Unnatural characteristics and the players

By Talissera, in Black Crusade Rules Questions

Hello. How players can obtain such characteristics, What logical impact it may cause?

I understand the slow process of gaining natural characteristics through hard training and attached bonuses, but unnatural seems strange.

There are many ways characters can obtain unnatural characteristics and the effects of them vary depending on the skill. The way they are obtained is generally by mutation, chaos blessing, drugs, psychic power or adaptation and without some serious work, would not be easy to obtain. Chaos marines for example start with unnatural strength +4/ toughness +4. This is due to their multiple organs which make them tougher than the average human. In order to get the others then, players might need to consider pacts with daemons or altering their physical form in ways far more drastic than mere training or reading books (such as mechanical augmentation or various narcotics for almost like an adrenaline boost) with not all of them being positive in their after effects. There are loads of examples though of how player characters could obtain such values (See Core, P290, Gifts of the Gods inc. Gifts from each god or armoury sections etc.)

Unnatural characteristics across the board grant additional degrees of success, exact numbers in rulebook (Core, P144) so with the above, marines effectively get an extra 2DoS on S and T tests. This makes a difference.

The impact of these skills can be quite substantial as well. Melee damage is calculated by taking the damage of the weapon and adding the users strength bonus. Unnatural strength counts as a further stackable augmentation to this bonus damage, again using the above means CSM do an extra +4 damage with melee on top of their Strength bonus. So high values of this can lead to very powerful melee attacks.

Toughness bonuses meanwhile reduce incoming damage. Any hit is reduced by armour and then toughness bonus before finally going off wounds. Again, unnatural toughness is a modifier to their bonus which means marines are taking another +4 damage off each melee hit. Therefore high bonuses to this can make terrifyingly tough characters which can eventually shrug off massive damage.

WS and BS alter the number of hits you make so more of them is lots of pain to someone, high WP bonuses make for some really nasty psychic power results for anyone unlucky to be on the receiving end. High agility affects combat initiative, Fellowship makes you more of a master speaker and persuader...

Long story shortened, the impact of all of them is that if used recklessly and not correctly considered you can make a character exceptionally potent in that field which may overpower your campaign plans.

They do create some awkward skews in results.Take a minion with a BS of 40 and unnatural BS 4 firing full auto. He has to roll 30% or less to even hit, but as soon as he does he's getting a minimum of 3 hits. There is no space for only getting 1 or 2 hits before getting to the dodge.

They do create some awkward skews in results.Take a minion with a BS of 40 and unnatural BS 4 firing full auto. He has to roll 30% or less to even hit, but as soon as he does he's getting a minimum of 3 hits. There is no space for only getting 1 or 2 hits before getting to the dodge.

Is Unnatural BS or Unnatural WS even present anywhere in the rules, though? It's long been my firm belief that Unnatural WS/BS was never meant to be used in any capacity, and since Minions have to go through GM approval, I don't see your example ever really happening.

What would even be the rationale for getting Unnatural BS or WS?

By the rules it's possible, RAW to give it to minions. So while most sane GM's might be loath to give it, it would still be a house rule to disallow it.

Also possible to get it from the gift of the gods, Chaos Organ for example. I'm sure there are plenty of other places as well but I'm too lazy to look. Again it would take some creative explaining, but it's not specifically disallowed.

Thanks a lot about explanation.

They do create some awkward skews in results.Take a minion with a BS of 40 and unnatural BS 4 firing full auto. He has to roll 30% or less to even hit, but as soon as he does he's getting a minimum of 3 hits. There is no space for only getting 1 or 2 hits before getting to the dodge.

Is Unnatural BS or Unnatural WS even present anywhere in the rules, though? It's long been my firm belief that Unnatural WS/BS was never meant to be used in any capacity, and since Minions have to go through GM approval, I don't see your example ever really happening.

What would even be the rationale for getting Unnatural BS or WS?

that is the whole point of warp time psyker power:

The Sorcerer gains the Unnatural Weapon Skill, Unnatural
Ballistic Skill and Unnatural Agility traits, all at values equal
to his Psy Rating.

By the rules it's possible, RAW to give it to minions. So while most sane GM's might be loath to give it, it would still be a house rule to disallow it.

Also possible to get it from the gift of the gods, Chaos Organ for example. I'm sure there are plenty of other places as well but I'm too lazy to look. Again it would take some creative explaining, but it's not specifically disallowed.

that is the whole point of warp time psyker power:

The Sorcerer gains the Unnatural Weapon Skill, Unnatural

Ballistic Skill and Unnatural Agility traits, all at values equal

to his Psy Rating.

Just.. what the..

Wow.

Yeah so push that to get a psi rating of 10 lightening attack and bam 6 hits minimum with that force sword.