Where are the Shock Gloves?

[Jasina]

As I said... where are they? I can't seem to be able to get them anywhere.

[frdnwsm]

It is sold in only one place. On the Whampoa murder investigation run, way off to the North corner are two guys who each have some information on the murders. One of them also has some gear for sale; I'm not totally sure of the name without looking at a saved game, but it's something like Breaker Hui ... or else it's his friend standing next to him. Down at the bottom of his invemtory is the shock glove. If you don't buy it on that run, it will never be available.

Very useful for anyone who is trained in close combat; capable of stripping 3-5 AP from an enemy. If I don't have this skill myself, I give it to Gaichu. Duncan can also use it, but he has the beanbag option for AP stripping with his gun.

[di eshor ribly]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

Very useful for anyone who is trained in close combat; capable of stripping 3-5 AP from an enemy. If I don't have this skill myself, I give it to Gaichu. Duncan can also use it, but he has the beanbag option for AP stripping with his gun.

Duncan can also get the stun baton for a skill upgrade if you so choose. He and Gaichu can get pretty mean together when they each Stun an enemy for Zip Ties/ Coup deathblows.

Commander Jasina - if you're already past the Whampoan Killer mission and don't want to restart, there is an option if you can handle a little cyberware on your character. After two missions, with a few points in Cyber Affinity (I think it's 3) you can buy the Shock Hand. It works the exact same as the Gloves, except it doesn't take up a weapon slot and can't be given to teammates. It even gets the benefit from Killing Hands (if you're an adept), the only cyberware in the game to do so.

[Jasina]

Well... I missed them, shame. Oh well... I'll adjust, cyberware is out of the questuion though since my character is a mage and I'm planning on making her an adpet too. Probably I wouldn't be able to affor them anyway since it was my first run.

[di eshor ribly]

Originally posted by Commander ♠ Jasina:

Well... I missed them, shame. Oh well... I'll adjust, cyberware is out of the questuion though since my character is a mage and I'm planning on making her an adpet too. Probably I wouldn't be able to affor them anyway since it was my first run.

Nah, you're still fine. Cyber on mages isn't completely out of the question, there are a variety of threads discussing the validity of it. Most people advocate 3 ranks in Cyber Affinity so that even magical characters can get a Magnet Cyberarm without messing up their magic. For a mage/adept though, 3 ranks (6 karma points) and about 1200 nuyen could get you the shock hand. They could even make a decent holdover until you can buy Blood Calls To Blood after six missions.

Of course if you plan to use katanas I'd recommend going the magnet arm route, it's incredibly useful for any character. An essence-free JoltAlert is pretty much mandatory, it's pretty cheap on nuyen too and it keeps you from being stunned.

[frdnwsm]

A mage-adept might be a bit ambitious, Karma wise, since you will probably want to pick up a fair amount of Qi spells also. That having been said, I did have an adept with a lot of mage & conjuring support spells. 8 in Strength and close combat, 5 in conjuring and 6 in Will and Spellcasting, along with Qi casting of 7.

You could probably play mix and match quite a bit; I only went for all that conjuring so as to get Haste2. If you are satisfied with Haste1, you can probably pump hermetic spells up to 7 ranks. There's a lot of flexibility, depending on how many and how much ancillary skills you want to pick up. For example, I got 3 ranks of spirit summoning in order to get a totem. You could omit that entirely and put that 6 karma into hermetic spells or close combat skills.

The possible combinations aren't totally infinite, but there are a fairly large number of them. How much strength do you want? How much charisma? How much Body? Getting any cyber affinity? What race? Etc. etc. etc.

[frdnwsm]

You won't really miss the shock glove or need the shock hand if you go heavily into close combat and Qi spells. After a few runs, Spider Shen will offer the katana "Distant Storms Foretold" which is made for stripping AP from enemies. Vicious weapon, and my personal favorite for a melee adept.

[Jasina]

Right now I'm planning on maxing out my charisma and then maxing out willpower and hermetic spells... I'll worry about adpet thing after that... assuming I'll get that much karma... I mean... I will get some in the Shadows of Hong Kong right?

[frdnwsm]

Originally posted by Commander ♠ Jasina:

Right now I'm planning on maxing out my charisma and then maxing out willpower and hermetic spells... I'll worry about adpet thing after that... assuming I'll get that much karma... I mean... I will get some in the Shadows of Hong Kong right?

You can get 215-220 karma in the basic game, and 28 in the extended scenarios.

[di eshor ribly]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

Originally posted by Commander ♠ Jasina:

Right now I'm planning on maxing out my charisma and then maxing out willpower and hermetic spells... I'll worry about adpet thing after that... assuming I'll get that much karma... I mean... I will get some in the Shadows of Hong Kong right?

You can get 215-220 karma in the basic game, and 28 in the extended scenarios.

Let's assume you get the full amount, plus 2 to round it off for my OCD. 250 karma to play with on a given character, not counting karma spent during creation. I made a little karma chart in notepad that I find handy as a quick reference for how much karma it takes to get a given stat or skill to any possible point (up to 18, Body and Strength for Trolls).

It takes 44 karma to get a stat or skill up to 9, since you start with a 1 in every stat I didn't count that, add 1 karma for a skill starting at 0. To get a stat to 12 takes 77, while 18 by use of karma alone takes 170. Obviously, a natural 18 won't happen unless you're playing a super mean close combat troll (you'd have just enough to get Body and Close Combat to around 6) and even then you could use Cyber to shave some off. The math may vary a bit based on racial bonuses.

Conversely if you choose to have an "average" character with stats and skills of 6, you could get 11 trees with a few points to spare. I know most people don't like to think maths too much while vidya gamin' (I'm one) but if you plan ahead a bit you can come up with some very unique and intriguing character builds.

[frdnwsm]

"250 karma to play with on a given character, not counting karma spent during creation. "

The karma you spent during creation is counted into that total.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

Originally posted by Commander ♠ Jasina:

Well... I missed them, shame. Oh well... I'll adjust, cyberware is out of the questuion though since my character is a mage and I'm planning on making her an adpet too. Probably I wouldn't be able to affor them anyway since it was my first run.

Nah, you're still fine. Cyber on mages isn't completely out of the question, there are a variety of threads discussing the validity of it. Most people advocate 3 ranks in Cyber Affinity so that even magical characters can get a Magnet Cyberarm without messing up their magic. For a mage/adept though, 3 ranks (6 karma points) and about 1200 nuyen could get you the shock hand. They could even make a decent holdover until you can buy Blood Calls To Blood after six missions.

Of course if you plan to use katanas I'd recommend going the magnet arm route, it's incredibly useful for any character. An essence-free JoltAlert is pretty much mandatory, it's pretty cheap on nuyen too and it keeps you from being stunned.

Hmmm, can you get the shock hand AND still use AP-stripping weapons?

[Lampros]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

You won't really miss the shock glove or need the shock hand if you go heavily into close combat and Qi spells. After a few runs, Spider Shen will offer the katana "Distant Storms Foretold" which is made for stripping AP from enemies. Vicious weapon, and my personal favorite for a melee adept.

Since you seem the resident expert on Adept builds, are there any useful Adept guides or threads here? I've only played Adept in the prior Shadowrun games, and I won't have it any other way here either ;)

[di eshor ribly]

Lampros - Yes, you can use the shock hand and AP weapons. The shock hand replaces the 'unarmed' tab of your weapons selection, so you'll still have 3 other slots to carry deadly goodies in.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

Lampros - Yes, you can use the shock hand and AP weapons. The shock hand replaces the 'unarmed' tab of your weapons selection, so you'll still have 3 other slots to carry deadly goodies in.

Thanks. It seems like HK introduces a lot of stuff that weren't in during previous installments, and I doubt I will adequately be able to try them all in one playthrough - especially given the money scarcity that people endlessly complain about.

[Jasina]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

Lampros - Yes, you can use the shock hand and AP weapons. The shock hand replaces the 'unarmed' tab of your weapons selection, so you'll still have 3 other slots to carry deadly goodies in.

Thanks. It seems like HK introduces a lot of stuff that weren't in during previous installments, and I doubt I will adequately be able to try them all in one playthrough - especially given the money scarcity that people endlessly complain about.

Because it's true - there is so much new stuff to play with and little money to spend (personally I think that hiring runners from outside your own crew is a waste of money. I'm not sure if tehy upped teh prices on stuff or if I simply earn less money than in Dragonfall (which I'm pretty sure is true).