Baron Throatpunch said:
N0-1_H3r3 said:
The potential only goes up from there. Both flame and autofire weapons benefit from Tide of Iron (double damage against hordes) and any armour with Death is Joy (+1 magnitude damage per hit against hordes)... but I think I've found the highest destructive potential in melee of all places, though it takes a really high-end character and a lot of luck to achieve this.
Assault Marine with some kind of power weapon, Berserk Charge, Lightning Attack, Preternatural Speed, Thunder Charge and Whirlwind of Death. On the charge, the character deals 1d5+1 unarmed attacks against the horde, plus his three normal attacks from the power weapon. Each attack causes 1 hit, +1 hit for every 2 degrees of success, and the power weapon doubles that on those attacks. Assuming WS 61, the character can hit a maximum of 5 times with any given melee attack on the charge (roll a 01 gives 8 degrees of success on WS61 with a +20 bonus for charging), and due to Preternatural Speed, can use Lightning Attack while charging. While an extreme example, if the character scores 6 unarmed attacks and hits on a 01 with all 9 attacks available to him, he'll deal 66 magnitude damage, doubled due to Whirlwind of Death to an insane score of 132. If he's wearing armour with the Death is Joy history, then that goes up further to 210. With a single Charge Attack.
And it doesn't stop there - the Black Templars squad attack ability grants the potential for even more attacks to add to that maelstrom of carnage.
Somehow I hadn't even thought of Death is Joy. That's pretty great. And while I was initially talking about starting characters... I don't think even Storm of Iron would bump a Heavy Flamer up to 210 damage. That's just crazy.
And I think I like it.
Well near beginning of assault marine you can have rank 1, respected renown:
Wrathful Descent, Thunder Charge, Death is Joy on the armor, Berserk Charge, power weapon
Thunder charge gives 1d5+1 unarmed attacks
Power weapon gives +1 hit for each successfull weapon skill test (probably = +1 damage to magnitude for each hit)
Death is Joy gives +1 magnitude damage for each sucessful attack
Wrathful descent gives +1d10 magnitude damage to a horde for a sucessful melee attack
So if you have 1d5 + 2 attacks, (1d10 + 2 magnitude damage for each sucessful attack + extra for each 2 degrees of sucess rolling) X sucessful attacks
3-7 attacks (about 70 - 80% sucess due to beserk charge) = average of 5 attacks X 75% sucess = 3.75 attacks with 1 - 4 hits per attack = 3.75 X 2.5 = 9.375 hits over 3.75 hits
3.75 hits X (1d10 + 2) = 3.75 X 7.5 = 28.125
total = 9.375 + 28.125 = 37.5 magnitude damage average
Max level with prenatural speed, lightning attack, blademaster, and whirlwind of death gives 7.5 attacks x about 80% (plus blademaster turning 1 attack to sucess 80% of the time) = 6.8 sucessfull attacks
6.8 attacks with 1-5 hits per attack = average 6.8 X 3 = 20.4 hits (I'm assuming that with the pen of the power weapon and unnatural strength you will always do at least 1 point of damage with each hit, against unnatural tough and high armour opponents this isn't true)
6.8 X (1d10 +2) = 6.8 X 7.5 = 51 magnitude damage
total = (20.4 + 51) X 2 from whirlwind of death = 140.8 magnitude damage average
Accuracy of the above may not be absolutely correct, it is meant as an approximation. Mostly if you are comparing the devastator and assault marines damage to hordes, you should give them both the horde damage abilities. If there are any other broken ways to increase this, or if wrathful descent only applies to per round of melee rather than each melee attack which I read it as then let me know.