The preview for First Founding says that, among other new goodies, we'll finally see some Chapter-specific Advanced Specialties. Being a Space Wolf fan, I've got my fingers crossed that we'll finally get a look at an official Wolf Priest Specialty. I'm not really up on the fluff for most of the other Chapters, so what other sorts of Specialties are people looking forward to seeing finally made available?

As a long time Dark Angel's player of the the mini's game, I would love to see something for the Deathwing or Ravenwing that doesn't involve them hunting the Fallen. That isn't all those two groups are known for. That's already covered by being a Dark Angel.

Ravenwing, for example are some of The Best pilots in all the Imperium. These guys eat, sleep, and kill in their bikes, landspeeders, etc. It would be great to see them get crazy bonuses and talents when operating said vehicles.

Deathwing are some of the most resolute 1st Company veterans in the Astartes as well. They are known for utilizing only Terminator armor and executing lightning blitzes into enemy territory via Teleportation.

Lots of potential for these two that isn't just giving them additional Forbidden Lore or some garbage like that.

Even tho I am a GM and not a player, I am still very excited about First Founding, it looks awesome. Of course as a GM, I'm much more pumped about The Achillus Assault. Any word on when that's supposed to come out?

Hehateme said:

Given they had copies of it at Gen Con, I presume Achillus Assault will land about the same time as Black Crusade.

Dulahan said:

Yeah, last I heard it was supposed to be 3rd Quarter of this year, so expect it within the next month or two.

That is totally awesome Dulahan and Brand, thanks. Oh, and I GOTTA start going to Gen Con, I seem to be missing out on alot of goodies!

Yuri03 said:

As a Crimson Fist I say we need to have at least a Ravenwing:Rynn's World veteran Deed. (EDIT: But then again that takes place 150+ years later, so never mind.)

Alex

Some Speciality classes I could think of that could be fun:

• Blood Angel Furioso Librarian Dreadnought
• Blood Angel Sanguinary Priest
• Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard
• Space Wolf Thunderwolf Cavalry
• Space Wolf Wolf Guard
• Space Wolf Wolf Priest
• Dark Angel Ravenwing
• Dark Angel Deathwing
• Ultramarine Tyranid Hunter

Redemption NL said:

Well besides the fact that the heavily established canon fact of Psyker = No option of being a Dreadnought, and it is only the most recent Blood Angels codex that has completely pissed all over this, then your first point is completely fine.... >.>

Sanguinary priest isn't really unique enough from an Apothecary, which if you are a Blood Angel you get access to chapter options anyway.

Sanguinary Guard might be interesting, if not a little overpowered what with 2handed power weapons AND boltguns AND jump packs.

Thunderwolf Cavalry though rather interesting, i don't think would work well with the Deathwatch. After all, the Thunderwolf is a xenos beast...

Wolf Guard are just a 1st company so would work well.

Wolf Priest are a divergent speciality from the codex astartes so do need covering,

Ravenwing are a nice idea, being fast attack vehicle specialists and only really the White Scars as competitors in this field.

Finally the Ultramarine Tyranid hunter. To be honest this one would be hard to pull off without just giving the player more of the same sort of options that Deathwatch Training gives them. Maybe better served as a Deed option for Ultramarines, giving them a version of Hunter of Aliens like Crimson Fists have, cept for Nids instead of Orks.

To throw in some suggestions of my own:

• Iron Hands - Iron Father
• Black Templar - Sword Brethren
• Any Chapter - Standard Bearer
• Any Chapter - Huscarl (Bodyguard/honourguard unit of high ranking chapter members such as captains, masters etc)

I'd also like to see some more Deathwatch specific options such as:

• Tech Priest - Xenotech Master (With abilities to help identify, destroy and in rare cases utilize xenotech)
• Assault Marine - Terminator Assault w/teleporter pack (Ability to make short ranged teleport hops to close with foes and navigate terrain)
• Any - Scout Sergeant (Marines whose stealth and scouting skills have meant they opted to remain a Scout and train up new recruits)

Just a few ideas there, but i have many more.

Librarian Dreadnoughts - don't forget Grey Knight Dreads
Sanguinary Guard - Wouldn't be that overpowered I think, it currently isn't very hard to use a bolter one handed together with a two handed weapon due to Quick Draw.
Thunderwolves - Doesn't the Imperium turn a blind eye to Xenos that don't pose a threat to the survival of Humankind? I'm sure colonists use local species as beasts of burden and pets and such.
Tyranid Hunters - It was the only specialty class I could think of that would be unique to Ultramarines, due to their codex adherence.
Iron Father - Could be a good one.

Sword Brethren - Note that since the book focusses on the First Founding chapters, Black Templars and Storm Wardens probably won't get much attention, if any.

Kasatka said:

Says who?

"There are no Wolfs on Fenris"

I just want to see the person foolish enough to tell a rider that his wolf companion needs to be captured/exterminated.

Redemption NL said:

I'm not sure it's good Idea to follow the table top too closely and have a speciality for ever Army List entry. One of the problems with the TT is each codex renames the same type and makes them better and suddenly vanilla SM's are scoffed at, so I'd be disappointed if they follow they same and there's no point playing a non-Deathwing terminator, and non Wolf Guard or Sanguinary veteran.

That said, some are interesting, Kasatka mentioned a few things but I'd like to add.

Currently Blood Angel Furioso Librarian Dreadnought aren't allowed, so that leaves 2 options, they do include it and sucks to be a mortally wounded non-BA Libby or they are going to update the rules to include them.

For Ravenwing, and indeed all chapters to a greater (in one case) or much lesser extent, Pilot / Vehicle Crewman / Biker? Is this a speciality which is missing? It used to be just assault marines with a bike rather than a Jump pack, maybe biker and Armour Crew are different.

Brand said:

Simple enough 'You're in, the wolf aint.'

Redemption NL said:

Apparently Grey Knights don't like dreads anymore

Sanginuary Guard would just be even better veterans, in the same way that honour guard is. You don't start early on. So alt ranks would suit it better.

As for Nid Hunters, I'm fairly certain one of the Ultramarine deeds was supposed to cover Tyranic war veterans.

Face Eater said:

Face Eater said:

Ah, but that's not trying to capture/kill the wolf, so I expect most SWs in that situation would simply walk (or ride) away.

Honestly, I don't see such SMs being seconded to the DW because they just don't seem like a good fit to me.

Oh, honestly, it's not like the Imperium worries too closely about xenos anyway. I'm not even sure they even twitch at unintelligent xenos species which don't hurt anyone (well, beyond tearing them apart with huge jaws and massive muscle). They're too busy killing horrific nightmarish horrors from beyond the ken of man to worry about big wolves and jokaero.

Face Eater said:

Or more likely, there are other chapters besides the Blood Angels that make use of Librarian dreadnoughts. I don't see what's so strange about having specialty dreads. We already had chaplain dreads.

The big problem to be a librarian dread is that most of the time your mind is shut off.

Then with one wound tell me how you survive a peril of the warp... psychic attack and all else... your dread body may be adamantium but your actual body is a mess. far too fragile to use psy power.

Yeah, a librarian has to be constantly guarding his mind against the warp, whilst a dreadnought slumbers for up to years at a time and often forget things... doesn't really lend itself to being a safe dreadnought psyker. Also from a tabletop point of view (which shouldnt even come into the RP side of stuff), it's just a way of making newer codices more powerful - Marine authors are terrible for power creep. Next thing you know we'll be getting Dark Angels all having fricking jetbikes, powerswords and constantly screaming about needing to find the Fallen...

Thebigjul said:

Well I assumed it wasn't just normal dreadnought armor. Some sort of wards etched into the coffin that would be powered when the dread is sleeping. And I'm not talking in terms of crunch, just in rationalizing the existence of other types of dreads besides the norm. Hell I even helped design an apothecary-style dread (It's NOT what you think.)

Grey Knight Dreadnaughts have been around for a while and there are certainly examples of other powerful psykers mortally wounded that continue to exist and even thrive mentally after such injuries. Ravenor comes to mind. In the end the 40k universe is big enough to include them, and if you don't like them, feel free to have your interpretation be psyker-dread free. That is no reason why the splat books can't have them.

Allow me to play the devil's advocate for a moment and ask, do we really need Specialties for things like the Deathwing, Sword Brethren, and frankly any other kind of 1st Company Astartes that is basically just going by a different name (dare I even include Wolf Guard in that)?

Okay, so the Deathwing - always - uses Terminator Armour, as opposed to every other Chapter's 1st Company, who just use it " frequently ". They also use teleportation to perform lightning quick attacks on the enemy... I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing a whole lot here that's different enough to justify using space in the book to give them a specialty. Likewise with Sword Brethren and Wolf Guard. The only major differences are those in personality, which comes from the Chapter, not the specialty.

It's not that it wouldn't be cool to have them, just that First Founding will have a finite amount of space in it. And when it comes to (Advanced) Specialties I'd rather not see something we already have with just a bit of window dressing thrown on

But I'm not advocating against things like Iron Fathers and Wolf Priests (or Sanguinary Guard). While they do bear similarities to existing material, the differences are more significant.

Things can be similar, but they shouldn't too similar .

Sometimes it's the little differences that count. Even a simple +5 bonus or whatever gives you the feeling of "Now I am playing Deathwing."

Alex