[DJ_Crazee]

We have a new game starting and our runners are mainly going to be hired on for combat runs. Get in, steal blah blah blah, mow down who you think needs to be mowed down, get out. We've got longarms sniper guy who's also infiltration/Decker, we've got an Elf ninja with a mono whip, a street Sam who's a mix of melee and shooting and has an agile assassin kinda vibe and we have a gun bunny shoot-it-till-it-stops-moving type.

I myself am looking at making a super high-strength brute who is heavily invested in cybernetics. Bone lacing. Overstocked and reclined cyber arms. Dermal plating. The whole deal. Essentially I would like him to be a big hulking gorilla who can punch through armored cars. I'd also like him to be fairly decent at intimidating others outside of combat.

I'm hoping to get some help on how best to go about making him. Any suggestions on getting him made up?

[Kuirem]

If we are going for pure troll hammer : A - Resources, B - Metatype, C - Attributes, D - Skills, E - Magic

BOD	AGI	REA	STR	CHA	INT	LOG	WIL	EDG
7	5 (7)	3 (5)	9 (11)	2	3	2	3	1

LOG and CHA are raised with Karma

Skills :

• Automatics 6
• Intimidation 3
• Perception 5
• Sneaking 2
• Unarmed Combat 6

Cyberware & Bioware :
Bone Lacing (Titanium) (Used)
Muscle Replacement (Rating 2)
Smartlink
Orthoskin (Rating 2)
Synaptic Booster (Rating 2)

I think that's the basics. That left you around 180k Nuyen and 0.42 Essence so you could probably upgrade some of these Wares into Alphaware to squeeze more stuff in your body. Get a big armor and as close as you can to +12 with stuff like Helmet/Shields/Legs Kits... You might even have some leftover nuyen to get a good Truck to drive your team around and crash into fences.

An alternative is to go Attributes A and Resources C and get a bit less wares (Used to save Nuyen) in your body to start but much higher Attributes. If your campaign last long enough you might be able to upgrade all that wares later on.

If you (and your GM) don't mind completely min/maxing you can put Charisma and Logic to 1, Intuition to 2 with Karma and set BOD to 9 to have as much Soak dice as possible.

[DJ_Crazee]

How does muscle replacement interact with cybernetic arms? Ideally I would like for him to have big bulky cyber arms that are all jacked up for strength.

[Hobbes]

How does muscle replacement interact with cybernetic arms? Ideally I would like for him to have big bulky cyber arms that are all jacked up for strength.

It doesn't.  Cyberlimbs have separate Str and Agility that starts at 3.  From an efficiency stand point a Troll with Cyberlimbs makes me cringe.  You pay a huge cost for Troll, and you're chopping off the best bits and tossing them in the trash for the ghouls to snack on.  Doesn't seem right.

[Danny Montanny]

You wanna punch through an armored car? Go Adept with a Smashing Blow Qi Focus and Shark Mentor Spirit. You'll be throwing 20ish dice with Agility Boost and a base DV in the 30 range (depending on how you build it) against barriers.

[Bushw4cker]

Here's what I would recommend..

CYBERWARE (4.1 Essence, 272,000¥)
Reaction Enhancers-2
Obvious Cybertorso (Standard Grade)
Internal Air Tank-2
 Armor-2
2 Obvious Cyberarms (Standard Grade)
Customized Strength-7                     
 Customized Agility-1            
 Strength Enhancement-3   
 Agility Enhancement-3               
 Armor Enhancement-2            


This would give a Troll: Agility: (7), Strength (13), Reaction (+2)

A Strength of 13 would give you 5 points of recoil compensation.  Strength 13 with Spurs, you do as much damage as an Assault Cannon.

 You could also get Cyberarm Gyromount which would give you total of 8 points of Recoil Compensation.

[spoiler]Cyberarm gyromount: This accessory must be installed
in a full or partial cyberarm. When activated, counterweights
pop out of your wrist and a small gyro spins
up to provide you with better balance and reduced recoil
for improving firing capability. Meanwhile, small children
stare at you. The effects are identical to a gyro stabilization
system (p. 432), only with Rating 3 (this effect is not
cumulative with a worn gyro stabilization system). Activating
or deactivating the system is a Simple Action.
Wireless: Activating or deactivating the system is a
Free Action.[/spoiler]
The Three Cyberlimbs (Torso Counts as a Cyberlimb..) would give you a +6 to your Armor, that stacks with all Armor. I'm pretty sure you also get Dermal Armor Bonus, not sure when you would lose that... how many Cyberlimbs you would need to get..
Three Cyberlimbs also gives you 3 additional Physical Condition Monitor Boxes.             

[Whiskeyjack]

How does muscle replacement interact with cybernetic arms? Ideally I would like for him to have big bulky cyber arms that are all jacked up for strength.

Yeah honestly, a troll is going to hit much harder with muscle replacement or toner/augmentation + bone lacing + striking callous than he will with cyberarms. Easily.

[DJ_Crazee]

After doing a lot of thinking on it, I like the idea of the muscle toner route. Sort of thinking of taking him down a route similar to Bane and have him dope up on K-10 to drug fuel even more strength in there and essentially have him hit like a truck.

I'd also like for him to have some social ability, I'm strongly considering intimidation as him being a massive brute, it seems to fit him well.

[Kuirem]

Yeah Intimidation is probably the right choice, you don't even need that much into the skill because you will get bonus dice what with you being a massive monster. See the Social Modifiers table page 140 of the core rulebook but you will likely have a +3 for "Character is physically imposing" and a +2 for "Character wielding weapon or obvious magic" when you want to.

[Bushw4cker]

How does muscle replacement interact with cybernetic arms? Ideally I would like for him to have big bulky cyber arms that are all jacked up for strength.

Yeah honestly, a troll is going to hit much harder with muscle replacement or toner/augmentation + bone lacing + striking callous than he will with cyberarms. Easily.

How does max Strength/Agility Work with Cyberarms btw? Is it like 4th Edition? or did they change anything? I haven't had much experience with Cyberlimbs in 5th Ed.

Assuming you have a Cybertorso, for example, can you have a Troll with Strength 5(13).. 13 being the Modified Cyberlimb Rating?


If you're going Muscle Replacement/Augmentation Route.. Take Restricted Gear Quality and Get Muscle Replacement-4 (Alpha Grade),

I would take Strength 9, 13 gives you one extra point of Recoil Compensation vs. 12.

[Overbyte]

For some crazy reason I was thinking about this char on the way home, particularly about the "Used" Titanium Bone Lacing.
Not sure how this piece of ware could be "used". But maybe that's just me. 

[Novocrane]

Replace "used" (second hand, pre-loved, etc) with "omega grade". (faulty, poorly fitted, lower quality, etc)

[Kuirem]

How does max Strength/Agility Work with Cyberarms btw? Is it like 4th Edition? or did they change anything? I haven't had much experience with Cyberlimbs in 5th Ed.

Assuming you have a Cybertorso, for example, can you have a Troll with Strength 5(13).. 13 being the Modified Cyberlimb Rating?


If you're going Muscle Replacement/Augmentation Route.. Take Restricted Gear Quality and Get Muscle Replacement-4 (Alpha Grade),

I would take Strength 9, 13 gives you one extra point of Recoil Compensation vs. 12.

You don't even need Cybertorso in 5e, you can have a Troll with 5 STR on his body and 13 on his Cyberarm without problems. While it's a bit silly it's a good thing balance wise because Cybertorse really cost too much for their low Capacity.

I think going for Restricted Gear is a bit... overkill just for a point of extra Recoil and 1 extra damage. You already destroy everyone in melee. If you really want 13 STR you can move 1 point from AGI to STR. It will only cost 25 Karma to raise AGI back to 5 later. Or you can use Ripper (or a personnalized Drug if your GM allow it) to get that extra point of STR.

[Bushw4cker]

How does max Strength/Agility Work with Cyberarms btw? Is it like 4th Edition? or did they change anything? I haven't had much experience with Cyberlimbs in 5th Ed.

Assuming you have a Cybertorso, for example, can you have a Troll with Strength 5(13).. 13 being the Modified Cyberlimb Rating?


If you're going Muscle Replacement/Augmentation Route.. Take Restricted Gear Quality and Get Muscle Replacement-4 (Alpha Grade),

I would take Strength 9, 13 gives you one extra point of Recoil Compensation vs. 12.

You don't even need Cybertorso in 5e, you can have a Troll with 5 STR on his body and 13 on his Cyberarm without problems. While it's a bit silly it's a good thing balance wise because Cybertorse really cost too much for their low Capacity.

I think going for Restricted Gear is a bit... overkill just for a point of extra Recoil and 1 extra damage. You already destroy everyone in melee. If you really want 13 STR you can move 1 point from AGI to STR. It will only cost 25 Karma to raise AGI back to 5 later. Or you can use Ripper (or a personnalized Drug if your GM allow it) to get that extra point of STR.

You can get up to 6 extra capacity in torso with bulk upgrade option, but you can't get at Character Creation without Restricted Gear Quality. 

Cybertorsos should be able to get more than Rating 3 Armor Modification imho.

[cbsmith]

It kinda depends on how badly you want to go offense v. defense.

I'd go with something like: Resources/Troll/Attributes/Skills/Magic

Body: 9
Agility: 3
Reaction: 2[7]
Strength: 6[7]
Willpower: 5
Logic: 2
Intuition: 4
Charisma: 1

Positive Qualities: Biocompatibility (Cyberware), Disgraced, Drug Tolerant, Restricted Gear (Adapsin)
Negative Qualities: Poor Self Control - Thrill Seeker, Superhuman Psychosis, and maybe one of Combat Junkie/Did You Just Call Me Dumb?/Combat Monster/Sadistic
Skills: Automatics 6 (+2 Assault Rifles), Con 1, Etiquette 1, Intimidation 6 (+2 Physical), Unarmed Combat 6
Geneware: Adapsin, Double Elastin, Myostatin Inhibitor, Narco
Cyberware: Bone Lacing (Titanium) [used], Infrasonic Generator 4, Reaction Enhancers 3 [Used], Smartlink [Alphaware], Wired Reflexes 2
Drugs: Kamikaze

When you are wireless enabled and on Kamikaze, your stats will actually be:

Body 11, Agility 5, Reaction 7, Strength 10, Willpower 7, Intuition 4, Charisma 1, Initiative 11+5d6

Your drug tolerance and high body should allow you to avoid getting too badly addicted, narco will minimize your down time, and the double elastin will shave another point off the stun damage.

Get yourself tricked out with lots of armour (with gel packs)  and appropriate weapons, but the main thing is get used to being high on Kamikaze. :-)

Your strength might seem low, but narco + kamikaze covers a lot of sins, and the myostatin Inhibitor allows you to grow it for comparatively little karma. With all your armor, most of your damage will be Stun, and the Double Elastin will take some of that edge off. Despite the low Charisma, you'll be plenty intimidating thanks to the high skill, the infrasonic generator, and the disgraced attribute. People will hide their children when you walk by.