Nightsolo's Mass Effect Shepard Guide

Starting A New Shepard

The Manual and In-Game Character Creation Steps do a good job explaining the basics of creating a character, so I won't go over those here. I will, however, go into some more subtle details.

Choosing a character appearance. This has only aesthetic value. Male or Female only changes your character's body, voice, gender-specific words, and Romance Options. Everything else is the same.
Choosing a Background. This will have an effect on your alignment, Paragon vs. Renegade. (see below)
Choosing a Personal Historical Event. This will have an effect on your alignment, Paragon vs. Renegade (see below). Which one you choose will also determine which of three different Optional Assignments you get.
Choosing a Class. This will affect the Abilities available to you. If you choose a non-technical class, you may not be able to Decrypt some lootable objects, e.g. "Electronics Skill Too Low." This does NOT affect which Assignments you can complete, but WILL affect how much XP you can accrue.

Your choices of Background and History will give you several possibilities for starting Paragon or Renegade scores:

Spacer & War Hero +20 Paragon
Spacer & Sole Survivor +15 Paragon & +5 Renegade
Spacer & Ruthless +10 Renegade
Colonist & War Hero +15 Paragon
Colonist & Sole Survivor +10 Paragon & +5 Renegade
Colonist & Ruthless +15 Renegade
Earthborn & War Hero +10 Paragon
Earthborn & Sole Survivor +5 Paragon & +15 Renegade
Earthborn & Ruthless +20 Renegade

Each class has a different set of starting Abilities and Talents:

Type	Starting Talents	Trainable Talents
Soldier	Medium Armor, Pistols, Assault Rifles, Assault Training	Heavy Armor, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, First Aid, Fitness
Engineer	Pistols, First Aid, Decryption, Electronics	Light Armor, Damping, Hacking, Medicine
Adept	Light Armor, Barrier, Throw, Warp	Pistols, Lift, Singularity, Stasis
Infiltrator	Light Armor, Pistols, Decryption, Electronics	Medium Armor, Sniper Rifles, Damping, First Aid, Fitness
Vanguard	Pistols, Assault Training, Warp, Throw	Medium Armor, Shotguns, Barrier, Lift
Sentinel	Barrier, First Aid, Throw, Decryption	Lift, Medicine, Stasis, Electronics

Description of Talents

Class Talents

These are available initially and will change to Specialization Talents after 6 ranks.

Soldier	Increases health, regenerates health per second.
Engineer	Reduces cooldown timer on all tech abilities, increases protection against tech.
Adept	Reduces recharge time on all biotic talents, increases protection against biotics.
Infiltrator	Increases tech mine explosion damage, reduces overheating on sniper rifles and pistols. The only class that can zoom with a sniper rifle.
Vanguard	Increases protection against biotics, increases pistol and shotgun damage.
Sentinel	Reduces cooldown of biotic and tech Abilities, increases pistol damage and accuracy.

Specialization Talents

Upon reaching Level 20, you'll get an Assignment to take out a Rogue VI on Luna. When you complete it, you'll then have a choice between two of these, depending on your starting class.

Bastion	Reduces cooldown on biotic Abilities; Increases Barrier's shield strength, duration, and regeneration; Enemies under Stasis can be damaged.
Commando	Increases all weapon damage; Reduces cooldown on Immunity, Assassinate, and Marksman
Medic	Reduces cooldown for First Aid and Neural Shock; Increases Neural Shock's duration and damage; Increases First Aid's effectiveness, and allows for the revival of squad members with Medi-gel.
Nemesis	Increases force and damage of Throw; Increases duration of Lift, Warp, Singularity, Barrier, and Stasis; Increases duration and damage of biotic abilities; Increases Warp's radius and damage; Increases Lift's radius
Operative	Reduces cooldown timers for all offensive tech Abilities; Increases Overload's radius, explosion damage, shield damage, and damage vulnerability; Increases Sabotage's radius, explosion damage, damage per second, and duration.
Shock Trooper	Increases health; Increases damage protection; Reduces cooldown on Immunity; Reduces cooldown on Adrenaline Burst.

Shepard-only Talents

There's no reason for your squad to have these.

Charm	Increases Charm score, opening up new Paragon dialogue options; Grants a discount when purchasing items from merchants.
Intimidate	Increases Intimidate score, opening up new Renegade dialog options; Grants an increase to the value of your items when selling them to merchants.
Spectre Training	Increases the damage and duration of all your powers and attacks; Increases health; Increases maximum accuracy; Regenerates extra accuracy per second; Unlocks and increases the effectiveness of Unity;

Squad-only Talents

You can figure out which belongs to which character.

Asari Scientist	Reduces recharge time on all Biotics; First Aid heals additional hit points; Reduces recharge time on First Aid.
Krogan Battlemaster	Regenerates health per second; Increases melee damage; Increases resistance to physics forces.
Quarian Machinist	Increases protection to tech; Increases shield capacity.
Turian Agent	Improves accuracy with all weapons; Increases damage with assault and sniper rifles.

Combat Talents

Pistols	Increases accuracy and damage with pistols; Grants Marksman.
Shotguns	Increases accuracy and damage with shotguns; Grants Carnage.
Assault Rifles	Increases accuracy and damage with assault rifles; Grants Overkill.
Sniper Rifles	Increases accuracy and damage with sniper rifles; Grants Assassination. Even if you have this, only Infiltrators can zoom with a sniper rifle.
	Marksman, Carnage, Overkill, and Assassination all do the same thing when activated: increase rate of fire and decrease heat generated. The weapon you have out will determine which one appears on your quickslot bar.
Assault Training	Increases standard weapon damage; Increases the damage caused by rifle-butting and pistol-whipping; Grants Adrenaline Burst.
Fitness	Increases health; Grants Immunity.
Basic Armor	Makes light armor equipable; Increases damage protection; Grants Shield Boost.
Combat Armor	Makes medium and heavy armor equipable; Increases damage protection; Grants Shield Boost.
Tactical Armor	Makes light and medium armor equipable; Increases damage protection; Grants Shield Boost.

Biotic Talents

Barrier	A biotic shield, on top of a suit's shield.
Lift	Raises enemies and objects into the air and incapacitates them.
Singularity	Enemies and objects get pulled towards a blob and orbit it.
Stasis	Immobilizes a single target.
Throw	Pushes objects and enemies away from you.
Warp	Weakens enemies' armor and inflicts damage over time.

Tech Talents

AI Hacking	Temporarily turns robotic enemies to your side.
Damping	Increases explosion radius of your tech proximity mines and shuts down enemy tech and biotic abilities.
Decryption	Increases the amount of Omni-Gel recovered; Allows you to open secure containers; Grants Sabotage.
Electronics	Increases the strength of shields; Increases amount of hull restored when repairing the Mako; enables you to repair or bypass secure containers; Grants Overload.
First Aid	Heals wounded party members, including self.
Hacking	Grants AI Hacking; Lowers the cooldown of Sabotage, Overload, and Damping.
Medicine	Reduces cooldown on healing abilities; Grants Neural Shock.
Neural Shock	Temporarily incapacitates an enemy; Inflicts toxic damage over time.
Overload	Inflicts damage in an area; Inflicts damage to shields; Makes enemies more vulnerable to damage.
Sabotage	Inflicts damage in an area; Overheats enemy weapons; Burns enemies over time.

last modified 21 March 2018