I want to make a character that is focused on Use Computer, basically a hacker.
Are there any talents other than the ones in the Slicer tree that are good for such a character?
I haven't looked for feats yet, but if anyone has any ideas for good ones that I should take a look at, feel free to go ahead and post them.
Also, is such a character viable? Is there enough utility/content to base an entire character around it, or should I broaden the scope of the character a bit? I had planned to be good at Mechanics as well, and that seems like the logical area to expand into if Use Computer is too narrow for an entire build.
Setting: Tomb with a perilous bridge and cliff 100 feet above a lava pit.
Mummy pops out of his sarcophagus, initiative:
Felix, Half-Elf Artificer: Twin Strike with crossbow.
Trump (ala Donald), Eladrin Warlord: Charges mummy with Opening Shove, pushing off the cliff. Mummy fails saving throw, and falls into pit.
Sanshiro (ala Japanese "superhero" Segata), Minotaur Barbarian: Strength check to lift sarcophagus and carry to cliff. Free action, drop sarcophagus into square above mummy. Sarcophagus drops on mummy, shoving him further down into lava.
Mummy: proceeds to make a series of horrible athletics checks to swim and climb cliff. Dies a horrible death with lava permeating every orifice.
Entire Party: Watches on in delight, faces alit with the glow of lava and flaming undead.
I soap myself up, and turn up the hot water in the shower, so my sweat mixes with the soap, slickening my skin: +5 to grapple
I use my own legs as a shield since only upper-body hits matter: +5 defense
I use my teammates bodies to construct a vehicle for myself, and dual-wield their weapons because as long as I win, we all win: +10 attack, +10 defense
I completely ignore the enemy, their attacks, the devastating damage they are dealing to me and my team, and strike directly for their base, completely obliterating them, their way of life, and any chance they had at survival as a species: WIN
I believe they are in GoI but there is a talent tree (for the Noble) somewhere that focuses on your skill checks and that is something to look for if you are going overboard on a hacker. I say "overboard" because a SAGA character who is trained in Use Computer and has skill focus in it really can do just about everything laid out in the rules. Slicer sure seems like a nice talent but I actually can't think of anywhere it is actually useful within the rules although it should speed some things up. In all honesty, you could make an EXTREMELY good hacker using almost all non-heroic levels.
Ultimately, much of what you do to help your Use Computer skill will also help other skills. You're likely looking at a high INT character who has lots of trained skills and Mechanics is certainly an easy skill to use/improve along side use computer.
I want to make a character that is focused on Use Computer, basically a hacker.
Are there any talents other than the ones in the Slicer tree that are good for such a character?
It depends on what type of game the GM will run. But as you will have a high INT you should have a few skills as well, not just Use Computer. So don't forget to get a high Gather Information and Deception skill as well. With a combination of these skills you can do a lot.
So, basically, hacking is easy enough to not have to focus on? Ok.
Then that leads me into: what can I add to also make him an awesome techy/mechanic? I know there's plenty of support for that sort of thing, like Tech Specialist, etc. Are there any really good talents/feats I should get for that part?
Also, I hadn't decided on a secondary stat yet. Int will obviously be high, but what other stat should I pump up? What stat would compliment that high Int, and what non-Int skills would compliment Use Computer and Mechanics?
I was thinking maybe Cha, and taking Noble Fencing Style, so I still have a good attack stat as well. My other thought was Dex, so I can still be a shooter, and I can maybe add a splash of stealthiness as well.
Setting: Tomb with a perilous bridge and cliff 100 feet above a lava pit.
Mummy pops out of his sarcophagus, initiative:
Felix, Half-Elf Artificer: Twin Strike with crossbow.
Trump (ala Donald), Eladrin Warlord: Charges mummy with Opening Shove, pushing off the cliff. Mummy fails saving throw, and falls into pit.
Sanshiro (ala Japanese "superhero" Segata), Minotaur Barbarian: Strength check to lift sarcophagus and carry to cliff. Free action, drop sarcophagus into square above mummy. Sarcophagus drops on mummy, shoving him further down into lava.
Mummy: proceeds to make a series of horrible athletics checks to swim and climb cliff. Dies a horrible death with lava permeating every orifice.
Entire Party: Watches on in delight, faces alit with the glow of lava and flaming undead.
I soap myself up, and turn up the hot water in the shower, so my sweat mixes with the soap, slickening my skin: +5 to grapple
I use my own legs as a shield since only upper-body hits matter: +5 defense
I use my teammates bodies to construct a vehicle for myself, and dual-wield their weapons because as long as I win, we all win: +10 attack, +10 defense
I completely ignore the enemy, their attacks, the devastating damage they are dealing to me and my team, and strike directly for their base, completely obliterating them, their way of life, and any chance they had at survival as a species: WIN
I think the only way you go wrong with building DEX is if you have a melee character who wears heavy armor. For everyone else DEX is, at worst, a useful stat but in many cases the single best stat in the game. It helps your ranged attacks, Reflex Defense, a number of useful skills which don't require proper training to fully use, and can help with some melee attacks and in rare cases even melee damage.
Now I don't know how you plan to build your slicer but I see two good starting classes for a hacker/tech guy. The obvious one may be Scoundrel because that is where the most obvious talents are; this class also gives you the best skill access if you want a wide range of skills from Stealth, to techinical and social but you do start with the fewest hitpoints. The other good starting class for the tech is actually Soldier; it only has one fewer trained skill then Scoundrel while still having all of the "tech skills" (provided you don't count Knowledge-technical) and it provides you with the most hitpoint and gives you access to armor which makes it a bit easier to wear your tech. Even if you start in Soldier you can then multiclass into Scoundrel for access to those talents and new skills while picking up the ever useful Point Blank Shot.
My top 3 : - Verpine : Conditional Skill Focus Mechanics - Duros : +2 DEX, +2 INT, reroll pilot checks... but -2 CON - Phindian : +2 INT, Skill Training K. Technology, Conditional Skill Focus Mechanics... but -2 CHA
Other options : - Jawa : +2 DEX, reroll Mechanics checks... but -2 STR - Sluissi : +2 INT, +10 to Mechanics checks if done in twice the time, Tech Specialist... but -2 DEX - Skakoan : +2 INT, Armor Proficiency (light), Conditional Skill Focus Mechanics, Once per encounter make a standard action Use computer or Mechanics check as a swift action... but -2 DEX - Givin : +2 INT, reroll any Knowledge check... but -2 STR
I think climb and stealth are also great skill for this character... Spoiler:Show
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Those are all good for Mechanics, but is there one good for Use Computer? Bith (in TotG) can make an Int-based skill check a nat 20 1/enc, so that seems pretty good. One of my aspirations for this character is to get a high enough Use Computer to hack a credit chip, and never have to worry about money again.
Setting: Tomb with a perilous bridge and cliff 100 feet above a lava pit.
Mummy pops out of his sarcophagus, initiative:
Felix, Half-Elf Artificer: Twin Strike with crossbow.
Trump (ala Donald), Eladrin Warlord: Charges mummy with Opening Shove, pushing off the cliff. Mummy fails saving throw, and falls into pit.
Sanshiro (ala Japanese "superhero" Segata), Minotaur Barbarian: Strength check to lift sarcophagus and carry to cliff. Free action, drop sarcophagus into square above mummy. Sarcophagus drops on mummy, shoving him further down into lava.
Mummy: proceeds to make a series of horrible athletics checks to swim and climb cliff. Dies a horrible death with lava permeating every orifice.
Entire Party: Watches on in delight, faces alit with the glow of lava and flaming undead.
I soap myself up, and turn up the hot water in the shower, so my sweat mixes with the soap, slickening my skin: +5 to grapple
I use my own legs as a shield since only upper-body hits matter: +5 defense
I use my teammates bodies to construct a vehicle for myself, and dual-wield their weapons because as long as I win, we all win: +10 attack, +10 defense
I completely ignore the enemy, their attacks, the devastating damage they are dealing to me and my team, and strike directly for their base, completely obliterating them, their way of life, and any chance they had at survival as a species: WIN
So, basically, hacking is easy enough to not have to focus on? Ok.
Hacking can be easy, but it can also be hard. It all depends of the Will Defense of the system you are trying to hack. Many systems also start with an attitude of unfriendly (-5) or hostile (-10) that will give you a penalty to your Use Computer check.
So you will want some equipment that boost your Use Computer check. The best is to have a droid that can give a big bonus through the Aid Another action. Aid Another is caped at +10 in later splat books for SAGA, but that depends on what books you are using in your game and on the GM.
Other good equipment to have is a portable computer. That should give you an equipment bonus to Use Computer checks that stack with Aid Another. A computer interface visor could also be good to have, when you have no time to hook up your computer to the system...
Bith (in TotG) can make an Int-based skill check a nat 20 1/enc, so that seems pretty good. One of my aspirations for this character is to get a high enough Use Computer to hack a credit chip, and never have to worry about money again.
The Bith can be good for this type of character, but a droid can be even better! There are lots of droid-only talents that help with slicing. Scomp Link Slicer (SGtD page 26) being one of them and requiring that you are a second degree droid.
As for slicing cred-chips it can be done, but remember that the central bank computer always start out as Hostile and that the base Will Defense is 30. So to make that computer just unfriendly take a DC: 40 Use Computer check. You must not fail that check or the system will automatically trace your location and lock you out of the system for 24 h. You will need to make in order a DC: 35 and 32 and 30 check after that initial DC: 40 check to get the central computer to be helpful. If the GM rules that you can't take 20 on the first roll due to the dire consequences of failing, being a Bith would be great help. But you would still need a Use Computer skill of at least +20 to pull it of. But with a droid that adds a bonus through Aid Another that is not too hard. Also make sure you won't fail the second check (DC: 35) by 5 or more as the computer will become hostile again and trace your location... Having the talent Scomp Link Slicer may protect you from being traced. You could maybe get a droid with that talent?
Even if you make it, you will find that people or companies that get their accounts looted will be out for vengeance, they may use Gather Information or Use Computer to find out what you did and who you are. Using Deception or the Electronic Forgery talent to make a false trail of documents may lead them to a "fall guy" that you have set up in advance.
Being a Bith actually doesn't help. The ToG writeup is outdated and the "official" PC writeup is in GoI and does away with that "automatic 20" ability which is a little broken.
Setting: Tomb with a perilous bridge and cliff 100 feet above a lava pit.
Mummy pops out of his sarcophagus, initiative:
Felix, Half-Elf Artificer: Twin Strike with crossbow.
Trump (ala Donald), Eladrin Warlord: Charges mummy with Opening Shove, pushing off the cliff. Mummy fails saving throw, and falls into pit.
Sanshiro (ala Japanese "superhero" Segata), Minotaur Barbarian: Strength check to lift sarcophagus and carry to cliff. Free action, drop sarcophagus into square above mummy. Sarcophagus drops on mummy, shoving him further down into lava.
Mummy: proceeds to make a series of horrible athletics checks to swim and climb cliff. Dies a horrible death with lava permeating every orifice.
Entire Party: Watches on in delight, faces alit with the glow of lava and flaming undead.
I soap myself up, and turn up the hot water in the shower, so my sweat mixes with the soap, slickening my skin: +5 to grapple
I use my own legs as a shield since only upper-body hits matter: +5 defense
I use my teammates bodies to construct a vehicle for myself, and dual-wield their weapons because as long as I win, we all win: +10 attack, +10 defense
I completely ignore the enemy, their attacks, the devastating damage they are dealing to me and my team, and strike directly for their base, completely obliterating them, their way of life, and any chance they had at survival as a species: WIN
