Hello gang, would you like to calculate an immense amount of damage that my Dark Heresy character (Garruk) could theoretically do?
Let's start with the weapon: Selvanian Power Maul When its energy field is active (all power weapons are melee weapons that have an activatable energy field. They're lightsabers but more practical) the Selvanian Power Maul deals a quality 1d10+5 energy damage with an armour penetration value of 4, nothing to scoff at. Couple that with its bonus to parry checks (Balanced Keyword), its ability to potentially stun targets if it deals damage (Shocking Keyword), and its ability to potentially destroy any weapon that it parries (Power Field Keyword) makes this weapon a godsend for Garruk's role as the main melee dps and "tank" of the group.
A weapon's stats and keywords aren't the only thing that determines its effectivenes and damage. A good combat character in Dark Heresy tricks themselves out as much as the weapons that they are carrying. With that said, we now turn our eyes to the abilities that Garruk will ideally gain before finally calculating potential damage.
Melee weapons add a character's strength bonus to their damage, no matter which type of melee weapon is used. In this case I will use xp to bump my strength characteristic to a near overwhelming 53, getting my bonus to 5. I will also do the same with my weapon skill characteristic, putting it at 50 to gain 5 as my bonus. Increasing Garruk's weapon skill to 50 allows for two things: it firstly allows for an incredibly high parry success rate, since the Power Maul is Blanaced and Garruk is trained in the parrying skill (gaining an additional +10 to parry checks) it brings it up to a rolling threshold of 70 and lower for a successful parry. Secondly, increasing my weapon skill to 50 will allow for extra damage when I purchase the talent Crushing Blow.
Crushing Blow allows for the character (In this case, Garruk) to add half of their weapon skill bonus (rounding up) to their melee weapon damage in the same way that they would their strength bonus. Considering that Garruk's strength bonus is a 5, this means that the bonus damage from Crushing Blow becomes a 3 (5/2=2.5 rounded up=3). With the stats and the talents covered, one thing remains: Cybernetics.
In Dark Heresy, access to cybernetics is a godsend. They act as no-xp cost passive (and sometimes active) abilities that play characters can gain if they have connections to facilities and Adeptus Mechanicus NPCs. In this case, the cybernetic that Garruk will get will be Synthmuscle. Synthmuscle is a cybernetic that grants the character Unnatural Strength (1). Unnatural Strength is a bonus to the damage bonus that strength gives melee attacks. The numerical amount that Unnatural Strength gives is shown by the number in parenthesis. Synthmuscle can give Unnatural Strength (4) if it's high quality, but the character suffers an agility penalty as well, something that i do not wish for Garruk.
So! Onto the big question! what is the amount of damage that Garruk will be outputting? The final calculation is this 1d10+5(from the weapon itself)+5(strength)+3(crushing blow)+1(synthmuscle). Garruk is doing at 14 damage before the dice are rolled. When the dice are rolled, he will be outputting a range of 18 to 21 (based on the percentages of rolling a 4, 5, 6, and 7 on the dice respectively) damage per attack. To make this scarier, the Power Maul's armour penetration and damage are also modified by Garruk's passive ability from his Role (think of it as a class) as a Crusader; any time that Garruk faces an enemy with a fear characteristic, the numerical value of that characteristic is automatically added to the armour penetration and damage values of any weapon that he attacks it with.
In total: this build will cost 1400 xp and a successful trip to the surgical table. Quite a lot, but most of it can be done after one mission, and the damage he'll put out is well worth it.
Some notes: Fear in Dark Heresy works mechanically like Unnatural Strength, with the number associate with the fear stat (for example, [2]) being its fear "level."
