Signatures4

The Librarius is the Codex discipline of the Adeptus Astartes as the Sons of Dorn wield it. Fortitude, foresight, the fortress mind. The Imperial Fists Librarian does not run wild with the warp — he disciplines it as he disciplines everything, favouring the workings that harden the line and strip an enemy's guard so the gunline can crack what it finds. Six powers pass through his hand: the fortress of the mind, the might of heroes, the veil of time, the fury of the ancients, the null zone, and the fortitude of Dorn. To them he adds the universal witch-blast of Smite. At creation a Librarian with access picks or rolls one of the six — each a Wyrd power that courts the warp's price for the one who calls it.

Bolter Drill is the discipline that makes a stationary Son of Dorn deadlier than a moving one. It rides atop Combat Doctrines: the gang still declares and shifts a single Doctrine each round, but the Imperial Fists may only ever shift it one way — toward Devastator, from Assault to Tactical to Devastator and never back. The line braces harder as the battle wears on; it does not learn to run.

The drill itself reads off a fighter's feet. When a fighter did not move at all during its activation — holding its position rather than advancing or repositioning — it gains +1 to ranged Hit rolls and re-rolls ranged Hit rolls of 1 for the rest of that round. There are no tokens to spend and nothing to declare; the rule simply asks whether the fighter held still. A gunline that stays where it is planted fires truer with every round the enemy fails to reach it — the exact and deliberate inverse of the Blood Angels, whose Doctrine drifts the other way, toward the charge that can never be called back.

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.