My brother and I have a very large collection of the novels and the examples given here are the only ones I can think of too, neither of these abilities is used commonly. One source (Soul Drinkers I think) implies that only a few chapters even have functional Omophagea and the knowledge gained is more like memories or experiences than technical in nature.

I don't have a problem with acid saliva- I don't think it's supposed to be as strong as, say, hydrochloric acid. In the "chew through metal bars" example previously stated, I seem to remember that that discription says that it would take several hours to acomplish.

But, yeah, eating people to gain info- I can see that causing lots of problems in an rpg...

Adeptus-B said:

I don't because of GM's discretion.

Alex

Adeptus-B said:

Burning through metal bars in hours is a strong acid. Not movie-style "instant-dissolve-anything-acid" strong, but still pretty strong.

FUN FACT: Space Marines at the Watch Fortress sleep on a stone plinth. You can tell the guy that sleeps with his mouth open from the acid-etchings in the stone. If that's the Librarian, he might use that as the focus of his Augury each time he wakes up.

Well I am sure it sounded grand when they thought about it. With more then a few pints of Lager on a saturday night after watching a Chuck Norris movie. I imagine a scene like this:

"You know what would make Space Marines even more awesome?"

"Chuck Norris still kicks their ass"

"We give them Acid that can bite through steeland all. You know like Alien"

"Cool"

"Yeah and they eat their kills and then they learn all sorts of goodness"

"Dude, that rocks"

"I don't see chuck Norris do that!"

"He still kicks Space Marines ass"

Benjimus Prime said:

Just out of interest, the idea that the rib cage is "one solid mass" has long since been thrown out of the door (at least by the fans). Even the original material talked about, IIRC, "interlocking plates," which is about the only way that the thing could plausibly work anyway. Well, that would be "plausibly." MArnies were ever the broken stepchild, with the Rule of Kewl (no longer just Cool) now being truly in force.

With specific regard to eating people for information, or "I Know Kung Fu" to evoke the Matrix, it just struck me as so ripe for abuse as to wonder at design intent. It struck me as a means of imperfectly learning uncertain information rather than a case of noshing down someones brains to learn how to drive or diffuse a nuclear, sorry plasma, warhead.

YMMV. (Also, was bored at work so couldn't resist the reply. Surprisingly it's more interesting than Harris Matrices...)

Kage