I'm kind of new to posting so ill jump right into my question.

After buying the book and reading through the book I noticed that the Word Bearer Dark Apostle was considered a champion whereas my original interpretation of the "class" was more of a sorcerer that has a crozius as a force weapon and demon related powers.

Taking into account the flexibility of the character creation system what would be the best representation of the Dark Apostle "class", an undivided exalted sorc, a straight melee champ, or some sort of combination?

For further consideration ill list the Dark Apostles I currently know the about and where on the spectrum i believe they lie. Feel free to correct and/or destroy my opinions.

Eliphas from the Dawn of War series: Champion into Sorc, Starting out with mostly melee and range duel wielding with minor spells in Dark Crusade and then gaining more powerful direct damaging spells after joining the Black Legion in DOW:Retribution.

Marduk of the Dark Apostle book series: Champion, Very melee focused with demon related ritualistic powers and little to no spells.

Iskavan the Hated and Garand the Word Bearer Warmaster from the Blood Angels series: Sorc, Although very melee focused, during a scene of the book i believe that Iskavan does something similar to Killing Will with his crozius as well as summoning a demon. His Master Garand was described as a powerful psyker capable of disrupting summonings, projecting his form and other various feats.

While I don't have my copy of Black Crusade yet (Curse you Amazon!!!), I am unable to give you any specific answers, but I will attempt to give you the best advice i can. Dark Apostles are neither melee characters nor are they sorcerers. They are leader roles tried and true. Their role is as demagogues that can lead men into further acts of bravery and rally them beneath an unwavering banner of chaos so if you are looking to make a Dark Apostle character, focus everything you have on your fellowship and leader abilities. That is the most important thing you need to think about.

Now when you have room to spare, Dark Apostles can be branched out as you see fit. There may be some Dark Apostles I can see that would lead from the front with accursed crozius in hand, but if ask me, I would see them more along the lines of the crafty corrupted priest in the back of the fight, summoning hordes of daemons to die for him. So if you do have the points to space, I would say mainly go with the sorcerer abilities but only stuff that allows you to summon daemons and stuff along those lines.

Remember, you're a leader, not a fighter.

If they have psy powers, they're a sorcerer. If they don't, they're a champion. Nice and simple.

A dark Apostle is more like a Chaos priest or Cult Leader then the scor. Atleast that has always been my understanding of the fluff. They are the chaos equivilient of a Loyalist chaplain in all honesty.

They will perform rituals and the such, but they don't sling around spells and stuff.

I figured a Word bearer Dark Apostle would be a Unaligned Leader Type, being more a party face/party leader type charater.

I think Dark Apostle was one of the suggested character ideas for Champion Archtype.

Fluff wise, Dark Apostles are the Chaotic version of the Astartes Chaplain. This is on a 1-1 basis. Their roles are identical and differ only in whom they server and that Dark Apostles are exclusive (to the best of my knowledge) to the Word Bearers legion. Best archetype has to be Champion, it's as clear as a clear thing!

-Durandal

Ryder said:

Confirming this - Being a Dark Apostle would be easiest to achieve through playing a Champion, focusing on Fellowship enough to get Chaos Minion talents and building up a pool of followers.