Nothing against you there, but every time I read 'tank' as a role in Shadowrun, I wonder where the line went wrong.

It's important to have a guy on the front line that's willing to take the hits. Also, seeing how you can make a character that can have insane soak, I fail to see a problem with having a term to easily communicate that archetype's role.

As for craftomega's tank, how about some long haul? Being immune to stun damage...for days...can be helpful...and very bad... But sometimes you just need to make sure you don't fall asleep on a run.

Yeah me too. I mean really, if you look at what has gone in the past, it has mostly been glass cannons. The idea that there is supposed to be a character type that exists just to soak damage seems kind of counter to the way I at least, play the game.

That said, your FN HAR should have a sound suppressor, not silencer. The silencer is for SA weapons while the suppressor is for BF/FA weapons. Cost is the same but they aren't interchangeable.
Should pick either the armoured jacket or the lined coat, not both. They aren't cumulative for armour value and too much slows you down. Not sure about the utility of a ballistic shield with helmet. You will suffer a penalty to reaction and agility when using both since their bonus is higher than your strength.
You need a grapple gun to utilize that microwire you bought.
None of your weapons seem to have anything other than whatever recoil comp comes built into the weapon. You are going to want to jam as much recoil comp into your weapons as you can otherwise you are looking at serious pool penalties.
I'd dump the metal restraints. Just use the plastic ones. They are cheaper, can be easily hidden and don't need a key to open plus they won't set off a detector when you go through it.
Doc Wagon is kind of useless and dangerous to carry around. I wouldn't bother with it. They won't come get you on corp property and it provides an easy tag to you as well. It used to be a good thing to have in 1st through 3rd edition but no longer.
As for drugs, consider using Nitro or Kamikaze rather than the High Pain Tolerance quality. Same effect for much lower cost. Of course then you need to worry about addiction.
As for strategy, consider not getting hit. No, seriously. Duck and dodge. In previous editions it was always better to not get hit than to try and soak damage and I don't think that has changed any in this edition.
You didn't include your character race but I'm guessing Ork based on the Or'zet language he has.

Thanks guys I will apply what you said. I did not relize that Docwagon could be traced, as for the FN HAR and shield they are situational. The lined coat is situational for when hiding things is more important then armor. Both of the guns have level 2 gas vents so ill add a shock pad to the FN HAR, and up the gas vent system.

One thing I am not sure about starting a new character is how much situation stuff should I buy?

Buy a sort of general use package and then some niche gear for whatever role your character fills. I'd buy other situational stuff as it comes up in game. This lets you save your starting cash for the stuff that is important to your character and helps prevent diluting his ability too much. Of course if you have a small team you will need to cover more bases but generally, yeah, stick to your role and a few general use things. You just won't have enough cash to cover all the bases at start.
Remember Doc Wagon gives you an RFID equipped band and every commlink out there comes with a built in RFID reader/scanner. If you were trying to hide for example, and some guard decides to check for RFIDs in a 100 metre radius with his commlink, bang, he finds yours where there shouldn't be one and your hide is exposed. That is just one way they are dangerous to carry around.

Slide's Guide to playing a tank: Find Cover. Or a literal tank.

I see no contacts, a doc would be handy for a character that plans on taking damage

As for the concept: I see no problem with it. It is a sam that can take more hits than some other sams and that is ok. Why wouldn't there be runners focussed more on staying alive than killing others? And if a run goes sideways and the first teammember lies bleeding on open ground the team will be glad to have someone that can take the chance of rescuing him.

Look into a Platelet Factory. Every time you take damage reduce it by 1, to a minimum of 1.

~Umi

This is my feeling as well. Your game of futuristic gunfights and magical shootouts is lacking lethality if you build a character designed to get shot, IMO. Taking a hit or two without dying, yes that's handy - but is it a character concept?

Not to me really.

What were you priorities?

Attributes: A
Resources: B
Metatype: C
Skills: D

The idea is that he was recruited as a body guard at a young age, 13 or so, and so he is good at a few things. His employer was rich so spent a crap ton on subtle augments so his guard could go everywhere with him. (hence the skill in unarmed.)

I could have put bodyguard as the concept but since im new I had no idea that Tank would offend you.

Tough. People are entitled to play whatever character concept they like, and it's not your nor anyone else's place to tell them otherwise.

~Umi

100 percent correct.

Not sure anybody was telling him that though.

As much as I hate the idea of "tanks" in SR, and think its a silly idea, I recall a Troll in SR4 with 30+ soak dice who charged an 18 wheeler and tore off the door in a hail of gunfire. However I also feel that no amount of armor can make up for sound or unsound tactical decisions. So yeah, I will agree with umi and bigi. Have fun with it dude. And if you can take stupid amounts of damage, and don't mind the possiblity of dieing, do something freaking epic.

The "tank" concept originally evolved in multiplayer computer games because some perceptive folks noticed that computer opponents seemed to prefer attacking certain players over others. It didn't take much to figure out what specific player actions triggered the most hate. Coupled with the realization that it was much easier to keep one person alive than trying to heal a whole group, and the Tank was born.

A tank is kinda unique to those games. You don't see them in real life because real life opponents aren't run by code and scripting that rigidly determines where they focus their attention.

That said, a key feature of a tank is their ability to get others to attack them, instead of their teammates. I am seeing plenty of damage mitigation in the build, but how are you getting the opposition to shoot at YOU in the first place, as opposed to the mage next to you?



-k

I had a Bodyguard concept that I played for a bit (ended at about 127 Karma). Went by the Handle: El Leon de Acero. He could have qualified as a tank, I guess, because he was VERY Sturdy (Was a Human, though he only had 9/4 Armor or so (He wore Business Suits, his Camo Utilities clocked in at 12/7)). Of course, having 19 Physical Boxes was VERY nice. Full body Replacement (Worked with the Olaya Cartel as a Bodyguard for one of the big bosses). Was not all that bad of a character.

See this is what I need. Now there is a million dollar question. I had not considered this. What is a good way to show you are a larger threat then the spell slinging mage next to you? Honestly I am not sure, my fist instinct would be, if there are not to many enemies would be to charge them, if there were alot of enemies I would simply try and be the easiest shot while also being a threat. But I don't know how well that will work.

Maybe not the biggest threat but the only target of opertunity. Strobe packs (are they still in? I'd have to check) Flash bangs, Thermal Smoke while you are in their face with a tact hammer. Dissorient, confuse, and seperate.

And it would only take one spell or a good perception to notice the mage and then the "Geek the Mage first" rule kicks in and you non longer are the best target of opportunuty!

Your mage should get better at hiding.

So should I bet grenades and strobe packs? Should I get the licenses for them as well?

I'd have to check on strobe packs if they are still even in the game, but they should be unrestricted. Actually taking a look at your guy you already have a high automatic's skill. What you can do is use your FN-HAR to supress an area, remember that each hit you make on a suppresive fire test reduces all of their checks by 1. Now if you use something like say stick and shock anyone you hit will take an aditional -2 penalty to checks, and -5 to inititive. Pair that with smoke gernades and they will have a hard time making out whoever you are trying to protect. The nice thing about smokes is that you don't have to be supper acurate to make them effective. you might not even have to do any shuffling with your skills and just default with your aglity of 5 at a -1 penalty. your call though. Getting a skill at one and spending one skill point to specialize would give you an extra 4 dice compaired to defaulting.

Specializing in what? Throwing?

Hm...I wonder if a tank and face combo is viable. A big loud mouth smack talking troll that can take it on the chin. He sure can't hurt anyone, but with his insanely offensive insults to the opponents, who wouldn't want to geek him?

Shadowrun is, technically speaking, a game of Glass-Cannons, where many things can hurt many other things more than these other things are capable of withstanding such damage.
So, in theory, the idea of a Tank-Built is a flawed Premise from the beginning. The best Tank is one that deals enough damage to be the most important Target but then does not take the Damage thrown at him.
But not by being big and tough(though for me Troll-Fan that's certainly a plus) but better by simply not being where the damage is. Dodging Damage is better than staging Damage down.
This works to some degree, but only as long as not more than one enemy is concentrating fire on you.

Intimidate and telling people to lay down works wonders.

The skill would be thrown weapons and the specialization grenades i think... maybe smoke grenades.

Having an almost 3m troll bearing town on your position to take some of the heat off the glass cannons in the party can be an advantage. I had a player who had made a troll with the intent of being a bullet magnet. Every time the group would get pinned down, he'd rush out of cover and then run hell bent for leather at the enemy which meant their field of vision was rapidly being filled by a wall of armored muscle.

He was pretty decent at pulling some of the heat off the rest of the group by being as imposing and immediately threatening as he could be. Calling the archetype tank might be a slight misnomer, but the end result is that they tend to draw a lot of lead and attention their way which can only help the rest of the party.

Just put yourselves in the shoes of Grunt_01. If you saw an armored troll barreling down on your position, would you still be concerned about hurling lead at a target 20m away or would you be more prone to shoot at the closer, more immediate threat?

I'd have to say that it was a viable archtype, but unless some care was given to not making it a one trick pony, it would only fill a very limited role.

I think as the tank archetype of professions like SWAT breachers or bodyguards. People that are somewhat more exposed to the risk of taking bullets, not "hello, i am frank the tank and i take bullets for fun"-guys.

Maybe this archetype is somewhat flawed by the rules since it is true that not taking damage at all is better than trying to soak much damage. But i think guys like that have a place in the world of SR.

No matter how good you are at dodging, the dice gods will eventually find a way to bring the pain.

Times like that it's good to have a lot of dice to throw for resisting, and maybe a Platelet Factory for good measure.

~Umi

cyberlimbs each with cyberarmor(3)

Also known as "hey, I get shot at all the damn time, why wouldn't I have a ballistic shield".

Well for a bodyguard, a ballistic shield isn't exactly subtle...

~Umi

Well, to quote Harry Dresden: "Fuck subtle". Sometimes, you need to be loud. Keep the shield reasonably close at hand, so that if you have some concept that you're gonna need it you can grab it and get the client behind you.

Ballistic shields are the sort of thing that just scream "bullets are about to start flying". When people see them, it freaks them out, because they know bad drek is going down.

Unless you're SWAT going into a hostage situation or similar, no one anywhere other than the Barrens is going to let you just have one with you. Basically, if a client is threatened badly enough that they need you to carry a ballistic shield to protect them, they're gonna need more just a single bodyguard, they're going to need an entire police or mercenary escort squad with armored transport and a hardened safehouse waiting for them at the end of the drive.

Now, I could maybe see keeping one hidden away in the back of a vehicle, but that'd be more for when you wanna bust into a corporate facility guns blazing, rather than using it to protect a client.

~Umi

Ballistic shield is something bodyguard do use nowadays. Except they are concealed as suitcase that can fold out and deploy a decent shield... Considering how fast it is possible they are free action.

https://www.google.fr/search?q=ballistic+sh...qWKfCYAzLhuM%3A

Love the briefcase/ballistic shield combo. I think a troll would look more out of place with a briefcase than the ballistic shield though...

As probably mentioned by others, the concept of "Tank" simply doesn't exist in Shadowrun. You do not want to get shot at. If you insist on playing something that can survive being shot at more than once or twice, anything with high body and armour (or similar bonuses) will potentially do the trick. But again. The "Tank" is not a role that really belongs in SR. If you start getting shot at, something probably went wrong with the plan anyway.

Yeah, you're right. It has in fact been mentioned by others and then the conversation moved on. Good job reading the thread there guy. I'm proud of ya, son.

The justifications for a "tank" are: not tank like MMOs, but tank like Guy First Through The Door, or Bodyguard.

Also, as far as forcing the opposition to shoot at you, in thinking about it (I admit, usually I think about NOT getting shot at, so it takes some wrapping the brain around), I would personally be most likely to shoot at:
1) Guy charging me - he doesn't even have to be scary. He just has to be stupid enough to charge at me with a melee weapon while I have a gun
2) the Combat Decker - so he won't take away my toys (this one's new for SR5, which is kind of cool)
3) the Mage - obviously
4) the Guy with the BFG

Seeing as your character presumably isn't a Decker or a Mage, then I'd combine #s 1 and 4. Get a machine gun. Lay down some lead. It's pretty much guaranteed to get people shooting at you instead of your buddies.

edit - addendum: And then get the hell out of dodge, because KE/corpsec will be drawn to the sound of automatic gunfire and will descend on you like the proverbial undead horde.

This absolutely needs to be stat'ed up for use in-game. Awesome. I love it.

That... that's pretty friggen awesome. I second the idea that this needs to be statted up.

I mean, they had the GitS briefcase SMG in Arsenal, as well as the Body Armor Gun Bag, so why not this?

~Umi