Force Weapons and Swift Attack

By Hehateme, in Black Crusade Rules Questions

Heya all!

Quick question here: if a character has Swift Attack and a Force weapon, and attacks a target scoring more than one hit, is he able to channel psychic energy for each hit? Or is it just one channel per round, regardless of how many hits he scores?

Cheers!

Hehateme said:

Heya all!

Quick question here: if a character has Swift Attack and a Force weapon, and attacks a target scoring more than one hit, is he able to channel psychic energy for each hit? Or is it just one channel per round, regardless of how many hits he scores?

Cheers!

I'd say one channel per round personally - psychic actions are limited in that respect.

From a pure rules perspective: every time he damages an enemy. Which, if he swift attacks, could possibly mean quite a few times.

The Focus Power Test of the Force weapon is not a half action, and thus it's not bound to the "two different half actions" rule. It features no subtypes, and thus it's not limited by the rule concerning Concentration and Attack subtypes either.

So yeah, as the rules stand, a psyker with a force weapon could cast Warp Time, then use Precognitive Strike, Lightning attack, channel Killing Will on every individual hit that deals damage, all while using "Thought Sending" to send his friends a message. And then he could finish his turn and dodge an incoming attack with Precognitive Dodge.

'Course, that's a lot of roll to risk phenomena on, but you could do it if you felt like it. Hell, you could even two-weapon wield and lightning attack (and channel Killing Will) Twice!

However, from a pure balance perspective, I'd say the house rule "Once per attack" has worked out just fine for my group. It keeps force weapons just as sickeningly dangerous and threatening as they should be, without risking the slow down of attacks due to X amount of dice rolls per attack. However, do note that it's per attack rather than round. This allows two-weapon wielders and multi armed mutants, presuming they're armed with more than one force weapon, to channel killing will once per individual attack.

Reverend mort said:

From a pure rules perspective: every time he damages an enemy. Which, if he swift attacks, could possibly mean quite a few times.

The Focus Power Test of the Force weapon is not a half action, and thus it's not bound to the "two different half actions" rule. It features no subtypes, and thus it's not limited by the rule concerning Concentration and Attack subtypes either.

So yeah, as the rules stand, a psyker with a force weapon could cast Warp Time, then use Precognitive Strike, Lightning attack, channel Killing Will on every individual hit that deals damage, all while using "Thought Sending" to send his friends a message. And then he could finish his turn and dodge an incoming attack with Precognitive Dodge.

'Course, that's a lot of roll to risk phenomena on, but you could do it if you felt like it. Hell, you could even two-weapon wield and lightning attack (and channel Killing Will) Twice!

However, from a pure balance perspective, I'd say the house rule "Once per attack" has worked out just fine for my group. It keeps force weapons just as sickeningly dangerous and threatening as they should be, without risking the slow down of attacks due to X amount of dice rolls per attack. However, do note that it's per attack rather than round. This allows two-weapon wielders and multi armed mutants, presuming they're armed with more than one force weapon, to channel killing will once per individual attack.

Apologies, i hadn't factored in the multiple-attack roll situations, so yeah once per attack (which is hard limited to twice per round for a standard human with the right talents).
For swift/lightning attack etc i would say that the player can choose which blow to channel but it's determined before damage rolls. This doesn't allow for you to retroactively add your channel onto your most powerful roll of the round, and also means you have to time your channeled strike in amongst regular strikes... kinda representative of you catching an opponent off guard with some quick lunges as they use up their dodges and parries to then finish them with a cleaving blow.

Kasatka said:

Reverend mort said:

From a pure rules perspective: every time he damages an enemy. Which, if he swift attacks, could possibly mean quite a few times.

The Focus Power Test of the Force weapon is not a half action, and thus it's not bound to the "two different half actions" rule. It features no subtypes, and thus it's not limited by the rule concerning Concentration and Attack subtypes either.

So yeah, as the rules stand, a psyker with a force weapon could cast Warp Time, then use Precognitive Strike, Lightning attack, channel Killing Will on every individual hit that deals damage, all while using "Thought Sending" to send his friends a message. And then he could finish his turn and dodge an incoming attack with Precognitive Dodge.

'Course, that's a lot of roll to risk phenomena on, but you could do it if you felt like it. Hell, you could even two-weapon wield and lightning attack (and channel Killing Will) Twice!

However, from a pure balance perspective, I'd say the house rule "Once per attack" has worked out just fine for my group. It keeps force weapons just as sickeningly dangerous and threatening as they should be, without risking the slow down of attacks due to X amount of dice rolls per attack. However, do note that it's per attack rather than round. This allows two-weapon wielders and multi armed mutants, presuming they're armed with more than one force weapon, to channel killing will once per individual attack.

Apologies, i hadn't factored in the multiple-attack roll situations, so yeah once per attack (which is hard limited to twice per round for a standard human with the right talents).
For swift/lightning attack etc i would say that the player can choose which blow to channel but it's determined before damage rolls. This doesn't allow for you to retroactively add your channel onto your most powerful roll of the round, and also means you have to time your channeled strike in amongst regular strikes... kinda representative of you catching an opponent off guard with some quick lunges as they use up their dodges and parries to then finish them with a cleaving blow.