So my character rolled Illusion of Normality in a BC campaign that I'm involved in and is aligned to Khorne. The excact text of the gift's bonus for being Khorne aligned is "The character’s enemies are always Surprised (see page 233) when he attacks." Our group is having trouble determing exactly what that entails. Has anyone encountered this before?

My guess? You character looks like a pacifist hippy that wouldn't hurt a fly because its life was just as important as anyone elses.

Discovering this is not the case is disconcerting.

Well what I was trying to ask more specifically was what is the exact effect of it in battle? One person in my group was complaining pretty heavily until he made it as weak as he could be, but the rest of us are still unclear. Does it mean I always act in the surprise round? Does it mean that each time I attack a new opponent that they're surprised for the first hit? Or does it mean that every single time I attack a target they count as surprised?

My interpretation of this would be any time he initiates combat the opponent is always surprised as if he didn't expect this attack regardless of if the circumstances would have made it pretty obvious to expect an attack.

I would rule that this only works when initiating combat and new opponents would not be surprised as they are now actively in a fight.

Sorry double posted for some reason, please ignore.

I take it as you look very non threatening, and if you initiate combat, your enemy(ies) count as Surprised for the first round, because they weren't expecting YOU of all people to have a go at them.

If you were in a room with Gandi and Vlad the Impaler, and Gandi suddenly berzerked charged you....That would be surprising no? It's sorta like that.

"The character’s enemies are always Surprised (see page 233) when he attacks."

Well if you take it by the word, than your character would have the benefits of "suprised enemies" each time he starts a combat/attacks/attacks the next opponent.

I guess one can imagen the PC killing of the first oponent and after this (due to Illusion of Normality) the other oponents would just forget about him / focus on other enemies due to his "normality".

But that would still be too OP. Each time +30WS and no dodge/parry (I think). That would just be too much. And I play a khornite too and would really love that!

So I think I would also vote for the "first strike" effect.

Going with the "you look like Ghandi and nobody expects you to attack" might be the balanced version of this if you only make it affect the first combat round. Problem for me though is that the entire gift is already focused around looking completely unremarkable and harmless. Literally any other follower of the dark gods ALREADY looks just like a normal imperial citizen and hence might qualify for some surprise attacks. The only difference in that scenario would be that Ghandi can insult, threaten and spit at an arbitrator and still surprise him - but how often does that happen?

The other interpretation makes this gift completely overpowerd though that would be what I see as RAW rather than RAI.

RAW (in my interpretation) this gift makes the Khorne Berserker look like a little Girl with a teddybear for example only that people in front of her get brutally slaughtered and ripped apart without her making an actual physical contact with them. An ordinary man can only see this illusion, he cant see the actual blows of the hidden warrior and hence is always suprised. In the end this is discribed as an active power and it is khorne-trolling at its best.

"Khorne trolling at its best"

Can I...just steal that for a Sig? That makes me far too happy XD

Going with the "you look like Ghandi and nobody expects you to attack" might be the balanced version of this if you only make it affect the first combat round. Problem for me though is that the entire gift is already focused around looking completely unremarkable and harmless. Literally any other follower of the dark gods ALREADY looks just like a normal imperial citizen and hence might qualify for some surprise attacks. The only difference in that scenario would be that Ghandi can insult, threaten and spit at an arbitrator and still surprise him - but how often does that happen?

The other interpretation makes this gift completely overpowerd though that would be what I see as RAW rather than RAI.

RAW (in my interpretation) this gift makes the Khorne Berserker look like a little Girl with a teddybear for example only that people in front of her get brutally slaughtered and ripped apart without her making an actual physical contact with them. An ordinary man can only see this illusion, he cant see the actual blows of the hidden warrior and hence is always suprised. In the end this is discribed as an active power and it is khorne-trolling at its best.

The only downside is that you'll have to look like John Lennon all the time.

Can I...just steal that for a Sig? That makes me far too happy XD

If you want to.^^

And yea, you might look like John Lennon, try to get some respect next time you encounter a Berserker Warband without having to kill them. xD

Can I...just steal that for a Sig? That makes me far too happy XD

If you want to.^^

And yea, you might look like John Lennon, try to get some respect next time you encounter a Berserker Warband without having to kill them. xD

Imagine all the people...