Forget Chain Swords. Behold!

The Drill Rapier!

Stat it.

 +2 Armor Pen, loses the primitive quality.

That's a great idea for spears too ;)

Objulen said:

I was actually trying to find the stats for a regular Rapier before I attempted to stat it myself, but unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any.

...Sword..? You could use a Sabre, which could, technically, be a form of rapier, but that's merely arguing semantics. I'd use the stats for a chainsword, but remove Balanced and add +1 or +2 Pen.

Fgdsfg said:

There's not, but you can look at some of the Xenos or specialty weapons from the various books on the Ecclesiarchy, etc. At the end of the day, though, you're only going to have so many different stats that you can use for similar weapons. 

One way to handle, it, though is to emphasize the higher reliance on speed instead of strength. Here's an idea to help make it mechanically different from every other sword in existence:

Rapier:

Damage -- 1d10 +1; Armor Pen 0; Fast, Agile Fighting, Primitive

Fast -- From Inqusitor's Handbook -- the weapon imposes a -20 penalty on attacks to Parry it. It's a flexible, quick weapon

Agile Fighting -- Homebrew -- Due to the weapon's construction and common method of use, relying on quick, agile slashes and stabs, it does not add the wielder's SB to its damage. However, an agile fighter can use the weapon to slip between the seams of armor, tough scales, or ribs. The weapon ignores an amount of damage reduction from Armor or TB equal to its wielder's AB.

Objulen said:

The last line needs to be carefully thought about.  Reducing TB is a dangerous way to overpower a weapon.  Remember that stated as such a space marine hit with a rapier by another marine could do more damage than most devestating weapons on the books, and a rapier is not devestating it is effective at slipping through armor not destroying corpus systems.  I'd suggest you go with:

This weapon ignores an amount of Armor equal to that of the wielders Agility bonus when 2 DoS are rolled on the WS test.

Zrako said:

I took that into account by having it no long benefit from SB. It's actually a bit weaker -- someone with 3 TB and Guard Flak (4 armor) hit by a SM with a best mono-sword and an 8 SB is going to take 1d10 + 2 after everything is said and done (1d10 + 9 - 7).  Any further increases to SB will do increasing damage.

Someone with this weapon and an 8 AB is going to deal that same person 1d10 +1, since it doesn't benefit from SB. Increasing AB at this point does nothing. 

Essentially, it uses AB instead of SB, but has a drawback because of it -- it's not as effective against lightly armored enemies at higher AB values.

Now, the question is whether the compatibility with stacking your AB for Dodge and the like makes it too powerful for an Assassin, since it allows for better synergy, but that's the only real concern I see with it. 

 

 You couldn't realistically fight with this thing, just fyi. The rotational action would end up breaking a persons wrist, which is the primary strong point for rapier and epee fencing.

Yes, I know, bringing real life to RPG, but even the chainsword makes sense in Real life (to an extent). With a Chainsword you're striking head on, with arm strength more than wrist strength. The wrist is part of it, but it not the primary strong point along the entire arm, mainly because it is supported by the length of the arm.

With a Drill Rapier, you don't have this. With the example given, your wrist is bent at least 45 degrees to wield it properly, and if you use a more modern rapier/epee grip (like you realistically would) your wrist is not bent, but is still the weak point. The entire time the drill part is on, you're exerting counter pressure in one direction to keep it stable. Then the instant you hit someone, your entire arm is rotated the opposite direction (aka the way you were applying pressure before). You would either drop the weapon, or break your wrist/elbow/arm.

 Unless it has a rigid bracing of some kind, like smart mesh armor, which supports your wrist and arm when you strike. 

Not as likely, but in the grim darkness of the far future, they have super drill weapons (in the Inquisitor's Handbook). Though those are usually hand implants. 

Objulen said:

If you have that you lose out on the primary advantage of using a sword in combat, aka the speed of response and the ability to properly parry.

Larkin said:

I appluad your critical thinking on this, as well as the imagination that spawned it. I have a riposte that would make this weapon useable: bionic arm! No pesky bones to break. The flesh is weak.

Alpha Chaos 13 said:

We already have this then, Dark Heresy Inquisitor's Handbook, Pg 135, The Breacher.

Yeah, but the breacher is a big, heavy industrial drill. This is more of a precision wrapon. Think mining drill vrs. drill press.

 So what you're saying is that you're wielding something like this: javascript:void(0);/*1322688359310*/ One handed?

Larkin said:

A breacher isn't as big as an industrial drill, either. I wasn't being literal, just trying to establish that the scale is quite different.

Alpha Chaos 13 said:

Well i think I should make my point then. If you have to resort to having an augmented arm to wield such a weapon, it will be built into an augment first thing.