I've got a bit of a conundrum regarding an Only War game I'm in - it's a very small group, three players and a GM, and the other two players are a Weapons Specialist with a Melta Gun and a Tech Priest who wants to grow up to be a literal tank one day, and there's a silent Storm Trooper NPC to add extra punch if needed.

The question is - what sort of character should I be making? We obviously are lacking a commanding officer type, but I'm not all that certain as to whether I want to be making a Sergeant - I have heard things about them being kind of garbage. Could a leadership role be taken with another splat, like a Medic or a Heavy Gunner taking Command? (Comedy Option - Ogryn with Command. Sergeant Grumbles knows the score.) If not, what would you advise? There's not any limits on what can be picked in terms of Specialties, so at the moment I'm kind of spoiled for choice and concerned I will be running over a pitfall or something.

Advice will be greatly appreciated.

Sergeants get the same stigma bards do in DnD, because most of their talents are pretty much "buffing". Sweeping orders can be fairly powerful if utilised correctly, though, and the inspire use of the command skill can be a squad's lifesaver (especially when you can apply that to everyone in vox range with a measly 350 XP spent). On your own, you're not all that hot, but, you're a walking force multiplier, and like the stormtrooper's ability to shunt his own stats into a squad member's, certain talents can take you a long way to making your entire party a disgusting, broken wall of insane hurt (a general hatred of everything, for example, plus the ability to shunt it to every single friendly PC in com range for a total of +20 to BS or WS, and every round +4 to damage from 'get them'. Basically, you make even the lasgun deadly.)

If you want something along similar lines that puts out a biiit more damage on his own, a cleric is also a good option.

Sorry, but how does Hatred give a +20 to BS?

And Inspire is a full-round action at Command + 0, so forget it if you're pinned or wish to actually do anything yourself. The vox range thing is highly debatable, as the limit is "communication range" anyway, so with micro-beads you don't need the vox-tech.

The +4 dmg from Get Them! is nice when it works, though.

Inspire wrath only needs to be done once per encounter -> +10 from hatred

Inspire from the command skill is another +10.

Get them is a free action.

+20 to BS, +4 to damage.

I think there's also a talent somewhere that makes your inspire a half action. I'm not sure, though. This is pretty much from memory and I don't have the books here atm.

Sorry, but Hatred only gives a bonus to Weapon Skill, not Ballistic skill:

Interesting. Still synergises well with the right regiment setup, which is from what I read, with tech priest and melta, likely close ranged. I'd make a hating sarge or cleric with a flamethrower for maximum support in that lineup.

Indeed, it's a Guerilla / Close Quarters Battle regiment from a Post-Apocalyptic World with a Sanguine commander and the Iconoclast drawback.

My biggest concern with the Sergeant now is that, while he might be a force multiplyer, he does not have all that many forces to multiply, if you understand me. Not to mention we are entirely without medical support, though at least with the Sanguine commander we get the Die Hard trait.

Thats right. Sarge is good choice for big teams. If you are only three choose another class. Heavy weapon guys are very useful. Or snipers maybe?

There's a nice trick you can pull off with a stormtrooper in a sneaky regiment, allowing you to let other squad members roll on your own Agility characteristic for stealth tests. This stacks with a regimental option that gives a bonus to the actual stealth skill (forgot what exactly).

If your tech priest did not grab an embedded auspex, a psyker to fulfill its function via divinations, or a ratling sniper with their obscene bonus to PER as a scout might also be an excellent idea.

I too am facing a similar issue. We have about 5 core guys though, with some others coming in and out as they make sessions, and I think our first 4 guys went Operator, Ratling, Medic, Stormtrooper. This left me waffling between a Pysker, a command character like a SGT or my two preferred RP choices, the Ogryn or the Priest. I've always loved Klovis the Redeemer, so I decided to make a crazy redeemer character even though the Regiment the guys created is 100% useless to him for talents and skills.

However, we don't start the main campaign for like another week, and I just can't shake the feeling everyone else is going to be kicking ass and taking names and I am going to die horribly the first encounter.

I looked long and hard at the SGT and the Commissar (Because no one had stepped up to command the squad yet), but just couldn't get a feel for how you build them. However, looking at every class, I feel like the Heavy Gunner, Weapon Specialist, Ratling and Stormtrooper synergize out well, The Ogryn to a lesser extent though limited by 4 weapons choices and talking like a brick. Operator and Medic seem like decent combat guys with useful side jobs, the TechPriest seems like a walking death machine if your GM gives you access to all the cybernetics and stuffs. Pyskers, I am not sure how they don't kill themselves the 4th time they cast an unfettered power. Priest I haven't figured out at all, no real synergy in his aptitudes and Melee seems like a bad place to be about 85% of the time. Just looking at an Ork, an ork hits you twice, you are rolling a new character, and the XP you need to get "decent" seems a bit high. Flame weapons can crutch him a bit, but he just seems odd to me, like they had a great idea, then made a melee character with access to two aptitudes for social skills.

Don't know where I was going, started rambling....anyway, I feel you, game system seems built well enough that most classes are a good option. I guess I haven't played enough to fully understand the power of the "Leader" type classes or the Ministorum Priest. My 2 cents, if you want to kick ass go Heavy gunner? As a straight butt kicker it seems like a great choice.

I like playing command characters as actual tactical commanders. You go here, lay down cover fire while the operator brings the sentinel up, etc. Also a commander is usually the one that speaks for the squad and does the politics, make sure a commander's campaign isn't all combat on rails. Make them make the requests and dole out equipment. Comissar/Sgt is the #1 favorite roll on most of my sessions.

Also when everyone can carry a lasgun (rather than the dwarf fighter starting off with a +5 death hammer at d8 damage and the bard having a low quality crossbow with d4 damage) is a nice semi-equilizer.

I'll back FoeHammer618 here, sargent is a very good character if you have a good GM that won't make a session a series of random encounters. I'm playing a sgt/commander right now, with a good GM, and I feel my importance, on the battlefield most of my rounds end up - sweeping order "get them" (free action), inspire (half action for heroic inspiration) and some other half action like moving or semi auto shot from bolt gun, and I'm ok with that, cause when we get to decission making, in the end it's my decision what we do. Also most of the encounters with other IG, commisars and such is on me since commander has nice aptitudes for most the social skills.

A bard comparison is a good one, but think of him as a bard who is in charge of the whole squad

Just make sure your GM is planning more than just fighting.

Something decidedly undervalued with Sergeants is that when properly constructed, they make amazing melee fighters, and competent ranged fighters as well. Their Toughness and Defence aptitudes lend well to their durability, making them able to take the punishment while their squadmates lay down the hurt, or in the event of oncoming enemy melee units, get in their way and tie them down to buy time for their forces.

I encourage you to look at ways to apply a character's aptitudes beyond the established metagame of "Sergeants are buffers" etc.

No disrespect intended, of course, to the views of others. You'd just be surprised what you can do if you think outside of the box.

That is true, there mau be more paths for viable sergant, but the two main would be buffer/social going into commander advanced spec, or as lazarus pointed a melee fighter hibrid, or rather a hard melee tank, defence + toughnes = cheap toughness, defence + WS = cheap parry - get into melee and get into defensive stance, now wait for your team to take enemy down or for him to try to run away without proper disengage.