Hi there; I've recently been invited to play Deathwatch with a group of people at my local comic shop. One thing I've run into is that I don't know any of them, and so I do not know if they have any house rules or how they take to 'fudging' things. So I was wondering if I was filling out my character sheet properly, because we just wrote them out on lined paper and not with the ones provided by FFG.

Heres my problem:

My character is a Storm Warden Assault Marrine, so he has +5 STR for being a Storm Warden, and +2 Wounds.

I rolled a 48 for my STR score, so I now have 53. I wasted 700 XP to buy the Intermediate and Simple STR boosts, so I have 63. My Power Armor and Chapter Trapping give +10 STR and +2 STR by themselves, but these are applied after Unnatural Strength.

I also have the armor history that gives +10 STR.

So my question is: Does the armor history apply to my base str, or does it apply after I calculate for my str bonus? Is my str bonus 12 base because I have unnatural strength?

Also, after calculating everything- do I have 85 STR? 53 for my base roll+being a storm warden+2 for my chapter trapping+20 from my power armor+10 from my used xp makes me think so.

Also, for the STR box on the FFG Character sheet- do I put my str bonus from unnatural strength in the smaller box? I looked at pre-generated characters and they all have a '10' there, so I am assuming it is either that or the power armor bonus.

I'm sorry if I sound silly here- just trying to not mess up in a fresh game/make some new friends. Thank you in advance, though.

Ok... so you've got 48+5+10 due to 'you'. To this, you'd add the +2 from the trapping. That would give 65, which equates to a SB of 12

The +10 for armour history and the +10 for armour would then add on afterwards, giving a Strength of 85 for the purposes of making statistic checks, which would also be reduced in difficulty by a level and you'd get an additional level of success (as per unnatural characteristics rules).

The game uses a 'do multipliers first and then add additions' mechanic, so your Strength Bonus would be (6x2)+2 (for the armour and armour history) =14.

How you record it on your sheet is pretty much up to you, so long as you remember what you've done.

Alright, thank you.

Er, wish there was an edit function- hit post too fast.

Am I doing anything inherently wrong with my stats? I made STR my best stat because I've played D&D before and I assumed just loading up on STR+WS as a melee character would make me effective enough to make up for being completely new to the game. My WS is sitting at 52 because I used 200 XP to upgrade it. Otherwise, everything besides BS is in the 40s~, with BS sitting at 35

First, Power Armor grants +20 Strength

Then, all of those bonuses are added after Unnatural Strength. Unnatural Strength really only applies to your Strength characteristic unmodified.

So, you have 65 + 20 + 10 = 95 Strength when you want to know you characteristic value, and in terms of Strength Bonus, it's 6x2+3 = 15

In the box, they put the final Strength Bonus, so with everything included (for you, 17). For the starting characters, I suppose they have a 40ish Strength, and so they have a bonus of 4x2+2 = 10

P.S. : well you surely need lots of WS and Strength as a Melee Character. Don't forget Toughness, it helps you not die.

Agility can be quite useful for those Pilot tests, and for Dodges (when you're shot at, you obviously can't parry the bullets...). BS can be cool (when you're not in Melee range), but will effectively not be vital for you.

So I'd say you're set to go

Alrighty- thank you both. I believe that covers everything.

I'd personally considering only buying one advance on Strength for now, and spending the saved points on a second WS advance. As your Strength Bonus would not be decreased, you wouldn't really be loosing anything.

Strength is useful for damage and pushing tanks around, but WS is crucial for not only delivering blows, but also for parrying them. WS will be your most important characteristic, although Str, Tou and Agi are all great, too. It's *well* worth increasing your Toughness Bonus, in order to increase survivability.

I just noticed that. I'm sitting at 47 Toughness and 52 WS at the moment. If I took away one bonus from STR, I could shoot one into toughness and have 1 bonus in each+400 points left over...

I think I'll do that. Thank you again.

I feel silly- I've got more questions.

I'm assuming I'm supposed to be using my sacris claymore, which would make my damage something like 2d10+19 R, 2 Pen since it outdoes my chainsword's damage dice although it is unbalanced.

The other thing: My toughness is at 52 with the shunting around of some XP-bought bonuses, so that would make my toughness bonus 12(5x2+2)? Unless I am doing something wrong.

at022590 said:

You don't have to use the Sacris Claymore, but if you replaced your Combat Knife with it you can always take it along and have it available. It's got good damage for such an early weapon. Comparing it to the Chainsword, I think the Chainsword is overall a better weapon. Defensively, you're looking at a 20% difference in Parry between the two weapons. The Chainsword can benefit from Flesh Render early on. Also, the Chainsword requires only one hand, so you can run around with it and another weapon at the ready. The SC takes two hands to use (though you can still just hold it with one hand and fire a gun or whatever you need to do).

Unnatural Toughness will double your bonus, so 5 x 2 = 10. Where are you getting the extra +2? It may be obvious but I'm just blanking at the moment. Gotta get more caffeine in me and wake my mind up.

Oops. I messed up there! Sorry about that. Yeah, it should just be 10.

No worries. We've all made mistakes, and learning a new game can be a bit tricky, especially one with lots of math like DW.

It's all a matter of choice. If your Agility doesn't utterly suck, you can deal with not parrying and go ahead, use your Sacris, be the big threatening guy who deals incredibly violent hits. That sounds totally cool to me.

The Chainsword is a bit safer, but I think early on you must be looking for fun over everything else. If you feel like playing the Sacris, go ahead, it'll be cool and awesome.

As an assault marine, agility could have some awesome perks for you. Initiative tests, and the movement from the assault pack is nice. I like my 24 meter charage and +10 bonus to initiative with my chaplain.

Yes, WS is a must, you want to make your attacks count. The higher the WS, the better odds you have with degrees of success for those opposed rolls on your opponent. Also, if you end up taking lightning claws, you get additional damage based on your degrees of success.

I have to agree with the chainsword being a solid melee weapon choice, because of the parry. However, it is your character and you should always play him the way you want to play him.

I'm intending to run with the Claymore just because I want to feel 'fluffy' and play up the whole highlander in space thing. I don't mind the lack of parry because my AGI is high enough that my dodges aren't terrible from what I've seen.

Eventually I'd like to go T-hammer+Storm Shield, but I'm a little miffed that the t-hammers are not two-handed for power armoured marines.

This is just me, but I play a BA librarian, and he does not have a very good BS (I have a very good agility and a jump pack w/ signature wargear). I might recommend that you requisition a hand flamer because it is a pistol so can be fired in combat, ad there is no BS test to hit. I have also seen people saying that you could arm mount them so your hands would be free for your claymore. Yo should ask your GM about that though. It might be a good investment for you because there is no renown reqirement and as before, THERE IS NO BS TEST.

Parry does have some advantages though, counter attack being the big one

My assault marine uses Combat shield+ plasma pistol and power sword, it's expensive, but allows you to fight anything.

The claymore is really effective early on though.

at022590 said:

Most people seem to house-rule it that way, because it seems more sensible.

Expect Thunder Hammers to be nerfed in the next errata, though!

Lord Draco, Master of Dragons said:

You can use my patented poor-man's-angelus-bolter of wrist-mounted bolt pistol with motion detector and kraken rounds. Needs some renown though. I play a jump-packed BA lib too.

Alex