I'm currently creating a Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Legion and I was wondering if people can give me their thoughts/opinions/comments on how to make a good first level representation of a Dark Apostle. The only thing I really have set in stone is that he is a Champion. Here are a few areas in particular I'd like help on.

1. Which Pride/Disgrace/Motivation would be most appropriate for the character? When I first looked at Pride I thought Devotion was the obvious answer until I saw the -5 to Strength! Maybe an Apostate Cardinal is has an incredible will but a string bean figure but not somebody who has been around for 10,000 years (In the character background he was actually there at the Siege of the Imperial Palace)! None of the Disgraces appealed to me and my Dark Apostle still happens to be on good terms with the Dark Council and the rest of the Legion. I'm considering the Ascendancy motivation as it seemed very appropriate for the character and the -2 wounds can easily be explained by the close calls he's had over 10,000 years of rebellion.

2. Given the Dark Apostle's unique brand of powerful oratory which of the social skills would be used the most? Given that most Word Bearer cultists seem genuinely inspired into an unholy frenzy to kill the Corpse-God's lackeys I'm assuming its not all Intimidation there. What about Command and Charm?

Those are the two problem areas for me right now I might add more as I think of them. In the meantime any input would be most appreciated.

You might want to take a look at HappyDaze's houserules regarding motivations. They're (who would have thought?) in the houserules forum.

I would say convert over some of the Common Lore and Scholastic Lore from Unaligned to Khorne to help build up the path to the Brass Throne. "Common Lore: War" has a better feeling of being Khorne then Unaligned sense it's about combat. If your the DM then feel free to tweak things to what you need to make things exciting for your players. If your doing this for a PC then you will have to talk to your DM about this as Khorne is more aligned to JOCK's then NERD's.

The weirdest thing for me in that character is why on Accursed Terra would a Dark Apostle (who are, in the Word Bearers Legion, the leaders, and are ordained by the Legion's Dark Council) walk around without his Host? Did he get lost, flee, lose his Host in battle and escaped? If so, is it really a good idea to parade around, seeing as the Word Bearers can be somewhat vindictive about imposing their edicts, and he just lost his Host? Or maybe the Dark Council just wanted to get rid of him and sent him on a "spessiuhl" assignment...

As to your questions:

1. I feel that -5 Strength is perfectly appropriate here, as Dark Apostles rarely ever enter battle on their own, setting themselves apart from the men they lead (In a Host, the Coryphaus is the actual Warleader). If you don't want it, you can do as Cifer suggested and use the houserules posted by HappyDaze, they're quite good and simple.

2. Dark Apostles use a Skill I houseruled into my games: Preach. I always found it bewildering that in a setting with such religious focus as Warhammer 40000 (everyone has gods, builds altars or has unshakeable faith in some concept to the sole exception of Tyranids, I think), this skill was nowhere to be found. It's a social skill unlike any other, as it is better used in front of a large crowd. Contrarily to other Interaction skill, it serves a purpose of reinforcing established beliefs and inciting people to do something, or slowly converting people to your cause through repeated use, and does not help bull/talking/forcing your way out of a tight spot. I also use the Propaganda skill in my games, if it suits your purposes.

Hi, i am really interested in your House rules for Preach. Could you please explain them a little further?

Thx

I don't know a great deal about the Word Bearers, but in terms of Prides you have three options. Either you houserule it, or you pick the Pride that you think fits your personality and suck up the penalty, or pick the penalty you want and adjust your personality to match.

Alternatively, I suspect it doesn't match the canon (I'm honestly not sure) but if you want to be able to whip people into a frenzy, you could play an Unaligned Sorcerer and take the Hatestorm power and its Exalted upgrade (the name of which I sadly forget).

K0balt said:

Considering that the Dark Apostles are most usually sorcerers or latent psykers (they also seem to share Lorgar's ability to get visions from the Immaterium), and they exert huge psychic effort in order to seek visions of guidance, summon/ bind daemons to the host's servica, etc, Devotion and -5 STR seem ideal to me!

In the WB novels, the DAs don't seem to be chosen for martial prowess (that's the coryphaeus' duty anyway), but for leadership, psychic/ prophetic talents, devotion and oratory. Being an evolution of Erebus's chaplain corps, this makes perfect sense.

Chosen with starting XP spent on Common Lore (Imperial Creed) and Linguistics (High Gothic). Prides, whatever seems flavorful. Boom, you're done.