@faraday said in For Want of a Stat System:
@Lithium I think that depends on which version of the game you're using. But either way, cyber and magic both obviously give you an edge over someone with neither, but that's true of all forms of combat. I haven't seen melee be any worse off than anything else in that regard. But then, our group came up with these elaborate Shadowrun martial arts house rules that made the rounds way back when, so I might be biased there.
I've never played an SR edition where a physad started out with the ability to be /built/ better than an optimized street samurai.
Is it possible for a physad to beat a starting samurai? Sure, but it really depends a lot on how each player knew the game, how optimized they wanted their characters to be, and where they put stuff.
Yes, availability limits do put a cap on street samurai, but not as much as the 6 magic points to spend on physad powers does imho.