Main character build

[ChompyRiley]

Idira and Heinrix are both better psykers than a PC psyker. Idira has great equipment, and both of them START with two disciplines unlocked.

Argenta's a better shooter, since she starts with proficiency in all the special non-xeno weapons so that's stuff you can put towards better shootin'.

Yriel is a great sniper with her access to the special xeno weapons.

Pascal/Pasqal is great for buffs and debuffs and can delete entire battlefields with a plasma rifle and can even mix it up in melee. He's just a great all-rounder.

the only thing none of your companions actual do (well, or better than you) is officer/fellowship stuff. And honestly I don't want to @_@ it's not that it's UNfun, but I kinda want to get mixed up in the battle a little more directly than 'buff the group and give the rest of my party my turn instead'

Sorry for rambling, but it's difficult to decide, because your character isn't really NECESSARY, given how good the rest of the group can be.

[Drake]

Officer stuff is actually covered by jae (and cassia, but cassia is usually built as a pure navigator).

That said, my main psyker is a officer/tactician biomancy/sanctic (like Henrix) and it's actually a good thing.
Having 2 characters that can spam word of the emperor will up your resolve (so the damage and healing of sanctic powers) twice as fast. Plus there is not anough space to pick all of the powers for 2 disciplines, so you can build them in different ways.
My henrix has the hammer, the shield and the sword, while my main psyker has the heals, the biomancy buffs and uses the sanctic staff for the aoe that deals damage based on your resolve.

[XartaX]

Your PC is a Rogue Trader. Not a combat elite. The whole point is that you're stupidly wealthy and influential. You buy/own the people who excel.

And of course you're necessary. It's your ship. Your wealth.

[ChompyRiley]

Originally posted by Drake:

Officer stuff is actually covered by jae (and cassia, but cassia is usually built as a pure navigator).

That said, my main psyker is a officer/tactician biomancy/sanctic (like Henrix) and it's actually a good thing.
Having 2 characters that can spam word of the emperor will up your resolve (so the damage and healing of sanctic powers) twice as fast. Plus there is not anough space to pick all of the powers for 2 disciplines, so you can build them in different ways.
My henrix has the hammer, the shield and the sword, while my main psyker has the heals, the biomancy buffs and uses the sanctic staff for the aoe that deals damage based on your resolve.

My usual team is MC, Cassia, Pascal, Argenta, Yrliet, and Idira. Melee tends to be useless (for me) since between my shooters and my casters and Cassia, most of the battlefield is dead before they can get close. so... like... *maybe* another psyker or caster? I don't playo n the super high difficulties, so I don't think it matters *that* much what I pick.

Cassia and Idira cast. Argenta and Yrliet shoot. And Pascal sorta buffs/ debuffs and shoots as an all-rounder. So I guess I could do an agility/mobility focused warrior-assassin (or maybe soldier-archmilitant?) with high MP to get into combat and move around the battlefield more asily?

[ChompyRiley]

Originally posted by XartaX:

Your PC is a Rogue Trader. Not a combat elite. The whole point is that you're stupidly wealthy and influential. You buy/own the people who excel.

And of course you're necessary. It's your ship. Your wealth.

Then why is the MC an actual controllable/playable character?

[XartaX]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

Originally posted by XartaX:

Your PC is a Rogue Trader. Not a combat elite. The whole point is that you're stupidly wealthy and influential. You buy/own the people who excel.

And of course you're necessary. It's your ship. Your wealth.

Then why is the MC an actual controllable/playable character?

Because you make all the decisions. It's your ship.

If it wasn't for you (or your predecessor):

- Idira would still be rotting away as a slave girl on her home planet.

- Yriel would probably be sacrificed to Slaanesh at this point

- Argenta would be stuck and probably fall to depravity on footfall being lost out of time

- Pasqal and Heinrix would be experiencing what it's like to live on a daemon world, first class seats.

You are literally the protagonist. You might not be the best fighter, but you're the most powerful person in any room you're in.

[ChompyRiley]

Originally posted by XartaX:

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

Then why is the MC an actual controllable/playable character?

Because you make all the decisions. It's your ship.

If it wasn't for you (or your predecessor):

- Idira would still be rotting away as a slave girl on her home planet.

- Yriel would probably be sacrificed to Slaanesh at this point

- Argenta would be stuck and probably fall to depravity on footfall being lost out of time

- Pasqal and Heinrix would be experiencing what it's like to live on a daemon world, first class seats.

You are literally the protagonist. You might not be the best fighter, but you're the most powerful person in any room you're in.

Then the MC should stay back on the ship and make decisions and let the actual combat-ready characters go out and do that, and just pop up to do the fellowship/social skill checks. It doesn't make snese from a gameply a sperpective to send a sub-par combatant who has to get carried.

[Zsrai]

Perfect, it means no matter what you do you can build a balanced team. You're not forced to play a specific build to fill a gap. That's good design.

[XartaX]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

Originally posted by XartaX:

Because you make all the decisions. It's your ship.

If it wasn't for you (or your predecessor):

- Idira would still be rotting away as a slave girl on her home planet.

- Yriel would probably be sacrificed to Slaanesh at this point

- Argenta would be stuck and probably fall to depravity on footfall being lost out of time

- Pasqal and Heinrix would be experiencing what it's like to live on a daemon world, first class seats.

You are literally the protagonist. You might not be the best fighter, but you're the most powerful person in any room you're in.

Then the MC should stay back on the ship and make decisions and let the actual combat-ready characters go out and do that, and just pop up to do the fellowship/social skill checks. It doesn't make snese from a gameply a sperpective to send a sub-par combatant who has to get carried.

You can still fight, you're just not the best at anything. You still need to be the places to make the decisions. They're basically your bodyguards. That you can't outsnipe a literal eldar for example doesn't mean you're "subpar". You're still far above most people.

[Neoz]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

Idira and Heinrix are both better psykers than a PC psyker. Idira has great equipment, and both of them START with two disciplines unlocked.

Argenta's a better shooter, since she starts with proficiency in all the special non-xeno weapons so that's stuff you can put towards better shootin'.

Yriel is a great sniper with her access to the special xeno weapons.

Pascal/Pasqal is great for buffs and debuffs and can delete entire battlefields with a plasma rifle and can even mix it up in melee. He's just a great all-rounder.

the only thing none of your companions actual do (well, or better than you) is officer/fellowship stuff. And honestly I don't want to @_@ it's not that it's UNfun, but I kinda want to get mixed up in the battle a little more directly than 'buff the group and give the rest of my party my turn instead'

Sorry for rambling, but it's difficult to decide, because your character isn't really NECESSARY, given how good the rest of the group can be.

1- PC can be a MUCH better sniper than Yrliet, far sooner as well. Besides, you might not end up with Yrilet in some runs.

2- You wouldn't notice a difference between you and Argenta 20 levels in. Besides, in certain runs you might not end up with Argenta forever. Also, you can take pyro and either Hive/fortress world to make a better burst weapon user.

3- I... have never found Pasqal particularly good at ranged DPS, aside from the fact that you can't use any attack abilities like killing edge with his ranged weapons, the weapon he performs best with (plasma) is honestly pretty garbage.

4- Jae is a good Officer, Cassia is a better one. All you need from the officer is Focus, Lasting Impression, and Seize the Initiative tbh.

4. Again, PC makes the best sniper, great soldier/arch militant. and a good officer yeah. Kinda want to be a psyker for officer and arch militant though.

[ChompyRiley]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Perfect, it means no matter what you do you can build a balanced team. You're not forced to play a specific build to fill a gap. That's good design.

...Huh. I didn't think of it that way. Though I do like having a niche. Usually that's 'social skills' since Cassia, Jae, and sometimes Pascal aren't that great at 'em and you don't get the points to cover *everything*

[Ninth Hour]

In most RPG's, I like my main character to be directly involved in the fighting but, in this game, it is efficient (and fitting) to make him/her an officer/leader that buffs the rest of the team. Otherwise, you won't have one until you pass the first boss and can hire mercenaries (who don't contribute to party interactions).

Cassia and Jae are fine, but I don't consider them optimal officers, as Cassia will be spending most of her level-ups on Navigator talents and Jae has a lot of questionable choices that reduce her utility (e.g. choosing arguably the worst upgrades for Finest Hour, not having Air of Authority, not taking Seize the Initiative, wasting a characteristic advance on Willpower, etc). And you cannot even respec her officer levels (without resorting to mods anyway). They will not surpass an officer (whether your main or a mercenary) that you can build from scratch.

That being said, the game seems to be in such a buggy state that I may wait for them to be ironed out before restarting. I've played the alpha and parts of the beta (up to the end of the Starport) and have now reached Chapter 2 of the full release. So I have yet to see any of the really new content- i.e. Chapter 3 onward. From what I've been reading, they're varying levels of broken anyway.

Since I really enjoyed the content from Prologue to Chapter 2, I wouldn't mind running through that yet again.

This time, I think I'll metagame a bit and try out a Fortress World/Crime Lord/Soldier/Archmilitant dipping into Heretic doctrine, so that he can make use of the early heavy bolter. And I'll get my officer powers from Cassia, a mercenary officer, and Jae (as much as a I dislike her default build). If I'm right, this setup should provide a more devastating heavy bolter build than is even possible with Argenta.

[I'm A Distraction!]

Because of alignments, if you go Dogmatic you can be a superior psyker to Heinrix, if only because you can get +5 pay rating from a helmet instead of +3 on Heinrix. Also there's a few buffs you can get that are MC only that are pretty bonkers - but they're buggy and seem to disappear sometimes randomly (ToyBox to the rescue).

Jae is the most inexcusable to me though. Her special dual pistol slinging is one thing. Her getting to use Fellowship baseline for all Int skills AND massive skill bonuses from trade reputation (and combat bonuses too)? The other characters you can mostly catch up to and they're only a few talents/an ability ahead, but there's nothing you can do to get Jae's bonuses, and she's not like Cassia or Pasqual that have unique 'class' origins either.

Edit: Also why does MY trade reputation make HER better? I thought I was the MC game. D:<

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

the only thing none of your companions actual do (well, or better than you) is officer/fellowship stuff. And honestly I don't want to @_@ it's not that it's UNfun, but I kinda want to get mixed up in the battle a little more directly than 'buff the group and give the rest of my party my turn instead'.

Cass does officer stuff much better than your MC does while also being a better psyker because she has more powerful and unique psyker abilities and an ability that she can fire off each turn that uses her current power level to buff so it is exponential. The reason why being that she has a perk that makes it so anything you do to buff her psyker abilities also buffs her fellowship and so leadership abilities, on top of her psyker buffs and debuffs being pretty amazing. Basically her as an Officer into Master Tactician is the most powerful officer you can generate.

Basically your MC is ♥♥♥♥, which seems to be intended.

[Marcos_DS]

MC is a better pysker than both Idira and Heindrix
* starting with 1 less power (1 discipline instead of 2) is a small loss considering you can build your psyker on top of officer+master tactician archetype and get multiple extra turns - something both Idira and Hendrix cannot do. Plus best heroic act, and give bonus turns to other party members
* One less point of PSY is big in the beginning, but as soon as you get Psalm of Heroes (which was recently fixed) the difference is negligable.
* Items scaling or unlocking dogmatic/iconoclast/heretical work better on the MC since they can get higher & multiple different ranks (including one that gives you +PSY/dogmatic rank).

MC can be a FAR better Soldier/x than Argenta simply by gaining the ablity to unlock psyker talents (choosing no extra powers, just talents that work well with weapon attacks). Imo Officer is a better archetype fit for the head of your house, But a well-built soldier with unsanctioned psyker background can get crazy stacks of extra damage&crit chance via those talents.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

MC is a better pysker than both Idira and Heindrix
* starting with 1 less power (1 discipline instead of 2) is a small loss considering you can build your psyker on top of officer+master tactician archetype and get multiple extra turns - something both Idira and Hendrix cannot do. Plus best heroic act, and give bonus turns to other party members
* One less point of PSY is big in the beginning, but as soon as you get Psalm of Heroes (which was recently fixed) the difference is negligable.
* Items scaling or unlocking dogmatic/iconoclast/heretical work better on the MC since they can get higher & multiple different ranks (including one that gives you +PSY/dogmatic rank).

You only get 1 extra psy from the dogmatic rank helmet vs Heinrix because you can't max out your conviction without mods even if you fully go dogmatic all of the time.

The buffs to your psychic power work for every psyker (except cass, but she has a whole bunch of better buffs she has access to). However the NPCs also get a bunch of free feats and some unique feats.

The best psyker in the game is cass and she is an officer who can become master tactician.