I did a quick search, and was not able to find a thread devoted to this. I may have erred in the search, and if this is a repeat thread, please drop a link to the original here before locking, if able. I would greatly appreciate it.

I know there are quite a few GMs/players who use alternate or homebrew rules. I have a few ideas I'm spitballing with right now before it becomes an issue in my games, as my players aren't quite able to requisition them yet.

Statline: As the Errata, except damage profile is only 2d10 instead of 2d10+5.

This makes the Hammer basically a powerfist with Concussive ability. Which is where the real house ruling comes in. I'm thinking of adding a special quality, we'll call it Ponderous for sake of argument. I want this ability to imitate the slowness of the hammers in tabletop. (I realize powerfists were the same, but the loss of use of a hand can be quite annoying on its own in a RPG.) I'm working on a couple of variants, and am looking for opinions one way or another. If all else fails, I can rule that they're 2h only for standard Power Armor, but since there are examples refuting this it's a last resort. Fluff can be added later, this is just a mechanics breakdown.

Ponderous weapon quality

All Variants: This rule only applies if the weapon is wielded in one hand. This rule has no effect if the weapon is wielded in 2 hands.

Variant 1: This weapon reduces the wielder's agility bonus by X, for purposes of initiative. (Note this reduction takes place before any talents such as Lightning Reflexes.)

Variant 2: This weapon imposes a maximum agility bonus of X, for purposes of initiative. (Note this reduction takes place before any talents such as Lightning Reflexes.)

Variant 3: This weapon reduces the total number of attacks that could be made with it by 1, to a minimum of 1. (If a character with Lightning Attack uses a Thunder Hammer, he only gets 2 attacks instead of 3)

Variant 4: A Thunder Hammer can only be used to attack once in a round, regardless of the number of attacks its wielder posesses. (Other weapons can be used normally.)

Variants 1 and 2 can have more adverse effects on survivability of a character, as the downsides cannot be mitigated while using the weapon. Variants 3 and 4 at least relegate a Thunder Hammer to the off-hand if used in a single hand.

Thoughts? Am I just beating a dead horse, or would this at least make a good compromise on TH power?

It's been a while since I've seen this discussed. How did the above rules work in playtest? Has anyone else come up with a good system to deal with the 'you just knocked down and stunned yet another enemy' issue that seems to sprout up with SBx3 Concussive? Or have people found the RAW + Errata 1.1 works just fine?

The errata definitely makes the TH the must-have weapon. I wish I knew the logic for making it SBx3 for marines. I'm thinking of tamping down damage, requiring it to be 2handed unless you are wearing Terminator armor and ignoring the lightning claw errata. The extra damage for DOS rule was a lot more flavorful to me than Proven.

My solution to stunlock/pronelock is giving stronger enemies Leap Up and/or a greater chance to resist or ignore stun.

Kshatriya said:

SBx3 I think was to make it match the Power Fist in destructive power, but the advantage should've been concussive since they cost the same. Removing the x3 SB might be enough to repair it, but the stun is based on DoS to hit, and it's not hard to have a +14 SB by the time you get to the renown where you need it.

Two handed use was a definite plan of mine.

Interesting to start giving Leap Up and things like Iron Jaw. Part of that makes it feel cheap though, you know, making enemies that simply circumvent a players newfound ability?

Charmander said:

It's not for all enemies. I would probably give it to something big and tough like a carnifex, but not nid warriors or genestealers or whatever. And I'd think that Battlesuit armor might remove stun just like Astartes armor, but Fire Warrior and Stealthsuit armor, not so much.

Due to an extended break in our group's Deathwatch sessions, this has yet to come up. The current way I'm looking at it is to require that the hammer be 2h only, and disallow the use of Swift/Lightning attack with the weapon. They're big and slow, so they're allowed to hit hard. If nothing else, it will ease up the amount of dodging required on behalf of the foes to avoid stunlock.