+Body?

[mushroom]

Just started this game waiting for HoS to update. Anyways, there are several cyber implants which give +Body. Does that do anything useful? I don't find any direct use for the Body attribute in the rules, and I don't think it makes it easier to update your Dex and strength.

Anyone?

[Cory Trese]

Body is used for soaking damage.

[fallen]

mushroom - changes to your Attributes by implants do not change the equations for raising anything by XP. Only changes by spending XP change the equation.

+Body is, as Cory Trese says, a huge help in soaking damage.

[grävling]

Body implants eat a lot of DV and are expensive. So beginning cyberknights should be concentrating on 'I need armour' and then 'I need hard armour' for damage reduction. Hard armour comes in two sorts. The first sort is +dodge armour. If you wear it, you will be much harder to hit. The downside is that +dodge armour doesn't provide a lot of protection. So when you get hit, it hurts. The other sort, -dodge armour, is more like becoming the Michelin man. You become much easier to hit, but your armour absorbs pretty much all of it, especially when you are dealing with gangers. Only enemies with extremely penetrating weapons will damage you, and not nearly as much as those in dodge armour. (But hard +dodge armour is good. Don't get the idea that I dislike it -- it is my armour of choice, most builds).

So, when I equip myself in heavy, -dodge armour, I pretty much never get any body implants. I don't want to spend the DV on something that isn't that necessary. When I equip myself in +dodge armour, then, when I hit the upper levels and have to face corps security shooters on a regular basis I often spend the cash on it. By the time I am that high a level the DV isn't that important to me, as I am already about as deadly as I need to be, even if I don't have all my attributes and skills near the max. And for dodgers, well, it can indeed save your life to have dermal implants and reinforced bones. Because the values stack -- if you have hard armour and dermal implants and bone implants, you get the benefit of the lot. But if you aren't walking around thinking, I have great hard armour, and I am still taking way too much damage, what should I do? then chances are, body increasing implants are not the best purchase for you right now.

[amongstshadows]

On a side note, Cory Trese or fallen - does the "mind" attribute have any use beyond increasing perception and intelligence?

[grävling]

There is a mission where you are supposed to take a mark back to your safehouse and interrogate him for information. One of the things you can do is to use 'Mind + Intelligence'.

[fallen]

Yep, it is definitely called into question during Jobs.

[grävling]

I think Mind is relevant to whether you get a rumour or a fight when you try to listen in to a conversation, but since these rolls are not reported, I cannot be sure of this.

[mushroom]

Great info. Thanks for the insights, graveling. Playing right now with a dual-DefensorMT gunslinger, and am taking a moment to mourn my trusty hund.

Am also figuring out how skills transfer between runners and the lead character while doing things like hacking, negotiating, planting electronics, etc. I certainly liked having the hund around for intimidation...

[grävling]

Hunds are special. Add a hund, get more intimidation, so they stack. Want lots of Intimidation? Get a pack of hunds. Combat works so that the combat skills are applied to each person. It doesn't matter if you have great athletics, you cannot transfer those points to your runner buddy who needs to run like heck right now. If her athletics is poor, she won't be able to.

Other saving throws work in that whichever team member -- non-hund, they are special intimidate only beasts -- has the highest stat, that is the one that is used. So you and your best buddy don't both have to train Negotiation. Don't both train stealth unless you both want to try escaping from combat a whole lot (which makes it a combat stat). Usually I have one runner do all the Per stats, and another (or me) the Int ones. You both want to train Per and Int themselves for the AP, but not the skills that depend on them. I often have 'the Dex and Int' runner, whose AP mostly come from that, with incredibly expensive Per Points added later in the game or 'the Dex and Per' runner who finds Int points very expensive, and a later game addition. Or you can decide to raise Per and Int in tandem, which makes them both harder to raise, but spreads the cost out more evenly.

[amongstshadows]

Apr 9, 2017 1:35:39 GMT -5 grävling said:

Hunds are special. Add a hund, get more intimidation, so they stack. Want lots of Intimidation? Get a pack of hunds. Combat works so that the combat skills are applied to each person. It doesn't matter if you have great athletics, you cannot transfer those points to your runner buddy who needs to run like heck right now. If her athletics is poor, she won't be able to.

Other saving throws work in that whichever team member -- non-hund, they are special intimidate only beasts -- has the highest stat, that is the one that is used. So you and your best buddy don't both have to train Negotiation. Don't both train stealth unless you both want to try escaping from combat a whole lot (which makes it a combat stat). Usually I have one runner do all the Per stats, and another (or me) the Int ones. You both want to train Per and Int themselves for the AP, but not the skills that depend on them. I often have 'the Dex and Int' runner, whose AP mostly come from that, with incredibly expensive Per Points added later in the game or 'the Dex and Per' runner who finds Int points very expensive, and a later game addition. Or you can decide to raise Per and Int in tandem, which makes them both harder to raise, but spreads the cost out more evenly.

Hunds don't help with negotiation? Only intimidation?

[grävling]

You get 2 more points in intimidation for every hund on your team. Added to your score, or the score of your runner who has the best intimidate. Training your hund in intimidation doesn't make the game use its intimidate score, and not yours. Training a hund in negotiation doesn't make the prices cheaper, either. So train your hund in combat stats, and train up int and per for AP gains, but don't try to make a hund the master negotiator of your team.