Gamers who play the Dark Heresy roleplaying game (RPG) from Fantasy Flight Games have nine classes to choose from for their player characters: Adept, Arbitrator, Assassin, Cleric, Guardsman, Imperial Psyker, Scum, Tech-Priest, and Adepta Sororitas. The first eight classes are described in the Dark Heresy Core Rulebook, while the Adepta Sororitas Career Path is included in the Inquisitor’s Handbook supplement. This guide will give Dark Heresy players an overview of the character classes even when they do not have access to their game master’s (GM) copy of the Core Rulebook.
Dark Heresy Classes
Adepts are scholarly characters that can provide their party with a variety of knowledge. Their weapons and defensive skills are not very good, so other characters will often need to protect an Adept in battle, but their knowledge base of common lore, scholastic lore, and potentially even forbidden lore can prove invaluable to whatever the Inquisition wants them to investigate.
Arbitrators belong to the Adeptus Arbites, the Imperial law enforcement organization. They are not interested in petty crimes like murder or theft, but are instead entrusted to keep order, uncover corruption, and enforce Imperial rule. While not as much of a “meat shield” as the Guardsmen, Arbitrators are skilled in combat and built to take a lot of damage.
Assassins are fairly self-explanatory characters. They are built to kill, and they can come from a wide variety of backgrounds and employ vastly different methodologies, from poisons to blades to sniper rifles. Whatever organization an assassin may belong to, he or she is likely being secretly vetted by the Officio Assassinorum, the Imperium’s clandestine Assassin Temples.
Clerics are members of the Imperium’s Ecclesiarchy, the religious Adeptus Ministorum. Clerics are clergymen from any number of dioceses and sects across the Calixis Sector. Many clerics are zealous in their religious fervor, though their specific beliefs can vary greatly in their worship of the God-Emperor. Charisma is one of the strong points for Clerics, as they are very influential among their congregations. Some of the more hard-bitten Clerics, like the Redemptionist Firebrands, favor flame weapons when they must purge heretics.
Guardsmen are the classic “meat shields” in a Dark Heresy campaign. The Imperial Guard is the largest military force in the galaxy, made up of billions of conscripts from nearly every inhabited planet under Imperial control. From the hardened Cadian warriors to the Catachan jungle fighters, every Guardsman has trained to become quite deadly with the weapons of his or her choice. Just surviving long enough to become an Inquisitorial Acolyte proves the toughness of the Guardsmen.
Imperial Psykers are the magic wielders in the Warhammer 40,000 Dark Heresy universe. Psykers can wield a variety of psychic powers due to their connection with the Warp. An Imperial Psyker is one who was gathered aboard the Black Ships and singled out for exceptional abilities to become sanctioned to serve the Imperium. Those who do not pass muster are transported to Holy Terra to fuel the God-Emperor in His Golden Throne. Such power comes with significant risk, as psykers can bring upon themselves and their fellow Acolytes a variety of psychic phenomena and Perils of the Warp. These things can range from relatively innocuous phenomena like making the walls bleed to disastrous consequences like transforming the psyker into an unbound daemonhost – the best possible result of which would be having other members of the party kill him before they get killed.
Scum are the characters that other gaming systems may refer to as thieves, rogues, and scoundrels. They may include in their number: convicts, thieves, conmen, Imperial Guard deserters, gangers, fallen nobles, and all varieties of criminals. Such scum may be utilized by the Inquisition when an Inquisitor needs someone with a high degree of moral ambiguity and an unsavory skill set that more upstanding Acolytes may not possess.
Tech-Priests belong to the Adeptus Mechanicus that worships the Machine God, the Omnissiah, and has a monopoly on technology within the Imperium. The Tech-Priests of Mars are responsible for constructing and maintaining technology, as well as seeking out lost technical knowledge. Tech-priest characters have Mechanicus Implants that function as part of their bodies, and some may seem more machine than man.
The Adepta Sororitas are also known as the Sisters of Battle, the all-female military arm of the Ecclesiarchy. The Sisters were created to get around the letter of the law stating that the Ecclesiarchy could not keep men at arms. In addition to the Sisters Militant, player characters may also choose to play Sisters Hospitaller for medical knowledge or Sisters Dialogous for those who are more research oriented. Adepta Sororitas characters are notoriously zealous, and they are granted with certain faith powers that can be very useful in fighting corrupt enemies.
The nine Dark Heresy classes cover a wide range of characters that should suit nearly every player up to character level eight. After the eighth level, players may continue campaigning with the Dark Heresy Ascension expansion, which contains all new ascended career paths.
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