[Jack_Spade]

I actually have one in play in Tribal Beats
No shadowrunner but a ganger.

[Marcus]

I would love to see some actual builds of a usable brawler / thrower.

http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=21827.0
That's my last melee build, in here. I think it's decent, though a little dated at this point.

[Slamm-O!]

Dated ? How would you update it ?

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

I have one posted here and in Wakazani contest (using his rules) so he is not perfectly optimized, but decent. Needs some correcting for more general play. Biggest issue was core only, and odd skill cap, basically like how 4th ed use to do skill cap limits. I would fiddle with his skills so he has more 6s, at least in unarmed combat, and try to take a few ranks in penetrating strike.

[Marcus]

Dated ? How would you update it ?

I'd want play with the power setup, specifically looking at the ability to cast one spell from HT. My first choice would probably be manablade,  b/c it's fresh and new, and could go a long way to mitigating the damage issue. Though exactly what that does still fairly unsure.  But adding one spell adds so many options. 

Conceptually that melee build could be adapted into a lot of other options, a race change, a weapon swap combined with a martial arts swap. I just wanted to post an adept build I liked, and that wasn't overwhelmingly damaged focused.

[Csjarrat]

To me, Martial Arts are too much buck for not enough bang, barring specific, really-good styles like Wudang Sword.

Yeah there are a couple of gems in amongst all the dross, but though it odd it'd been skipped entirely in a how-to melee guide.

[Lucean]

Fire gives you AP 6

No, it doesn't. That AP is only to check for setting things on fire, as you can read in the text. By RAW "Elemental xxx" does nothing for AP as we have no defined AP-properties of the different attacks.
I know that all electricity-based weapons have AP -5, but that doesn't equate to a general rule.

For comparison:
Each element in SR4 was defined in Core as being resisted with half Impact armor. There is no such text in SR5.
So by making your strikes count as a certain element you often enough reduce effective damage, when the target uses armor mods.

[Jack_Spade]

Fire gives you AP 6

No, it doesn't. That AP is only to check for setting things on fire, as you can read in the text. By RAW "Elemental xxx" does nothing for AP as we have no defined AP-properties of the different attacks.
I know that all electricity-based weapons have AP -5, but that doesn't equate to a general rule.

For comparison:
Each element in SR4 was defined in Core as being resisted with half Impact armor. There is no such text in SR5.
So by making your strikes count as a certain element you often enough reduce effective damage, when the target uses armor mods.

I'd like you to look at p.171. At the bottom you'll find a handy little table where it's spelled out explicitly that flame based weapons have AP 6

[ProfessorCirno]

Rapid Draw is .5 PP, vs Perfect Time 5 Karma.  And the list of useful free actions is pretty long, vs. Rapid Draws specific uses.  Adept Powers, Auto-injectors, turning on/off wireless, dropping prone, lots of things to be doing with multiple Free Actions per turn.  Or extending a Mono-whip.... .   And Perfect Time continues to be useful after your weapon is out and you're stuck in.

You aren't reading my post.

What matters is not that you get an extra free action; you get that with the quality no matter what, and you can take the quality WITH Rapid Draw.  What matters is that rapid draw lets you attack as a free action.  Without it, you can only attack as a complex - which removes your ability to use simple actions.

Consider Round 1 as an adept.

You want to Run (I forgot to mention this in the guide, but never forget your ABC's: Always Be Charging).  You want to draw your weapon.  You want to attack.  You want to use Agility Boost.  You potentially want to use Adept Centering.  Without anything else, that's a free, a complex, and three simples.  The adept takes Perfect Time and Gear Access; now they can run and use both boosts...but they can't attack.  A second adept takes Perfect TIme and Quick Draw.  They now have two free's, two simples...and that complex is now a free action, allowing them to do all of it.

The ol' "critical glitch and you cut yourself" is a nasty draw back too for monowhips.


And before you say "yes but you can use Edge to re-roll" as a defense, I watched a character litterally kill themselves with a whip in a single game session. They rolled a critical glitch 4 times!!! (And had only 3 edge).


The randomness of dice just LOVE to fuck over you statistics counters.

Statistic improbability is statistic improbability.  You remember the one time the dice glitched him hard with the monowhip (which I will note Edge can cancel out).  You do not remember that it was the one time.

I discount the monowhip hitting yourself thing for the same reason I discount the sapphire knife shattering; if you're using that weapon, chances are you have specialized in it, and if you've specialized in it, you're looking at 14 dice minimum, at which point your chance to critically glitch is less then 1% - and remember, you need to CRITICALLY glitch to hit yourself.

No mention of martial arts? Also worth mentioning the diamond/ceramic blades as totally undetectable by scanners

Martial arts for the most part are not worth mentioning, sadly.  There are a few good ones, but most have a far too high cost.  I do mention the diamond/ceramic blades; check the section on knives.

Something to add to those options:

Adepts don't need (necessarily) strength: Nervestrike (B&B) disables a target with one or two strikes pretty reliably.

2 pairs of Striking Calluses increase your unarmed damage by 2 - and it stacks. Add Bone Density 4 and you have a completely legal +5 to damage.

Also, Hard Targets has introduced Plaststeel Toe Boots - legal knucks for your feet.
Light Body + Pouncing Dragon is another easy +2 to damage. Combine that with Jiao Di  on a charge for another +1 (and while you are at it, combine it with a Flying Kick) and you have a +4 to damage

I mention Nervestrike and it's problems previously.

What you've mostly proven is that an adept can totally get great unarmed damage - so long as they buy 'ware, and thus stop being an adept and become a hybrid .  Yes, there are a LOT of ways to stack unarmed damage with bioware (though I dare say any GM is going to veto combining the boots and the calluses, given that the boots cover up the calluses!).  I will admit I did overlook Jiao Di and would add it in if I and when I go back and do a full edit of stuff.  I'm not sure Light Body works with Pouncing Dragon though; it specifies you have to be standing above in some way, not just momentarily jumped.

[falar]

You want to Run (I forgot to mention this in the guide, but never forget your ABC's: Always Be Charging).

Skimmers + Broadsword = Talk about the lulz as you zip back and forth through the enemy ranks cleaving heads.

Combine with Centaur Liminal Chassis, and Digigrade legs for x12/x20 walk/run speeds.

[Slamm-O!]

You'd hit one guy with the sword, then get shot to hell and back.  Cover, and concealment are the way to survive.

[Marcus]

In an active fight your odds are not great of always having access to cover, your way better off with the reac+Int (+Combat Sense) Pool to keep range successes down or at least from stacking up extra damage, and then using armor to  soak what gets through. Which does mean ya need to invest in solid armor, mystic armor though expensive does stack and can come in handy for this purpose. A great place to for a qi foci.

[ProfessorCirno]

You'd hit one guy with the sword, then get shot to hell and back.  Cover, and concealment are the way to survive.

Running literally gives the same penalties to hit you as partial cover (+2).  Full cover is just +2 more.

Also, something I forgot to mention, another bonus to the high strength needed to go melee: it also allows you to bulk up in extra armor!

It's worth noting that having only a gun and being attacked in melee is a terrible situation to be in.  They get +2 to attack you right off because ABC.  And you get -2 to hit them for the same reason.  Then you get another -3 for being in melee combat against ANYONE you try to shoot, so -5 to hit the person swinging their axe in your face.  To top it all off, so long as you're in melee, you have -3 to defense against someone shooting at you because you're too busy trying not to get an axe in your skull.  Also, though this is GM dependent, many would rule being attacked like this pops you out of cover, so you lose that.

In short, if you go melee and attack someone, they a) are real unlikely to hit you, and b) are real likely to get finished off by whoever on your team goes next.  And then you keep your defense bonus from the charge.

[Jack_Spade]

@ProfessorCirno

Another word on nerve strike: Don't underestimate it's usefulness even if you don't manage to disable your opponent in one hit: If you target agility, you impose a serious dice penalty on all his attacks. Especially against tanks that's often a better solution than to punch through their armor. If you compare it to wound modifiers, the nerve strike will usually come out ahead - especially if you consider the low opportunity costs.
This looses value against dodge monkeys of course. But those are hard to hit with everything else too (that's what grenades are for)

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

In an active fight your odds are not great of always having access to cover, your way better off with the reac+Int (+Combat Sense) Pool to keep range successes down or at least from stacking up extra damage, and then using armor to  soak what gets through. Which does mean ya need to invest in solid armor, mystic armor though expensive does stack and can come in handy for this purpose. A great place to for a qi foci.

Also with high initiative so you can activate total defense and ideally total defense (agile defender). With agile defender adding agility that can easily push your defense pool into the high teens. Which combined with a decent soak pool, will let you soak a lot of shots and damage as you run around cutting down the opposition.