Which role would you rather have played by a PC and why?

One of my players has stuck on which to play so I thought I'd see how other people saw the decision.

(In case it's relevant to your decision, other characters are Rogue Trader, Explorator, Arch-Militant and Void-Master).

Navigator. Navigators are way cooler, and way easier to manage. Astropaths have a bunch of "utility" powers like mind reading, which require the GM to prepare for the Astropath specifically.

Regardless of which is picked, you are going to need at least one NPC of the other as ships can't really operate that well without either of them.

The roll of the Navigator changes upon the powers chosen, along with what House they are from. Some Navigators are incredibly good at navigating, and thats all they are good for, while others are good at combat, but have negatives that could adversly effect them.

Astropaths are quite variable, with there being so many Disciplines and Abilities to take, but for the most part, they will always be the squishy wizard that needs to hide to avoid dying.

Ultimately, the choice is your players, but personally, I always liked the idea of the Astropath(and all the horrible things that go along with someone using the Warp) better

There is no reason any player character should ever be squishy and need to hide to avoid death, unless its player wants to play it that way. All astropaths are not squishy. NPC ones often are though. Astropaths can get rather powerful, and a GM often needs to take into account thier abilities to prevent them from trivializing many situations. Navigators are also rather powerful, but on an entirely different scale, and narrower focus. Navigators are also safer to play, having no psykich phenomena to muck things up with.

I'd prefer an astropath, just because I don't much like the Navigator class and know the psychic rules better than the Navigator rules.

Mind reading is dangerous for your sanity, If you delve into the mind of someone with more corruption and insanity than you I will make you make willpower tests, and if you fail bad things will happen, mostly you gaining insanity and corruption points. And if you get caught messing with the mind of a peer of the imperium it will likely be very dangerous for your health, your reputation and that of your retinue, and even worse your profits.

Plus you have part of the soul of the emperor in your mind, so acting against his agents is like acting against yourself. Suffer nightmares for 1d5 days as the Astropath Conditioning takes hold.

If your using it on a mook of the big bad that isn't quite as dangerous and is a perfectly legitimate use.

Astropaths are more work.

I've personally always found Astropaths more interesting, or "real" psykers in general.

I'd vote Navigator. While some of my opinion is generalizations, and you might get different mileage out of them, I feel Navigators often make more fun characters. They have a sense of value and superiority Astropaths might lack, with their families, their critical function, and such. To me, they are more likely to act like another Rogue Trader character, larger than life, and aware of their importance, while an Astropath, even a powerful one might not step up to such heights.

Again, these are generalizations of mine, and yours might differ. I've always been more a fan of the Navigators, with what I felt of as RT's ignoring battle-psykers; Astropaths are valuable, and so they often have more powers that don't trick them into bad situations, but I don't like much of their offensive psychic arsenal. Overall, I just like Navigators more. For an especially fun character, you might even let said Nav, if that is their chosen route, grab Navis Scion from Into the Storm, as it gets them some very nice extras, especially if they are one of the Wandering Houses.

Navigators, as in many ways they're the member of the crew most able to challenge a Rogue Trader. Going by the Core Rules, the wealth and influence of a Legendary Rogue Trader is equivalent to a Lesser Navis Nobilite House. A Rogue Trader might have a bit of paper saying he's allowed to go wherever he wants, but if he's blacklisted by Navigator houses then he's not going to last anywhere near as long.

Astropath's are second class citizens with incredible powers. Unfortunately those powers might get them burned as a witch or call down a demon on them.

Navigators are super powered mutants that are effectively in their own noble caste.

In short life sucks to be an astropath wheras being born to the navigator houses is very literally wining the generic lottery. Unless your character concept is really built around being a astropath personally i'd prefer navigator.

I really wish FFG had given us a more generic sanctioned psyker career path in navis primer.

lurkeroutthere said:

Dude,when you are an astropath you are of the Elect. Not only have you made pilgramage to Holy Terra, but you have looked upon the face of the God-Emperor alongside your brothers and sisters and saw a glory so astounding that it has taken your very eyes from you. Your stigmata marks you as blessed! Blessed be he who has seen Him Who is on Earth!

I greatly enjoy both mutants and playing as annoying aristocrats, so it's a definite Navigator vote from me.