pistols).  Things you might want, that will fit your concept, could be Attribute Boost (Agility or Reaction) for sudden bursts of awesomeness, Combat Sense to help out in a fight, maybe Improved Sense (various) to fit your Gunslinger schtick, and if you're stuck on the hypnosis type thing, Kinesics (to help with social stuff, you can describe it to your GM as a hypnotic voice or personality or whatever).  But really?  Improved Reflexes and Improved Ability (Pistols).  Honest.  You need, need, need, extra initiative passes to be an effective combatant, it totally fits with the cool super-quick Gunslinger guy theme, and the more dice you have (Imp. Reflexes to help with initiative and dodging, Imp. Ability Pistols to help with shooty-shooty), the better.

There are small things you may or may not want to change, like what Operator mentioned about Survival, and just a general problem with "generalist" characters (the way your attribute points are allocated is, well, not that efficient depending on the level of powergaming/min-maxing/whatever that is appropriate for your GMs difficulty level)...but I think if you make these couple of changes, you'll find yourself slinging a six-gun like Roland Deschain a whole lot quicker than you will with your character as written.

Malex

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« Reply #4 on: <04-18-11/0938:17> »
Ah Roland Deschain. His unnatural way of knowing danger was around the next corner, way of dealing hot death to an entire town of fanatics, and mild psychic powers do as stated above suggest an Adept or maybe even a Mystic Adept.

Never understood the whole 'I wanna be a gunslinging bad ass' in Shadowrun, since there's always someone better who ends up nearly killing you in the first round of combat.
Look past the lies, and all the scary stuff that remains is the truth.

zombizzle666

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« Reply #5 on: <04-18-11/1826:05> »
Thanks for the advice guys,  I'll consider much of it as I rework my character.  My GM was already pushing me in the direction of making him an adept, which I most likley will do.  It's my first character I've made and I've only played Shadowrun for maybe 6 or 7 gamming sessions, so I'm still pretty new to all this.  Thanks again.

JimJungle

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« Reply #6 on: <04-18-11/1900:25> »
Your GM sounds like a really smart and awesome guy. Consider yourself lucky!

zombizzle666

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« Reply #7 on: <04-24-11/2246:24> »
Okay so I reworked some things with my character




Human Adept

Body 5 Agility 4 Reaction 4 Str 3 Char 3 Int 3 Log 3 will 3 edge 3 magic 6 Ess 6 IP3

Skills
Armorer 2 Blades 4 Pistols 6 gymnastis 4 Perception 3 Etiquette 2
Knowledge
Military 6 Street Drugs 4 Security Procedures 4 Paranormal Critter2 Trap Setting 2
Qualities
Guts Ambidexterous High Pain tolerence3 Will to Live Addiction Mild Alergey Uncommon Moderate
Adept Powers
Att. Boost Agility2 Improved Combat Ability2 Improved Refelxes2 Rapid Healing2
Gear
Colt Manhunter x2 Quickdraw Holster x2 Katana Frag Grenades Armor Jacket

I think its a pretty big Improvement from what it started from, but I'd still like to see others approval, and any more advice would be apreciated

Medicineman

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« Reply #8 on: <04-25-11/0146:25> »
some Tips:
MAG 6 is too expensive
better raise AGI to 5 and later You raise MAG with Karma
Rapid Healing is (ImO) not useful,better get ....(Kampfsinn ? )or mystic Armor instead.
You have BOD 5 and with a Medkit and a First Aid Skill you'll do fine
Get a first Aid Skill and Throwing with Specialisation Grenades

whats this ?
Improved Combat Ability2

with a cheaper Dance
Medicineman
http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/08/02/the-long-journey/
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Critias

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« Reply #9 on: <04-25-11/0358:37> »
whats this ?
Improved Combat Ability2
Can't figure that one out, myself.  He's got 2.5 power points to play with (written as-is, with the Magic of 6) after adding up everything else he's got.  Nothing's 1.25 per level, so I'm scratchin' my head on this one.  I think maybe he's got Improved Ability: Pistols (which he wrote like he did because IA is priced based on the type of skill), but the power points still don't add up, so it's just a guess.

Glyph

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« Reply #10 on: <04-26-11/2335:23> »
The only way I can get the math to add up to 6 is:
0.50 Agility boost: 2
2.00 2 points of improved blades skill, and 2 points of improved pistols skill
3.00 Improved reflexes: 2 (using the old cost - it is only 2.5 in SR4A)
0.50 Rapid healing: 2

zombizzle666

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« Reply #11 on: <05-04-11/1609:50> »
Well I was using a char gen. Program when spending the points so maybe there's a flaw in the program either way it's been a major improvement from where I started, I almost feel as if at times it is way to easy to win battles, so hopefully my gm will up the ante on fights.  Although for the moment I've been drawin into the porn industry. Hmmmm furry porn, yeah.  Something happend in game that turned me in to a man/jaguard hybrid and some creep ass elf wanted me to star in some furry porn.

Medicineman

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« Reply #12 on: <05-04-11/1630:28> »
Well, there is a Song from "die Ärzte" called "Dinge von denen Ich nichts wissen will"
Roughly Translated its: Things I don't wanna know about

He who Dances to "die Ärzte"
Medicineman
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