I'm a new GM to RT and will be running a game soon. I was wondering before I get started are there any talents/abilities/techniques/careers that are overpowered and need a bit of a nerf?

Is there anything so underpowered that a player will eventually feel stupid for ever picking up?

Thanks for any input!

Hmm. Explorators will be basically unable to fail tech-use tests by rank 3, and the players as a group will tear through ship combat due to how macrobatteries work and their ability to stack modifiers, but I've never found talents that are completely worthless; the critical thing is always to take what your PCs can do and make that part of the story. Don't have an Explorator? Play down the technical aspects of the game. Entire party is arch-militant generals? Break out the war toys, start them invading some planets for the Emperor!

Edit: Oh, one thing. If your players take any of the xeno careers, they'll likely feel that the Sanctioned Xeno talent is worthless and doesn't fit their character. Increase the Fellowship-test penalty to affect everyone in the party if it's know that they associate with the xeno. Astropaths need to be allowed a bit of leeway with their powers as well.

The only thing I would really suggest is using these rules for ship combat, as it balances out attack craft, macrobatteries and lances to be each powerful in their own right, but better at certain things instead of RAW which is ignore anything that isn't a macrobattery:

• Armour stats on all vessels are reduced by 12, to a minimum of 0.
• Macrocannon and bomber damage is resolved one hit at a time with the reduced armour rating counting against every hit, not stacked into one massive amount.
• Stygies class macrocannon penetrator rounds only reduce armour for hits from that weapon, not all macrocannon hits in that salvo.
• All broadsides have their strength reduced to 3, but gain the Storm quality.
• All lance class weapons gain the Tearing quality.
• Lance batteries score additional hits per 2 degrees of success, not 3.
• All torpedoes (except vortex) reduce the damage they do by 12.
• Rak’Gol Howler class macrocannon reduce armour rating temporarily by 1 per hit from that weapon. Note that this is per weapon, not per ship firing.

Okay, here's my two thrones worth...

The single biggest overpowered combination is in starship combat. Macrobatteries + PC skill levels are just much better than anything else. Of course, the heroes should be able to punch above their weight, but macrobatteries are just ridiculous. I've seen a PC frigate blow apart a cruiser without taking damage, twice, and that same frigate beat five to one odds handily.

Rules as written, Righteous Fury is overpowered when combined with any of the more powerful weapons. I've seen PC's score 70 - 80 wounds in a single hit. Any of the heavy weapons, a grenade / missile launcher with the right ammo, or a storm bolter will dish ridiculous damage.*

Unnatural intelligence is underpowered, almost to the point of being useless.*

The carrying capacity of most shuttles and small craft is severely underpowered.

If one side has vehicles / aeronautica, and the other side is on foot, the side with vehicles will win the fight. This is especially true for NPC mooks trying to stop a PC vehicle.

In a fight, be advised that explorators, arch-militants, and navigators can be hugely powerful with the right build. Admittedly, they do have disadvantages outside of combat...

* Easy fix: use the Dark Heresy rules, if you have it available.

Cheers,

- V.

Vandegraffe said:

The easy fix is N01-H3R3's house rule (and an adaptation of Righteous Fury as applied to vehicles per Into the Storm) which is Righteous Fury grants an umodifiable 1d5 roll on the appropriate critical hit table. Note that this does not count as Critical Damage.

Black_Kestrel said:

That works, too. Actually, that's exactly how Black Crusade defines that rule, and everyone gets it, even the red-shirts. (BC calls it "Zealous Hatred", for style reasons; obviously the same, though.)

Cheers,

- V.

Vandegraffe said:

Well, given that I worked on Into the Storm (which introduced the vehicle rules) and Black Crusade, I don't think anyone should be surprised about this. It wasn't all my doing - several of us working on the Black Crusade Core Rulebook had all independently come to that conclusion months before we started writing it.

A well built astropath can be horrendous. With high willpower and the bonus +5's from Psy Rating, very few if any non-immune enemies have a serious chance of not having their minds messed with. I advise either strictly adhering to the rules as written or reducing the bonus per psy rating to +1 or +2's.

Thanks for the replies. I will probably take the advice for Macrobatteries and Righteous Fury.

For the Explorator problem, I'm thinking of capping any skill at 75. Perhaps with an additional rule that says if you are above 75, then any test easier than challenging (+0) is automatically a success.

Something I've noticed is that it seems pretty easy to get 5 TB and 6 armor, making for an 11 soak. That seems pretty brutal against most infantry weapons that are commonly available (D10+2 or 3). My idea for how to give anyone a fighting chance is to make Called Shot also add 4 penetration (you are aiming for weak points) which gives anyone a punchers chance albeit at -20 BS.

Thanks for you input and I'd appreciate any thoughts on my ideas for fixes.

Tron_18 said:

Remember that a lot of weapons also have armor penetration, so a d10+2 with pen=4 vs armor of 11 still has a chance of doing 1 to 5 points of damage on a successful hit.

Crap, can't edit.

Don't worry about the skills, just remember that now the PCs can make tests under very, very difficult circumstances and still have a chance of succeeding. So be mean. Look up how to give multiple penalties for a -60 total, to a 90 skill still only gives a 30% chance of success.