Havoc Archetype - Beta

By Qaia, in Black Crusade House Rules

Posted at

Hi everyone,
After several iterations, our gaming group has come up with what seems to be a balanced new archetype for playing a Chaos Space Marine Havoc. This build is well-suited for a Havoc with a background from any of the Legions or Warbands, but also lends itself nicely if you want to specifically make an Iron Warriors Havoc. Please try it out and give us your feedback!
At first glance, the Havoc may seem overpowered. However, keep in mind the weight of the Havoc's starting gear and max carrying weight and associated encumbered penalties via the SB+TB table and rules on page 42 of the core rulebook.
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Starting Skills: Intimidation, Athletics (Rank 2, +10) OR Awareness (Rank 2, +10), Forbidden Lore (Codex Astartes) OR Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis)
Starting Talents: Deadeye Shot, Die Hard OR Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Reload OR Storm of Iron
Starting Gear: Legion Heavy Bolter with 1 ammo clip included, 1 spare clip of Legion Heavy Bolter ammo, Backpack (50 kg capacity), 2 Legion Frag grenades, 2 Legion Krak grenades, 2 grenades chosen from: Frag, Legion Frag, Krak, Legion Krak, Haywire, and Smoke
Starting Wounds: 15 + 1d5
Special Ability: Eternal Vigilance
Twice per game may re-roll Initiative and take the better of the two results.
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Posted at

Two thoughts:

Why would I ever take non-legion versions of grenades? Interesting that they're available, but there's no incentive to bother with weapons made for puny mortals when I have better legion versions at no additional cost.

Additionally, maybe you're forgetting that Unnatural Strength and Toughness apply to the lift chart - a baseline marine (40 S, 40 T, and +4 UN on each) is a 16 on the chart, not an 8, so he can carry 675kg without encumbrance.

Posted at

Thanks for the feedback. Here is an ammended profile, with some other changes as well:

- The non-legion grenade choices have been removed. Now, the 2 choices for grenades are from: Legion Frag, Legion Krak, Hallucinogen, Haywire, Photon Flash, Smoke, Stun, and Web.

- Added a starting trait: Auto-Stabilised

- Removed the Special Ability. A new more appropriate one is yet to be determined. The original Special Ability seems more appropriate for a Raptor archetype, so we'll need to come up with a new one for the Havoc.
*****
Starting Skills: Intimidation, Athletics (Rank 2, +10) OR Awareness (Rank 2, +10), Forbidden Lore (Codex Astartes) OR Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis)
Starting Talents: Deadeye Shot, Die Hard OR Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Reload OR Storm of Iron
Starting Gear: Legion Heavy Bolter with 1 ammo clip included, 1 spare clip of Legion Heavy Bolter ammo, Backpack (50 kg capacity), 2 Legion Frag grenades, 2 Legion Krak grenades, 2 grenades chosen from: Legion Frag, Legion Krak, Hallucinogen, Haywire, Photon Flash, Smoke, Stun, and Web
Starting Traits: Auto-Stabilised
Starting Wounds: 15 + 1d5
Special Ability: TBD
*****
Posted at

Why not use this abilty?

DAMAGE IS AS DAMAGE DOES

when rolling damage against vehicles or inanimate objects treat all weapons as doing an aditional d 10, as for against living targets treat all weapons as tearing, they are havoc marines so would they not know how to create the most pain and agony with there weapons?

Posted at

I'd first like to begin by saying that this is a Brilliant Idea, and i'm stealing it. I know the Chosen Archetype was supposed to be the "generic" CSM class, allowing for a player to become a Raptor, or a Havoc, or whatever the name is for Chaos Tacticals, but i like seeing how people handle the aspects of CSM that are addressed vaguely.

NytemareRhosyn said:

Why not use this abilty?

DAMAGE IS AS DAMAGE DOES

when rolling damage against vehicles or inanimate objects treat all weapons as doing an aditional d 10, as for against living targets treat all weapons as tearing, they are havoc marines so would they not know how to create the most pain and agony with there weapons?

I like this Idea, and i'd like to tweak it a bit.

Shield Breaker

the Loyalist Devastators are skilled in the art of suppression and anti-armour, but it is the Havocs of Old that are the true masters of heavy weapons. Havocs treat all heavy weapons as having the Tearing quality, and treat all heavy weapons with the tearing quality as having the Proven (2) quality when such weapons are employed against any kind of fortification, vehicle, or other such structure. if the weapon has the tearing and proven qualities, increase the value of Proven by one.