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First 5e Adept - Feedback Welcome

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Ajax

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« on: <02-03-19/2318:53> »
The goal is to have an archery-focused character who will be focus on helping the party out in combat with precision ranged shots (the Street Samurai and the Gunslingers can lay down the volume of fire, I'll play designated marksman) and working as an infiltrator outside of combat. Hopefully growing into a "Face" role over time. Obviously, an an archery-focused character is sacrificing  optimized raw firepower for style. But there's something to be said for a weapon that (can be) unhackable, is (almost) totally silent, and the myriad gadgets that can be turned into trick arrows.


Personal Info
Street Name: Kitten ("Katya" to Russians)
Name: Yekaterina Rodionovna Zhelnerovich
Meta: Human   
Ethnicity: Russian-American

Priority
Metatype: E
Attributes: A
Magic: B
Skills: C
Resources: D

Attributes
Body: 4
Agility: 6
Reaction: 7
Strength: 5
Willpower: 3
Logic: 3
Intuition: 3
Charisma: 3
Edge: 3
Magic: 6
Essence: 6

Contacts
Yosef Sunnovich ("Uncle Joe"), Bratva Boss (Con: 6; Loy: 2)
Boris Sunnovich ("Cousin Boris"), Bratva Boss (Con: 4; Loy: 6)
"Doctor Nick," Street Doc (Con: 3; Loy: 1)
"Winchester," Fixer (Con: 6; Loy: 3)

##Qualities
Positive
Bilingual
Catlike
Mentor Spirit (Cat)
Natural Athlete
Negative
Allergy (Uncommon, Mild; Dogs)
Creature Comfort, Middle
Did You Call Me Dumb?
In Debt 3

Adept Powers
Combat Sense 2
Enh. Accuracy (Archery)
Improved Reflexes 2
Light Body 2 (Mentor Spirit)
Master Archer
Missile Mastery
Precision Throwing

Active Skills
Archery (Bows): 6
Escape Artist: 4
Etiquette: 2*
Gymnastics (Parkour): 2
Leadership: 2*
Locksmith: 4
Negotiation: 2*
Palming: 2
Sneaking (Urban): 4
Thrown Weapons: 4
Unarmed (Parkour): 2

* Skill Group

Knowledge & Language Skills
English: N
Russian: N
Business (Finance): 2
History: 2
Seattle Organized Crime (Russian Bratva): 3
Seattle Street Gangs: 3

Armor
Zoe Executive Suite
 + Nonconductivity Rating 2
 + Thermal Damping Rating 2   

Weapons
Bow (Rating 5)
 + Smartgun, Internal
Throwing Knife (x4)
Shock Gloves
Quickdraw Quiver    
Arrow: Standard (x100)
Arrow: Explosive Head (x5)
Arrow: S-n-S w/Static (x10)
Arrow: Injection (x15)
Grenade: Flash-Bang (x3)
Grenade: Fragmentation (x3)
Grenade: High Explosive (x3)
Drug: Gamma-Scopolamine (x5 doses)
Drug: Narcoject (x10 doses)

Other Gear
Monocle
 + Smartlink
 + Flare Comp
 + Thermographic
 + Vision Mag
Contacts
 + Low Light
 + Vision Enhancement 1
 + Image Link

Earbuds
 + Sound Link
 + Select Filter 1
 + Audio Enhancement 1

Slap Patch, Tranq (x2)
Slap Patch, Trauma (x1)
Renraku Sensei Commlink
Fake SIN Rating 4
Fake SIN Rating 3
Fake License Rating 3
Baseball
Ink Pen (Good; x4)
Pack of Cigarettes
Cigar (Decent; x1)
Climbing Gear       
Flashlight, Low-light
Gas Mask    
Gecko Tape Gloves
Respirator
Lockpick Set
Middle Lifestyle (x4 Months)
« Last Edit: <02-07-19/0231:38> by Ajax »
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #1 on: <02-04-19/2112:36> »
Without knowing how your game group rolls its hard to say, my first thought though is that is a lot of PPs towards throwing things for a 4 skill.  As an aside missile mastery sucks balls at doing what most people would want it for (throwing improvised weapons)accuracy 3 means you miss run of the mill office worker with a little bit of cover more often than not. Foiled by a pencil pusher who was standing behind his desk.  It gives you 1 pp worth of power though 1DV 1 die, so hey knives, tomahawks etc sweet.  But if you are going with images of bullseye dancing through your head, almost like you had a magical power to throw things I'd skip it.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #2 on: <02-04-19/2132:59> »
You can wring some usefulness out of the 3 Acc.  Namely, by catching people unawares. If you're a good sneaker, you can potentially just sneak up into throwing range, and score your easy 3 hits (or 4+, with aiming) and so long as the NPC doesn't know you're there he gets no dodge test.

Alternately, since the power is Throw Anything, you can potentially catch your victim by surprise simply by tricking him. Produce a pen, or business card, or whatever during the course of seemingly innocuous conversation and then *flick* it right into his jugular.  It'll probably require a Con or Performance (Acting) roll in place of the Sneaking test to catch the victim by surprise and dodge pool-less.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Ajax

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« Reply #3 on: <02-04-19/2205:52> »
The character will be used for Shadowrun: Missions, since my old regular Shadowrun group is now on the other side of the continent from me... I was able to convince that GM that Thrown Weapons (aside from grenades) were so underpowered that he allowed Enhanced Accuracy (Archery) to also cover thrown weapons. I wanted to play Bullseye, he wanted me to be able to play Bullseye. Happiness ensued.

However, if I have to play it strictly by the book, I think it’s still worthwhile. The ability to do damage akin to a Hold-Out Pistol with a pocketful of innocuous items is just dang handy. Sure, it won’t win any fire-fights with a High Threat Response Team, but it’s an awesome assassination tool. Okay, not as awesome as 14 dice of kravmaga and Killing Hands, but still fun.
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #4 on: <02-04-19/2255:38> »
The character will be used for Shadowrun: Missions, since my old regular Shadowrun group is now on the other side of the continent from me... I was able to convince that GM that Thrown Weapons (aside from grenades) were so underpowered that he allowed Enhanced Accuracy (Archery) to also cover thrown weapons. I wanted to play Bullseye, he wanted me to be able to play Bullseye. Happiness ensued.

However, if I have to play it strictly by the book, I think it’s still worthwhile. The ability to do damage akin to a Hold-Out Pistol with a pocketful of innocuous items is just dang handy. Sure, it won’t win any fire-fights with a High Threat Response Team, but it’s an awesome assassination tool. Okay, not as awesome as 14 dice of kravmaga and Killing Hands, but still fun.

If you are going for bullseye, drop 3 from locksmith, get throwing to 6 and see if specialization improvised weapons will fly. If he is letting enhanced accuracy archery cover throwing weapons at least you have a 4 accuracy and it would be nice to consistently hit that.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #5 on: <02-04-19/2306:05> »
You can wring some usefulness out of the 3 Acc.  Namely, by catching people unawares. If you're a good sneaker, you can potentially just sneak up into throwing range, and score your easy 3 hits (or 4+, with aiming) and so long as the NPC doesn't know you're there he gets no dodge test.

Alternately, since the power is Throw Anything, you can potentially catch your victim by surprise simply by tricking him. Produce a pen, or business card, or whatever during the course of seemingly innocuous conversation and then *flick* it right into his jugular.  It'll probably require a Con or Performance (Acting) roll in place of the Sneaking test to catch the victim by surprise and dodge pool-less.

Yeah, you can wrangle some use out of it.  I wish they had separated the effect of DV/die from it, have it cost .5 and just make it useful on its own like act like every other thrown weapon and have a accuracy of physical limit. Its why people want the power, for 4 editions people got it to be bullseye this is the first one where you fail hard. It's not useless, though in most cases like catch someone by surprise etc something else cheaper would likely be a better alternative, heck unarmed kind of covers most of those options and will do the same damage just not killing damage. And its not a bad power 1pp is what it would cost to cover +1DV and +1 die and it has a extra even if it is a poorly designed extra.  And the +1 die would stack with improved ability, so its mechanically solid.  Just fails on its intended flavor.

Ajax

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« Reply #6 on: <02-04-19/2332:14> »
It’s a backup weapon, as far as I’m concerned, more or less equivalent to a Hold-Out Pistol... But with 99.999% perfect concealment. Her primary weapon is her now and arrow.
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #7 on: <02-06-19/0119:23> »
It’s a backup weapon, as far as I’m concerned, more or less equivalent to a Hold-Out Pistol... But with 99.999% perfect concealment. Her primary weapon is her now and arrow.

Sure, its just a backup weapon that you are spending 1+ pps on. That is a big investment for a backup.  .5 pp gets you killing hands and hits just as hard as it, you lose the range but it also works on spirits.  It is solid flavor, just a big investment.  I'm all for it actually in the right groups.  If you are with team min/max you might want to use those pps more cost effectively. But, I think most missions are fairly easy.  I've been running a team that started using the street scum rules though the chicago seasons, so far they are surviving and they aren't min maxed even at street scum, well the sniper kind of is but he almost never shows. So I think you will do fine in the general sense, just not sure about in the keep up with the rest of the team sense.

Ajax

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« Reply #8 on: <02-06-19/1130:10> »
Well, played my first Missions session with this character last night... Had fun during the roleplaying scenes, did okay during the investigation/scouting the target scenes, and didn’t actually need to fire a shot during combat. So I have no idea if the character will work at doing the main thing I built her to do!

On the other hand, it has become quite clear that the table default is “Team Min/Max.” The players weren’t the dreaded jerkface munchkin That Guy types, but there was definitely a great deal of squeezing every last iota of efficiency out of your build... I think I’m going to use my mulligan and rebuild this character. Same persona, similar skill set, but wholly rework their combat style.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far!
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

kyoto kid

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« Reply #9 on: <02-06-19/1924:16> »
...I built an archery adapt but never put her into play because of the cost. vs effectiveness of the weapon.  For one a bow is a single shot weapon, so no way to reduce a dodge pool. OK if you want to play the team's sniper though still lower DV/AP than a sniper rifle and no double tap option.  Next, a big expense are the arrows themselves particularly for speciality heads as they have to be purchased at the rating of the bow for the optimal effect (those rating 5 Static Shaft S&S arrows cast 150 per shot more than Depleted Uranium rounds cost per bullet).  Finally, if the adept uses combat drugs to augment his/her strength, then he/she would need the Dynamic Tension bow from Hard Targets along with arrows rated for the higher STR rating (unfortunately the Boosted Attribute power for STR does not increase the DV of an attack).  Arrows are also are not as compact as bullets, it's easy to carry say a couple extra clips for a Yamaha Radien which is an extra 120 shots, try carrying that many arrows into combat).  True arrows, save for explosive/incendiary head, can be recovered but how many times does the team usually cut and run immediately after a combat to avoid dealing with the authorities or an HTR team?

I've actually found a crossbow (even the Pistol crossbow) with static shaft S&S bolts to be most cost effective since bolts have no rating modifier and the base damage is 12 DV(s) -5 AP.  Incendiary heads are good as well as even on a grazing hit they affect the target. even then, the ammo isn't cheap (1,000¥ for 20 Static Shaft S&S bolts [50¥ per bolt is an expensive shot])

I felt they sort of made bows more complicated as well as somewhat useless even against moderately armoured targets and should have left them more the way they were in 3e with the Ranger-X as the top line model.
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Ajax

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« Reply #10 on: <02-06-19/2034:04> »
Yep, gonna have to shelf the archery idea for a slightly less optimized game. I’m thinking I can fill most of the same niche — combat and infiltration — with a slightly more traditional pistol-focused adept.
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

Ajax

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« Reply #11 on: <02-07-19/0136:25> »
Personal Info
Street Name: Kitten
Meta: Human

Priority
Metatype: E
Attributes: A
Magic: B
Skills: C
Resources: D

Attributes
Body: 5
Agility: 6
Reaction: 4
Strength: 5
Willpower: 3
Logic: 2
Intuition: 4
Charisma: 3
Edge: 3
Magic: 6
Essence: 6

Contacts
Yosef Sunnovich ("Uncle Joe"), Bratva Boss (Con: 6; Loy: 2)
Boris Sunnovich ("Cousin Boris"), Bratva Boss (Con: 4; Loy: 6)
"Doctor Nick," Street Doc (Con: 3; Loy: 1)
"Winchester," Fixer (Con: 6; Loy: 3)

Qualities
Positive
Bilingual
Catlike
Mentor Spirit (Cat)
Natural Athlete
Sharpshooter
Negative
Allergy (Uncommon, Mild; Dogs)
Creature Comfort, Middle
Did You Call Me Dumb?
Phobia (Uncommon, Moderate; Barghests)

Adept Powers
Combat Sense 2
Danger Sense 2
Enh. Accuracy (Pistols)
Improved Ability (Pistols) 3
Improved Reflexes 2
Light Body 2 (Mentor Spirit)
Nimble Fingers

Active Skills
Pistols (Heavy) 6
Gymnastics (Parkour) 6
Unarmed Combat (Gun Kata) 6
Pilot Ground Craft 2
Perception 4 (from Magic B)
Con 2*
Impersonation 2*
Performance 2*
Etiquette 3
Throwing Weapons 2

* Skill Group

Knowledge & Language Skills
English: N
Russian: N
Business (Finance): 2
History: 2
Seattle Organized Crime (Russian Bratva): 3
Seattle Street Gangs: 3

Martial Arts (Purchased with Karma)
Style: Gun Kata (-7 Karma)
Technique: Close Quarters Firearms (Pistols) (Free)
Technique: Multiple Opponent Defense (Friends in Melee) (-5 Karma)
Technique: Tricking (-5 Karma)
Technique: Stagger (-5 Karma)


Gear list not included, but it will basically be a pair of tricked out Savalette Guardians, Zoé Executive Suite suit, and the usual toys.
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

Plastic-Man

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« Reply #12 on: <02-07-19/0849:09> »
Suggestions, consider lowering your resources and saving for a mission or 2, having 5 edge or being an elf will make a large difference.

I do not know how you can afford to take all those martial arts, qualities and boost edge to 3.

Consider removing gymnastics for now and replacing it with sneak (urban), it's so damn useful as a Shadow runner. Picking up a point in gymnastics. If you want heavier in skills you can always lower magic priority to C and use the extra points from human metatype B to bring it back up.

The martials arts is also a lot of karma for very little. Taking unarmed and wearing a shock glove would be more effective for melee and if you like to get tricky then the sharpshooter quality is very good and very cheap, my standard attack is always aimed at vitals.

Ajax

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« Reply #13 on: <02-07-19/1108:53> »
The character earned 8 Karma and ¥18,000 during her first run, which I’m told will carry over even if I rebuild her. So that’s paying for some things not normally affordable at CharGen.

Gymnastics seems like a good investment, Mentor Spirit (Cat) buffs it, as does Natural Athlete. With her 4 REA and 4 INT, +6 Gymnastics, +2 Specialization, +2 Natural Athlete, +2 Mentor Spirit [Cat], +2 Combat Sense comes out to a defensive dice pool of 22, if I’ve done my math right.

« Last Edit: <02-07-19/1116:16> by Ajax »
Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get paid.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #14 on: <02-07-19/2255:38> »
Well with a gymnastic adept and quality stuff with a mentor spirit focused on that personally I'd drop both strength and body to 4 and bump reaction and intuition to 5. 1 You'd be faster and 2 with your combat sense and improved reflexes you'd roll 14 dice to dodge. And its seems a bit more thematically appropriate. Also given the route you are talking I'd drop 1 from enhanced ability pistols and take wall running.  Very little dip in shooting ability but again seems to fit the theme.