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Snooty Covert Ops Specialist

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Marcus

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« Reply #30 on: <02-26-18/2100:43> »
My idea of non optimized is the fact that any optimization you do pretty much leaves you lacking in other areas.

So you end up with 6+Spec in 4 skills & then totally lacking in the other 10 skills you want and you are stuck doing Ability-1 defaults till you can by a Level-1+ in those other skills.

Having 3 in everything is another way to be sub optimal & it gives you better dice pools in your off skills but then leaves you a bit short in your primary.

So there is no win-win in chargen at this point.

Not that everything should be OP but just that it seems you are down right short in multiple areas these days.

It's certainly true that you can't be strong everywhere, and that's certainly working as intended. Competently covering a role and being useful in a fight should be sufficient, cover two rolls is also doable though odds are your skirting the edge a little, clearly some roles take more some less.  But what I'm saying is, at some point during optimizing it's a very different character then what it started as. Which can be fine or it can be a problem all depending on the creators image.


EDIT: Sorry Steel not meaning to hijack your character thread, i'm glad you made your decisions, and I think wheels are critical to being appropriately snooty. I just get philosophical from time to time. Just ignore me when I do, i'll revert to my power gaming ways soon enough.
« Last Edit: <02-26-18/2134:05> by Marcus »
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ZeldaBravo

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« Reply #31 on: <02-26-18/2249:35> »
In the end, feeling good about your character and being excited to play is what matters the most.
*I have problems with clarifying my point in English, so sometimes I might sound stupid or rude.*

Tarislar

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« Reply #32 on: <02-28-18/1920:46> »
It's certainly true that you can't be strong everywhere, and that's certainly working as intended. Competently covering a role and being useful in a fight should be sufficient, cover two rolls is also doable though odds are your skirting the edge a little, clearly some roles take more some less.  But what I'm saying is, at some point during optimizing it's a very different character then what it started as. Which can be fine or it can be a problem all depending on the creators image.

I read something on these boards once & liked it enough to mostly remember it & follow it.

To be a good SR character you need to be doing "SOMETHING" in each of 3 scenarios.

1.  Combat
2.  Information Gathering  (Research, Social Skills, Contacts, Drone Recon, etc etc)
3.  Some form of Support Function  (Infiltration, Healing, Facing, Repair, Piloting, Etc Etc)

Most of SR revolves around Information Gathering & Combat, and you need a 3rd option for times when neither are up.
You don't need to be able to do 5 things for each of those scenarios, but ONE is pretty much a Must.

So basically, if you are a Troll Samurai who's only skills are Shooting & Slashing with 1's in LOG/CHA, then you need to dump a bunch of Karma into your Contacts pool to help you out with IG & Support.  Meanwhile being an Elf Face with 8 Charisma & a load of social skills & contacts is still no excuse for not being able to do anything in combat but run/hide/scream like a 6 year old.

At least that was the basics of what I read.  And its good advice for anyone in this game, IMHO.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #33 on: <03-23-18/1942:18> »
Thanks again to everyone who gave me excellent advice.  The character is indeed better for it.

I've updated the OP to reflect what I feel is probably the final form.. but who am I kidding.  I'll be tempted to continuously tweak until I actually ever get a chance to play it :) 

Changes:
- Had to drop Friends in High Places.  I was mistaken in thinking it was SRM legal.  And I shoulda known... too good to be true and all!
- I added Parkour and specifically the mundane version of the Wall Running adept power :D
- Better combat options (slightly)
- Dropping BOD to 2 was deliberate.  I'm figuring 1 less soak die and 1 less CM shouldn't get me killed.  And if it does, that's what Burning EDG is for.  But BOD2 > BOD3 in weird pressure plate math :)
- Since the current SRM season is coming to a close, I'm saving this character to be my primary Neo-Tokyo Shadowrunner.  That helped cinch selecting heavy cyber over heavy skills... I want to know Japanese only via Sixth World Google Translate for funsies.  And Knowing Japanese at rating 3 is way more playable than level 1.
- Speaking of Cyber vs Skills... I went with 3 B&E skills via Active Skillwires.  Doing so meant in the end a high skill version only had an edge in Hardware and Disguise.  That's not nothing, but I'm choosing to let karma catch those up and enjoy the added capabilities cyberware brings in the meantime.
- I had Breast Replacement 2.0s, then decided against them.  Had them to help on Disguise which this version is weak on, but dropped them as the augmentations don't actually give you an explicit bonus to disguise.  SRM and all and I want to avoid GM variance.  And lastly, planning ahead: I don't have to upgrade anything to betaware now to fit a planned muscle augmentation upgrade from 2 to 3.
« Last Edit: <03-23-18/2156:13> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
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.