As the topic says, wondering when this book comes out.

Not sure elsewhere,

But Esdevium games (distributers) list it as being available from next week in the UK

i picked it up from my flgs yesterday. kabalite warrior is very interesting

Due to financial reasons, lack of a store who has it and parents who control my mail and tried to steal my Deathwatch core book out of my room to prove to a family consultant that I am mentally ill and evil I have to wait for the download version.

HappyDaze said:

Care to spill anything on, say, Alternate Ranks?

Mjoellnir said:

Good lord. What a situation that must be.

The only solution is gaming with them and the therapist.

Beware however: nobody knows what a therapist really thinks…

Doesn't matter anyway. She made a horrible mistake (she wanted to talk to me) so my parents ditched her after she didn't completely agree with them. Now they have found another one. Former alcoholic turned addiction counselor turned author who's now officially retired. He only talks to my parents and has diagnosed that I'm addicted, mentally deformed (hope I'm translating that right but even in German it doesn't make much sense) and "don't have myself". At least that's what my mother tells me he said. Yeah, I wonder when my life turned into a crappy, surreal movie. At least I'll get my bachelor's degree in a few months and can move out.

Back to topic: What's there about the special connection of the DE and She-Who-Thirsts? How do they stave her off rules-wise and is there any fluff about how it's different from what the Craftworlders do? (Still hoping that the career path can somehow be modified to a corsair.)

I literally can't wait for this to come out =)

My onlt question is what kind of alternate ranks are there? Are there starting ones? Can you be a Trueborn? Just generally, what kind of flexibility is offered when it comes to breaking out of the mold of "Kabalite Warrior"? Because we all know people will be interested in playing Wyches, Inclubi, and even Hominculi too.

Hmm.. guess that wasn't one question afterall… >.>

Blood Pact said:

Alas, I didn't have room to write up anything for non-Kabalite Dark Eldar as player characters. Between the armoury (used by both player characters and NPCs alike), the NPCs, the starships and vehicles, the Dark Eldar player rules, and the Kabalite Warrior career, I'm pretty sure I went beyond my allotted word-count anyway. As much as I'd have liked to do a whole load more stuff with this project, there simply wasn't the space or the time to produce it.

Oh well, it's a little disapointing, but I doubt it'd really be of any hindrance to anyone truly dedicated to pulling off what they're interested in (well, maybe the Incubi or Homunculus). Wyches and their fellow blood-sport loving ilk are little different than specialized warriors, who take drugs and wear skimpy armour.

I'm sure I'll be well satisfied.

Besides, there's always the (admitedly, probably slim) chance of seeing some more in another book.

Just a note: Trueborn is available for 500xp at character creation. It alters your advancement costs for Fellowship, reducing them to the least expensive advancement rate (normally Fellowship is at the most expensive advancement rate). It's really a good deal if you plan to take two or more Fel advances.

What a tragedy!

And here I was, hoping for Haemonculi and Scourges.

Plushy said:

While I haven't got the published book yet, I did include both Haemonculi and Scourges in the bestiary, so there are at least examples there of those sorts of characters. A sufficiently-enterprising soul could use those as inspiration for appropriate character archetypes/alternate ranks (I'd put Scourges as an alternate rank or elite advance, personally - they're likely to be Kabalite by birth, but have chosen to be augmented to become Scourges).

Hey NO-1, while I know you don't give official answers here, what is your take on weapon traing and Darklight weapons? They are not listed on the Exotic table, but above it as a class of weapons instead. Would a single weapon training for all three Darklight weapons be appropriate or should each be taken separately?

HappyDaze said:

Cool, and I would take Trueborn even if it didn't do that, cause I'd just love to be a poncy git and lord my superior heritage over folks like that.

And since noone else has asked you yet Daze, would you be so kind as to furnish us with some spoilers? Perhaps the Table of Contents to start with?

HappyDaze said:

Oops. Sorry, Darklight weapons are listed as Exotic, so this question should be ignored.

However, I do wonder if Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors are intended to start with Speak Language (Dark Eldar) +10. They get it twice - once from being of the Dark Eldar species, and again in the Kabalite Warrior career. It's not really unbalancing for them to have it at +10 from the start, just a bit unusual.

**** dirty double-post!

Blood Pact said:

ToC is a bid dull to type out, but the adventure ends by page 96. After that it's information on DE PCs, NPCs, and gear (including weapons, armour, vehicles, and a pair of spacecraft). They have the Skyboard on page 125, and it's only Scarce so Explorers with Pilot (Personal) might find it very appealing.

The big thing with the DE is the aquiring of Pain Tokens. You get these when others within (Perception Bonus) meters of you is killed, takes critical damage, is stunned, pinned, fails a fear test, etc. (there's a full list and each DE also gets to make a choice to tailor it to his own kink). You get eight of them and they convert to a "use or lose" Fate Point. There are several special DE Talents that require spending a Fate Point to activate them, and they allow all sorts of soul vampire bits like Unnatural Strength (x2) for a time, or regeneration of wounds as you get more Pain Tokens.

My only worry is that splinter weapons are fairly weak. I've been playing Deathwatch and (more recently) Black Crusade, and I feel really bad for any Kabalite Warrior forced to engage Space Marines with splinter weapons. They are only slightly better than lasguns until you account for Toxic.

HappyDaze said:

Sadly, that's consistent with the tabletop game. The basic splinter weapons really are not that impressive, and rely on toxins to do their dirty work. It's worth mentioning that the Black Crusade Dark Eldar use much nastier toxins on their splinter weapons than the ones in Rogue Trader. The BC ones have a -40 to the toughness test whereas in RT the toughness test is flat. Using RT splinter weapons against marines, with their high toughness and resistance to poison, is likely a fatal mistake. Even the BC version may have trouble punching through marine armour… and if it doesn't get through, no toxin damage for you. Something more potent is a necessity.

Cheers,

- V.

Vandegraffe said:

I must say that I'm not really pleased with the idea that each game line has different stats for the same weapon. It's just another reminder that these games are less compatible than they should be.

As for the RT splinter weapons, it's probably OK. The darklight weapons - like the blast pistol - are excellent marine killers (20m base range, damage of 2d10+5 X, Pen 16, Felling [1], Proven [2])!

The Reaver Jetbike is there according to one of the earlier previews, are there many talents that go well with it, or specifically cater to it?

I didn't see any vehicle-specific talents. You'll really want Agony From Afar to let you get Pain Tokens from ranged attacks originating within (PB) meters (including your own, obviously) that allow for the stuff I mentioned above. Otherwise, no special vehicle tricks other than the benefits of Unnatural Agility on the Pilot tests.

Vandegraffe said:

Not quite true. Pre-Black Crusade, the Toxic quality imposed a variable penalty on the Toughness Test to resist, equal to -5 for every wound inflicted after all reductions. The Disciple of Shiamesh talent is a must for those who delight in poisons, however, and it can turn even the humble splinter pistol into quite a vicious tool for inflicting agony. Combine that with a Venom Blade loaded with Sanguine Exodus and a couple of choice uses of Pain Tokens (Tormentor's Fury and/or Tormentor's Might work well), and there is very little that can stand before a high-rank Kabalite Warrior. Combat drugs help matters here as well - a dose of Grave Lotus or Serpentin can make a world of difference.

Beyond that, in the grand scheme of things, fighting the Adeptus Astartes is not something the Dark Eldar are inclined towards unless they can secure every advantage - they're raiders, slavers and pirates, afterall, and disinclined towards a stand-up fight, particularly one against fearless supersoldiers whose bodies endure pain and poison alike.

The Disciple talent that you mention as a 'must' is available at Rank 8. That's pretty late-game by any standard for a must-have talent.