I like a Slaanesh and Tzeentch for role playing.

I see the issue as -=why=- are the characters actually in this game? In many games I see characters that don't actually have a reason to be an adventurer, why would a Khornite Berserker sign up for a compact with a Fleshshaper, a Pirate of the Ragged Helix, and a heretek? Why wouldn't he just sign up for the next 'viking raiding party'? Even if he did sign up for a little while, why wouldn't he leave the first time he heard about a war band going hard core raiding?

Khonites, as I mentioned, really have to bend their desires to stay with a non-always-combat style game. Though, I guess you could buy one of those stasis-beast cages from the other FFG W40K games and keep your Khornite Berserker in stasis until combat occurs...

Nurglites still can be player characters, but they tend to take the longer view with long term plague potential. I haven't seen many that would really accept the operational tempo of most adventures, especially that GM's like to put timelines in to race against the clock.

Slaanesh is always in the moment, looking for something new, some new indulgence. They are very good characters for RP, though have ADHD to such a degree that you need some other people to poke them to keep them on task.

Undivided are excellent characters, there are so many reasons for them to be characters.

Tzeentch, to me at least, are the ultimate characters (at least for reason to be a character) for an RP session, they love plots and twists, researching and learning new things. They inherently like the more intimate (non battlefield) setting of an RP game.

I've seen people love the characters that don't fit (my example of the Khornite Berserker), but why would the rest of the party keep you around?

I go nurgle simply because of my love of biology (my nurgle characters take on various obsessions based on that)

current game gm has given each party member a warband (starting us off epic) and with a backstory of being a fallen ecclisiarch taken by pirates he then takes gains control of a thanks to a plague that came after a moment of weakness when he begged any of the dark gods to save him while said plague also drove the priest so mad he found clarity --- my gm uses BC to get the crazy out so I cant help but live it up

last nurgle character was a klutzy nurglite who loved his jetpack even though he flew into a few walls but his proudest moment was after being fired from a demon possesed ship's torpedo tubes (willingly) and managing to stick the landing (close call) all so he could rush into action faster than the shuttle would have allowed.

so i go nurgle so that fluff wise when i burn a fate point to survive such a crazy attempt (have yet to need to) I can picture the bits pulling themselves back together as he waist for his body to put his head back on. oh and because it is great when you can kill someone with a handshake or kiss.

All the Tomes have something worth while. Obviously I would have liked the Tome of Decay to have more Nurgle stuff (chem-burners, plague zombies, etc...) there is stuff in each for all. Nurgle has rules for making daemon engines, waging Black Crusades and continuing play as a daemon prince. Khorne has weapons out the wazoo and mass combat rules, good for facing the guard. Tzneetch has a lot of good rituals and psychic powers for everyone so if you are using psykers or rituals that could help. Slaanesh has expanded social conflicts and improved minion rules.

Personally I am a magophile so Tzneetch appeals to me. That said and considering your expressed desire I would say Slaanesh. Reduced cost for the Fellowship attribute and skills such as charm and deceive (good for a Count of Monte Cristo type) and allied skills include the knowledge ones that can aid in that. Also there are still some combat skills which would be nice when time comes to get bloody.

Khorne has weapons out the wazoo

It really does. Chainsword? Fine. Chainaxe? Classic. Chain Hammer? ....Now you're starting to get silly.

And yet awesome at the same time.

As to Khorne characters, it depends on how you play them. Bezerkers are just that - nuts - but a Khornate heretic could as easily be Alexander the Great as Conan.

Case in point, "command" is a Khornate skill, which very much implies a personality beyond "grunt, kill, waagh" provided you're leading sentient non-orkz. If you take it logically from there, your high Fel commander should probably have several other social skills at very least trained to remain a plausible concept.

As far as my own group goes, we've had the best experiences with Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeench as far as roleplaying was concerned, especially on the intrigue front. Maybe we've just had very poor Slaaneshi RPers, but after the last two, we almost voted Slaanesh off the gaming table.

I've been thinking about the reason and I think it stems from most of our characters having some investment in social skills to get by, even using "opposed" archtypes, simply because our heretics are ambitious and to accumulate and hold on to power the system requires investment in fellowship and characteristic related skills to realistically maintain your personelle and allies. This leaves a dedicated "face" concept with very little to do, because the entire group can, socially, hold their own (and honestly, in a realistic situation, the face isn't necessarily the one people talk to unless you groom your entire presentation to point out him as "boss" and everyone else as "minion"; and even then, someone's going to want to chat up the rest to see what they have to say/their story holds up etc.). The result is the socially invested Slaanesh player is tendentially...bored because the imposing khornate space marine can actually talk, and talk well, so he does weird cliche-Slaanesh things that are counterproductive, make waves ahead of time and basically scream "Hey, look at me!".

So basically, we play everything but Slaanesh in our current campaign, because without something beyond social skills to contribute to our campaign, she's rather superfluous and idle hands invite bad habits. In a future campaign this may change, for example if we decide to go for a hierarchical command structure rather than a collective of equals who all want as large a piece of the cake as possible.

Far from it. Yes, everyone is encouraged to take at least some upgrades from every god's 'portfolio' - being an effective commander needs command (khornate), fellowship (slaaneshi) and intelligence (Tzeenchian).

The slaanesh heretic is the one whose 'voice is a weapon' - The Khornate 'lord general' heretic can speak well - but the slaaneshi will be the one to get himself installed as the lord governor's private secretary and 'suggest' redeploying the PDF in completely useless positions, not activating the orbital weapons to avoid spreading panic amongst the populace and exiling that uncouth commissar Yarrick to no, not that one.

We had a slaaneshi fallen ecclesiarchy apostate with serpent's tongue, the nail-needle electrode things, a pheremone generator and (of course) serpent's tongue, aided by a fellowship-skill gifted minion, and was very good not just at 'let's do a deal' charm tests but was more 'so, you want to worship slaanesh now, yes?*' and would regularly sneak onto a world long before the astartes heretics arrived and frankly did more damage in the long run.

Saying a group only neads one 'face' is like saying only one person in the group needs to be able to fight.

* An example 'conversation' after rolling a 02 on a fellowship test to corrupt the planetary governor. I blame Old Spice:

"Look at your Emperor. Now back to me. Now back at the Emperor. Now back at me. Sadly, he's not me. But if you keep breathing these pheremones and listening to my voice, you're going to end up thinking that he's me. Look down. Your hands are now tentacles. Anything's possible when I've got the Mark of Slaanesh. I'm on a fiend."

But back to Topic.

I have always have some kind of pull towards Tzeentch aligned character but now that Tome of Decay is out I want to make my long in planning character dedicated to Nurgle.

Only thing still bothering me is how to represent Plague Zombies accurately. Horde Minion but what Characteristics, Talents and Traits.

Magnus: You misunderstand me, I think. For all practical purposes, our heretics are face types. They will ask someone new to the compact, concretely, what they can bring to the table. And you can be the best orator in the world, if all you have is words, your best case outcome is tagging along as a hired minion, and that's if you're good. Now, if you had an additional skillset, beyond the oratory, as a slaaneshi, things would look different. That means in the times between where you're not needed to infiltrate or convert some people, you have something else to do and don't jeapordise the entire group out of boredom, which has been the case with the last two (deceased) slaaneshi characters. The prior IC simply has the characters grill such self-proclaimed chaos preachers considerably. We like to keep things varied and coherent for our character constellation, and that sometimes means certain types of characters are told they have nothing to offer per se. And since we don't like completely wasting peoples' time, we discuss this beforehand when a char dies on what the group needs and would readily accept with open arms and what the group doesn't need and would tell to take a hike.

We, as players, like Slaanesh. With a new group and new slate, we'd probably roll up one or two Slaaneshi as well, maybe even try the chaos preacher approach and go for infiltration and conversion instead of our current rogue tradery type approach.

I've played Tzeentchian and Slaaneshi champions. But i'll proably get around to khorne and Nurgle aswell.

Mondus the-twice-betrayed, started of as a World Eaters chaplain, so he is very agressive for a chaos sorcerer.

Question: does anyone have a player in their group who's playing a realy creepy slaaneshi character? As in to the point that the other players get uncomfortable?

I tend to keep it down a bit with Flavius, my Slaaneshi raptor. But i got some odd looks when I mentioned he named his powersword "Childhood's End" and his bolt pistol "anointer of children".

I usualy play him very manic or bipolar going from estatic to boring in a few minutes:

" Think of how boring their lives must be, loading shells, loading shells, never even seeing what they are shooting at! we must take the fight to them! we must teach these poor souls the ecstacy of SLAANESH!" (said while under mortar fire)

"ahahha die ! yes, die imperial scum! die- bored now..." or

"why is everything always grey?" (after a building coplapesd coating everything in concrete dust and ash)

About that creepy Slaanesh guy question...

After the Battle of Hive Santoras the children were never the same again...

I'm rather fond of Slaanesh.

But that's because I'm a pervert.

...wait, no, perfectionist! Sorry.

Well it's how Slaanesh nd the Emperors children roll. Remember the siege of terra? Everyone else is at the palace and the III legion is busy massacring civilians.

Iron warriors legionaire: "okay all forces converge on the palace! World eaters and Sons of horus to the front. Deathguard hold the space port! Where are the Emperors children? They are having a what? What the hell is a "civilian-casualties-orgy-party?"

Magnus: You misunderstand me, I think. For all practical purposes, our heretics are face types. They will ask someone new to the compact, concretely, what they can bring to the table. And you can be the best orator in the world, if all you have is words, your best case outcome is tagging along as a hired minion, and that's if you're good. Now, if you had an additional skillset, beyond the oratory, as a slaaneshi, things would look different. That means in the times between where you're not needed to infiltrate or convert some people, you have something else to do and don't jeapordise the entire group out of boredom, which has been the case with the last two (deceased) slaaneshi characters. The prior IC simply has the characters grill such self-proclaimed chaos preachers considerably. We like to keep things varied and coherent for our character constellation, and that sometimes means certain types of characters are told they have nothing to offer per se. And since we don't like completely wasting peoples' time, we discuss this beforehand when a char dies on what the group needs and would readily accept with open arms and what the group doesn't need and would tell to take a hike.

We, as players, like Slaanesh. With a new group and new slate, we'd probably roll up one or two Slaaneshi as well, maybe even try the chaos preacher approach and go for infiltration and conversion instead of our current rogue tradery type approach.

What about the agility/precision route? With things like preternatural speed and reflex talents I bet you could make a renegade or something that was near impossible to hit, running across the battlefield like a blur.

Not to mention making that heretic a DANCING FIEND! "DON'T STOP! DON'T STOP THE BEAT! C-C-C-CAN'T CONTROL MY FEET!"

If someone came up with that kind of slaaneshi instead?

My char'd go thumbs up, definitely.

Aside from the usual pervert jokes, my Slaaneshi is actually trying to exhibit the Glory of Indolancy to perfection by accomplishing the most with the least possible effort.

She/he (got the hermaphrodite reward) is so phenomenally skilled at charm, and loaded with pheromone generators and nerve induction tines, that she/he can corrupt an Imperial Priest with a single word, while languidly lounging on a hover-platform created because she batted an eyebrow at a tech-priest...

I actually can't decide which one I'd choose. (Well, I Can, but that's not the point). I've come up with ideas for characters from all 5 alignments, and while Undivided is one of my favorites (alpha legion, iron warriors, and night lords ftw) I've made heretics for the other gods I think would be fun to play too. Mixed personalities always make for a more fun game, in my opinion. Though, in a game full of selfish, cruel, utterly psychotic madmen out to twist the galaxy into a living nightmare from which there is no waking, that might not apply so much here.....

Blood for the Blood God.. Skulls for the Skull Throne..

That is all

Tzeentch. I can't escape it, all my characters end up vary Tzeentchy. My khorne characters become tactical generals who plot out their invasions to maximize blood slaughter and kill efficiently. My slaneesh characters are master liers and tend to manipulate others through long sometimes overly complex plans to make them either kill themselves, kill someone else or serve him.

My character serves Tzeentch personally... he is an apostate cardinal whom, under the guidance of a "servant of the god emperor" intervened in the fate of the cardinal's "doomed world" and saved it, in return the Cardinal made an oath to serve this holy visage... only to find out it was a Tzeentch Daemon... To his surprise / relief, the Daemon , rather than enslaving the man as he said, recognized his ability to sway large numbers to his flock, even in hopeless circumstances such as this world's fate...
So a compromise was made...
The Cardinal , still grateful for the Daemons help, and awed by it's power, was charged with the task of making as many people as he can see the light of the lord of change's power on any and every planet he is able to "tip the balance of fate" on, indebting the civilian population in a similar way to how he is indebted to the daemon

I really like the unaligned path but if I could only pick one? Khorne!

“War is only won when every enemy is dead. A pacified enemy is still an enemy”
-Angron

I've considered making a doctor character who follows Nurgle that often uses anti-biotics to fight the various infectous gifts of his patron in his body.

There are two logical reasons for this:

1) It's easier to infltrate somewhere if your not covered in boils and appear to be a walking, rotting corpse. Besides, someone taking medication when their clearly sick would throw off a lot of suspion; What sort of Nurgle worshipper would use medicine to fight an illness after all?

2) By taking enough anti-biotics to harm the illness but not complete defeat it, what germs that surivive will start to grow resistant to the medication. After it grows resistant, if not outright immune to the standard method of treatment, the outbreak of the new and improved virus will be all the more harder to contain and stop.

It combines both aspects of Nurgle both as the plague bringer and the endurer.

Slaneesh, but then again I have been known to even make jello hard.

Slaneesh, but then again I have been known to even make jello hard.

By freezing it right? oh wait...

Magnus: You misunderstand me, I think. For all practical purposes, our heretics are face types. They will ask someone new to the compact, concretely, what they can bring to the table. And you can be the best orator in the world, if all you have is words, your best case outcome is tagging along as a hired minion, and that's if you're good. Now, if you had an additional skillset, beyond the oratory, as a slaaneshi, things would look different. That means in the times between where you're not needed to infiltrate or convert some people, you have something else to do and don't jeapordise the entire group out of boredom, which has been the case with the last two (deceased) slaaneshi characters. The prior IC simply has the characters grill such self-proclaimed chaos preachers considerably. We like to keep things varied and coherent for our character constellation, and that sometimes means certain types of characters are told they have nothing to offer per se. And since we don't like completely wasting peoples' time, we discuss this beforehand when a char dies on what the group needs and would readily accept with open arms and what the group doesn't need and would tell to take a hike.

We, as players, like Slaanesh. With a new group and new slate, we'd probably roll up one or two Slaaneshi as well, maybe even try the chaos preacher approach and go for infiltration and conversion instead of our current rogue tradery type approach.

The number of times I've had Slaanesh simply considered little more then the god(dess) of sex and pleasure... Yes that is part of Slaanesh's deal but that is merely an aspect of it rather then the whole thing. Slaanesh is also the Chao God of Domination and Perfection.

To that end, the Slaanesh worshipper I would submit to your group would be a Slaanesh worshipping assassin (Oh, there would most likely still be a fairly decent amount of points still put into being chasimatic but there is more then one way to dominate the political landscape. Nothing like a well placed knife or a few drops of poison to change those popularity polls in a real ******* hurry after all).

I also see him being rather obsessed with cooking. Not only would this benefit his role as an assassin (A good cook is welcome just about anywhere after all) but it would also give him something to do when he is not required to do anything as part of the current mission. Worse comes to worse he can always go to one of the poorer sections of the planet and start up a soup kitchen of sorts. Giving people a taste of something with substance and flavor in their otherwise bleak lives would help make them rather sympathic to us as well as being rather good PR on the political side of things. With a little extra effort on our parts we could also twist this to benefit the cause of Chaos Undivided or any of the Chaos Gods individually in one fashion or another.

How would this character stand up to the judgement of his peers?

Khorne, because mowing through enemies is such a rush. No, wait, Slaanesh, because drug-fueled orgy raves are also a rush. Hang on, psyker powers are also awesome and so is having a library stuffed to the gills with forbidden knowledge, let's go with Tzeentch.

Okay, so I've decided against Nurgle. Other three, I seriously can't choose.