Signatures4

The Watch Librarius is the battle-psychic craft of the Deathwatch, the narrow discipline its single seconded Librarian turns against the alien. He does not cultivate the warp for its own sake — he shields his brothers, empowers their strokes, and burns the xenos mind, and his witchery bites hardest against the prey the Kill Team has declared. Six workings pass through his hand: the scourging bolt, the ward-stripping null, the gift of strength, the prescient veil, the psychic shield, and the warp-step that carries the hunt where it must go. At his raising the Librarian takes or is granted one of them, and to it he adds the universal witch-blast of Smite.

Kill-Team Doctrine. The Watch fights to the same Combat Doctrines as any Astartes force, declaring a stance each round and shifting it one step as normal. Layered over that is the hunt: at the start of the battle the Kill Team names one enemy type or keyword as its prey. Against that prey, every Veteran adds +1 to Wound and re-rolls a failed Hit — the whole team turned, as one, onto the alien it came to kill.

Once per battle the Kill Team may invoke Mission Tactics and re-declare its prey, the Watch adapting mid-hunt as a graver threat shows itself. The prey is a declaration, not an expendable resource; the rule simply reads whatever target the team has named, and needs no tokens to track.

The strike comes from nowhere. The whole Kill Team may deploy in reserve or hidden and arrive by Infiltrate or teleportarium, more than 6" from the enemy, from the first round — prepared death applied to the named prey, and gone before the answer comes.

Combat Doctrines. The disciplined heart of the Astartes way of war, and the mechanic that sets a Chapter apart from any warhost that merely brings guns to a fight. At the start of each round the controlling player declares the strike force's stance, which may shift one step along the ladder from Devastator to Tactical to Assault. Under the Devastator stance the gang fires with lethal precision, adding to its ranged Hit rolls or re-rolling misses. Under the Tactical stance the brethren move with purpose, gaining ground and seizing objectives. Under the Assault stance they close for the kill, striking harder on the charge and running down a fleeing foe. A Chapter cannot hold every advantage at once; it flows through the phases of battle as its commanders read the field, and each brotherhood leans toward the end of the ladder that suits its character.

Finest Hour. Once in a battle, a commander seizes the moment the whole war seems to turn upon and drives his brethren to their greatest effort. Once per battle a Captain or Lieutenant may call upon it. Until the start of the next round the commander himself gains an additional Attack, and every friendly fighter within 6" re-rolls failed Wound rolls, the strike force striking as one at the instant it matters most. It is a single, decisive surge rather than a lasting boon — spent in the crisis of the fight, it does not come again. A wise commander holds it for the stroke that breaks the enemy rather than the one that merely bloodies him.