Close Combat Adept or Sammy, Step by Step.

Overview

This guide focuses on making a runner with good close combat abilities both with or without cyber and learn how to play it. I’ve tried a few of these kind and I can say they are terrific, however they are hard to build; some abilities are a must, and you have to know how to survive the early game. Before continue I have to say that I completed the game in very hard with 2 of these builds, the full combat focused with ciberware (this one in Dragonfall DC) and the adept-spellcaster with no ware (in DMS).Have Fun!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Amazing disruptive power in fights, high DMG output while doing consistent AP damage at the same time.
• You move and attack for 1AP, this lets you position yourself while doing damage, being able to snipe important targets like conjurers or mages at the same time.
• Ignores cover, nothing can stop your big crits!
• You won’t be near of your team, hence the remaining members may use better the covers and they are less vulnerable to AOE spells/grenades.
• You will draw fire, which let other squishier members perform better.
• Great synergy with throwing weapons; grenades and shurikens are a great add to your arsenal.
• Fun, tactic and cool!

Cons:

• Really Karma hungry and not easy to build, you will need to invest in different skills/attributes to perform well, so it’s more difficult to multiclass.
• Rough start, you start without critical abilities and pieces of gear (and with near to no armor), this builds start to shine later than a mage or a ranged sammy. Your early game is gonna suck if you try to go mele from scratch.
• Easy to overextend, you may be caught in the open and destroyed if not played carefully (and if you run out Bumona kits the other runners will have a hard time reaching you in time)
• You really need a mage/shaman supporting to peak.
• You are not gonna talk/hack your way through so easily, that hurts your performance a bit in solo missions.

Sketch of the final build of a pure combat beast:

This is one pure close combat build with 181 Karma (this would be near of the end, you will still have about 10-20 extra karma before finishing the game)

This build is the straightest forward, you are quite good with mele weapons, can break havoc with grenades and if you are forced to stay under cover, fighting back with surikens is an option. I really really recommend the Martial defense I (you will need to raise VOL and Chi Casting to 5 for an extra 10 karma points), but as it won’t fit in all the builds I’m gonna let it out for now.

The core of this kind of character is Strength, Body, Close Combat and Movement. That’s were the most of your Karma and essence are gonna go. Strength will boost both your damage and your %hit so it’s a no brainer; however don’t get greedy with damage and level STR more than close combat, the close combat is the most important skill by far, it’s the one who increases the %hit the most. Body is to being able to tank because you are gonna get shoot, a lot.

Movement is what make you really good because mele is all about hit and run, without enough movement you won’t reach the good targets or the good covers and will loose AP just moving, I can’t stress enough how important is this. I’m going to expand this a bit because this is the real core of the character and it’s really easy to miss. The base movement of shadowrun’s characters is 6 squares per AP spent, this stat for a mele focused character means the following:

• The reach of his weapon
• The ability to engage without wasting AP just moving
• The power to snipe important target easily or to find cover

So, without enough movement this build is ineficient, it doesn’t matter who hard you can hit, the mobility is the key. In this game you can gain extra movement from: Stride, ware (Hydraulic Jack MK I/II, Synthacardium MKII, wired reflexes), spells (Blur I/II), some outfits and drugs (Cram). You won’t need all to perform well, but at least reach 8-10 movement it’s a reasonable goal, but 11+ is optimal.

The abilities that you must aim to have are Chi focus, stride and a totem plus Magic Resistance and Martial Defense. The Chi focus is gonna be your main attack, it increases the %crit to 100% so every hit will deal good damage plus drain AP (if you uses a sword, you should be using a sword). Stride increases your base movement from 6 to 8, the mobility is important as a mele character, what’s the point of swinging for great damage if you cannot swing? And the totem, they are really cost effective, and you will need each advantage you can get. I recommend the dragonslayer for a mele adept but others may work (the only I don’t recommend is the wildhunter, you need to hit to deal AP damage, it’s not worth to risk it for an extra 4 DMG)

The only ware that I highly recommend whatever build you are following is the adrenal contractor, that extra AP per turn works wonders, even if it increase the damage taken (at that stage you will have a lot of ways to counter that). To get this amazing piece of ciberware you will need to complete the Schockwellenreiter objetives (i’m not sure if you need 3/3 or 2/3).

As i said before, the support is important. There are a lot of buffs which gives you an edge, but Haste and Aid are the most important by far, both together gives you the thing that makes this build shine, more control; it gives more hits and more accurates, so less APs for the other guys. In this line, try to use the abilities which makes hit easier (mark, tracer shot, nerve bolt…) because these also makes a difference.

But cast Haste + Aid always as an opening isn’t wise, sometimes defensives buffs (like Blur + Armor + your own dragonslayer) may be better to act as an DMG sponge when fighting versus larger and scattered groups, taking the shots after receive all the buffs is an efficient way to reduce the neat DMG taken. And of course, the extra action may (and sometimes should) be used to abuse from your buffed movement and run to cover or out of the LOS.

As you will be the muscle, you will need to use both Diretrich and Blitz to cover the matriz and the magic support. There are some tricks that you may use; Blitz isn’t as good as the weapon’s specialists of your crew just shooting, but he can really help you in fights.

Here you have an example of how to initiate a fight taking advantage of Blitz’s drugs. That cram may be used to boost Diretrich to boost you to the roof or to boost your character and give him 3 extra AP the first round, and of course you may use that last AP to give Bliss to your character or to Gloria/Eiger.

Also, if you complete his special mission, you will get a really good special abilty, and his improved mark really worth it; he might look weak, but he is an amazing support and if upgraded for the decker way (extra decking and the Fairlight excalibur), he is a damn good decker; the only thing he needs is a stiffer and a shield program to really shine.

And please, upgrade Diretrich’s spells to fit with your style. These are the ones i usually use, sometimes I swap electro core for shadows but to support a close combat, that spellbook is gold.

Some Movement Examples

This is the tipical setup when you are gonna face a rough fight: Blur, Dragonslayer for extra survability; Haste, Adrenal contrator and Jazz as an investment for extra AP the following turns; and the hydraulic jack for extra movement (i’m affected for passive stride but i didn’t activate it because i didn’t need it; I’m not wearing any outfit which gives movement). With the last AP you should take cover or attack an enemy on an obscure location but always in the vanguard, to draw fire while avance the rest of the party. The next turn you should cast aid. As an extra note, after the buffs there were enemies in the 1 AP range but they are in the fog of war, i needed to use a drone or position another runner to being able to go in and attack for 1 AP.

In this second example you may see how much your movement may be boosted in a real situation, as i said before that offers a ton of option for a mele character. An important note about Stride, if you are just 2 squares short of being able to attack one enemy for only 1 action, activate Stride is a really good idea; then you may rush it immediately for 1 action or you may spent the rest of the turn buffing yourself (with drugs, casting…) or throwing shurikens and go in the next turn with full APs.

The early game

Early in the game is important NOT to focus on mele. Start increasing STR but not close combat because early in the game you won’t have enough AP, good support spells, armor and movement points to use your mele abilities. Instead of that, go for throwing weapons, level it to 5 (when grenades are reduced to 1 AP) and then start going heavy for close combat; level an ability from 0 to 5 when you already have the attribute in 5 are only 15 Karma so don’t worry, you will be ready to fight quite soon. This early investment will let you fight right from the start without being a liability for the team in the few first runs. Another trick to use early is taking advantage of the combat drugs. Nitro is amazing for throwing weapons early, Kamikaze and Jazz for rusing into mele.

When you start investing in close combat, don’t invest in the mele weapons skill more than 3 ranks (it’s the one who gives you special attacks and extra %crit), you will get 100% critical chance with Chi Focus, pomel strike may be handy but you shouldn’t go for cleave until later in the game (in some builds you can even skip this ability), those points are better invested in more STR, Close Combat or BOD early. Invest a bit in dodge, but not more than 3 ranks unless you are going for a pure mele build. Your initial 60 Karma should look like this, for example, for a human:

Go always with Diretrich because you need his buffs badly, and for god sake, buy good spells for the old man: as said before, Armor is a must have, Heal II when available too, and other conjuring spells like Blur I/II or Shadows really fits with your playstile. Keep your character always with Haste, Aim and Armor when you plan to rush into mele. You won’t have enough AP to cast every boost the first round of combat so choose wisely the order, but remember the cram trick (both with Blitz or giving some to Dire)

Playstyle

Your role is both dealing damage and controlling foes while avoiding taking too much damage. The controlling the foes part is what makes this kind of runner so good (again, use a sword), with enough AP and %hit you will deny a ton of actions to the bad guys. Using Chi Focus as your main attack each successful attack will drain AP (between 2 and 3), so the key is keep an high %hit chance, so keep your Close Combat ability in pair with your STR and abuse of buffs and debuffs (aid II/III, decker’s marks, imbalance, tracer rounds…); the other tool that really helps you is the 5 ranks in throwing weapons, concussive grenades for 1 AP can easily turn the tide of a fight.

You are really powerful and when properly boosted can stand a lot of damage, but you aren’t inmortal so don`t play yolo, don’t stay in the open if there are a few of bad guys not incapacitated unless you are tanky enough to resist the damage (BOD isn’t enough, you will need buffs like armor, dragonslayer, bliss or blur; at least 2 of them); if you do have the buffs on you, stay in the open and draw attention while the other runners position themselves or shoot. If you are quick but still squishy, go in, deal some crits with AP damage and use your last action to go for cover / get out of the LOS.

Remember that nothing forces you to focus one enemy down, if you have done enough AP damage to deny its turn, you should change target and incapacitate another one; the key isn’t kill, the key is negate as many actions as you can. Later in the game you will be able to control 2-3 enemies in one turn (more if uses grenades). Try to control high priority targets first (mages, conjurers, grenadiers…). Also abuse of the fact that engaged enemies lose cover bonuses and shoot at them with the rest of the party while they are engaged; to use this to the max remember that nothing stop you to intercalate your actions with your other runers’.

In this screenshot you may see how powerful this control might be, the 7 foes were incapacitated by my character, 4 of them with attacks: 2 chi focus and 1 normal attack (1 of them started the turn incapacitated because he suffered like 4 or 5 AP damage the last turn). The other 3 thanks to concussive grenade .

Here you have an example how performs this kind of character in a skirmish; versus few enemies he is really good, you can incapacitate most of them before they may deal real damage.

About the LOS, you may only charge into mele if you are seeing the enemies, so use spirits, drones or even the other runners to explore, don’t waste AP moving when you could move + attack with the same AP. Diretrich may be given spells like Fog or Shadows which are invaluable if you want to burn all of your AP attacking, a good placed shadows makes you invulnerable until the beginning of the next round, these plus others like blur can give you an enormous durability boost in the open.

Customizing your runner

Up to now we have seen the basis of this kind of character, from here to the end of the guide i’ll focus on particular characters and styles. The first choice you have to do is ware or not ware. The second decision is about how focused you wanna be in mele weapons, you may build a pure close combat warrior or mix it with other playstile.

Ware or not ware: The ware route is more powerful but less flexible. A low essence character is a machete, a high essence character is a swiss knife.

Cobat focused or mixed: Obviously if you mix the close combat build with other role you will trade raw power for versatilty.

At the end all these builds work, just pick the one which fits you.

Low essence

This approach complements the build with ware, lot of ware, as you are planning to cripple your essence you won’t take any kind of spellcasting nor go further than 4 or 5 in chi casting. This approach is quite good because the ware increases your stats and makes you better overall. So let’s take a closer look:

Must have: Hydraulic Jack (+3 or +4 movement), 2 Muscle Augmentation (+2AGI, +2 STR), Adrenal Contractor (extra AP), Vision Magnification alpha (+6%hit)

All of this ware is amazing in this build. The hydraulic Jack is a must have, you don’t have to install it in both legs but 1 is mandatory (But you may instale 2), the muscle augmentation boost your key stat STR and the AGI is a nice add as it helps to avoid DMG. The Adrenal Contractor is really good, that extra AP opens so many possibilities… however it uses the body slot so it’s up to you as maybe you prefer another one. The Vision Magnification increases your %hit, I rather it over laser designator because you will be attacking more than 1 enemy to drain AP rather than focus one down.

Optional Choices: Enhanced Articulation (+1dodge, +1AGI), Synthacardium MKII (+1 mov, +1 TW, +1 dodge), Wired Reflexes (+1 mov, free dodge/3turns), Hypertiroid (+1 all physical attributes)

This ware is quite good but it’s IMO outclassed by the other. Enhanced articulation is really cheap and helps with survability, if you only instales 1 Hydraulic Jack this one is the way to go. Synthacardium and Suprathyroid give good all rounded bonuses but is really hard to beat that extra AP. The wired reflexes are also nice but the essence cost is high and it cost 1 AP to activate… I’m not entirely sold on this one.

My personal choice: Hydraulic Jack MK1, 2 Muscle Augmentation, Adrenal Contractor (extra AP), Vision Magnification alpha (+6%hit), Enhanced Articulation. This cost 4 essence, so I still have 3 spell slots (Stride, Magic Resistance and Martial Defense I). If you don’t want that extra slot, change the enhanced Articulation for an Hydraulic Jack MK2.

Completing your low essence build

The extra choices for low essence:

Forget about shenanigans and focus on being a beast in combat, let the team to handle the rest of the roles. If you go this way, when buffed you can easily solo an encounter. Just use the extra karma to further enhance your combat related abilities and stats (STR, close combat, BOD and Dodge), get Martial Defense I (VOL and ChiC 5) and maybe get some extra levels in biotech.

The martial defense will have a very long cooldown but you can do wonders in 3 turns as focused in combat as you are. Buy combat drugs, grenades, medikits and run to foes, nothing can really stop you. This build is the most powerful in close combat, by far.

To increase INT and Decking to 7 (forget about ESP control) you will need an extra 49 Karma, which is quite an investment. To do that you will need to reduce a bit STR, CC and BOD, reducing 1 point each will free 23 points and reducing STR and CC other point will raise this to 37, the rest may be picked from mele weapons (you don’t really need it anyway, that just add extra versatility). The good news are that with 6 STR and 6 CC you will still perform quite well because you had the ware covering your back and increasing those values to specialist levels. Consider get Martial defense I if you get the spare Karma.

The bright side about this approach is that you get extra tool for conversations and in those solo missions, one extra ability to use when you are forced to take cover or when you want to focus one guy (mark), and you don’t have to go with a decker, hence you can use that slot for another heavy hitter in the team.

I know, thematically it’s odd, but in dragonfall having more chrome than your fridge don’t affect the bound with the spiritual world. So why not? To build this kind of character you will need at least Summoning 6 and control spirits 5, that’s an extra 47 Karma, quite expensive but it pay off. As said with the Decker mix, you should reduce your STR, CC, BOD and mele weapons to 6/6/5/0 respectively to afford this, but you have the ware and the Gear increasing those to higher levels, so no problem there. Also this kind of character usually has the money to afford the fetishes.

This summoner have some advantages over a classical summoner: First of all, with your buffed movements and abitity to move + attack you may reach those spirits spots in the map without wasting AP just moving; and as you are an high priority target for the buffs, you won’t die after reaching them because you will be blinded enough. Also the spirits have some amazing buffs that you may take advantage off, the extra dodge, BOD or AGI are great to avoid damage, but the very best are the medium/heavy cover spells; another thing to consider is that as you will be behind the enemy lines the spirit won’t waste AP moving forward after being summoned and if you lose control they wont backfire because it will start attacking the enemies anyway; also they hit hard and are nice meatshields, the enemies should have something against them because they usually focus them, hard.

High essence

With this approach you will complement your mele abilities with spells or chi abilities with cooldowns, so the only ware you will take is the one with 0 essence cost. With this approach you won’t have attributes so high nor the extra mobility form the hydraulic jack, but the spells will bring a lot of utility to the party.

Going for high essence trades raw power for versatility which is a fair trade but it’s also important to consider that many of the magical activities requires AP to activate, so you won’t be ready to fight as soon as a low essence character.

Completing your high essence build

This is the pure combat build in its magical form. Get 5, maybe 6 points in Chi Casting if you want the extra slot plus onslaught but no more, unfortunately allocating more points in chi casting is a waste; I mean, there are a few good abilities (pain resistance is brutal) but the cost is too high, you get more from just combat stats and abilities or even sparing them into spellcasting/conjuring. You should equip stride, Magical resistance, Martial defense I and counterstrike. That let you 1 (or 2 if you go to six) slots empty which may be filled with low level but high impact spells like heal wound I (just 3 Karma), Armor II, Aim II (10 extra Karma), blur (6 extra Karma)…

With this approach you will lose the juicy stat and movement bonuses from the ware but you will gain some nice actives. The Martial defense will become active more than 1 per encounter, which is really handy; Counterattack is great also to use with shurikens, it’s like 3 attacks per 1 AP, totally worth it. The cibered version of this character hits hard and move further, but this version have more tricks under the hat and perform better alone and when forced to take cover.

This is played as described in “the adept way” but you spend a bit more Karma in spells. With this approach you will bring high utility to the party with cheap spells while being able to perform quite well in mele. You basically level Chi Casting to 6 and go for the most cost-efective spells to fill the other 3 slots: Armor II, Aim II and Haste II (all of this only cost you 20 Karma). This kind of character is really good because you may adopt the support and the close combat role, being able to adapt to the circunstances quite well; this also let him perform better alone.

This build trade raw mele power for extra magical AoE power and utility. To do this you have to invest in spellcasting to 6 (or 5 if you uses an armour which boost spellcasting), which will force you to lower STR and BOD a bit; doing this you will get some nice spells, from support ones (heal II, Aim III, Armour III…) to damage ones. With this kind of character you choose not to invest in throwing weapons and invest heavily in spellcasting early, you basically start the game playing like a mage and later transition into a more close combat focused character. Let’s see this kind of build for 185 Karma:

If you don’t equip magical resistance to get an extra slot, it leaves you with 3 extra spells (you don’t need it anyway -> Geek the mage first); this will give great utility to this character because you may get some buffs (armour III, Heal and Aim III), which will make the party really stable or you may equip 3 AoE spells; the great thing about this kind of spellcaster is that he isn’t the classical squishier mage and is way faster, so you can actively look for leylines which makes the AoE spells amazing and make up for the lack of high spellcasting (also as you will cast the AoE usually at a low range and in leylines you will be quite accurate)

Well, I think the conjurers would probably get more from just investing in firearms or in summoning but they may be decent close combat warriors.

I’d take this approach: don’t go further than conjuring 6, that still leaves you some amazing spells (Haste III, Blur II, Shadow…) and wont hinder your endurance, for 186 Karma:

A conjurer doesn’t get so much benefice as a summoner or a mage from face rush enemies (leylines, accurate AoE nukes, same main attribute as spellcasting, free summons…), but you still needs an extra reliable way to deal DMG and conjuring spells adds a ton of utility to the party and mele is and extra way to control the foes, so isn’t a bad option but isn’t great either IMO.

Another way, but twisting the playstyle a lot, for 184 Karma, is being primarily a conjurer and secondarily a close combat warrior:

Going all the way to 8 is feasible because Haste IV and III are amazing. That costs you your survability, you will be way more squishier, but your spells are great to play around, your rol will be more about incapacitate and hinder your enemies and less about tanking; you will start the fights buffing and casting and will go in later than any other build. With this one I won’t take the dragonslayer, I would opt for Eagle. This build should be quite fun to play but also more difficult to execute properly.

The speel book should be something like this: Stride, Haste IV, Haste III, Shadow, Blur II, Hellstorm/Lightning barrier. There are others spells that may be helpful like slow III when you know you are gonna find a lot of close combat foes, Fog for helping your team or Slo-Mo as a more offensive debuff.

Final comments

Well, that’s all folks!. I hope you have enjoyed it and if you make one of this kind of character, you wreck faces! 😛

I have to say that english isn’t my native language so i appologize from any mistake i could have commited. Sorry guys if your eyes are bleeding!

And thanks to “pcpowers” for the image i borrowed (i suppose he didn’t care XD). I picked it from his deviant page[pcpowers.deviantart.com].

Extra build: The spellslinger tank!!

After all those builds in which you cannot go further than Chi Casting 6, i would like to share the only build that would work with high Chi Casting (and only because both Chi Casting and Spellcasting shares the same attribute). The spellslinger tank, this build is basically a mage with less spells but really tough to kill. The build for 187 Karma:

The core spell book would be: Pain Resistance, Magic Resistance, Martial defense I, Counterattack, Armor III, Flamethower III (If you are not scared of mages you may pick 1 extra spell instead Magic Resistance, if you have an allied mage buffing you may substitute Armor III for other spell, I would go for 2 AoE like Manaball III, Ball Lightning II or Stunball II).

Basically you will stack damage reduction to retarded levels, with Armor III plus your outfit you will get 10 armor, and then you will get damage reduction from dragonslayer (3), Pain Resistance (5) and Bliss (3) if needed (that’s 18-21 damage mitigation). The Martial defense and Magic Resistance will prevent crits so you will be close to immune to most of damage (come buddy, geek the mage first if you dare!!).

The playstyle is keep the character buffed and attack with flamethrower III and powerbolt IV each turn, put yourself in the vanguard to draw fire (if possible in a leyline) and use counterattack, this mage will actively look for leylines because a Heavy leyline will boost him to the roof reducing its flamethrower cooldown to 0 and boosting his damage and accuracy.