I am starting to GM a DW group, and have at least one female interested in playing. She knows little about the 40k universe, but understands and accepts that there are no female marines.

Even though she accepts and is willing to play a male PC, I am wondering if I should give her the option to play a Battle Sister from the Blood of Martyrs book, and if so what rank I should let her start at to have her around the same as the starting Space Marine PC's.

A BoM Battle Sister, using the Palatine ascended class works fairly well. To really even things out, just give her the item that confers unnatural toughness, so actual damage soak for the character isn't too far. Personally I don't see a "need" to improve the damage output for the sister. They make up for it with the crap ton of skills they have compared to a marine.

Just inform them that the option is slightly weaker in direct combat, but has a whole lot more skills/utility.

Mattron said:

I have a SoB in my campaign, she is a Seraphim/Palatine. Let me just tell you now that SoulStorm rocks, but it is even more powerfull in some regards then Void Storm so you might take at look at that one and make some adjustments. Duel Wielding Seraphim Inferno pistols she can penetrate almost anything if using the RAW as is in BoM. I have only done one session with her, but she did well and I am still figuring out how to effectivly mesh both systems, all in all everyone had fun and she was a welcomed addition. The first rank of Palatine, rank 9 I believe is appropriate if going into the game with rank 1 DW.

KommissarK said:

I disagree with you on the skills bit at least if you use the Blood Of Martyrs Sister as they pay 2 or 3 times what most DH characters do for skills that should be germaine to their profession. They must also spend 2 or 3 hundred xp on almost every weapon skill they take, 300 xp per faith talent (you'll need these if you dont' want to twiddle your thumbs at every combat), 200 on each wound, and that's not counting all of the stat advances you will need to be on par with the Battle Brothers for base parity (about 350 to 1250 for each stat for that +10 difference). That xp goes fast even at 13000 base.

The Battle Sister's primary purpose is all in the name. They do battle. The damage output should be evened up to the Battle Brothers at least in the Bolter area or she will feel frustrated when combat rolls around and her bolt rounds do nothing. The Sisters iconic weapon (the bolter) is a pee shooter compared to the Space Marines bolt guns. It lacks the rate of fire and damage output that theirs does. Subbing in the inferno pistol pair from the Seraphim is nice until you realize you have to be real close and you only get one shot per round period. Meanwhile bolter boys can squeeze of 4 shots that do 2d10+5 each hit.

This topic comes up a lot. If you want to include a female character in a Kill Team without violating canon, a SoB might not be the best option, as you will have to provide a rationale for a member of the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Hereticus being permanently attached to a squad of the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos- it's doable, but it might limit your number of options reguarding types of missions the hybrid group would logically be sent on. I would recommend letting the female character be a rookie Ordo Xenos Inquisitor (from the Dark Heresy Ascention book) with appropriate gear (power armour supplemented by a refractor field to offset her lack of Unnatural Toughness, etc.), attached to the team as an advisor, the way CIA agents were sometimes attached to Special Forces units during the Vietnam War. She won't be able to match a Space Marine in terms of sheer killing power, but she will dwarf the Marines in terms of number and variety of skills, making her a useful addition to the team- especially if you include a lot of investigation in your scenarios.

If she's willing to play a Space Marine, there's no need to complicate it further by offering her an option from a completely different rulebook. Just count your lucky stars you and your player aren't one of the several GMs/players here who dislike people playing characters of a different gender.

Cool, thanks everyone for your advice on what to do/not to do in this matter.