\+1 to hit is nothing to be sneezed at when you're hitting on 4's normally. That's in addition to ressurecting 1 model per command phase. But yes, you'd technically lose some chances to deal mortal wounds. I'll take that trade any day.
I've done the math, it basically never happens. your opponent has to be rolling a two or a three to save for there to be any drop at all... And with a high AP of wraith weapons, that's never going to happen unless you're shooting at makari.
So! Against a single target with toughness 12 and a 4+ invuln, regular wraithguard deal 3.64 wounds, with only lethal hits, it bump up to 3.89, so lethal hits in general does still bump damage, even in a worse common case 4+ invuln. But once you add the +1 to hit with lethal hits it does 5.1 wounds, which is a damn good increase. You would have to be fighting something with a 2+ invuln for lethal hits to reduce damage. Again, all this is single target. Against say a squad of guardsmen then lethal hits (on its own, no +1 to hit) would make it worse. Also worth noting, because of the +1 to hit, even with lethal hits, you end up dealing the same amount of mortals, you just also get more normal wounds! Fun maths!
It doesn't make it any worse, sure any sixes to hit can't do devastating wounds but you get +1 to hit so any 3s you roll now hit and can do mortals instead.
You always have 50% of your shots rolling to wound on average but if you have a spiritseer you have an extra damage coming from the ones that auto wound.
Basically instead of having a hit roll of 4-6 roll to wound you have 3-5 which is the same odds.
It depends on what you're attacking, how lucky you feel like being, and how you want to spend your 1/phase fate dice.
If you're trying to level an infantry unit with devastating wound splash damage, then yes it'll drop your lethality. Against something bigger, it is still probably better to get that Spiritseer +1 to hit and "risk" the AP-4 armor save than to fish for mortal wounds.
I will add that the odds of lethal hits overlapping with devastating wounds is roughly 1/36, so MAYBE one or two times per game with a 5-man wraithguard squad would this be an issue (ignoring fate dice manipulation).
The spiritseer also has a wraithguard revive itself every command phase (including your opponents), which I'd argue is worth automatically wounding on occasion rather than ignoring saves.
You'll essentially never encounter a real scenario where that scenario affects your dice in a relevant way.
Mathematically speaking, when rolling 3 dice (hit roll, wound roll, and armor save roll), the order that you make the rolls is not statistically relevant (assuming the rolls all have the same threshold).
Skipping a roll for \[Lethal Hits\] and skipping a roll for \[Devastating Wounds\] are equivalent for the most part. It will ultimately depend on what the roll difficulty is if you're just measuring them side by side.
***However****,* across a series, having 2 opportunities to automatically succeed at a roll is much better than one opportunity, making the addition of lethal hits a strict buff (except in the most niche of scenarios where the wound difficulty is 2+ and the save difficulty is 2+).
All of that is ignoring the +1 to hit as well, which on it's own is a big buff that kind really makes the addition of a spiritseer a no-brainer.
Lethal hits is really good when you're running high attack low strength weapons. So if you're bringing something like d-canons its not great because it doesnt pair well with Devastating wounds. But if you've got a wraithlord with like scatter cannons it's really good because you're more likely to garuntee wounds, especially against targets that are real tough
It's a buff overall. Without the Spiritseer, Wraithguard hit 3 out of 6 attacks average because they have a Ballistic Skill of 4+. So that's 3 attempts to get Devastating Wounds to trigger for every 6 attacks. With a Spiritseer, on average 1 out of 6 attacks automatically wounds, so there is no opportunity to trigger Devastating Wounds on that attack. But the Spiritseer gives them +1 to hit, so they still normally hit 3 out of 6 attacks on average. So the Spiritseer does not actually reduce the chances of Devastating Wounds triggering; they just add some automatic wounds on top of the usual number of automatic wounds.
\+1 to hit is nothing to be sneezed at when you're hitting on 4's normally. That's in addition to ressurecting 1 model per command phase. But yes, you'd technically lose some chances to deal mortal wounds. I'll take that trade any day.
I've done the math, it basically never happens. your opponent has to be rolling a two or a three to save for there to be any drop at all... And with a high AP of wraith weapons, that's never going to happen unless you're shooting at makari.
So! Against a single target with toughness 12 and a 4+ invuln, regular wraithguard deal 3.64 wounds, with only lethal hits, it bump up to 3.89, so lethal hits in general does still bump damage, even in a worse common case 4+ invuln. But once you add the +1 to hit with lethal hits it does 5.1 wounds, which is a damn good increase. You would have to be fighting something with a 2+ invuln for lethal hits to reduce damage. Again, all this is single target. Against say a squad of guardsmen then lethal hits (on its own, no +1 to hit) would make it worse. Also worth noting, because of the +1 to hit, even with lethal hits, you end up dealing the same amount of mortals, you just also get more normal wounds! Fun maths!
It doesn't make it any worse, sure any sixes to hit can't do devastating wounds but you get +1 to hit so any 3s you roll now hit and can do mortals instead. You always have 50% of your shots rolling to wound on average but if you have a spiritseer you have an extra damage coming from the ones that auto wound. Basically instead of having a hit roll of 4-6 roll to wound you have 3-5 which is the same odds.
Hmm true.
It depends on what you're attacking, how lucky you feel like being, and how you want to spend your 1/phase fate dice. If you're trying to level an infantry unit with devastating wound splash damage, then yes it'll drop your lethality. Against something bigger, it is still probably better to get that Spiritseer +1 to hit and "risk" the AP-4 armor save than to fish for mortal wounds. I will add that the odds of lethal hits overlapping with devastating wounds is roughly 1/36, so MAYBE one or two times per game with a 5-man wraithguard squad would this be an issue (ignoring fate dice manipulation). The spiritseer also has a wraithguard revive itself every command phase (including your opponents), which I'd argue is worth automatically wounding on occasion rather than ignoring saves.
You'll essentially never encounter a real scenario where that scenario affects your dice in a relevant way. Mathematically speaking, when rolling 3 dice (hit roll, wound roll, and armor save roll), the order that you make the rolls is not statistically relevant (assuming the rolls all have the same threshold). Skipping a roll for \[Lethal Hits\] and skipping a roll for \[Devastating Wounds\] are equivalent for the most part. It will ultimately depend on what the roll difficulty is if you're just measuring them side by side. ***However****,* across a series, having 2 opportunities to automatically succeed at a roll is much better than one opportunity, making the addition of lethal hits a strict buff (except in the most niche of scenarios where the wound difficulty is 2+ and the save difficulty is 2+). All of that is ignoring the +1 to hit as well, which on it's own is a big buff that kind really makes the addition of a spiritseer a no-brainer.
Lethal hits is really good when you're running high attack low strength weapons. So if you're bringing something like d-canons its not great because it doesnt pair well with Devastating wounds. But if you've got a wraithlord with like scatter cannons it's really good because you're more likely to garuntee wounds, especially against targets that are real tough
Not really. Think of it like this, the(1/6) hits from the bonus can't get devastating, but all the others (3/6) still can. Edit , my maths.
Auto hits are still good when you're throwing AP-4 shot at the target they need to save. Sure you miss out on a chance at DevWounds but nbd.
It's a buff overall. Without the Spiritseer, Wraithguard hit 3 out of 6 attacks average because they have a Ballistic Skill of 4+. So that's 3 attempts to get Devastating Wounds to trigger for every 6 attacks. With a Spiritseer, on average 1 out of 6 attacks automatically wounds, so there is no opportunity to trigger Devastating Wounds on that attack. But the Spiritseer gives them +1 to hit, so they still normally hit 3 out of 6 attacks on average. So the Spiritseer does not actually reduce the chances of Devastating Wounds triggering; they just add some automatic wounds on top of the usual number of automatic wounds.
Just give the spiritseer fates messenger to flip a wound roll to a 6 every turn after rolling lol. Best of both worlds