Perhaps it's part of basic training?

That would be a nice Talent though.

I'd like to have a talent that makes RF crit hits worse.

Lets say 1d5+BF/2 or WS/2 instead of 1d5.

Trade is still not the crafting skill, come on guys you describe it as the crafting skill so make it actually work, we had a whole thread of this and no reason not to make this change. Tech Use is the Ag of skills, it is far too useful compared to others.

I would like more Tier 1 talents, in general I'd like more talents in the core rules because any talents you include in supplements will generally not get used in other supplements so NPC stats will often feel incomplete.

Please put more stuff in the initial character creation choices. More skills and talents in role and homeworld. Make it more interesting and don't drop the starting experience to compensate, we don't need groups that can't do basic tasks because they have so few skills to go on. Stick linguistic skills in homeworld for example.

I edited my original post to talk a bit more about Untouchables. I'll go ahead and quote it here for people who've already read my earlier post.

"One other thing I'll say: I don't think the Untouchable's fellowship debuffs are good enough. As it currently stands, and this is the same issue the DH1 Untouchable suffered, the core weakness of the Untouchable (being hated by everyone) can be solved simply by the Untouchable... not saying anything. In pretty much all RPG's like this, there is always the party dynamic of their being "the DPS guy", the "Tank guy", the "skill-bot", and "the guy who does all the talking". So it isn't uncommon for the soldier class and all the classes who suck at FS to just not talk while the social butterfly takes all the FS tests. That's standard RPG-fare. Untouchables being ass at fellowship tests is, therefore, hardly a penalty. Especially if the base class you're playing (Guardsman, Tech-Priest), already sucks at Fellowship tests anyway.

What Untouchables really need is for their penalties to bring THE ENTIRE PARTY down. There needs to be a REASON, not just fluffwise but even mechanically, for the Untouchable to be despised by basically everyone around him, even the other players. I'm talking about something like, for example, " any NPC entering the Untouchable's aura for the first time takes a -20 to their disposition toward the party."

That would be a good rule, because that way an Untouchable's weaknesses can't be ignored. It can't be downplayed simply by playing them as if they were a Tech-Priest or Guardsman. Just by existing , the Untouchable is making life harder for everyone, including its own allies. And that , really, is what being an Untouchable is all about.

"

Yes, the xp boost is a good thing.

Maybe +20 and +25 should be mentioned as choices on the same level (rather than +25 being just a side option) - but in general I am really really happy they kept the +25 in the rules.

I agree with this. Putting one option as the default is a poor choice.

I know it has a benefit, but it seems more like a talent that might be of interest to an Arbites rather than something that every Arbitrator is good at. Why the hell would an Arbites Sage have special training in the destruction of inanimate objects?

I agree with this. An Arbites Desperado or Warrior might make sense with this, but a Sage or Mystic (40k CSI awww yeaaah) probably wouldn't.

(It's also one of those abilities that doesn't really make sense. You can practice shooting walls and get really good at that? I can see something like Lightning Attack, where a master swordsman attacks faster, but a master crate-shooter?)

I also agree with those who've voiced that the AD&D style "Roll all your stats down the line" is oddly brutal. "Ooop! You rolled low intelligence and perception! Looks like you're playing the Warrior, Steve. I know you really wanted to be the detective, but, you know, the dice."

They already have a point buy system in the sidebar. Do they really need to add a second sidebar?

They should just convert the entire book to sidebars. It would be a self-referential moebius of inscrutable rules options and special cases.

- On this note, the characteristic generation should be a little bit more fool-proof. Say, roll 11x2D10, discard the lowest score then distribute the rest amongst the characteristics as you wish. As it now stands, the players can't plan ahead because they can end up with characteristics unfit for their character conception (and that single re-roll doesn't help that much). +/- characteristics could be simple +5/-5 bonuses/penalties to the given characteristics.

The way my group has always done characteristics was we rolled 9x2D10, and assigned the values to the characteristic you wanted.

I think this is how most reasonable groups do it. Unfortunately, RAW, FFG has you rolling characteristics straight down the line with the generous caveat that you get to reroll one of them. I really think the rules need to be re-written to explicitly allow players to allocate as desired. I've played in some grognardy games that had us roll in order and it is severely limited. I'd rather those groups not have that justification of enforcing their unfun way of doing things.

One easy way to avoid worrying about weapon aptitude imbalance would be to gut the useless DnD relics that they are from the system entirely. They really don't contribute much of anything to the game except an XP sink.

This. Weapon Proficiencies are a relic that I would personally be totally fine with doing away with. They're an XP tax - nothing more. Want to use Interesting Weapon X? Got to pay the cool-factor tax.

I like the changes to Generating Characteristics. However the is a huge error, at least I hope it's an error, in the Allocating Points sidebar. With a base of 20 and 60 points to distribute , an Acolyte using point allocation has an average characteristic of 26 where one using random generation has an average characteristic of 31. I think they forgot that, under Allocating Points, the base characteristics where 5 points higher. They either need to reset the base to 25/30 or give 110 points for allocation.

This is kind of a big deal and it doesn't speak well of FFG that they overlooked this.

I'm a Grognardy GM and I have never enforced it. The biggest problem in the current system is the multiple dice for the +/- Stats. I much prefer a straight +/- 5 at these points for just this reason!

They should just convert the entire book to sidebars. It would be a self-referential moebius of inscrutable rules options and special cases.

Almost as if it had been written by the Administratum itself...

They should just convert the entire book to sidebars. It would be a self-referential moebius of inscrutable rules options and special cases.

Almost as if it had been written by the Administratum itself...

... seems oddly fitting, since you mention it.

I'm in favour.

They should just convert the entire book to sidebars. It would be a self-referential moebius of inscrutable rules options and special cases.

We're not too far away from that as it is...

Page 123 hasn't any sidebars! I declare it a holy page!

Or deeply Heretical depending on which way the wind is blowing today...

Heretical for sure.

The Codex Astartes does not support such pages.

I know this is coming a bit late, but does anyone else think it's kinda silly that the one thing that all Arbites do well is shoot walls really good?

I've been complaining about this since the original beta. WAY too situation specific compared to some of the things that other backgrounds get.

Book of Judgement probably has something that could be adapted. Maybe the legalese ability?

I think every Background should have two options, in terms of their special bonus. The cover thing works great for proper combat focused Arbitrators, an alternative just needs to be there for others.

For the next week, the focus is on Chapter V: Armoury and Chapter VI: Psychic Powers.

I've stated this elsewhere and I apologize for repeating myself, but I'm not sure what's being read by whom; and since you're specifically asking about psykic powers...

- I'd really like to see Smite be equivalent to FULL auto, even if it means increasing its cost or nerfing its range or damage.

- Likewise, I really think Flame Breath should go back to being a spray; again, even if it means making other adjustments.

- And it's a small issue since I still have the old beta, but I really miss the five separate Psychic Phenomenon tables (as do a number of other people).

I would only be interested in seperate tables for psychic phenomena alongside a generic one as specific tables make it harder to add non standard stuff by yourself. For that reason I'd prefer to see them as an option in a supplement rather than taking up pages in the core book.