[School Idol]

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to make another pre-made character for my stockpile, this time a Technomancer.
Obviously, I know Deckers are way way easier to optimize and most people tell you not to bother with a Technomancer, but I wanted the challenge.

Anyways, I was hoping for some suggestions on how to tweak the character to help optimize them based on some build guidelines I had.
The goal was to make a Technomancer that can:

A) Hack just as well a decent Decker -without- the use of Sprites
B) Isn't useless in a firefight (guess we're using combat drugs and Machine Sprites)
C) Has full Resonance and is a decent Technomancer

EDIT: Updated the build to reflect that I forgot Boosted was Cyber, and made minor changes that had to be worked in to make Cerebral Booster work in its stead, and added a point of Body.

Name: Lain

A   Attributes   24
B   Skills      36/5
C   Magic   T/3
D   Race      H/3
E   Resources   6000

==Attribute Array==
Strength 1
Agility 5
Body 3
Reaction 2 (Core Book Decker's Reaction + Intuition is 7, so I can live with this)
Willpower 5
Intuition 5
Logic 6[8]
Charisma 5

==Karma Expenditure==
10   Restricted Gear
10   Prototype Transhuman
05   Born Rich

25   Nuyen (50, 000)

-15   In Debt (75,000 / 112,500)
-10   Weak Immune System

==Skills==
5   Electronics [Group]
5   Cybercombat
5   Electronic Warfare
6   Hacking   (Specialization: Hosts)
6   Compiling (Specialization: Machine Sprites)
6   Registering (Specialization: Machine Sprites)
6   Pistols
5   Perception

==Gear==
63 000      Cerebral Booster 2   Essence: 0.4
48 000      Pain Editor       Essence: 0.3
12 000      Sleep Regulator    Essence: 0.1

5000      Rank 2 SIN
400      Rank 2 License (Firearms)
500      Rent: Squatter (1 month)
500      Armor Vest
300      Biomonitor (Pretty Important to have with Pain Editor)
100      Meta Link Commlink

725      Ares Predator V
240      120 Rounds Normal Ammo
70      Trodes (For Show)
15      3 Spare Clips

150      Jazz x2

==Complex Forms==
Resonance Spike
Static Veil
Puppeteer

(I hate the In Debt Quality SO MUCH but it's the only way I could pull this off... plus Technomancers don't really have a lot of things to save up for.)
Thanks again in advance!

[ShadowcatX]

You can't take in debt and spend karma on nuyen, it's one or the other.

Body 2 and str 1 scream kill me.

Prototype transhuman doesn't work for cyberware, only bioware, so boosted reflexes is a no.

Prototype transhuman and restricted gear are also both qualities banned by a lot of tables.

Last but not least, if a technomancer could hack as good as a decker without using sprites there would be no reason for anyone to ever play a decker.

[School Idol]

You can't take in debt and spend karma on nuyen, it's one or the other.

I'm looking at page 156 of Run Faster, but I'm not seeing where it specifies you cannot spend karma on nuyen.
Was this in an errata post?

Body 2 and str 1 scream kill me.

I don't agree with Strength 1, but I'm willing to switch around Reaction and Body.

Prototype transhuman doesn't work for cyberware, only bioware, so boosted reflexes is a no.

True! I will swap things around and work in Cerebral Booster 2 instead.

Prototype transhuman and restricted gear are also both qualities banned by a lot of tables.

Tons of qualities are banned from tables; some tables insist on Street Level play even while knowing it's imbalanced. Other don't allow mages. I'm not really worried about it. I can easily make a 'vegan' version of a character ready on the side later.

Last but not least, if a technomancer could hack as good as a decker without using sprites there would be no reason for anyone to ever play a decker.

I strongly disagree that a technomancer can't hack as good as a good decker. Hack as good an amazing decker? You're probably right. But it's -totally- doable to make one that's at least as good at hacking as the decker archetype in the book.

[ShadowcatX]

Funny, it's in the first paragraph of "In Debt", not hard to find at all. "These points are spent in place of the normal Karma for extra cash and extend the possible additional funds to 75,000¥."

And second, you don't compare apples to oranges, if a technomancer could hack as well as an equally optimized decker, there would be no reason for anyone to ever play a decker.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

And second, you don't compare apples to oranges, if a technomancer could hack as well as an equally optimized decker, there would be no reason for anyone to ever play a decker.

Well Deckers do have some not-insignificant advantages in using those expensive cyberdecks.  The ability to flop around ASDF stats pretty much at will is huge.  And the ability to benefit from programs without spending 7 karma each for them is also huge.  And while nothing prevents a Techno from using cyberware, Deckers tend to have an easier go with taking the essence hit and can therefore more easily benefit from implanted, passive Noise Reduction.

A Technomancer can duplicate the effect of a few key programs through some steep karma expenditure, but swapping ASDF stats is something else entirely.  Luckily for Technos their Living Personae tend to have all around high stats (if you build them correctly) so it's less important to move high stats into relevance before they come into use.

[Hobbes]

The first thing to realize is that Technomancers don't need marks except for hosts, and then you only need one.

Editor, Puppeteer, Resonance Veil, and Data Spike complex forms are your hacking tools.  Get gud at threading.  Win.  Don't use Matrix Actions unless you're forced to.  Use Sprites as disposable dice pool boosts.

Willpower 5, Logic 6, Drug tolerant puts you at 13 dice for Addiction tests for Psychological addiction.  Pharma grade Cram is cheap.  You can toss 13 dice at a threshold 2 test for Cram and Psyche.  Psyche is already Threshold 2, nothing fancy needed there.  Cram and Psyche are both Psychological only IIRC.  If the mage learns Detox you're golden.  2 actions all the time, 3 actions frequently.

Shooting and stuff.  Moderate Agility, Skill 6, Specialization, Laser sight or Smart link, Permanent Machine Sprite running Diagnostics, easy 15 dice on shooting.  Sneaking, grab that core book Chameleon Suit, stuff another Machine Sprite in there for forever, again, 15+ dice.

Social Skils, after a run or two pick up some Mortimers, Machine Sprite and Diagnostics as needed.  Claw your way to 6 or 8 dice on most tests to squeak by, edge as needed

[School Idol]

The first thing to realize..

That is a wealth of helpful information. Thank you! You're awesome!
(Btw, what about Pharma-grade Jazz?)

[FST_Gemstar]

I agree with Hobbes on most things except that so much Shadowrun hacking is about host work, and getting a mark on a host is not easy for a beginning technomancer (at least until they get skinlink), especially if not using sprites. The problem with being good at threading and mundane cracking is that it can feel redundant. If you have the tools to conventionally hack just to get that mark, than you don't really need anything else. 


That In-Debt is too much. I cringe at it for you. That is the defining characteristic of this character no matter what else you explain about it and will make actually playing the character not fun. All of your paydays is just going to debt interest, you need to a ton of money on hand to actually pay down the debt to get rid of the quality, not to mention 30 additional karma. Any build that requires that kind of debt is not functional. Combined with Prototype Transhuman (another very particular and character defining quality) the sheet starts to look flimsy, even for a technomancer.   

And you are a technomancer that bought a Pain Editor? Probably the best thing about a technomancer is that they can get an essence free and undetectable one in play with their second echo. Do not waste money/essence on a pain editor. 

My hacking-technomancer advice: 

Be a "brain-decker."  A technomancer that goes about the matrix much like a decker, using low Resonance to just get a living persona instead of a buying a deck. Shadowrun matrix work is designed for deckers, unfortunately. Technomancers can do well as hackers if they act more like deckers (especially if you are avoiding clunkiness of sprite hacking). 

Your Resonance C buys a living persona. As long as you have a point of Resonance, you can hack. Resonance IMO is just not as important to Technomancers as Magic is for Magicians. Your Mental stats become more important because they are both your matrix limits and the base of your hacking dicepools. You also can't reconfigure them. So you want them generally very high, including 'ware boosted. You can then use drugs to help boost stats and add dice/limits when you need to.   

You then use the easy complex forms that are remarkably helpful for decker style hackers... the OS management ones... basically Cleaner to keep OS low and Static Veil to hold onto marks for as long as you are awake. 

My goto human hacking technomancer priority selection tends to be: 

E Human (put point into Edge... Edge 3 is as low as I am usually willing to play as a hacker). 
D Stats (Low, but will be compensated for)   
C Resonance (You are just after a living persona). 
A/B Skills (This is a build that I actually like skills A in. Especially if you do plan to use Machine sprites for other things.) 
B/A Resources (B Resources is usually enough as you only have two essence worth of 'ware to burn) 

Here is a quick mockup without contacts/knowledge/gear (though I prob have so many versions of this somewhere): 

Karma Spent: 21 on PQ, 25 on Body, -25 on NQs = 4 karma remaining. I know you are ok with Strength 1 so I left it as such, but you could ditch Drug Tolerant and and buy Strength 2 with karma, upping your Physical limit to 4.
Nuyen: 37k+ remaining to cover your starter gear needs and a vehicle.   

== Personal Data ==
Human                           
Movement: 8/16 (2m/hit)                   
Swim: 2.5 (1m/hit)                   
                                Composure: 8
Street Cred: 0                  Judge Intentions: 8
Notoriety: 3                    Lift/Carry: 4 (15 kg/10 kg)
Public Awareness: 0             Memory: 12
Karma: 0                        Nuyen: 37,380¥

== Priorities ==
Metatype: E,0
Attributes: D,1
Special: C,2
Skills: A,4
Resources: B,3

== Attributes ==
You can start with Strength 2 if you want. You could also drop Willpower to 3 and up Logic and/or Intuition
BOD: 3                          CHA: 3
AGI: 1 (4)                      INT: 4 (5)
REA: 3                          LOG: 4 (6)
STR: 1                          WIL: 5
EDG: 3                          RES: 1

== Derived Attributes
Essence: 4.01                   Initiative:          8 +1d6 When on Psyche and Cram with Narco, this goes to 12 + 2d6, a very acceptable level for a non combat role
Physical Damage Track: 10       Rigger Initiative:   8 +1d6
Stun Damage Track: 11           Astral Initiative:   
Physical: 3                     Matrix AR:           8 +1d6
Mental: 9                       Matrix Cold:         11 +3d6
Social: 6                       Matrix Hot:          11 +4d6
   Impassive: -1, Does not include Intimidation.
Astral: 9

 == Active Skills ==
All of the non-maxed/non-skill group points are pretty discretionary. They can be moved around to your liking
Compiling: 4 (Machine)
Computer: 6
Con: 3 (Fast Talk)
Disguise: 4
Electronic Warfare: 6
Etiquette: 1 (Corporate)
Gunnery: 2  (Ballistic)             
Gymnastics: 3 (Climbing)           
Hacking: 6 (Hosts)                 
Hardware: 6
Palming: 4
Perception : 6 (Visual)             
Pistols: 6 (Semi-Automatics)     
Registering: 6 (Machine)     
Sneaking: 4
Software: 6

 == Knowledge Skills ==

 == Qualities ==
Cram is better than Jazz for technomancers, because it is a psychological addiction test that they are better suited to resist. It is also long lasting (set it and forget it for the run, but RP it). Psyche is like technomancer hacking programs. Strong boost to dice pools and matrix limits on the cheap. Starting with addictions for these are like free karma, but if your GM is ok with it, go for it.
Addiction (Mild) (Psyche)
Addiction (Mild) (Cram)
Drug Tolerant
Impassive
Jack of All Trades Master of None
Otaku to Technomancer Resonance 1 is rough on Fading, this helps a bit)
Quick Healer
Technomancer
Weak Immune System

 == Cyberware/Bioware ==
Cerebellum BoosterRating 1
Cerebral BoosterRating 2
CyberearsRating 1 (alpha) Technically having a Res 1 may make doing matrix work with Noise around difficult (Res = Device Rating of persona). Some Antennae will make that not an issue for wireless work.
   + Sound Link
   + Antennae
   + Antennae
   + Antennae
Mnemonic EnhancerRating 1 (alphA)
Muscle TonerRating 3 (used)
Narco Good for everything! Psyche +Narco combo gives +2 Reaction +2 Int +2 Log and +1d6 initiative. This is a big boon to hacking, defense, initiative, living, etc.
Sleep Regulator
Tetrachromatic Vision

 == Weapons ==
Unarmed Attack
   Pool: 3      Accuracy: 3     DV: 1S       AP: -     RC: 2

 == Commlink ==
Living Persona (ATT: 3, SLsZ: 5, DP: 6, FWL: 5)

==Complex Forms ==
Static Veil
Cleaner
Resonance Veil/Puppeteer

This kind of build lets a technomancer function as a hacker and also not be a liability in the meat. It also lets them grow into their technomancer powers in a faster, more satisfying way. Basically your first 40 karma goes to getting Skinlink, raising Resonance to 2, and then getting FFF (techno pain editor).   

Character at start can run six Lvl 2 Machine sprites running diagnostics.  At Res 2, you can compile L4 sprites to meaningfully help in the matrix (especially a Crack for teamwork limit boost on Crack Files,  a Fault sprite to cover an escape, a Gremlining Machine Sprite).

[FST_Gemstar]

And second, you don't compare apples to oranges, if a technomancer could hack as well as an equally optimized decker, there would be no reason for anyone to ever play a decker.

Well Deckers do have some not-insignificant advantages in using those expensive cyberdecks.  The ability to flop And the ability to benefit from programs without spending 7 karma each for them is also huge. 

 

7 karma!? Try an individual echo for each of them (mininum 13 karma, increases each time). It is the most inefficient use or a Technomancer's karma to duplicate those individual programs as echoes. 

Technos have cheaper programs than echoes: drugs and sprites. 

Drugs help boost limits and dice pools, much like many hacking programs. 

Sprites have a lot of nifty abilities. Mainly, just having one to teamwork with even for a hit adds +1 die/+1 limit. This helps mitigate some of the lower Matrix stats a technomancer might have that they can't switch like a deck. 

They also have powers that sometimes that often function like programs. 

[Hobbes]

The first thing to realize..

That is a wealth of helpful information. Thank you! You're awesome!
(Btw, what about Pharma-grade Jazz?)

Jazz addiction type is both and it's a short term boost.  Pop Cram and Psyche and you're good for all day.  Reaction + Intuition +2 + 2d6 is good for two passes.  If you can get a decent Reaction you'll get three on a decent roll.  Combat isn't your thing anyway, you're just trying to pop a mook or burn some Edge on a boss. 

Re: FST_Gemstar, Host Hacking.  Hack on the Fly Spec. Host, Codeslinger, 6 Logic, Psyche gets you 17 Dice to get a Mark on a Host.  Edge and/or help from a Sprite and you'll get by until Skinlink.  Once in the host you do a Matrix Perception to find what you're after (You're a TM on Psyche, you're good at finding Matrix Icons) and use the Assist Threading (p. 256 Registered Sprite Tasks) like crazy.  Your main problem is the 6 Limit on Sleaze actions, Sprite Assistance helps with that.

If you're doing a simple hack Increase Matrix Attribute being sustained by a Registered Sprite gets you to up to a 10 Sleaze for a couple of Combat actions.  With the new and improved Priorities you've got lots of CFs to burn. 

[FST_Gemstar]

Psyche works for upping Sleaze too 

[FST_Gemstar]

I just find threading in hosts is just hard because of the strong WAN protections. It's tough to get a high enough threading dicepool without having to spam Aid Threading sprites. This goes against the concept of wanting to hack spriteless and requires keeping a not an insignificant part of your sprite herd not consistently running Diagnostics. It is also one thing to call a sprite for one teamwork test in a host, it's another to have one around for a longer for more threading tests/sustaining when they don't have a mark on a host and are a risk of alerting security. 

I still hold that unless more things change about the rules, technomancers as they stand hack better as low Res living persona deckers with suped up mental 'ware/drugs that have access to support sprites/cfs to make their decking better.   

Higher Res Technomancers I actually think work better designed as non-matrix specialists who offer solid matrix support and can actually grow into hacking (the only archetype that really can).

[Marcus]

I'm trying very hard to give them the benefit of the doubt, on TMs, and hope that KillCode will finally fix this epic failure of allowing an Archtype to be so under powered for this long. The Errata was a nice step, but it's not like its hard to fix this, they did it in 4th, they could just move those fixes forward, and much of the problem would be solved. I really don't understand why they refuse to do this. The basic stuff like the Smartgun CF would be a super easy and very helpful addition to TMs. We have seen Alchemy updated more then TMs. At this point half the board refuses to even think about Magic bullets. Magic didn't need any help. TM's really really do. 

[Hobbes]

I just find threading in hosts is just hard because of the strong WAN protections. It's tough to get a high enough threading dicepool without having to spam Aid Threading sprites. This goes against the concept of wanting to hack spriteless and requires keeping a not an insignificant part of your sprite herd not consistently running Diagnostics. It is also one thing to call a sprite for one teamwork test in a host, it's another to have one around for a longer for more threading tests/sustaining when they don't have a mark on a host and are a risk of alerting security. 

I still hold that unless more things change about the rules, technomancers as they stand hack better as low Res living persona deckers with suped up mental 'ware/drugs that have access to support sprites/cfs to make their decking better.   

Higher Res Technomancers I actually think work better designed as non-matrix specialists who offer solid matrix support and can actually grow into hacking (the only archetype that really can).

6 Res, 6 Software, Level 5 Sprite, 17 dice with a limit of 7, depending on the CF that's 4 to 8 Fade resisted by 11ish dice.  Unless you need to spam Puppeteer I think TMs can pull off full time hacking.  Admittedly you still need Sprites but they're basically Reagents, not really anything you need to think about.  Make it through a couple runs, submerge, get skinlink, win.

Walk into the lobby, touch the lock on the door, direct access hack the host, sit around waiting for your "lunch date" or whatever, Matrix Perception to find whatever you need, Editor or Puppeteer to do what you need to do.  With Cleaner you can actually go in the afternoon, get your mark on the host, keep your OS down, hit the place at night.

Anyway.... IMO TMs (once they get skinlink) are hands down the best hacker.    Deckers are the best 'runners because they can develop a better secondary and can beat anything but the highest rating hosts with raw dice pools.