[Adarkm07]

I built this character with the help of this forum a couple months ago, and have been meandering through my GM's campaign up to now. I've done some karma purchases (initiate once, some skills, etc), but I'm kinda unsure where to go from here. I also have a TON of Nuyen, but no idea what to spend it on. I'm basically looking for suggestions on both counts.

Main goal is to specialize in stealth non-lethal takedowns, and BnE. I've been thinking about getting some Cyber/Bioware, but not sure what to grab.

I picked up Hapsum-Do to deal with spirits, but I'm still not very good in that role -- and our group has no dedicated mage.


TLDR; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KA5lyc_e7rVLgUztGMMQqLlPTYbRE96R/view?usp=sharing

[Tecumseh]

A specialization for Unarmed Combat seems like a good start for a karma purchase. After that, it depends on your role on the team. If the team doesn't have a dedicated magician and you're in charge of Assensing, then it might be worth picking up the Aura Reading specialization for Assensing too.

You technically need Arcana to initiate, although it looks like you've gotten away without it so far. But you might want a rank or two as a fig leaf if your GM ever mentions it.

Looks like your GM has been generous with the karma, if the ratio between your nuyen and your career karma is any indication. There are lots of places to spend it:

1) more SINs
2) more lifestyles (bolt holes, etc.)
3) more armor/clothes/outfits, although this is less relevant to you because of your distinctive style
4) qi foci
5) cyber/bioware

As for 'ware, muscle toner is the obvious candidate. You can easily afford Rating 4 (¥128K); the primary hurdle would be Availability, depending on how strict your GM is about it. If your GM doesn't really bother with Availability, then I'd go nuts and get Beta-grade, which costs an extra 50% (¥192K) and saves you 0.24 Essense points for other fun stuff. You would drop Improved Physical Attribute (Agility) when you lose a point of Magic / Power Point since you'd be maxing out your Agility at 6 (10) anyway.

As for future initiations and/or qi foci, I'd focus on Improved Reflexes first, getting that up to III for the extra Reaction and Initiative. After that, consider powers like Magic Sense (especially if you don't have a mage on the team) and Enhanced Perception (which boosts both Perception and Assensing). Heightened Concentration (from Shadow Spells) is also a good power that you can use to ignore negative modifiers. If you want more RP, or to diversify away from combat, consider options like Enthralling Performance or Eidetic Sense Memory, which can be useful and a fun solution to problems rather than "punch everything".

[Adarkm07]

All great suggestions! I'll be implementing quite a few of them.

At the moment the team consists of a Human Street Sam (former NAN special forces), an Elf Decker (he is a secondary face, because until recently we didn't have a dedicated one), a Troll Street Sam, and one player just rerolled into a Giant Face. So I am the start and finish of our magical ability as well as our ability to infiltrate places.

Any thoughts on what to use the other 0.44 essence on after the muscle toner?

We knew about the Arcana test to Initiate -- We missed that you can't default on it. So I'll be grabbing a rank of that as an apology to my GM post haste.

I was thinking of grabbing other martial arts - Any good pairings with Hapsum Do?

[Michael Chandra]

Mind you, iirc the Ordeals for a discount that take a while actually can replace the Arcana check. Or at least that was the intent.

[kainite311]

Depending on how much magic you run into, since you have hapsum, maybe look at getting Harmonious Defense for some counter spelling for an initiation (which will bolster the team since there is no magic defense in your party).

Ditch Counterstrike power and pick up counterstrike from Hapsum. The adept power has severe limitations (no other action after using other then attacking, so no full defense, run for your life (grenade/AoE spell, drop prone for suppressing fire, moving, until you attack on your turn or you lose it...),  and you have to use the block interrupt first (another drain on initiative, so -10 total to perform total). Where as counterstrike martial arts again uses unarmed combat skill (so again get to add increase skill, plus maybe combat sense depending how your gm rules - technically it says it is your defense test, so if you also happened to full defense earlier, add that too...) and costs -7, but get immediate damage out of your  turn sequence...

Ditch Adept spell, very costly plus you have to learn spellcasting, another drain on skill points and and not really worth it IMO for armor spell, deflection or combat sense I think would be better if you want to keep it. (remember you have glowing sphere around you when it is active, so screams geek the mage and not good for stealth, plus dodging the attack is better then trying to soak it in the first place)

If you not playing strictly by SRM rules, then barehanded adept. Pick up Detox (great if your a juicer), and Heal. Use reagents to cast heal at force 1 (instant heal), and since it uses unarmed combat skill + magic for the cast, you can do quirky things with high skill + max improved skill (since it states it increases SKILL, not pool). So with say skill 7, 4 ranks in  improved skill unarmed, 6 magic, you are slinging 17 dice for the spell casting roll that only gets better as you increase magic/skill/improved skill and drain is minimal (cause force 1 spell with double drain (reagents to bypass limit force limit) is still the min 2 drain to resist with body + will). Another optional spell is spatial recognition, seeing the surrounding layout is awesome. Awaken is also super useful.

**Edit I see you have Barehanded** but see spell suggestions (Gecko crawl is good, but you can also just use gecko tape gloves...), boosting magic to 7 will also net another barhanded spell, plus boost Mystic aptitude stat swap

Otherwise as above, drop increase attribute for muscle toner, maybe grab muscle augment (or scrap cyber and maybe look at
Mystic Aptitude from Better Than Bad.. or combo it with muscle toner and use it to boost str/react/body as needed)

Maybe for mentor Spirit instead take (Shark if you wanna go unarmed/free killing hands and +2 dice combat skill) or (Raven if you wanna go a little stealthy/Con way +2 Con, and free Traceless walk and 1 level voice control)

Then look at an adept
 way, maybe athlete or invisible to help dovetail into B&E (which will help reduce costs for certain adept powers, freeing up some power points)

[Tecumseh]

The PC is created and active, so I presume there's not as much flexibility in the character's existing composition to accomplish what kainite311 is suggesting.

As for the remaining Essense, there are lots of options. Again, it just depends on which direction you want to go with the character.

Platelet Factories are great if you find yourself taking a lot of Physical damage for being on the front lines and/or less armored. Or Damage Compensators for the same reason.

Reflex Recorders can help you add dice to your specialties.

If your GM likes hitting you with gas or toxins, look at a Nephritic Screen.

Cerebellum Boosters add dice to Intuition, which makes them great for Perception / Assensing / Initiative / dodging.

Tetrachromatic Vision is pretty sweet for a human, but the effects can largely be duplicated by gear (like glasses).

Sleep Regulators are very useful if you're in a game that tracks the action at a fairly granular level (e.g. hour by hour).

If I were just going nuts with your money, I'd get the following all at Betaware:
- Muscle Toner 4
- Cerebellum Booster 2
- Tetrachromatic Vision
- Sleep Regulator

That's +4 AGI, +2 INT, an extra +3 for Perception, and you only need 3 hours of sleep at night.

[Adarkm07]

The PC is created and active, so I presume there's not as much flexibility in the character's existing composition to accomplish what kainite311 is suggesting.

This is pretty much accurate with a couple exceptions. First I informed the GM about the screw-up with Arcana and I've dropped karma to buy 1 rank immediately.

Secondly after discussion it was agreed that Adept Spell: Armor didn't really fit the character's goals like I thought, and it was a *very* recent purchase so he is letting me swap it.

I'll likely be grabbing Muscle Toner next time we are between runs. One of the other players is giving me grief for it (citing all the fluff about trading off a piece of your soul), but I feel it is justified.

I've enjoyed the other suggestions for bioware to fill-in the rest of the essence. Platelet Factories would fill a similar niche to the armor spell I'm tossing. Damage Compensators are good too, but I think I'd rather not take damage. Reflex Recorders would add a die to some of my skills, but may be venturing into overkill territory.

You mentioned Nephritic Screen to deal with gas. This is actually a favored weapon of some of my party members (and they've even dropped it on top of me before). CS Gas being the favorite, this would seem to be a solution to a problem I've been having but in the long run it would make using the Drug/Detox combo more difficult (if I were to pickup Detox later via bought magic).

Cerebellum Boosters look like more of what I want. Tetrachromatic Vision can probably be passed on (thats what my contact lenses are for), and I really dont need Sleep Regulators.

[drakir]

Get Muscle Toners rating 4 and Cerebellum Boosters + other stuff like others have suggested. Then talk to your GM to include one of the most common houserules. Work for the People/Work for the Man.

Houserule work like you can trade a limited amount of Karma for money or vice versa each time you get a reward/are between runs.  Most common is 2000 <-> 1 karma for a maximum of five times each occasion. So 10000 nuyen could be turned into 5 karma.

Awakened characters usually can't spend all that money and mundane characters (like riggers and sams) might need more money so this houserule tend to be good for everyone.