[Noctem]

Hey all, this being my first post on these boards, I hope you can all forgive my lack of knowledge when it comes to this game :p  A friend of mine is planning a one-off of shadowrun 4e next weekend.  So we made some characters and I was wondering if I could get some help on these forums just to make sure I didn't completely miss-understand some things.  I also have some questions that unfortunately I have not found the answers to.  Here's the build :

EDIT MADE SOME CHANGES AS PER RECOMMENDATIONS !

ATTRIBUTES

Body: 3
Agility: 5
Reaction: 4
Strength: 3
Charisma: 2
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 3

Edge: 2
Initiative: 8
Essence: 1.9

ACTIVE SKILLS

Throwing Weapons (Knives) : 3
Blades (Knives) : 3
Longarms (Sniper Rifles) : 6
Dodge : 4
Inflitration (Urban) : 6
Perception (Visual) : 4
Pilot Ground Craft (Bike) : 4
Armorer (Firearms) : 3
First Aid (Combat Wounds) : 1
Etiquette : 2
Negotiation : 2
Unarmed Combat : 3
Computer : 1

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS

English : N
Security Design (Military) : 3
Military (Special Forces) : 3
Security Procedures (Military) : 3
Security Systems : 2
Black Markets (Weapons) : 2
Firearms (Longarms) : 4
Safe Houses : 3
Latin : 1
Tactique (Planification) : 4

POSITIVE QUALITIES

High Pain Tolerance 2
Gearhead
Restricted Gear

NEGATIVE QUALITIES

Amnesia 1
Flashbacks 1
Mysterious Implant
Hung Out to Dry

CYBERWARES

Datajack
Commlink (4/4)
Cybereyes Basic System (Rating 4)
Low-Light Vision
Flare Compensation
Smartlink
Wired Reflexes (Rating 1)
Thermographic Vision
Audio Enhancement (Rating 1)
Select Sound Filter (Rating 1)
Cyberears (Rating 2)

BIOWARES

Muscle Toner 4 ( RESTRICTED GEAR )

WEAPONS

Cougar Fineblade Knife Short Blade
Remington 950
10x Regular Ammo (10 shots)
3x Throwing Knife
Defiance T-250
5x Stick-n-Shock (10 shots)
Shock Gloves

ARMORS

Form-Fitting Body Armor Full-Body Suit
Bike Racing Helmet
Fire Resistance (Rating 6)
Thermal Dampening (Rating 6)
PPP-System Forearm Guards
PPP-System Helmet
PPP-System Leg and Arm Casings
PPP-System Shin Guards
PPP-System Vitals Protector

VEHICLES

Suzuki Mirage (Racing Bike)
Shiawase Kanmushi (Microdrone)

COMMLINKS

Analyze (Rating 6)
Firewall (Rating 6)

EQUIPMENT

Autopicker (Rating 4)
Maglock Passkey (Rating 4)
Sequencer (Rating 4)
Grapple Gun
Fake Sin (Rating 1)
Fake License (Rating 4)
Fake Sin (Rating 4)

CONTACTS

Sam Reid (Arms Dealer) (L:2 C:1)
A buddy from your military unit from the UCAS military.


Her backstory is basically a rip off of Jason Bourne.  She lost her memory, has flashbacks.  She instinctively uses her skills when needed but doesn't really know how she got them.  All of her former contacts have broken link and now her only one left that she knows about is this old army friend.  She's focused into using longarms and the sniper especially.  She drives a motorcycle.  Her hair is red-ish and she basically looks like the ghost version of kerrigan from starcraft.  Sue me I like the way the starcraft ghost suits look.  Since this is a one-off I haven't thought it out more than this, but if we keep this a regular thing I'll try to come up with something more original.  I also have some questions about my build :

1.  If I wear a form-fitting body armor full-body and get the PPP-system forearm guards, helmet, leg and arm casings, shin guards and the vitals protector.  How do they interact with each other ?  The full-body states that it adds it's armor rating is added to the armor rating of other pieces.  Could someone explain this and possibly even tell me the total of the defenses while wearing these pieces ?  Edit :  Answered, ty

2.  What is the best sniper rifle available ?  I took the remington 950 because of it's very low AP penalty, but the bolt action makes me pause.  Does this mean that I will only get to fire the weapon once per round ?

3.  Because I took longarms I figured using a shotgun was a good plan.  However I'm not sure which shotgun to take for this kind of build.

Any critique or recommendation etc is absolutely welcome.  And yes I've read and understood that snipers in traditional missions won't have much to do.  However my dm has assured my that for the one-off it will do just fine.  He's an amazing DM so I have no doubts about that.  Thanks !

[snowcrash]

Check your availabilities, 12 is the max you can use at character creation, I know the R6 SIN is Availability 18F- unless you're using the Restricted Gear to get it? On the same subject the R1 SIN isn't worth the metaphorical paper it's printed on as SIN checks are an opposed test so you'd be rolling a single dice against the reader's rating.
Why the microdrone? you don't have any rigger abilities to support it
You've got a grapple gun but no rope for it, various types of rope are covered elsewhere in the B&E section and are bought in increments of 100m.
Also you don't have any general use matrix programs (browse, edit etc.), you can buy these as a package as detailed somewhere in the Matrix section.

[Noctem]

thanks for the quick reply.

I didn't realise the R6 SIN had 18F.  I'll change that to say a R4 ?  I am not using the restricted gear to get it no, at least that was not my intention.  I figured the R1 SIN could be used as a dead end lead if I ever needed one.  Sketchy meetings I could bring it with me which would lead possible hackers or what not no where.  They would know instantly that it's a fake. 

The microdrone was an idea of mine to use a scout unit / watchdog while I snipe.  I didn't know I needed extra stuff for it.  What exactly do I need to make use of it, or more importantly should I use it ?

I wasn't aware I needed rope for the grapple gun :p  I figured it came with it's own rope.  I'll grab some now.

We have a dedicated hacker in the group so I figured matrix programs weren't all that needed.  Though if you recommend to grab them even with that info then I will do so but what is it for exactly ?

[snowcrash]

Just noticed you have no lifestyle either!

We have a dedicated hacker in the group so I figured matrix programs weren't all that needed.  Though if you recommend to grab them even with that info then I will do so but what is it for exactly ?

The general use programs are the 2070 equivalent of things like Word (edit), Internet Explorer (Browse), Google (Data Search) etc. everyone needs them to a certain degree just to function.
What are you using the Restricted Gear quality for then?
I'm no expert on drones and rigging but I thought you needed a control rig to use them properly (you may be able to use them without, I'm not sure).

I didn't realise the R6 SIN had 18F.  I'll change that to say a R4 ?  I am not using the restricted gear to get it no, at least that was not my intention.  I figured the R1 SIN could be used as a dead end lead if I ever needed one.  Sketchy meetings I could bring it with me which would lead possible hackers or what not no where.  They would know instantly that it's a fake. 

A SIN is broadcast from your commlink, it's not a physical document like an ID card. A Fake SIN is one thats been hacked and applied to you server-side. I think an R1 SIN will cause more problems than it solves.

[Maelstrom]

You can use a drone without a control rig, you just can't jump into it.  You can upgrade them using Arsenal.  However you may want to leave drones up to your group's hacker.

The only thing I ever use a R1 Fake SIN for is for bar-hopping (pay with credstick) or a meet with new people/Johnson when you need to have a Pan active or passive.  You don't want a R1 scanned by any security.

You don't need much else for your commlink starting out.  Encrypt and TacNet would be good when you can afford them.

[Noctem]

thanks for the replies   The drone I took is a micro sized drone for scouting, no intentions of jumping into it

I'll check out the sin again and see if I can squeeze in a R4 or two.

I'll look into getting a little bit of edit and such for functionality.  Life style is low and i'm not sure why it was not on there :p

Anyone have any answers for the questions relating to armor and such ?  My DM only has the core book handy and that armor is not in it.

[gourry187]

Form Fitting Armor (excerp)

When worn in combination with other pieces of armor, the
form-fi t armor rating is added to the other armor’s rating (ignore
the rule that only the highest value applies in the case of form-fi tting
armor). When determining encumbrance, however, add only
half the rating (round down) of form-fi tting body armor to the
ratings of other armor when comparing them to the wearer’s Body
x 2 (see Armor and Encumbrance, p. 149, SR4).

PPP System (excerp)

These armor pieces do not count as separate armor for purposes of encumbrance;
instead, these items modify the rating of armor worn
by their rating just as helmets and shields do

So in regard to your armor question

Full body form-fitting armor    6/2      encumberance value  3/1
all the PPP parts                 +2/+6     
Total armor                            8/8

[Noctem]

ok so how would i go about using the full-body armor's ability ?  Pick up another actual armor ?  Like a bullet proof vest or something ?  And ty for giving me the total and showing me how it works. 

[baronspam]

The only thing I ever use a R1 Fake SIN for is for bar-hopping (pay with credstick) or a meet with new people/Johnson when you need to have a Pan active or passive.  You don't want a R1 scanned by any security.

 

A R1 fake id is basically for a burn phone.  You can put a cheap a$$ comllink togther for about 500, and then put a level 1 Fake SIN on it.  As I said, it won't hold up to scruitiny, but for 1500 nuyen you can turn your real comlink to hidden, slave the burn comlink to your node, and have a disposable way to make calls that can't be traced back to you or run an ID in an environment where you have to show an active link.  Just don't let the cops or corp security do a background check on it, they will know its hinky in a minute.

[nojosecool]

I would personally lower your Agility to 5.  It frees up a lot of points.  It's easy enough to augment your agility up to your augmented maximum if you bring it up to just 5.  My favorite is to boost it with muscle toner.  That 25 points is just too much to get to the natural cap for an easily augmentable attribute.

Here's how it plays out if you augment it to 9 (the max) with muscle toner if you bring your natural up to 5 instead of 6:

Muscle toner 4 (.8 essence, 32000 Y) --This is equivalent to 6.4 build points
Restricted gear: Muscle toner -- 5 BP

So for 11.4 build points and 0.4 essence (since you are using less bioware, you can cut the essence cost in half), you end up at AGI 9.

[Noctem]

I will take your recommendation then.  See if I can find some other stuff to spend the BP on or I might just keep it for starter money ?  Was there anything in the build that hasn't been mentioned that you guys recommend I take ?

What about the skills themselves ?  Should I bring some up or lower some ?  What's the max recommended for a new character ?

Edited the main post to reflect recommendations.

[gourry187]

ok so how would i go about using the full-body armor's ability ?  Pick up another actual armor ?  Like a bullet proof vest or something ?  And ty for giving me the total and showing me how it works. 

Adding extra armor like a duster (2/2) would ...

form fitting armor + PPP system parts          8 / 8      encumberance    3/1
leather jacket/duster                                   2 / 2      encumberance    2/2
total armor                                               10 / 10     total encumberance  5/3

[JoeNapalm]

ok so how would i go about using the full-body armor's ability ?  Pick up another actual armor ?  Like a bullet proof vest or something ?  And ty for giving me the total and showing me how it works. 

Adding extra armor like a duster (2/2) would ...

form fitting armor + PPP system parts          8 / 8      encumberance    3/1
leather jacket/duster                                   2 / 2      encumberance    2/2
total armor                                               10 / 10     total encumberance  5/3

To heck with a duster - I'd slap an Armored Jacket on this guy.

Being on a motorcycle is a perfect excuse to have an armored up jacket on. A lot of motorcycle gear is designed to be impact armor...just line that bad boy with some Spectra.

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[Noctem]

just to make sure though, with only 3 body ( 6 regarding armor ) can I wear an armored jacket ?  Also how does encumberance work exactly ?  5/3 with jacket ?  Sorry I don't get it

Also if I'm to understand

form fitting armor + PPP system parts    8/8  encumberance 3/1
Armor Jacket                                           8/6  encumberance ?/?
total armor                                             16/14  total encumberance ?/?

Without the encumberance I'm not sure exactly how it would work, but is the total armor correct ?  From my understanding it is, I would just take half the encumberance from the armor jacket instead of the full amount rounded down.  What would the totals be exactly for encumberance, the character builder I'm using does not show encumberance amounts ?  My dm will want to know as well.

[gourry187]

the encumberance value of the armor jacket would equal the armor value so when encumberance is factored in ...

full form fitting armor + PPP system parts has an armor value of 8/8 but due to the properties of the armor, it only has an encumberance value of 3/1.  So when comparing to your Body, you would only be encumberd (is that a word?) if you had a body of 1.  (Body 1 x2 = 2 < 3)

Adding more armor adds more encumberance (equal to the armors value).  Remember when looking at encumberance you look at highest rating (Ballistic or Impact).  So adding a armor jacket with 8/6 would to your encumberance (as well as to your actual protection)

form fitting + PPP =  8/8,  3/1 encumberance
armor jacket        =   8/6,  8/6 encumberance
total protection     = 16/14,  11/7 encumberance

so you would need a 6 Body (body 6 x2 = 12>11) to not be encumbered.