I've recently granted Terminator Honours to my crew (for infiltrating and lobotomising a Tyranid hive-ship, cutting off it's synapse link and forcing the entire thing into hibernation before handing it over to the Ordos for research) and explained how Terminator Armour works. One question that was raised was, "Why are those the only weapons we can use with Terminator Plate?".

My first response was the time honoured, "Those are the weapons that ten millenia of warfare have shown to be compatible with the machine spirit of the armour as described in teh Codex.". After the session though, I started to ponder the situation myself. The Techmarine in teh group is big on crafting weapons and has been powerhousing towards Master of the Forge just to get his hands on Trade (Astartes) so he can start building stuff for the kill-team, in a reflection of how Vulkan created weapons for his brothers.

So my question for the varied GMs out there is as following: What are the inherent dangers, in-character, fluff-wise and mechanically of allowing a Techpriest to build custom mountings for different heavy weapons to attach to terminator armour?

The fluff reasons basically boil down to "Those are the weapons that Terminators can take" but there are suggestions in the fluff that early suits of Terminator Plate had a bunch of different weapon systems attached before the combi-bolter/power weapon were adopted as a generic load out (to be later updated). The second fluff problem I can think of is the blasphemy of innovation, but pushing that boundary has been a running theme in my game so that's not an issue.

So ignoring those specific fluff reasons, what else is there?

1. Mark 5c Terminator suits (AKA "all of the ones that are actually used these days") are just designed to interface with certain weapons. They are non-modular aside from the restricted list of weapons. There is literally no way to adapt them to junction with other weapon systems. Even for a Forge-Master, the complexity of the systems is quasi-DAoT and beyond the scope of Imperial tinkering save, perhaps, if the Terminator STC was rediscovered…

2. Terminator machine spirits are used to interfacing with certain weapons. They may be unable to sync with another weapon leading to battlefield failure, or simply grow angry at the attempt to force a heavy bolter onto them when an assault cannon has done just fine for ten thousand years.

3. The Forge-Master who's in charge of overseeing the arming clobbers you with his servo-arm.

*nods* Pretty much the core fluff reasons.

Mechanically, how broken could you get with other weapons on a suit of Terminator Plate? Other than the idea of dual-wielding Plasma Cannon, I'm having trouble working out any horrific builds that you can't already do with the canon rules (Double Storm Bolters make the Prof a sad, sad man.)

Well, all else being equal, the canon Storm rules are broken. Marginally better using Black Crusade action mods, but I opted to replace them so a 1-handed Basic wasn't better than a Heavy.

There's not too much silly stuff honestly. I get the feeling that the limits in the RPG were brought over from the wargame, where Termies throwing plasma cannon AoEs/teleporting in with meltas or lascannons might just be way too good. Similar logic for Dreadnought load-outs I'd think, with the balance there being vehicle damage rules.

Oh, BC. You've made combat so much nicer.

I think I'll let this play out. I I know the Techmarine player (and for my many sins, I can make that claim) he'll attempt to come up with a way to mount another weaon - just because it's something that is difficult to do. If he can sell me a way to build or modify a weapon system that it can connect to one fo the priceless suits of Terminator Armour they have access to and makes for a fantastic story line, he can build it. I may insist he has to track down a traitor in Terminator plate in order to study the earlier, cruder weapon linkages that connected to the various power mauls, combi-bolters and autocannon that characterised the early suits of armour.

professor_kylan said:

And the punishment for messing about with this pricesless and irreplaceable tech? Not to mention even touching stuff from a traitor that has probably spent at a minimum decades, if not centuries in the Warp?

Lionus said:

The second question is the easier one - as there's a canonical answer The Sons of Medusa are noted for being one of a handful of chapters that attempt to reclaim techno-arcana from the ruinous powers. Anything far too corrupt is destroyed, otherwise the Forge and the Librarium (or equivalent - sorry, not sure if the Sons of Medusa have a dedicated librarium or not) embark on a cleansing process and restore it to their ranks. While the Techmarine in this case is a Salamander, the group had a Son of Medusa who managed to argue the Salamander around to his point of view (largely by forcing logic rolls, which the Salamander couldn't fail). That's not an issue.

As for the first point, the punishment will be severe. If he goes down this road, it's going to cause a huge stink with the Ad. Mech. The political fallout would likely be the Ad. Mech calling for the blasphemer's head, the Ordos weighing up whether this tech is worth a spat with the Mechanicus, and the Kill Team having to deal with the long term consequences for their actions.

And all that is IF they end up going down this road. As I say, I'm fairly sure they will look into something similar, but as the saying goes: "No story survives contact with your players"

Combi-Weapons are a viable alternative if you want to bring Plasma/Melta weaponry. The only thing I can't work out is how Terminators reload…

BYE

Big clips?

Power fists can be used to grasp larger items and a power sword can be attached to the hip with magnetic locks to free it up.

Personally, it seems to me that, aside from the fluff possibility of the ancient Terminator spirit rejecting a new weapon (with catastrophic results), there is the in-game possibility of your whole team gearing up with custom-loaded Terminators and kicking much more butt than intended. Thus, unless you start throwing more powerful foes at your kill-team, or hitting them with non-combat tests, the challenge could be deadened. I don't know for sure. Most of my experience is with lower-level players, and it sounds like you're dealing with more powerful characters. I have wondered the same thing, though, just for the record. I think it just balances out the innately powerful Terminator armor.