Recently ran the climactic encounter with a Boss Villain. The PCs were storming his hide-out, which was guarded by a small army of grunts and the Boss Villian's badass bodyguard, a chainsword-wielding mass of surgically-altered muscle which, due to a botched operation, could feel no pain (represented by an unnaturally high Toughness) and thus was utterly fearless. As the grunts and the PCs traded shots, the Bodyguard moved into possition to charge. Before the Bodyguard could charge, a character hit him with his favorite weapon, a firebomb, setting the big baddie ablaze. The rules say that when someone is on fire they can take no action other than try to put the fire out. After failing a couple Agility tests to do so, the resultant Fatigue levels made it impossible for him to extinguish the flames; thus the scaryest opponent spent the entire encounter spinning in place and very slowly burning to death, as the players picked off the grunts at their leisure.

So, my question is this: are there any rules for the fire going out on its own? I couldn't find any in the rules for Firebombs or for burning. Do I need to make up house rules for this? I'm dreading every major encounter fizzling out due to some bad Agility tests on the villains part... I considered stating that the Bodyguard would be immune to the "do nothing else" effect of being on fire due to his nerve damage, but I felt that that would sound too arbitrary to the players. Can even Daemons be "shut down" with this cheap, common weapon?

- If a character has any fatigue, they get a -10 penalty. It doesn't matter if they have 1 fatigue or 10, the penalty remains at -10. Or did your NPC have 20 or less AG ?

- I've never seen the rule saying that a character must try to put themselves out. Rogue Trader has a rule where the character must make a WP test or run around and scream, but if they pass they can chose to put themselves or try something else.

- For most weapons that set things on fire, the target doesn't risk being set alight if they don't take damage. But I notice that the firebomb is an exception and only needs a hit. If you houserule it so that if it doesn't damage the target in the initial blast, the target doesn't catch fire, then high toughness enemies have a good chance of not being set alight.

I'd also suggest a house rule where, if something is on fire but the fire damage for their turn isn't enough to get past their toughness bonus, then they don't take the fatigue either.

Bilateralrope said:

The rule for acting when on fire is the same in DH, if you pass a WP test you can act normally, you don't have to try to put it out. I would have also argued that, since it was fearless, it would have been able to act normally.

I would also go with those houserules. If a firebomb causes no damage, then maybe it didn't ignite (it is just a Molotov, after all).

Also, Ross Watson has stated before that the Pen for firebombs is incorrect, it should have a Pen of Zero.

While there are no rules for a fire going out on its own (presumably there is enough fuel to burn beyond the timescale of normal combat), a character that is ablaze can act normally if they pass a Willpower test.

Daemons can still be struck by this cheap weapon, but their increased Toughness Bonus better Willpower make it less of an issue.

It can be disheartening to see "bosses" taken down so easily. I've run a few encounters that I've thought were going to be a challange but which ended rather abruptly as massive damage was dealt out by the players (usually with a Rightous Fury).

Things with Fearless or similar talent/traits (from beyond comes to mind) should probably not have to test WP to act.

And fire causes fatigue?! I didn't know that!

SomVone said:

Yuppers. Specifically, being on fire causes fatigue. Example; If you are hit with a flamer attack and do not catch fire then you do not take fatigue.

-=Brother Praetus=-

personally i would agree that the bodyguard would be too crazed or simply didn't to be bothered about the fire and would act normally. falming nutcase!! yay!

P.S It can be disheartening when a boss monster is taken down easily. happened today when the pary was attacked by a Xenos beast, after some melee the assassin with a hunting rifle managed to do about 35 damage (thanks to full-round aim and righteous fury) before toughness and natural armour. the creature funnily enough only had 5 wounds left

Targetlock said:

"...empty a Carnosaur's brainpan at 1 klick." Paraphrased a bit.

-=Brother Praetus=-

when i GM i often give my "Main" bad guy(s) a fate point to spend/burn. In this case, I would have had him to the ground and spend that round rolling, "burn" the fate point, and have the flames go out.

you could also have one of the lesser minions jump in front of him, taking the fire bomb to the face with that "burnt fate point".

Good feedback. I mis-stated the Fatigue part: -10% from Fatigue plus the normal -20% to the test to stop burning = average Agility permanantly on fire. That's why I'm thinking there should be at least a slight chance of it going out on it's own...

@Adeptus-B

There's a simple way of solving this and many other problems of DH: Grant bonuses for stuff that might help.

The roll starts at an effective -30.

The unwilling torch stops, drops (falls prone) and rolls instead of just trying to pat the flames? Give a +10

The flambé has a friend helping him with that? Another +10

His tech-priest buddy has a fire extinguisher among his gadget collection and uses it? +20 (better hope he's using a non-toxic chemical though)

The resident pyrokine stops looking at the pretty, pretty flames and starts manifesting helpful powers like Sculpt Flame or even Douse Flames? +30 or even an automatic success.

And so on. DH is all about accruing bonuses when you need them.