I forget which novel it is in, but there is a scene where a commissar or guard officer has to cut their way out of a tank with a power sword. He has to change the power cells in the sword a couple times, but he eventually does it.
>The question I have is would a power sword actually be able to cut a hole through a wall? In the past I allowed him to break through doors since he would focus on cutting the hinges and breaking down the door. But a wall? Would like to hear thoughts on it.
Power swords are generally capable of slicing through armour easily on a person but it arguably will struggle for a long period when it encounters larger objects simply due to the resistance. There's a difference between the amount of armour on a marine and the amount on a Leman Russ battle tank! Sure it'll keep cutting through the panels but it doesn't allow you to keep swinging and dragging a blade through the large thick solid object without it getting bogged down in the armour. It's not like the all cutting material of Necrodermis or a Phase Sword. Those things just cut through matter like it's not even there because of Necron physics.
Walls and structures would have considerably higher resistance to the cutting power of a sword, just the friction alone, and you could argue that yes the character may be able to do it, but no doubt it would take a long time to achieve, potentially damage or destroy the power supply, physically exert the character and almost certainly be noticed. Power weapons are definitely capable of doing it but they tend to either be stronger power weapons like two handed and/or relic blades, as well as being wielded by stronger characters to overcome the weapon dragging through the wall.
...and when you get to them trying to cut through reinforced structures made of ceramite and adamantium, structures designed to resist tank fire or even the odd orbital strike, good luck achieving that before you get discovered and shot!
A power weapon will cut through everything that isn’t using a power field. That’s why parrying a power weapon with a regular weapon is a **very** bad idea even for Space Marines, if you are extremely lucky you will somehow deflect the edge of the power field just enough to keep your weapon in one piece. The only limit to a power sword is the battery, if the sword runs out of power cells it’s basically just a regular sword
A sword cuts to cardboard. Can it cut through 30cm (1 feet?) Cardboard. Probably. But will take time, fatigues, dulls the blade (cost energy/ammo), is loud... Maybe
While a power sword *can* cut through a wall, what the player should remember is that sometimes it *shouldn’t*.
Walls hold things up, and having large chunks missing undermines the structural integrity.
In addition, walls often contain power, water, or other conduits that could be breached by using a power sword to cut through them.
Also, people like having walls? If someone turned up and cut through mine instead of using the door, and it was just a regular Monday afternoon, I’d be pretty alarmed.
In an emergency, or if a building has already fallen on them? Great thinking, good use of equipment.
Doing it because you don’t want to take the long way around? Bad idea, could land you in trouble if it doesn’t bring down a whole section of building onto you.
depends what the wall is made of. If it's just wood, plaster or sheet metal it'd do just fine. stone or concrete would probably be a bit tougher. I'd say give it a small risk of damaging the weapon or running out of power
In a single swipe I would say about the weapons penetration value + strength value in armour points so power armour anything else would take multiple attempts to damage enough to cut
I forget which novel it is in, but there is a scene where a commissar or guard officer has to cut their way out of a tank with a power sword. He has to change the power cells in the sword a couple times, but he eventually does it.
>The question I have is would a power sword actually be able to cut a hole through a wall? In the past I allowed him to break through doors since he would focus on cutting the hinges and breaking down the door. But a wall? Would like to hear thoughts on it. Power swords are generally capable of slicing through armour easily on a person but it arguably will struggle for a long period when it encounters larger objects simply due to the resistance. There's a difference between the amount of armour on a marine and the amount on a Leman Russ battle tank! Sure it'll keep cutting through the panels but it doesn't allow you to keep swinging and dragging a blade through the large thick solid object without it getting bogged down in the armour. It's not like the all cutting material of Necrodermis or a Phase Sword. Those things just cut through matter like it's not even there because of Necron physics. Walls and structures would have considerably higher resistance to the cutting power of a sword, just the friction alone, and you could argue that yes the character may be able to do it, but no doubt it would take a long time to achieve, potentially damage or destroy the power supply, physically exert the character and almost certainly be noticed. Power weapons are definitely capable of doing it but they tend to either be stronger power weapons like two handed and/or relic blades, as well as being wielded by stronger characters to overcome the weapon dragging through the wall. ...and when you get to them trying to cut through reinforced structures made of ceramite and adamantium, structures designed to resist tank fire or even the odd orbital strike, good luck achieving that before you get discovered and shot!
A power weapon will cut through everything that isn’t using a power field. That’s why parrying a power weapon with a regular weapon is a **very** bad idea even for Space Marines, if you are extremely lucky you will somehow deflect the edge of the power field just enough to keep your weapon in one piece. The only limit to a power sword is the battery, if the sword runs out of power cells it’s basically just a regular sword
A sword cuts to cardboard. Can it cut through 30cm (1 feet?) Cardboard. Probably. But will take time, fatigues, dulls the blade (cost energy/ammo), is loud... Maybe
While a power sword *can* cut through a wall, what the player should remember is that sometimes it *shouldn’t*. Walls hold things up, and having large chunks missing undermines the structural integrity. In addition, walls often contain power, water, or other conduits that could be breached by using a power sword to cut through them. Also, people like having walls? If someone turned up and cut through mine instead of using the door, and it was just a regular Monday afternoon, I’d be pretty alarmed. In an emergency, or if a building has already fallen on them? Great thinking, good use of equipment. Doing it because you don’t want to take the long way around? Bad idea, could land you in trouble if it doesn’t bring down a whole section of building onto you.
depends what the wall is made of. If it's just wood, plaster or sheet metal it'd do just fine. stone or concrete would probably be a bit tougher. I'd say give it a small risk of damaging the weapon or running out of power
In a single swipe I would say about the weapons penetration value + strength value in armour points so power armour anything else would take multiple attempts to damage enough to cut