What’s your favorite path so far?

[MachineGod]

I’m waiting for the DLC to drop and a few more patches before I touch this game again. What are y’all finding to be the best path content wise (story)

I typically play dogmatic, towards xeno alliances (more xenos we throw at the problem, less xenos we gotta kill later) and a sprinkle of heretical (I love my ship daemon)

[REhorror]

Dogmatic with some Iconoclast choices for the lower class.

Friendly with the reasonable xenos.

Heretics are to burned.

[Sthephyr]

I've been doing mostly Dogmatic on my first playthrough, though I've made a few Iconoclast choices where I think it makes sense.

[Sin]

The game supports Iconoclast and Dogmatic, Heretic feels wrong, not because it is "evil" but because the game does not react at all to your heretic shenanigans.

[echoes222]

iconoclast with few dogmatic choices + single one heretical (I kept one sword shard because I hoard unique items ;p ) guess I might switch iconoclast with dogmatic in my 2nd playthrough, but that won't happen until both dlc's will be out.

[jonoliveira12]

Dogmachad all the way!

Be the Light in the cold void between the stars!

[PAC-Man]

Originally posted by Sthephyr:

I've been doing mostly Dogmatic on my first playthrough, though I've made a few Iconoclast choices where I think it makes sense.

I feel this is the only rational way to play the game.

People that have genuine, in dept understanding of what is going on would be quite loath to make non-dogmatic decisions given the realities of the game.

For instance, Humanity has been fighting Eldar, above all Xenos, for tens of thousands of years at this point and have a history of being backstabbed, betrayed, and generally ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around by Eldar longer than any recorded human history in 2024. Litearlly, they have tomes of Eldar betrayal larger than the sum of history books today in 2024. The dogmatic approach to Eldar particuarly is simply the straight forward rational apprach to dealing with them. As a player you might think its harsh to never deal with the Elves, but your player in game has for hundreds of generations been ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around by elves so even the act of talking to them would be seen as insane to almost heretical at face value. (I as a player have an abnormally high love for the Eldar)

Moving on to the more Draconian aspects of law and order, particuarlly on footfall. When you look at the lore, the arrival of demons, particuarly in clandestine cult groups is a herald of literal end times. An inquisitor that sees a cult summoning literal demons on Footfall would immediatly be making phone calls informing people that exterminatus is probobly necessary. The societal point where people becoming aware of demons, let alone the insane procedures that are warranted to deal with and summon them, is equivalent to WW2 or terrorists taking over multiple major nuclear power plants across the world - its an apocolyptic event.

If a person was to describe the darkest periods of WW2 as a '10 out of 10' of human stress levels, the stress level in for instancce footfall or the other colonies is probobly close to a 15/10 or 17/10. If we learned Alien Terrorists had taken over all the nuclear weapons on earth and were planning to detonate all the nuclear reactors on earth to kill everyone, the actions of Chorda to essentially butcher anyone for minor violations, torture, etc seem if harsh and amoral at least rational or understandable. Human Commanders on earth have done less barbarism than Chorda under circumstances clearly less than 15/10.

Yet on this board it seems Chorda is seen as the poster child of irrational dogmatism. Of every fictional character ever made few have ever faced the level of stress as Chorda. Frankly, a few options aside based on rational appraisal and her cultural upbringing she largely makes good, intelligent and successful decisions at least as my ultra dogmatic run went. If alien terrorists are hours away from destroying all life on earth and having demons feast on your souls going absolute genghis khan and buterching all criminals and torturing them for information is the clearest most rational answer.

Moving on to the Emperor, your character is very, very, astromically highly educated on broader imperial history. If somehow, despite it all, your charcter does not literally worship the Emperor, the literal beacon of light that summons angels and miracles to stay off demons and monsters. The singular creature that might save humanity it its darkest hour, and current warhammer is the absolute darkest hour. The necessity of worship of the Emperor is self evidently shown in the game, let alone the hyper-propoganda your character would have lived through in childhood.

Minds that wander from the Imperial Truth summon demons. These monsters, your characters kill. This is not some arm chair fedora wearing athiest debate this is actual material religion and its material effects in real time to the character. How an actual human being living through these events and dismissing the Imperial Truth entirely (iconoclasm, essentially) let alone betraying the religion (heresey) is insane. You as a player may disagree for human-political reasons, but the devestating consequences of straying from the religion even minorly are adequatly shown in game and I cannot see a compeling reason to not play dogmatic per religion.

Lastly, moving on to culture - the Imperium at least relative to Humanity of 2024 is supremely wise. They have had 40 thousands years to master relatively minor things. For instance, with the quantine procedure on Footfall. The imperium has had tens of thousands, perhaps billions, of Covid-19 level pandemics in its time. When the phrase "standard procedure is to simply quantine them and let them die with this particular disease" it is because they found that truth through trial and error. Not a few times, not a dozen times, hundreds thousands of times they have COVID-19'd that disease and they have exausted all other recourse. The idea your character would defy standard procedure of their own culture makes sense in our new civilization we live in 2024, but would be almost schizophrenically insane inside actual warhammer 2024.

In closing, Iconoclasm is really the only wrong and irrational option in RT. A real person inside RT would either be fervently dogmatic or a snake going to heresey. Iconoclasm, almost always in the game, is for reddit athiests to try to live out 2024 fantasies inside a luke warm warhammer simulator.

So, I can't see myself playing again because I do not want to play evil and I do not care enough to do an ironic irrational iconoclasmic playthough. That being said I might play one last time to do a xenophilic ultra-dogmatic playthrough but I do not realistically see how that would go down.

[echoes222]

*yawn*

[Sthephyr]

Originally posted by PAC-Man:

Well put. I've only really just started playing this, but that sentiment is pretty common around WH in general. People don't stop look at the property in its own context, but with their own hangups. I'm approaching this within the context of the game and the character I made, not 21st century moralism. It's more fun that way for me.

Obviously, Owlcat put in plenty of those choices to appease those that want to avoid some of the cruelties and inhumanities that exist in the setting. I've only made Iconoclast decisions where it seemed I might get some tangible benefit for my character as a RT, and as long as it didn't go against any Imperium doctrine.

An extreme Dogmatic playthrough after this one could be fun, though. Executing some of the companions like Jae for their crimes. Gotta finish this one first, though.

[Aranador]

I am a 'nice' person IRL, and find myself trying to be 'nice' in game, which leads to iconoclast choices, but I also know how the 40k universe works, and there are times you simply must choose to be dogmatic, because any other choice would release suffering untold upon the universe.

[jonoliveira12]

Originally posted by PAC-Man:

Originally posted by Sthephyr:

I've been doing mostly Dogmatic on my first playthrough, though I've made a few Iconoclast choices where I think it makes sense.

I feel this is the only rational way to play the game.

People that have genuine, in dept understanding of what is going on would be quite loath to make non-dogmatic decisions given the realities of the game.

For instance, Humanity has been fighting Eldar, above all Xenos, for tens of thousands of years at this point and have a history of being backstabbed, betrayed, and generally ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around by Eldar longer than any recorded human history in 2024. Litearlly, they have tomes of Eldar betrayal larger than the sum of history books today in 2024. The dogmatic approach to Eldar particuarly is simply the straight forward rational apprach to dealing with them. As a player you might think its harsh to never deal with the Elves, but your player in game has for hundreds of generations been ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around by elves so even the act of talking to them would be seen as insane to almost heretical at face value. (I as a player have an abnormally high love for the Eldar)

Moving on to the more Draconian aspects of law and order, particuarlly on footfall. When you look at the lore, the arrival of demons, particuarly in clandestine cult groups is a herald of literal end times. An inquisitor that sees a cult summoning literal demons on Footfall would immediatly be making phone calls informing people that exterminatus is probobly necessary. The societal point where people becoming aware of demons, let alone the insane procedures that are warranted to deal with and summon them, is equivalent to WW2 or terrorists taking over multiple major nuclear power plants across the world - its an apocolyptic event.

If a person was to describe the darkest periods of WW2 as a '10 out of 10' of human stress levels, the stress level in for instancce footfall or the other colonies is probobly close to a 15/10 or 17/10. If we learned Alien Terrorists had taken over all the nuclear weapons on earth and were planning to detonate all the nuclear reactors on earth to kill everyone, the actions of Chorda to essentially butcher anyone for minor violations, torture, etc seem if harsh and amoral at least rational or understandable. Human Commanders on earth have done less barbarism than Chorda under circumstances clearly less than 15/10.

Yet on this board it seems Chorda is seen as the poster child of irrational dogmatism. Of every fictional character ever made few have ever faced the level of stress as Chorda. Frankly, a few options aside based on rational appraisal and her cultural upbringing she largely makes good, intelligent and successful decisions at least as my ultra dogmatic run went. If alien terrorists are hours away from destroying all life on earth and having demons feast on your souls going absolute genghis khan and buterching all criminals and torturing them for information is the clearest most rational answer.

Moving on to the Emperor, your character is very, very, astromically highly educated on broader imperial history. If somehow, despite it all, your charcter does not literally worship the Emperor, the literal beacon of light that summons angels and miracles to stay off demons and monsters. The singular creature that might save humanity it its darkest hour, and current warhammer is the absolute darkest hour. The necessity of worship of the Emperor is self evidently shown in the game, let alone the hyper-propoganda your character would have lived through in childhood.

Minds that wander from the Imperial Truth summon demons. These monsters, your characters kill. This is not some arm chair fedora wearing athiest debate this is actual material religion and its material effects in real time to the character. How an actual human being living through these events and dismissing the Imperial Truth entirely (iconoclasm, essentially) let alone betraying the religion (heresey) is insane. You as a player may disagree for human-political reasons, but the devestating consequences of straying from the religion even minorly are adequatly shown in game and I cannot see a compeling reason to not play dogmatic per religion.

Lastly, moving on to culture - the Imperium at least relative to Humanity of 2024 is supremely wise. They have had 40 thousands years to master relatively minor things. For instance, with the quantine procedure on Footfall. The imperium has had tens of thousands, perhaps billions, of Covid-19 level pandemics in its time. When the phrase "standard procedure is to simply quantine them and let them die with this particular disease" it is because they found that truth through trial and error. Not a few times, not a dozen times, hundreds thousands of times they have COVID-19'd that disease and they have exausted all other recourse. The idea your character would defy standard procedure of their own culture makes sense in our new civilization we live in 2024, but would be almost schizophrenically insane inside actual warhammer 2024.

In closing, Iconoclasm is really the only wrong and irrational option in RT. A real person inside RT would either be fervently dogmatic or a snake going to heresey. Iconoclasm, almost always in the game, is for reddit athiests to try to live out 2024 fantasies inside a luke warm warhammer simulator.

So, I can't see myself playing again because I do not want to play evil and I do not care enough to do an ironic irrational iconoclasmic playthough. That being said I might play one last time to do a xenophilic ultra-dogmatic playthrough but I do not realistically see how that would go down.

Dogmachads keep winning.

[Taifun_Vash]

Dogmatic and Heretic bring the most fun so far. Did a Icono at the beginning and was satisfied with that at the time, I find it more exhausting than anything else in my current run.

[LArc7thHeaven]

Realistically dogmatic, but dogmatic perk is not as good as iconoclast perk, hell after killing 3 enemy you can wipe the whole combat with heroic act immediately