The Gaming Den

Friend of mine is running an SR4 campaign where we play Ascension-level Dark Heresy operatives. I opted to be the Templar Calix (sword-wielding psyker jedi knight clone) and he suggested I be a Mystic Adept.

Normally I wouldn't touch it because Mystic Adepts split theit Magic between Adepting and Maging and end up sucking at both, but with metric fucktons of BP and the ability to Initiate up to Grade 5 and Adept Metamagics allowing me to add power points, it might not be so bad after all.

Also, the DM is ruling that Melee Attacks only take a Simple Action, which at least lets melee suck less.

So what can I do to trick this chap out to the max?

I genuinely have no idea what is going on here. Can you take SR4 biomods and call them 40k biomods? Normally, I would suggest to anyone seriously considering being a Mystic Adept to just be a member of a possession tradition instead. But in 40k land, conjuration of any kind is heresy and the punishment is the execution of everyone you've ever met.

Even so, I think you're probably better off going full mage and layering yourself with buff spells. 40k land doesn't really have "wards" as a normal thing, so having Quickened Spells or Active Foci isn't a problem. Hyping yourself up on an always-on Increased Reflexes is a lot cheaper than coughing up 5 magic points to get 4 IPs.

-Username17

Wait, waht. Why are you using...SR4...rules...for...Warhammer...crap...why?

Simple familiarity, I'd imagine. Plus, a lot of SR4's issues fade into the ether if you remove the Matrix and by extension much of the drone and rigging/chase combat rules, so I can sort of understand why it'd seem a good template for conversions at first blush. But as Frank has expounded on many, many times, SR4's damage and scaling stops spitting out reasonable numbers once you progress much beyond shooting armor jacket clad mall cops. So I'd have some serious worries about what happens when some yahoo tries modeling power armor or a high force warp spawn.

Anyway, I don't know how much we can help without knowing what options are available and as a general rule melee chews in SR4. But, if you guys have a hard-on for melee and there are bitchin' force weapons available with high fixed damage values then melee could have some value as a self-defense trick against aggressive melee goons--who are kinda rare in SR4, but are presumably more common among Grimdark fans. Basically, you get yourself a strength independent force or shock weapon if they're available and then you take the damaging disarm feature from Arnis de Mano and pair it the Disarm Maneuver and MAYBE the Two Weapon Style Maneuver if you really feel like you must be actively attacking with your own melee weapons for some reason. Personally, I'd just keep an SMG in my other hand or attach the melee weapon to my gun bayonet style but I'm crazy like that. You then proceed to jack up Improved Combat Ability and Combat Sense so that most people won't be able to beat your Reaction+Skillx2+ReachX-4 Full Parry dice pool, a trick that's fairly manageable given that in SR4 melee attacks are usually limited to Agility+Skill+Reach+Sometimes Charge. People then proceed to swing at you at which point you simultaneously divest them of their weapon and taser them right in the face. It works because you only really need one attribute that you probably wanted anyway even on a caster (Reaction) and because it makes the stupid way Full Defense bones CQC work for you rather than against you for once. It's not brilliant, but compared to being some douche with high strength and a combat axe it's at least relatively inexpensive and effective, so you in a 600+ bp game you could have it in your back pocket while still being good at other stuff.

Also, if you have BP left over, you can always pump Charisma and pick up a few of the sexier social adept powers, and pull dual duty.

Schwarzkopf wrote:Wait, waht. Why are you using...SR4...rules...for...Warhammer...crap...why?

Because if ye look at the stuff in Shadowrun, it's actually pretty fitting for a game in the Warhammer 40K-verse? It has Power Armor (Heavy Military Armor), some amount of space stuff (really just use it to launch into planets as I recall?), explosive bullets/bolts, heavy weapons, upgrade to shoot guns into space/underwater, whole bit of magic being dangerous, Orks, Lethal Combat with some ability to tough through bullets and so on. Course, as been noted above, how much that pucks with the game, when ye have characters rolling 20+ dice on resisting damage, making Space Marines v. Space Marines probably bit drawn out, but yeah.

Also hopefully DM allow PC's to melee multiple foes, even if it's like as a complex action, get a -2 to attack vs. 3rd target in range, and additional -2 per additional target from there (-4 4th target, -6 5th, etc). I'm trying for something like this in my own Shadowrun campaign idea, although think let PC's move after they drop an attack, so ye have people potentially "Great Cleaving" through enemies. Perhaps instead the penalties should be halved for -1?

So yeah, I've suggested if a friend ever wanted to do such a campaign, can just simply use Shadowrun. Although personally, if I were to play in one, I'd want it to be kinda Space Opera-y, with multitude of races in one vessel teaming up to take down a greater threat, Mass Effect style. So hell yeah Ork and Space Marine teaming up to take on some Cthulhu thingy.

Aryxbez wrote:I'd want it to be kinda Space Opera-y, with multitude of races in one vessel teaming up to take down a greater threat, Mass Effect style.

Trapped behind their own defenses, the Bloodthirster and Necron Lord were back to back, surrounded by the silver armored marines.

Twirling his warscythe in the air for a momentof clarity, the ancient mummy robot spoke in a voice like solar static.
"If we are to survive, Daemon, we must fight together!"
The greater Daemon of Khorne growled his agreement,
"I will claim your skull another day, C'tan lackey!"
A smile broke across the Necron's lips, if Necrons even have lips