Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Rules and such => Topic started by: Billy_Club on <01-24-11/0620:44>
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So I'm toying around with the Technomancer rules to see if there is any point in trying to bring one to the table. Aside from the preposterous amount of points you have to sink into attributes and complex forms (not to mention skills) to be much use during a game, I'm running into a hard wall with Fading. It seems clear that, aside from a few cool gimmicks, Sprites are the diamond in the rough for Technomancers. The problem is, Compiling a registered Sprite is hellish on the Fading test and you can only ever have one unregistered Sprite at a time. Granted, most of the time you would probably be fine running around with only one, but to really make the class shine more is better. So, does anyone know of any ways to either increase the amount of dice you get for Fading, or to reduce the amount that you have to resist?
Some things I've found:
Form an allocation bond with a Free Sprite. Gives 1/2 its Resonance in dice for Fading Tests.
Take a Stream that favors your stats, similar to magic Paths.
Choose some silly mish-mash metavariant and cherry pick stats.
I've not been able to find any other qualities, equipment, special rules, sprite powers, paragons, or any other such nonsense since I've started looking into it. I might break down and do some of the three things that I listed above, though I'm already squeaking by on BP's as it is. I think the class concept can be fantastic and having free Rating 6 digital spirits swimming around in drones makes me salivate (12 DP for shooting on a drone I'm not jumped into? Yes please.).
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Dronomancers are hardcore.
But you know what else you can do with a super-threaded Command CF? Heal your Fading damage by remotely operating a medkit. If you opt to control from offsite in a Rigger cocoon with a Valkyrie module, you can even heal up without incurring the -2 penalty from remote medical operations, and you're always considered to be in a sterile environment.
So, you choke back most of the Fading DV, then you just take a couple of complex actions to patch yourself back to full health. Rinse and repeat.
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Well, my first thought is that the Techno at my table has taken far more drain from threading (she's shy of anything at a rating less than 5) than from compiling or registering sprites.
Consider a Techno with Resonance = 5, Willpower (which is also your Firewall, so it's a bad idea NOT to raise this) = 4. Assuming a stream using willpower for Fading, that's a DP of 9.
Registering a Rating 5 Sprite, the sprite will roll 10 dice, and average ~3 hits, or 6S drain. The Techno will generate with DP 9 an average of ~3 hits, soaking half the drain.
Okay, he has 3S damage on his track. Given that you're talking 5 hours to register a Rating 5 sprite, I'm going out on a limb and saying that he didn't do this on a run, he's safely ensconced at home, or somewhere else he can rest. So, an Hour later, he makes a Body + Willpower test. He's not a tough guy, so he's only got Body 2, that gives him DP 6, with an average of ~2 hits, so he's down to 1S... if he can't run the Matrix with 1 stun damage on his track, he's not a runner. If he doesn't have a run that night, he's healed well before morning.
Mind you, that's on average, the sprite could roll high, and he could roll low. But, those are the breaks.
And frankly, consider the following: A hacker is only as good as the programs he brought with him on the run. If the Techno realizes he needs another complex form, he just Threads the darn thing. Same goes if his complex form is too "weak". Only have Stealth 4, going up against a tough node? Thread it! 3 hits on the Threading test and he's now a hacker with Stealth 7. Yes, he's risking 3P Fading, but soaking 3 points shouldn't be too difficult (in fact, the sample techno above would soak every point of that a bit more often than 50% of the time).
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I was underestimating the First Aid + Medicine tests you can make through a Valkyrie Module, as I already planned on being a basically sealed away rigger in a cocoon. That makes it much more reasonable, so long as I don't pass out from bad dice rolling.
Another thing I thought of with registered Sprites. It says you can re-register for more services and that the ritual takes 8 hours. So.... how often can you do this and how many tasks can you rack up? I mean, between runs especially, you could essentially have a set of kitted out sprites to do all your dirty work for you who are as good or better at it than you without Threading. Plus they make you much more awesome at everything you do. Basically, is there something in the rule that caps the services you can rack up with your registered Sprites? Since Sprites are essentially free, it seems pretty open endedly broken that you can have an infinite number of services on your Charisma in Sprites.
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Especially if you go for a charisma 9 elf/dryad technoshaman.
That gives a max of 9 registered sprites, very nice fading resistance pool and good enought social pools to act as a face if needed ;D
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Another thing I'm a bit confused about, is that in some ways Sprites resemble Spirits in how they operate as it pertains to services and tasks, but in some ways they are markedly different. For one thing, Sprites are entirely free and pose no real restrictions or hardship on the character other than potential Fading. There also doesn't appear to be a minimum Fading DV, as there is for summoning spirits, so it is even more enticing as a regular gaming tool. The tasks that Sprites can perform, while restricted entirely to the Matrix, also seem to be a bit open ended and ill-defined (I often ponder this with Spirits as well). With a registered Sprite for example, if I instruct it to inhabit a Drone and patrol my house, engaging anyone entering the premises without the password, how many services is that? Does inhabiting the drone count as one, patrolling another and whenever it engages someone a third? Or is the entire act a single service, since the actual task is "Use this drone to protect the house from people without the password". At this point all I can see is GM's prerogative.
Also with the registered Sprite, so long as you have services remaining, it will perform a given task indefinitely so long as it isn't one of the services specified that are only for short term use (using powers, sustaining Threads, etc.). That seems pretty wild for a Sprite that can make a Pilot 6 drone with some special abilities and tailored software, especially since you can link it permanently to the drone with Karma in game so it can patrol your house forever and not count against your registered Sprite maximum.
I think I'm warming up to the idea of this class. Plus I've never seen anyone use it, so it will be a first around here.
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The only thing keeping you from racking up huge service numbers during the downtime is how cheesy you want to get.
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One of the canonical spirit services is to participate in a single fight. I think that's a good benchmark for other services: The spirit has wide discretion in how to execute the service, but it only covers one major event. For patrols, I'd say that the patrol itself is a service, and any ensuing confrontations are additional services.
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For Fading
There are a couple of things that can help:
- An unlucky GM is rolling the dice of the sprite (lesser hits = lesser Fading DV)
- The Stream should be the highest of your Attributes
- A large amount of Damage Monitor Boxes
- A Resonance Well (see Unwired and RC, Lifestyle Qualities)
- In Tune (see RC, Lifestyle Qualities)
- Resonance Bound
- Your Guild (Technomancer Group); for every Member that is in the same node as the TM, you get +1d for Fading tests
- Echo Widgets, there are some that could help
- Drugs (raising the Fading Attribute)
- Trauma Damper or High Pain Threshold or things like that
- First Aid (the old trick with the Machine Sprite in the Medkit and the Tutor Sprite helping out)
- Magic or Spells to increase your Fading Attribute or your Damage Monitor
- If the TM is a Stream with Fading Attribute Willpower, there is a Martial Arts Technic called: Focus Will, so you can get +2 for only 5 BP or 10 KP
- Empathic Healing
...
There are some more, but I can't remember for now.
Edit: Or wait one is a little trick (so the GM has to rule about it).
As a Resonance Well raises the Resonance for all tests, there is the question what happens to the Resonance of the Sprite you compile or register? Do it raise, too. Or do only the TM's values are improve?
If both are change, it is not a hugh benefit for the TM, because the opposite test is with a increased sprite. But... if that is the fact an Dissonance Pool would do the trick as well, it would decrease the dice pool of you but also of the sprite!
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A few gems in there I'll seriously consider using Ultra:
- A large amount of Damage Monitor Boxes
- Trauma Damper or High Pain Threshold or things like that
- Magic or Spells to increase your Fading Attribute or your Damage Monitor
Making it so I don't pass out is the big thing, because healing the Stun damage with a Valkyrie module and some Sprites is pretty simple. So extra overflow boxes is a great idea. Think I'll pass on the 'Ware though.
- Your Guild (Technomancer Group); for every Member that is in the same node as the TM, you get +1d for Fading tests
- Echo Widgets, there are some that could help
- A Resonance Well
Both of these are supposedly things that will come in game (Widgets because they require an Echo, and thus Submersion. Guilds/Parties because I'm supposed to do something called roleplay to get them, whatever that is. Also, none of the Widgets help with Fading, just with the test to compile the Sprite. Resonance Wells also don't affect your actual Resonance, they just provide a DP modifier to all Resonance based tests, including Fading. So they are indeed awesome, but not for Compiling cooler Sprites without the risk of physical damage.
- Resonance Bound
This one I've considered. I'm not sure I want to spend 10BP per dice of assistance on my Fading tests, but I might come around to it in the end. Seems a little spendy, but I might go halfway or something.
- In Tune (see RC, Lifestyle Qualities)
I'm astonished that this is worded how it is. It is by far the best option I've seen so far for easing the process of registering Sprites. Great find on that one. I didn't even think to look in the Lifestyles stuff. Wonders never cease.
Thanks for the awesome input. Much to think about. Mainly, how much to use before my GM breaks down and rips up my character sheet. : )
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How do you increase the compiling pool? I know there's some paragons that do, there's some specializations that do for certain sprites... Edge? That's all I can think of. No-one can assist you in opposed test for compiling a sprite as far as I know... Then again, I haven't been playing a technomancer as long as you have.
Some bonus you can get from combining different Qualities (i.e. Codeslinger (Compiling), which is a Matrix action, Aptitude, Homeground, Paragon (like 01) aso.) or the "In Tune" is also a good bonus source, but the main part of bonus-dices you can get from the Echo: Widget (Rendering) (see Unwired, p. 149), if you haven't the Echo or the time to create a Widget, you can get it through another Echo (see Resonance Exchange, one page before). Widgets following the same rules as Threading, so an Analytical Mind or a Tutor sprite with its Proficiency power and a Feng Shui, In Tune, Resonance Well home would bring you enough dice pool to thread the sh*t out of that.
And how I mentioned in the other Thread (http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=2731.0). The technomancer has no Fading problems, thank the Matrix Spirits for her Guild.
In the End she will have a nice pile of dice... and no fear of fading.
Btw: There is a little trick with a Code sprite in the Bio-Node of the TM (see Probability Distribution, Unwired p. 156). But that is another discussion itself.