A noob question to be sure, but I figure I'll ask, to be certain. In Only War, do Specialist Classes (Ogryn, Ratling, Storm Troopers, etc.) get all the same stuff as rank-and-file Guardsmen of the same regiment? One of the happiest things I found in Hammer of the Emperor was that the Kasrkin were included as a regimental option; Cadians have long been my overall favorite Guardsmen, and the Kasrkin are somewhere between the best and the cheesiest of them, so even more points for me. Thing is, I don't know if that means Kasrkin Ogryns and Ratlings get the nice carapace armor, since they are Kasrkin, or if they are exempt by being "outsider" specialists, even though the corebook says that most specialists acclimatize enough to the regiment they are attached to to pick up their ways.

So, would my Kasrkin Psyker get the nice carapace armor, or will he be standing there in a trenchcoat, and maybe flak armor? Also sort of expected some of the regiments to mention a few classes that they don't regularly use. While I don't assume that the Krieg Death Riders refuse to have psykers, and a psyker on a horse is a cool thought, to me, I don't imagine them having Ogryns or Storm Troopers on horses, sort of like how I don't usually imagine Catachan having Commissars.

So, do all the regiments use all the classes, RAW, and do Specialists get all the same gear, good or bad, that the R&F Guardsmen get, based on regiment?

I don't have HotE yet, but unless this book gives an exception, officially they get the same gear.

You might rule that abhumans cannot get carapace in their size as standard gear, but that would be a house rule. As for human specialists - why wouldn't they get fitted for carapace?

Whether a custom regiment simply don't have certain specialists is up to the players and GM. I could imagine such a restriction giving points in the creation process, but afaik OW haven't done this.

Fresnel said:

Well, my whine point is the psykers, mostly. I can easily see my favorite class getting the short end of sticks, what with all the unmitigated psyker-hate in the Imperium. Not to say carapace would shrug off a bolt pistol, but I can see some leadership not wanting to make their psykers TOO safe, and then harder to take down when something goes wrong. I didn't know if they'd have all the same armor and weapons, or if, being somewhat more powerful than the "average" Guardsman, they'd be expected to use their abilities to survive. Commissars and Storm Troopers are the special cases; I rarely think of the as Specialists, being regular Humans, and they both already can get better gear. Ogryns and Ratlings are weird size, and have more specialized to their task + size gear, and Tech Priests, making much of the gear, can possibly cherry pick better than the others. That leaves the psykers many people just hate, standing there with flak and coats, while many around them hope that they get killed along with the baddies. I figured that the game is balanced to not punish you for choosing your desired class, but sometimes it's good to ask. If I assume Ogryns don't get the whole"everybody's package", since they'd probably break the guns, that meant I didn't know if the others could have similar things.

As for the regiments, I wasn't sure how much everything might follow the fluff. Catachans have few to no Commissars, and I could see Kreig missing one or two Abhumans, based on world-conditions, or not quite adjusting, since they didn't grow up there; Ogryns and Psykers might not see a reason to wear gas masks, and have no sense of self, just because they are attached to these guys who grew up in that setting.

A sanctioned psyker represents a huge investment in resources for the imperium. I am sure the adminstratum (sp?) has a figure on it, but I would guess about the same as a Leman Russ. I don't buy your line of reasoning. Even if wearing carapace (the pysker) the commissar minder can do his duty.

Tech-priests should get their dragon armour at the appropriate rank - they certainty have Power Armour on the TT.

Imo some forge-world somewhere will be able to make Ogryn and Ratling carapace - even if in small runs. But all this is a ymmv issue. However, officially they get the same gear.

EDIT: The "fluff" of Kasrkin has been butchered in HotE. Kasrkin are Cadia's Storm Troopers, not a regiment unto themselves. So much about Only War makes me want to flip the table…

Alekzanter said:

Fresnel said:

Sry, just getting a bit into the "how they areviewed" by me. I like to think of psykers rep in 40k as sort of like Mordenkainen, from D&D; two huge armies are about to clash, and then he appears. Neither knows who he's there to help, if either, and then he bones somebody; you're NEVER happy to see him. I could see some IG groups not wanting to give their psykers too many goodies, because they don't want to make them too tough to drop when, not if, they fall to evil. Psyker-hate is a powerful thing to be taught in 40k lore. Also, the table-top game has options, and the books often seem to draw from their ideas, but I didn't know if the Specialists got the same stuff. It makes sense that they would, but still, they aren't "the Guard" so it was better of me to ask. I could see the TP, for instance, not often using many of the goodies every guardsman gets, in favor of the more "traditional" stuff Tech Priests are known to carry, and did not know if it was assumed.

All in all, it adds joy to my idea of the Kasrkin Psyker, looking cool, well-equipped, and kicking ass in the Emperor's name. Thanks.

Alekzanter said: