Hi all,

I am just starting my first foray into second edition as a GM, and one of my group wants to be a Sister. Any ideas on how to handle the overpoweredness that comes with starting with a bolt gun and power armor? I am considering making it available later in the campaign, but I wanted some opinions on how others went about this issue, even from first edition. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Well, first things first, a "Novice" of the Sororitas is -not- starting out with a Boltgun and a powered armor any longer. (see "Enemy Within", p. 30). Those is the gear of a "Sister of Battle" (I know you meant that), which is an Elite advance that is rather costly (see "Enemy Within", p. 38).

That being said, I know what you are talking about: I hand-waved this Elite advance as a "goody" for a player in my group and tried to mix-match this by giving the rest of the group other, valuable gear.

My first advice: don´t do this! You cannot "re-balance" armor and taking the armor into account while planing a battle is difficult, to say the least. Ask your player to play it by the book instead.

I mean this! Consider this TWICE.

Second advice: downgrade the armor
That you are gratious doesn´t mean you need to be really gratious. You can hand the Sister a powered armor in a bad condition. I have an example for you right here , but take this only as an inspiration. The same goes for the Bolter. Starting out with a weapon that was reconstructed, but is only able to do single shot might be an option. Still...

Third advice: Prepare THE OTHERS for battle
There is one and only one reason to include a Sister of Battle into a cell: you expect combat. That kind of combats that asks for the presence of heavily armored shock troops, because that is what a SoB is. Your other cell members will need to get comfy with either getting into heavy confrontations or to get out of the way once it becomes time.

Fourth advice: numbers and armor penetration
From that point on, you want to heighten the numbers of opponents and you want hand them weapons with an AP of at least 3. Break out the chain weapons, hand out the manstopper rounds

Fifth advice: forget about sublte
Subtle will not work any longer.

It's really not that big of a deal from my experiences. The disadvantages of having a sister of battle grossly betray their combat usefulness. For starters, she's going to blow subtlety to all hell; there just isn't going to be a chance of infiltrating or reconniasiance to gather information with a sister of battle apart of the squad. If the mission depends on ferreting out a secretive cult, she'll have to de armor herself lest she betrays the parties intentions.

Next up is very simple. Any enemy with a heads up will certainly have a way cooked up to deal with such a renowned warrior. Karl missiles are common enough and any enemy smart enough to realize her potential danger will focus fire on her. if a high pen just isn't available, a sewer trap or pitfall made by mutants will see to some severe damage or death.

My concluding thought: don't stress about it. She's just as vulnerable as the other party members, if not more, as she will be akin to wearing a giant bullseye for the vast majority of enemies.

Yeah, the Background for Adeptus Sororitas is different from the Elite Advance for Sister of Battle; they won't have the perquisites for Sister of Battle at CC, so no bolt weapon or power armor.