I play an assault marine, but I don`t like the jumppack. It just feels out of place for me, when only one member of the team has one. So I wanted an ability that does not depend on it. Me and my Gamemaster decided that I could take "sword mastery", an ability that works exactly like the bolt mastery ablity of the tactical marine, but only with blades (combat knife, claymore, chain sword and forcesword). Do you see any problems with that?

Nope, I actually like the idea myself.

I agree, good idea.

I think it is actually an oversight on FFGs part to not add an Assault Marine ability that does not depend on jump packs, so I say go with it.

I agree that some sort of substitution should be allowed, especially since Assault Marines train in Jump Packs, on Bikes, and in Land Speeders. They aren't even always deployed via Jump Pack when they don't pilot a vehicle (Drop Pod or foot deployment).

However, I don't like the idea of replacing standard equipment with a Trait. There's very little reason not to take Sword Mastery and requisition a Jump Pack.

I would suggest that an Assault Marine could, instead of a Jump Pack, have a Hand Flamer (or regular Flamer) as standard equipment, as well as an Astartes Harness (the one that helps with Climbing). They could also choose to have Pilot (Antigrav) instead of Pilot (Self) to represent training with Land Speeders.

My primary concern with this ability involves if it is squad mode or not. Clearly, this power should be solo mode only (to match with bolter mastery). I would not be opposed to making it generic melee though (rather than sword only). But force as a condition that it can only be used when "balanced." In other words, they cannot be in terminator armour, nor wearing a jetpack/ammo backpack (or anything else that weighs them down).

Also, you should probably also come up with a variation of this that works in squad mode. Well, actually, just read wrathful descent, it doesn't require a jetpack, so it should just stay the same.

EDIT: also, remove pilot(personal) as a trained skill, give them something else, perhaps 2 weapon wielder(melee)?

KommissarK said:

In Final Sanction under demo rules, I gave a Space Wolf Assault Marine an additional +10 when charging instead of the jetpack. It wasn't a good trade off for the player but accurate with regards to the TT. Just a consideration for an additional bonus, depending on chapter.

Alex

mastercrafted sword +10WS

signature wargear (master) +10 to Hit

alien/xeno/heretic hunter +10WS

i dont even mention double team or such more ocasional bonuses.

as GM i would never allow for another +10WS even if usable only in solo mode. I would rather give 2 or so assault orientated talents.

Ok we did a little bit of playtesting and we resolved it like this:

it only works in solo mode

the assault marine retains his jumppack as standard gear, he just switches his specialty trait.

The balanced thing is a good idea, but I don't think it is necessary. The boltermastery has no such limitations, so why should this ability have one?

@boruta:

a normal space marine with a bolter can get:

+20 auto fire

+10 mastercrafted

+ 10 signature wargear master

+ 10 motion predictor

+ 10 bolter mastery (if he is a tactical)

for a nice bonus of + 60, without size or any other boni. +30 of this is available from the start, and every 10 percent you get an additional hit. A melee fighter who get's additional successes gets nothing. Add to this that melee combat is already at a disadavtage, especialy at the first levels, I don't realy think this additional 10 WS should be a problem ;-)

I don't believe ranged weapons can get the +10 to attack for being Mastercrafted.

ah you are right, my bad. ok so they just get a +50 bonus.

I still do not see a problem ;-)