How do you play apothecary? Do you stick to a support role, or do you take a more "active" approach to your class. Do you prefer meele or ranged? Do you play prestige classes with your apothecary (Ravenwing/Wolfpriest/Sanguinary Priest)?

Personally I like to go Tyrannic War veteran apothecary, I feel like it helps make Apothecary a bit more dangerous in combat will retaining the ability to support my kill team with my medical skills/knowledge of Tyranids.

Well, in our group we have a melee apothecary from White scars..

The problem for him is, that we need so much healing, that there is rarely time for him to fight :s

In my last Deathwatch session, my Apothecary duelled a Shas'O, blew the head off an escaping Ethereal and climbed a moving and shooting Orca gunship, killed the pilots and dropped a grenade into the Shas'O's open hatch.

Basically, what I'm saying is that you can do some pretty sick stuff if your roles are high enough. I personally like to play mine in more of a "stand back and shoot, be on stand-by to rush in and assist" style role. Let the Jarheads do the heavy lifting but don't be afraid to jump in when required. He's still a Space Marine at the end of the day.

BrotherTenparo said:

You've definitely got the right combo for the op apothecary. Double down on the toxins if you want to create a face melter. Another avenue to look at is having a raptors or raven guard apothecary who can dual hat as a percision impact asset as well as support.

Myself, I play an Imperial Fists Apothacary. I ended up taking the "leader" role as it: a) allows me to stay a bit back calling out patterns b) since alot of the skills an apothocary get are kinda "meh" you can focus alot on attriubutes early, and pick up the social skills (like charm, intimidate..) needed. I have been playing this for about a year, and find its a pretty good build if you are in it for the long term game. Also, as an Imperial fist, I can stay alive by using cover alot more effectivly.

If I were to play an Apothecary, I would max out his Lore skills, give him an Auspex every mission, and play him as the party's defacto 'science officer' when not in combat. That's still technically a 'support' position, I suppose, but one that will get lots of 'spotlight' time…

In the campaign I am GMing, the Apothecary comes from a Chapter that puts a strong focus on dual-wielding pistols. As such I allowed him to swap the cost of WS and BS advances, to better facilitate his character's pistoliering. This helps to keep him in a support position near the action, but leaves him free to do his job without getting his foot blown off by friendly fire (our previous Apothecary, who has gone rogue since then).

If you find yourself hampered by the Apothecary specialsation then load up on general and Deathwatch advances, just because you aren't getting on well with your spec doesn't mena you aren't a space marine!

I have enjoyed playing an Iron hands robot apothecary, and a heavy flamer carrying salamander apothecary

As a GM-PC apothecary I found that my character does well in nudging things along story wise.

However in combat I'm always the one with the bolter down range shooting relentlessly.

I've never really had an issue playing as an apothecary due to the fact that my role in real life is a Hospital Corpsman for the US Marines, so the sense of duty to those I'm charged with is carried over. Plus my Kill-team is somewhat melee orientated, so my bolter adds a little dakka dakka kinda fight scenes.

Thus far i've managed to defeat a lictor and quite a decent number of genestealers on my own, I look forward to the next mission which will be either orks or tau. SO I don't feel like my character is underwhelming at all, in fact what an apthecary does in the first place jsut seems to enahce the overall expeirence and reassures the players that their precious characters will live (until the evil gm that is me deicdes to drop a doom sized asteroid on their heads muahahahaha!).

I'm gonna play my first Apothecary in a game and my plan is this:

1. Go in fast and hard with a chainsword!

2. Heal up people after the enemy is made into kebab.

Hey folks

I'm new to running an apothecary with my group. I decided to do the final sanction mission on here with my group and we will continue with to the edge of oblivion at the next meeting. My only worry with the apothecary is that during battle he leaves himself and the marine he's healing open to damage for a round as they both have to stop what they are doing. Am I reading this wrong or does it seem that he has to wait till the end of a combat to do his thing? I really like the class but I feel like I have to wait till the smoke clears to help anyone

Hey folks

I'm new to running an apothecary with my group. I decided to do the final sanction mission on here with my group and we will continue with to the edge of oblivion at the next meeting. My only worry with the apothecary is that during battle he leaves himself and the marine he's healing open to damage for a round as they both have to stop what they are doing. Am I reading this wrong or does it seem that he has to wait till the end of a combat to do his thing? I really like the class but I feel like I have to wait till the smoke clears to help anyone

ughh sorry for the double post…

One thing I would like to point out to everyone who is getting stuck just healing until it is all over: MIU weapon interface is your friend. It allows you to get a shoulder mounted weapon that you can fire hands free while doing something else. So you can do your healing stuff and blast away at the enemy at the same time.

At what rank do you get the MIU? and also what book is that in? I haven't heard of it before. cheers for the good idea though. If I can't find the stats for it I might just make some house rules for one .

It is in the armory section of the core book under cybernetcs. It is a peice of gear that you would need to acquire, not an advance you spend xp on. I am not sure off the top of my head what it's renown requirements are. You can get it as soon as you meet the requirements to get it, regardless of level.

I played a Dark Angel Apothecary and enjoyed it greatly. I have always like playing support roles more than any other clas types regardless of what game I am playing. I tried to make my Apothecary a sniper specialist, but it didn't work out with most of the talent tree needed for that in other specialities. I changed and became a hand flamer/chainsword horde smasher. I also doubled as the lore specialist due to the unique skill set of the Dark Angels. Nothing is sweeter than when you blackmail an Inquisitor and can live to tell the tale.

Cryhavok said:

Tim Flanders, official FFG rules person, states;

"The rules for bionic replacements are not intended to be purchased with requisition unless extenuating circumstances arise that make the replacements necessary. Of course, in the end the Game Master has final say on what is appropriate for their campaign.

Thanks for your question,

Tim"

You can get an MIU, via normal and standard rules, if you have a talent which allows you to get one normally. No other way.

A 500 XP Signature Wargear talent should do it though, so effectively you're paying XP for the gear.

herichimo said:

The MIU is not a replacement, its more of an enhancement. In my mind that answer would seem to address bionic limbs and organ replacements like a bionic heart. Of course there would seem to be an exception for the Iron Hands.

I wanted to play an apothecary when I learned about Deathwatch as my first character. I rolled an Ultramarine Apothecary Tyrannic War Veteran. He ended up being the squad leader on multiple occasions because his cohesion modifiers were higher than everybody elses (Go Blue!). But the more I played, the more I realized that the Apothecary spec really seems half fleshed out. There really weren't many interesting advancements in the apothecary tree. So why be an apothecary if you are just taking DW or SM advances that any grunt can take?

At that point, since it was the first time we were all playing the game, my GM allowed me to reroll as an Ultramarine Tactical Tyrannic War Veteran. Because Tyrannic War Veterans can pick up Medicae, the Tactical marine was able to be a better leader, better fighter, and still a decent healer. Having a Narth is more important than being an Apothecary for healing.

Even without TWV, I think picking up medicae as an elite advancement and req'ing a narth for 10 req is a better use of exp and skills to supplement another spec than to be an apothecary. It just seems that so many of the Apothecary-specific abilities aren't that useful or other specs can also do them. Just my thoughts, although I will say that we haven't played this game that much.

If you look at the Role of combat medics in most modern, tradiltional militaries, you'll find that Medics are backseat combatants, often firing their weapons only in defense, and spending the majority of their time tending to the wounded and fallen. that's not to say that medics aren't capable combatants: Most medics have to be just as skilled as their infantry counterparts since, in the end, war does not differentiate between soldiers and doctors.

I Picture apothecaries as having to deal with this model, and having to find creative ways of seeking glory in battle. if you're playing with a group that knows something of real military doctrine, then the apothecary may often find himself parked behind the tactical or devastator, so as to keep him out of harms way. this actually sets up the Apothecary to be a very skilled sniper style character, if built right. I've seen apothecaries with astartes snipers pick off key targets, like enemy officers, throwing the rest of the enemy forces into dissarray. Our GM was fairly creative, and allowed our Apothecary to use the Medicae skill to gain additional extra damage on called shots, representing that the Apothecary was using his knowledge of anatomy and physiology to hit natural weak spots in the enemy's body, like blowing out joints, or aiming for arteries. it got to the point where our Apothecary would one shot enemies that were trying to flank us or Master style enemies that were directing hordes to try and drown us in bodies.

hope this helps

The way these rules look to me, a sniper/medic would be better executed with a TAC or Dev marine with medicae as an elite skill and requisitioning a narthecium, without house ruling something.

scienter said:

from a rules crunch aspect, you are undeniably correct.

however, there are a number of fluff and character development points that you are ignoring. While an apothecary trained in medicae is mechanically not all that different from any other marine trained in medicae, the implied level of training is completely different. your standard Space marine probably knows basic first aid and has enough knowledge of Astartes physiology to staunch a bleeding wound or stabilize an ally, but he's no doctor. Apothecaries, on the other hand, are trained specifically to tend to the wounds of space marines, as well as the many intricacies of the Astartes Body, therefore making them better trained medics. I don't have a book in front of me, but if i remember correctly, this is exemplified by the Apothecary's ability to quickly gain advancements in the Medicae Skill and a slew of Medicae related talents that can only be taken by other Marines through elite advances. Furthermore, it is my understanding that Deathwatch Apothecaries recieve further training on Xenos Physiology upon taking the Apocryphon Oath and are charged with learning even more about the Xenos body in the execution of their missions, so as to learn how to better combat the xenos and exploit inherent weaknesses. This puts the Apothecary in a unique position to gain unparalleled knowledge of what will hurt the likes of Tyrannid and Tau the most, and it is An Apothecary who will often find it easiest to exploit that knowledge. Also, Space Marines aren't as Flexible as some people believe them to be. just because an Assault Marine CAN learn the Medicae skill, or a Tactical Marine CAN requisition a Narthecium or even make it standard issue through Signature Wargear, that doesn't mean he would. for what reason would anyone but an Apothecary have a Narthecium? Finally, Removing the Progenoid Glands, which is ultimately an Apothecary's chief duty, is a delicate process for which Apothecaries are specifically selected and trained. For this reason alone, Apothecaries are not only useful, but indeed necessary for a Kill Team. Who but the Apothecary would know how to harvest the sacred Geneseed from a fallen Brother? who would teach anyone but an apothecary to harvest the Geneseed? and why would anyone but the Apothecary want to know in the first place?