QUOTE (Mantis @ Apr 14 2016, 07:00 PM)

Broken beyond repair? The difference between 5th and 4th ed is that base damage is STR rather than 1/2 STR. Otherwise, mechanically, it's the same. So if you want to 'fix' 4th ed melee just do the same but watch out for the lower Impact armour ratings. It certainly isn't broken beyond repair otherwise they would have come up with a completely different system for 5th ed.
In 4:e you defend against oneshot manabolts with only Willpower, you defend against 15+ damage automatic weapons with only Reaction.
In 4:e you can only move 1/4th of your move distance every action phase or so
in 4:e you defend against melee with reaction+dodge, effectively having double the defence pool compared to the near impossible defence tasks versus spells or ranged weapons not even considering the clunky movements where you often had to waste 1-2 IPs of just moving to get there.
in 5:e you can frontload your movement and the difference in melee defence versus other defences is not there, the pools are streamlined and you get twice the benefit from strength so yes, it is a huge thing.
Melee also didn't have "half armor" cheese and shock in 4:e.
A slightly modded high velocity smg (4e) with stick 'n' shock does 17DV versus half armor (+11 from full auto high velocity and 6 from stick and shock), it requires a quite a big load of house rules to explicity nerf automatic fire and weapons mods for melee to do more damage in any longer runs, even ignoring the movement troubles. And F11 stunball is a whole different cup of tea, almost like the grenades in 5e

But, it is beside the point, it is a completely different topic and I have written melee off in 4e before. It is a much better deal in 5e where strength matters etc.
I think the problem with gear and clothes adds to the darker and grittier fluff where vampires doesn't sparkle and shifters aren't Disney characters with extra cuddles. But, I am a bit unaware of the exact powers they have in 5e but in 4 they were really amazing and I could always just dress up in armor and not become a tiger and have none of the drawbacks anyway.