Lightning Claw or Force Weapon

[Stormborn]

I'm putting together a small force of renegade space marines.

 

One of  my HQ's will be a Sorceror with jump pack to lead some Raptors.  I wanted to give him a lightning claw, am I better off going for a force weapon?

[Tenebris]

I would say that it is always better to keep the stock Force Weapon on the psyker, be it staff, sword or axe. The Instant Death due to Force Weapon has saved me a lot of times and killed many nasty things that were tough to tackle with conventional weaponry. On the other side the Lightning Claw is better used by a Chaos Lord, or any other combat character. 

[Forté]

Keep the Force Weapon. You don't have to pay extra of it.

[Sception]

Or rather you already paid for it. It's built into the cost of the sorcerer. You would be paying for the force weapon only to toss it aside. An argument could be made in there were an ap2 specialist force weapon, like a force fist or something, then you might consider picking up the claw and switching between them as needed like a fist/claw lord. But there is no standard specialist force weapon, so doing that would cost you an attack, and sorcerers don't have any to spare.

 

Sorcererz might consider picking up a complementary power weapon to play a similar game, though.

[chillin]

A force weapon is "free" , it's a no-brainer.

[Trevak Dal]

I wish you could take a second force weapon...but I guess Force weapons are a lot like Jedi Lightsabers, built and tuned for each individual.

 

Still wish there was a GK Force Halberd +1 initiative option >_>

[Sception]

They are tuned to the individual, and often built by them, but there were jedi with two lightsabers, too. No reason why a psycher couldn't build a second. Game-wise it probably wouldn't really be worth it even if it were an option, though. Dual swords, which would have been the coolest looking pair force weapon set up, in particular would have been a poor game choice.

[Slayer le Boucher]

Not if they had a "Parry" rule, giving a 4++ save in CC.

 

But well, usually its best to keep the Force Weapon, now you are free to turn it into any kind of power weapon you fancy, outside the specialists type of weapons.

 

Axe could be Good, if Sorcerors din't have to also issue or accept challenges, a Force Lance could be nice, but once the first round of CC over, its just a AP4 weapon, if you don't mind ending up with an AP4 weapon, then better take a Force Maul, at least you have a sweet +2S and commotion weapon.

[Sception]

The having to accept challenges problem is a little overstated. Remember, regular characters that refuse challenges don't get to fight that round anyway, and can only refuse at all as long as they have a unit to hide behind. In general, characters need to be in units with champions to act as bodyguards, like in fantasy. And heck, some psykers might even want to take an axe to a challenge - say a nurgle bike sorcerer when the opposing characters aren't carrying fists or hammers, or a black legion tzeentch termie sorcerer with 2+/3++ and the skull of eternal warrior (getting a terminator sorcerer into a favorable melee in the first place is more of a trick, though).

 

Anyway, long story short, sorcerers are generally best off just picking a force weapon based on what opponents you think they're likely to run up against and sticking with that.

[Stormborn]

Thanks Guys!  Force Weapon it is. 

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

If I use a sorcerer in terminator armour, I run him with force weapon and a different power weapon, one would be an axe, the other a sword or mace, only way for termi sorcerers to get an extra attack :P

[darknightdrako]

If you really like the claw model you can always tell your opponent its just a force sword.