I've been inspired by the "ARe the Lances a Trap" thread and have set up a fairly complex spreadsheet to look at several computations at once with monte carlo simulation. (Either that or code a generalized triangle distribution in R). One thing that has come up is: What is the maximum possible ballistics score a PC could possibly get in their career? (i.e. MOST OPTIMIZED Ballasitics score?)

My thoughts so far off the top of my head are:

+45 Ballistics Score (Base)

+20 from XP Upgrades

+5 Fortress World

+5 Archeotech auger array

+10 Veteren of the Angevin Crusade

+10 ShipMaster's bridge

+5 (Some other ship component, can't remember)

This gives... +100 I'm sure I'm missing some more, any help?

thanks.

You're mixing stats with modifiers. Total modifiers cannot convey a cumulative benefit higher than 60, so stacking more after that is pointless.

i think some of your bonuses are off. you start with base 30, it can be upgraded to 40 for 5 ship points and 50 for 15. then you have the ship complication Martial Hubris that gives a +5, and yet the archeotech sensor. you also have the turbo-weapons upgrade for the macro-batteries and the best quality crew improvement that can give a + 5 to the ships overall rating. not all that hard to get some easy improvements, but you could use the extended action lock on target. higher scores increase your chance of a hit. but if your dice turn on you they won't mean much. not sure why people use the mars macros and titanforge, the sunsear and sunhammer lance are a better pick. if your using anything smaller than a light crusier you will run out of space really quick. though i have to say, they really need to improve lances, don't nearly get as many dice on a critical as a sunsear but you don't want to face a ship that will scrap your ship in round 1 the is the contradiction of lance improvement. If you can use it, they can use it.

I don't have the books near me right now, but there are several origin path choices that can further increase your BS.

Your total modifiers are only at +30, so you can look for ways to add up to another +30 on top of that before your hit the +60 wall. Void Tactician for example, and good quality MIUs.

Thanks for the pointer's guys. I did some work on it last night and forgot to bring it to work. I think I got something like +172 in the end, however, I need to go over it with the forum because I'm not very well read on the rules yet.

So just to confirm, the crew capability adds to the Ballistics score roll for firing weapons? page #? I ask because that was not factored into my 172 I think.

HeavensThunderHammer said:

It doesn't.

You use either PCs ballistic skill, or use the crew rating as a ballistic skill. They never add to each other.

Ok, so here's what I could find among all of my source books:

+45 (Highest Starting Stat)

+20 Elite (Increasing Stat with XP)

+5 Fortress World

+5 Crusade

+5 Stubjack

+6 Darkness

+3 Exilihiration

+10 Hatred

+10 Veteran of the Angevin Crusade

+10 Shipmaster's Bridge

+5 Archeotech Auger Array

+5 Best Turbo Battery

+10 Void Tactician

+10 Logis Implant

+5 Master of Ballistics

=164

So this probably needs some corrections, page # on the max of 60 modifier?

Well max starting score I can think of is

Base (45)

Fortress world (+5}

Stubjack (+5)

Crusade : Call to war {+5)

Exhilaration : Thrill of war {+5}

Also 100 xp for simple adavance of BS (+5)

Total=+70

I may have missed something however

Hatred is Weapon Skill only.

The Stacking the Deck navigator power can grant a hefty bonus to a single Test with a high Int and Good Cortex Implants.

Meritech Shrike-class Raiders (BK) come with a +5 bonus on Ballistics Tests.

The max bonus rule can be found on page 244. More is still useful if you have penalties though.

A full MIU to plug into the guns machine spirit can kick in a +10

Note that particularly in ship combat getting ridiculous BS is still useful. With a great gunner and pilot you can run evasive maneuvers for -60 to be hit while still having a gunnery score over 100.

Game breakingly good. I should know as my players did it to me.

Cromwell Bootstrap said:

Page Reference?

So of that now 154 total, anyone able to tell me how much is applicable at any one time?

The backgrounds add up to +24, with 45 base, and you can buy another +20, for a starting total of +89. Is it then from this 89 that another 60 can be added?

Iku Rex said:

Yeah, two Mars Pattern Macro cannons firing a salvo benefit from a higher ballistic score until it hits 210.

You are also missing a key thing... Stats aren't + anything. They simply are. So the 45 base stat is just that. 45. It's the target number of your roll. The rest of the things modify the target number. So once you figure out the max stats... That's the highest BS you can have.

45+20+5. So 70BS baring other things I can't think of.

Since bonuses max out at +60... The max target number can be 70+60. 130.

Thrantor said:

Good point, so where is your +5 coming from?

with the 100 point buy here's the max as i see it:

- 25 starting stat + 20 points max boost = 45 BS

- fortress world = +5 BS

- stubjack = +5 BS

- crusade (call to war) = + 5 BS (- 150 xp)

- darkness (dark secret) = +6 BS (-200 xp)

- there's 100 xp short to get exhileration or it'd be another +3 BS O.o

- add in +20 from advances (simply, intermediate, trained, expert)

= 86 BS

In theory you can prolly convince a GM to allow for the ascension path upgrades to BS so you can get the Heroic and Master advance to BS for another +10. And my GM gives another 100 starting XP for those who have bought the CRB meaning my own character could get to 99 BS max.

On top of that i could get a +60 from modifiers.

Badlapje said:

Ascension Path Upgrades? Book/page number please? I am the GM, so I may just allow higher than +60 bonuses.

check out this link for ascension. It's not in the CRB of RT. It's a supplement for Dark Heresy.

+5 is from fortress world. Since you can take it at start and is a direct stat change not a bonus.

HeavensThunderHammer said:

The MIU is on page 150 of Rogue Trader. Good quality adds to BS tests when interfaced. It doesn't really go into what the requirements on the machine side but I presume macrocannons would be generally MIU compatible.

The extra +/- 60 is a final net modifier limit. If you have ways of taking penalties that give you a benefit (like evasive maneuvers or called shots in regular combat) then you can use more of your situational pluses to cancel out the penalties.