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Necrosis wrote:If you are talking about the Boltgun (Archeotech), it say these boltgun may have been used by space marines and that a person needs to have a strength bonus of 6 (meaning 60 strength, which is high) or it counts as a heavy weapon.

Might want to re-read that. It says that it was possibly used by warriors during the earliest days of the Imperium and mentions the bolt and claw emblems. These were the Emperor's symbols during the Unification wars, before SM existed.

The Strength requirement is not due to being used by SM. http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thunder_Warriors#.T5ynddWcLHQ

Necrosis wrote:
impact gel only works against impact damage (so when your getting hit by explosives, laser and other types of damage that isn't impact, your impact gel won't help) and Lathe Wrought is near unique and terminator armour is unique, so manging to combine the two, would create a very personal armour that almost no one else would have (and require excellent relationship with the Mechancius to make such armour and it would take a long time to build it).

The Lathe Wrought thing was just to make it better then SM terminator armor. And there are compatible additions for the armor for each of the damage types.

IIRC there was one of the bodysuits that stacked (but I could not find what book it was in), or you could get subdermal armor for all around 14.

In the end it still isn't your regular civilian/human bolter. It is a special bolter/holy relic that if your seen carrying it will attract attention that you don't want (such as being attacked by Ecclesiarchy and the Mechanicus). So your original point of a human bolter being as strong as a space marine bolter is invalid. Or if you want I can make the comparison more fair by comparing it to a special bolter that is used in death watch.

Lathe Wrought will make it better then space marine Armour but it will take so long to gain the required requisition and then build it, that one of the the following thee will happen:
A: "Your character is killed off"
B: "Your character retires"
C: "Your character is one of the greatest heroes ever seen in this sector"

Also armour can only receive a certain number of upgrades (generally 3 for most armour but the GM can change it). For Terminator armour, since it is automatically best craftsmen ship and unique I would actually say 0 or 1 at most. Now if you want to pull out all the stops and say well I'm going to use all these modifications, lets compare it to dreadknight armour. Cause the fact is your changing the armour completely and be doing stuff that a lot of gms would not allow or we can apply those same upgrades to the space marine version.

Also can you tell me what book Subdermal armour is in?

Necrosis wrote:In the end it still isn't your regular civilian/human bolter. It is a special bolter/holy relic that if your seen carrying it will attract attention that you don't want (such as being attacked by Ecclesiarchy and the Mechanicus). So your original point of a human bolter being as strong as a space marine bolter is invalid. Or if you want I can make the comparison more fair by comparing it to a special bolter that is used in death watch.

Ok, let me dismantel this argument.

A) It does not say that owning one is an automatically be attacked by the Admech (anymore then an archeotech ship part) or the Ecclesiarchy. It states that particular ambitious cardinals, on seeing it, think it Heresy to own one (not that it's actually Heresy as defined by the majority of the ministorum or the Inq). Meaning if they have a good reason that a mere Cardinal has a hard time disputing without jeopardizing his own position, he's going to overlook it. (Possible Rogue Trader responses: 'It was given with my warrant 10k years ago, and see it's signed by the Emperor himself!' [possibly true, warrants that old are known, and ones signed by the big E do exist] 'I'm an Inquisitorial agent and here are my credentials. [the current sector synod has enough bickering and secrets that making [more] enemies in the Tricorne is something they would like to avoid. Particularly since there are a variety of ways for a Rogue Trader to also be an agent of the I ]

B) Your response basically boils down to 'it's invalid because it's extremely rare!' This holds no water as every last Rogue Trader has a Starship, which is much rarer. Park at Scintilla and wait a few weeks and you could probably get a dozen Relic Boltguns. You'll only be able to get one starship, and that's if you're very, very lucky. (And remember, when it comes to getting attention, sometimes that's the point of having it in the first place).

Further, it's no rarer than, say, the Drayloth Chain cannon {Lure of the Expanse}, and a hell of a lot less powerful.

Necrosis wrote:
Lathe Wrought will make it better then space marine Armour but it will take so long to gain the required requisition and then build it, that one of the the following thee will happen:
A: "Your character is killed off"
B: "Your character retires"
C: "Your character is one of the greatest heroes ever seen in this sector"

Or you might make it across the Expanse and back once. You're forgetting that peculiarity of warp travel that says 'time on the ship does not equal time in realspace'. The GM does have to keep track of these two separate time tracks, as time outside the warp quickly piles up relative to time inside the warp.

Necrosis wrote:
Also armour can only receive a certain number of upgrades (generally 3 for most armour but the GM can change it). For Terminator armour, since it is automatically best craftsmen ship and unique I would actually say 0 or 1 at most. Now if you want to pull out all the stops and say well I'm going to use all these modifications, lets compare it to dreadknight armour. Cause the fact is your changing the armour completely and be doing stuff that a lot of gms would not allow or we can apply those same upgrades to the space marine version.

Also can you tell me what book Subdermal armour is in?

GMs should worry more about Teleportarium + Murder Servitors. And, sadly, I don't have the Dreadknight handy, but with dreadknights you run into the issue of is there room for it in a starship hallway? (The answer is usually no, and if it's yes, there are far worse things to send over then a dreadknight. So far I've seen angry grox hopped up on 'slaught, Battle Sisters with heavy flamers, and a thermonuclear weapon [damn you stargate] teleported)

It's bad enough they try to tool around in a Leman Russ, if they're wearing Dreadknights, I'm breaking out the Hruud migration.

Subdermal armor is Page 151 of the Rogue Trader core book.

Also: just play a Tech Priest/Explorator or take the Augmentacist alternate rank - It's been ruled that the Machine Trait stacks with armor, so, yeah, Augmentacist in Termie armor = Dreadknight without all that armor alteration buisness.

BaronIveagh wrote:

Ok, let me dismantel this argument.

A) It does not say that owning one is an automatically be attacked by the Admech (anymore then an archeotech ship part) or the Ecclesiarchy. It states that particular ambitious cardinals, on seeing it, think it Heresy to own one (not that it's actually Heresy as defined by the majority of the ministorum or the Inq). Meaning if they have a good reason that a mere Cardinal has a hard time disputing without jeopardizing his own position, he's going to overlook it. (Possible Rogue Trader responses: 'It was given with my warrant 10k years ago, and see it's signed by the Emperor himself!' [possibly true, warrants that old are known, and ones signed by the big E do exist] 'I'm an Inquisitorial agent and here are my credentials. [the current sector synod has enough bickering and secrets that making [more] enemies in the Tricorne is something they would like to avoid. Particularly since there are a variety of ways for a Rogue Trader to also be an agent of the I ]

B) Your response basically boils down to 'it's invalid because it's extremely rare!' This holds no water as every last Rogue Trader has a Starship, which is much rarer. Park at Scintilla and wait a few weeks and you could probably get a dozen Relic Boltguns. You'll only be able to get one starship, and that's if you're very, very lucky. (And remember, when it comes to getting attention, sometimes that's the point of having it in the first place).

Alright, since were throwing out the extremely rare (by extremely rare I mean near unique) lets compare that bolter to a skapulan bolter which does 2d10+9x with a pen of 7, with the accurate (so you can do more damage), Tearing,and never jams, and when you roll between a 96-100 you get to reroll it. So in the end a common space marine bolter is a better then a common human bolter (if you want to call it common) and a very rare space marine bolter is better then a very rare human bolter.

Or you might make it across the Expanse and back once. You're forgetting that peculiarity of warp travel that says 'time on the ship does not equal time in realspace'. The GM does have to keep track of these two separate time tracks, as time outside the warp quickly piles up relative to time inside the warp.

You did not understand my argument, I should have been more clear, Terminator armour takes decades to build (it says so in it rules), if your going to use Lathe Wrought to build it (cause Lathe Wrought is what you build the Armour with, it not something you attach to it) that means it as to be built from the start. So enjoy waiting at least 20 years for that armour to be built, after you have gotten enough influence with the Ordo Mallues and Mechancius to build it.

GMs should worry more about Teleportarium + Murder Servitors. And, sadly, I don't have the Dreadknight handy, but with dreadknights you run into the issue of is there room for it in a starship hallway? (The answer is usually no, and if it's yes, there are far worse things to send over then a dreadknight. So far I've seen angry grox hopped up on 'slaught, Battle Sisters with heavy flamers, and a thermonuclear weapon [damn you stargate] teleported)

It's bad enough they try to tool around in a Leman Russ, if they're wearing Dreadknights, I'm breaking out the Hruud migration.

Subdermal armor is Page 151 of the Rogue Trader core book.

Also: just play a Tech Priest/Explorator or take the Augmentacist alternate rank - It's been ruled that the Machine Trait stacks with armor, so, yeah, Augmentacist in Termie armor = Dreadknight without all that armor alteration buisness.

Umm no.
Machine Trait with terminator armour does not make you a dread knight.
Dreadknight has 100 wounds, Strength and Toughness of 75, unnatural strength and toughness x3, agility 40 (the wounds and stats replace yours), has a forcefield that never overloads, starts off with two doomfists (which adds 1 to your unnatural strenght meaning your striking with unnatural strength x4, use a psychic power and now your at unnatural strength 5) and has a personal teleporter.

The problem is that your taking the best stuff a human can get and comparing it to the regular stuff a space marine can get and then saying humans get equipment that is just as good as space marine or better. You either compare regular human stuff to regular space marine stuff or compare the best human equipment to the best space marine equipment. In either cases the space marine will win.

Edit:

Also I took a look at the Ascension book, to even get terminator armour with Lathe Wrought would be near impossible. As getting Terminator Armour is unique (-70 penalty to requisition it), wanting to keep it (-20) and the Lathe Wrought is near unique (-50) for a total of (-140). Do you know how much influence a new inquisitor has? 40, which means he automatically fails by 100. How much does a well establish Inquisitor have? 70. What about an Inquisitor Lord? 110, which is still an automatic fail. The only people that have a chance is the Members of the Calixian Conclave's High Council, Lord-Sector Hax with 130 influence if they have a good reputation with the Ordo Malleus which gives them a plus 20 on the roll. Meaning they have to roll a 10 or less. Now their are two other people/group that might be able to get it. The Entire Conclave with 150 influence and the most powerful Inquisitor in the Sector with 150 influence. Which means they need to roll a 30 or less. And then wait at-least 20 years for the Armour to be build. So effectively, your character won't be getting that Armour, as your character would have to become the most powerful Inquisitor in the entire sector.

Necrosis wrote:
Alright, since were throwing out the extremely rare (by extremely rare I mean near unique) lets compare that bolter to a skapulan bolter which does 2d10+9x with a pen of 7, with the accurate (so you can do more damage), Tearing,and never jams, and when you roll between a 96-100 you get to reroll it. So in the end a common space marine bolter is a better then a common human bolter (if you want to call it common) and a very rare space marine bolter is better then a very rare human bolter.

Unless your target is daemonic or from beyond, at which point the Human one is still better out of the box due to the double damage from Holy. (and the reroll is actually pretty useless)

Necrosis wrote:
You did not understand my argument, I should have been more clear, Terminator armour takes decades to build (it says so in it rules), if your going to use Lathe Wrought to build it (cause Lathe Wrought is what you build the Armour with, it not something you attach to it) that means it as to be built from the start. So enjoy waiting at least 20 years for that armour to be built, after you have gotten enough influence with the Ordo Mallues and Mechancius to build it.

Or use Good Reputation: Mechanicus and make a hard Commerce check, possibly sweetening the deal with archeotech from the expanse. And then go about your business. You'll probably wrack up that 20 years of real time in 5 years or so worth of warp transitions.

Necrosis wrote:
Umm no.
Machine Trait with terminator armour does not make you a dread knight.
Dreadknight has 100 wounds, Strength and Toughness of 75, unnatural strength and toughness x3, agility 40 (the wounds and stats replace yours), has a forcefield that never overloads, starts off with two doomfists (which adds 1 to your unnatural strenght meaning your striking with unnatural strength x4, use a psychic power and now your at unnatural strength 5) and has a personal teleporter.

Dear Emperor, that would never, ever ever be allowed in my game. The damn players would steal it immediately if they didn't blow it to smithereens on the 2nd turn. (I should tell you the trick they used at Rank 3 to kill an entire squad of Necron Pariahs in one shot without using a lance strike)

Other than the 100 wounds (25 wound limit for players), strength, and Doomfists, I'm fairly certain I can do a pretty good imitation of one though. It'd probably top out around 75, statwise, but I'd have to do the math.

Necrosis wrote: In either cases the space marine will win.

See above for exception. Further, as far as SM gear being universally superior, I'll name another one: the Haywire grenade from Rogue Trader always produces effects 61-100 that the SM EMP grenade does. It knocks everything out for 1d5 rounds, possibly including that Dreadknight.

And a vortex grenade is a Vortex Grenade, no matter who's holding it.

Necrosis wrote:
Also I took a look at the Ascension book, to even get terminator armour with Lathe Wrought would be near impossible. As getting Terminator Armour is unique (-70 penalty to requisition it), wanting to keep it (-20) and the Lathe Wrought is near unique (-50) for a total of (-140). Do you know how much influence a new inquisitor has? 40, which means he automatically fails by 100.

Use a Rogue Trader, the penalty is only -70 using Acquisition (since you don't check twice, just once using the higher rarity [Unique]) rather than Influence and you can almost do it at level 1 if you rolled well on Profit or min-maxed using the Warrant paths. You're also overlooking that the Rogue Trader can modify the Acquisition check as if his profit factor were higher than it is.

BaronIveagh wrote:

Necrosis wrote:
Alright, since were throwing out the extremely rare (by extremely rare I mean near unique) lets compare that bolter to a skapulan bolter which does 2d10+9x with a pen of 7, with the accurate (so you can do more damage), Tearing,and never jams, and when you roll between a 96-100 you get to reroll it. So in the end a common space marine bolter is a better then a common human bolter (if you want to call it common) and a very rare space marine bolter is better then a very rare human bolter.

Unless your target is daemonic or from beyond, at which point the Human one is still better out of the box due to the double damage from Holy. (and the reroll is actually pretty useless)

Necrosis wrote:
You did not understand my argument, I should have been more clear, Terminator armour takes decades to build (it says so in it rules), if your going to use Lathe Wrought to build it (cause Lathe Wrought is what you build the Armour with, it not something you attach to it) that means it as to be built from the start. So enjoy waiting at least 20 years for that armour to be built, after you have gotten enough influence with the Ordo Mallues and Mechancius to build it.

Or use Good Reputation: Mechanicus and make a hard Commerce check, possibly sweetening the deal with archeotech from the expanse. And then go about your business. You'll probably wrack up that 20 years of real time in 5 years or so worth of warp transitions.

Necrosis wrote:
Umm no.
Machine Trait with terminator armour does not make you a dread knight.
Dreadknight has 100 wounds, Strength and Toughness of 75, unnatural strength and toughness x3, agility 40 (the wounds and stats replace yours), has a forcefield that never overloads, starts off with two doomfists (which adds 1 to your unnatural strenght meaning your striking with unnatural strength x4, use a psychic power and now your at unnatural strength 5) and has a personal teleporter.

Dear Emperor, that would never, ever ever be allowed in my game. The damn players would steal it immediately if they didn't blow it to smithereens on the 2nd turn. (I should tell you the trick they used at Rank 3 to kill an entire squad of Necron Pariahs in one shot without using a lance strike)

Other than the 100 wounds (25 wound limit for players), strength, and Doomfists, I'm fairly certain I can do a pretty good imitation of one though. It'd probably top out around 75, statwise, but I'd have to do the math.

Necrosis wrote: In either cases the space marine will win.

See above for exception. Further, as far as SM gear being universally superior, I'll name another one: the Haywire grenade from Rogue Trader always produces effects 61-100 that the SM EMP grenade does. It knocks everything out for 1d5 rounds, possibly including that Dreadknight.

And a vortex grenade is a Vortex Grenade, no matter who's holding it.

Necrosis wrote:
Also I took a look at the Ascension book, to even get terminator armour with Lathe Wrought would be near impossible. As getting Terminator Armour is unique (-70 penalty to requisition it), wanting to keep it (-20) and the Lathe Wrought is near unique (-50) for a total of (-140). Do you know how much influence a new inquisitor has? 40, which means he automatically fails by 100.

Use a Rogue Trader, the penalty is only -70 using Acquisition (since you don't check twice, just once using the higher rarity [Unique]) rather than Influence and you can almost do it at level 1 if you rolled well on Profit or min-maxed using the Warrant paths. You're also overlooking that the Rogue Trader can modify the Acquisition check as if his profit factor were higher than it is.

I think were just going to have to agree to disagree, cause it seems me and you play this game in two different ways, such as how holy works, as it negates daemons toughness bonus from being a daemon. We can keep this argument up forever.

There can be no consensus, so agreeing to disagree is the best way to end a debate like this one.

It all depends on the specific source one is looking at, for they clearly differ on certain essential details. Such inconsistencies usually arise from comparisons between works of different origin (such as GW and FFG), or even between different "stages of evolution" of the same origin (like different editions or different games).

In the end it also boils down to who you think will be able to produce the best equipment - the Space Marines .. or the Adeptus Mechanicus itself?

Lynata wrote:There can be no consensus, so agreeing to disagree is the best way to end a debate like this one.

It all depends on the specific source one is looking at, for they clearly differ on certain essential details. Such inconsistencies usually arise from comparisons between works of different origin (such as GW and FFG), or even between different "stages of evolution" of the same origin (like different editions or different games).

In the end it also boils down to who you think will be able to produce the best equipment - the Space Marines .. or the Adeptus Mechanicus itself?

Well space marines can have tech marines who get all the advantages of tech priests.

Necrosis wrote:Well space marines can have tech marines who get all the advantages of tech priests.

Sure, they study on Mars for some time. Yet at best (assuming the AdMech divulges all its secrets to them ...) this would mean they can create the same kind of stuff, not something better.

When studio sources provide an explicit statement reflected throughout many years of material, which is then only contradicted by some licensed book whose authors freely admitted on not being that big about consistency, then all you can do is choose whether to follow GW's lead or one of the many outsourced interpretations. As Gav Thorpe said, neither would be wrong - but there is quite simply no common ground when talking about this level of detail.

Necrosis wrote:
I think were just going to have to agree to disagree, cause it seems me and you play this game in two different ways, such as how holy works, as it negates daemons toughness bonus from being a daemon. We can keep this argument up forever.

Sorry, you're correct on the Holy thing, was writing two posts about two different systems and got my wires crossed about Holy here and Holy over there.

And, no, I'm playing it with Rogue Trader's version of the Rules, and you're playing it with the DH version sprinkled with the DW version.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Lynata wrote:
It all depends on the specific source one is looking at, for they clearly differ on certain essential details. Such inconsistencies usually arise from comparisons between works of different origin (such as GW and FFG), or even between different "stages of evolution" of the same origin (like different editions or different games).

Or sometimes the same book on different pages. (A problem caused by the new trend toward having several authors and editors, in order to produce the book faster.)

BaronIveagh wrote:
Sorry, you're correct on the Holy thing, was writing two posts about two different systems and got my wires crossed about Holy here and Holy over there.

And, no, I'm playing it with Rogue Trader's version of the Rules, and you're playing it with the DH version sprinkled with the DW version.

There is a rule in Ascension that stop you from using the Rogue Trader rules from acquiring gear from the Ascension Rulebook and supplements.

Necrosis wrote:
There is a rule in Ascension that stop you from using the Rogue Trader rules from acquiring gear from the Ascension Rulebook and supplements.

You might want to read Page 16 of Ascension then, as it states that a Rogue Trader can use their Profit. It is not interchangeable with Influence, but can be used along side it. Further, Profit is what Rogue Traders use in an opposed test against Influence when a Inquisitor wants something and the Rogue Trader doesn't want to deliver.

I read that unless the gm says otherwise, you cannot use it.

Necrosis wrote:I read that unless the gm says otherwise, you cannot use it.

That doesn't make sense then, as that would break RAW any time an Inquisitor or Rogue Trader wanted to influence one another.

It doesn't matter much though, there's a similar suit with more AP in Into the Storm that only counts as Extremely Rare.

BaronIveagh wrote:

Necrosis wrote:I read that unless the gm says otherwise, you cannot use it.

That doesn't make sense then, as that would break RAW any time an Inquisitor or Rogue Trader wanted to influence one another.

It doesn't matter much though, there's a similar suit with more AP in Into the Storm that only counts as Extremely Rare.

As I said before, lets just agree to disagree.

They are right in despising the psyker.

I read a book were they call the Astartes abhumans, the sisters of battle hate everyone but themselves and are treated like mad dogs even by the Inquisition.

ZSO SAHALL wrote:I read a book were they call the Astartes abhumans

The 2nd Edition Codex dealt with this a bit - it's actually an opinion that holds some weight in the entire Ecclesiarchy:

"[...] Also, it is a matter of debate whether the Space Marines are truly humans at all. Their genetically engineered bodies are far superior to a normal human, enough to make them a separate race if one wished to interpret their differences so. How can any self-respecting Confessor or Cardinal relate to a monstrous giant who can spit acid, crush a man's skull with one hand, and practices crude acts of blood sacrifice?" [...]

Ironically, the Sisters of Battle are somewhat more tempered than the Clergy ranks. Whilst there are undoubtedly lingering issues of trust and occasional conflict (such as Canoness Dissentia's attack on the Angels Vermillion in the wake of the Argent Shroud's mandate of policing other Imperial forces), on a whole, both organizations also harbor a certain degree of respect for each other. From the same Codex as the above quote:

"Occasionally the Battle Sisters will have common cause with the firce Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes. Although the relationship between these two organisations is only civil at best, the Space Marines and Battle Sisters both respect each other's prowess and skill at arms. Many times, the foes of the Imperium have been eradicated by a combined attack from these two elite forces."

ZSO SAHALL wrote:the sisters of battle hate everyone but themselves and are treated like mad dogs even by the Inquisition.

Ehh ... I guess that depends on what novel you're reading. The individual authors' interpretation of these topics varies wildly. That being said, "the" Inquisition is a bit difficult to describe in general, as it is made up of so many different kinds of people with different styles and opinions. There are even Inquisitors who once were Sororitas themselves.

The SOB doesn't hate anybody but themselves. They can cooperate with other soldiers, and maybe even turn a blind eye to things not too sinful by the regiment depending on who is in charge and how good the officers and commissars of the regiment, and the Arbites is in quelling the dissident. Then again the only Sororitas which seems to can be able to at least listen to heretics are the Sisters Famolous, but even if it ain't sort of backed I think the Sisters Hospitalliers at least due being independent thinkers (probably as they can find themselves assigned to an IG-regiment as medics) also have a certain freedom there.

Well, the Hospitallers are excellent medics.... but will not hesitate to use their medical knowledge in the persecution of the Heretic. This is why the Inquisition relies on AdMech Magos Biologis in keeping captured Heretics alive, rather than the Sisters. The Sisters aren't going to keep the Heretic alive, feth what the Inquisitor says.

The Sister Hospitalliers, some of them are working alone, lets say attached to a regiment for years. No matter how pious the regiment, they have little piety compared to a Sororita. So they likely give some leeway.

I'm not sure you can say that a member of the Sororitas, in any place or time, has "little piety". Pious is what they are. It is the breath they draw, their reason for being. A Sister Hospitaller is a Sororitas... she is not, however, a Battle-Sister, as she is not in an Order Militant.

I sort of take the militarism of her as how much she has been in battle. A Sister Hospitallier serving 20 years with a regiment likely is as skilled in battle as any Sister of Battle, and I sort of think they ain't assigned before they enter the two convents on either Terra or Ophelia VII to anything, and trained with handling weapons depending on how late she was drafted to the Sister Hospitalliers who the Inquisitors prefer to have served with a IG-regiment before drafting them (which I interpret to mean that she is sort of of the skill of any Battle-Sister). However the mileage can vary of course depending on how you feel about doctors being warriors.

And it was little piety compared to.

A Sister is selected by an Order once she takes the Vow of Suffrage after her time spent as an Initiate. As they are products of the Schola Progenium, they will be versed with the basic weapons of the Imperium, but the use of the bolter, the flamer and the melta will not be part of the curriculum until a Sister joins one of the Orders Militant.

A Sister Hospitaller may serve with a Guard regiment (more likely with the Warmaster's HQ unit in the rear echelon, where their advanced medical skill will be of greater use in treating more and more-seriously wounded soldiers, and even more likely in an actual hospital in a civilian area that has been seriously affected by war or natural disaster) and so she may not actually gain that much combat experience... being that she's a doctor, not a soldier. She's perfectly capable of picking up a lasrifle if necessary, but it's not the primary function of the Sisters Hospitaller.

Even if she's been with that Guard Regiment for 20 years (though the Sisters Hospitaller are not exactly a MASH unit), she's not slogging it in the trenches with the dog-soldiers, it's not her job. Again, she's a doctor, it's her job to tend to the sick and injured, and her skills are best employed in a military hospital facility, rather than on the frontlines as a line medic or combat life-saver. Any IG infantry medic can patch a soldier up to give him the chance to get to the rear medical facility, where the Sister's expertise can come into play and treat this casualty and make him combat effective once more, whereas a normal, non-Sister doctor might write him off or, at best, give him the life of an invalid.

It would depend on how much she has been in battle. The Cantus-advance basically means a Sister Hospitallier, or any non-military Sororita can be equally competent in battle as the finest Battle-Sisters (I just think the Sister Hospitallier would be the most common holding that advance due to them being the most common Sisters that is actually seen). Heck it ain't uncommon for them to change sisterhoods. That seem to be a very common occurrence there, as Faith and Fire proved. The Battle-Sister there did things, and the Cannonness weighed her as too light for her sisterhood, yet she was not inducted into the Sister Repentia.

Keep in mind that much of the licensed material isn't inter-compatible. Hell, if you're looking at FFG's RPG, they even have two versions of Hospitaller and SoB each depending on which book you're looking at (Inquisitor's Handbook vs Blood of Martyrs) - with the newer Hospitaller using modified Adept advances to level, having no novice ranks whatsoever, and being issued a stub revolver as primary weapon.

Also, from the 3E Codex Witch Hunters:
"Sisters Hospitaller are often called to serve the Inquisition in a number of capacities. To a Witch Hunter, a surgeon's ability to keep a subject alive despite the most grievous of injuries is most useful. In the persecution of heretics, even a Sister Hospitaller will put aside her compassion, so great is her chagrin should a man turn his back upon the Blessed God-Emperor of Mankind."

Which makes way more sense than the Sisters allowing a heretic the release of an easy death, when you think about it. Thanks to first-hand experience, they are well-versed in the art of administering cleansing castigations, and Ophelia VII has some of the largest dungeons of the entire Imperium, where countless sinners repent day by day.
Which is why GW sold Hospitaller miniatures for the Inquisitorial Henchman squad - and not Magos' Biologis.

Anyways, it makes sense that a Sister Hospitaller would have some experience in wielding a weapon - they all went through Schola training, after all. However, their primary task is providing care for wounded faithful (with minor duties including purity control, or genealogical tests in concjunction with the Famulous), during which they remain protected. Them getting into combat themselves (by enemy attack or during a frontline rescue mission) would be a comparatively rare occasion, and certainly wouldn't suffice to bring the average Sister Hospitaller anywhere near the level of experience of a Sister Militant, who combines regular combat experience with rigorous training.

I sort of both agree and disagree with you Lynata, of course some of the more active Sister Hospitalliers will be doctors in name only (more often shooting their bolters in combat than doing surgery), but yeah, they will in general stay behind and organize the hospitals and do that sort of stuff more often than not, as that's were their skill lie (also, they most often travel in groups, as hospitals needs more than one doctor, and it seems stupid to not have much of the medical-staff as Sororitas). Of course it's my interpretation and you are free to dismiss it.

The one thing I'm wondering is whether the Orders Hospitaller have their own guards (sort of like "militant non-militant Sisters", or "pseudo-SoB" if you will) or if they rely on the Orders Militant / the Imperial Guard to provide security ...
If it's the latter, what about their own convent? Or would they just store some guns and pick them up only when needed?

Unfortunately, GW material on the Hospitaller is rather slim, and I can see it working both ways - "sentry duty" with armed nurses compared to Sisters who are members of the Hospitaller by name, yet have the equipment and duties of a Militant.

Probably, as I sort of think only a few advances from novices to full Sororitas (my interpretation is many join, few advance). Also I think you have the ones that is doctors in name only, and I'm glad you ain't dismissing my interpretations (however original they might be). I think the organization likely recruits hospital-security from within (most entering the convents ends up doing the boring stuff in my mind like making food-stuff, wiping dust and such you really don't want described).

GW like to give the fans a wide berth. Things should be varied, but I have come to agree with your more dogmatic view of the SOB Lynata.

In the end, none of our interpretations can be wrong, to quote Gav Thorpe. You're spot on about the wide berth, and even though this comes with the problematic "instability" of a common ground for discussions (or even cross-product consistency), at least this leaves us with the freedom to stick to a version we like.

It took me a while to accept this and I'd still rather have consistency, but it could be worse: The powers-that-be could enforce a vision polar to our own. And I'm sure all of us have seen at least one piece of Sisters fluff in a some novel or elsewhere we'd rather like to forget.

I'd imagine that the Sisters in a war-zone have the locals to depend on for defense of their hospital, under normal circumstances, whether that's the local citizen militia, the PDF, the IG on-world with the Sisters or even a local Arbites detachment. At the very least, I can see the Sisters looping some Frateris Militia guys into guarding the doors to the hospital in the event they feel it would be necessary, and this is, of course, assuming that no actual Battle Sisters are present to provide the service.

I don't see the Hospitallers generally traveling in sufficient numbers to provide the medical care that is their primary mission and also able to post several guards over a hospital facility. We already know that there's not a huge number of Sisters in the Imperium, I see that womanpower would be often in short supply, so either they do duty as doctor-guards or do it in shifts or whatever, or they loop in other people in the area to serve as guards. Being as they're nuns, I can see them being very good at guilting IG commanders into giving up a few troops to use as guards.