Grades of quality above Standard-Issue

[ChapterMasterGodfrey]

Hello brothers.

 

I found this archived thread whilst doing research for my fan Space Marine Codex. My question is essentially this; how would you order the following tiers of Astartes Weaponry:

 

• Tier 1, Chapter-Masters: Relic Weapons
• Tier 2, Captains: Artificer/Something else? Weapons
• Tier 3, Lieutenants: Artificer/Something else? Weapons
• Tier 4, Veterans: Master-Crafted Weapons
• Tier 5, Sergeants: Standard-Issue Weapons

 

I would really appreciate help with my specific problem with naming either the Captain's or LT's weapons. I feel "Artificer" should go just above "Master-Crafted". However, I then need another name for a tier of weapon. Should Captains or LTs have "Sanctified" weapons? Would you put "Sanctified" above or below "Artificer"? Another option is "Forge-Blessed" but I'm not too sure I like that one. Yet another option is to give the LTs "Artificer", Captains "Relic" and Chapter-Masters "Archeotech".

 

As I say this is for a homebrew fan codex project I'm working on s advise within these parameters would be greatly appreciated (i.e. please don't suggest scrapping a tier).

 

Thank you so much in advance!

[Cleon]

So I'd go for the following (but it's just my opinion based on the tiering above, in my head I'd have the four tiers below):
 

• Tier 1, Chapter-Masters: Relic Weapons
• Tier 2, Captains (and head chaplains, chief Librarians): Artificer  Weapons
• Tier 3, Lieutenants (Chaplains, Librarians and Ancients): Master-crafted Weapons
• Tier 4, Veterans and some Sergeants: Special-issue Weapons (i.e bolters with the sternguard ammo selectors, general issue power weapons)
• Tier 5, Sergeants and line troops: Astartes-Issue Weapons

Personally I'd have four tiers:

Tier 1, 'Relic Weapons' - These are very limited, given to the Chapter Master, the head Librarian, head Chaplain, 1st Captain and some of the line captains - one (or if a first founding Chapter, maybe 3 or 4) might be 'Primarch Relics', others are Tier 2 weapons of notable age or quality or that survived key moments in the Chapters past.

Tier 2, 'Artificer Weapons' - These are the very best that can currently be made, although very slowly and in limited numbers, given to the remaining Captains who didn't get Relics and the noteworthy Chaplains and Librarians, possibly the Chapter Champion/ancient too.

Tier 3, 'Master Crafted Weapons' - These are a mix of a low number of 'better made, but not artificer' weapons and in some cases (Chapters of Salamander, Iron Hands, Blood Angels origins) the weapons veterans/Lieutenants have been maintaining/improving/fighting with personally for centuries, perfectly attuned to that specific Marine 

Tier 4, 'Astates-Issue Weapons' - A weapon that any Guardsman, Sister or Noble would be blessed to own, crafted to higher standards than 99% of humanities armoury, but still, standard issue to a Space Marine.

Edited May 27 by Cleon

[Mazer Rackham]

The Deathwatch RPG goes into this in some detail. The Craftmanship of weapons generally follows these ranks:

• Poor
• Common
• Good
• Best
• Exceptional
• Master-Crafted
• Relic

Space Marine gear starts at 'Best', much as Cleon suggests above, but as this is a fan-project and you don't want to scrap tiers, so I'd work up from Best and add whatever floats your boat. In DW, the Sanctified type is applied to weapons which are top tier, but does not improve them to another level. They must, however, meet this quality to gain the sanctified 'upgrade'.

 

Artificer is also mentioned, although really only for armour, but this could certainly be an extra tier. My suggestion would be sandwiched in between MC and Relic. Obviously you could just re-name the tiers to something more aesthetically pleasing - but either way, your tier system will be canonically supported.

 

My tuppence.

[MARK0SIAN]

I think the problem is LTs became a thing for SM much more recently than the various grades of weaponry were established and they occupy a kind of weird half way house between master crafted and artificer. 
 

Personally, I would keep the LTs with Master crafted gear. In my head the justification would be that they’re veterans who are still proving themselves in command roles and wouldn’t warrant artificer gear yet. You could also use the inverse and say that as soon as they reach officer rank they’re entitled to artificer gear. 
 

That said, you could always ignore it. It’s Horus Heresy so I’m not sure how relevant you’ll find it but in First Edition, Abbadon’s power sword wasn’t even master crafted :)  

[Blissful Brushes]

 I should think a lot comes down to time in service and reputation as well. There’s going to be warriors who have been in veteran companies for centuries and aren’t fit to command large bodies of men because that’s just not who they are. The best shot in the chapter is probably going to be a sergeant rather than a senior officer, who should have been promoted on leadership qualities rather than pure fighting efficiency.

 

To bring it to today’s context, you don’t give the 4* general quad-nods and the best rifle money can buy just because he’s a 4*. You give it to the guy in the SMU who’s spent the last 10 years dropping bodies all over the world. But I might give him the fancy armour because the 4* is going to be orchestrating the whole war, rather than just executing part of the plan.
 

Status means a lot, but I think a hint of the right tool for the right man would also be a thing.

 

Ultimately it’s a fantasy setting and you can do whatever the hell you like, but that’s just my 2c. 

[ChapterMasterGodfrey]

So guys, I went with Special-Issue, just above Standard-Issue. 

 

There are rules applied to this and the main difference is the A characteristic, so  Veteran and a LT can't really use the same tier. They need to be distictly names so I can clearly give them associated wargear points cost in my upcoming full fan codex. Please revew the datasheets I have so far here: https://game-datacards.eu/shared/55cti70vGOfztcVA

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Ironically, I’d say master crafted and artificer are basically the same thing.

 

an artificer is a master craftsman.

edit

arent only weapons MC’d and only armor given the label of artificer 

Edited June 1 by Inquisitor_Lensoven

[Dezron]

On 5/27/2026 at 1:49 PM, ChapterMasterGodfrey said:

Chapter-Masters "Archeotech"

 

What about "Chapter Relic" implying that gear used by Chapter Master is not only of highiest quality, but also important to the Chapter as well?

[jaxom]

I'd use Master-Crafted for Tier 3 and then use Venerable for Tier 2. My brain seems to associate the first "special" gear a Marine gets is older, and by Imperial default older equals better. I'm not sure if I can explain it without peeling apart a bunch of lore. Like, here's a weapon that has Importance and is Better because of it, but it's also never described as being Important and/or Better because an unusual amount of care and attention went into it's crafting. It may technically be an artifact/relic but it's also not an artifact or a relic the way we consider them in game rules. Like, it may be a 600 year old bog-standard at creation bolt pistol but that's not too long relative to gear from the dawn of the Imperium (which often made the test of time because they were exceptional to begin with).