First off, disclaimer : I love the idea of even basic daemons being almost unkillable bosses, that drive strong men to their knees and make psyker heads explode by walking into the room. The more Fear and horror the better! Nurglings causing TPK is not a bug, it's a feature

Why does a basic Plaguebearer seem as heavily armoured as a Terminator?

Looking at him, he seems to have 14 armour points, presumably from his "Rot Armour", whatever that is: Plaguebearers are never depicted wearing armour!

Is this normal? Am I misunderstanding something?

I know that Nurgle Daemons are meant to be hard to kill, but shouldn't the Daemonic and Unnatural Toughness traits be good enough?

I kinda prefer the Black Crusade stat blocks, where they had no armour but so many wounds and TB that you effectively needed anti-tank weapons to even think to killing them in any reasonable amount of time.

You appear to be misreading the stat blocks. plaguebearers have 4 points of armor. The 14 is their total damage soak. 5 from normal toughness bonus, 2 from daemonic, 3 from unnatural and 4 from the rot armor.

You appear to be misreading the stat blocks. plaguebearers have 4 points of armor. The 14 is their total damage soak. 5 from normal toughness bonus, 2 from daemonic, 3 from unnatural and 4 from the rot armor.

Oh, you're right! Thanks!

I still prefer the Black Crusade stat blocks though, were they had 0 armour (and that I could read right ). It just seems a bit more logical to me...

Why would you want to give Plaguebearers armour anyway? It just makes them easier to kill!

Exactly for that, mechanically, it gives you the possibility to add a little more toughness and a way to get through it for some weapons.

So regular lasgun or autogun won't do a thing against them, but bolters stand a chance.

I see what they did there.

I find it incredible that for Putrifex, Herald of Nurgle the soak is so high, but there are precious few weapons in the core book that could actually do enough damage to hurt it - and most only if you rolled max damage.

I find it incredible that for Putrifex, Herald of Nurgle the soak is so high, but there are precious few weapons in the core book that could actually do enough damage to hurt it - and most only if you rolled max damage.

So there's finally a good reason to try to get holy weapons or heavy weapons like the lascannon.

If only the Lascannon was included in the game. FFG has, in their infinite wisdom, cut many heavy weapons out of Dark Heresy 2. The core book has only the Heavy Bolter, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Autocannon, and Missile Launcher.

If only the Lascannon was included in the game. FFG has, in their infinite wisdom, cut many heavy weapons out of Dark Heresy 2. The core book has only the Heavy Bolter, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Autocannon, and Missile Launcher.

Oh... well I guess you could make it up.

If only the Lascannon was included in the game. FFG has, in their infinite wisdom, cut many heavy weapons out of Dark Heresy 2. The core book has only the Heavy Bolter, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Autocannon, and Missile Launcher.

Oh... well I guess you could make it up.

Remember, this is a FFG WH40KRPG! "Make it up" can generally be replaced with "steal it from Only War".

The really great thing IMO is that you can't just shoot down a Herald of Nurge with Lasguns. That level of soak really represents how tough they are in fluff (and on the tabletop if propely equipped), and it can be a problem for PCs. However, it's never enough of a problem to TPK - just enough to be a serious challenge!

Unless your group has no Heavy weapons/Krak Grenades, or weapons with Snare or Concussive. I know that seems pretty rare, but I suppose it's gotta exist somewhere... And then the Herald of Nurgle isn't the problem! Any kind of serious Elite or Master opponent could just murder them all if they don't bother to be prepared for the unexpected. It is a grimdark setting... Something like that was obviously going to happen!

Following that reasoning, all PC groups would need de-tox and stuff against disease, ten foot poles or landmine detectors, integrated respirators with a secure oxygen supply, air support on back and call (or a way of fleeing from anything), backup for everything as something is obviously going to fail at a crucial moment...