the party is mainly rank 5, with a rank 4 who's missed a few sessions. the highest ammount of corruption and insanity is 21 in each, does this seems on par with what a player ar rank 5 should have? obviously different gm styles will lead to various ammounts of tests and actual points, but is there an opinion about how much should be had?

It primarily depends on the character and his traits and such. A Jaded Psyker, for instance, who pumped the hell out of their Willpower, might start with more corruption/insanity, but between rank 1 and 8, they might end up getting less due to resistance.

So unfortunately, I can't personally give a proper answer, because between our TP with 0 cp and a hand full of ip, and our Priest with a junk ton of Ip and no CP, and our Psyker, we run the gambit.

The group I run has mostly hit rank 4 and some are approaching rank 5 - using a series of published adventures - the freebie download, Edge of Darkness, the one in the main rulebook, plus the first two from Purge the Unclean (finished that last night and haven't awarded XP)

Insanity scores range from 2 to 35, corruption scores range from 1 to 35. The median is probably somewhere round 10-12 in each with a couple of individuals who just seem to walk into everything....

In Ascension, a character completing rank 8 has (8-WP bonus)d10 IP and (8-WP bonus)d5 CP. I'd stick with that formula, but rather than just reducing the 8 int he formula, I'd just multiply the rolled result by (completed ranks x 0.125) and round fractions normally (0.5 rounds up). After this is factored, add in any IP or CP from selected character options.

With these guidelines, a player building a Rank 4 Assassin with a WP bonus of 3 averages 10 IP (5d10 x 0.375 = 10.3125) and 6 CP (5d5 x 0.375 = 5.625) before considering that he's from Volg Hive (+1d10 IP) and is a member of the Moritat (+1d5 IP). After taking those into account, the character begins with an average result of 18 IP (10.3125 + 5.5 + 3 = 18.8125) and 6 CP.

I use this in my games whenever making up characters that begin above Rank 1.

thanks for all of the replies. sounds like the party has less IP and CP then average. thanks for the heads up.

My group ranges from rank 6 to rank 8 and the range is pretty wider depending on character:

The Assassin (rank 8, Kylen's character) has virtually none of either (IP in low single digits and maybe ONE CP). This is due mostly to dumb frickin' luck and some judicious use of Fate Points to re-roll bad fear tests. He has about average Willpower, but almost always manages to pass even ugly fear tests while rolling right out in the open.

The Guardsman Officer (rank 8, mine/NPC) is sitting on 9 IP and 1CP (Was in the room when a Perils of the Warp was rolled by a psyker). Granted, she also started the game with the Jaded talent...

Our Techpriest (rank 8, Filidan's character) likewise is pretty low on both.

Our Adept and Psyker (rank 7 and 6) are probably about average on IP, both being in the high teens. The Psyker likewise has about the same CP.

Our Cleric (rank 6) does just fine when daemons and other random "bad things" come out of the woodwork, but she has an amazing talent to fail miserably when dead things are involved (plain dead or undead...). She likewise has a pretty healthy hatred for Psykers, including her teammate. She currently is sitting on 24 IP and 17 CP.

As for our overachiever, that would be our Schola-trained Guardsman (rank 7) currently has 54 IP and a minor phobia regarding heights to keep them company. An unfortunate incident with a Krak Missile has rendered him a full-rez cyborg. He likewise has 6 CP, most of which from an unfortunate mind-swap with a posessed Crow-priest (gotta love Psyker-related "mishaps"!). When he manages to pick up 6 more IP he will likely switch his prayers over from the frequent and devout to the non-stop muttering/shouted variety unless something else comes up in the meantime.

The Scum (rank 6) has 15 IP and 3 CP, which is not bad considering he is a Reclamator from Solomon....

My group are Ordo Hereticus agents serving Inquisitor Skane from the core book. Most of them play things pretty smart and that definately helps alot. They have only encountered a few daemons so far, but tend to make fairly short work of them. Many, many cultists have died messy deaths at their hands, and they make a point to go for live captures of people they think might be important when possible. Most of our Adept's IP have come from assorted small doses of fear tests. Her CP are from warp-shock and from "taking one for the team" on a few occasions with tainted books and artifacts. Our more damaged Guardsman is one of those exemplary gung-ho charge right in and kick some heretic/xenos/whatever teeth in types that the Schola Progenium like to make posters about, and he has the scars (both mental and physical) to prove it. As for the Cleric, she is a Noble who started with the Decadence talent (due to fun character background) and has only improved Willpower one advance so far... She also has an amazing ability to fail horribly at any "dead-stuff" related fear tests (I swear, the dice KNOW!). I do about the exact opposite of pulling punches with them, the team is simply tough, stubborn and otherwise fairly awesome. Heck, our Techpriest even killed an Ork Nob with his own Big-Choppa recently!

ZillaPrime said:

lol, that's rough. also, there's a little box i noticed recently about "only the insane shall prosper" or somethign like that. but it basically states that for every 20 points of insanity, you're immune to one lvl of fear rating. meaning that guardsman would be immune to fear rating 2. i'll see if i can find the page reference after class tonight. this was just a rule that i was unaware of for our first 5 ranks, so thought i'd throw it out there.

If the first digit of a characters insanity points is double or more a things fear rating, they do not have to test. So, immune to fear 1 at 20 IP, fear 2 at 40 IP, fear 3 at 60 IP.

Little Dave said:

Found on Page 237 of the core book, for those who want to be able to point to the rule directly.

Jack of Tears said:

Our group is well aware of this rule. One of the reasons the Guardsman in question has such a pile of IP is that the player likes to go for the tough and macho thing with this character (it suits him) and has figured out that Willpower is not cheap for Guardsman... But IP make him immune from those pesky fear tests that have the potential to make his character look less than macho. Early in the campaign this character had already spent his fate points for the session when he blew a fear test badly (the "faints" result on the fear chart)... The player opted to BURN a FP to not fail the test!

Your levels sound pretty sensible to me, Vasuvius. The style of game and ordo are likely to have a great influence on how many IP and CP people pick up.

Our group are Rank 7, and we have been playing book and supplement adventures with some added missions made up by the GM. The Scum and Assassin are on around 15 IP and 10 CP. The lucky Psyker is on 15 IP and 29 CP, but that's to be expected when you wield the powers of the warp and know more about daemons and Chaos than you ever really wanted to.

Oh, yes. I'm just waiting for that one CP that will see me testing for a Malignancy and a Minor Mutation. I've been lucky so far, but I just have this feeling my luck is about to run out. Fortunately, our Inquisitor is a moderate, so I stand a fair chance of not being bound to a stake and chargrilled should the mutation be unfortunate...

As for my group ( party ranges from 4-6 rank ) I found a apparently little known optional rule that states you can spend xp to remove insanity points at the rate of 100xp per point. It cannot cure any actual insanities your character gets after they reach the threshold for them however...that is only through medicae treatments etc given in the rulebook for overcoming insanity. But this option can prevent insanities at the least if the PC is willing to pay the xp cost before it reaches threshold levels. Sorrry but your SOL when it comes to corruption points...lol I havent found a way to lower them according to any rules optional or otherwise yet.

Cobramax76 said:

Ascension, page 12;
Mind and Soul: Dealing with Insanity and Corruption

• Covers spending XP to remove CP at the same value as for IP.
• Sacrificing Characteristics; 2 points to remove 1d10 IP or CP.
• Trading IP for CP, and vice versa.

It also suggests by the wording that the XP spends be allowed even pre-Ascension. But, yes, prior to Ascension being released there was nothing in the mechanics which allowed for CP to be removed.

-=Brother Praetus=-