Physical adept Cyberware

[Albireo]

So I am played a troll phys ad and have found i have some extra cash on hand (current weapons are a shock glove and the sword Distant Storms Foretold) I figure i can pick up some bio and cyberware with it but want some suggestions so heres the options as i see them. Keep in mind this is all assuming 6 points of Karma spent in cyber affinity for the extra essense, so essense cost can not exceed 1 all told. Note also I have no dodge.

Free ware!:
Shock Alert seems useful and only takes an arm slot.
Pain Editor at first glance looks useful but i cant use the will off it as a prerequisite for qi casting so probably a pass.
Pheromones! skin mod for +1 charisma? yes please. its sitting at 4 right now so i am not sure how usful the extra point will be yet.

Priced for the purist!
"Suprathyroid" Essense cost: 0.5 Location: body Effect: +1 to all physical stats
"Vision mag eyes" Essense cost: 0.5 Location: eyes Effect: +6% to hit
"Synthacardium Mk2" Essense cost: 0.5 Location: body Effect: +1 dodge +1 throwing +1 move
"Magnet Arm" Essense cost: 1 Location: arm Effect: Return to sender grenades
"Ares Dermal Plating" Essense cost: 1 Location: skin Effect: +2 armor +1 body
"Platelet factory" Essense cost: 0.5 Location: body Effect: self heal 1 AP 2 CD
"Yamatestu Cyberarm" Essense cost: 1 Location: arm Effect: +1 str +5 hp
"Orthoskin" Essense cost: 0.3 Location: skin Effect: +1 armor
"Reflex Trigger" Essense cost: 1 Location: body Effect: +1 move, Auto dodge first attack each round 3/4 rounds
"Muscle aug" Essense cost: 0.3 Location: arm Effect: +1 str +1 quickness

I have a few thoughts on combinations but want to hear from you guys first. I left some items out but i figured they werent significant enough to consider.

[chriseggroll]

I'd probably go with the muscle augmentation +cyber eyes or reflex trigger, dodging the first attack every turn is huge for melee. 1 charisma is not worth losing essence over. the heal could be ok, but not getting hurt in the first place is better (aka reflex trigger)

[hghwolf]

You`re not losing essence for the pheromones; it`s bioware with a 0 essence cost, so breaking the troll barrier might be useful.

I~d probably just get the athyroid and the muscle aug, then get another muscle aug and...something else with 0.5 or less essence cost once I finish of cyber affinity.

[Sai Kyouji]

Magnet arm will trivialize most tightly secured runs :v Use it at your own risk of boredom.

[Albireo]

quick correction, Muscle aug only costs 0.3

but yeah Suprathyroid, muscle aug, shock alert, pheremones looks good.

alternately i am thinking Reflex trigger, shock alert, pheremones

[gGeorg]

Your brother Orc can have Magnet arms on 6th level.
Its super OP feature.
There is quite issue to get money, so you wont be limited by essence but money. Simply there is not enough money. I didnt use any consumable, sell everything I have found, but I could not afford full chrome.

[Kamiyama]

Pheromones won't give you an extra speech skill if it dings you into an even-numbered charisma score. Which makes it pretty much useless. I would save the nuyen.

[Yamxela]

I don't know, I wouldn't put anything into your body unless it cost 0 essense. Considering martial defense is one of the most important defensive moves for an adept, making the cooldown longer just seems like asking for trouble. This is even more true if you plan on getting magic armor and pain resistance. This depends on how heavily you invested in chi casting though.

[dwig]

Originally posted by Yamxela:

I don't know, I wouldn't put anything into your body unless it cost 0 essense. Considering martial defense is one of the most important defensive moves for an adept, making the cooldown longer just seems like asking for trouble. This is even more true if you plan on getting magic armor and pain resistance. This depends on how heavily you invested in chi casting though.

With three points in cyber affinity magic will still be 6, and there will be no affect on cooldown, as long as you install no more than 1 essence point of cyber/bio ware.

[Albireo]

Originally posted by Kamiyama:

Pheromones won't give you an extra speech skill if it dings you into an even-numbered charisma score. Which makes it pretty much useless. I would save the nuyen.

I noted pheromones would punch me up to 5.

[Yamxela]

Originally posted by Rackhir:

Originally posted by Yamxela:

I don't know, I wouldn't put anything into your body unless it cost 0 essense. Considering martial defense is one of the most important defensive moves for an adept, making the cooldown longer just seems like asking for trouble. This is even more true if you plan on getting magic armor and pain resistance. This depends on how heavily you invested in chi casting though.

With three points in cyber affinity magic will still be 6, and there will be no affect on cooldown, as long as you install no more than 1 essence point of cyber/bio ware.

Yeah, I suppose, the only thing on the list I would take is the vision eyes and the AP regenerator. I did spirit totem cobra but those two implants are completely viable instead. I didn't really need any other defensive perks when I had martial defense and later mystic armor and pain resistance though. However, with spirit control at 3 you can also get a fetish to boost your charisma up another +1.

[Yamxela]

Originally posted by Albireo:

Originally posted by Kamiyama:

Pheromones won't give you an extra speech skill if it dings you into an even-numbered charisma score. Which makes it pretty much useless. I would save the nuyen.

I noted pheromones would punch me up to 5.

There's a lot of Charisma checks atProsperiety Tower near the end game for 6 Charisma, one for 7 Charisma so putting 3 points in spirit summoning will give you a totem with passive abilities and you can buy a fetish that boosts Cha +1, also you can just raise conjuring to 1 and get a different fetish that gives +1 to Cha.

[wendigo211]

If you have the cash, might as well get the pheremones and JoltAlert (actually this is really good for a melee character since melee attacks deal AP damage). My recommendation would be leave willpower and Qi casting at 5 and then pump body and cyber affinity to 6 (or 7). Then grab Wired Reflexes and either hand razors or a cyber spur.

Seriously, the cyberweapons blow the adept abilities out of the water. It isn't even close... I just finished the game on hard with a character that had 6 body and cyberweapons and 7 willpower and Qi casting. I.e. he could use both cyber weapons and adept abilties. Other than Counterstrike, Stride (for the passive), Martial Defense and Lightning Strike, it was worse to use the adept abilities than the hand razors. They did more damage, stripped the enemies armor and did a lot of AP damage. I did try the Killing Hands/Shock Fist thing, but without points in unarmed combat to boost the critical hit chance, it wasn't worth it.

[Albireo]

Qi casting becomes monumentally worth it when using swords. 3 strong hits each draining 2 AP for 2 AP? thats pretty great. you didnt commit to a single build idea.

[Lampros]

Jolt Alert v. Muscle Augmentation. If you had 0.5 spare Essence left, what would folks go for on a Physical Adept?

[frdnwsm]

Up until recently, I would have said go with the Jolt Alert. However, there is very little in the basic game that will AP strip you other than grenades, so if you have the Magenetic Arm, the Jolt Alert is sort of redundant at that point.

In the extended game, you have a few places where you have to deal with those shock troopers. Here I'm going to say it's more of a toss up. For a non melee character you don't need the extra strength; get the Jolt Alert. A melee character will be taking the fight to the enemy and might be more vulnerable to being stunned. Toss a coin.

If you are careful about looking around and spotting where the shock troopers are, or can disable them at range, then the strength augmentation might be the more useful.