Non-melee monster Trolls, are they a waste of time? Options

[JonathanC]

Feel free to answer based on either SR3 or SR4 rules...the situation is somewhat similar in both. Being a troll is expensive, and they seem to be useful only as strong melee combatants, with their reach benefit, extra durability, and greater land speed (the better to close into melee with you). The thing is, SR, like most modern/future RPGs, is really a ranged combat monkey's game. Strength, especially in SR4, is largely useless. But trolls are still kinda cool, and I'd love to crank some up for a game or two. It just seems as though using Trolls for anything but axe-wielding blenders with legs is like fighting yourself. They're expensive to make BP-wise, and their attribute caps in Charisma and Logic make them ineffective as mages, hackers/deckers, riggers, or faces.

Yes, I'm aware there is a Troll combat mage archetype in SR3, but those archetypes aren't really optimized for real-world play, for the most part. I suppose with the new, less logic-centric hacking rules, you could be a decent Troll hacker, but that's a lot of points to pay for physical stats that you'll never use. Are trolls really a one-trick pony?