Another Shadowrun noob looking for char-gen advice

[Foxwander]

Long time lurker here but first time posting. Unfortunately, I mostly ignored any Shadowrun threads in the past. Now I'm starting in a game and, after reading a few posts now, I think I done frakked up my char-gen. I tried SR back in the 2E days but the game fizzled after just two sessions. This group is playing SR4A. I've read thru the book and I think I've got a decent understanding of it (plus I've got 20+ years experience with D&D, Gurps, WoD, and other games) but I've never really played SR so I'm sure I've missed the subtleties of actual gameplay and made some sub-par decisions.

The rest of the party consists of an oni street samurai, dwarf rigger, and elf utility mage/face. I create a covert-ops ork focused on thievery and subtlety. For combat I decide to go Adept and focus on martial arts and throwing things. While the idea of throwing playing cards and billiard balls for more damage (and farther) than most bullets is plenty cool- I did it mostly because it means I'm never without "weapons" so I don't have to worry about trying to sneak around while carrying an arsenal of guns. Because of the adept thing I've tried to limit my cyber/bio-ware. All I've got is a half-cyber arm (with the drone-hand mod) containing an implanted grapple-gun plus orientation and radar systems. The arm is only .45 essence so I've got more I could use to go the full point.

The thing is, after playing a couple of sessions, it's obvious the other characters have something they are awesome at (shooting things, rigging/hacking, and social respectively) with handfuls of dice to back their shtick up. While my character could kill someone with anything I can throw- I've yet to actually hit someone to show that off. Plus, like I said, after reading a few SR threads here now, I'm pretty sure there are other things I should have done differently (more IPs, synthcardium?). Since we're just starting out, and the GM knows we're pretty new to the game, I'm pretty sure I could reboot my character, no harm-no foul, but I'd really appreciate some advice on what I should change or do better. Thanks.

Here's the full character:

Points spent: 400/400

Metatype: Ork (20 BP)

Attributes: (210 BP)
Bod: 4 | Wil: 2
Agi: 5 | Log: 4
Rea: 4 | Int: 4
Str: 4 | Cha: 3
Magic: 5 >> 4

Active Skills: (136 BP)
Climbing (urban): 1 (3)
Con: 1
Dodge: 3
Electronic Warfare: 1
Escape Artist: 2
Etiquette: 1
Gymnastics (parkour): 1 (3)
Infiltration (urban): 2 (4)
Locksmith: 1
Palming: 1
Perception: 4
Pilot Ground Craft: 1
Running (sprinting): 1 (3)
Shadowing: 1
Throwing Weapons: 4
Unarmed Combat: 2

Group: Electronics: 2

Knowledge Skills/Languages: (24 free)
Street Gangs: 1
Criminal Organizations: 2
Vendetta Corp: 2
Architecture: 1
Security Procedures: 4
Security Design: 3
Zen Philosophy: 1
History: 1
Parkour routes: 2
LoneStar Procedures: 1
Area Fences: 2

Japanese: N
English: 3
Spanish: 1

Positive Qualities: (30 BP)
Adept, Ambidexterous, Martial Arts (Krav Maga- Take Aim & Ready Weapon as free actions), Blandness

Negative Qualities: (-35 BP)
Geas (Meditation), Nano-intolerance, Scorched, SINner, Poor Self Control (thrill-seeker), Vendetta (corp)

Adept Powers:
Missile Mastery
Power Throw 4
Critical Strike 2
Eidetic Sense Memory
Multi-Tasking
Three-Dimensional Memory

Contacts: (15 BP)
Fixer (Loyalty 3, Contact 3)
Decker (Loyalty 6, Contact 3)

Resources: (24 BP)
Mainly armor (w/ chameleon and thermal dampening mods), thief gear, tricked out goggles/contacts/ear buds, and a decent comm-link. I can provide the whole list if anyone cares.

[Orca]

No edge is bad, only one initiative pass is very bad. You're paying 55 points for your adept quality and powers and getting very little back for it; critical strike will only matter if you hit someone in unarmed combat and you're not especially good at that, there's a whole lot bound up in throwing stuff like you have a light pistol all the time. Tip: light pistols aren't that good. I'm not sure what the other powers are for at all.

What's the idea here? I'm guessing athletic guy who sneaks into places. If throwing in particular is important, for gods sake get a whole bunch of grenades and smuggle them in. If not having to smuggle weapons is important, be a mage. If you just want to be athletic, get a gun and become good at smuggling it in.

[Foxwander]

Yeah, these are the kinds of problems I starting seeing after we played a bit. While I thought I had an interesting character it turns out it's not a very effective character- because I didn't really understand how the game is played.

My character concept is a thief. Someone who can sneak in, steal the widget / get the info / plant the bomb / whatever, and sneak back out again. When I started thinking about combat, I started with the smartlink, looked at the best pistol I could get for concealability, realized that pistols suck if you want to actually win at combat, and then started looking up the scale at what didn't suck. Once I disregarded pistols as a viable skill and tried to find the best weapon for the various "shooting things" skills I wound up looking at assault rifles and I couldn't really reconcile that with the idea of someone who's supposed to be stealthy.

So then I stumbled across power throw / missile mastery and realized you could be deadly with freakin' anything! And you'd always have weapons- so at least that fit with the stealthy idea. Aaaaand then I got distracted by the gee-whiz nifty adept stuff instead of the I-can-effing-kill-you-with-my-pinky stuff. Again, interesting instead of effective.

Like I said, I don't understand the game well enough to know what your character really needs to be able to do vs. what you think you'll need to do. How much does edge come up in play? I've got the standard 1 point, but I didn't pay for extra. I know (now) that only 1 IP is going to suck but I'd have to seriously re-tinker things to afford that with bio-ware or adept powers. Well, the adept way would just be dumping things that may never come up to take improved reflexes- so that may be pretty easy.

Anyway- I'm starting to ramble now. Any more advice for building a stealth-focused adept who's effective in combat? Is stealth even a useful thing to focus on? Should I just cyber up and get a big gun and screw the adept thing?

[Orca]

Stealth works as a shtick. Either combine it with unarmed (which you can do via cyber or magic) or with pistols and have 2 different pistols - your gun you carry when you're disguised and walking past scanners, which you fire only when you have the drop on someone, and a heavy pistol, or a burst-fire pistol loading stick and shock, something for a real firefight.

I think your concept would generally be done better by cyber/bioware than magic. Synaptic accelerators cost 80 000 nuyen aka 16 BP per pass but are easier to take past cyberware scanners than wired reflexes. Bone density and muscle aug/toner can make you fair at unarmed combat. Skillwires save you BP and make you more effective at obscure skills; they're quite legal and useful so you don't need to hide them from scanners. Generally adepts are great specialists but terrible generalists, to be a good adept pick one /very/ narrowly focused idea and run with it.

Edge can be used for rerolls. If you're disarming an alarm or something this is useful, also if you're shooting someone and need to make this shot count, etc. There are other uses too.

[Sir Neil]

One option is the pistol-sized narcojet (exotic) weapon. (Can pistols be loaded with SnS/Shock rounds?)
Dodge is worse than Gymnastics+Melee.
Stun batons are legal and do more damage than unarmed.
You have a metal arm already, might as well stick a monowhip in there.

Also, your character should be a product of the Weapon OrX Dating Service, an attempt to create magically adept agents by pairing them up with their Awakened soulmate.

[Foxwander]

So I did some rethinking on my character (taking in the advice so far) and realized a couple of things.

1) I really want to avoid the cyber route for this. For one thing, we've already got enough metal in the group between the street-sam and the rigger with his headware and tank/command center. For another, cybering up just seems too easy or even cliche. The magic/adept route is just more interesting to me.

2) I can go two directions with my runner. I can enhance the adept side and tweak things to be better at combat. Or, I can go mystic adept for a true mage/thief concept and have actual magic as my "thing" (and still be a little better at combat).

To either of these ends, I decided I can replicate everything I wanted to do with the cyberhand by getting a tweaked out grappling gun (maybe with a drone-crawler as the grappling hook ) Dumping the hand gets rid of the Essence hit for more powers/magic. So I've got two builds below. One enhances Adept giving me Improved Reflexes 2, slightly higher attributes, another point of Edge, and reworks skills a bit. The other is a Mystic Adept with 10 thief friendly spells, Improved Reflexes 1, the extra edge, and skills. Taking into account the different focuses, I hope you guys can take a look at both and tell me which is better, if I'm going in the right direction, or what you think might work better. Thanks.

Adept version

Metatype: Ork [20]

Attributes: [180]
B: 5 (10)
A: 5 (40)
R: 4 (30)
S: 4 (10)
C: 2 (10)
I: 4 (30)
L: 4 (30)
W: 3 (20)

Ess: 6
Mag: 5 [40]
Edge: 2 [10]

Positive Qualities: [25]
Adept (5)
Martial Arts (Krav Maga- Take Aim & Ready Weapon as free actions) (10)
Blandness (10)

Negative Qualities: [-35]
Allergy (Mild, Pollutants) (-10)
Nano-intolerance (-5)
Scorched (-5)
SINner (-5)
Poor Self Control (Thrill-seeker) (-5)
Vendetta (Corp) (-5)

Adept Powers: (w/ Geas for 25% cost reduction)
Improved Reflexes 2
Missile Mastery
Power Throw 4
Eidetic Sense Memory
Three-Dimensional Memory
Multi-Tasking
Magic Sense

Active Skills: [136]
Electronics Group: 2 (20)
Climbing: 1 (4)
Con: 1 (4)
Escape Artist: 2 (8)
Etiquette: 1 (4)
Gymnastics: 4 (16)
Infiltration: 3 (12)
Locksmith: 1 (4)
Palming: 1 (4)
Perception: 4 (16)
Pilot Ground Craft: 1 (4)
Running: 1 (4)
Shadowing: 1 (4)
Throwing Weapons: 6 (24)
Unarmed Combat: 2 (8)

Knowledge Skills/Languages: (24 free)
Vendetta Corp: 2
Street Gangs: 1
Criminal Organizations: 2
LoneStar Procedures: 2
Chemistry: 1
History: 1
Architecture: 1
Security Procedures: 4
Security Design: 3
Zen Philosophy: 2
Drawing: 1

Japanese: N
English: 3
Or'zet: 1

Contacts: (2x CHA free house rule) [10]
Pawnbroker (Loyalty 3, Connection 3) (6)
Spider (Loyalty 5, Connection 3) (8)

Resources: (70,000) [14]

Mystic Adept version

Metatype: Ork [20]

Attributes: [150]
B: 4 (0)
A: 5 (40)
R: 4 (30)
S: 3 (0)
C: 2 (10)
I: 4 (30)
L: 3 (20)
W: 3 (20)

Ess: 6
Mag: 5 [40]
Edge: 2 [10]

Positive Qualities: [20]
Mystic Adept (10)
Martial Arts (Krav Maga- Take Aim & Ready Weapon as free actions) (10)

Negative Qualities: [-35]
Geas (Meditation, on spellcasting) (-10)
Nano-intolerance (-5)
Scorched (-5)
SINner (-5)
Poor Self Control (Thrill-seeker) (-5)
Vendetta (Corp) ( -5)

Adept Powers: (w/ Geas for 25% cost reduction)
Improved Reflexes 1
Missile Mastery
Power Throw 4
Eidetic Sense Memory
Three-Dimensional Memory
Multi-Tasking
Nimble Fingers

Spells: [30]
Clairvoyance
Detect magic
Heal
Stealth
Trid Phantasm
Levitate
Influence
Magic Fingers
Animate
Sterilize

Active Skills: [138]
Electronics Group: 1 (10)
Climbing: 1 (4)
Con: 1 (4)
Escape Artist: 2 (8)
Etiquette: 1 (4)
Gymnastics: 4 (16)
Infiltration: 2 (8)
Locksmith: 1 (4)
Palming: 1 (4)
Perception: 4 (16)
Pilot Ground Craft: 1 (4)
Running: 1 (4)
Shadowing: 1 (4)
Throwing Weapons: 5 (20)
Unarmed Combat: 2 (8)
Spellcasting: 5 (20)

Knowledge Skills/Languages: (21 free)
Vendetta Corp: 2
Street Gangs: 1
Criminal Organizations: 2
LoneStar Procedures: 2
Chemistry: 1
History: 1
Architecture: 1
Security Procedures: 3
Security Design: 2
Zen Philosophy: 2

Japanese: N
English: 3
Or'zet: 1

Contacts: (2x CHA free house rule) [10]
Pawnbroker (Loyalty 3, Contact 3) (6)
Spider (Loyalty 5, Contact 3) (8)

Resources: (70,000) [14]
Sustaining Focus 3 [3]

[Username17]

In general, you would be better off being an actual Magician who happens to take some spells that are buffs rather than trying to be a Mystic Adept. Mystic Adepts really get the short end of the stick in a lot of ways, and they don't ever catch up at high karma values.

-Username17

[Foxwander]

In general, you would be better off being an actual Magician who happens to take some spells that are buffs rather than trying to be a Mystic Adept. Mystic Adepts really get the short end of the stick in a lot of ways, and they don't ever catch up at high karma values.

-Username17

Could you maybe go into that "short end of the stick" a bit more? Cause I was sort of leaning towards my mystic adept version. It's got an extra IP, deadly thrown weapons with decent skill, some spiffy adept powers AND a nice package of utility spells that can help on any run we take. So what am I missing that I'm going to regret later? You have more experience with this game than I do (obviously) so I'm inclined to take your word for it, but I'd rather understand what the problems might be so I can try to work around it or just go a different direction. I really just want to understand the game better, so I'd appreciate any insights. Thanks.

[Korwin]

I Know you said, no Cyber...
But an extra IP is soooo much cheaper with bioware than as Adept Power its not funny.
(without looking at genetic heritage...)

[Username17]

As a Mystic Adept you still pretty much need to Astrally perceive, so you're out a Magic point before you do anything. Then on top of that you have to cut your remaining Magic Attribute in half so that you have dice for spellcasting/conjuring and adept powers. And those dice are a huge deal. 3 dice of Conjuring is an extra hit on average - literally an average of you pulling in a spirit three force higher. That's an extra spirit power on every spirit you summon!

As for your specific Adept, you have four levels of Power Throw and a Strength of 3. You're seriously throwing playing cards for 6P. That's like knowing Power Bolt - and Power Bolt isn't even a super great spell. Instead, you could drop all the Adept bullshit, drop your Magic by 1 point, buy an attack spell - and be 2 points ahead of the game and roll 3 more dice for conjuring and spellcasting.

Trying to make adept powers play nice with magery is very hard. It's a thoroughly suboptimal life path.

-Username17

[Korwin]

Maybe with the exception of something like an face...

But that doesnt have anything to do, with the orginal char...

[CatharzGodfoot]

As Frank says, your mystic adept is thoroughly inferior to a mage using a spell to fling objects with deadly force. Even if you don't want synaptic boosters, you're better off skipping the adept and using the improved reflexes spell. The dice pool penalty to your actions won't be as severe as the penalty of spreading yourself thin as a mystic.


It is possible to do well as an adept using suboptimal powers (e.g. throwing stuff) without bending the rules, but you need to fall back on cheaper cyberware alternatives whenever you can. This means synaptic boosters, synthcardium, and so forth. Your best bet to save the original character is probably to ask the GM if you can take some of the shittier adept powers at a reduced cost (which in the end will be almost identical to cherry-picking cyberware). Even so, it's hard to compete with a monofilament whip when you're using unarmed attacks.

[Foxwander]

So is there any point to playing anything besides a cybered-up gun monkey or a spells-blazing mage then? That seems to be the gist of all the advice so far.


Edit: Sorry about the snark there. But we already have a street-sam, rigger, and a mage in the party. You all seem to be telling me I'd be better off making a copy of one of their characters (essentially) than going with the covert-ops concept I have. As if cyber/magic-up or GTFO are really the only options in Shadowrun. I don't think the game is that narrowly focused that other options aren't available. But maybe I'm wrong.

[Foxwander]

As for your specific Adept, you have four levels of Power Throw and a Strength of 3. You're seriously throwing playing cards for 6P. That's like knowing Power Bolt - and Power Bolt isn't even a super great spell. Instead, you could drop all the Adept bullshit, drop your Magic by 1 point, buy an attack spell - and be 2 points ahead of the game and roll 3 more dice for conjuring and spellcasting.

Trying to make adept powers play nice with magery is very hard. It's a thoroughly suboptimal life path.

-Username17

So, is there no advantage in the fact that Adept abilities are always on and don't have to deal with drain? Since net hits with combat spells also increase the drain value, that's eventually going to bite you in the ass. As an Adept, I can throw stuff all day and not worry about that.

I see why a Mystic Adept is going to have issues, and obviously a straight Mage will have more versatility, but is it simply not viable to build an Adept without resorting to cyber? Or is it not viable to be an Adept period?

[Orca]

It's like this. Adepts can do one incredibly narrow thing very well. They can sneak like ninjas. Or they can fight unarmed (or with one type of weapon) like ninjas. Or be gods own athlete. Or something like that. But if they try to be good at 2 or more things they fall well behind what a cybered guy can do.

That said, if you want to be a slightly-cybered guy with one point of essence, you might try something like synaptic accelerators 1 (0.5), a couple points of muscle toner (0.4) and a reflex trigger (0.1). That's your baseline 'I am barely acceptable in combat' stuff. Then you buy up adept powers, probably stealth stuff from what you're saying, with a few level 1 attribute boosts (the temporary ones which take a simple action to activate, I think that's what they're called) to let you pull off amazing athletic feats sometimes.

[Korwin]

You could be a cybered mage

Honestly, you wont make an carboncopy of another Char. only because some label on your Char sheet looks like one on the sheet next to you.

As written the Adeptpowers are very limiting.
Generally the powers (with maybe very few exceptions) can Be simulated cheaper with either spells or cyberware (sometime both).

The best example is, if you look at extra IP.
The cheapest cersion of the Adept power is what? 2 magic points?
We are talking about 20 generating
here (possible more if you took an 6 in magic)
Now look up what you coold

[Korwin]

...could do with those 20 points at Char generation.

[Foxwander]

You could be a cybered mage

:sigh:
I guess Adept really isn't a viable option anymore. That seems sad somehow- that the only way to be competitive is to add cyberware. It's more a failing of the Adept rules than anything. Their power point costs should be more in line with the essence costs of the comparable cyberware, or something.

Well, this is just frakking annoying! If I drop the Adept shtick then I'm not throwing things, I'm just shooting a gun. Then I go through the whole "best skill to weapon" comparison and wind up back at automatics and some kind of assault rifle. Then there's smartlinks, muscle toners, and synaptic boosters (because you have to get those to be the best you can be) and I wind up...

...just like our street sam- except I won't have paired cyber arms (with all the tweaks) to make me as deadly as him! But I'm still just a tweaked out gun monkey whose only nod to "covert ops" is some points in infiltration, a utility belt of illegal tools, and a chameleon suit.

[Username17]

I wouldn't say Adept isn't viable. For example, you can be an absurdly effective Face. Or a very effective hacker. It's just that Adept combat powers are underpowered. And all Adept powers are rather cost intensive, so if you "spread yourself out" you will suck ass. The "point" of Adept powers is that they can push you past skill bonus maximums that other archetypes live under, and you pay a premium for that. If you buy them and don't push the limits of your field, you're paying a premium for nothing at all.

-Username17

[Orion]

I'm not sure what you mean covert ops. If you're thinking of going into a situation so high-security that all cyber and bioware will be scanned, all active spells will be detected, and all possible weapons will be found and confiscated--than yes, an unarmed or power throw adept will be the best combat threat you can sneak in. (Assuming they don't realize you are an adept and exlcude you on that ground.)

But most shadowruns don't happen under those conditions. So here are some "low profile" ideas:

Play a thief who is not Awakened (so you don't have a magical aura arousing suspicion.) Get a monowhip and a ton of dice in it. Buy bioware, but nothing that makes you *visibly* upgraded. Just Synaptic Boosters, Synthacardium, Reflex Recorders and Muscle Toner. That's pretty damn covert ops right there. Most scanners will miss your bioware completely, and your weapon can be worn as a wedding ring or smuggled in your anus.

Or, play a Mage focused on secrecy. Specialize your counterspelling against Detection, take a ton of Infiltration so you can avoid Watchers while astral scouting. Get Masking and Improved Masking as your first metamagics so nobody knows you are magic. Make sure your spirits include Plant for silence, Guidance for darkness, and Man for influence. Use buff spells so fight unarmed, or use manipulation spells to disable people silently.

If you want to win fights with anyone with any regularity, you need some kind of advantage over them. That means either you need superior weapons, you need ware, or you need magic. In all cases there are high-profile options (Assault rifles, muscle replacements, sustaining foci and bound spirits) and there are low-profile options (monowhips or implanted weapons, bioware, adept powers or stealth-oriented magic.) But if you walk in without weapons, ware, or spells, you can expect to lose to any opposition stiffer than 1 lightly equipped dude. If you still want to play an adept with no ware, at least use a weapon.

And no, taking any of this advice will not make you a carbon copy of the other PCs. There's a big difference between a troll with cyberware and an automatic grande launcher and a human with bioware and a monowhip, even if they are both street samurai. There's a huge difference between a mage focused on Detection and Conjuring and one focused on Health Buff and touch-range Combat spells.

[Datawolf]

Interesting. So what Frank and Orca are saying is that Adepts are best employed as "skill monkeys." Maybe that's the way you should go, Foxwander. Focus on infiltration and social skills. You could do recon jobs and meet with Mr. Johnson (worst NPC name ever, by the way), negotiate deals, get folks better prices on gear, actually get laid once in a while, etc.

I have zero experience with Shadowrun, I'm afraid (though I've wanted to play it for two years). I have read the SR4 book and based on what I've seen Frank and Orca are correct in their assessment. The best use of an Adept character is to pick a schtick and focus everything onto it. If you do this you will be better at that one thing than anyone else.

[Foxwander]

Honestly guys, thanks for all the good advice. I've got a new build in the works that takes much of it into consideration. Yes, I sucked it up and got some cyber- it just took being hit with that stick a few times to knock some sense into me. Mainly I'm just annoyed that it's so hard to make a combat-focused adept that's effective. That should be the area Adepts are, well, adept at. Social and hacking are NOT the things you expect the iconic "martial arts" character to really excel at. :sigh:

Mainly I fell for that new (at least to me) rpg trap of thinking that if a "class" is in the books, it must be able to do the job its ostensibly written for. And I completely forgot my extensive experience with D&D and how well that works for monk, samurai, soul knife, etc., etc. Anyway, I've faced reality now and I'll post the new build as soon as I can figure out how to pay for all that new cyber.

[Username17]

Yeah, sorry about that. People keep worrying that Adepts will become overpowered in the area of killing people with their kung fu. So the costs of kung fu related killing powers get increased to make sure that doesn't happen. Which in reality means that if you try to be good at kung fu with adept powers that you will be rather weak.

On the other hand, the Adept social powers are very effective and totally unrelated to what other people can do.

-Username17

[Orca]

There are tricks you can do with magic which are difficult or impossible to duplicate with cyber. Here's a power selection which might be useful for your concept:

Astral perception (1 magic) because if you can't see it, it's hard to sneak past it.
Improved ability (infiltration) 2 (0.5 magic I think?) breaking the normal limits
Improved ability (hardware) 2 (0.5 magic) breaking limits, and BTW get hardware 4 not electronics group 2
Attribute boost (strength) 1 (0.25 magic) so you can sell down strength to 3 & still be athletic
Attribute boost (agility) 1 (0.25 magic) so you can max agility sometimes, for combat or infiltration
Combat sense 3 (1.5 magic) surprise people, dodge attacks, and avoid being surprised

If your GM doesn't use a lot of locks and traps, replace Improved ability (hardware) with another point of Combat sense or a couple of sense boosts (maybe vision magnification & improved scent). When you get to improve your magic later think about these, and maybe Traceless walk.

[Foxwander]

Ok, so I've taken in all the advice, gave in and added some cyber, and I think I've got a much better character. Please let me know what you think...

Covert-Ops Adept, version 3.0

Metatype: Ork [20]

Attributes: [170]
B: 4 (0)
A: 5 (40)
R: 4 (30)
S: 5 (20)
C: 2 (10)
I: 4 (30)
L: 3 (20)
W: 3 (20)

Ess: 5
Mag: 5 [40]
Edge: 2 [10]

Positive Qualities: [24]
Adept (5)
Martial Arts (Krav Maga- Take Aim) (5)
--- Manuever, Off-hand Weapon training (blades) (2)
--- Manuever, Two Weapon Style (2)
Erased (5)
Analytical Mind (5)

Negative Qualities: [-35]
Day Job (Street Messenger, 2500/20hrs) (-10)
Nano-intolerance (-5)
Scorched (-5)
SINner (-5)
Poor Self Control (Thrill-seeker) (-5)
Mild Compulsive Behavior, Security (-5)

Adept Powers: (w/ Geas for 25% cost reduction)
Improved Reflexes 1
Missile Mastery
Power Throw 3
Eidetic Sense Memory
Combat Sense 2
Quick Draw

Active Skills: [134]
Electronics Group: 2 (20)
Stealth Group: 3 (30)
Climbing: 1 (4)
Etiquette: 1 (4)
Gymnastics: 4 (16)
Locksmith: 1 (4)
Perception: 4 (16)
Pilot Ground Craft: 1 (4)
Running: 1 (4)
Throwing Weapons: 6 (24)
Blades: 2 (8 )

Knowledge Skills/Languages: (21 free)
Security Procedures: 4
Security Design: 3
Chemistry: 1
Architecture: 1
Street Gangs: 1
Criminal Organizations: 2
LoneStar Procedures: 2
Navigation (smuggling): 1
Zen Meditation: 2

Japanese: N
English: 3
Or'zet: 1

Contacts: (2x CHA free house rule) [12]
Pawnbroker (Loyalty 3, Connection 3) (6)
Spider (Loyalty 6, Connection 4) (10)

Resources: (125,000) [25]
Obvious Lower Arm (alpha)
--- Grappling Gun w/ gecko-tipped myomeric rope, Orientation System, Commlink
Attention Coprocessor 3 (alpha)
Muscle Toner 2
Synthcardium 3

So check my math on this, but this gives me...
- Once I specialize in throwing knives- 15 to hit, doing 8P, with ranges slightly better than pistols (w/ twice the short range).
- The ability to attack AND go full defense with two blades (which should be 15 for full melee parry)
- 13 to try and dodge bullets
- 14 for most perception checks (sight and sound) thanks to gear and cyber. Does a UWB radar sensor add into this?
And I'm pretty decent at the core thieving stuff (electronic and stealth groups), with gear I should be rolling 9-10 dice for most of them.

Good point Orca, about hardware vs. electronics group. I hadn't really read how B/E works when I first put that in there. I could break that up to focus on hardware.

But over all how does it look now?