[ZenBear]

Hello forum! Brand new to Shadowrun, long time D&D player. I always play tank characters because I find it the most fun, I'm curious how to make it work in this system.

For starters, I dislike the title of "Samurai" because Knights are better (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuvUN5oT8OAdmGndtzfgPa6NPtJroBD1G) and I want my character to lean into that. His name will be Barda von Heinrick, but may go by some moniker like Tank, Knight or Sir. I want him to be as unkillable as possible, partly because I have a killer DM and also because I like being tough. I want him to walk into fights head first and come out alive. I would like him to be equipped with a German long sword (modded/upgraded however it needs to be in this setting) on his left hip and a pistol (think Boba Fett) on his right. Are shields a thing in Shadowrun? If so I want one. If I have to adjust my expectations that's fine, but this is the idea I'm going for. Would switching from Street Knight to Combat Adept fit the role better? How can do?

[Reaver]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

[ZenBear]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

Why are swords an option in the game?

Because it's fucking cool. This is a game.

[Kuirem]

Building a tank is perfectly doable, Cybers are better than Adepts at that since they have more options to raise their Armor.

A Melee fighteris also possible and actually pair well with tank because armor can be raised with a high enough strength.

Shields are in the game.

Finally a knight/front fighter could be represented by the Code of Honor quality, Warrior code in particular mention not attacking enemies unaware of your presence.

Now there is some things to be aware of:

• You are a Criminal. As such you can't just walk down the street with a full body armor and a shield at all time without raising suspicion. You will have occasion where you can go full gear but most of the time expect to be caught without your shield/armor.
• Melee characters can have a tough time. Firearms are everywhere and clever enemies will attack you from hard to reach places: Behind barricades, on top of buildings, from a car… so have a ranged option and know how to use it
• You are not a murder hobo (well except if you build a murder hobo of course). You are a Shadowrunner, a professional so you can't just leave a trail of bodies behind you. Make sure to have a way to take down your opponents without killing them and try to use the sword sparingly, especially since you can easily kill someone in one hit with it. Stick-n-Shock, Gel Rounds or Tasers should do the trick.

Now back to the build. Let's see the Piority:

• Metatype: For Tank/Melee Dwarfs, Orks and Trolls are the best choices. Each have their pros and cons so I recommend just picking the one you like better. It puts you at B or C priority.
• Attributes: You will need a lot here unless you go Cyberlimbs. A/B, C/D is doable if you go cyberlimbs but in general high Attributes is better.
• Magic: E, who needs awakened when they can punch holes through walls?
• Skills: D, something needs to go there, you will be mostly limited to combat but don't worry, that's why you have a team behind you.
• Resources: A/B, all this ware is expensive isn't it?

Attributes

Raise AGI to the maximum, it's useless to deal 20P if you can't hit them and it also determine your movement speed which is essential if you want to be in melee range before the fight is over.

High STR is obvious (keep in mind: only one attribute to Racial Max at chargen) to deal damage and wear more armor.

High BOD as well to soak damage.

A good REA and INT to have a decent initiative.

Try to have at least 3 WIL so you are not TOO vulnerable to magic.

LOG and CHA can be dumped to 1/2 (some GM don't like Rating 1 Attributes).

For example, C - Dwarf, B - Attributes : 7 BOD; 6 AGI; 3 REA; 7 STR; 2 CHA; 3 INT; 2 LOG; 3 WIL; 2 EDG

Skills

High melee and ranged of course. Blades for melee and for ranged it's up to you. Automatics or Throwing work well with high STR characters but Pistols is doable as well. Besides that you also need a decent Sneaking, Perception and Etiquette. Sneaking because for Shadowrunner fighting should always be the last resort. Perception so others don't sneak on you. Etiquette to avoid social faux pas, your Face won't always be there to answer questions for you. Since Skills priority is low you will have to spend some Karma there.

Example: Let's say our Dwarf took D - Skills which give us 22 Skill points. Since we are focused in Combat let's raise Blades and Pistols to 6. Then because we don't want no sneaky rogue behind us Perception to 5. For social let's put Etiquette to 3. Because you want to be really good with Swords the last skill points will bought the specialization for Blades. Finally let's raise Sneaking to 2 and put one point into Athletics (to be able to run on the enemies) with Karma. The final skills are: 1 Athletics; 6 Blades (Swords); 3 Etiquette; 6 Perception; 6 Pistols; 2 Sneaking.

Cyberware and Bioware

There is a lot of stuff to pick there to build your tank/melee.

First is to raise your AGI/STR to fight well. As I mentioned earlier this can be done with Cyberlimbs (which can take Armor as well) but it will eat a lot of your essence. Else check Muscle Toner + Muscle Augmentation that are cheap in essence or Muscle Replacement that is cheap in Nuyen.

Second is to raise your initiative. This is really important for a fighter to have multiple initiative pass and to act first. Wired Reflexes is expensive in Essence but the rating 1 is cheap in Nuyen and it can be upgraded. Synaptic Booster is more expensive in Nuyen but cheap in Essence. Synaptic Acceleration can't be upgraded but is cheaper than Synaptic Booster and is compatible with Reaction Enhancers. Finally Boosted Reflexes is extremely cheap in Nuyen and not too costly in Essence and compatible with Reaction Enhancers but it only provides one dice and can't be upgraded.

Finally raising your Armor. As I mentioned it can be done with Cyberlimbs. Else Bone Lacing is always a good option being fairly cheap and providing 2 soak dice per 'rating' as well as extra unarmed damage (in case you end up without your sword). Orthoskin is an other interesting option for some armor.

Don't forget to pick up a Datajack (used to connect to Matrix stuff like your gun or your commlink) and a Smartlink for an extra 2 dice to shoot.

Qualities

Some interesting positive qualities for a melee/tank:

• Adrenaline Surge: Acting first is always nice.
• Agile Defender: Your AGI is likely to be high so might as well turn that into extra defense dice.
• Biocompatibility: Can help you to fit some extra Ware if you are short in Essence
• Catlike: 2 cheap extra dice into Sneaking, always worth to consider with your high AGI
• Cyber-Singularity Seeker: If you go 4 Cyberlimbs it provides a nice boost to fight against mage and resist drug addictions
• Drug Tolerant: Coupled with Narco and Kamikaze you can get a huge attribute boost without too much risk of ending addicted
• Magic Resistance: Always good to consider since you are the most exposed
• Natural Athlete: Cheap extra dice to run at your opponent of climb building for a different angle of attack
• Prototype Transhuman: If you think Biocompatibility is not enough this quality is essentially +1 essence
• Tough as Nails Stun: Take more damage before you go unconscious, with your high Armor you are more likely to take Stun than Physical!
• Toughness: One extra soak dice, yay.

Here you go, hope all that help.

[RowanTheFox]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

They do, they're just ceremonial...At least until you retire and put an edge on it. 

[Reaver]

Building a tank is perfectly doable, Cybers are better than Adepts at that since they have more options to raise their Armor.

A Melee fighteris also possible and actually pair well with tank because armor can be raised with a high enough strength.

Shields are in the game.

Finally a knight/front fighter could be represented by the Code of Honor quality, Warrior code in particular mention not attacking enemies unaware of your presence.

Now there is some things to be aware of:

• You are a Criminal. As such you can't just walk down the street with a full body armor and a shield at all time without raising suspicion. You will have occasion where you can go full gear but most of the time expect to be caught without your shield/armor.
• Melee characters can have a tough time. Firearms are everywhere and clever enemies will attack you from hard to reach places: Behind barricades, on top of buildings, from a car… so have a ranged option and know how to use it
• You are not a murder hobo (well except if you build a murder hobo of course). You are a Shadowrunner, a professional so you can't just leave a trail of bodies behind you. Make sure to have a way to take down your opponents without killing them and try to use the sword sparingly, especially since you can easily kill someone in one hit with it. Stick-n-Shock, Gel Rounds or Tasers should do the trick.

Now back to the build. Let's see the Piority:

• Metatype: For Tank/Melee Dwarfs, Orks and Trolls are the best choice. Each have their pros and cons so I recommend just picking the one you like better. It puts you at B or C priority.
• Attributes: You will need a lot here unless you go Cyberlimbs. A/B, C/D is doable if you go cyberlimbs but in general high Attributes is better.
• Magic: E, who needs awakened when they can punch holes through walls?
• Skills: D, something needs to go there, you will be mostly limited to combat but don't worry, that's why you have a team behind you.
• Resources: A/B, all this ware is expensive isn't it?

Attributes

Raise AGI to the maximum, it's useless to deal 20P if you can't hit them and it also determine your movement speed which is essential if you want to be in melee range before the fight is over.

High STR is obvious (keep in mind: only one attribute to Racial Max at chargen) to deal damage and wear more armor.

High BOD as well to soak damage.

A good REA and INT to have a decent initiative.

Try to have at least 3 WIL so you are not TOO vulnerable to magic.

LOG and CHA can be dumped to 1/2 (some GM don't like Rating 1 Attributes).

For example, C - Dwarf, B - Attributes : 7 BOD; 6 AGI; 3 REA; 7 STR; 2 CHA; 3 INT; 2 LOG; 3 WIL; 2 EDG

Skills

High melee and ranged of course. Blades for melee and for ranged it's up to you. Automatics or Throwing work well with high STR characters but Pistols is doable as well. Besides that you also need a decent Sneaking, Perception and Etiquette. Sneaking because for Shadowrunner fighting should always be the last resort. Perception so others don't sneak on you. Etiquette to avoid social faux pas, your Face won't always be there to answer questions for you. Since Skills priority is low you will have to spend some Karma there.

Example: Let's say our Dwarf took D - Skills which give us 22 Skill points. Since we are focused in Combat let's raise Blades and Pistols to 6. Then because we don't want no sneaky rogue behind us Perception to 5 as well. For social let's put Etiquette to 3. Because you want to be really good with Swords the last skill points will bought the specialization for Blades. Finally let's raise Sneaking to 2 and put one point into Athletics (to be able to run on the enemies) with Karma. The final skills are: 1 Athletics; 6 Blades (Swords); 3 Etiquette; 6 Perception; 6 Pistols; 2 Sneaking.

Cyberware and Bioware

There is a lot of stuff to pick there to build your tank/melee.

First is to raise your AGI/STR to fight well. As I mentioned earlier this can be done with Cyberlimbs (which can take Armor as well) but it will eat a lot of your essence. Else check Muscle Toner + Muscle Augmentation that are cheap in essence or Muscle Replacement that is cheap in Nuyen.

Second is to raise your initiative. This is really important for a fighter to have multiple initiative pass and to act first. Wired Reflexes is expensive in Essence but the rating 1 is cheap in Nuyen and it can be upgraded. Synaptic Booster is more expensive in Nuyen but cheap in Essence. Synaptic Acceleration can't be upgraded but is cheaper than Synaptic Booster and is compatible with Reaction Enhancers. Finally Boosted Reflexes is extremely cheap in Nuyen and not too costly in Essence and compatible with Reaction Enhancers but it only provides one dice and can't be upgraded.

Finally raising your Armor. As I mentioned it can be done with Cyberlimbs. Else Bone Lacing is always a good option being fairly cheap and providing 2 soak dice per 'rating' as well as extra unarmed damage (in case you end up without your sword). Orthoskin is an other interesting option for some armor.

Don't forget to pick up a Datajack (used to connect to Matrix stuff like your gun or your commlink) and a Smartlink for an extra 2 dice to shoot.

Qualities

Some interesting positive qualities for a melee/tank:

• Agile Defender: Your AGI is likely to be high so might as well turn that into extra defense dice.
• Biocompatibility: Can help you to fit some extra Ware if you are short in Essence
• Catlike: 2 cheap extra dice into Sneaking, always worth to consider with your high AGI
• Cyber-Singularity Seeker: If you go 4 Cyberlimbs it provides a nice boost to fight against mage and resist drug addictions
• Drug Tolerant: Coupled with Narco and Kamikaze you can get a huge attribute boost without too much risk of ending addicted
• Magic Resistance: Always good to consider since you are the most exposed
• Natural Athlete: Cheap extra dice to run at your opponent of climb building for a different angle of attack
• Prototype Transhuman: If you think Biocompatibility is not enough this quality is essentially +1 essence
• Tough as Nails Stun: Take more damage before you go unconscious, with your high Armor you are more likely to take Stun than Physical!
• Toughness: One extra soak dice, yay.

Here you go, hope all that help.

This covers the basics pretty good.

[Medicineman]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

maybe because Knifes are enough to kill in close quarters and not as ...cumbersome (leo says Bulky) as Swords
and for anything beyond Close Quarter you use Handguns and Automatics....
BUT :
 SR is also a game of Style and if ZenBear/his Char wants to run around with a Sword, Shield and Armor, let him. He just has to be prepared to suffer the consequences ingame

with a Medievil Dance
Medicienman

[ZenBear]

Building a tank is perfectly doable, Cybers are better than Adepts at that since they have more options to raise their Armor.

A Melee fighteris also possible and actually pair well with tank because armor can be raised with a high enough strength.

Shields are in the game.

Finally a knight/front fighter could be represented by the Code of Honor quality, Warrior code in particular mention not attacking enemies unaware of your presence.

Now there is some things to be aware of:

• You are a Criminal. As such you can't just walk down the street with a full body armor and a shield at all time without raising suspicion. You will have occasion where you can go full gear but most of the time expect to be caught without your shield/armor.
• Melee characters can have a tough time. Firearms are everywhere and clever enemies will attack you from hard to reach places: Behind barricades, on top of buildings, from a car… so have a ranged option and know how to use it
• You are not a murder hobo (well except if you build a murder hobo of course). You are a Shadowrunner, a professional so you can't just leave a trail of bodies behind you. Make sure to have a way to take down your opponents without killing them and try to use the sword sparingly, especially since you can easily kill someone in one hit with it. Stick-n-Shock, Gel Rounds or Tasers should do the trick.

Now back to the build. Let's see the Piority:

• Metatype: For Tank/Melee Dwarfs, Orks and Trolls are the best choices. Each have their pros and cons so I recommend just picking the one you like better. It puts you at B or C priority.
• Attributes: You will need a lot here unless you go Cyberlimbs. A/B, C/D is doable if you go cyberlimbs but in general high Attributes is better.
• Magic: E, who needs awakened when they can punch holes through walls?
• Skills: D, something needs to go there, you will be mostly limited to combat but don't worry, that's why you have a team behind you.
• Resources: A/B, all this ware is expensive isn't it?

Attributes

Raise AGI to the maximum, it's useless to deal 20P if you can't hit them and it also determine your movement speed which is essential if you want to be in melee range before the fight is over.

High STR is obvious (keep in mind: only one attribute to Racial Max at chargen) to deal damage and wear more armor.

High BOD as well to soak damage.

A good REA and INT to have a decent initiative.

Try to have at least 3 WIL so you are not TOO vulnerable to magic.

LOG and CHA can be dumped to 1/2 (some GM don't like Rating 1 Attributes).

For example, C - Dwarf, B - Attributes : 7 BOD; 6 AGI; 3 REA; 7 STR; 2 CHA; 3 INT; 2 LOG; 3 WIL; 2 EDG

Skills

High melee and ranged of course. Blades for melee and for ranged it's up to you. Automatics or Throwing work well with high STR characters but Pistols is doable as well. Besides that you also need a decent Sneaking, Perception and Etiquette. Sneaking because for Shadowrunner fighting should always be the last resort. Perception so others don't sneak on you. Etiquette to avoid social faux pas, your Face won't always be there to answer questions for you. Since Skills priority is low you will have to spend some Karma there.

Example: Let's say our Dwarf took D - Skills which give us 22 Skill points. Since we are focused in Combat let's raise Blades and Pistols to 6. Then because we don't want no sneaky rogue behind us Perception to 5. For social let's put Etiquette to 3. Because you want to be really good with Swords the last skill points will bought the specialization for Blades. Finally let's raise Sneaking to 2 and put one point into Athletics (to be able to run on the enemies) with Karma. The final skills are: 1 Athletics; 6 Blades (Swords); 3 Etiquette; 6 Perception; 6 Pistols; 2 Sneaking.

Cyberware and Bioware

There is a lot of stuff to pick there to build your tank/melee.

First is to raise your AGI/STR to fight well. As I mentioned earlier this can be done with Cyberlimbs (which can take Armor as well) but it will eat a lot of your essence. Else check Muscle Toner + Muscle Augmentation that are cheap in essence or Muscle Replacement that is cheap in Nuyen.

Second is to raise your initiative. This is really important for a fighter to have multiple initiative pass and to act first. Wired Reflexes is expensive in Essence but the rating 1 is cheap in Nuyen and it can be upgraded. Synaptic Booster is more expensive in Nuyen but cheap in Essence. Synaptic Acceleration can't be upgraded but is cheaper than Synaptic Booster and is compatible with Reaction Enhancers. Finally Boosted Reflexes is extremely cheap in Nuyen and not too costly in Essence and compatible with Reaction Enhancers but it only provides one dice and can't be upgraded.

Finally raising your Armor. As I mentioned it can be done with Cyberlimbs. Else Bone Lacing is always a good option being fairly cheap and providing 2 soak dice per 'rating' as well as extra unarmed damage (in case you end up without your sword). Orthoskin is an other interesting option for some armor.

Don't forget to pick up a Datajack (used to connect to Matrix stuff like your gun or your commlink) and a Smartlink for an extra 2 dice to shoot.

Qualities

Some interesting positive qualities for a melee/tank:

• Adrenaline Surge: Acting first is always nice.
• Agile Defender: Your AGI is likely to be high so might as well turn that into extra defense dice.
• Biocompatibility: Can help you to fit some extra Ware if you are short in Essence
• Catlike: 2 cheap extra dice into Sneaking, always worth to consider with your high AGI
• Cyber-Singularity Seeker: If you go 4 Cyberlimbs it provides a nice boost to fight against mage and resist drug addictions
• Drug Tolerant: Coupled with Narco and Kamikaze you can get a huge attribute boost without too much risk of ending addicted
• Magic Resistance: Always good to consider since you are the most exposed
• Natural Athlete: Cheap extra dice to run at your opponent of climb building for a different angle of attack
• Prototype Transhuman: If you think Biocompatibility is not enough this quality is essentially +1 essence
• Tough as Nails Stun: Take more damage before you go unconscious, with your high Armor you are more likely to take Stun than Physical!
• Toughness: One extra soak dice, yay.

Here you go, hope all that help.

Thanks very much for the informative post! I'll keep this bookmarked for character generation.

[Reaver]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

maybe because Knifes are enough to kill in close quarters and not as ...cumbersome (leo says Bulky) as Swords
and for anything beyond Close Quarter you use Handguns and Automatics....
BUT :
 SR is also a game of Style and if ZenBear/his Char wants to run around with a Sword, Shield and Armor, let him. He just has to be prepared to suffer the consequences ingame

with a Medievil Dance
Medicienman

That was the point I was going to get to, but Kuirem summed it up pretty well.

[LordGrizzle]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

In my country they still have Bayonet classes... Though I don't think they ever used them in a real combat scenario (at least most of them)

[Reaver]

Um, ok....

I have one question for you:

Why don't modern militaries equip their soldiers with swords anymore?


This may seem silly..... but there is a point to the question.

In my country they still have Bayonet classes... Though I don't think they ever used them in a real combat scenario (at least most of them)

I doubt it. hand to hand combat in modern armies almost never happens. And when it does, soldiers usually fall back on SOC-P training, which is designed to open up space between the soldier and a melee attacker so the soldier can bring the rifle or side arm to bear. This is mostly also because the combat vests worn by many soldiers will easily stop a knife attack... (along with shrapnel, and small arms - sometimes)

[ZeldaBravo]

IIRC some British guys have performed a successful bayonet charge in 2004, Iraq.
Also, they don't equip soldiers with swords because of additional weight and because swords are excessive. Soldiers already have entnching tools that double as axes, and knives (a bayonet+a rifle=a short spear basically).

[Duellist_D]

Biocompatibility (to fit all into yourself), 4 Cyberlimbs, Bonelacing and on top of that Bioware implanted Armor is the easiest way to max your Armor. Combine it with Redliner for increased Pools.

Don't forget Edge though.
Even with 30+ Soak you can lose half or more of your (many) condition monitors via a single hit of a standard weapon.

Regards, someone who manages to roll exceptionally shitty with huge dicepools.

[Kuirem]

I much prefer Cyber-Singularity Seeker over Redliner with 4 Cyberlimbs, those 6 lost Condition Box can really harm you. On the other hand CSS gives an extra Stun box (which is most of the damage you will take with your high armor) AND help to soak magic and toxins, two common ways to get around high armor.

[drakir]

Here is my version of Dwarf Samurai. With a shield he gets 35 soak dice AND 11 (20) dodge dice. It's possible to get even more armor/soak with a FBR version (all cyberlimbs) but then you often lose the speed and usually has no essence left. A Full Body Replacement (FBR) character gets on top of more armor  also more boxes on the damage track so a real tank character maybe should go that way. Not my style though.

Priorities: Money A, Attributes B, Meta C, Skills D, Special E
Attributes: Bod 5, Agi 6(9), Rea 4(6), Str 6(9), Cha 2, Int 5, Log 2, Wil 5, Edge 2, Initiative 3d6+11, Essence 1.64  (Charisma and Logic raised with karma)
Augmentations: Used Titanium Bone Lacing, Used Muscle Toner 3, Used Muscle Augmentation 3, Smartlink, Synaptic Booster 2
Pos Qualities: Agile Defender, Biocompatibility (Bioware), + some of choice
Skills:
15 Automatics 6
15 Blades 6
11 Perception 6
10(12) Sneaking 1 + spec urban
7(9) Pilot Ground 1 + spec wheeled
7 Pilot Aircraft 1 (karma)
3 Etiquette 1 (karma)
10 Gymnastics 1 (Athletics group with karma)
10 Running 1 (Athletics group with karma)
10 Swimming 1 (Athletics group with karma)
Gear: Sleeping Tiger, Vashon Island Longcoat, Ballistic Mask, Helmet, Ares Flashield . Ares Alpha, Ares Crusader, SIN rating 4 with licenses, an Americar with some mods.

There is both karma and money left over to play around with. The Ork variant is very similar but can get to body 7 by lowering something else.