I'm just curious about taking a deathwatch chapter, Space Wolves in my case, and converting them to equal power of the chaos space marine "race" in the black crusade book. From there I'll be taking the sorcerer archetype.

For the easiest conversion, are there some skills / talents I should just drop to keep the heightened smell and wolf senses along with the Perception +5 / Fellowship +5 instead of the unnatural strength and toughness?

Would I be better off trying to spend the "roughly 8,000 experience" noted on page 75?

Also, is there a Canis Helix mutation list I should go off of for Wulfen mutations instead of the gifts of the gods? Or would I just do an animal hybrid & beastial mutations?

I know another option is to take the librarian and do the long conversion towards chaos on page 281. Figuring out how to convert the chapter/race just seems easier.

Core problem: DW assumes a 13000 xp character, and gives your starting character a boatload of bonuses to fill that pool.

My recommendation for a generic Space Wolf (not a sorcerer/rune priest)- make a Forsaken from core. As part of your starting 500xp, buy Heightened Scent and the 250xp advance for Perception.

You now have a renegade who is effective on his own, has the survival skill, a high Perception, and Heightened Sight/Scent/Hearing. That's about as close as you can get without asking the GM to permit a custom archetype.

Re: Canis Helix list: there isn't one of which I am aware. Take Unarmed Master if you want to fluff the hardening nails and nasty bite. Talk to your GM about allowing specific gifts or come up with a mutation list, but even Deathwatch largely glosses over the Canis Helix, insofar as I am aware.

Alternative build for advanced characters: Alpha Legion marine from Tome of Tzeentch, lose the bonus to Int in exchange for a bonus to Fel, lose Insurrectionist and Deceitful Tactics in exchange for the ability to reroll Perception tests based on any of your heightened senses, or possibly just Unnatural Perception 2 to go along with your other unnatural stats.

Losing the Unnatural Strength and Unnatural Toughness in exchange for other stuff makes no sense for a Space Wolf- they're just as badass as any other Astartes.

For the Fallen Rune Priest, well... if you're going to be an advanced character, talk to the GM about tweaking the hell out of the Thousand Sons Sorcerer archetype. If not, be a sorcerer and take Heighten Scent and advance Perception. There really aren't any good, balanced options for what you want, though.

FYI, converting a 13000 xp DW character to Rogue Trader is going to yield a roughly 13,000 xp Black Crusade character. 11,000 xp at best- at that assumes that you lose the Deathwatch specific stuff and reduce PR to 2, etc.

Someone else might know a way to pull it off more effectively, but I got nothing. Sorry.