I noticed that there are no rules for force weapons but they are mentioned a few times in the book. I was wondering if there existed rules for these perhapes in dark heresy. I looked at the 40K rules to see if there were any obviouse translations, but killing enemies with a single hit regardless of wounds seemed a little excessive.

I want to have an astro path use a force weapon since there is a psychic background for both. I was thinking the weapon could work like psy focus or reduce rolls on perils of the warp (or something).

As far as a damage profile I'm a little at a loss. I guess they could count just as power weapons but I'd like to incorporate some psychic abilities. Like maybe the player can make a focus test before and add thier psy ratting to the pen or damage. Of course I don't want it ot be too overpowered (although force weapons are supposed to be pretty epic), I just want a cool weapon for astro paths.

There are rules for them in the Inquisitors Handbook.

Any insight on how they work? What special properties do they have?

ReaperOfTheLost said:

They get extra damage and penetration for every point of psy rating the psyker has. If they hit and do damage, the psyker can chose to cast a power as a free action which causes an opposed willpower test between the psyker and the target. For every degree of success the psyker gets, the force weapon deals damage that bypasses armour and toughness (think of it as increasing the damage, meaning the armour and toughness were already dealt with by the initial damage roll). Also they aren't damaged by power fi

I am intentionally holding back the numbers here because I don't think FFG will like it if I give them to you. Besides, the Inquisitors Handbook has other things your players will find useful.

For the RT system I'd suggest using the opposed willpower roll as the focusing test and force the psy rating used for the extra damage to be the same one used for the test.

Ok, I'll look into it thanks.

Also I think its fair to think that if the Inquisition got wiff of the fact that a Rogue Trader has a force weapon, you´ll have trouble on your hands before you can say "why hello there port wander"

Bilateralrope said:

That's essentially how they work in Into the Storm and Deathwatch as well.

Adaras said:

Why? Rogue Traders are entitled to just about whatever they can scrounge up, be it warp tech, xeno tech, or archeotech. Rogue Traders are peers of inquisitors, who really don't have any power over them, just like Space Marine Chapter Masters. Chapter Masters are able to equip their troops (librarians) with force weapons, I don't see any reason Rogue Traders couldn't.

Force weapons can be built by psykers. So it's reasonable that an astropath could create a personal weapon if they invested the time, effort and resources (rare psy-active materials) into the creation of such a weapon.

As for the legal stuff, it's human craftmanship not xenos, so I don't see a problem with a peer of the imperium (such as Rogue Traders) having them.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Dont suppose they're available for "Navigators with Attitude"?

Mechanically can't really make them useful under the old DH rules for my navigator as she doesn't have a 'psy-rating', but its mostly because I seem to end up being the only one left holding the fort and having to deal with a daemon problem or warp incursion... as everyone else is either on the floor gibbering in a puddle of piss, passed out completely or running off in the other direction.

MKX said:

If all you want is an over-priced monosword, then sure. Navigators don't wield the warp in the right ways to make force weapons work (as described in the entry for them in Into the Storm); as they lack a psy rating, they wouldn't gain any of the normal benefits anyway.

Yeah, now that Into the storm is out there are official rules for this now.

Now what happens if you have a force weapon and do a Telekenitic weapon attack? Something special should happen.

As far as Navidgators go, you could always give them a warp weapon. Its not totally the same but it would make sense with their career. I was even thinking of a warp weapon rule set that dealt damage in corruption points rather than raw damage. Don't know why but thought that just sounded like a neat mechanic. Inflict enough corruption on an enemy and they become sucked into the warp. I just like that visual.