How Does Blood Boil Actually Work

[The Unseen]

So, for reference:

"Blood Boil

Blood Boil has a warp charge value of 5. If manifested, select a visible enemy unit within 18" of the psyker and roll three dice. The target suffers a mortal wound for each result that equals or exceeds its Toughness characteristic."

 

So I was reading through some Blood Angel articles and reviews and such, and came across 2 very different interpretations of this power.

How I, and I think most of this forum, interpreted this as roll 3 D6, and for each individual die value higher than the targets toughness, the target suffers 1 mortal wound.

 

This interpretation makes Blood Boil one of the absolute worst "witchfires" in the game, since it goes off on the same value as smite, and it does less damage to low T enemies than Smite, and can't even touch higher toughness targets at all.

 

For comparisons sake, smite always does an average of 2 wounds, with 1 guranteed.

BB does average of

T3- 2 wounds

T4- 1.5

T5- 1

T6- 1/2

T7+- none

 

But please note that despite BB and smite having the same "average" damage vs T3 targets, smite actually still has the edge, as you can get 0 off of bb, smite you get 1 minimum.

 

But, during my skimming, I came across an interpretation that makes BB into old psychic screech, as in roll 3d6, and subtract the targets toughness, meaning your likely to get a very large number of wounds off versus almost everything in the game.

 

I'm not even close to convinced that that is actually how BB works, but I'll admit it isn't worded all that well. But it seems very unlikely it's meant to be that powerful, but I suppose you could say the same about the fact that I wouldn't think they would want to give a faction a psychic power that's just worse than smite.

[Indefragable]

I wouldn't think they would want to give a faction a psychic power that's just worse than smite.

You sweet summer child. It's the Blood Angels we're talking sbout.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Indefragable

[Pendent]

The advantage is that you can snipe characters with it. It can be really clutch against guard etc because you can get rid of low toughness support characters like commissars.

[The Unseen]

 

I wouldn't think they would want to give a faction a psychic power that's just worse than smite.

You sweet summer child. It's the Blood Angels we're talking sbout.

Yeah, I know.

The last time anyone currently writing rules for us saw Blood Angels it was back in 5th and he got his ass handed to him, and so they've been nerfing us since.

 

And yeah, keep telling yourself that a potential 0-3 wounds on a T3, 30 pt support character with 4 wounds is worth a 100 pts for the librarian.

And that's literally it's best case scenario right now.

Edited September 8, 2017 by The Unseen

[Spagunk]

Well, I mean you can have said Libby slinging both smite and bb each turn so I mean there's at least something semi-useful.

 

Otherwise, it's a bit of a trap.

[Lord_Caerolion]

The benefit is that you can pick the target of Blood Boil, rather than just the closest. You trade reliability of damage for the option of sniping characters, or ignoring bulletshields.

[The Unseen]

The benefit is that you can pick the target of Blood Boil, rather than just the closest. You trade reliability of damage for the option of sniping characters, or ignoring bulletshields.

That's great, except that most of the other psychic disciplines also get to pick their target, and also do more damage than Blood Boil.

[Panzer]

Why not just accept that the power is simply bad? I mean it's not the first time GW releases a rule/power/ability/whatever that's straight worse than what others have ... and that's not even a BA specific problem.

[Aothaine]

I like it. I just consider it extra damage on smite.  But you look at the other powers and if you're not playing an assault-based list the only other power worth anything is the 4+ invlun.

[Pendent]

It's way more situational than the other two powers but the ability to snipe a character at a crucial moment cannot be overstated. Making a conscript blob vulnerable to morale is a big deal and we don't have many other tools for hitting those commissars.

[Are Verlo]

It is also kind of potent vs eldar characters with T3 and invuln saves.

I once killed a solitaire. Even then I only picked it after other psychers knew rage and shield

[Lord_Caerolion]

 

The benefit is that you can pick the target of Blood Boil, rather than just the closest. You trade reliability of damage for the option of sniping characters, or ignoring bulletshields.

That's great, except that most of the other psychic disciplines also get to pick their target, and also do more damage than Blood Boil.

Well, if the topic were about comparing Blood Boil to all other damage-causing powers, you'd have a point regarding mine, but the question you posted was specifically about comparing Blood Boil to Smite. Yes, we got shafted in regards to our damage power compared to other armies, not denying that.

 

In regards to how Blood Boil is applied, there's no other way. Roll 3 dice, cause 1 mortal wound for each dice that is equal or higher to the targets Toughness. It says "for each result", meaning it's possible to get multiple results that match the criteria, which isn't possible for the Psychic Screech interpretation, as you only get one combined result. Also, nothing states to add them together. Sadly, that interpretation is just really wishful thinking.

 

I mean, I'd love for Blood Boil to be more powerful, but we're stuck with a choice between predictable damage on a set target, or target flexibility with a damage trade-off.

[Pendent]

I played a game today where I was able to do some good work with Blood Boil. I used it to finish off a key buffing characters for a bunch of Khorne Beserkers which probably saved my front line from collapsing.

[Brother apocalyptic]

Bloodboil is great for sniping single model units thst hide backfield (ie 1 crisis suit sitting on an objective).

 

Last game it killed off 3 different IG squads that my opponent placed infront of his characters.

[Xenith]

 

In regards to how Blood Boil is applied, there's no other way. Roll 3 dice, cause 1 mortal wound for each dice that is equal or higher to the targets Toughness. It says "for each result", meaning it's possible to get multiple results that match the criteria, which isn't possible for the Psychic Screech interpretation, as you only get one combined result. Also, nothing states to add them together. Sadly, that interpretation is just really wishful thinking.

 

Roll 3 dice add together isn't really wishful thinking. It's plain deciding you don't like the rules, so making up your own.

 

There isn't really "interpretation" with BloBo, 

[Demoulius]

"Blood Boil

Blood Boil has a warp charge value of 5. If manifested, select a visible enemy unit within 18" of the psyker and roll three dice. The target suffers a mortal wound for each result that equals or exceeds its Toughness characteristic."

 

Roll 3d6.

Each D6 that equals or exceeds the toughness value of the target causes a mortal wound.

It says nothing about adding the results together, whatsoever...

 

That said, against MEQ its pretty much a 50/50 chance per dice of causing a mortal wound, which isent half bad. Becomes trickier if you face T5 or T6 though and its a bit of a gamble in those cases if you will hurt your enemy or not.

 

That said, cant Blood Angel libies cast smite and their own blood angel powers? I dont understand the comparison