Got my copy today, spent about 30 minutes so far flipping thourgh it and already found a bundle of things that a) make no sense and b) are in desperate need of errata. Now don't get me wrong. Overall, I'm feeling quite good about the book, but some things just (like the title says) don't add up:

Chem Geld

Now, I am quite sure this Talent is listed in the Talents table and described in the Talents Chapter for some reason. I bet the reason is that it is conceivable that some character might have it? Anyway, as it is now it isn't in the list of starting talents and it doesn't exist in any advance tables so atm DW character can't have it at all... Obviously there is something missing somewhere. (i.e waiting for Errata)

"Astartes" Weapons

This is the part where I'm actually quite surprised... and a bit disappointed. Now, the guys who wrote the weapon stats obviously paid a bit too much attention to bolter and bit too little for anything else. A little smaple of how it goes:

Astartes Bolt Pistol 2d10+5X, Tearing, Pen5

Astartes Ragefire Plasmagun 1d10+9, Pen8

So basically shooting a bolt pistol does, on the average, 7-8 points of damage to another marine when plasmagun does 6-7 points... and meanwhile bolt pistol has significantly higher maximum damage.

Sniper Rifle

This goes into realm of ridiculous at best. The basic scout weapon (which, conceivably, all characters should know how to use having used it when they were scouts) is Exotic Weapon with 1d10R, Toxic, Felling(1), Pen0. Surely you have to be kidding? Or just forgot to put the stats of the REAL sniper rifle there?

well taking a look at the ragefire plasma gun. Volatile is good, autoconfirms any righteous fury rolls.
it has better pen and can use a maximal shot for an extra d10 of damage and +2 pen, but gaining recharge and overheat if you do.
the plasma gun has a better clip size and overall better min damage if your dice decide to betray you.
I would rather take a bolter for the tearing, fully automatic and potential for specialised ammo.
but on the other hand a semi auto maximal shot (is this possible?) from a plasma gun is pretty nasty, expecially against anything that relies on a decent armour score.

the sniper rifle is a bit of a joke, having a look through the enemies selection its special qualities aren't that great, expecially since you have to get exotic weapon training for the **** thing. toxic is useless if you cant scratch anything with it, and even at max potential of 3D10 damage ignoring 1 level of unnatural toughness, theres a good chance that any opponent worth putting the effort into sniping is either going to bounce the damage or be mildly annoyed at best even if they fail toughness for the toxic damage
The stalker boltgun is better in every way to meet our sniping needs. making the once feared sniper rifle utterly redundant

Something that doesn't add up.

the astartes servo arm is listed as having a pen of 10.........really?

Neodreamweaver said:

In Tabletop it counts as a power fist, so yes, it should be pretty penetrating. Since a power fist has Pen 9 I don't think it's a stretch to imagine the servo-arm having +1 Pen more.

roughly comparing it to the ascension servo arm to which its meant to be virtually identical to. thats a pretty big difference. (roughly a +8 pen difference) at least a normal powerfist has a powerfield, the servo arm doesn't really have any excuse. its a large blunt instrument created to lift extremely heavy objects.
and remember the tabletop does not translate into any of the rpgs at all.

Neodreamweaver said:

It should translate in background/fluff. They're based on the same Space Marines (and the same equipment). If anything, the RPG is more "Movie Marines" than the tabletop, so it should be even more dramatic. If Ascension got it wrong (which according to this it seems to have done), then that's a fault in Ascension and not Deathwatch. Or perhaps they're deliberately designed to be completely different tools.

A power fist is a large, blunt instrument created to hit things extremely hard (i.e. apply a lot of crushing power and/or weight to another object). They both effectively do the same job, especially in the hands of a master (i.e. Techmarine).

EDIT: And while the power fist does indeed have a power field, the servo-arm's ability in tabletop means it counts as having one, even though it doesn't. So why shouldn't that translate to the RPG as high penetration?

a powerfist is a large blunt instrument surrounded by was best described as a doom field to create massive possible destruction over a wide surface area and is described by fluff to be close to an anti tank weapon.

the servo arm does not have a powerfield as is essentially a powerful crushing/lifting device, this is represented well in its damage and the fact it can lift a huge mass, but really pen 4 top.
Now it is an astartes item, so it will have merit as a useful weapon, but reading through it I can't see any reason for it to be pen 10. that would be equal to a chainfist.

Hmm, fair enough. Well I'll be running mine with stats as written, but that's because I love my tabletop Techmarines! I can certainly see why you'd want to lower the Pen, especially with chainfists in mind. I think a lot of the weapon stats in Deathwatch don't compare well (to one another, let alone to those in other books).

Also for some reason I can't seem to stop writing power first instead of power fist

powerfirst a weapon for REAL MEN powered by REAL LIGHTENING!! win at everything FOREVER!

if you dont know what Im talking about watch the powerthirst advert on youtube.

either way I think well settle on each to their own for this one then

As neodreamweaver stated, its important to read the plasma/melta description in full. Plasma has maximal mode, which is fairly nice, and meltas get an extra dice of damage at short range. Both of them are basically lighter weight weapons that have high single output, vs. the autofire output of bolt weapons.

As far as the sniper rifle goes: yeah, its not really good for an encounter, but in a more narritive sniping situation (kill the etheral at the tau encampment as he is giving a speech), its excellent against certain targets. Don 't forget to apply poisons to it. The genophage is exceedingly nasty, also consider what a toxin apothecary can add to it, etc.. With the right bonus and a good roll, I'd imagine the 3d10 total from accurate isn't too hard to get either, aim for a long time, get every bonus, use a demeanour, etc.

Of course, once again, thats for a more narritive use of the weapon.

As to the servo arm, it doesn't have power field, so I'd say pen 10 isn't that terrible. The thing is designed to be able to manipulate/cut through tank armour for the purpose of repair.

I'm assuming the Sniper Rifle also has the Accurate quality no?

Artaxerxes said:

That it does, allowing up to an additional 2D10 worth of damage with a good shot.

As far as the Servo Arm Claw goes, if it can lift a Rhino (and has Strength 75 Unnatural Strength x2) then I don't see any reason why it would not simply crush any and all armor you direct it at, with perhaps the exception of terminator armor (which it won't penetrate given Pen 10 vs AP 14).

The only thing that I find odd is the Renown requirements for some of the weapons.. such as said powerfist.

The Marines in the Final Sanction / Oblivions Edge demo have weapons that they can't technically be wielding, according to the rules in the book. For instance, the Dark Angels Assault Marine can't have that Powerfist because he does not have the proper renown to requisition it.

I do understand that they must have waived most of these rules for the demo version, however, Oblivions Edge makes specific reference to using the rulebook to add new talents/skills with the XP gained from Final Sanction. This would imply that while they intentionally left more complicated rules out for the demo, they also still created those demo characters with the rules in-mind.

Therefore, why does the Assault Marine have a powerfist when he can't actually get one yet?

I bring this up because my players are now of mixed emotions. They are happy that the rulebook came out, but then realized that some of the gear that they acquired in the demos they can't actually have anyway. Especially the Assault Marine player... they weren't too happy to hear that "Oh yeah, sorry.. we didn't really mean to give you that powerfist in the Avalos mission... yeah... our bad. Give us the fist back until we trust you more again later or something..."

I might just have to remove the Renown requirements for some of the "normal" Space Marine weapons and only apply them to Relics, Deathwatch equipment, and mastercrafted versions of normal weapons.

SpawnoChaos said:

Because, as the book says, a Kill-team might be issued weapons they normally can't requisition as the Watch Captain sees fit.

"Genestealer cult huh? Have a power fist, just to give a bit of insurance."

And as far as renown goes, it should only take 3-5 missions to get the 20 renown needed for a lot of the "Common" Astartes special weapons like a Power weapon or plasma guns.

Polaria said:

Bad Birch said:

KommissarK said:

Reading through the special rules for plasma and sniper rifle again I'm inclined to give them a chance. Plasma at maximum setting is deadly enough so I'll let it be. Sniper Rifle on the other hand is a bit iffy... I'll let it stay as it is except for the really big bungle. My first House Rule is that Sniper Rifle is not Exotic Weapon for Astartes Weapon Training purposes (so AWT gives you the skill for it). Might give it some Pen later if it doesn't work out at current stats.

Found one more thing that needs to be addressed in errata:

Tau Fire Warrior: Talents are written for Horde-use-only, but there is not "Horde" entry in the profile... Which things like gaunts and such have.