As we all know, lead by example can be pretty powerful in combat (+14 to every action of every marine and a reroll to one person each round is very strong (admittedly with a tactical ultramarine leading with loads of command and high fellowship, all possible at rank 4)).

However, it's out of combat it seems even more powerful. As written, it seems to be that with just the activation of the power at the start of the mission every narrative time action the group does is at +14 and because there aren't rounds, everyone gets a reroll to every action (ignoring actions that happen simultaneously).

This seems extremely powerful, as effectively a marine that has 35 in a stat is better with lead by example than another at 70.

(Normal character, chance of passing a challenging test - 70%)

(Marine with lead by example, chance of passing a challenging test - 49% - With reroll - 74%)

Am I reading the way this ability works correctly?

Naviward said:

Have the Ultramarine assign the re-roll at the start of his turn, not when another player needs it though.

Naviward said:

I think so. Nerf it if you think it's too good (outside of combat). If the Ultramarine is supposed to lead by example he should at least have the skill inquestion so that he can actually lead by example. Or pass a Fel test perhaps.

Alex

ak-73 said:

Cool, good to know we hadn't missed anything. Our ultramarine leader suggested paying the cost for lead by example at the start of each combat encounter or each time a reroll was assigned in narrative time and that seemed to work well.

It's also worth mentioning that it will only benefit the Ultramarines in the team unless they have something else allowing it to help across chapters. When taken in context of the other Chapter specific abilities it's more useful outside of combat but definitely not overpowered in combat.

I play with a Tactical Ultramarine too and it is a problem. As I said, the main thing in combat is that he must allocate the re-roll in his turn, that nerfs it sufficiently in combat.

Another option is that outside of combat he'll just bestow the bonus.

Alex

Nathiel said:

It's tactical expertise, the tactical marine ability (p85 deathwatch main book). They just have to make a command check to do it. Given the fact that an ultramarine can have command at +20 with a fellowship of around 70 pretty quickly, it's not that much of an issue (in fact, in our game I think our tactical ultramarine has command at over a 100 with bonuses from armour and so on).

Just started playing my Ultramarines Tactical Marine and I can already see this becoming a (potential) problem, particularly in narrative time and the OP mentions.

In combat, it seems pretty okay to us: so long as you have to assign your re-roll at the start of your turn, not as a reaction to a failed roll.

As for applications outside of combat, we may simply rule that in most (or at least many) cases it would not apply - subject to the GM's decision, of course.

These squad mode abilities are supposed to be about military team tactics (it IS an Attack Pattern, after all). The introduction to the Squad Mode abilities describes them as "methods of attack," "preternatural combat feats" and "special actions that truly allow the player’s Kill-team to shine on the field of battle and enjoy a significant superiority over their foes." The intent is clearly combat-oriented.

So, in that case, the ability can be sustained but does not generally have an out-of-combat application. That is, when the Kill-Team gets ambushed by Orcs later, if the kill-team is in squad mode and the ability is still sustained, it would immediately begin affecting the team's tests (assuming they opted for this ability if more than 1 was sustained). As a GM, I might allow the bonus to apply to detect or set up and ambush or something, but probably not for an general Inquiry test, for example. If I judged that the PCs were in a non-combat situation where their squad tactics would be applicable, I would simply limit the power to 1 reroll per encounter or scene. (or something to that effect).

If the power is not restricted to combat situations (which is basically the only arena where the other powers apply) then it could easily unbalance the game.