Hey all,

I'm currently playing as an Unaligned Renegade in a new Black Crusade campaign. Today we had our first adventure. The party was composed of two renegades (one of which was myself), a Khornate Forsaken, and a Tzeentch psyker. The campaign is set on a Messia-style Mad Max world and we ended up in a large vehicle fight. Using my jump pack I started to take out the hang-gliding mutants providing air support, but then a heavy stubbier hit me with four Degrees of Success and forced me to burn Infamy. Unfortunately I rolled 20 infamy to burn and I only had an Infamy stat of 20, so I died. When I make my new character for game #2, how do I make him fun to play but also survivable, without going down the path of just spending all my XP on buying a load of Toughness Advances and Sound Constitution?

Know the modifiers:

• read the skill descriptions of Dodge & Parry, also the tables of modifiers
• know thee combat modifier table

Also Worth to have/know:

• has a decent armor, power field
• use Dodge & Parry, seek talents which can help doing it
• if needed us Defensive stance & Guarded actions
• use cover, know your surroundings
• be possessed

I also a bit curious how you get shot down?

1st adventure... 4 degrees of success on a heavy stubber burst? What the heck was firing that thing?!?

As a flier, you should be doing suppressive strafing or bombing or flamer runs at full speed, which makes you extremely difficult to hit, instead of hovering and picking off people one by one. I'm guessing that's how you got hit. If your DM complains that you can't move and shoot at the same time, tell him you aren't aiming, just holding down the trigger with your gun pointed at the enemy, while putting all your attention in manuevering. If he STILL goes RAW on you, get into high altitudes and get a scope to cancel out your own range mali, then abuse higher ground with a rocket launcher.

Truth be told, though, if you can't rely on a -50 to hit from full speed and hard target, I would avoid playing a flyer and instead get into cover or a tank.

And I can only echo the other folks above. It helps to know your modifiers, so get them all out of the horribly edited combat section and put them on one page in the middle of the table, where everyone, DM included, can see them.

1st adventure... 4 degrees of success on a heavy stubber burst? What the heck was firing that thing?!?

Someone adding full aim to full auto, probably. Sometimes, NPCs can roll well. It happens.

Are Khorne-aligned hereteks a viable combat option?

Are Khorne-aligned hereteks a viable combat option?

We have a Khornate Heretek in our group and he is a beast, a monstrous half-daemon (by now), Khorne's footsoldier #1, the destroyer of worlds.

Are Khorne-aligned hereteks a viable combat option?

Absolutely. Heretek is easily the strongest class in the game. Just stay in your vehicles and keep plenty of servitors loaded with ridiculous dakka around. Tech use, some minions and operate are your friends, as is your MIU. You also, definitely, want high INT. Weapons' tech works with vehicle weaponry as well. Start small, though. A servitor carrying your multilaser should be enough for the beginning.

If you want to go the more melee oriented route, look into creating things that negate ranged weaponry from the foe, be it by closing the distance swiftly (rocket sled with a ramming prow made of chainsaws!) or mounting vehicle armour in shape of a shield on a servo arm. You can go by the book and just get thick armour and a forcefield, though. That works, too, but it's less...hrm, "fun".

As an alternative suggestion, there is a minion trait in the Tome of Excess that allows minions to jump in the way of attacks for you. Running Apostate with a few sycophantic fanatic minions is a workable route to survival.

Or get True Grit. A character with TB 4 and True Grit will require a lot of heat to take down.

Anything but Fel to the max. Nothing brings out GM rage more than "that one build" that completely exploits the system and practically invites "I'mma roll this..why won't you let me roll this? I have 150 effective Fel!" instead of RPing out plot-relevant negotiations. Apostates, gnn...handle with care, especially as the person playing one. You may not look it, but you're easily the most powerful class in the game. It's one where you really have to underline "Don't be a ****" three times.

True grit + TB is ideal for Marbo types, though. I'd also get step aside and decent dodge and stealth, then go for a melee that won't get shot up while closing in...because they won't see him coming