Hits just from bullets hitting you can never exceed RoF. That is a hard cap, but that cap is not affected by things like special abilities, X-type damage, etc. You can generate additional hits against a Horde per 2 DoS in melee. yes, this further overcomplicates the already too-complicated hit/Magnitude damage system especially when multiple attacks or special effects like Power Field are involved.

Parry is a Reaction. You get one Reaction per turn - can be used to Dodge OR Parry OR some other action, say the Squad Mode Fire for Effect. Meaning someone who gets hit with both rolls on a RAW Swift Attack can attempt to parry one of those attacks, the other they cannot defend against without a Talent or Squad Mode granting multiple Reactions. So, no, if someone is attacked 3 times by a single enemy, they can attempt to Parry 1 of those attacks at a baseline Special gear, Squad Modes, and Talents may increase the number of general Reactions or specific Dodge/Parry reactions they get per turn.

This is pretty nasty especially for tyranids. Best bet is to use a Reaction-sharing Squad Mode to defend against it.

Hm, I see. Thank you.

One more just because I am annoying like that and have come to rely on your responses:

What determines if friendly fire occurs. I assume it occurs on a miss when one player is firing into melee involving another squad member, but is there another roll involved? Shooting into melee is a -20, so lets say one of my players fires into melee and misses... how do I determine if his teammate is hit or not?

I'd say fiat, with a distinct leaning toward "don't" unless the circumstances mean the shot literally can't hit anything else but the other player.

There are no mandatory rules for friendly fire resulting from shooting into melee (remember shooting into melee incurs a -20 penalty). Though the callout on page 248 has suggestions the GM can use to implement penalties for missing in combat situations .

I've had a character who has never been hit by friendly fire, but has taken the blast from a Krak missile and (double RF) metal storm rounds (which resulted in a shiny master-crafted arm with built in melta-gun, kind of the start of a relic bionic, I was playing a chaplain) from attacks hitting enemies I was engaged with.

How about this... a nid Warrior is in melee with a PC. Another PC full auto bursts into melee, and hits the Warrior with a natural 1. Does the Warrior still get a chance to dodge? Even though it is locked in melee with another PC and has no idea some random shooter might aim for it and light it up?

I ruled no.

A character is allowed to dodge attacks it is AWARE of. If a character cannot see, hear (remember most bullets etc. travel faster than sound), or feel the attack it cannot be aware of it.

This is usually up to the GM's discretion though. You have every right as the GM to say a character focused in a melee engagement is not aware of an attack which isn't obvious to it, can not dodge. You also have every right to say otherwise. (for instance a lucky hit you thought was impossible on a vital or key character fo your campaign which would probably kill it prematurely, sure GM fiat a dodge, or another "GM" event which saves him. Don't overuse this though.)

I'd let the warrior dodge, as I'd say it's usually aware of the foes near it.

My only concern would be applying the rules consistently to both PCs and enemies.

Again, thanks guys.

How about reactions? The book is stunningly vague on what they consist of. The two examples it gives are dodge and parry. I assume they can only be half actions, but would that include throwing a grenade as a reaction (drawing it being a free action and throwing it being a half)?

Again, thanks guys.

How about reactions? The book is stunningly vague on what they consist of. The two examples it gives are dodge and parry. I assume they can only be half actions, but would that include throwing a grenade as a reaction (drawing it being a free action and throwing it being a half)?

Unless a character has an ability which specifically states he may use up his reaction to do something other than Dodge or Parry (such as Furious Assault or Servo Arms) a reaction may ONLY be used to either Dodge or Parry. Characters can not use their reaction to do anything else, and normally (exceptions being the aformentioned special abilities) a character can ONLY use a reaction when it is not that character's turn. (Related clarification: If your character's turn is interrupted, say with Counter Attack, while his initiative is interrupted it is technically no longer your character's turn so he can use a reaction, until the interrupting action is complete.)

Again, thanks guys.

How about reactions? The book is stunningly vague on what they consist of. The two examples it gives are dodge and parry. I assume they can only be half actions, but would that include throwing a grenade as a reaction (drawing it being a free action and throwing it being a half)?

Unless a character has an ability which specifically states he may use up his reaction to do something other than Dodge or Parry (such as Furious Assault or Servo Arms) a reaction may ONLY be used to either Dodge or Parry. Characters can not use their reaction to do anything else, and normally (exceptions being the aformentioned special abilities) a character can ONLY use a reaction when it is not that character's turn. (Related clarification: If your character's turn is interrupted, say with Counter Attack, while his initiative is interrupted it is technically no longer your character's turn so he can use a reaction, until the interrupting action is complete.)

I didn't retconn his action, but I won't allow anything other than Parry or Dodge, unless allowed by a talent or ability for future reactions.

Correct me if im wrong, but PCs cannot engage a horde in melee with their basic/heavy weapons, can they? I have a horde that just charged them and a flying elite is shooting at them. My devastator just lit up the Elite flyer with his HB, but he is currently engaged in melee with the horde. I allowed it, but if he wants to engage the horde, he must switch to bolt pistol and blade, right?

Correct me if im wrong, but PCs cannot engage a horde in melee with their basic/heavy weapons, can they? I have a horde that just charged them and a flying elite is shooting at them. My devastator just lit up the Elite flyer with his HB, but he is currently engaged in melee with the horde. I allowed it, but if he wants to engage the horde, he must switch to bolt pistol and blade, right?

As stated in the Combat circumstances section of the Combat chapter of the Core Rulebook on page 247 under "Engaged in Melee", a character can only use attacks with the Melee subtype when engaged in melee.

This means no shooting at all (except pistol melee shots), either at the target you are engaged with, or other targets you aren't engaged with. A character can NOT choos to ignore being engaged to ignore this penalty, it isn't up the a character whether he is engaged or not, it is the up to the character engaging him.

A character is engaged when another character is close enough to attack with a melee attack and chooses to engage. There is no need to actually make attacks or use actions to engage a target, a character can engage after using the run action and moving their max distance to get into melee range and the character's controller saying "this character engages that character". As long as the character doing the engaging is in range for his melee attacks (and not stunned, bound, or unconcious of course) he can engage.

I have one for you guys:

When would I ever use an incendiary missile? It seems that the regular frag missile would be the better choice.

Frag missile did not ignite everything in the blast radius. Incendiary missile is your choice when you need a lot of fire at long range.

Frag missile did not ignite everything in the blast radius. Incendiary missile is your choice when you need a lot of fire at long range.

So, it possesses the Flame quality then? I wanted to assume this, but I thought hordes could not be set ablaze and therefore loses a lot of its charm.

I houseruled Hordes being set on fire for just that reason.

I houseruled Hordes being set on fire for just that reason.

How does that end up working out? Does the fire spread? How much of the horde catches flame? Can they put it out?

Give me all the gory details please.

Lord, flame weapons are brutal on hordes already. That's partially because being set on fire is included in the initial horde damage. Plus, how can you set a horde of 20+ people on fire with a 3-meter-radius explosion?

Why don't you just treat an Incendiary missile as a Flame weapon with a range equal to its blast diameter? 1d5+2. Not as good as a frag missile, but that's natural since its burst radius is smaller. It's basically a long-range hand flamer, in terms of damage and effect.

EDIT: It's anti-elite, not anti-horde.

I was trying to reconcile that same problem. adding 1d5+2 to horde damage might be a nice bonus. I can see that working out well. Thank you.

Another question regarding the Incendiary missile.

A PC of mine in a friend's game just fired an incendiary missile at a group of Elites. There were 4 or so caught in the 5m blast radius. I fired the Missile at Ork D, who failed to dodge so it exploded regularly doing 11 damage.

1. Does Armor negate any of the initial damage? I ask because once an enemy is set aflame, armor no longer factors into the damage reduction, and since what is hitting them in the initial attack is an exploding ball of flame, I would assume the same rings true here.

2. Do the Orks in the blast radius get to make a Dodge test against the initial 11 damage blast? Or do they simply test to see if they immediately catch fire or not?

We had a problem determining if they took the 11 damage automatically for being in the blast radius, and then had to AG test to see if they caught fire. And if they did in fact catch fire, if the damage from that (4 in this case) was added onto the 11. 11+4=15 damage (this makes a big difference in determing how much final damage the enemy suffered due to TB).

So, I guess what I need to know then,

3. Do all enemies in the blast radius make Dodge tests against the initial blast (11 damage) if they are able, and then a separate AG test to avoid catching fire?

4. I rolled 1d5 to see how many rounds the blast radius was set ablaze. I rolled a 1. Does that mean 1 following round after the initial attack?

1. Armor always negates unless it's completely negated by weapon Penetration (or other effect removing all AP) or the effect in question says that Armor does not apply.

2/3. They can dodge the Blast only if their Agility Bonus in meters would allow them to move out of the blast radius. So if you're at the epicenter of a Blast 10 effect and your AB is 5, you can't get out of it if you're in the middle. If the Blast is 3, you can try to dodge out, also if the Blast is 10 but the epicenter was 8 meters away from you, for example. And if they can't get out of the blast radius and take initial damage, they roll Agility again to determine if they catch fire.

4. Yep.

1. The flame section says that if a character is set ablaze, they take 1d10 damage that armor does not negate. So is that implied for the initial attack as well since it is the reason the NPC would be set ablaze to begin with?

2/3. Sexy.

1. No, it's not implied.

That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense now, does it?

This fireball of intense heat gets negated by armor...

... but if you catch fire from this same fireball, your armor no longer matters.

I think it accurately models actual armor. Armor plating would ablate the initial burst of heat, but if your armor actually catches fire, it's going to conduct that damage, not help you avoid it.

Also I think it's a balance issue.

Right. I can buy that then.

Another question regarding the Incendiary missile.

A PC of mine in a friend's game just fired an incendiary missile at a group of Elites. There were 4 or so caught in the 5m blast radius. I fired the Missile at Ork D, who failed to dodge so it exploded regularly doing 11 damage.

1. Does Armor negate any of the initial damage? I ask because once an enemy is set aflame, armor no longer factors into the damage reduction, and since what is hitting them in the initial attack is an exploding ball of flame, I would assume the same rings true here.

2. Do the Orks in the blast radius get to make a Dodge test against the initial 11 damage blast? Or do they simply test to see if they immediately catch fire or not?

We had a problem determining if they took the 11 damage automatically for being in the blast radius, and then had to AG test to see if they caught fire. And if they did in fact catch fire, if the damage from that (4 in this case) was added onto the 11. 11+4=15 damage (this makes a big difference in determing how much final damage the enemy suffered due to TB).

So, I guess what I need to know then,

3. Do all enemies in the blast radius make Dodge tests against the initial blast (11 damage) if they are able, and then a separate AG test to avoid catching fire?

4. I rolled 1d5 to see how many rounds the blast radius was set ablaze. I rolled a 1. Does that mean 1 following round after the initial attack?

1. Yes

2. Yes, they may dodge the initial blast. Any who fail or cannot move out of the radius are affected by the attack as normal (in this case, agi test to avoid catching on fire).

3. Yes

4. It means 1 round until the attacking character's next activation (game aid: use a chit or slip of paper with initiative number and ticks equal to the number of rounds, mark off ticks each time the initiative comes around until there are none left, then remove). Or one full round start to finish if you are using the everything resets at top of round approach (I do not prefer this method myself).

Fire damage only affects a character after he is set on fire, and is applied at the begining of that character's turn. If you catch a character on fire 3 times he won't take fire damage until his next turn comes around. When it does, the character only takes 1d10 (not 3d10) damage as being on fire a lot is the same as being on fire a little.