I had a couple of quick questions that I wasn't able to resolve by searching the forum, so apologies if these have already been answered.

1. I saw a couple mentions that the DH classes / paths were horrifically unbalanced (e.g., psychers were too powerful, if you don't have fearless you can never fight, etc.). Did this ever get resolved by a house rule or official rule book?

2. I know there's a delta between the DH and RT psycher abilities. Did this ever get resolved by a house rule or official rule book?

3. Has anyone adapted a requisition system for DH. That is, rather than having players pay for their blown off limbs or dart guns, assume their Inquisitor has X amount of credits, and, for missions, they can request stuff. What they get depends on reputation, skills, etc. I don't want my DH agents worring about buying their own ammunition :-). If they want to save up for a summer house, that's a different issue :-)

4. Has anyone fiddled with treating fate points more like Savage Worlds Bennies or Ubiquity Style points? I don't want to reduce the grittyness to 0, but it's fun to have your character live, particularly if you like them.

5. Now that the Ascention book is out, has anyone started the characters as Ascention people, or do you usually start them off with the original, low level guys. Just a question about what works better.

Thanks!

Oh, yeah, one more question. I've often obtained or made "1-sheets" (theyre usually like 3 column, small print things, sometimes more than one page) that quickly summarize the rules for new players. Does something like that already exist for DH? I don't want to re-invent the wheel.

furashgf said:

This depends largely on the GM. Fear tests are not uncommon in DH, and those with a low WP will often succumb to shock, which can be a serious issue in a fight. The GM should build encounters knowing that some players are going to get unlucky and wet their pants. You can also see the con to this, which is people that want to nerf fearless because it makes insanity much less of an issue.

And psykers can be incredibly powerful, but it again depends largely on how the GM handles them. I think the title to one large thread was 'overwhelmed by the party's psyker' or something similar, where that one was discussed.

Each of the classes can be exploited to a degree, I've found, it really depends on how the GM is running the game.

furashgf said:

I've seen lots of ideas tossed around on people saying they were going to convert the system in Ascention or RT to work with DH. This thread had some ideas on it: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=70&efcid=3&efidt=232174&efpag=0#232388

furashgf said:

I find this is up to how the GM runs the game- you can kill or spare your players as much as you want. I've not modified the fate point system but mainly because we didn't need to. The GM adjusted the encounters such that we weren't killed all the time.

furashgf said:

That's a matter of opinion. The only issue I have starting with ascention is that you've got a lot of character background that is simply written- I find it easier to RP a character and group dynamics if I've played that character from the start of his adventures. That said, sometimes your goal is higher end villians, etc (see RT/DW), and startng at ascention shouldn't be a problem; if starting at Ascended, I'd just recomend starting new and not having a lot of pre-existing character interaction .

Also though, if starting as a new GM and new player, I'd suggest starting at level 1 in the base DH and moving up from there. The rules for the higher levels can get out of hand if you haven't mastered the basics, and the one who plays something like a Psyker or Vindicare is going to have a good chance of running wild across your campaign before you can adapt to them.

As for quick cheat sheets, I only know of the support one that contains combat manuvers.

1.) The classes are pretty much fine as they are, but there are issues that can cause difficulty in game play.

Fear Tests- Low level classes with a low Will stat having to roll for a fear tests can be hazardous. It can easily be offset with the psyker having the minor power "inspiring aura" up, the telepathy power "Inspire" up or an injection of the drug "Frenzon" (drugs are your friend in this game). Also, the "unshakeable faith" talent can work wonders as well.

Psykers- They are only as powerful as the amount of leeway you give them. If they are constantly out of the public eye (thus free to use their powers without being accused of withcraft) and you constantly group the baddies into a nice circle that can be annihilated by a single AOE power, then yes, psykers are gonna be too powerful.

2.) No they didn't, but even so they are all different types of psykers anyhow, so having them work off of different systems makes some sense (they still seem interchangeable between RT and DH to me, despite the diff. systems).

3.) Same as Charmander. It's largely dependant on the GM, but a lot of people think that once the PC's reach a certain point in their levels (5 or higher), their inquisitor considers them more trustworthy and will give them certain minor benefits (such as free ammo, access to special facilities, or contacts).

4.) In some cases I've actually seen or heard of the opposite, where it wasn't enough to burn a fate point, but the guy needed to lose a limb or take stat damage as well. So far, for my group, fate points have worked out fine as they are now and people have learned not to rely on them so much by investing heavily into Dodge, Agility and good carapace armor.

5.) Obviously, if you start from low-level, it works out better storywise and they also get to collect various gear as they level that isn't present in the starting packages for the ascension level classes. Also, you get to "play-test" the characters at lower levels giving the characters the chance to adjust their abilities accordingly so they work better in the future.

furashgf said:

DH with the fearless talent isn't really DH. It's like playing CoC without sanity rules, going against the spirit of the game. So if 1 out of 4 players has it, it might be okay but otherwise... also my PC now can re-roll Fear tests which keeps the Fear in but makes it less of a factor... so it's not a black and white thing (fearless vs no fearless). There is shades of grey.

Alex

Fearless is a pretty high level talent isn't it? Isn't it rank 8 for an assassin? Don't base all your balance issues in game on a high level talent.

I've never had problems with Psykers being OP, but you might want to check out the errata (It's somewhere on this site), it raises the threshold of a bunch of powers, changes some things (For example Unnatural Aim becoming +30 instead of point blank. Important if the psyker has a shotgun), and probably most of all, it makes focusing a psychic power an attack action, so you cannot both cast a power and attack.

Furthermore, psykers er to a degree self-regulating, since they blow up the party if they abuse their powers.