I've only played a few games so far but my initial impression is that no plauyer is ever going to purchase sound constitution, certainly not for 1000 xp.

Would reducing the cost to 200/400 xp from 500/1000 xp make it balanced in your opinion or is there something else going on thaqt I'm not pickjing up on.

I searched the forum and found an earlier converation ragarding this talent but I decided to post a new thread anyway. Is thread necromancy approved of or frowned upon here?

Here's the old thread:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/51763-sound-constitution

Common houserule: giving it as an automatic purchase upon rank increase and not allowing it to be bought normally.

I mean really, it's not sexy, and it's of limited use individually but as an aggregated talent it's quite useful. Saves you from 1 more hit...ish.

Or capping the cost at 200? worked wonders for my group.

500xp a shot like the first 2 you get level one seemed reasonable

I capped it at 300 and am giving it out free at every rank up. Great idea that one.

_{Doesn't sound constitution just become more valued once the PCs start getting outmatched by opponents?}

Not really. The best defense is a good offense in this game, as in many RPGs. A couple more wounds won't save you compared to killing or disabling your enemies faster.

High initiative is much, much better.

That only works if you can kill it in one round surely?

Also, you can pick two uses up for 500 each in the general space marine advances section (P60)

Toughness upgrades work to a point as a better sub. An extra point of toughness means an extra two points of damage mitigation. Most get it fairly inexpensively priced (tech marines get it even cheaper!). Spending 5000 points on toughness upgrades will usually get you +2TB overall which with your marine physiology equates to 4 points of damage reduction. Although sound cons nets you five wounds, the TB is the better investment.

Not all damage goes through Toughness Bonus.

Very rarely is a damage source not reduced by toughness bonus: eg. suffocation or some toxins. Majority of times though, high toughness is still worth the investment as even if it will go through your TB, odds are most of them will need a toughness test anyway to do it.

Various psychic powers, force weapons. But yeah you're generally right.