My local gaming group decided to play Dark Heresy (we've played 3 sessions so far) and I'm having some trouble deciding how to work my character concept. Sarick "Slasher" Gyvves is a feral world guardsman originally from Monras who is determined to do his best to serve the God-Emperor in this strange land beyond the sky he finds himself in. Carrying his original weapons from his homeworld as well as the armor and las weapons gifted to him by the God-Emperor's servants, he finds himself traversing worlds in the company of a noble born, imperial (moritat) assassin, a void born sanctioned psyker, a void born scum, and a forge world tech-priest.

My original desire was to create a character loosely based on Pitch Black's Riddick (using both the movie and novelization, hence the guardsman instead of scum career path). I was going to go with an assassin, but chose not to when the player of the Assassin insisted he wanted to be a Moritat. My wife wanted to play a Scum as the social character so I opted for the Guardsman. I am looking forward to what Advances I want when the tree splits and I find my self torn, if I want the melee focused character who also did good at range, I want to go down the assault veteran but if I want the stealthier character with good senses, I need to follow the scout/sniper path. I am also serving as the damage sponge so I'm considering splitting the difference and following the officer path and eventually buying up my Fellowship and Willpower despite the cost/benefit loss that brings.

My current thoughts are to go down the assault path and be the "distraction/tank" as I am the best armored/toughest character and the ability to stand off outnumbering opponents using combat master will be invaluable (although my thought is to concentrate on swift/lightning attack and ignore the dual wield options).

Any ideas on what I should do?

Jonathan

jonathan_sicari said:

Riddick and Guardsman really don't equate. One is a very acrobatic, stealth oriented close combat butcher/murderer, and the other is a solidier.

Riddick definately didn't seem to me to be a ranged weapon specialist, so I'd probably go down the Assault Veteran path eventually. Concentrate on survival skills, and "dirty fighting" tactics. Remember, anything not specifically on the list you can talk to the GM about to work towards as an elite advance to really give some extra "oomph" to.

The Storm Trooper path has some melee specializations that probably will make it more useful.

Talk to your GM and see what elite advances you might be able to take, and when you'd take them. You don't *have* to armour up as a guardsman, and by the time people are that high a level they probably have armoured up pretty well too, so you might be able to shift your focus some away from tank.

Good points. Indeed, I have been talking to him about the Street Fighting (Fighter?) talent as I originally considered a defining talent for a knife/brawler character (I have since reconsidered my initial enthusiasm for it after looking at Crippling Strike and realizing that additional Critical damage is too situational for me to consider a priority).

Thank you for your response. Anyone else?

Jonathan

i'm thinking take a look at the penal legion guardsman in the Radical's Handbook when it comes out, but until then i would try and get enhanced senses(sight/smell) as an elite advance as soon as possible though.

hope this helps.

Seeing as Silent Movement and the Acute Sense talents where my primary reason for considering the Scout Advance tree, that certainly makes sense.

Shouldn't a Riddick character be an Assassin? Remember, just because a character use the Assassin tree, it doesn't necessarily mean that the character is a leather clad ninja or sniper. I play an assassin in one of our groups an he is basically nothing more than a psychopathic serial killer. I also play a metallican gunslinger that use the Assassin career path, but that guy is a gunslinger primarily and not an assassin (he has about 1500 xp so far, but he isn't even skilled in Silent Move or Concealment yet).

If I were to play a character based on Riddick, then I would definetly use the assassin career path. He isn't much more than a really skilled killer after all...

Varnias Tybalt said:

Yes, but I didn't want to be stepping on the guy who really (really, really...) wanted to play a Moritat's shtick so I reexamined the novelization of Pitch Black and the extras in Chronicles of Riddick and saw that he was employed as a soldier by the company (he blew the whistle on the company's illegal practices that were officially condemned and covertly supported and was framed into prison). Based on that I thought that a Guardsman (who definitely has the combat chops as well as transportation chops [barring piloting] to fake the character) would work out. The Guard Flak armor has literally been a party saver (with a mob concentrating their attacks on me so that my more easily injured (less protected?) companions were not suffering outnumbered penalties.

I would say the Penal Legionaire from the upcoming Radicals Handbook would cover Riddick quite nicely; since he got most of his current skillset from living in the deepest darkest prison. Though I agree with the fact that he is an assasian, if you play any of his games he spends all the time hiding in the shadows attacking when there guard is down and he is extremely fragile aganist guns.

jonathan_sicari said:

Okay, but still what's wrong with having two assassins as long as the concept for them are different enough? I mean Riddick is in no way a moritat reaper. First of all the reapers are a form of death cultists, Riddicks only religious beliefs is that he hates god (the Emperor in this case) for being born into such a sh*tty life. The reapers are also mor in line with traditional ninjas, while Riddick is just a plain, murderous scum.

My point is: as long as you play the characters differently, then it won't matter that you are using the same career path. Unless the guy who play's the moritat is a childish and possessive type who considers the whole career path to be "his" territory, but I hope that isn't the case.

Varnias Tybalt said:

True, I've just dealt with enough people who have that attitude (You can't play a stealthy melee killer, that's my shtick, I don't care if I'm a noble duelist and your street raised scum...) that I reflexively look for an alternative (Dave, our assassin's player, is a pretty laid back guy, this was my psychological block coming into play).

jonathan_sicari said:

Well if the guy is a pretty laidback guy I don't think he will mind. Still it might be a good idea to speak with him about it. You know, so you can establish different playing styles on beforehand, and making an effort in really making the two characters separate people so that both you and the others in the group can really notice the difference between the moritat reaper and your Riddick character.

Anyway, im sorry you had to deal with such possessive and boring people with that attitude before. Hopefully the people you play with now are more interested in the roleplay bits of the game rather than trying to hog careerpaths and powergaming.

I have to agree with the others; I definatly see Riddick being based more on an Assasin than a Guardsman...

I don't know much about Riddick's back story, but have you considered making him Volg Hiver ? They're described as being "hard eyed stone killers" and start with Intimidate, Jaded, and a Higher toughness could make him harder to put down... Just a thought?

For a Ridick styled character, I wouldn't go down the Snipper Path just for the advanced sight. What would be more fitting for a Riddick type character would be a pair of poor quality cybernetic eyes with Dark Sight... the part that makes them poor quality isn't the image clarity or reliability but the fact that they are always enhancing light making it necessary for the character to wear some form of light dampening device when not in near or total darkness. I don't know if your GM will go for that, but it would fit the whole Riddick think to a T.

Graver said:

yea that would definetly make him like riddick

plus the goggles would look cool

Well, after last nights session, I have to say that swift attack was a good choice (the moritat wasn't present and I finally rolled my first righteous fury on the "attack leader" during the assault on Stern Hope in "Illumination". I'm tempted to get a Great Weapon as Sarrick has obviously offended the machine spirit of his lasgun (fired 24 shots, most a 3 round bursts and hit maybe twice although when the multiple hits happened they rocked, did much better chopping people up with a regular sword and throwing grenades).

Tanking with the guard armor and toughness 3 is still working but I'm sure at some point I'm going to get hit by a full auto burst or something and have to burn my only fate point. Oh well.