I must have something misconfigured on my OPNsense device bc when I try to connect via Putty it drops the connection once I enter root and hit enter.
Seems like you configured with a public key authentication only, but not sending the private key.
It depends. Wild guess for System: Settings: Administration:
[ x ] Permit root user login
[ x ] Permit password login
Cheers,
Franco
Had a look, and you need to add a public key under the user (Authorized keys).
You could also disable that requirement under System\Administration\Authentication Method.
Click the info button to the left for more information.