[Whiteblade111]

I'm Dm'ing a shadowrun campaign and one of my characters is playing a melee fighter character. He's stocked full of bioware that gives him higher agility, more armor and makes his unarmed attacks deal physical damage. This is fine, but he has almost no weaknesses. He can take shotgun blasts to the chest with a shrug and automatic fire bounces off him. He has incredibly low essence but I can't find any tangible downsides to having low essence. Yeah, he has a lower social limit, but in terms of actual rules not much is stopping him from just punching first and never asking questions.He just uses shurikans if he needs to kill someone at range.

So, what's the downside to low essence and bioware?

[Medicineman]

So, what's the downside to low essence and bioware?

there is no downside to low Essence
and Bioware doesn't show on Cyberscanners which is an Upside

with an Updance
Medicineman

[Whiteblade111]

How would you suggest balancing him out then? The player is just able to really bypass everything.

[Poindexter]

how is he against spirits?

[Medicineman]

The player is just able to really bypass everything.

no one is immune against everything !
If the Char seems to be able to soak any damage try hitting him with something unusual.
Fire (Molotovcoctails) Electricity , Create a Pit for him to fall in, try toxins or poisons(Neurostun),drop a Piano on him
Spells (lots of strong,physical Chars are weak Willed) , Spirit Powers.

Hough!
Medicineman

[Whiteblade111]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try some out to give him a challenge.

[Dangersaurus]

You can't balance a combat optimizer by just making combat harder. That's like mud-wrestling a pig. You get muddy and the pig just likes it.

You can balance him by throwing him into situations where shooting first isn't appropriate. Train him, don't hit him over the head.

If your typical session is shaped like this (and I'm not saying it is!):
1. Meet with Johnson, group negotiates for pay. Possible fight.
2. Scene that ends in a fight.
3. Scene that ends in a fight.
4. Climactic scene that ends in a fight.

...then who can blame him for shooting first? Try this instead:
1. Meet with Johnson, conflict results in mission failure. Individual negotiation rolls for bonuses, no group bartering.
2. Social scene that ends in a fight.
3. Scene that sets up climax, conflict is possible. Bonus karma and advantage in climax for solving instead of defeating.
4. Climactic scene that ends in a big fight.

[cantrip]

That's like mud-wrestling a pig. You get muddy and the pig just likes it.

LOL - I'm still chuckling... 

[Kincaid]

The downside to bioware is it's price and, to a lesser extent, it's inability to interact with technologies in the same way that a datajack can.

[Fenix]

We had a couple characters like that in our last campaign. GM threw us up against a mage who used control thoughts on our samurai, "You want to put the adept through the wall." If our adept didn't have the regenerative abilities from HMHVV, that fight would have gone south quick. Mental spells and spirits should give him a bit of a challenge. Like Medicineman suggested try some alternative methods of attack. Who knows, every now and then they might run into that one guy packing APDS or Stick-n-Shock rounds

But back to the original question, bioware is generally very expensive and hard to get ahold of. Most starting characters won't be able to get very much (Even if they take A for resources, standard rules only allow 12 availability or less). This means they'll need to be saving up for any more, and have some good contacts to get them access to it. As for low essence, it doesn't really matter so much if you're not using Magic or Resonance. I think some spells might use Essence for something, but I can't think of any examples off of the top of my head.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Low essence - quick snack for HMHVV-empowered individual - once there's a link for the essence transfer, they go down fast.

Low essence also makes it tough for the mage to heal him. However, I'm wondering exactly how he is taking 'shotgun blasts to the chest' and 'shrug off automatic weapons fire'??  Rolling what, 15 dice base (Troll with a Body 11, +4 dice to resist damage from bone enhancements) and oodles of armor might work it, but armor does have a functional upper limit - especially a social one.  And weapons do have AP.

If you want to hurt him, you will have to deliberately set out to do so.  Maybe the group beats another team to 'the prize' a few times, and that other team decides to hold a personal grudge.  A sniper can do serious damage to yon Super-Immune-To-Combat-Damage, because not every day is a shadowrun ...

... so play out some of those days.

[JimmyCrisis]

Oh jeeze, I don't know where to start. 

He's a good street sam, and that's okay.  Don't worry about making combat a challenge for him.  Just give him Runs to do and let him figure out how to be a badass.

If you want to challenge him, don't plan your runs or your scenes.  Just let them figure that stuff out on their own.  They meet the Johnson, they get a target, a pat on the back and a "good luck!" And maybe an inappropriate piece of gear like "all the ammunition you can carry to steal those files from that arcology."

That's worked fantastically for me in the past.  After a big flub up or two, and an HTR team + attack helicoptor breathing on his heels, he should be feeling the pressure.  I think you'll find that the Sammy gets a little more diverse in their approach to problem solving.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

As an aside, I will note that Stolen Souls has stated that heavily-bioware-modified individuals are especially vulnerable to CFD.  Dunno why, but there you go ...

Oh yeah - socially, that low Essence is going to be a problem.  So put him in a situation where if he goes all Kung Fu Panda on everyone, he doesn't stand an ice cube's chance in the Mojave, they'll just lock down the wing and let him rot if they have to.  Then start pushing the social buttons.

All the real solutions to this (besides ramping up the physical threats) are going to involve RP, really - highlighting the areas he hasn't focused so much on.  So there you go. 

[Fenix]

All the real solutions to this (besides ramping up the physical threats) are going to involve RP, really - highlighting the areas he hasn't focused so much on.  So there you go. 

Definitely a good point. My group alternates weekends between SR and a World of Darkness game. In the WoD game, we're all new at whatever we're doing. We started play as mortals, and then depending on RP elements we changed into our flavor of boogie-man (I became a werewolf, some became vampires, others stayed hunters, etc). As a newly-turned wolf I decided I wanted to be the alpha wolf of Atlanta (since I had killed the previous one, his bite into my shoulder triggered the change), and spent XP into being a badass warrior that crushed whatever the GM threw at me. My only weakness? Most everything else. In our game now I'm relatively socially inept (even though I'm about to attempt to rally all the wolves in Atlanta under one pack), and fairly susceptible to the "influences" of our enemies (demons representing the seven sins, threatening apocalypse and whatnot) which for the sake of SR works similarly to Control Thoughts.

Point is, if you spend a lot into one aspect of a character, you're leaving yourself vulnerable in all others. Is that a bad thing? Not always. My SR group is 7 players, so each of them is pretty specialized but they have enough bases covered to watch each others' rears. The mage can't take a hit, nor can the technomancer. Our samurai can be lewd and crude, and our weapon specialist is the quiet type; neither is particularly good with negotiations. We did have a troll adept though, who focused his whole character concept on being the tank of the team. Full auto fire might not have ever done any physical damage, but he was plenty battered and bruised (stunned, if you will?) after his intimidation tactics only succeeded in making some poor ganger piss his pants and hold the trigger of his AK-97.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm rambling at this point. You get the idea :p

[Adeptus Technicanus]

That's like mud-wrestling a pig. You get muddy and the pig just likes it.

LOL - I'm still chuckling... 

I am Definitely going to make a point to use this within the week at work.