So, I noticed that while there have been several threads in the past about Las-weapons in general, none of them seem to have ever actually been here in the House Rules sub forum. I figured I would share my own thoughts on the topic, and place them here. If anyone decides to use what I put here, I strongly recommend applying the proposed modifications equally across the board to Rogue Trader and Deathwatch as well.
That said, here goes.
Proposed Las-Weapon House Rules
"Batteries" Included
- Penetration ¹ : Increase all las-weapons with a published Penetration of less than 5 by 1 .
-
Hot-shot Charge Packs:
A las-weapon equipped with a
Hot-shot Charge Pack
sees its
Damage
increased by
1
, its
Penetration
increased by
3
, and it gains the
Tearing
²
Quality. Whilst so equipped, a las-weapon loses its
Reliable
quality and sees its
Clip
reduced to
1
.
Hot-shot Charge Packs may be used with any Basic or Pistol las-weapon with the following exceptions: Hellguns , Hellpistols, and Duelling Las * . -
Overcharge Packs:
A las-weapon equipped with an
Overcharge Pack
sees both its
Damage
and
Penetration
increased by
1
, while its normal
Clip
capacity is reduced by
half
(round up if necessary).
Overharge Packs may be used with any Basic or Pistol las-weapon with the following exceptions: Hellguns , Hellpistols, and Duelling Las *. - Hellguns and Hellpistols ³ : Voss-pattern Hellguns and Hellpistols gain the Gyro-Stabilized Quality found on page 143 of the Deathwatch corebook.
¹
Dueling Las*:
Both the Belasco in
Rogue Trader
and the Khayyer-Adden in the
Inquisitor's Handbook
are basically Laspistols of fine manufacture using
Hot-shot Charge Packs
and their profiles remain mostly unchanged.
²
Tearing
:
The Belasco Dueling las adds the
Tearing
Quality to its profile. This brings it more in line with the idea of it using the equivalent
of a
Hot-shot Charge Pack
and makes it more comparable to the Khayer-Addin Dueling las.
³
Hellguns
and
Hellpistols
:
All Hellguns and Hellpsitols may use standard charge packs in lieu of their more common backpack capacitors. The Cadian, Lucius and Voss patterns consume the energy from the Charge Packs at four times the rate of their common lasgun and laspisol counterparts. This gives these Hellguns a Clip of 15, while their Hellpistols counterparts have a Clip of 8 (30/4; 7.5, round up to 8). The D'Laku continues to receives 12 shots from a standard Charge Pack, per its description on page 133 of the
Inquisitor's Handbook
.
Some might think this makes Lasweapons too powerful. Let me address some points and explain my thoughts.
Penetration:
- I feel an increase to Penetration is justifiable. After all, a weapon-grade laser should be able to burn through a leather jacket. As it stands in the RAW, even Gang Leathers in the corebook counted their 1 armor against a lasweapon ( Primitive - half AP, rounded up is still 1).
- This increase should also makes the ubiquitous "Guardsman's Friend" lasrifle a touch more comparable to the so-called "God of Small Arms and Autofure" autogun.
- The limiting of which lasweapons are effected by this rule prevents Penetration 8 Hell-weapons or Penetration 11 Lascannons. It brings the older Voss and D'Laku patterns, a little bit more in-line with the more recently published materials.
Hot-Shot Packs:
- I felt that the benefits of a using Hot-Shot Charge Pack were not quite equal to the penalties, but I also didn't want to make them too powerful. In the case of these rules modification, most lasweapons using a Hot-shot Charge Pack will still perform within the scope of the RAW; that is to say Penetration comes out to 4, +1 Damage , gains Tearing , loses Reliable , and only one shot. It does give the Long Las a slightly better Penetration ; base Penetration of the Long Las becomes 2, and the Hot-shot Charge Pack will increase it to 5 with this rules.
- I really feel that weapons such as the Belasco Dueling las should conform to a standard; in this case the Khayer-Addin and their common feature of single shot Charge Packs. Therefore, Tearing should be added to indicate a form of Hot-shot Charge Pack .
Overcharge Packs:
- The modified rules for the Overcharge pack makes their benefit comparable to the Expander Rounds available to many SP weapons, which do not see a reduction in their Clip when using said rounds.
Hellguns and Hellpistols
- Standardized the ability of all Hellweapons to substitute standard Charge Packs for their Backpack Capacitors / Ammo Supplies . Seemed reasonable since the socket would likely conform to a Munitorum standard.
- Giving the Gyro-Stabilized Quality is on a bit of a whim, inspired by the written description of the Voss- pattern guns on page 172 of the Inquisitor's Handbook . This seems an valid addition to further make the Voss -patterns appealing once more. I don't
Anyway, there they are, my House Rules for Lasweapons. Opinions?
-=Brother Praetus=-