Hi guys, I recently ran into an issue in a game, and I was hoping that one of you could help me resolve it.

A PC used a power sword to parry the melee attack of a genestealer, and succeeded on his WS test to parry the attack. The question then arose of what to do with the 75% chance to destroy the weapon that was parried by his power sword. I couldn't find a clear ruling on the subject, so I allowed him to roll standard damage against the xeno as if he had scored a hit against its arm and reduced the number of arms the creature had by one.

Have you encountered similar issues in your games, and if so, how did you deal with them?

Ahh the Age old question!

I suspect, much like dnd a natural weapon cannot be sundered or destroyed. However the Dark heresy book to my knowledge does not specify this!

So if you really wnated to be a 'realistic' gm, I'd say blow up that arm, and deal some damage to the creature! But just remember it can also happen to your pcs too (not that they will likely attack w/o a weapon)

By the rogue trader RAW, natural weapons are immune to a power field. DH RAW doesn't say.

Personally I prefer a house rule where, if a natural weapon is parried by a power field then the attacker takes one hit from the weapon using the attackers strength bonus (the attacker is providing the strength behind the attach) on the attacking limb. The attacker takes the damage normally, so they will only lose the limb if they take enough critical damage.

I'd merely hand out the base damage of the weapon, without any strength bonus from anyone factored in. Considering someone with Melee Training (Power) may quite often also have Counterattack, allowing two full damage rolls for a single reaction seems excessive.

In this very specifc case though I wouldn't bother, as it's a genestealer, who doesn't have to obey rules of biology like other critters.

My player started to look quite worried when he realised that these critters claws were the equivalent of power weapons or lathe blades, more so when it hit one of them.