So like, how does this work?

the text states:

any successful hit to shock carapace <sic> results in a toughness Test as if the attacker had been hit in the arm with a weapon with the shocking quality.

but the Shock Quality says

If they fail (the toughness test) they are Stunned for a number of rounds equal to half the Damage they have suffered.

So what's the stun duration if you whack someone in Shock Carapace? No Damage has actually been suffered.

I'd assume the damage in question is the amount you rolled (but not necessarily inflicted that is) when your character struck the person wearing the shock carapace armor. Thus you can determine the duration of the stun. We're talking about sorts of backlash here, your character strikes his / her foe, then (s)he's in for a nifty and 'stunning' electrocution. That'd be my take on the rules for the shock armor.

You could always just roll 1d10 for the number of rounds the stun lasts.

Malefic Sorcerer said:

That... That's brilliant.

Indeed, Malefic Sorcerer's option is thematically pleasing. though I do worry worry that the shock armoured character gets a big reprieve if they ever suffer a powerful blow. I'm tempted to just say 1 turn.

I would go with the 1 turn ruling as well. The armour itself has inflicted no damage but HAS inflicted a stun and in DH we round things up. Since it is impossible to inflict a 0 round stun simply round it up to 1. This is a passive benefit for the wearer anyways and costs them no actions to use. It simply happens whenever someone whacks them in the chest armour. If they want to inflict a 10 round stun on someone (for example) it is not unfair to ask the player to invest at least a half action weapon swing to the task. Now say the character wearing Shock Carapace gets a little creative and decides to "take one for the team" by leaping off a balcony 10 meters high and attempting to fall on a fleeing suspect to prevent their escape... In this case it can be argued that the armour HAS inflicted some damage (in the form of falling damage). Both the wearer and the suspect take some damage and the suspect gets to make a nasty Toughness check or spend the next minute or so twitching on the ground.

Another option would be to have the attacker be stunned for every degree of failure of their Toughness test.

ItsUncertainWho said:

Better might be one round for a simple failure, and an additional round per two degrees of failure beyond that. Using my own character's toughness of 34 as an example would net a potential for four rounds stunned with a roll of 95. Seems a better balance.

-=Brother Praetus=-

from france

a good way to think about it is to use other shock weapons as base for the effect like the acreage weapons or the schoc weapons of the arbites.

Brother Praetus said:

This sounds like a fine way, if one of my group starts wearing such armour (or encounters one wearing it) it will be my method.

I hope FFG will use this in an official errata

A truly devious and creative method to "stun" a suspect or capture an assailant for questioning...or other scoundrel or heretic would be to simply initiate a grapple with them...body block/tackle would be treated the same as them striking the carapace even though they didnt...the rules in the Radicals Handbook (pg 154 ) where the shock carapace is listed say that any successful hit ( intentional or not ) with a conductive weapon - any close combat weapon not made of wood ceramite or glass - results in a toughness test as if the attacker had been hit in the arm with a weapon with the shocking quality.

The DH ( pg 129 ) says the shocking quality requires a toughness test with a +10 for every point of armor they have on the location hit ( normally arm but in this case it could be body or arm if GM prefers ) to avoid the effect...If they fail..then they are stunned for a number of ROUNDS equal to HALF the damage they suffered ( in this case whatever damage the GM would feel appropriate for a grapple / body block/tackle ..Id personally say normal punch damage+S bonus for simplicity sake and that damage would be fatigue damage same as your normal unarmed combat rules ) Getting tackled AND shocked by some guy in heavy hard caparace armor is enough to knock the wind out of most your normal guys for at least a round or two.(guys weight + carapace weight+gear weight X distance and speed moved = crunchie headache..lol )OK after thinking about that for a sec i could see some actual wound damage there possibly...lol

well this calls for a tech-monk with luminen shock (energy chache ofc) and a shocking armor and as your are grappling with your arms I suppose a best CM bionic arm for another +10 strength then get some mechadendrites and ask your gm if the multiple arms bonus are appropriate for you (if not and you play radical get a multiple arms mutation)

or of course a hammerfist / flaming hands (forgot the name) psyker with a shocking carapace and shape flesh for multiple arms and get the bionic limbs too

ascencion adds to this with the unarmed master talents too ofcourse

Sirion said:

Don't forget the manipulator dendrite for the +20 Strength when pinning some poor guy down with a giant robotic pincer.

If you're a secutor with Machinator Array it could be argued that you're big enough to qualify as Hulking, which has it's own advantages and drawbacks.

The Hobo Hunter said:

can you actually grapple with that?

and my gm for example probably won't allow hulking because i's not in the rules (and appart from that.... drawbacks as mentioned... )

so far bionic limbs with +10 to strength tests / manipulator mecha with +20 to strength tests

machinator array with +10 to strength

helot mining device +10 to strength

extra mechadendrites for multiple arms -> +10 to grapple

20/25 +2d10 base strength

+luminen shock (with energy cache)

+ shock carapace

+cyber ressurection

summary=32-50 +base strength+20with xp +40/+50 with equipment and talents maxed out is at 120 for the grapple roll and doing 1d10 +3 Energy damage (not primitive)

so 100% grapplechance and a minimum of 2 extra success with the maxed build

or a bio psyker

bionic limbs +10

helot mining +10

shapeshift for multiple arms -> +10

hammerfists for strength bonus*4 (grappleable? think so)

+shock carapace

(+shock gauntlets ? I think this doesn't work with hammerfists)

+ cyber ressurection

summary= 32-50 base strength +20 for xp + 30 so maxed it'ld be 100 grapple and 1d10+ 32 I Damage Primitive

100% grapple chance and at least 4 extra successes (hammerhands *4 strength adds 4 succeses if I recall correctly)

and if grappled back the enemy get's stunned

psyker yet again wins imho

(stats are just a quick mix up not caring if cyber ressurection stacks well with shape flesh or anything probably one could go for the same values with starting packages and an appropriate homeworld and personally I dislike helot mining device because of the massive movement penalty)