The group i play with often treads the line with heresy. the group consists of a psychic forgotten scion of Haarlock, a repentant heretek, a renegade navigator, a Arbitrator turned Arch-Militant, and a mutant missionary. The GM's had to up our enemies in order to give us a challenge, which is fine by us, but heres the question. Does any of this strike you as munchkin-esque, or is this a good compromise, since we dont have an astropath, a void master, or a seneschal?

My character (haarlock) has only unlocked telepathy powers, and for the most part can send short range missives, he is ,however, sanctioned by this point in the game (long story short, our GM had training by a rogue inquisitor, who was also a psyker, and the psychic blocking of most of my potential by a spiteful daemon [i can only have a psy rating of 4 at max] round up to a sanctioning) and can use terrify virtually at will (luck of the dice gave me a willpower of 50 at the start, but my agility suffered for it). however, He automatically fails all fellowship tests with the Inquistion

the heretek has a baleful eye, a shouldermounted hellgun mechadendrite, a retractable chain blade (functions as a mono knife with tearing and pen 2) in his right arm, a cogitator full of forbidden lore and medicae knowlege (he gained a crapload of insanity points for that) which translates into all forbidden lores functioning as basic skills, and all medicae tests being one step easier. if it counts for anything, he's also got a willpower of 27 and a toughness of 32

the navigator has regeneration, dark sight, and a +10 bonus to agility. he also has a best craft mono groxwhip and a customized hell pistol. if it counts for anything, he's accumulated a malignancy that dropped his fellowship and toughness by ten points (31 and 30, respectively). he also has a daemonic book that allows him to make warp jumps one step easier free of charge, or three steps easier if he opts to take a willpower test. failure means we end up somehwere in the middle of nowhere, and he accumulates 1d10 corruption and insanity points.

the Archmilitant has mastery of power weapons, light power armour, a best craft power maul, a MIU bolter, tempest shells, and she's been possessed by daemons so many times over the course of the game that she can not only sense where they are in realspace, she can imbue her weapons and ammo with the ability to harm warp creatures. she can only do this with her own wargear, and it doesnt count as a psychic power for some reason.

the Missionary has Feels No pain, Hideous strength, a twohanded chainaxe (greatweapon with +4 bonus to damage, tearing, and pen 4) the Jaded talent, 20 insanity points, 25 corruption points, and the small detraction of having all fellowship tests with the inquisition and the ecclesiarchy two steps harder

we're all also rank 3, going on rank four. i included pros and cons in case you feel they balance out. i have a bad feeling they dont.

Why do they need to balance out?

Gillam Harrow said:

Again, why do they need to balance out? You seem to have a pretty interesting party there, and the only thing that I find even close to a problem is the Arch-militant being able to harm warp creatures. Then again, getting an item that does the same thing isnt outrageous, and you have an interesting reason to have it, so overall, I dont really see a problem.

Heck, the only real problem I see is that it looks like every inquisitor and every witch hunter who finds out about you guys will prolly come say 'Hi!'

With a flamer....

p.s. The 302 toughness seems pretty nice...

korjik said:

did i really type 302? crap... good point altogether though. its just that i was having second thoughts. it seemed to me that there was some overbalancing problems. we're rank three taking on fleets of void pirates, hunting Chaos Marines, and bringing the emperor's light to whole systems in one go. it seemed to me like that was something you wouldnt tackle until you passed rank four.

we've run into inquisitors before. except for the one that "sanctioned" me, they have chased us with flamers. and bolters. and cruisers. and fleets of cruisers. you get the idea. of course, now we have an uneasy truce, since we managed to head off an invasion of the calixis sector by a Chaos fleet (Singlehandedly!) long enough for the Battlefleet to scramble a defense force. heck of an adventure. Now as long as i play nice with the inquisition, and keep my priest on the ship, i'm free to do as i please.

The renegade Navigator is going to be racking up the mutations like crazy. Basically has a 2 in 3 chance of getting one each time he gets a new power, on top of the mutations from corruption. He may well end up with every mutation on the list by the time he finishes

Anyway, don't see any real problems (You know, aside from being a bunch of heretics )

Karoline said:

I wouldnt call us heretics...

Heretics always say that.

okay, okay, you've caught me. but i havent sold my soul yet. im gonna hold onto that until i can get a better offer than a pack of gum and undisputed control over a star system.

You're not giving them enough corruption points, to be honest. 25? That's not even a "Soiled" on the heresy-o-meter.

As FFG once ot twice for that matter said:

"Who cares about how strong you are when you got macrocannons at your back and call?"

I do have to wonder about how they got that warrant of trade. They sound more like Chaos Reavers to me. Anyway, better not return to Calixis sector though. Wanted by the Inquisition, wanted by the servants of the Omnissiah. The Navigator houses will have some problems with them and I doubt that the Ecclesiarchy is thrilled that a mutant freak is supposed to be a missionary.

I've noticed that even someone with a force field and power armor can be brought low with the proper application of full auto fire and smart tactics.

There's also the fact there are non combat obstacles for your group to face that make life much harder on them than a more 'typical' crew of space pirates. The fact you'll likely have to work in the fringes just to keep from being purged is the most obvious one.

If it was me GMing I'd make any legitimate business dealings harder and harder until you're forced to make a choice between risking elimination by imperial authorities or turning to the dark side of the expanse just to keep your crew happy. Such is the price to pay for deviance in the dark nightmare future.

Speaking of which, are there any rules for orbital bombardment? Maybe in the new Battleships Book. That'd be nice

Edit: Gezz I hate how this board does quotes so much.

You could run this as a fantastic survival esque, lower key thing. With access to imperial facilities cut off by the ad mech and inquisition, and even footfall being dicey, your PCs could be forced to survive amongst the stars without allies or even shipyard support. Every encounter becomes an opportunity to make a valuable ally, every planet a place to secure desperately needed supplies. Every alien civilization, a potential group that don't hate them on site (maybe).

Walking a thin line between criminal and bad guy. Think Firefly, but dark and with a ship hundreds of times bigger.

There are rules for orbital bombardment in Frozen Reaches. And I believe those rules will make a reappearance in Battlefleet Koronus.