Other Rules and Abilities

Beyond the core abilities every army uses, datasheets grant units a range of special abilities that are grouped and tagged by type. This guide explains how Aura Abilities, Faction Abilities, Psychic Abilities and Wargear Abilities work, plus the Plunging Fire rule that rewards shooting from high ground.

Aura Abilities

An ability that affects models or units within a stated range is an aura ability, and it is marked with the tag 'Aura'. A model carrying an aura ability is always considered to be within range of its own aura while it is on the battlefield, so the bearer benefits from its own effect automatically.

A single unit can sit under several different aura abilities at once and gain the benefit of each. However, if a unit falls under the same aura ability several times over, for instance from two models with identical auras, that aura still applies to the unit only a single time. Auras do not stack with themselves.

Faction Abilities

Some abilities are shared by every unit belonging to a given faction. These are faction abilities, also called army rules, and each unit that has one lists it in the Faction Abilities section of its datasheet.

A faction ability only takes effect if the army faction you chose while mustering your army matches one of the faction keywords printed on the unit's datasheet, unless a rule states otherwise. Fielding a unit outside its intended army faction means it forfeits the shared army rule.

Psychic Abilities

An ability tagged with the word 'Psychic' is a psychic ability. Should a psychic ability strip one or more wounds from a model, every wound lost that way counts as having been inflicted by a psychic attack. This distinction matters because other rules, such as defensive abilities that only work against psychic damage, can key off whether damage came from a psychic source.

Wargear Abilities

An ability a unit or model gains from carrying a particular piece of equipment is a wargear ability, listed in the Wargear Abilities section of the datasheet.

If the unit as a whole has an item of wargear that carries a wargear ability, that ability applies to the whole unit. If instead a single model within the unit has the item, that model is the 'bearer', and the ability applies only for as long as the bearer remains in play. Once the bearer is destroyed, the ability is lost.

Plunging Fire

Plunging Fire improves shooting accuracy from elevated positions. Each time a model makes a ranged attack against a visible target unit that contains one or more models on ground level, improve the BS characteristic of that attack by 1 if either of the following is true:

• The attacking model occupies part of a terrain feature standing 3" or more tall.
• The attacking model carries the TOWERING keyword and its target unit sits within 12".

The 1-point improvement applies per attack that qualifies. A model firing down from a tall ruin, or a TOWERING model looming over nearby ground-level targets, hits more reliably. Note that the rule only triggers against targets with models on ground level, so a target elevated on the same kind of high terrain does not hand the shooter the bonus.

Frequently asked questions

Do Aura Abilities stack in Warhammer 40,000 11th edition?

Different auras stack, identical ones do not. Two Lieutenants each giving Lethal Hits to units within 6" grant one instance of Lethal Hits, so spreading identical aura characters across the army covers more units than clustering them.

What are Faction Abilities in 40k?

The army-wide rule, such as Oath of Moment or Waaagh!, printed on every datasheet in the faction. An allied unit brought into another army usually plays without its own army rule, because its keyword no longer matches the declared faction. Detachment rules are a separate layer chosen on top.

What counts as a psychic attack in Warhammer 40,000?

Any wound taken from an ability carrying the 'Psychic' tag, whether it looked like a shooting attack or a straight mortal-wound effect. A weapon with the [PSYCHIC] weapon ability is the other route to the same label, and defensive rules against psychic damage read that tag rather than the profile.

How do Wargear Abilities work in 40k?

Look at who the datasheet says carries the item. A unit-wide item (a squad's grav-chutes, say) keeps working while any model remains; an item held by one named model dies with that model, and nobody else in the unit inherits it, even inside an attached unit.

How does Plunging Fire work in Warhammer 40,000 11th edition?

A +1 to BS rather than a +1 to hit, so a cap on hit-roll modifiers does not limit it. Two triggers: height (the shooter is on a terrain feature at least 3" tall) or bulk (a TOWERING model within 12" of its target). A unit that has itself climbed to a ruin's upper floor is safe from the bonus.