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What's an Auspex, and does it increase any point costs on Space Marines?

The auspex is a type of hand scanner used by imperial forces. They had rules for them back in 3rd ed and now in 7th ed they're back. I think they cost a couple points but I can't say how many.

Its the same amount of points as Melta Bombs and as a shooting attack, one squad within 12 inches has its cover save lowered by 1

An auspex costs 5 points to lower 1 unit's cover save by 1.

For its cost not a bad deal, but seldom useful due to bolters being Ap5.

It's a nifty piece of equipment to have on a Beatstick or non-shooty HQ who is spending several turns within 12" of enemy units. What you would use it for is to lower the cover save of a unit with 2+ or 3+ armor who is hiding in ruins, so that the rest of your army can shoot at it with low AP weapons (e.g., target a Riptide who is standing ruins, de-buffing it's cover save to 5+, then follow up with your Lascannon devastators). You can easily recoup its 5pt cost.

Auspex is 5 points (hopefully that' not violating an y GW rules).

I personally find them a little unfortunate given their 12" range (I think they're perfect for grav units, but typically those are relentless and firing at 18" range).

Given the ease of getting flamers on marines, I don't think they're super useful. HOWEVER, they do just lower a save by one, so they might be useful on assault marines or something similar to help remove entrenched units.

I threw one on one of my tactical marines b/c I lost one of the tactical knife hand bits.

I need to start working 1-2 into my lists because of the prevalence of units(mainly daemons) that are getting that 2+(sometimes re-rollable) cover save. Being able to lower that by one really hits their survivability. Same with any unit like Wave serpents or MCs in cover. Throw it on a unit that is assault orientated and since its not a shooting attack they are not limited by who they can charge.

It's a nice peace of gear for DA RW lists.
A biker libby that joined a squad o Black Knights wants to be within 9" for the rapid fire anyways. And with 8+ VS4 AP2 TL attacks you can kind of forget the 2 TL bolter shots if you can decrease the coversave.

I modelled a Sarge with one when they didn't mean anything, because it really works.

Unfortunately, Sarges can't take em. Apparently only HQs, basically.

Yep, after being in a few tournaments recently every character that can get one is going to be equipped with one from now on.

I mean how many items increase the kill rate of your weapons by 16.67% against one target guaranteed every turn? Even more against the 2+ rerollable cover save units. It goes from 1/36 wounds to about 2/9 wounds caused. a HUGE increase.

It also doesn't count as targeting.
Your squad with the HQ can shoot whatever they want as the HQ scans the cover away of another target.

I would take them every time, because I had jinking skimmers.

An additional question regarding Auspexes:
Is their effect cumulative? For example, if I target 5 Auspexes to a single target, is it -5 to the unit's current cover save?

It says one or more auspexes in the description, so no.

I use them as ghost scanners for my squad of tempestus scion Ghostbusters!