So Ye and the rest of the crew are prepping for a final assault on Krait’s last stronghold – and expecting fierce resistance kitted out with top-end Ares military gear. They’ll be going into this one geared for War, not a SpecOps raid. So here’s a breakdown of where they stand as characters going into the final mission – as well as chance to deck them out in end-game gear.
Ying “Hijinx” Ye
Ye relies on magic for her defences – particularly since she picked up some mid-level Adept/Qi techniques. So she uses magic symbols woven into basic ballistic leather rather than heavy tech armor. Usually there’s not much room for her to carry grenades, medpacks, etc, as she’s usually packed to the gills with talismans boosting her magic. Offensively nowadays she favors:
Power Bolt – Basic single target damage that’s always available
Mana Ball – AOE Damage that pierces traditional armor
Mana Bolt – Focused single-target variant of Mana Ball
Chain Lightning – Arcing damage that hits multiple targets for both damage and stun
Flamethrower – Linear burst of flame damage that burns through ballistic armor
Petrify – Single Target “you take a time out for a while”
Wild Aim – AOE aim buff
She’s become both the heavy artillery and essentially the “tank” of the crew. Between a heavy investment in Quickness and her totem power passive she’s hard to hit, thanks to the dip in Adept casting to pick up Martial Resistance she’s in light cover even out in the open, and her mage-gear is almost as protective as anything anybody else is wearing. And being able to pick out the biggest dragon node on the field, super-speed run to it, sit in it out in the open about as well protected as everyone else in cover, and toss around double-strength AOEs is frankly an overpowered combo.
Dunk, on the other hand, is all-in on the heavy gear. He’s upgraded assault rifles several times as we’ve found better stuff, favoring a high-end FN-FAL variant until this last run. He carries a good supply of various grenades, and the Panther Autocanon they just scored in the last run is the only thing they’ve ever found that can compete with Ye’s peak destruction. Only carries two shots before reloading, but those two shots can pulverize an armored troll
Dunk’s ended up as a utility infielder for much of the game. He switches between grenades, ranged fire, and a shotgun as necessary. He can take a lot of punishment. But his best upgrade came late in the game, when he scored a Shiawese Magnetic Arm cybernetic upgrade.
This is a cyber-enhancement that lets him catch and throw back grenades thrown anywhere in a decent radius of himself. Presumably the effective range of the “magnetic” attractor. Sounds “nice but specialized’. But its actually made the biggest tactical difference of any upgrade in the game – with the possible exception of Ye’s “I’m in cover wherever I say I’m in cover”. Before that arm we’d always spread out in firefights to avoid attracting grenades. Since getting it, we intentionally clump near Dunk to *bait* them. We’ve got to be careful what we throw them at ourselves nowadays – because some enemies have such arms too. But there’s few things more fun than a SWAT guy tossing a gas grenade or something just for Dunk to grab it and throw it right back in his face.
Gobbet is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades. She uses guns and grenades, but favors magic for protection when it comes down to brass tacks.
She has direct damage magic like acid bolts and acid fog, but she usually favors spells that impede terrain, block visibility, or buffs/debuffs to aim/haste/slow. Particularly if Ye’s set up on a good dragon node Gob’s effort is often better spent maximizing Ye’s efficiency than plinking away herself. She’s also the team band-aid. Dunk and Iz tend to carry the heavy duty trauma kits for when someone goes down, but Gob’s the one keeping everyone topped up.
Gob can cut loose with her SMG for good damage when they catch someone in the open, but her aim isn’t the best. She’s also decent at cover fire. She can summon spirits to cause chaos, do damage, and tie up attention when we’re overwhelmed. So even more-so than Dunk she can play just about any role I need from her.
Iz is the ultimate techie. She armors up as much as her strength will allow. She does surprisingly good single target damage with her pistol if you don’t ask her to be a sharpshooter. She’s decent at utility with her grenade launcher. But none of that is why she’s a never-leave-behind.
Her hacking is a game changer. The game provides constant opportunities for her to drastically change fight scripts if you’re careful about exploring for opportunities ahead of time Taking out drones, blowing up cars, taking control of turrets. Or just plain hacking cameras for recon and fore-knowledge. Even most of the “shining moments” I gave to Rachter had options for Iz to pull them off. Its rare that a mission doesn’t provide an opportunity for her to make a game-changing contribution.
If I were running Shadowrun again – perhaps if I do a run through of Dragonfall at some point – I would seriously consider a Decker as the main character. Or a Decker/Rigger hybrid.
Author’s Notes:
I’ve tried not to read ahead on plot for the last mission, but its apparently a real furball where Krait/Ares throw everything and the kitchen sink at us. Should give us the opportunity to blow every consumable I’ve saved “for a rainy day” in one final blaze of glory!
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