I want to make a dark heresy character who is a noble born gunfighter. So, can anyone help me make a dark heresy character who uses two pistols who can keep up with the damage of an assassin or a psyker or guardsman? I don't have to **** face quite as much as they do but I don't want to be left in the dust either. I have not played DH before so I am looking for help on how to do this. Somebody said tbat I should be a metallan gunslinger, but that that would make me have to be from a hive and I want to be a sort of foppish noble who's secretly quite deadly. Start at the very beginning of rank 5, have a bit of cash given to me, and my GM allows all the books. One of my other friends mumbled something about recoil gloves btw but not sure what that's about

Ave Imperator, and welcome to the grim darkness of the 41st millennium!

Indeed, the Metallican Gunslinger (found in the Inquisitor's Handbook) sounds like the obvious choice, and although this career leans heavily towards armed gangs, you could make it work with a noble as well. In fact, the description for this career even includes a small part about nobleborn Gunslingers (called 'gunrakes'), although the class sounds a little too specialized and I presume it was just put in there to allow for greater freedom at character creation. Yet, it is an option, and arguably one that would allow you to get the most out of the "pistol duellist" idea.

It is important to note that Hives and a noble background are not mutually exclusive: Whilst it is true that we usually draw a connection between the term Hive and the image of dark and dirty post-apocalyptic city ghettos, a Hive is much more than this and would include the upper layers that house the rich and the powerful, separated from the poor by thick walls of ferrocrete and armed guards. If you know Star Wars, think of Coruscant or Taris, and you get the idea: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Taris#Locations

Depending on your own ideas and what your GM would allow, you might also be able to separate the Gunslinger advances from its original background (similar to how a Guardsman can also be something entirely different), though the special abilities of this sub-career would still need an extremely good explanation. Alternatively, you could just go with a normal Scum character - it's not like you need the Gunslinger perks, they just sound really helpful for what you have in mind. It all depends on how you want to balance your character's noble skills with his gunplay.

I'm not sure if you could keep up with the damage of an Assassin (the Guardsman may work, depending on what he uses) - but your character would have other abilities that they don't, namely in the social area. Which would fit nicely with the noble background and the "foppish" appearance you mentioned. You may not totally pwn in combat, but you will remain an extremely valuable addition there, and have other uses in addition to just shooting baddies (or goodies, for that matter, depending on your inquisitorial assignment, personal style and bad luck).

Also, being a noble, you'll likely get to wear the best armour later on. At least more than the Assassin.

As for the recoil glove - that's a piece of equipment which would allow you to fire basic weapons with a single hand, potentially even allowing you to dual-wield two rifles. Not that I would recommend this, as it sounds a bit over the top. This is 40k, not The Matrix - two pistols would have much more style, and there are some very sweet and suitably classy models you could choose from.

Hope that helps!

Why not go for a noble born assassin? There is notihing requiring them to be all 'hide in shadows'. I have a rank five assassin who doesn't really fit the mould of what an assassin should be. These classes don't have to follow the TT to the 'T' (okay that was lame) and they are fairly flexible if you use your imagination..

As such thereis really no limitation on what armour you can wear. You can go all the way to carapace and still be sneaky enough, and there are no limits on what weapons you can carry.

They get two weapon wielder at rank three, so you're sorted there, plus by rank five they have access to mighty shot, deadeye shot, quickdraw, lightning reflexes and rapid reaction and they start with ambidexterity so both pistols are only at -10BS. Talk to your gm about getting gunslinger as an elite edvance (perhaps trade off not being allowed swift attack or something like that) and hey presto, a 'Noble Gunslinger'.

Put one of your best stats in fellowship to start with and with the noble bonus it won't matter too much that it is expensive to advance.

Or like Lynata suggests, use metallican gunslinger; there are planty of nobles in the upper hive spires. Scum class would work well with this; just look at it as a package of skills and talents and don't get too caught up in the label 'scum'. We have a NB Scum in our group and he is anything but a 'scum'. (You should have seen the look on his face when to waste a whole bunch of cultists my plan was to throw three frag grenades into a wine cellar! )

Lastly, get the excellent spreadsheet character generator the Memetix has made available here:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=123&efcid=3&efidt=326830&efpag=0

This allows you to very easily try out different approaches. The latest version I have is 5.94 but I think there area couple since then. (I cannot over emphasise how very powerful this is, Memetix rteally has done well) Use the maco to save your characters, do not save changes when you closae the sheet.

Oh yeah, what is '**** face'? Sounds yucky.

Have fun, Burn the Heretic! Purge the Unclean!

Oc course a noble born Guardsman works too. Think Prince Harry serving in Afghanistan.

Alex

Zakalwe said:

So innocent...

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/****-face (of course, "****" should not be taken literally - at least not always)

Also available in Sororitas Form .

Lynata said:

That's exactly what I want to be but it says that I have to be from Gunmetal Hive and Gunmetal Hive starting world doesn't really reflect the noble part that I want

I also don't like the Pistols-only thing because sort of my idea so far for the character was to have him go from this fop duellist to a hardened inquisitorial agent who would obviously be more willing to use things like grenade launchers or bolters to take down daemons when a pistol won't do it.

I guess one of my biggest concerns is that I'll be stuck with pistols when everyone else is toting around a machine gun or powerfist or whatever and I won't be able to hurt anybody worth a ****. Sitting around behind cover is the adept's job from what I hear and he'd hate competition : P

Zakalwe said:

I wanted to be a noble born scum so that I could be both a face of sorts since the guy who bowed out of the slot I am stepping into had that role with a cleric, and still keep up with the combat junkies because, well, I am a bit of a combat junky myself! However the noble born origin doesn't seem to work with metallican gunslinger because you have to be from Gunmetal Hive instead of being noble born. Unfortunately I hear gunmetal hive also give some nice bonuses to gun guys but oh well lol.

I will think about the assassin career. unfortunately i do not have the books yet so I will have to go and look at them some time soon.

I agree with my fellow noble, you should be shot for such disrespect to the Emperor's grapes! hehe

and thank you a lot for that spread sheet.

Lynata said:

Oh, that face, then yeah, my Feral World Assassin definitely has one of those. On the first character sheet I used it says "Jungo likes huntin' fightin' and wimmin."

But perhaps not so much innocent as a bit long in the tooth I think.

from france

unless you really want to play one i strongly advise you to not choose a metalican gunslinger but imitate it. why? because a low level it s a very quick road to power. as for every quick road to power you forget the downside of it until s too late. like the mrotitat its is verru focused to the point of being narow minded. just look at the limitation no basic or special or heavy weapons without penalty and time will come when your petty pistol will be out of range and your gunslinger will have to exposed himself and being dead meat.

gunslinger are good in a hive and all other close quarter environement when range is not a problem everywhere else and they are defeated by the peon next door armed with a basic weapon. a good survivor shoul have three weapons a closed quarter, a short range and a long range to not be caught at the wrong range.

that s the same probleme with the moritat. "oh yeah i am the king with a blade i will cut their head with a swing" "hum yes but they are shooting us from a distance" " i will run and cut their head" a blam blam blam later poor moritat is dead shot by a lasgun by the same peon next door who kill the metalican gunslinger.

try to emulate this elite package but do not use them you will have the same benefit but without the drawback. and yes it will be a slower road.

Lynata said:

Gregorius21778 said:

Alex

I guess one of my biggest concerns is that I'll be stuck with pistols when everyone else is toting around a machine gun or powerfist or whatever and I won't be able to hurt anybody worth a ****. Sitting around behind cover is the adept's job from what I hear and he'd hate competition : P

Plenty of pistols are nasty. SP->Bolt->Plasma->Melta will kill increasingly big things with little problem. The only way you'll be left behind in damage potential with pistols is if it's super long range combat or heavy weapons. Or melee, but there's no prohibition against melee or heavy weapons that i'm aware of. Might not fit the character concept though...

You could simply ask your GM to waive the restriction on starting worlds and let you take Noble Born and Metallican Gunslinger, seeing as your character so far sounds pretty much like the archetypal gunslinger. One thing I don't like about the DH system as-is is the sometimes overly limiting ways to get a career by RAW.

That being said, I agree with the others that it may be worth statting this concept out as an assassin. The assassin gets much killier stuff overall. Or a normal scum without the metallican package. Which can as has been said be very limiting.

The downside is that the metallican hive and metallican gunslinger packages offer some very nice boosts to characters of your type, and an assassin will have a very hard and expensive time boosting fellowship and getting fellowship skills. Metallican gunslinger has the particular advantage of letting you start out as your character concept rather than having to work up to it and only really getting to play as what you want for levels 6-8 or so.

All in all, I recommend playing a Scum, talking to your GM about combining noble born and gunslinger,and taking elite advances as necessary. Unfortunately you won't be able to get the +5 bonus to BS that Gunmetal Hive offers, but c'est la vie I suppose.

Graspar said:

His ballistics skill will probably be high enough, with other bonuses, to soak up the penalty.

For instance, a gunslinger who's got a good roll, gunmetal hive, and the +3 divination can have 48 starting BS which I think is the highest possible. After 350 points he'll have another +10, and then tack on a scope and a full aim and any other bonuses, or full auto point blank and/or scatter, and he'll do just fine with most anything. If he doesn't get all that, say he's noble born and gets some other divination, that's still a 38 or so for a good roll. He won't be the best of the best at long-range assassinations, but he can do well enough when he needs it as a back-up.

Graspar said:

Loot enough money, buy two Bolt pistols.

Alex

Wouldn't a normal Scum career (without the Gunslinger part if he wants to switch to basic weapons later on) be more interesting, though? Whilst the idea could certainly work either way, his party already has one Assassin, and the Scum's social talents could potentially allow him to represent the "foppish" side of his role in a better way. A greater variance in careers usually makes for more interesting games, I think.

Just my two Thrones, as always.

Nigh7gaun7 said:

Thank you this is what I think I will do because of the fellowship cost for assassins and like you say I want to be my character from the beginning not only the last part.

Lynata said:

ah sorry I thought I said this earlier but the game I will join has lots of combat, so i really need to be able to help with that. the man who left who I am taking the place of was a priest who had one of those giant chainswords and a flamethrower and was a red redemptionist (?) but at same time i want to stay with the the pistols if i can because the idea is that my character is very good and will shoot you in the eye when the guard is shooting everywhere and missing a lot even or the assassin has to run around with her sword and crossbow.

ps i read some confusion about what I said earlier. English is not my first language and i got a friend to help with the first message. and since it is just me. sorry if it was not clear.

Cauldron Born said:

Well, the Scum really isn't that bad in combat! You get Marksman, Sharpshooter, Mighty Shot, ... I'd say comparing combat efficiency between Scum and Assassin, equipment plays a much larger role than their respective abilities, as many of those will depend on the circumstances. Just ask your group how that Cleric fared in his fights!

And if you really, really, really want to be exceptionally good with pistols (not necessary imo but it's your character) then feel free to take the Gunslinger advances and simply focus on pistols - fits better for a noble, either way. Yes, it says Gunmetal on the tin, but that doesn't mean it cannot be any other Hive. You just have to ask your GM if he would allow such adaptions.

Cauldron Born said:

No worries, I don't think anybody has problems understanding you.

Cauldron Born said:

On short ranges, two pistols is more powerful than one basic weapon. Two autopistols beat one autogun hands down. Two hand flamers are better than one flamer, etc. In fact two pistols is probably the best combo in the game if properly kitted out.

Alex

I have played a Scum from mid lvl (4+) till Ascension.

We did the Opening Ascension mission (in the back of the book) with some Random Evil Sorcerer. And my TWF Scrum and his dual shot talent was the only thing capable of hurting him. And he had 2 bolt pistols.

On top of that I was very social and had a Variety of Social and Thief like skills. Plus he was just down right cool ...

As far as i can tell your actual background wont cause 2 much variety with the proper build.