Just started a new campaign with a bunch of friends. I just wanted to check to makesure that I am making a good build for my Seargant. We all started off at square one with no extra XP.

WS 40
BS 35
S 33
T 31
Ag 32
Int 31
Per 26
WP 33
Fel 41

Skills:

Command +20
Common Lore(Imperial Guard, Imperium, War) Trained
Linguistics(LowGothic) Trained
Navigate(Surface) Trained
Operate(Surface) Trained
Parry(Trained)

Weapon Training:
Chain
Las
Lowtech

Talents & Traits:

Air of Authority
Covering Fire

Regiment:

Cadian Shock Troops variant with Common Lore(Hive).

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Any recommendations? I built my character to keep other men in line. The air of authority was originally because the GM said we would be a small squad in a larger army, so I wanted to be able to send orders to ask for support. I upped his Fellowship and Command to keep the men in line.

DontEatRawHagis said:

Uh… Dunno… With those characteristics you will never get the choice to keep the men in line, because your enemies will kill you like, instantly. Overall, you need high Agility (unless you have a TB of 10 or more) and high Willpower (Pinning is evil). Take the Dodge Skill instead of Parry and take Awareness (super important!). Yes, I know it will be a lot of XP, but sadly, the Sergeant kinda' sucks as a Guardsman Specialization.

To get the XP, you can bust Fellowship down to 30. With Command +20, you won't need it anyways. Also, you can leave out Covering Fire too. Take Combat Formation instead.

Also, did you really have those skills at Trained (+10) level?

Sorry I am going off the character sheet, they aren't +10 they are +0.

DontEatRawHagis said:

Okay, that's cool. And what are your base characteristics/characteristic advancements?

DontEatRawHagis said:

Looks OK to me. You definately want to look into picking up Dodge, perhaps instead of Parry if you can work the points, You probably only need Command +10 for a starting character, and you will want to talk to your GM to make sure Air of Authority will work as you intend it too. Personally, unless it's a free choice, I don't bother with it. There are more usefull talents.

My Drop trooper regimental Sgt has the following points disputed (We use the 100 points alternative rule)

30 weaponskill

20 ballistics

40 strenght

40 toughness

30 agility

20 int

20 per

40 Willpower

40 Fellowship.

Since my squad is made up of people that are all about firing big weapons, I plan on going down the dual wielding path.

I spent the first 2050 xp on getting Fearless, Jaded and Hardy. Next 2000xp will be spent on getting dodge, Parry and Command up a bit. I was given the Winged Skull for exemplary leadership during the first chapter of the publish book "Final Testement", so this helps a bit with getting command up there without buying the skill or the characteristic

TormDK said:

Wow! And how are you doing with this setup? Do you burn lots of Fate Points to stay alive? Or do your Squaddies babysit you? Because these stats at 4000xp are equal to a death sentence in my gaming group .

Since we've just started I haven't had more than five wounds worth of damage so far (compared to the Ogryn who took 35 wounds worth of damage in his first round of combat), but he is being built for survival so I plan on holding the line, Emperor willing.

You are worried of being surprised due to low perception?

I don't see why the enemies would get upped dramatically the next 2000xp, if the "Final Testemony" continues the way it has done, then I'm not worried about survival as long as our squad plays it tactically sound. Obviously we lack tank buster firepower right now, but then so far it hasn't been needed.

AtoMaki said:

You must have a pretty evil gaming group. I don't see why those would be a problem. Sure the Int and Per are low, but an IG sergeant doesn't need to be smart,just loud, as long as someone in the squad can make their Awareness tests the low Per isn't necessarily crippling.

LuciusT said:

It would be a serious flaw in my group, where enemies are always trying to sneak around and outflank.

An IG sergeant should be smart; otherwise his tactical ability will be crap, if you use SL (TI) to give hints of what to do as I do.

This character wouldn't be let in my group since it's so obviously minmaxed and doesn't seem like a believable person, but it's not my game so I'll shut up now.

LuciusT said:

A Guardsman should be good at everything. Or at least decent with most of the stuff he could possibly do. The bane of a Guardsman is failure: you are not the Inquisitorial Batman, nor the indestructible Space Marine or the crazy prepared Rogue Trader or the Heretic with five-bazillion Infamy to burn. You are just an above-average guy with crappy gear against the horrors of the universe. You will be the inferior combatant most of the time, so you must have the neccessary skills and abilities to prevent your opponent to take other advantages (if he does - you are dead). And these skills and abilities are all Agility (Acrobatics, Dodge, Stealth), Perception (Awarenss, Scrutiny, Survival) or Intelligence (Medicae, Navigation, Tech-Use) based (the only exception is Athletics that is Strength based).

And you can't always rely on your Squaddies either. What if the Awareness guy fails his Test? What if the character gets separated from the rest of the Squad? What if the Awareness guy goes Critical/dies?

In my experience, a character with an Agility<40, Intellgience<30 and Perception<30-35 is a dead weight for the Squad, no matter how awesome his other stuff is.

Oh, and about my "evil gaming group" I must mention that we don't use Fate Points, because we decided that FPs are for sisses .

The whole point of being a squad as a Sgt is being able to put some responsibility on others while being put on the line towards your own officers for your squads actions. At least as I see it.

Since there isn't enough points to go around in the 100 points alternative rule you have to make some hard choices. I mean, why would I want to sacrifice 1-2 TB, and/or 1-2 melee damage from strength in order to get Int or Perception up, when I already have a perfectly capable squad member (or two) going that route that can keep the squad covered? The Sgt doesn't have the aptitudes to do it all, so not putting some trust in your squad is a failure to begin with, as I see it. A leader is a person that can work the mass to become more than the sum of it's parts, he need not be better than the standard grunt at everything.

Obviously each gaming group is different. We like doing "heroics" but felt the Dark Heresy setup too restrictive, while the Rogue Trader and DeathWatch too high powered too quickly. Only War provides a good middelground option for us, as the player character guardsmen on average can go toe to toe with bad guys pretty well, but at the same time doesn't quickly get the best gear possible to make the standard enemy grunt fight into a snore fest.

Of course you could argue why the Guard would promote someone to hold a position of leadership when he would score below the average on an IQ test. In my characters case, he just turned out to be a good leader type that survived and that others looked to for guidance. For instance, in our current mission - my character views enemy equipment as trainted unless the tech priest in the group can perform the right rites of purification for use by the righteous. My squad "wasted" three such enemy chimera transports that we captured as the tech priest couldn't assure me that it was safe for our use, so I ordered the team to drive them off a cliff, despite the fact that from our OOC point of view, it's a matter of a quick equipment check and a paintjob before they would be servicable again.

Ignorance is bliss as they say.

TormDK said:

You can always scrap Fellowship. Especially as a Sergeant (with cheap Command and Air of Authority base Talent). Also, it is good to rely on your Squaddies to do the stuff instead of you, but over time, it can bite you in the butt when you have to do something on your own or you have to complement the Squad instead of supporting it. +1 TB and Melee Damage don't help much in the middle of a jungle, but a good Perception and Survival do. Ifyouknowwhatimean .

Also, with the "But Sergeant doesn't have the aptitudes!", we slide into the "Why Sergeants suck?" topic .

Sure, I'm fully expecting it to bite sometime. I had hoped to see much Drop Trooper action, but unfortunately the adventure book "Final Testemony" seems to have some thing against Drop Troopers

It'll be "interesting" to get back if the squad was ever seperated while doing a drop for instance.