I've been making example characters in RT, and just finished my first Exporator, and so I've been reviewing the things they can do, and seems to me that Mechadendrite Use is never going to pay off!

Each of the talents are expensive, and the Mechadendrite (which it seems you must acquire separately with PF) are week cheese, you’d better off with a swarm of survo-skulls or combat servitors, and concentrating on making you skill and other tech powers like Ferric Summons and the like then investing in Mechadendrite.

My issue with this is, in WH40K in the muti-Mechadendrite tech-priest is depicted so often it’s become iconic, but to make any tech-priest (DH or RT) that uses Mechadendrite is an inefficient use of xp.

Comments, am I missing something?

guardianforever said:

That not everyone plots out exactly how to get the most out of the XP given to them, and some people put character before XP (so if it suited the character to have a mechadendrite, the player would pay the XP cost for it and then buy one with PF, regardless of whether it's "XP efficient" or "weak cheese"). It's not as though RT characters have a shortage of XP to spend.

Personally, if you're basing your character solely around efficient spending of XP, you're removing part of the fun of roleplaying.

Keep in mind that it's priced just like a weapon talent group. For 500 XP you get the ablity to use 3+ Mechadendrites. The util, and med are quite handy. Sure from a power gamer stand point you could just get a combi tool, and advanced medkit and spend your XP else where. The weapon mechadendrite at rank 3 is another matter, and the machinator array later is excellent.

From a power players perspective just look at the 2 mechadendrites added in Ascension....

Dalnor Surloc said:

You point out the machinator array, a good example, with this talent you get the parts with/mods with the talent... that's not the case with Mechadendrite use you must acquire the parts separately.

Which tells me that the Mechadendrites are rear and special, but the stats don't reflect the Grandeur and prestige that the setting as invoked. A tech priest with his mods and enhancements is a thing of fear and awe. But everything that mechadendrites do, can be done easier and cheaper with other gear. And ease and economy are prime motives for the Machine Cult.

To sum up it’s not that I think character pay too much for the Mechadendrite talents, it’s that I don't think the Mechadendrites are modeled very well.
As for the new ones in accession they are throne agents, well out the of the reach on an acolyte or member of a Rouge Traders crew

Dalnor Surloc said:

I've always thought that the Mechadendrite bonuses will stack with other tools since you effectively have an extra hand with the tools (the extra hand is probably more useful). But even if they don't stack, the utility mechadendrites have advantages over the tools:

- Manipulator: Stronger than regular limbs and can anchor the tech-priest to suitable points to prevent him falling.

- Medicae: The flesh staplers don't mention a test to stop blood loss, so I think that it would be automatic.

- Optical: It's a pencil thickness camera. I can't think of anything better if you want to look around a corner without alerting those around it, except some psychic abilities. Or you could snake it through a small grating.

- Utility: It's knife gives +15 to parry tests while leaving both your hands free. So the unwieldy and unbalanced traits can be ignored when you pick your weapons.

The one attack per turn rule limits the ballistic mechadendrites usefulness. But it does allow you to have one weapon always readied, which is useful as I don't see quick draw in the explorator advances.

If the bonuses stack then, that would add to the usefulness, and I as for the optical Mechadendrite, true it is only book defined snake-style camera, but if a player was to ask me for the equivalent to modern day snake-cam... I would let them try to get one, wouldn't be cheap or plentiful, but not unattainable.

I admit, the parry bonus, form the utility arm is nice, and being able to use reaction to activate the ballistic Mechadendrite is very nice. But I still find they don’t live up to the effort (ie xp) or importance and prestige set forth in the setting background.

At this point I either going to allow tech-priest to combine any number of tools/weapons that they can buy/acquire and use tech-use to convert them into Mechadendrites, and then get them installed (by a trained curgeon of course) without the need for the talent. Or come up with new stats for the Mechadendrites so they live up to hype.

You point out the machinator array, a good example, with this talent you get the parts with/mods with the talent... that's not the case with Mechadendrite use you must acquire the parts separately.

So... acquiring stuff is a hindrance for a Rogue Trader crew member? Seriously?

If the bonuses stack then, that would add to the usefulness, and I as for the optical Mechadendrite, true it is only book defined snake-style camera, but if a player was to ask me for the equivalent to modern day snake-cam... I would let them try to get one, wouldn't be cheap or plentiful, but not unattainable.

Would that be a snake-cam on a 3-metre long "cable" which can flex entirely at the Techpriest's intuitive will?

Which tells me that the Mechadendrites are rear and special, but the stats don't reflect the Grandeur and prestige that the setting as invoked. A tech priest with his mods and enhancements is a thing of fear and awe. But everything that mechadendrites do, can be done easier and cheaper with other gear. And ease and economy are prime motives for the Machine Cult.

Ease is pretty big with 'dendrites - you've got a free hand. Two-handed unwieldy weapon or sword&shield-equivalent? Both. Melee or ranged weapon? Both. Carrying the weapon, the torch or the McGuffin? All three and I've still got one hand free!

I like the medicae dendrite a lot. It will look cool on a character, and all though it will only grant a +10 to the skill test, this bonus will still make sure that your tech priest will be just that +10 better than everyone else with the same skills and talents. Expensive and hard to get, maybe, but it will put your tech priest in a different class than the rest.

While it's true that most utility aspects of the various Mechadendrites are easily replicated by cheaper equipment, this does not address two issues:

- Carrying capacity and general ease of use. Once installed, Mechadendrites go everywhere with you, and you have your hands free for other tasks.

- Style. Those are the Mechanical Arms of Awesome growing out of your back. Can you put a price on so much Awesome?

Also, once you've bought the Machinator Array talent, this Ballistic Mechadendrite becomes really good. Since Tech-Priests tend to suck at dodging anyway, why not use this Reaction of yours for an additional attack? With something groovy like a Bolt Pistol, or Inferno Pistol? You know you want to

As for the Mechadendrites described in Ascension, there's absolutely no reason for them to be unavailable for Rogue Trader characters. While Explorators aren't the most trusted or honored members of the Machine Cult for their various eccentricities, they are anything but underequipped and no Magos will hold a useful tool away from a guy who can potentially come back with a working STC.

- Style. Those are the Mechanical Arms of Awesome growing out of your back. Can you put a price on so much Awesome?

Oh, it gets better. Who is the only character in the setting who can sprout tentacles, fling glowing balls of energy, make others quail in fright with a mere utterance, move objects telekinetically by a gesture and float around - all without risking a Daemon eating his head or the =][= burning him to a cinder? Yup.

Cifer said:

Exactly my line of thinking. All the fun of a Psyker but instead of being bullied all around, it's you who gets to bully everyone. And if they stand up to your abuse, you can cut the power feed to their hab-block or shut down the ship's main engine and watch them change their tone.

Clearly, this unique play experience is worth some extra exp put into it.

Not to mention the unlimited potential for custom-made Elite Advancements.

guardianforever said:

But what you seem to be missing is that Tech Priests would much rather enhance their week flesh by attaching a piece of the machine god to themselves, thus becoming more divine in the process, than using a mere tool kit designed for a servitor or menial to use.

Rare and Special also don't mean better. Something old is better than something new even if it is of lesser quality.

Don't forget about battery life. Items like glow globes have limited battery life in the RAW, while the tech-priests potentia coil can supply enough energy to support power armour (Dragon Scale, Inq Handbook page 137). So the mechadendrites should stayed powered for much longer than the alternitive items.

So maybe you could give other items limited battery life if you still think the mechadendrites are underpowered.

which character can equip a shield a melee weapon and a heavy weapon without the need for bracing all at the same time? maybe another pistol weapon? no problem...

you need to shoot around a corner but don't want to expose yourself? use your optical mechadendrite and your gun mechadendrite to shoot stuff while remaining completely in cover with every body part that can be hit randomly forcing the enemy to aim for your mechadendrites

(now a pencil thick camera lense is the same -20 as a power armour layered obese upper arm but still it is -20)

hell try to disarm a mechadendrite?

ever tried to shout "lay your weapons down" to a techpriest with his "I'm a walkin army" equip on his mechadendrites ?

while your las weapons are equipped on a machinator array you never need to reload them... finally this is up to your gm but running around with a never need to reload duelling Las?

I think this is worth the xp spent

Disarming Tech Priests is possible, I can still see the face of one of my players when the Head Mourner in The House of Dust and Ash attacked him with a Power Scyth and he lost his Mechadendrite while parrying....

you need to shoot around a corner but don't want to expose yourself? use your optical mechadendrite and your gun mechadendrite to shoot stuff while remaining completely in cover with every body part that can be hit randomly forcing the enemy to aim for your mechadendrites

(now a pencil thick camera lense is the same -20 as a power armour layered obese upper arm but still it is -20)

With regards to the optical 'dendrite in particular, I'd probably rule that it's considered a minuscule target, giving a -30 penalty to the Called Shot. Anything beyond the compact laspistol on the gun 'dendrite, on the other hand side, would be a normal called shot.

Santiago said:

Since the RAW has the power field only destroy enemy weapons when the power weapon is parrying I have to ask: Did the player know about this house rule beforehand ?

Bilateralrope said:

It sounded more like a crit effect to me ... crit damage to a mechadendrite is as critdamage for an arm if you can loose an arm you can loose a mechadendrite ... but now as you state it comes from a power weapon I think he actually lost his mechanic dendrite which doubles as a knife with the defensive trait... if he parried with this (or maybe even with a medical dendrite) it probably is damaged

By what game mechanics would he loose an arm while parrying?

You don't parry with the mechanderite, you parry with the knife that is attached to the mechanderite. Would you have someone parrying with a sword loose their arm to the power field?

question is has that parry been successfull if not he could have made a called shot to the mechadendrite and using a power weapon does Energy damage now considering the crit tables... at 8 crit damage the arm is severed while the "target has only one arm" should be ignored I think

voilá one mechadendrite less

and then I thought the utility mechadendrite says "this counts as a defensive mono knive" or something and if the mechadendrite would be the weapon and the weapon would be destroyed the mechadendrite of course would be destroyed.... but it is not because only the cutting knife on the mecha is destroyed because only the cutting knife on the mecha counts as the knife

Personally my character has quite a few mechandrites and they've been invaluable for the most part.
with a med you essentially get a permanent bonus to interrogation and standard checks you also get an injector that could be filled with 6 doses of whatever you happen to want, which can be incredibly useful as a simple gadget but also a potential offensive weapon expecially if you want to take your target alive or taken by suprise. flesh stapler also good cause when you need it your really need it and I dont see anything saying you can't use it on yourself.

The utility mech is overall slightly weak since by this point in the game you'll likely already have a combi tool or an omnissian axe, but having a permanent parrying weapon that doesn't require any hands is very useful for the melee monkey, specially since a tech priest will generally have a neglible agility but a decent weapon skill.

The optical mechandrite is amazing, decent bonuses, telescopic and microscopic sight, essentially gives the dark sight trait, looks around corners provides its own light and you can literally watch your own back. whats not to love?

I dont really rate the 'lifting' mechandrites in DH and ascension as being worth having IMO

Gun mechandrites are pretty good, but I still have mixed feelings on the mechandrite combat rules, mechanator array is a must.
personally I did inflict the mining helot augement (from inquisitors handbook) on myself for the extra breacher arm (I treat it as a mechandrite) which has so far been incredibly useful, Giant drill to the face generally solves most problems, and for other problems giant Drill still applies.
a important slight powergaming thing to remember is chances are the techpriest/explorator will be going last in combat, and going last you actually gain an advantage, did you use your reaction this round? no? Giant Drill to the face!
that extra attack really counts, technically a explorator/techpriest could pelt out 5 attacks a round with extremely potent weaponry. oh and an extra shot if you have a MIU weapon interface, so that that 6

Now I have nearly lost the utility mechandrite while parrying before because of powerfields, but I generally view it as a worthwhile risk, I can replace a mechandrite I can't stitch my head back on.

that extra attack really counts, technically a explorator/techpriest could pelt out 5 attacks a round with extremely potent weaponry. oh and an extra shot if you have a MIU weapon interface, so that that 6

According to the errata, using the MIU explicitly counts as an attack action, forbidding you from making a standard attack. You can aim for a full round and MIU-fire or make a full move and use the MIU, but you can't use both the MIU and a regular weapon.

I dont really rate the 'lifting' mechandrites in DH and ascension as being worth having IMO

I've done a little calculating on the Ascension dendrite... let's just say that the ability to lift somewhere around five tons (SB 12 + TB 6 or even possibly also 12 after the Unnatural advance) or hold onto something with that strength does come in useful sometimes...

Ah well that popped that bubble, though at least the MIU still seems worth having.
and being able to do 5 attacks in a round is still pretty darn good.

and I suppose I never looked at it that way for the servo-arm, I suppose I could say
that since the magos can get unnatural strength the servo-arm can be made redundant
but since they only get it at rank 16 its not really worth argueing.
overall Im not very happy with how they did the magos in ascension. I also didn't like all the vindicare worship either

I finally started playing in a RT campaign and have taken Explorator. I'm looking forward to mechadendrites when we get back to port with a higher PF. The combination of permanently installed, reach and keeping hands free is fantastic. The medicae mechandendrite would be very useful for installing the many bionics the party have their eyes on.