Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Tigranes]

Perhaps it's an outcome of fairly specific design decisions. You can throw Molotovs without Throwing, but they will just go literally anywhere. When they do hit, their effect is just as devastating.

With other such skills, you often can't use the skill without the corresponding investment, so nobody's throwing Psi fireballs and hoping it doesn't go to the other side of the screen. Or you might imagine a system where the grenade has a smaller range of misthrows, but damage/effects are compromised with low skill (to simulate your inability to hit the sweet spot).

It is of course also a problem you get with molotovs and such in Arcanum and Fallout. I honestly have great fun having my incompetent level 1 character make it out against the odds thanks to a suicidal molotov throw, but it is not exactly a triumph of tactical thinking.

 

[hell bovine]

I never used stealth much for combat. Losing all of my movement points made it seem worthless against multiple enemies. I generally treated it as a way to avoid combat or get into better positions to start combat from.

At this point you are asking to change how initiative works to specifically cover the weaknesses of your build, though.

In UR you can have the fastest character by stacking initiative. And you can have movement points after attacking from stealth by picking up sprint. You went neither way and that's why you rely on rng.

High mechanical resistance is another issue you will run into.

 

[Jason Liang]

Ok so I might give Underrail another chance since Modron said that Styg added katanas in the expansion. But I need some feat and attribute/ skill recommendations for my character build, because when I read the feat descriptions nothing really jumps out. I just want an rpg where I can play some version of my pet cyberpunk rpg character, Qinalo, a female cartel assassin. The original Underrail didn't let me do that so hopefully with the expansion I can do that and at least finish the game (or get to the Caverns). Yes I know that Underrail is not cyberpunk, so I realize that part of the problem is that I'm trying to play a cyberpunk character in a post-apocalyptic rpg.

Qinalo is inspired by Katherine Hart from Shadowrun and Shadow from the fighting game Eternal Champions.

Katherine Hart, aka Katherine Roe was a professional shadowrunner of considerable reputation in mid-2050s.

A beautiful elven woman with a taste for expensive fashion, Hart was an accomplished magician. Hart's partner was a feathered serpent dracoform named Tessien.

Yamoto was a corporate assassin working for the Black Orchid Corporation. Her job was to liquidate certain individuals whose activies were at odds with the group's international business 'objectives'. She continued in this line of work, never questioning the morals of her missions, until she discovered that failure to complete a task meant that another assassin would come looking for her, ready to eliminate her. Disillusioned, she resolved to expose the terrible corruption she saw all around her. Unfortunately, before she could do so, she was pushed from the 101st floor of a Tokyo tower block.

This is a brief description:

Cartel Assassin for scifi/ WoD/ AoD - Qinalo (Alesio Qin, female, Latina/ Asian mixed ancestry, religious/ spiritual, drug addiction, Queen of Blood Diamonds, serpent themed). STRIKE HARD. STRIKE FAST. NO MERCY.

She is also based on real life female cartel assassins, especially La China (Melissa Magarita Calderon) and Claudia Ochoa Felix. She is also based on Magdalena Solis, the High Priestess of Blood, who lead a cult that worshipped the Aztec serpent goddess Coatlicue.

So I want skills and feats that you this think character would have.

I also use these illustrations to help define Qinalo:

Gregz said I should describe what Qinalo does in combat. Hart was a 1/2 mage adept, 1/2 physical adept who used magic to enhance her combat senses and her accuracy with sniper rifles and other long range items (so in Dragonfall terms, she was a self-buffing mage). Qinalo should have some viper-like abilities, such as poisons. For example, in Dragonfall, she had the cyberware lung replacement where she could breathe poison gas. In WoD she is a Setite cartel assassin with Mask of 1000 Faces and Majesty vampiric powers. She is not a sniper specialist, nor is she a very stealthy character (although she could be a little stealthy. But she's an assassin, not a thief). She's a vicious melee fighter who does not wear combat armor. An article describes La China's tactics here -

La China reportedly works with other women, specifically Gabriela Hulzar Lopez, or "La Gaby," to lure and kill their rivals, authorities told local news outlets.

In one documented case, which has been said to be their typical modus operandi, La Gaby pretended to be drunk outside of a bar, falling down, with her skirt nearly above her waist. When the intended target stopped to try to help the woman, La China emerged from the darkness, guns blazing.

So basically Qinalo uses disguise and distraction to get close and then uses guns or knives to quickly overpower and kill the target. She's probably not too different from Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, except her combat abilities are slightly enhanced by supernatural powers of religious or mythological nature (i.e. Santa Muerte or Coatlicue).

The Bony Lady has actually gained something of a reputation as a “narco-saint,” a patron for the drug lords who so often deal in death themselves. The men who make up some of the worst elements of Mexico’s criminal underworld are some of the saint’s strongest devotees. For narcos and thugs attempting to reconcile their lifestyles with their religion, Santa Muerte is the perfect object of their devotion.

Santa Muerte is popularly worshipped by those associated with the illegal drug trade, and the cult is popular within many prison systems. Drug houses have also been found with shrines to Santa Muerte. In 2012, eight people were arrested for performing human sacrifice in her honor. Many cartels paint themselves as messiahs for Santa Muerte, giving their foot soldiers religious reasons to follow them.

As Father Andres Gutierrez explained to one Catholic news organization, “If somebody is going to be doing something illegal, and they want to be protected from the law enforcement, they feel awkward asking God to protect them…So they promise something to Santa Muerte in exchange for being protected from the law.”

On Magdalena Solis:

Magdalena Solis never stood much chance at leading a normal life. Born in the 1930s to an impoverished dysfunctional family in Monterrey, Mexico, Solis became an underage prostitute to make ends meet. Her brother Eleazar was her pimp. This was her situation until 1963. Though she didn’t know it yet, her life was about to take a wild and violent turn.

Meanwhile, brothers Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, a pair of petty thugs, had struck up a scam in the nearby small town of Yerba Buena. It was a marginalised community of 50 poor, illiterate inhabitants. The Hernandez brothers had taken advantage of the local hicks’ naiveté and established a cult. The bumpkins worshipped them as High Priests of the powerful and exiled Inca gods, providing them with tribute in exchange for treasure supposedly hidden in the nearby mountain caves. For a while the Hernandez cult prospered. Santos and Cayetano kept the Yerba Buena people as sex slaves and held narcotic-fuelled orgies in the caves. Eventually though, the followers began to tire of the promised treasure failing to materialise and began to voice dissent. The High Priests had to do something.

They went to Monterrey to find prostitutes to join in on the scam and keep the ruse going. It was here that Magdalena and Eleazar met the Hernandez brothers. They joined them and returned with them to the cult. At the next cave ritual Magdalena appeared to the stunned cultists through a smoke screen. She presented as the reincarnation of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue. Eleazar became the third High Priest of the cult. The only problem was that the trick worked too well! Magdalena took her role too seriously and began to believe her own deceptions, developing a severe theological psychosis. She soon took over control of the cult and took it in an even darker direction, involving drinking blood and sadomasochism. She became known as the High Priestess of Blood.

Spoiler

Magdalena ruled the cult with an iron fist. When two cultists tried to leave the group, she summoned everyone else before her and the High Priests. She sentenced the two would-be deserters to death as punishment for their betrayal. The cultists, too afraid to defy Magdalena, obliged her by lynching the condemned pair. After that, any dissenting cultist became a human sacrifice in Magdalena’s honour. Her blood rituals involved the cultists beating, burning, cutting and maiming the sacrificed until they bled to death. Their blood was then collected in a chalice, mixed with chicken blood (animals were also sacrificed) and drank by all present to give them supernatural powers, eternal youth and immortality. All the while they smoked vast amounts of dope and consumed peyote. This continued for some time. Four more dissenters were butchered in this manner. By the end the bloodthirsty cult had perfected the art of dissecting the still-beating hearts of their victims before they bled out. One power-hungry cultist, Jesus Rubio, tried to join the inner sanctum of the High Priests, but was rebuffed.

Something happened in May 1963 that would turn out to be the beginning of the end for the cult. Attracted by the noises and lights coming from the caves, a local boy, 14-year-old Sebastian Guerrero stumbled upon the cult in the midst of a blood ritual. He fled to the closest police station and informed the cops that he had seen a group of murderous vampires preying on ecstasy and gluttonously drinking human blood. His claims were dismissed as that of a wild imagination. The next day officer Luis Martinez humoured Sebastian by returning to the cave with him before he was supposed to drive the boy home. The boy and the cop were never seen alive again.

Now police took the claims seriously. In conjunction with the army they descended on Yerba Buena on May 31. Magdalena and Eleazar were arrested at a farm in possession of a large amount of dope. Santos resisted arrest. The cops shot him for his efforts. Cayetano was assassinated by Jesus as retaliation for his earlier refusal to promote him to High Priest. The rest of the cult barricaded themselves in the caves and engaged in a shootout with the cops. Most of the cultists were shot in the fire fight. Those who were taken alive were eventually sentenced to 30 years for the murders. The Solis siblings were sentenced to 50 years each. Even now the cultists refused to testify against their leaders. The dismembered bodies of the 8 known victims were recovered, some missing their hearts (it is speculated that the actual number of victims is higher).

 

[Gregz]

Spoiler

Ok so I might give Underrail another chance since Modron said that Styg added katanas in the expansion. But I need some feat and attribute/ skill recommendations for my character build, because when I read the feat descriptions nothing really jumps out. I just want an rpg where I can play some version of my pet cyberpunk rpg character, Qinalo, a female cartel assassin. The original Underrail didn't let me do that so hopefully with the expansion I can do that and at least finish the game (or get to the Caverns). Yes I know that Underrail is not cyberpunk, so I realize that part of the problem is that I'm trying to play a cyberpunk character in a post-apocalyptic rpg.

Qinalo is inspired by Katherine Hart from Shadowrun and Shadow from the fighting game Eternal Champions.

Katherine Hart, aka Katherine Roe was a professional shadowrunner of considerable reputation in mid-2050s.

A beautiful elven woman with a taste for expensive fashion, Hart was an accomplished magician. Hart's partner was a feathered serpent dracoform named Tessien.

Yamoto was a corporate assassin working for the Black Orchid Corporation. Her job was to liquidate certain individuals whose activies were at odds with the group's international business 'objectives'. She continued in this line of work, never questioning the morals of her missions, until she discovered that failure to complete a task meant that another assassin would come looking for her, ready to eliminate her. Disillusioned, she resolved to expose the terrible corruption she saw all around her. Unfortunately, before she could do so, she was pushed from the 101st floor of a Tokyo tower block.

This is a brief description:

Cartel Assassin for scifi/ WoD/ AoD - Qinalo (Alesio Qin, female, Latina/ Asian mixed ancestry, religious/ spiritual, drug addiction, Queen of Blood Diamonds, serpent themed). STRIKE HARD. STRIKE FAST. NO MERCY.

She is also based on real life female cartel assassins, especially La China (Melissa Magarita Calderon) and Claudia Ochoa Felix.

So I want skills and feats that you this think character would have.

I also use these illustrations to help define Qinalo:

Gregz said I should describe what Qinalo does in combat. Hart was a 1/2 mage adept, 1/2 physical adept who used magic to enhance her combat senses and her accuracy with sniper rifles and other long range items (so in Dragonfall terms, she was a self-buffing mage). Qinalo should have some viper-like abilities, such as poisons. For example, in Dragonfall, she had the cyberware lung replacement where she could breathe poison gas. In WoD she is a Setite cartel assassin with Mask of 1000 Faces and Majesty vampiric powers. She is not a sniper specialist, nor is she a very stealthy character (although she could be a little stealthy. But she's an assassin, not a thief). She's a vicious melee fighter who does not wear combat armor. An article describes La China's tactics here -

La China reportedly works with other women, specifically Gabriela Hulzar Lopez, or "La Gaby," to lure and kill their rivals, authorities told local news outlets.

In one documented case, which has been said to be their typical modus operandi, La Gaby pretended to be drunk outside of a bar, falling down, with her skirt nearly above her waist. When the intended target stopped to try to help the woman, La China emerged from the darkness, guns blazing.

So basically Qinalo uses disguise and distraction to get close and then uses guns or knives to quickly overpower and kill the target. She's probably not too different from Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, except her combat abilities are slightly enhanced by supernatural powers of religious or mythological nature (i.e. Santa Muerte or Coatlicue).

Two hard demands I'm hearing are 'katana' and 'no armor', so I'd start here:



You will be using swords instead of knives ofc.

https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Red_Dragon

 

[ItsChon]

Let me preface this by saying I've never done a knife or machete build, nor have I tried versatility, so this will definitely have to be checked by some people that have done more research and experimentation than I.

Jason Liang Right off the bat I'm thinking this character needs to use machete's (main hand), SMG (off hand), and also have the ability to use throwing knives with the various different poisons (throwing). The stat distribution I end up with is

Strength: 7
Dexterity: 10
Agility: 7
Constitution: 3
Perception: 3
Will: 5
Intelligence: 5


Strength 7 to get to decapitate and be able to use whatever machete you please, Agility 7 for Sprint and eventually fancy footwork, dump Constitution and Perception, 5 Will for Ripper, 5 Int for Cheap Shots and Expose Weakness. When it comes to skills, I'm thinking you forget about crafting weapons and armor and just focus on grenades and knives, as your main hand is going to be a Katana, and it's not worth taking crafting just for the SMG. Plus, Rathound Regalia and eventually Shadow Dancer are more than adequate, especially on normal difficulty. IDK how tough it'll be getting through the early game with an uncrafted sword, so you'll have to ask someone here who has actually played such a build. Also, since you talked about self buffing, Temporal Manipulation fits in nicely with everything you're gonna want to do. In the end, I came up with this at level one.

Throwing: 15
Melee: 15
Dodge: 15
Evasion: 15
Stealth: 15
Chemistry: 15
Bio: 15
Temporal Manipulation: 15

You can do a lot of min maxing with Chemistry and Bio. Getting enough chemistry to make MK III Grenades should be fine for a long while, and the Bio is really just for drugs and making different kinds of poison throwing knives, so it can also wait till later and one can stop at specific points. You could also opt to go into electronics just so you can make an okay taser. I left out traps, lockpicking, and hacking, because you said the character is more of an assassin not a thief, so I figure that would suit the theme of the build a bit better. Where things get tricky is the feats, and frankly someone else will have to help you with all that. Off the top, some vital or really good feats would be,

Versatility
Cheap Shots
Expose Weakness
Ripper
Decapitate
Sprint
Fancy Footwork
Recklessness
Nimble
Psycho Temporal Acceleration
Pinning
Fatal Throw
Split Spare
Opportunist

and to make the SMG work, I would think,

Spec Ops
Full Auto
Commando

and I'm sure I left out a ton of other shit. Good luck to whoever tries to fine tune this list of feats.

The way I'd assume this build would play out would be to stealth to where you want to be, and start combat off with a good grenade and SMG burst at a big group of enemies, keeping people crowd controlled with poison throwing knives + nets, and than finishing off the low health remnants with the sword. IDK how well this will actually work, but it's normal, so I figure it shouldn't be toooo bad. This is a rough idea, and I'd recommend getting some fine tuning and feedback from other people on the thread that have actually messed around with SMGs and Swords.

 

[Alphons]

You'll want to invest heavily into Persuasion and Intimidation before going to Gray Army base if you want to use disguise there, especially as a woman.

 

[ItsChon]

You'll want to invest heavily into Persuasion and Intimidation before going to Gray Army base if you want to use disguise there, especially as a woman.

Didn't even think about that. It'll be a tough mission to do with lockpicking or persuasion. Will probably have to leave it till level is in teens or early twenties.

 

[Parabalus]

Spoiler

Ok so I might give Underrail another chance since Modron said that Styg added katanas in the expansion. But I need some feat and attribute/ skill recommendations for my character build, because when I read the feat descriptions nothing really jumps out. I just want an rpg where I can play some version of my pet cyberpunk rpg character, Qinalo, a female cartel assassin. The original Underrail didn't let me do that so hopefully with the expansion I can do that and at least finish the game (or get to the Caverns). Yes I know that Underrail is not cyberpunk, so I realize that part of the problem is that I'm trying to play a cyberpunk character in a post-apocalyptic rpg.

Qinalo is inspired by Katherine Hart from Shadowrun and Shadow from the fighting game Eternal Champions.

Katherine Hart, aka Katherine Roe was a professional shadowrunner of considerable reputation in mid-2050s.

A beautiful elven woman with a taste for expensive fashion, Hart was an accomplished magician. Hart's partner was a feathered serpent dracoform named Tessien.

Yamoto was a corporate assassin working for the Black Orchid Corporation. Her job was to liquidate certain individuals whose activies were at odds with the group's international business 'objectives'. She continued in this line of work, never questioning the morals of her missions, until she discovered that failure to complete a task meant that another assassin would come looking for her, ready to eliminate her. Disillusioned, she resolved to expose the terrible corruption she saw all around her. Unfortunately, before she could do so, she was pushed from the 101st floor of a Tokyo tower block.

This is a brief description:

Cartel Assassin for scifi/ WoD/ AoD - Qinalo (Alesio Qin, female, Latina/ Asian mixed ancestry, religious/ spiritual, drug addiction, Queen of Blood Diamonds, serpent themed). STRIKE HARD. STRIKE FAST. NO MERCY.

She is also based on real life female cartel assassins, especially La China (Melissa Magarita Calderon) and Claudia Ochoa Felix. She is also based on Magdalena Solis, the High Priestess of Blood, who lead a cult that worshipped the Aztec serpent goddess Coatlicue.

So I want skills and feats that you this think character would have.

I also use these illustrations to help define Qinalo:

Gregz said I should describe what Qinalo does in combat. Hart was a 1/2 mage adept, 1/2 physical adept who used magic to enhance her combat senses and her accuracy with sniper rifles and other long range items (so in Dragonfall terms, she was a self-buffing mage). Qinalo should have some viper-like abilities, such as poisons. For example, in Dragonfall, she had the cyberware lung replacement where she could breathe poison gas. In WoD she is a Setite cartel assassin with Mask of 1000 Faces and Majesty vampiric powers. She is not a sniper specialist, nor is she a very stealthy character (although she could be a little stealthy. But she's an assassin, not a thief). She's a vicious melee fighter who does not wear combat armor. An article describes La China's tactics here -

La China reportedly works with other women, specifically Gabriela Hulzar Lopez, or "La Gaby," to lure and kill their rivals, authorities told local news outlets.

In one documented case, which has been said to be their typical modus operandi, La Gaby pretended to be drunk outside of a bar, falling down, with her skirt nearly above her waist. When the intended target stopped to try to help the woman, La China emerged from the darkness, guns blazing.

So basically Qinalo uses disguise and distraction to get close and then uses guns or knives to quickly overpower and kill the target. She's probably not too different from Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, except her combat abilities are slightly enhanced by supernatural powers of religious or mythological nature (i.e. Santa Muerte or Coatlicue).

The Bony Lady has actually gained something of a reputation as a “narco-saint,” a patron for the drug lords who so often deal in death themselves. The men who make up some of the worst elements of Mexico’s criminal underworld are some of the saint’s strongest devotees. For narcos and thugs attempting to reconcile their lifestyles with their religion, Santa Muerte is the perfect object of their devotion.

Santa Muerte is popularly worshipped by those associated with the illegal drug trade, and the cult is popular within many prison systems. Drug houses have also been found with shrines to Santa Muerte. In 2012, eight people were arrested for performing human sacrifice in her honor. Many cartels paint themselves as messiahs for Santa Muerte, giving their foot soldiers religious reasons to follow them.

As Father Andres Gutierrez explained to one Catholic news organization, “If somebody is going to be doing something illegal, and they want to be protected from the law enforcement, they feel awkward asking God to protect them…So they promise something to Santa Muerte in exchange for being protected from the law.”

On Magdalena Solis:

Magdalena Solis never stood much chance at leading a normal life. Born in the 1930s to an impoverished dysfunctional family in Monterrey, Mexico, Solis became an underage prostitute to make ends meet. Her brother Eleazar was her pimp. This was her situation until 1963. Though she didn’t know it yet, her life was about to take a wild and violent turn.

Meanwhile, brothers Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, a pair of petty thugs, had struck up a scam in the nearby small town of Yerba Buena. It was a marginalised community of 50 poor, illiterate inhabitants. The Hernandez brothers had taken advantage of the local hicks’ naiveté and established a cult. The bumpkins worshipped them as High Priests of the powerful and exiled Inca gods, providing them with tribute in exchange for treasure supposedly hidden in the nearby mountain caves. For a while the Hernandez cult prospered. Santos and Cayetano kept the Yerba Buena people as sex slaves and held narcotic-fuelled orgies in the caves. Eventually though, the followers began to tire of the promised treasure failing to materialise and began to voice dissent. The High Priests had to do something.

They went to Monterrey to find prostitutes to join in on the scam and keep the ruse going. It was here that Magdalena and Eleazar met the Hernandez brothers. They joined them and returned with them to the cult. At the next cave ritual Magdalena appeared to the stunned cultists through a smoke screen. She presented as the reincarnation of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue. Eleazar became the third High Priest of the cult. The only problem was that the trick worked too well! Magdalena took her role too seriously and began to believe her own deceptions, developing a severe theological psychosis. She soon took over control of the cult and took it in an even darker direction, involving drinking blood and sadomasochism. She became known as the High Priestess of Blood.

Spoiler

Magdalena ruled the cult with an iron fist. When two cultists tried to leave the group, she summoned everyone else before her and the High Priests. She sentenced the two would-be deserters to death as punishment for their betrayal. The cultists, too afraid to defy Magdalena, obliged her by lynching the condemned pair. After that, any dissenting cultist became a human sacrifice in Magdalena’s honour. Her blood rituals involved the cultists beating, burning, cutting and maiming the sacrificed until they bled to death. Their blood was then collected in a chalice, mixed with chicken blood (animals were also sacrificed) and drank by all present to give them supernatural powers, eternal youth and immortality. All the while they smoked vast amounts of dope and consumed peyote. This continued for some time. Four more dissenters were butchered in this manner. By the end the bloodthirsty cult had perfected the art of dissecting the still-beating hearts of their victims before they bled out. One power-hungry cultist, Jesus Rubio, tried to join the inner sanctum of the High Priests, but was rebuffed.

Something happened in May 1963 that would turn out to be the beginning of the end for the cult. Attracted by the noises and lights coming from the caves, a local boy, 14-year-old Sebastian Guerrero stumbled upon the cult in the midst of a blood ritual. He fled to the closest police station and informed the cops that he had seen a group of murderous vampires preying on ecstasy and gluttonously drinking human blood. His claims were dismissed as that of a wild imagination. The next day officer Luis Martinez humoured Sebastian by returning to the cave with him before he was supposed to drive the boy home. The boy and the cop were never seen alive again.

Now police took the claims seriously. In conjunction with the army they descended on Yerba Buena on May 31. Magdalena and Eleazar were arrested at a farm in possession of a large amount of dope. Santos resisted arrest. The cops shot him for his efforts. Cayetano was assassinated by Jesus as retaliation for his earlier refusal to promote him to High Priest. The rest of the cult barricaded themselves in the caves and engaged in a shootout with the cops. Most of the cultists were shot in the fire fight. Those who were taken alive were eventually sentenced to 30 years for the murders. The Solis siblings were sentenced to 50 years each. Even now the cultists refused to testify against their leaders. The dismembered bodies of the 8 known victims were recovered, some missing their hearts (it is speculated that the actual number of victims is higher).

The build will be much stronger (and simpler to build/play) if it's just knives / katana with basic PSI. What difficulty are you gonna be playing?

 

[Jason Liang]

I'm open to suggestions. Not sure what difficulty I tried last time. I know I tried a PSI build since when I look at the stats system it seems that she should have high Will, but I didn't get too far since I couldn't stand the combat.

Are non-crafting builds ok in this game? I remember when this came out the consensus was that crafting was super good. Can I get someone to make poisoned weapons for me? She doesn't look like someone who studies Chemistry or Biology.

 

[Blackmill]

Let me preface this by saying I've never done a knife or machete build, nor have I tried versatility, so this will definitely have to be checked by some people that have done more research and experimentation than I.

Jason Liang Right off the bat I'm thinking this character needs to use machete's (main hand), SMG (off hand), and also have the ability to use throwing knives with the various different poisons (throwing). The stat distribution I end up with is

Strength: 7
Dexterity: 10
Agility: 7
Constitution: 3
Perception: 3
Will: 5
Intelligence: 5


Strength 7 to get to decapitate and be able to use whatever machete you please, Agility 7 for Sprint and eventually fancy footwork, dump Constitution and Perception, 5 Will for Ripper, 5 Int for Cheap Shots and Expose Weakness. When it comes to skills, I'm thinking you forget about crafting weapons and armor and just focus on grenades and knives, as your main hand is going to be a Katana, and it's not worth taking crafting just for the SMG. Plus, Rathound Regalia and eventually Shadow Dancer are more than adequate, especially on normal difficulty. IDK how tough it'll be getting through the early game with an uncrafted sword, so you'll have to ask someone here who has actually played such a build. Also, since you talked about self buffing, Temporal Manipulation fits in nicely with everything you're gonna want to do. In the end, I came up with this at level one.

Throwing: 15
Melee: 15
Dodge: 15
Evasion: 15
Stealth: 15
Chemistry: 15
Bio: 15
Temporal Manipulation: 15

You can do a lot of min maxing with Chemistry and Bio. Getting enough chemistry to make MK III Grenades should be fine for a long while, and the Bio is really just for drugs and making different kinds of poison throwing knives, so it can also wait till later and one can stop at specific points. You could also opt to go into electronics just so you can make an okay taser. I left out traps, lockpicking, and hacking, because you said the character is more of an assassin not a thief, so I figure that would suit the theme of the build a bit better. Where things get tricky is the feats, and frankly someone else will have to help you with all that. Off the top, some vital or really good feats would be,

Versatility
Cheap Shots
Expose Weakness
Ripper
Decapitate
Sprint
Fancy Footwork
Recklessness
Nimble
Psycho Temporal Acceleration
Pinning
Fatal Throw
Split Spare
Opportunist

and to make the SMG work, I would think,

Spec Ops
Full Auto
Commando

and I'm sure I left out a ton of other shit. Good luck to whoever tries to fine tune this list of feats.

The way I'd assume this build would play out would be to stealth to where you want to be, and start combat off with a good grenade and SMG burst at a big group of enemies, keeping people crowd controlled with poison throwing knives + nets, and than finishing off the low health remnants with the sword. IDK how well this will actually work, but it's normal, so I figure it shouldn't be toooo bad. This is a rough idea, and I'd recommend getting some fine tuning and feedback from other people on the thread that have actually messed around with SMGs and Swords.

I'd recommend having 6 Intelligence, since there's a certain very good sword that requires Intelligence to use effectively.

Flurry, Onslaught, and Critical Power are among the best feats for swords. I think any sword build should have those feats. Brutality is also excellent but would require investing in Intimidation.

Chemistry and Throwing will make up for the lack of a crafted sword in the early game. And

Spoiler

Becket

sells very high quality machetes (parts ~135Q) to help with the mid-game. I think the lack of crafting would be a bigger problem with the SMGs. Also, being able to craft a good psi headband is very nice if you plan to use more than just Psycho Temporal Contraction.

 

[Blackmill]

I'm open to suggestions. Not sure what difficulty I tried last time. I know I tried a PSI build since when I look at the stats system it seems that she should have high Will, but I didn't get too far since I couldn't stand the combat.

Are non-crafting builds ok in this game? I remember when this came out the consensus was that crafting was super good. Can I get someone to make poisoned weapons for me? She doesn't look like someone who studies Chemistry or Biology.

Non-crafting can be done. Swords and sledgehammers are the two weapons that, at least very late in game, have unique versions as good as anything you could craft. The challenge will be the mid-game. Knowing the vendors will really help make things easier. You can find poisoned throwing weapons at certain vendors, but some poisons you do need to craft for yourself.

 

[Tigranes]

Boy now I know what it's like to drop by for some tabletop P&P and someone brings in an entire sketchbook of chainmail bikinis

Crafting is... if you get into it there's almost no need to buy finished items from vendors ever, so yes it's very powerful. But if you don't like it, sure, play without it, your guy will be 15% weaker than some other Codexer's but that doesn't matter. Would be fine on Normal. As Blackmill says poisons might be hard to do consistently.

 

[Jason Liang]

Can I use a pistol for offense and use the sword or knife for melee defense (parrying)? I think that's what Qinalo would do. I see her as a Strength dump, so uses guns to kill things, but uses the sword to defend herself instead of armor. Also I guess she can use the sword to stab prone things?

Decapitate looks cool but is it worth it?

 

[Gregz]

Can I use a pistol for offense and use the sword or knife for melee defense (parrying)? I think that's what Qinalo would do. I see her as a Strength dump, so uses guns to kill things, but uses the sword to defend herself instead of armor. Also I guess she can use the sword to stab prone things?

Decapitate looks cool but is it worth it?

Underrail is really punitive about using different weapon types at the same time. You will be forced to spread across different stats and feats that do not overlap.

I mean, you can do it if you really want to LARP it the way you are describing, but you should reduce the difficulty a lot so things are tuned appropriately.

Or, you could use cheat engine to modify/boost your stats to fit your LARP, but I would avoid that if at all possible. It's a slippery slope.

 

[Parabalus]

Can I use a pistol for offense and use the sword or knife for melee defense (parrying)? I think that's what Qinalo would do. I see her as a Strength dump, so uses guns to kill things, but uses the sword to defend herself instead of armor. Also I guess she can use the sword to stab prone things?

Decapitate looks cool but is it worth it?

Decapitate is iffy because of the 7 STR requirement, since you need that for Full Auto as well it becomes more appealing. The feat itself isn't too strong but it's cool.

You can do what you propose, but you'd have to switch weapons from SMG to sword every round.

Parry/Riposte is at best decent with a certain unique pirate cutlass. Consider whether dodging fits your fantasy, because Uncanny Dodge would be much stronger with less of a skill split.

For the LARP you can drop the full 160 skill points into guns and melee, but I wouldn't take any sword feats except the above two - focus on full auto SMG, utilized in melee range.

Example of a pure sword build would be:
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?Hgc...0abMKewqDCncKhwq3Crk7ip74B4rGgBeKyiQLispIB378

Knife would be very similar but with 3 STR with the points diverted to AGI or w/e.

 

[Sheepherder]

Spoiler

Ok so I might give Underrail another chance since Modron said that Styg added katanas in the expansion. But I need some feat and attribute/ skill recommendations for my character build, because when I read the feat descriptions nothing really jumps out. I just want an rpg where I can play some version of my pet cyberpunk rpg character, Qinalo, a female cartel assassin. The original Underrail didn't let me do that so hopefully with the expansion I can do that and at least finish the game (or get to the Caverns). Yes I know that Underrail is not cyberpunk, so I realize that part of the problem is that I'm trying to play a cyberpunk character in a post-apocalyptic rpg.

Qinalo is inspired by Katherine Hart from Shadowrun and Shadow from the fighting game Eternal Champions.

Katherine Hart, aka Katherine Roe was a professional shadowrunner of considerable reputation in mid-2050s.

A beautiful elven woman with a taste for expensive fashion, Hart was an accomplished magician. Hart's partner was a feathered serpent dracoform named Tessien.

Yamoto was a corporate assassin working for the Black Orchid Corporation. Her job was to liquidate certain individuals whose activies were at odds with the group's international business 'objectives'. She continued in this line of work, never questioning the morals of her missions, until she discovered that failure to complete a task meant that another assassin would come looking for her, ready to eliminate her. Disillusioned, she resolved to expose the terrible corruption she saw all around her. Unfortunately, before she could do so, she was pushed from the 101st floor of a Tokyo tower block.

This is a brief description:

Cartel Assassin for scifi/ WoD/ AoD - Qinalo (Alesio Qin, female, Latina/ Asian mixed ancestry, religious/ spiritual, drug addiction, Queen of Blood Diamonds, serpent themed). STRIKE HARD. STRIKE FAST. NO MERCY.

She is also based on real life female cartel assassins, especially La China (Melissa Magarita Calderon) and Claudia Ochoa Felix. She is also based on Magdalena Solis, the High Priestess of Blood, who lead a cult that worshipped the Aztec serpent goddess Coatlicue.

So I want skills and feats that you this think character would have.

I also use these illustrations to help define Qinalo:

Gregz said I should describe what Qinalo does in combat. Hart was a 1/2 mage adept, 1/2 physical adept who used magic to enhance her combat senses and her accuracy with sniper rifles and other long range items (so in Dragonfall terms, she was a self-buffing mage). Qinalo should have some viper-like abilities, such as poisons. For example, in Dragonfall, she had the cyberware lung replacement where she could breathe poison gas. In WoD she is a Setite cartel assassin with Mask of 1000 Faces and Majesty vampiric powers. She is not a sniper specialist, nor is she a very stealthy character (although she could be a little stealthy. But she's an assassin, not a thief). She's a vicious melee fighter who does not wear combat armor. An article describes La China's tactics here -

La China reportedly works with other women, specifically Gabriela Hulzar Lopez, or "La Gaby," to lure and kill their rivals, authorities told local news outlets.

In one documented case, which has been said to be their typical modus operandi, La Gaby pretended to be drunk outside of a bar, falling down, with her skirt nearly above her waist. When the intended target stopped to try to help the woman, La China emerged from the darkness, guns blazing.

So basically Qinalo uses disguise and distraction to get close and then uses guns or knives to quickly overpower and kill the target. She's probably not too different from Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, except her combat abilities are slightly enhanced by supernatural powers of religious or mythological nature (i.e. Santa Muerte or Coatlicue).

The Bony Lady has actually gained something of a reputation as a “narco-saint,” a patron for the drug lords who so often deal in death themselves. The men who make up some of the worst elements of Mexico’s criminal underworld are some of the saint’s strongest devotees. For narcos and thugs attempting to reconcile their lifestyles with their religion, Santa Muerte is the perfect object of their devotion.

Santa Muerte is popularly worshipped by those associated with the illegal drug trade, and the cult is popular within many prison systems. Drug houses have also been found with shrines to Santa Muerte. In 2012, eight people were arrested for performing human sacrifice in her honor. Many cartels paint themselves as messiahs for Santa Muerte, giving their foot soldiers religious reasons to follow them.

As Father Andres Gutierrez explained to one Catholic news organization, “If somebody is going to be doing something illegal, and they want to be protected from the law enforcement, they feel awkward asking God to protect them…So they promise something to Santa Muerte in exchange for being protected from the law.”

On Magdalena Solis:

Magdalena Solis never stood much chance at leading a normal life. Born in the 1930s to an impoverished dysfunctional family in Monterrey, Mexico, Solis became an underage prostitute to make ends meet. Her brother Eleazar was her pimp. This was her situation until 1963. Though she didn’t know it yet, her life was about to take a wild and violent turn.

Meanwhile, brothers Santos and Cayetano Hernandez, a pair of petty thugs, had struck up a scam in the nearby small town of Yerba Buena. It was a marginalised community of 50 poor, illiterate inhabitants. The Hernandez brothers had taken advantage of the local hicks’ naiveté and established a cult. The bumpkins worshipped them as High Priests of the powerful and exiled Inca gods, providing them with tribute in exchange for treasure supposedly hidden in the nearby mountain caves. For a while the Hernandez cult prospered. Santos and Cayetano kept the Yerba Buena people as sex slaves and held narcotic-fuelled orgies in the caves. Eventually though, the followers began to tire of the promised treasure failing to materialise and began to voice dissent. The High Priests had to do something.

They went to Monterrey to find prostitutes to join in on the scam and keep the ruse going. It was here that Magdalena and Eleazar met the Hernandez brothers. They joined them and returned with them to the cult. At the next cave ritual Magdalena appeared to the stunned cultists through a smoke screen. She presented as the reincarnation of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue. Eleazar became the third High Priest of the cult. The only problem was that the trick worked too well! Magdalena took her role too seriously and began to believe her own deceptions, developing a severe theological psychosis. She soon took over control of the cult and took it in an even darker direction, involving drinking blood and sadomasochism. She became known as the High Priestess of Blood.

Spoiler

Magdalena ruled the cult with an iron fist. When two cultists tried to leave the group, she summoned everyone else before her and the High Priests. She sentenced the two would-be deserters to death as punishment for their betrayal. The cultists, too afraid to defy Magdalena, obliged her by lynching the condemned pair. After that, any dissenting cultist became a human sacrifice in Magdalena’s honour. Her blood rituals involved the cultists beating, burning, cutting and maiming the sacrificed until they bled to death. Their blood was then collected in a chalice, mixed with chicken blood (animals were also sacrificed) and drank by all present to give them supernatural powers, eternal youth and immortality. All the while they smoked vast amounts of dope and consumed peyote. This continued for some time. Four more dissenters were butchered in this manner. By the end the bloodthirsty cult had perfected the art of dissecting the still-beating hearts of their victims before they bled out. One power-hungry cultist, Jesus Rubio, tried to join the inner sanctum of the High Priests, but was rebuffed.

Something happened in May 1963 that would turn out to be the beginning of the end for the cult. Attracted by the noises and lights coming from the caves, a local boy, 14-year-old Sebastian Guerrero stumbled upon the cult in the midst of a blood ritual. He fled to the closest police station and informed the cops that he had seen a group of murderous vampires preying on ecstasy and gluttonously drinking human blood. His claims were dismissed as that of a wild imagination. The next day officer Luis Martinez humoured Sebastian by returning to the cave with him before he was supposed to drive the boy home. The boy and the cop were never seen alive again.

Now police took the claims seriously. In conjunction with the army they descended on Yerba Buena on May 31. Magdalena and Eleazar were arrested at a farm in possession of a large amount of dope. Santos resisted arrest. The cops shot him for his efforts. Cayetano was assassinated by Jesus as retaliation for his earlier refusal to promote him to High Priest. The rest of the cult barricaded themselves in the caves and engaged in a shootout with the cops. Most of the cultists were shot in the fire fight. Those who were taken alive were eventually sentenced to 30 years for the murders. The Solis siblings were sentenced to 50 years each. Even now the cultists refused to testify against their leaders. The dismembered bodies of the 8 known victims were recovered, some missing their hearts (it is speculated that the actual number of victims is higher).

Underrail does not like generalist builds.But something like this will work on easy/normal:
start http://underrail.info.tm/build/?AQcGBwUGAwYPDwAPDw8PAAAAAAAAAA8AAAAADwAAADkm378
end http://underrail.info.tm/build/?Hgc...SY7K8KMEzE3wodLFRJJXsKNwrPip74I4rKIBeKyiQLfvw

Use SMG bursts to proc suppressive fire, which enables opportunist. More damage for swords or further smg bursts.
70 temporal manipulation for cooldown reduction/slow/haste and stasis. 25 psychokinesis for the wall.
Mechanics and enough effective biology to process crawler dicks into crawler poison which you can then use to craft poisonous throwing knives and caltrops. Crawler poison stuns once it runs out. An okay source of CC.
20 chem for gas grenades for Beast fight.
Throwing for flashbangs, knives, molotovs, w/e. Split snares for apllying posion with knives.
With focus stim, chips and death's grin build has an okay-ish 40% crit chance with red dragon. Or buy crit night vision goggles for better smg damage.
No cheap shots or ripper, because I just can't fucking fit in more feats. Swords have mad +crit dmg, so on easy or normal speccing into crit power should be enough. If you don't mind having no HP you can drop con to 3, get will to 5 and grab ripper instead of split snares or something.
Put the remaining skill points wherever. I'd recommend some into electronics for a taser.
Dodge/evasion for passive defenses. Dunno how good is 200 effective on easy/normal. At least 40 dodge is needed for fancy footwork.
Expose weakness with sword also benefits smgs.

Build will have okay SMG damage with suppressive fire+opportunist, spec ops, full auto and commando. Decent sword damage with opportunist, flurry, crit power and onslaught. Decent poison utility with split snares. Self buffs with psi. Good mobility with sprint, psi haste and fancy foorwork.

 

[Jason Liang]

None of the build links are working but I get the gist.

Still chewing through the feats list, will post something later.

You can't hold a smg or pistol and a knife at the same time?

 

[ItsChon]

God damn this man is a quality poster. +1

 

[Jason Liang]

Purusing the Underrail forums, I see a lot of of comments like

As I suspected, SMG is indeed the best "Melee" weapon in the game.

I also read some comments that Ambush is bad but it seems like how Qinalo would fight.

 

[Blackmill]

Purusing the Underrail forums, I see a lot of of comments like

As I suspected, SMG is indeed the best "Melee" weapon in the game.

I also read some comments that Ambush is bad but it seems like how Qinalo would fight.

Those comments couldn't be more wrong.

In a hybrid melee build, the SMG is good if you have high DEX and don't plan to use the Heavyweight feat, but want an additional anti-armor option. This is a good idea, since Expose Weakness has a CD, and Flurry has a conditional CD.

But there's plenty of enemies where you're better off with a true melee weapon. Knives are better against any enemy that can be killed in one crit. With the Heavyweight feat, sledgehammers are better against ultra-tough enemies. Swords are like SMGs (max stacks Flurry being similar to Burst) and are situationally better or worse. And keep in mind that melee weapons are silent, and most SMGs are not.

Also Ambush is excellent. Optimizing critical hit damage and chance is how most builds become super powerful. Ambush by itself can give you a 100% critical hit chance. And it's almost always possible to activate, even in areas where you think it wouldn't be. Ambush is also a fun feat, since it rewards clever positioning.

 

[Jason Liang]

So I'm thinking like this

Lv 1: Supressive Fire, Opportunist
Lv 2: Tranquility
Lv 4: Ambush
Lv 6: Premeditation
Lv 8: Psycho-Temporal Acceleration?
Lv 10: Meditation
Lv 12:
Lv 14: Critical Power
Lv 16: Locus of Control
Lv 18: Commando
Lv 20: Blindsiding
Lv 22:
Lv 24:
Lv 26:

I think with the knife/ sword, either I take Versatility and no other Melee feats, or just pump the Melee skill and get Brutality and/or Parry. Is Brutality any good?

Can I dump Dodge/ Evasion and just use CON + PSI for defense? With um... Stoicism?

 

[ItsChon]

Did you even look at the requirements for some of these feats?

...

Whatever, I guess some people don't have a high enough IQ for such games.

 

[Tigranes]

Use the character builder, Luke

 

[Blackmill]

That build needs at least 5 more starting attribute points to take all those feats and still be good at both guns and melee.

 

[Jason Liang]

The character builder is firewalled

As far as I know, I need

6 PER for Supressive Fire and Ambush
6 INT for Meditation and Premeditation
6 DEX for Parry
7 WILL for Meditation and Stoicism
9 CON for Stoicism and Survival Instinct

so what about

3 STRENGTH
6 DEXTERITY
3 AGILITY
9 CONSTITUTION
6 PERCEPTION
7 WILL
6 INTELLIGENCE

and drop Locus of Control?