Hello

I was wondering about two things.

Inquisitor's Handbook, page 191 about psycannon bolts:

"Psycannon bolts add +5 to all Critical Damage inflicted"

It may be really stupid question so sorry for that but I don't understand one thing. Psycannon bolts adds damages to DAMAGE DICE ROLLS or to the Critical Effects? For me, to the damage rolls but one of my players start argued with me that not, so he pushed me to post :S

Anyway, the second question is about psychic powers. If we have, for example psy ratings 3, we always HAVE to rolls 3k10 + Will Power Bonus or can we take less dices? Some minor powers have small threshold so there is no need to roll 3k10+Will Power Bonus. 1k10+ WPB will be enouch. More dices increase chance for psychic phenomena so it would be nice to roll less dices if there is a possibility. Do rules allow to role less dices in this case?

Regards

The damage for Psycannon bolts is rolled normally, however if critical damage is inflicted the bolt counts as doing 5 additional points of damage. For example if an entity was on 9 HP and took a psycannon bolt for 10 points of damage this would normally result in a single point of critical damage, the additional damage from the bolt would mean that the 6 result would apply instead.

You always have to roll at least one die for the power roll to manifest a psychic power but other than that you can choose to use as many die of your Psy rating as you like. So with a Psy rating of 3 it is prefectly reasonable only to use a single dice for low threshold powers.

Khouri said:

So If I understand clear, in the end because of critical dmg entity will suffer 10+5 (15) dmgs and end up with -6 hp and get the sixth effect from critical effect table, correct?

Rikeran said:

Yup, as long as a point of critical damage is inflicted the bolt will boost it by another 5 points (so there would be no bonus for only 9 points of damage). I would also assume this bonus comes after the psycannon bolt's other special damage ability.

I would be leery of lumping it with normal damage. It increases the critical level of the hit. A PC nevers gets to -6 Wounds. The lowest a PC can get in Wounds is 0, there is no "going negative". Once they reach 0 Wounds, they gain Critical levels.

This can be important, for example, if a PC uses a fate point to heal. A PC with 0 wounds and 6 critical, that heals 5 wounds from his fate point, is not at -1 Wounds (nor 0 wounds and 1 critical). The PC is actually at 5 wounds and 6 critical.

So, you should think of Wounds and Criticals as separate damage charts, where any Wound damage that would reduce Wounds below 0 convert to Criticals.

Yeah I wouldn't lump the Psycannon's +5 Critical Damage with regular damage either. In fact, I'd only ever think about it once someone was in Critical from Psycannon hits. It's not extra damage, so should never be included in its D10+whatever roll for damage.

Now here's some more food for thought on the Psycannon Bolts.

These are by no stretch of the imagination "civilian" munitions; beings as they require a full Inquisitor to requisition, so would it not be reasonable to rule their damage comparable to that of an Astartes bolt round of the same caliber? It makes no such claim in their description, but it is conceivable.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Wouldn't the Psycannon Bolts function similar to the talents like crushing blow? The one where you add a d5-1 to any critial damage you do. I think that is the right talents. I can't remember exactly how it reads

Khorne-ucopia said:

As far as the critical aspect goes, pretty much. Streetfighting does something similar; adding +2 critical with unarmed and knives. And the talent you are thinking about is Crippling Strike.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

Astartes weapons are slightly bigger, built on a similar scale to the marines themselves. Psycannon bolts are the same damage as they are used in the same boltguns for normal size men.

Little Dave said:

Astartes bolt weapon fire rounds in the 0.75 caliber (19.05mm) for pistols and boltgun, and 1.00 caliber (25.4mm) for heavy bolters; per the various codices. The bolt weapons in DH are described as using the same caliber rounds. The differences in damage are more likened to the performance differences between a standard round and a magnum load. In the case of the bolt rounds, though, it would be more likely quality of the components; such as higher grade propellants and explosives typically used in the Astartes rounds.

-=Brother Praetus=-