Fury of the Mook and Starting Wounds

     Troy here, again. Welcome to another installment of Chronicles of the 41st Millennium!
     Rather than backtracking, think of this first topic as a segue from the previous post...

     Fury of the Mook

     The word "mook" is defined as a person who is regarded with contempt. I think it a fitting descriptor when referring to the common thug employed by...I was going to say employed by master villains, but I suppose (depending on one's perspective) Inquisitors employ mooks, as well, so there you go. These hirelings are also referred to as goons, dregs, peons, gangers, scavs, and sundry other monikers.
     The one common perception of mooks is their relatively average (ofttimes less-than-average) skills. A lone mook represents a minor imposition, but overall is viewed as being a nuisance rather than a legitimate threat. However, banded together to a common cause, mooks (could) represent danger disguised as incompetence. With sufficient incentive and/or motivation (promises of glory or wealth, commands or threats from powerful employers, etc) mooks can stymie any small yet coherent group (the PCs), whether they be a trained squad of Imperial Guard, Inquisition Acolytes, a heretic Warband, or adventurous Explorers.
     The following House Rules borrow from the concept of Hordes, and I must say I was pleased to see the following: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1858peGl6Ml5jDOQu99o_Vi1BwLcAua2gDtVRIJ5YI8Y/edit#heading=h.wnic3848e2p2 (under Massed Fire) presented by Musclewizard, a frequent contributor to the Warhammer 40K RP forums.

     With numbers and sufficient weight of fire, even mooks can be a legitimate threat.
     When engaging an enemy, whether at range or in melee, any single mook can be Assisted by a number of comrades equal to his/her Fellowship Bonus. Each assisting mook must be within 5m of the mook making the attack and must be able to otherwise draw LoS to the same target if assisting at range, or be Engaged with the same enemy if assisting in melee. To represent the concentration of attacks, each assisting mook provides a +5 bonus to the attacking mook's Weapon Skill or Ballistic Skill (as appropriate). If in melee, this bonus replaces the bonuses gained from Ganging Up, but mooks with Double Team (Talent) will receive the additional bonus provided by the Talent. Additionally, if an attack is successful each assisting mook adds +1 to the Damage rolls.
     As an example:

     The PCs are being hounded through the back alleys of a slum district by a 12-man Kill Squad (Dark Heresy, pg 341). A poor Navigate (Surface) Test on the part of the Scum leads the PCs to a dead end, and as they turn to backtrack their route they are cornered by the Kill Squad.
     Both sides dive into any available Cover as the short-range firefight commences. The Kill Squad are armed with Autoguns loaded with Man-stopper Bullets (d10+3I, Pen 3), and the Acolytes are covering behind bulky metal trash receptacles filled with miscellaneous refuse (Cover AP 10).
     While the majority of the Kill Squad lay down a hail of Suppressing Fire, one of the Kill Squad (BS 35, FelB 3) calls for direct fire support and is Assisted by three of his comrades, receiving +15 to his Ballistic Skill. Taking a moment to draw on his target (Half Action Aim, +10) who is at Short Range (+10), the Kill Squad trooper fires a tight burst (Half Action Semi-Auto Burst) and gets 4 DoS (total) on his BS Test, hitting his target three times* (Body, Body, Arm).
* Autogun Semi-Auto RoF
     The Acolyte being targeted is wearing only a Flak Coat (Arms, Body; Personal AP 6). The "standard" Damage dice results are 2, 8, and 10. The weapon's Damage Modifier (+3) and the extra Damage from assisting mooks (+3) is added to each die result: 8, 14, and 18, all at Pen 3. The first bullet fails to penetrate the Acolytes Cover and Personal AP total, while the second and third bullets cause 1 and 2 Wounds, respectively.
     Now for Fury of the Mook:
     When mook opponents (and their ilk) roll an unmodified (defined as "natural") 10 on a Damage die they may exchange their DoS on the attack roll for the Damage Modifier of the weapon used. Regardless of the number of unmodified 10s rolled, this exchange of DoS for Damage Modifier is only applied once, though it applies to all "standard" Damage dice results.
     In the example above, the new Damage dice totals are 9, 15, and 19; the first bullet still fails to penetrate the Cover and Personal AP total, but the second and third bullets now do 2 and 3 Wounds, respectively.

     In the interest of fairness (considering some foes are extremely tough, robust, and dangerous) PCs have access to their own version of Assisted attacks, with the differences being:

• Only 2 PCs may ever aid another in an attack, either ranged or melee, though they must either A) be within the same Range category and have LoS to the intended target, or B) be Engaged with the same enemy if assisting a Melee attack. Only the PC being Assisted makes the attack Test
• Each assisting PC provides a +10 to either Weapon Skill or Ballistic Skill, as appropriate, and this is in addition to the bonuses for Ganging Up and Double Team (Talent) if assisting a Melee attack
• If an Assisted attack is successful, the attacking PC may add the combined WS or the combined BS of the assisting PCs to each set* of the "standard" Damage rolled. This Damage is calculated and added last, after Damage has been altered to reflect DoS, Damage Modifiers, Righteous Fury/Zealous Hatred, etc.

* Example of a set of "standard" Damage dice: a Boltgun hits twice, and the Player rolls 2 sets of Damage dice (2 separate hits doing d10+5 each, one of which might be altered by DoS, plus combined BS per hit).

     Getting into a firefight, any firefight, is a very hazardous affair. Anyone not making use of available Cover during a firefight, even when wearing/carrying the very best in Personal armour, is a fool. Weapons exist with high Penetration values, the Executioner Round (The Radical's Handbook, pg 55) utilized by the Adeptus Arbites and Mortiurge has increased Damage and Penetration and ignores Cover AP. Even so, making use of available Cover AP can many times mean the difference between life and death (or burning Fate/Infamy).

    Alright, with all this Damage being thrown out and TB not reducing any of it, it's time to address the issue of Starting Wounds. 8 or 9 or even 10 plus 1d5 is woefully insufficient, and in some cases an inaccurate scaling. And, if you'll remember from my previous post, a Wounds score isn't entirely a game mechanic representation of a PC's potential physical peak. This perspective, more than any other reason or House Rule, goes some way toward justifying NPC adversaries included in FFG publications having 40+ Wounds (see The Outer Reach).

     Starting Wounds

     All PCs' Starting Wounds follow this base formula:

• Multiply the PC's TB (excluding Unnatural Toughness) by 3, then add d5+3
• Next, add any bonuses to Wounds gained from the PC's background (including any specifically gained from Home Worlds, Specialties, Background Packages, etcetera, if there are any, and this includes Wounds gained from the Imperial Divination Table in Dark Heresy, pg 34) 
• Next, add Unnatural Toughness: for Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch characters this modifier is equal to the PC's base TB for each Unnatural Toughness Trait modifier (IE: a Deathwatch Space Marine with an unmodified TB 5 with Unnatural Toughness [x2] would add 5 Wounds, Unnatural Toughness [x3] would add 10 Wounds, and so on. For Black Crusade and Only War characters this modifier is equal to the Unnatural Toughness (X) Trait modifier, where (X) equals the addition of a number to the PC's TB (IE: an Ogryn and an Ork Nob in Only War have Unnatural Toughness of +2 and +5, respectively) 
• Next, Size Modifier: if the PC is Scrawny/Weedy subtract 3; if the PC is Average/Man-sized add 3; if the PC is Hulking, is a Chaos Space Marine or a Space Marine, add 6

     Some examples:

• A Ratling, TB3, Homeworld: Hive- TB3 x3, plus d5+3, -1 (Homeworld), -3 (Weedy) = 9-13 Wounds
• An Apostate, TB3- TB3 x3, plus d5+3, +3 (Man-sized) = 16-20 Wounds
• An Ogryn, TB5, Homeworld: Death- TB5 x3, plus d5+3, +2 (Homeworld), +2 (Unnatural Toughness), +6 (Hulking) = 29-33 Wounds
• A Space Wolf Deathwatch Space Marine, TB5- TB5 x3, plus d5+3, +5 (Unnatural Toughness), +6 (Space Marine) = 30-34 Wounds

     Next, Sound Constitution (Talent) no longer exists. Discard it, delete it, wipe it from your memory.
     Wounds scores increase in the following ways:

• All PCs, in all five game lines, increase their Wounds scores by +3 each time their (base) TB increases. In Black Crusade, each time a PC's Wounds score increases as a result of taking a Toughness Advance it is to be considered as an additional Nurgle-Aligned Advance when calculating Alignment 
• Additionally, Black Crusade and Only War PCs increase their Wounds scores by +1 for each +1 increase to their Unnatural Toughness Trait (IE: A Chaos Space Marine Chosen who increases his Unnatural Toughness (4) to (5) will increase his Wounds score by +1)

The second bullet point does mean that Black Crusade and Only War PCs may have a little bit of an edge on PCs from the other game lines (long term), however, it is a simple matter of GMs altering the older Unnatural Toughness (Trait) to reflect BC's and OW's newer mechanic and deciding which Races, Classes, Alternate Ranks, and/or Specialties from Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch might be eligible for Unnatural Toughness (Trait). As I'm not doing an entire rewrite (at this time), GMs are encouraged to use their best judgment.
   
     Each PC has a maximum Wounds limit. Following are the suggested limits:

• Scrawny/Weedy PCs are limited to 20 Wounds
• Average/Man-sized PCs are limited to 25 Wounds
• Hulking PCs (Ogryn, Orks, etc) are limited to 40 Wounds
• Chaos Space Marines and Space Marines are limited to 50 Wounds

Because (base) TB does not reduce Damage, and because PCs have a limit to the number of Wounds they may have, it may seem there comes a point when taking Advances in Toughness and/or Unnatural Toughness (X) becomes redundant, but this is not the case. Remember that the higher a PC's Toughness the better their chances of resisting toxins/poisons, and that Damage from Falling and Being On Fire and Wounds suffered from the Toxic Quality/Trait are reduced by TB (and Unnatural Toughness...to a minimum of 1 Wound). Also, Talents have prerequisites...
     Factoring in such things as weapon Damages (and Damage Modifiers) and Penetration values, Special Ammunition, bonuses to Damage due to Unnatural Strength, the fact that TB (excluding Unnatural Toughness) does not reduce Damage, the increase in Personal AP values, Hordes and Advanced Horde Traits, The "new" Righteous Fury/Zealous Hatred/Fury of the Mook, and others besides, the seemingly steep increase in Wounds really isn't all that steep.

     GMs have a choice of leaving the Wounds values of published adversaries as they are (representing mooks), or raising the difficulty of encounters by increasing these values by the appropriate Size modifiers (an example might be raising the Wounds scores of Dark Eldar Trueborn from 14 to 17). Below is a table that I use when altering Wounds scores of adversaries. It represents Size modifiers (for individual or relatively small groups of adversaries, not Hordes), as follows:

• Minuscule (1): +/-0*
• Puny (2): +/-0*
• Scrawny/Weedy (3): -3
• Average/Man-sized (4): +3
• Hulking (5): +6
• Enormous (6): +12
• Massive (7): +24
• Immense (8): +48*
• Monumental (9): +96*
• Titanic (10): +192*

* Size 1 (Minuscule) represents something approximately the size of a pen or a field mouse, while Size 2 (Puny) represents something the approximate size of a Servo-Skull. Regarding these first two Size categories, it is unnecessary to make further adjustments to given Wounds scores as they (most probably) correctly reflect the nature of the target in question. Size 8, 9, and 10 (Immense, Monumental, and Titanic) opponents represent considerable threats (a Bio-Titan, or the Leviathan on pg 93 of The Tome of Blood).
This table is not to be used in conjunction with the House Rules for calculating Starting Wounds.

     In conjunction with everything I've posted in this blog, GMs interested in implementing these House Rules need the final keys to unlock the balance, and they are as follows:

• In cases of Primitive weapons not being assigned a "rating" (as in Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch), Primitive weapons with a Damage Modifier of zero (or less) to +1 are to be considered Primitive (6), Primitive weapons with a Damage Modifier of +2 are to be considered Primitive (7), and Primitive weapons with a Damage Modifier of +3 or more are to be considered Primitive (8)
• TB does not reduce Damage from weapons (including the Damage cause by attacks from creatures), Unnatural Toughness does
• Daemonic (Trait) reduces Damage and stacks with Unnatural Toughness 
• Weapon Damages and Penetration values do not change (though it is recommended that all FFG-provided Errata be used). Please Note: In an upcoming post I will provide a complete revised list of Special Ammunition and Weapon Qualities, but for now, if you're using everything I've presented in my blog to this point and FFG-provided Errata, GMs and Players will have few hiccups, and they will be tiny hiccups.

     Next time: (re)defining Lightly Wounded, Heavily Wounded, Critically Injured (when you are actually physically wounded), and Healing.

     Before I sign off, I'd like to share some alternative vehicle-related House Rules by MalikCarr that I found over on the Dark Heresy forums: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=100&efcid=46&efidt=763524 These House Rules are lengthy, but comprehensive and actually quite simple to use. If I recall, there was some mention in those House Rules about a minimum movement distance that referred to the length of the vehicle, and if you have questions about vehicle lengths you can jump over to lexicanum.com and punch in a vehicle name for your answers (to get you started: Leman Russ hull variants 7.08m, Chimera hull variants 6.90m, Baneblade Super-Heavy Tank 13.50m, Malcador Heavy Tank 9.60m).

Drive me closer...!

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