Force Striking with a Narthecium

[Nikas Zekeval]

Okay, I just got a level 4 Apothecary with the bonus skill points for lesser XP rewards.

And looking at the melee corner of the skill tree, is there a narthecium you can force strike with? Or do I need to give up healing and equip him with a different melee weapon if I want to use that?

[ROMKnight]

Nah, I don't think so (not that I ever found).

You'll have to give him a different weapon. Although, you can still heal with a servo skull, Apothecaries have a lot of skills for medical servo skulls specifically.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by ROMKnight:

Nah, I don't think so (not that I ever found).

You'll have to give him a different weapon. Although, you can still heal with a servo skull, Apothecaries have a lot of skills for medical servo skulls specifically.

Can they still do their biomancy without a narthecium, or would I have to invest in the apothecarium skull for that?

[Vathek1]

You cannot use force strikes with a Narthecium. As for biomancies, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. After all, Chaplains don't need to have a Crozius equipped in order to use their Litanies which are pretty similar to biomancies in some senses.

The Apothecary's healing skill is actually an innate skill on the Narthecium, similar to how Psychic Onslaught is an innate skill on Psycannon, and can be used by any class which can equip a Psycannon, although only Purgators get passives that will increase the effectiveness of Psychic Onslaught.

Not having the ability to Force Strike with a Narthecium isn't a good reason not to equip one, in my opinion. You can get a Narthecium that inflicts up to +4 damage to organic targets, which makes an excellent can opener when facing Chaos Space Marines. Besides, the Apothecary is more of a support/utility class if anything--you bring him along for Biomancies, healing, and nabbing seeds rather than just raw damage.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by Vathek1:

Not having the ability to Force Strike with a Narthecium isn't a good reason not to equip one, in my opinion. You can get a Narthecium that inflicts up to +4 damage to organic targets, which makes an excellent can opener when facing Chaos Space Marines. Besides, the Apothecary is more of a support/utility class if anything--you bring him along for Biomancies, healing, and nabbing seeds rather than just raw damage.

I found a Tier I Narth that gives +2 to organics +10% crit for same. With the ability to add one and another +10% with the right seals.

Edit: misremembered, it was organics only

Ah well, I had a few extra skill points to spare, and that force strike was on the way to Ruthless Efficiency.

[Charlando[SunsOfStmChrts]]

Theres a tier 3 Narth that does +50% crit to organic, and +4 damage to organics

[Hugh J. Load]

I came across a tier 3 Narth that did, from memory, 2-3 armour break. I'd take the +damage to organic every time though; I find armour break to not be that useful compared to just extra damage to an enemy type.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by TheGrongler:

I came across a tier 3 Narth that did, from memory, 2-3 armour break. I'd take the +damage to organic every time though; I find armour break to not be that useful compared to just extra damage to an enemy type.

One, I had to edit my post, the Narth I found was bonus damage and crit to organics only. And taking it from a two to basically a oneshot weapon on most cultists seems to be worth buying a Tier I weapon.

On Armor Break, I generally try to kill targets before they can regenerate the armor. I can see certain niche uses in cases of bloomspawns and boss fights where the health pool is so deep it is unlikely to impossible to kill the target in one turn, even with Honor the Chapter and Quicksilver running and the full squad focusing the target.

There is one exception, the Warp Charged version of Sanctified Killing Ground Purgators get. That breaks armor on it's own. Wonderful for the Plague Marines, and going to the above weapon, turns it into a two hit kill on a marine.