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So I did some quick math, and got it double checked by a friend.

On average, casting Smite by a Rubric Sorcerer (part of a basic Rubric Marine squad) will deal 1 wound to the enemy and .1112 wounds to the squad.

Since Rubrics cost 18 PPM, the Sorcerer is 30, and their gear costs 2 PPM (1 on the Sorcerer) that means that a 5 man Rubric squad is 111 points. Or, in other words, you deal about 2.5 points worth of wounds to yourself each turn you cast Smite, on average.

So, assuming your opponent is smart and forcing you to target chaff units, you still come out ahead, on average. Conscripts are, what, 3 PPM? So even then, you net an average of .5 points gained.

On an ACTUAL Sorcerer, assuming as bare bones as possible, is 102 points. Deals 1.9 wounds to enemies, .1112 to himself. Has 4 wounds.

So, you deal 2.8 points of wounds to yourself each time you cast Smite, but even on 3 PPM Conscripts, deal 5.7 points of wounds to them.

You know, wasn't actually expecting this. Thought it'd be worse.

Thanks for this.
IMO psykers are risky specialist weapons and should be little more except in very special cases.

Are you factoring in successful manifesting?
And there's also the fact that denying is easy, and a lot of targets can ignore wounds.

It's pretty weak.

On the plus side, if you blow yourself up with perils, you can hurt nearby enemies too.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
and a lot of targets can ignore wounds.

I can't think of a single unit in 40k that can ignore Mortal Wounds

Farseers. Eldar are special.

BrianDavion wrote:

Captyn_Bob wrote:
and a lot of targets can ignore wounds.

I can't think of a single unit in 40k that can ignore Mortal Wounds

Mephiston

The FNP of 8th can ignore mortal wounds but besides Nurgle isn't something that is common for now.

The Tau Stimulant Injector ignores all wounds, mortal or otherwise, on a roll of six.

Yes, I think Smite is actually pretty good in many matchups.

Conscripts are just about the worst-case scenario. In many cases the enemy isn't going to have the option to present something that costs less than about 10 ppw. Even against a cheap Razorback your Sorcerer expects to take off 19 points' worth of wounds.

This is actually really good! A BS4 Lascannon only expects to take 13 points' worth of wounds off of a Razorback. And how else were you planning to kill them? Your Sorcerer is killing at least 20% of his points per turn with just one of his two powers, and he's still sitting on some light counter-assault capability.

Obviously Smite really shines on a mobile unit that can pick targets, but I'm pretty happy to have it anywhere. Also note that many psykers have a slightly less powerful but targetable version available to them. One of your Dark Hereticus psykers can use Infernal Gaze instead of or in addition to Smite. It expects to inflict 1.25 wounds, but on anything you can see, including characters. So opponents need to present trash units to more than just one psyker before your damage output goes down significantly.

I don't agree that it's very risky. First, everything is risky and the averages speak for themselves. But anyway, Perils is a 1/18 chance, and will definitely not kill an uninjured Sorcerer. You can even use a Command Point to re-roll one of the dice if you're that worried about the wounds. This is like a 2+ save against the Perils wounds. The re-roll also does not risk changing a success on double 6s to a failure (barring enemy denial attempts) and actually gives you a 50% chance of turning double 1s into a success. Of course, when you do roll double 6s, the average damage on your Smite goes up by 1.5 mortal wounds even as you now expect to take 2 mortal wounds, so in some cases you might take that trade. The d6 mortal wound roll on a good Smite is itself a good target for command re-rolls if you roll poorly on the first one.

Denial by enemy psykers is also not a huge concern. Sure, you'd like to not get denied, but in almost every matchup this is symmetric. If they have psykers that can deny you then you have psykers that can deny them. Denying their cast of Smite is just as good as casting it yourself, and if you didn't have the psyker you couldn't do that. Or maybe they're counting on that psyker for something mission critical and you get even more value out of denying them.

The math on denial also isn't great for the denier. You only have about a 36% chance of denying Smite (higher warp charge powers are harder to deny). It certainly shouldn't cause you to shy away from using it if there's something other than Conscripts in front of you.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Are you factoring in successful manifesting?
And there's also the fact that denying is easy, and a lot of targets can ignore wounds.

It's pretty weak.

On the plus side, if you blow yourself up with perils, you can hurt nearby enemies too.

Yes, I am.

It's actually better than I expected, honestly. Now, it does get worse if you load your Sorcerer up with goodies, for instance, but them's the breaks.

 Galas wrote:
The FNP of 8th can ignore mortal wounds but besides Nurgle isn't something that is common for now.

I don't think Nurgle ignores Mortal wounds.

Tyranid FNP specifies Wounds and Mortal Wounds
Tau FNP specifies Wounds and Mortal Wounds
Eldar FNP specifies Wounds and Mortal Wounds

Nurgle FNP specifies Wounds.