Combining test difficulties.

By Darlanor, in Black Crusade Rules Questions

Hi there! So the point is, i have a PC with Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) +30 and Good Craftsmanship Cerebral Implants which gives him +20 to any Lore test. So he is trying to create Daemon Weapon and this -60 F.L. (Daemonology) test. Now he uses ritual kit +10 to test an athame blade +10 and he has mark of Tzeentch so this gives him +30 so he's summoning Lord Of Change). Am I right in final test difficulty +40 ?

Ritual kit and the athame blade usage a little bit questionable

Why he get +30 from the mark? (or +10 if the +30 is a net for the +10's)

He gets +30 from mark according to Tome Of Excess Table 2–8: Expanded Ritual Modifiers pg.57. And he pretty well roleplayed usage of ritual kit and aetheme blade)

Hi there! So the point is, i have a PC with Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) +30 and Good Craftsmanship Cerebral Implants which gives him +20 to any Lore test. So he is trying to create Daemon Weapon and this -60 F.L. (Daemonology) test. Now he uses ritual kit +10 to test an athame blade +10 and he has mark of Tzeentch so this gives him +30 so he's summoning Lord Of Change). Am I right in final test difficulty +40 ?

Test difficulties do indeed stack and various modifiers can increase or decrease the final result. While it's never been officially stated in the core books, the general consensus on the boards is that no positive modifier total or negative total can exceed +/- 60 respectively and at that point if it were to exceed that you're either moving into the territory of auto succeed/failure. That said, 1-5 and 91-00 (or 96-00 in my house ruling) is still your crit success/failure threshold no matter what.

In your example then since it's a -60 base, your cumulative modifiers to the final test (assuming you've read up on each section sufficiently so I'll trust you have read those) will indeed make for a +40 modifier on the final roll. That's not to say though that it cannot get MORE difficult and there are examples for further thematic penalties/bonuses.

Thanks for ur answer Calgor Grim)

That said, 1-5 and 91-00 (or 96-00 in my house ruling) is still your crit success/failure threshold no matter what.

Just keep in mind that normally it's only a 1 that grants auto-success and 100 that grants auto-failure. Sorry to jump on you, since you're otherwise correct and in fact the +/-60 thing does explicitly apply to rituals. But there was another post that spoke of critical results a few weeks back, where the poster seemed to not be aware that the thresholds and results used were house rules.

Edit: So I tracked down where the +/-60 thing occurs in the various game lines:

  • DH1E: When performing tests in combat.
  • RT: When performing attack tests, or as a more general rule for skills and characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • DW: The same - when performing attack tests, or as a more general rule for skills and characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • BC: When performing attack/ritual tests, or for skills and characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • OW: When performing skill/attack tests, or additionally for characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • DH2E: Always unless there's an exception.
Edited by NFK

That said, 1-5 and 91-00 (or 96-00 in my house ruling) is still your crit success/failure threshold no matter what.

Just keep in mind that normally it's only a 1 that grants auto-success and 100 that grants auto-failure. Sorry to jump on you, since you're otherwise correct and in fact the +/-60 thing does explicitly apply to rituals. But there was another post that spoke of critical results a few weeks back, where the poster seemed to not be aware that the thresholds and results used were house rules.

Edit: So I tracked down where the +/-60 thing occurs in the various game lines:

  • DH1E: When performing tests in combat.
  • RT: When performing attack tests, or as a more general rule for skills and characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • DW: The same - when performing attack tests, or as a more general rule for skills and characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • BC: When performing attack/ritual tests, or for skills and characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • OW: When performing skill/attack tests, or additionally for characteristics in the demo adventure.
  • DH2E: Always unless there's an exception.

How dare you correct me sir. I shall be burning all your worlds in the name of the dark gods and drinking deep on your blood for this affront. You shall be broken and shattered before the will of the lord of slaughter! <Insert Khornate tier rage here>

No you're right, I was checking my wrong reference material and got mixed up with my house rules. 1 is your crit success and 100 is your crit fail. I'm still in D&D mode where it's a 1/20 chance of either versus 1/100...I blame Tzeentch who changed all the rules in all the books just to make me wrong.

It is a bit up in the air though and the +/- 60 is weakly mentioned and is a general guideline but not explicitly declared all that well but there are examples in the system where some of the tests (such as infamy or acquisition tests in BC/OW+) that the modifier can actually start at +/-70 (BC Core P306)

Edited by Calgor Grim

Not entirely sure how the +/-60 got tied up in this thread since he's capping out at +40.

The +/- 60 is to the final bonus, not anything mid calculation. So if you want to aim (+10), single shot (+10), at a massive target (+30) point blank (+30), you're testing against +60, not +80. Now if you're fatigued and shooting in fog (-30), you are testing at +50 for your net. You don't cap your bonus at +60 then subtract the -30.

If you're playing a high infamy campaign, this can lead to some really weird acquisition rolls (I want 100 best quality battleships....)