Why would a daemonhost fight fair?

It wouldn't fight fair, but then a feudal army wouldn't either.

It'd be rather easier for a single creature with immense psychic power and superhuman intelligence to pull such things off. I could think of any number of sneaky things to do with such a character, the easiest of which would be to simply move into hiding while subverting the populace and key officials.

The danger of the daemon isn't their raw combat prowess. Sure, they would probably make mincemeat of a smaller group of combatants, but the primary threat is the cults that are going to pop up like weeds everywhere it rests its eyes.

Graspar said:

Sure, I agree. That's what I would expect an unbound daemonhost to do. But it wouldn't "doom the planet."

Actually, a feudal planet might be in better shape than a more advanced one, since due to limited travel and communications ability it is going to take a long time for any cult to grow in size.

linearblade said:

LOL.

One thing I do want to add to your hilarious post. At low levels, it might be difficult for a psyker to have enough of the right powers to beat a guardsman. At higher levels, if the guardsman doesn't have HEXAGRAMATIC warding on his armour, then he's too stupid to live.

Denmar1701 said:

Maybe his inquisitor does not want to waste resources on a mere guardsman and therefore the guardsman has not been granted access to this tech. Hexagramatic wards is not something every inquisitorial agent gets his greedy little hands on, I believe it´s reserved for those with a shitload of cash and connections (or dedicated psyker-hunter cells).

Storhamster said:

2500 thrones for an armour upgrade, is not a s..tload as you say. Unless you run in a group that has a GM who keeps a people on a tight leash. Certainly it's no more expensive than a powersword.

It is tied to those who are ordos malleus, but that wasn't the point.

The above example was a Guardsman vs. a Psyker. And it was assumed in the example they knew they were going to fight...

So... I stand by my comment... if a guardsman... if ANYONE of a higher rank KNOWS they're about to go hot and heavy vs a Psyker or daemon-spawn and they don't have this fairly inexpensive, although maybe needing the right connections type of amour upgrade, then they're too stupid to live.

Mind you, that was just suggesting he have a minor armour upgrade. Most Guardman will be trained in bolt gun, basic or pistol. A high level guardman with Psy Cannon rounds will seriously mess up a Psyker's day.

That same psyker with a psycannon of his own would do more damage and penetration with the same weapon. Hexagrammatic wards might help lots against direct damage attacks, especially force barrage and such "death by a thousand cuts" powers, but there is still plenty of single attack high damage powers, powers that ignore armour (not stated how that works anywhere in the rules, I'd work it out the same way as warp weapon vs. wards, i.e. they cancel out and AP is the same as against a normal attack) and TB completely as well as any number of things that doesn't do damage at all.

Compel, dominate, see me not, soul killer , holocaust, distort vision, weapon jinx, constrict (this one is especially good, the guardsman doesn't get to act even if he succeeds in resisting the power), fire storm, incinerate (ignores armour and TB), fling (the projectile isn't psychic).... I think that's most of them actually. So there's "just" a metric f*cktonne of powers that would still cause that poor guardsman serious problems.

And those wards are not a "minor armour upgrade". They are about as major as armour upgrades come in DH.