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Gitdakka wrote:
Or unless your'e an ork. Their unique plasma rule has its ups and downs. Also it pretty confusing.

Well, that's because Orks don't have Plasma weapons. They have Kustom Mega ones. They're different rules entirely, they function off of unmodified rolls while Plasma takes modified rolls into account.

a) Shooting at a difficult to track target makes my weapon more likely to explode (-1 to hit)

b) Being under the stern gaze of my superior makes my weapon far less likely to fail (rerolls of 1)

..why exactly is one of those unrealistic and the other perfectly acceptable?

Kitane wrote:
a) Shooting at a difficult to track target makes my weapon more likely to explode (-1 to hit)

b) Being under the stern gaze of my superior makes my weapon far less likely to fail (rerolls of 1)

..why exactly is one of those unrealistic and the other perfectly acceptable?

It's a hugely abstracted game, I wouldn't worry about any of it too much.

If you want to reach for an explanation for (a), maybe while tracking their target they have to keep the gun charged and ready to fire. Keeping the gun in that state for longer while they try to get a good shot increases the risk of catastrophic failure of the gun's containment.

Andykp wrote:
This rule is so silly me and my mates don’t use it. We go natural one or nothing. It makes no sense otherwise.

I disagree with the notion that it doesn't make sense. It's a single shot weapon, meaning that careful aiming is more important than spray and pray guns. The harder a target is to hit, the longer spent aiming, the more likely you are to get to an overheat before pulling the trigger. I'm fine with the rule as is, as I think it reflects the realism quite well.

Edit basically what stux said just above

@Stux:

I am fine with the way it works, plasma doesn't need any buffing.

I questioned the double standard where the positive impact of rerolling 1s was widely accepted as normal and the negative impact of modifiers called unrealistic rubbish.

Kitane wrote:
@Stux:

I am fine with the way it works, plasma doesn't need any buffing.

I questioned the double standard where the positive impact of rerolling 1s was widely accepted as normal and the negative impact of modifiers called unrealistic rubbish.

I understand I was supporting your view basically, that it's ultimately a game, you get various bonuses and penalties, and thinking about that too much is not worth the hassle

Kitane wrote:
a) Shooting at a difficult to track target makes my weapon more likely to explode (-1 to hit)

b) Being under the stern gaze of my superior makes my weapon far less likely to fail (rerolls of 1)

..why exactly is one of those unrealistic and the other perfectly acceptable?

Both are stupid and shouldn't be a thing. Overloaded plasma should explode on natural rolls of 1 before rerolls and before modifiers. It should only deal 1 MW though not remove the model entirely.

Hi,
I am a little confused about how a plus one to hit would save you from being killed by plasma. Wouldn't a natural one fail always? I remember something about it in the main book but don't remember the exact rule wording.
Thanks

The roll of a 1 fails, but does not overheat, as it is no longer a 1 but a 2.

unseelied wrote:
Hi,
I am a little confused about how a plus one to hit would save you from being killed by plasma. Wouldn't a natural one fail always? I remember something about it in the main book but don't remember the exact rule wording.
Thanks

A natural one would only trigger an ability that specifically refers to a natural or unmodified one. Otherwise it will only look at the final result.

Note that on Overwatch, although hitting doesn't care about modifier other abilities will include modifiers. So firing overcharged plasma on overwatch with a -1 will explode on a 1 or 2 even though you hit on a 6 still.

a) 1 - 1 = 0
b) The overheat rule says "On a hit roll of 1, the bearer is slain"
So following RAW does that mean that with a -1 modifier the weapon wouldn't overheat on a 1 but only on a 2? Unlike some other rules that say something like 6+ this doesn't say "1 or less" or "1-" I don't use plasma and haven't been able to play a lot lately so maybe somewhere in the book is says modifiers can only make it a minimum of 1.

Anyone have experience with how this is interpreted from an official GW event?

What I really dislike about the rule is that stacking -1 to hit can make you get hot on a roll that would have been a hit otherwise, but stacking +1 to hit will still fail if you roll a natural 1, you just won't get hot.

Imhotep wrote:
a) 1 - 1 = 0
b) The overheat rule says "On a hit roll of 1, the bearer is slain"
So following RAW does that mean that with a -1 modifier the weapon wouldn't overheat on a 1 but only on a 2? Unlike some other rules that say something like 6+ this doesn't say "1 or less" or "1-" I don't use plasma and haven't been able to play a lot lately so maybe somewhere in the book is says modifiers can only make it a minimum of 1.

Anyone have experience with how this is interpreted from an official GW event?

From the Designers' Commentary:

Q: Can a dice roll ever be modified to less than 1?

A: No. If, after all modifiers have been applied, a dice roll would be less than 1, count that result as a 1.

Well so much for math saving it... I tried.