Character Consepts: Mages/Mystics/Adepts

alrighty then, I can see what i can do about getting you a kickass sword and gun then. just give me an hour to write those up for you.

Okay, after making the changes that Phantom suggested, and putting the Etiquette(Corporate) 2(4) that I missed back in, we've used 374BP, Leaving us with 26BP for gear and Upgrades.

I assume that the Katana will have a personalized grip, Custom Look too?

Hawk, if you really want him to run on walls, he's going to need the Wall running power, but that's a whole 1 PP, and it's a strength + running test where hits = the # of meters he can move across. AND there's a -2 mod for any move that would require a gymnastics test. I'd wait and try to build the character to that point.

Are we not tossing Guts, then?

ah, I forgot about Guts. Man I must be going lame in the brain or something. Okay, that would mean 369, Which is the 31 points you were talking about. Okay! Geh... I swear I'm getting stupider every day.

considering stupider isn't a word, possibly. Okay we are going to have to get this Katana working for us, personalized grip, chameleon coating (just for added stealth)? The Ares 4 Predator is still probably one of the best handguns, if only just because of the internal smartgun. or we can go for the colt governemnt 2066 found in arsenal. Incedently all the guns in the SR4 core handbook are actually found in the charts in the back of arsenal. But for Toshiro we want to maximize damage with a decent pistol, allowing him to keep the enemy busy while he gets close. So if we do go for the Ares 4, or whichever gun we finally want, I would suggest the following upgrades:

• Personalized Grip (elimantes recoil for SA).
  
• Additional Clip (Adds a second clip to the system, making our ammo count 24, (75% capacity * 2) and we can fill the second clip with whichever kind of ammo we want.
  
• melee hardening (so it can be used to block with, attack with, etc. and it won't be damaged)

total cost for upgrades for an ares 4: NY1100; 2x 12 round clips in the gun, can be used to block or attack with in combat, negates all recoil through the personalized grip, smartgun system.


accessories: silencer and hidden arm slide: NY550

Katana: (total NY1100)
personalized grip (+1 to hit on melee weapons)

weapons + accesories = NY2200

For Ammo, we need more of a bang with this gun, so EX-Explosive Ammo (+1 damage +1 AP), its expensive but oh so sweet and tasty. NY600 for 60 bullets, giving us enough for five full clips of one side, then you can choose what else you would like for the otherside, or we can simply cheat an simply go NY1200, for ten full clips.

Altogether we are looking at: NY3950, and our gun looks like Ares 4 Predator Modded(SA/6p/-2ap/24(c)/1RC). And your Katana has a personalized grip so it gives +1 to hit in melee.

Heh, that's why I love that word... most people think it's not really a word ^)^. I even have a shirt that says. "Everyday I think people can't get any stupider. Everyday I'm proven horribly wrong." When I lived in North Carolina, I actually had people laugh and then make comments about "stupider" not being a word, that it should be "more stupid." That of course, is the best part of the shirt... or the worst... as it just proves how wrong I am to believe that people actually speak English in America...

But, I digress.

EX-Explosive is +2/-2 (Y100/10), Explosive is +1/-1(Y50/10)

So your price actually gets him (SA/7P/-3AP/24(c)/1RC) Which is super sweet!!!!

The chameleon coating on the sword would be sweet, but what about damage to the polymers when you cut through armor? Don't get me wrong, I would love an invisible sword, but it could get expensive fixing it after every run.

The book doesn't mention anything about it, i would assume that its bonded to the metal of the blade itself during forging, kind of like turning a piece of metal into glass. Visually anyways.

considering its a modification that can be added to something at a later date, I would disagree. It's also called a coating, not a bond. That implies that it's over the blade, not in it. But you can try to argue that with a GM, as I'm not one... my say is conjecture and totally moot.

anyways it doesn't matter, should we do the usual lined coat with additional armor plates for the armor, or something else?

Well, the lined coat does offer the concealed item mod for stuff under it. That's always nice. Those quick draw holsters are going to be on his legs or under his arms most likely, so a big coat will be best either way. I say use the plates to bring up the protection to max if we can afford it.

anyways i have toshiro thus far at 389 points with NY2,340:

Toshiro Shadow

Metatype : Human
Adept

Attributes
Body: 4
Agility: 5 (6)
Reaction: 5 (6)
Strength: 3
Charisma: 2
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 2

Edge: 2
Magic: 5
Initiative: 10
Essence: 6

Active Skills
Disguise : 2
Inflitration : 2
Palming : 2
Shadowing : 2
Perception : 4
Etiquette (Corporate) : 2 (4)
Throwing Weapons (Shuriken) : 2 (4)
Dodge (Ranged Combat) : 5 (7)
Pistols (Semi-Automatics) : 5 (7)
Blades (Swords) : 3 (5)
Unarmed Combat : 4

Knowledge Skills (13 out of 21 free bp)

Corp. Sec. Tactics: 3
Sec. Procedures: 3
Magic Background: 2
Safe Houses: 1
Poisons: 1
Ares Macrotechnology: 3

Positive Qualities
Adept (5bp)
Ambidextrous (5bp)
martial arts (Ninjutsu 5bp)
martial arts (Fire Fight 15bp)
martial arts (Krav Maga 5bp)

Negative Qualities
Addiction, moderate
Allergy unc/mod
Sensitive System

Weapons
Katana
+ personalized Grip
Ares Predator IV
+ personalized Grip
+Melee Hardening
Hidden Gun Arm Slide
Silencer
+ additional clip
12x EX-Explosive Rounds (10 shots)
10x spare clips

Armors
Securetech PPP leg and arm casings
Securetech PPP vitals protector plate
Lined Coat

Commlinks
Subvocal Microphone
Commlink : Renraku Sensei
OS : Iris Orb

Equipments
Fake License (restricted weaponry Rating 4)
Fake Sin (Rating 4)
DocWagon Contract (Gold - per Year)
Glasses
+Smartlink
+Thermographic Vision
+Image Link
+Flare Compensation
Earbud
+ Audio Enhancement (Rating 2)
+ Spatial Recognizer

Powers
Improved Reflexes (level 1)
Improved Physical Attribute (level 1)
Mystic Armor (level 2)
Counterstrike (Level 1)
Killing Hands

Contacts
Tanaka, Akira (L:2 C:2)

Maneuvers

Iaijutsu
Set-up
Finishing Move

Special skills and Effects

• Reduce ranged combat "Attacker in Melee combat" mod by 3 total(2 firefight, 1 krav maga) (thus able to use your gun freely while in melee combat)
  
• +1 on Melee Dodge (Not block or parry) (thus offsetting the specialization on dodge somewhat)
  
• +1 to infiltration tests
  
• Iaijutsu: May make a quick-draw test (weapon skill + reaction threshold 3) to draw any weapon with a reach of 1 or less
  
• Set-up: May make an attack test to deal no damage but to add her net hits to the next following attack; may be used with finishing move.
  
• Finishing Move: A character with this maneuver may follow up a succesful attack, whether it deals damage or not, immediately with a move designed to take out the enemy. this allows the character to make an immediate follow-up melee attack in the same action phase. Finishing move counts as an interrupt action and uses up the characters next available action.
  

Here me out on the few changes i made. Using the gun while combat would have cost us a -3 modifier, so i made it a moot point by reducing it to 0, melee dodge is good since we are planning on getting up close with this guy, the ready weapon part of krav maga rocks becuase this means that we can quick draw any weapon, not just pistols, as a free action. gymnastics dodge requires gymnastics skill, and then you have to be in full defense, the +1 to surprise attacks only matters if you actually do a surprise attack (kind of redundent but its true.). So i made Toshiro faster, better with guns and his swords, and better at stealth, and we are still left at 389 bp, and NY2340. That and i think i bought everything Toshiro is going to need.

Looking great!
I would suggest that we buy Iaijutsu maneuver (same bonuses that we're getting from Krav), and put the points from Krav Maga into either expanding Ninjutsu and/or Firefight, or perhaps with some other maneuvers.
Other than that, I've just got a question about the skills: Are the (specialization) skills lowered, or are their bonuses just not shown?

iajutsu could be good and it would save us 3bp, let me look into it. The bonuses to the specs just aren't shown, sorry. just assume that whenever you use the spec you get a +2

It seems that Iajutsu requires a quick draw test of weapon skill + reaction skill with a threshold of 3 so it would be a total of 13 dice to draw either weapon, and you would have to use it when you draw it.

Versus you can draw it whenever you like and still use it whenever you like. Its your choice of whether you want a test that could fail, or you want a sure thing.

or we might not have a choice, because with me spending so much on the martial arts quality we are 5 over the limit (turns out their is a cap on positive qualities at 35, hehe.)

i went ahead and changed the character sheet posting above, yes quick-draw holsters still count to lower the quick draw threshold. and we can also deal a lot more damage in a single turn with the set-up/finishing move combo, effectivly we get to deal three times the damage in a single turn.

Although my next question is of course, What do we want to do about shurikens, Do we want them?

As far as the shuriken go, the only use for them I could think of would be a silent attack. Coated with some neuro-toxin (why I put that knowledge skill in there) they could be effective, but I'm not so in love with the idea that if some better use of the points could be found that I wouldn't go for that.

Hmm. Well, it's true that it's a sure thing with Krav Maga, but with 13 die and a test of 3, it's a pretty safe bet. And although you have to use the weapon in the round that you draw it, if I'm quick drawing a weapon it's a pretty safe bet that I'll have an immediate use for it. So, let's keep iaijutsu for now, and if there's leftover BP at the end, we'll dump it in favor of Krav.

I'd like to put a few other maneuvers I've been looking at here for your perusal. Let me know if you think they'd be a good addition each or separately.

Two-Weapon Style:
If wielding the Katana and an Ares in my off-hand, I could use the Ares (since it's hardened) as a Full Defense weapon in melee, and the katana to attack with. Since this was the way we'd envisioned a fight going down in melee anyway, it sounds pretty good to get bonuses to go with the idea.

Multi-strike:
Sounds good, since if I'm not defending with one weapon, it would be nice to attack with both. I kinda get the image of Toshiro slicing into one baddie while shooting another at the same time. The rule doesn't state that both weapons much be melee in order to use this maneuver.

Kick Attack:
Might be useful for an new way to attack, or perhaps to add more options with multi-strike.

Off-hand training: For using the ares as a melee weapon.

Also, do you think that I should spend the points to train in Exotic Melee with the Ares? It may be redundant given the penalties for firing the gun in melee combat are reduced, or it may be useful if Toshiro can't fire the weapon for some reason (out of ammo, need for stealth, etc).

These are all just brainstorming, so let me know what you think.

One small change, but we have all the NY we could need for it. The Commlink doesn't have a high enough Response Rating for the OS. I say Grab the Novatech Airware.

off hand training is just an end-round cheaper way then purchasing ambidexterity, which we already have, and you have to buy it per skill, so by the end of it, its not cheaper.

If you want to be able to use your Ares as an effective melee weapon we should think about adding some sort of blade to it, i would envision the gun looking something like this in the end:

Two weapon style would be very useful, as you could apply the full defense option, and still attack with the other, and we have negated the off hand modifier with ambidexterity.

Multi strike is where things get tricky, true attacking two targets at once would rock on some seriour toast, we might have to think about beefing up your blade ability then, becuase you would split the lesser of the two dice pools. although we would get plus one to the attack as a total, not after we split the pools.

Kick could in an off chance in hell be useful, but like i said an off chance in hell

As for actually using the ares as a melee weapon, what would you think Wreck?

oh a custom bayonet mount for our gun would be NY20. it would also be a reach of 0 and (str/2+1)p damage.

Ok, that is some seriously bad trog firepower there. That would be perfect weapon for the type of fighting Toshiro's looking for. Hmm... what do you think on the exotic melee weapon angle? That gun actually looks like it was made for the skill. (and it looks like it's actually got the mod's that we've discussed too... which is just another layer of awesome) Hmm. Would you carry the gun with the bayonet attached in a holster?

Ok, so kick's out. I think we've got enough to put in two-weapon and multi-strike... and beef up the sword skill for it.

Oh wait, if exotic melee is necessary to use the pistol, that would be the skill that gets split with the sword skill... so that would mean that it would need to be pretty beefy too. That might mean dumping something.

I can't access my books now, so I can't read up on the Two Weapon/ Multi Strike thing right now.

You've got the Weapon Hardened, so adding a blade makes sense in a way. Plus it looks cool (that's the geek in me).

I have a question though... If he's all melee and ranged, why do we have so many points built into unarmed, not to mention killing hands. If killing hands is just so that he has P damage in the off chance he ends up in unarmed combat, then I say drop it. Use that .5 PP to buy another level of Counter Strike or Mystic Armor.

Sounds good. With finishing strike, killing hands is kinda redundant at this point. I'd be fine with a reduced unarmed, since he's looking to use melee/ranged.

I'm not saying to reduce unarmed, it could still be useful, and we don't need those points at the moment. But killing hands is a bit over kill, and with that gun/knife he'll already be nasty close up. By the way, Phantom, are there any penalties involved in using a bayonet?

Hmm. Looking just at Arsenal, it looks like it runs off the blades skill. Which would be great, since that wouldn't require buying anything to use it.

If we need to reduce that's ok, if we can keep it as is, that's even better. He's essentially a martial arts character, so it wouldn't look right for him to be too low on unarmed. Probably won't need to reduce it if the bayonet uses blades though.

no penalties, and it is blades skill, but like wreck said with as much as we have spent on ranged an now melee weaponry, maybe see what we can do if we take out the throw weapons skill and apply it elsewhere.

What about a piloting skill? He needs transport, and we've got the points to buy him wheels.