In the new group, we have decided to babtise all the players by giving them all a chance to GM a prewritten scenario. I just finished Illumination, and now its my turn to roll up a character and run along with the party. Since we are a majorly combat oriented group, I decided to bite the bullet and run an adept. He is from the Schola Progentium, and his combat stats arnt too bad, including a good strength. So I was thinking to represent this, insted of running the cleche "old man" adept, I would run a student similer to those from Gaunts Ghosts Honor Guard (the Echoli). Whom has the ability to fight, but follows the path of the student.

In game terms, the Adept is the hardest to play. As they dont have many combat oriented options, and their skills arnt called on as oftin as one would like. So I would like to ask how former players have played the intellectual.

I've never played an adept, but we have one in our group and none of my characters have ever been super great at combat.

First, you'd be surprised how well you can hold your own in combat even without all the nifty talents that the combat monsters get. Sure you may only be shooting one bolt pistol, and not picking your exact place you want to hit, but as long as you're hitting with that bolt pistol its going to hurt.

Plus you're in a unique position if everyone else is playing a combat monster. I don't know about your GM, but ours likes to bring up new Daemons every so often with a different quirk, similiar to how the Skae Thing has a quirk. An all combat group would just blast away, but with an adpet in the group, you have a good chance to understand what and how things work. A Dark Eldar tosses a Holographic splinter grenade, you can tell everyone to grab cover. A Daemonspawn is prowling, you may know that its has an allergy to Gyn.

In our group the adept and I (the cleric) share the load on knowledge, with the Adept being the Xenos knowledge gal, and I being the Daemon knowledge guy at least until we have enough exp to start getting crossover skills.

First rule though is don't be the one leading the charge, be the reserves. Try to avoid one on one fights, have a combat monster friend that you stick near. Always find cover and hide, you're the smart one, so grabbing cover and concealment and firing around and over it makes more sense then leading the charge with your chainsword swinging. Quickly learn your limitations. Find good gear and stick with it. Find your nitche in combat and stick to it, only getting skills and talents that promote that. My priest is the short range guy, going from pointblack to about 35m total, using pistols, shotguns, and flamers.

Remember the specialized gear is great if your a combat monster, but you're the knowledge guy. Stick with a few weapons. I never took or plan to take power weapons or chain weapons. My lathe blade works just as well and requires only Melee (primative) which I started with. I don't plan on taking Basic Weapon (anything) beyond SP and Las. SP for the shotgun which is a wonderful weapon in close, and Las for the lasrifle. Take a bolt pistol and get speciallized ammo for it. You'll only be talking maybe a point or two difference between a rifle and a pistols damage, and while your range is much shorter then a rifle, no one should expect you to be the sniper. Your weapons technically are for self-defense.

Flamers are nice.

Constantly badger your GM about if you can use your knowledge skills in combat to make the job easier for everyone. Tacita works, as well as Xenos when fighting Xenos and Daemon when fighting Daemon.

I'm playing an adept right now, rank 5, almost 6, and I'm having lots of fun even though our sessions are quite often action focused, and I'm not very dangerous in battle. I'm the brains of the group, I am the thinker and the problem solver, I formulate the plans for inte infiltrations, figure out the angles of confrontations, but I leave the interaction to whomever I can because my fellowship is so low. I also serve as the group's medic, but any adepts biggest contribution to a group is the knowledge they possess. Take as many Lore skills you can get your hand on, my adept is mainly focused on Forbidden Lore, which is of course the most interesting and can actually be the focus of some really great role playing becuase it be so dangerous to know the "wrong" things.

Easy way- think Giles from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'.

You are primarily the reserves, but when it comes to reading, forbidden/obscure/possibly arcane knowledge, it's your turn to be the viking. It doesn't stop you from being quite deadly in combat, providing you know your limits- and given how you described your planned character, I'd say a 'mono' staff, or possibly a similarly upgraded spear (particularly if you have one with a retractable blade) and either a 'Steelburner' laspistol or something nasty in an SP pistol like a 'Flametongue', 'Fatebringer', 'Irontalon' or 'Carnodon' would be your best friend.

I'll also note that the closest equivalent in our party currently is a rank3 psyker. He has been very wary of using his voodoo shtick, and has still been the second most deadly combatant in the party so far, using his staff (the most deadly is currently a cleric in feudal plate with a greathammer)

As an aside- the esholi were really supposed to be non-combatants: Sanian was an exception, and many people argued against her decision. They are pretty much just life-long students; in theory, I suppose one could be an esholi who studied fighting, but I personally doubt it.

By and large, if you're playing an Adept, bear in mind that you might just not have much of a role in combat. Maybe get an SMG and start spraying area denial down hallways, but don't expect to really achieve much. Your place on most missions will be alongside the Arbitor doing investigative work. Indeed, the Arbitor is a great companion, because he can bodyguard you while you're in the field (not to mention adding a little "enhancement" to your interrogations). Having a Scum alongside is the alternate course, for many of the same reasons (it just depends on whom you wish to be friendly towards, and what kind of "friendly" you want to be).

If you've ever read the Nero Wolfe novels (or seen the A&E shows), Nero Wolf is a particularly sedentary Adept and Archie Goodwin is a particularly active Arbitor (or arguably Scum).

Is your group owning a vehicle/flyer and is there a chance for chases/flights in the adventures? I am asking since Adepts make for good drivers/pilots. Not for their Dex, don´t get me wrong! But you are handed +10 skills for Driving/Pilot at the second rank. Not bad . Talk to your fellow SC/ Future-GM if he would like to open this avenue up for your. As far as I know, the pre-written adventures to ask for driving skills, so.

The "sherlock holmes" approach could work well, too.
Adepts gain early access to awareness and logic. Ask your group/GM if they would allow you take the elite advancement of "Search" or better: allow you to be talented for it. Since perceiption is one of the stats an adept can raise cheap, you could turn into the "major clue hunter" of the group.

The adept in my group is the info gatherer and faceman. He wants to actually get the intimdiate and interrogation skills and has great luck so far (breaking a few fingers with his club usually gives him a bonus). The adept has also became the pistol "expert" of the group with his hand-cannon and various ammo loads and a pair of stub revolvers, one of which has a red-dot. Get a red-dot scope ASAP! With an aimed shot from a slow firing pistol it is an easy +20.

I would never have considered playing an adept prior to reading this thread.

You guys have put forward some pretty great ideas about exploiting the strengths of the Adept career.

I have actually recently roled up an adept for my Customs campaign. I thought it would be fun as he would the be the guys walking around with the boarding party say "that is illegal, that is proscibed, excuse me but your papers are not in order they should have been signed with this color of ink." etc. Initially I am starting the party out with some 'better' equipment because it is issued to them. He is scholar progentum and the minitorum queastor background package as well, which I thought is a great way to start him out with some combat abilities. For combat I essentially plan for him to lay down cover fire, automatic weapons fire, and use grenades. Close combat is not his strong suit so he will attempt to stay as far away as possible. I am playing him much like the warrior scholar/poet type. He is enamoured with the "honor and glory" of combat and has trained himself to be a part of it, but has never really been in battle. The first firefight I will probably actually play him as the coward and he will grow into his role.

Salcor

not sure how to get rid of double post.

I've always like the idea of using the MQ adept background package as the basis for a scrounger/quartemaster type character, think Radar or Klinger in MASH when they are wheeling and dealing to get a hold of equipment.

"If knowledge is power then I have done well." Dawn of War (the librarian)

Adepts are fun to play. You will likely be the only one in the party who knows how the imperium works. There are all sorts of ways a cunning adept can make that work for him. You would be surprised what a properly filled out requisition form can get you especially if you know how to cut through the red tape.

As far as combat goes.. bolt pistol plus inferno rounds. Throw on a laser sight and use the aim action. You can contribute to combat just fine. Flamers may seem like a good choice but remember you would need to be in the front row to use it...

As a side note because of this rather inventive adept we (our group) had to agree, that there was what amounts to a munitorium unclaimed freight. Stuff that was shipped to the wrong place and got lost or was not worth the cost of shipping to the right location. Stuff that just gets lost in the system or cannot be delivered for one reason or another. Stuff that may have been sitting on warehouse shelves for hundreds of years. Stuff they would be glad to be rid of if only someone would ask in the right way (enter adept and his requisition form). In the case of his bolt pistol it was originally ment for a recently promoted IG colonel who died before it got to him. Finding such gems is the perview of the adept and is only limited by what the GM will allow (as honestly considering the inefficiency of the imperium virtually anything in any quantity can be sitting forgotten on some warehouse shelves) he may want to rule out vortex grenades.

....You found Vortex grenades?!?!

Also, this advice is going to be really useful, I just rolled up an Adept for an online campaign

Well the adept sorta kinda yah there was a crate. The GM should be very careful when the pc makes a ludicrous request and he laughs and says something like yah right roll a 1 (on percentile dice). Those are like famous last words or something. Turns out though that a arch magos found them first and had been camped out IN the warehouse guarding them with some secutors, combat servitors, and a platoon of skitarii... for the last 2 years waiting on his paperwork to go through. The adept ever the opportunist went and helped him out and expidited his request.

As a side note his problem was he had filled out the request forms honestly and said that he intended to study the grenades and dismantle them with the purpose of learnign how to make more. Of course study is not listed as a proper use for grenades of any type so they would not grant the request. On the other hand he was a powerful individual (with a small army to back up his ... well .... power) so they did not want to tell him no... Soo it just got shuffled from official to official in a endless loop. The adept just changed the forms to reflect a approved use of vortex grenades (the destruction of high value battlefield targets). It is a good thing to know friendly arch magos.

Of course many of the smaller minded may indeed take issue with this adepts rather loose regard for what many would consider to be the truth... He prefers to think of it as the only "truth" being service to the emperor.. though he does admit that being part of the inquisition does help to persuade others to his way of thinking.

An actual conversation (as closely as I can remember it. (over vox/telephone)

Annoying Adept (AA) : Brother adept I am afraid that I have a few questions about request form ********.

Player Adept (PA) : I will assist in whatever way I can.

(AA): Well it says here a captain Strah Mhen of the Telitar 874th IG regiment requisitioned 5 guard flack suits, 2 las rifles, 10 frag grenades, and 20 las charge packs. (enough to outfit a starting acolyte cell in basic gear)

(PA): Ah yes captain Mhen.. is there a problem with the form? I checked it myself it all seemed to be in order.

(AA): Yes well planet Telitar is in the Nephilim sector which is on the far side of another segmentum, ultima segmentum to be precise. It took quite a bit of digging to even find out there was a planet Telitar! Verifying this captains request is impossible. I have grave concerns about this unless you can satisfy them I will have to file a form of inquiry.

(PA): It seems you have done quite a bit of research on this issue, above and beyond the call really. Soo you must have come accross what organization I work for.

(AA): Well yes, but I do not see what the inquisition has to do with this.

(PA): Well to be honest the data archives here are far more reliable than even what can be found on prol. The information you seek is indeed available in our data stacks. However before we proceed I would like confirm your absolute and I must admit admirable devotion to your duty in ferreting out this possible inconsistency. Also if you have any next of kin I would be happy to have a few words with them.

(AA): What?! What do my next of kin have to do with this.

(PA): Well I can indeed answer any and all questions about captain Strah Mhen but such information would have to come from the inquisitorial archives. This is fine with me but I am afraid I would then have to ensure that such information could not leak out and get into the wrong hands. You I am afraid would have to make the ultimate sacrifice. You can either come here to the Inquisition enclave or I and some associates can come to you. The data is of course to sensitive to trust to electronic communication.

(AA): Ah well.... that may be umm unnecessary... I was umm more or less seeing this as a courtesy call and um ... yah it seems to me that this is all on the up and up. Thank you for answering my questions.

(PA): Excellent I am glad this could be cleared up. The adminstratum could use more diligent adepts such as you. Your loss would be a blow to administratum itself.

(AA): Yah kinda what I was thinking.

(PA): You are wise.

>>Click<<

The point is being fun to play has more to do with how you play than what you play.

llsoth said:

Well said.

I'm so stealing that Arch-Magos...

not to mention inditors can get arms master and marksman whitch is pretty useful

At the moment, I do all the GMing in my circle and haven't had a chance to play myself, but I'd totally go with an Adept. At every level you can try to squeeze extra information out of your GM by "searching your memory" for things you've studied, or by taking every opportunity to look into available records and data.

As for combat, think of the Lexmechanic: a character who can process trajectories, angles and suchlike so rapidly that - although he's supposed to use his skills for space flight calculations and artillery bombardments - he can put a round through a scummer's left eye at a hundred paces.

R.

Oh, and keep in mind the rules from IH, specifically the ones that allow Lore skills to augment other skills provided you take your time to "do it exactly right". All those Lores have more value than just remebering stuff, and well they should.

I apologise for the very late reply to this goldmine of information. I played the first two and a half parts of Rejoice for you are True with my Esholi adept. And I must say I found playing a scholar quite fun. All this knowlege was a big help and I thank all of you.

He isnt the best at fighting, and would avoid it if possable, but that doesnt mean he cannot hold his own in a gunfight.

Thanks everyone,

-Ira-

Xathess Wolfe said:

Holy crap! Where the hell are you supposed to be GETTING this equipment? I mean, a lathe blade ? That's a 2500TG upgrade that is Very Rare!

I don't see how you could reasonably obtain and continue to use a bolt weapon on an Adept's salary, even.

In my limited experience, mostly as a GM although I have played a couple of campaigns, an autogun, preferably an armageddon, with manstoppers can pretty much hose down anything an adept should be dealing with. Basic SP is available relatively early on for every class, there really is no excuse.

Most classes can't afford to run a bolt weapon on normal salary, as per the book, however with bonuses for hitting targets, it is not so unaffordable.

A 2500 throne lathe blade would be beyond even the nobles in my group realistically affording though!

Mr Adventurer said:

Well the lathe blade he may have to find... or roleplay a reason that the techies give it to him. But hey, if he has a goal go for it, its a great weapon to get (my character received one as "reward" for destroying a rather nasty chaos tech-heresy which was embueing daemonic essence into servitors causing all kinds of nastiness. Its not so much of a reward as a "you'll need this to help you kill them" and I just never gave the sword back yet. I'm assuming someones going to come asking for it soon, in a most unpleasant fashion).

Now the bolt weapon is kind of interesting. Finding the weapon itself is rather easy in later stages of the game, its the ammo that's expensive, in which is why you have to request the ammo from your Inquisitor. If your GM is cheap and basically say "I'm only paying you base pay and that's it" well you might as well write off using any of the guns outside of SP and Las weapons, and not even the more advanced ones at that. It pretty much sinks the entire weapon chart past that on just base pay, not because of the weapon, but because of the ammo. Its even worse if yours a guardsman, because you don't get paid jack, and if your GM is forcing you to pay for everything out of your measly base pay, well your ammo costs are astronomical.

Course we get a mission stipend on top of our base pay, and from that mission stipend we get to buy things that will be NECESSARY for the mission, like ammo if necessary, which helps a lot. Course if we can't prove that it was needed for the current mission, we end up paying things back.

Edit: Oh and also, loot the bodies and get someone with some skills to sell the darn things for you at the best price. You avoid merchantile skills, you get what you deserve, pennies on the dollar. Get someone who is willing to sell things for you in your group, and place the money into the parties pot, and even if that heavy stubber is no use for you it can still be traded for that las rifle for some thrones. Same with buying things, you don't have the skills to buy things, well that's your problem. Nothing worse then a combat monster who has to buy 150% for his ammo because he never thought that the merchants wouldn't rob him blind every chance they get.

Also, you don't use or carry the weapons all the time. Carrying a Sacristan Bolt Pistol everywhere you go makes no sense, when a simply SP pistol (like the one you start with) makes more sense. Pull out the big toys only when you're sure you'll be going up against the big enemies, and you're saving money. Using bolt rounds on a street gang is a waste of bolt rounds, but not so much of a waste when going up against a Daemon.

Finally I actually don't use all that stuff, but its still nice. I don't use chainswords (I believe I said that once) and I actually don't use flamers (our adept in the group does) and they are nice. I do use a bolt pistol, but I only use it against daemons and psykers (I don't even use it against normal heretics), you know things that you want to burst damage down as fast as possible because the longer they live the more likely you'll be burning fate points like Heretics during a crusade. So the ammo isn't so bad, I use maybe a clip a story, which comes out pretty cheap. Its when you're using it to kill everything and anything that it gets truely expensive.