WH40K: ROGUE TRADER - GUIDE TO CHARACTER SHEET & PROGRESSION (Beginner's Guide)

hey everybody it's pad and today we're taking a look at character creation and progression in Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader things are a little different here from any tabletop or crpg system you might already be familiar with as this game is an adaptation of the Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader D100 tabletop system but it changes a few things around to make for a better crpg experience so whether you have zero experience in the genre or you've played a lot of DnD and Pathfinder and Warhammer derived tabletop and crpgs this video should help you wrap your head around how characters work in this system if you have any questions feel free to ask away in the comments but otherwise with no more time to waste on an intro and with time stamps down below let's begin understanding the dice let me first quickly explain the dice system in Rogue Trader since it's different from other systems that you may have previously played in Rogue Trader anytime your character attempts something they either use a characteristic or a skill to do so the numbers here give you a base understanding of how good a character is it performing tasks using set characteristics or skills at a base level out of 100 so if your weapon skill is 30 you will typically have a 30% chance of Landing a hit in melee typically though there are modifiers to checks to represent that a task is easier or harder to accomplish if something has a positive modifier that means it's easier to do and if something has a negative modifier it means it's harder to do the game rolls a D100 every time a skill or characteristic is used and if the dice roll comes below the stat being tested after modifiers are applied it's considered to be a success the higher your stat the higher percentage chance of success it's that simple it's worth noting that a roll below a five is always a success and a roll above a 95 is always a failure that means that even if your stat reaches 100 you'll always have at least a 5% chance of failure keeping things interesting this is the core aspect of the dice to keep in mind as we go through character creat cretion and as you play the game characteristics bonuses and resistances let's take a look at a complete character sheet and then all the character creation decisionmaking will make a lot more intuitive sense to that end the first topic of conversation now that we've discussed how the dice are actually working behind the scenes should be the characteristics these are the base stats from which all other stats and capabilities are derived and these will determine what your character is fundamentally good or bad at very ious inventory items and abilities can modify these characteristics and that modified number is what gets checked against when determining the actual value of the stat in question now though the number as a whole is important when it comes to passing checks as described in the previous section the 10's digit is particularly important on its own as well as it represents What's called the characteristic bonus for example the first digits here are this character's weapon skill bonus ballistic skill bonus strength bonus toughness bonus so on and so forth these are often used as modifiers for various abilities It's Not Unusual to see a tool tip that makes reference to a formula where one bonus or another is part of the calculation and a simple example of this is how the strength bonus plays a role in damage output using melee weapons so as an example if you have any equipment that increases strength by enough such that it increases the strength bonus by a step you might want to assign that equipment to your favorite melee combatant the increase melee damage output derived from said strength bonus either way if you ever see a tool tip make reference to a characteristic bonus now you know what it's talking about it's important to note that while leveling up anytime you invest in a characteristic it only goes up by plus five that means that you'll at times need to buy an upgrade twice to gain access to an additional step of bonus for that characteristic it also means that at times you'll forgo an upgrade to one stat in the interest of increasing a characteristic bonus elsewhere now let's quickly look at the actual characteristics themselves weapon skill is used when attacking in melee or when pairing incoming melee attacks it also reduces enemy parry and Dodge chances in melee ballistic skill is used when attacking from range strength is used to perform strength related tasks and strength bonus is used to determine damage output in melee toughness is used to fend off injuries as well as the effects of alcohol poison toxins Etc and your toughness bonus helps determine your HP or wounds as Rogue Trader calls it agility helps determine your ability to dodge incoming attacks and will often get checked when performing daring acrobatic Feats when using melee agility also helps overcome enemy Dodge chances and when battle starts your agility bonus is part of the equation to determine initiative intelligence is needed for certain conversation options and interactions with the environment and your intelligence bonus comes into play for certain abilities that help in combat perception is what helps you spot stuff as you walk around the the world and a high perception reduces an enemy's ability to dodge attacks too perception bonus is the other part of the equation when it comes to determining initiative alongside your agility bonus willpower is used to resist influences of the warp and to similarly influence others your willpower bonus will come in handy at times for various abilities and it's particularly important for psychers as some of their attacks derive damage output from their willpower bonus Fellowship is a representation of your character's presence and their ability to navigate social scenarios and as you'll see these characteristics aren't just used on their own but they directly impact how well a character can perform certain skills skills and skill checks all characters are able to make skill checks if needed but the game will automatically use the most capable selected party member to perform a check first then if the check can be done multiple times the game will automatically go down the list of less and less capable party members until you finally succeed or well you're out of luck various inventory items can modify skill checks and of course the difficulty of the task itself will determine any modifiers to the base number being rolled against as you can see a character skills are derived from the associated characteristics which means boosting the characteristic with the use of upgrades abilities or equipment will in turn increase the skill stat as well while boosting the skill stat won't have the inverse effect it's worth noting as well that when you do upgrade a skill it gets increased by 10 unlike characteristics that only get increased by five per upgrade skills are only ever used to perform specific tasks they don't play into the efficiency of any other abilities but they're very important as skill checks are how you engage with a vast majority of the world these are all fairly self-explanatory but I think it's worth highlighting the importance of having at least one party member with high awareness so that you can always spot traps hidden doors and sources of loot carousing is a good way to rub shoulders with people in social situations ations while coercion and persuasion are two ways you can exert influence on people both determined by Fellowship Commerce gives access to new options in trade and help secure optimal deals for your trade Empire while demolition is essential in disengaging traps or to set demolitions of your own in order to blow past say weak spots in walls logic and the various LS will give you access to new options when it comes to conversations and when engaging with various artifacts and situations alike some traps in fact require lore xenos instead of your regular demolitions checks meday is essential for your healer as it improves the efficiency of medits and helps heal injuries before they turn into more permanently damaging traumas finally Tech use is an extremely valuable skill to have on hand as it allows you to engage with the machine spirits of the world flipping switches pulling levers and tapping away at computers to sometimes gain access to otherwise inaccessible knowledge and options secondary characteristics you may have noticed we skipped this section in the interest of a good segue earlier but let's come back to these six numbers briefly first your wounds represent your HP determined by your toughness any equipment and any other active modifiers from abilities or consumables then deflection this reduces any damage from an attack that has successfully hit you it can come from a variety of things but typically it'll be the result of equipment then there's armor also there to reduce coming damage from a successful hit it applies after deflection calculations and it reduces damage by a percentage so if somebody is hit with 100 damage but they have 20% armor they will instead take 80 damage keep in mind that any weapons that have armor penetration will reduce this percentage so if a weapon has 5% armor penetration somebody with 20% armor will instead have 15% armor when calculating damage from said weapon Dodge is is next representing the character's ability to avoid being hit in the first place while parrying is an option for characters armed with melee weapons when attacked in melee it uses weapon skill and Equipment derived Parry bonuses to calculate while dodging is used against melee and ranged attacks both here agility comes into play alongside a base value and equipment equipment will sometimes bolster dodging and other times hinder either way the way the math here works is by summing the percentages and then modifying that sum by the percentage represented here rounding down the result so for example 30 + 35 multiplied by 75 gets us 48.75 or rounded down 48 Dodge is negated by the attacker's perception and Dodge reduction with the latter being determined by the attacker's perception if attacking from range or perception and Agility if using melee Dodge is also used against area of effect attack attacks and a successful role here will allow the character to move three squares to avoid the area of effect succeeding the role but failing to get out of the area will apply grazing damage to the Target instead finally the character's resolve determines how much momentum is gained per turn and when killing an enemy multiplied by the strength of the enemy to give better rewards for bigger kills talents talents are a massive selection of options that are available based on your character backr choices and you get to choose quite a few to unlock over the course of a character's progression whether categorized under talents or common talents some options are Universal such as weapon proficiencies which unlock a character's ability to use equipment that they otherwise wouldn't have access to other options increase Dodge chances increase characteristics and skills or otherwise unlock new passive improvements to the character the effects of these talents are in place as long as certain conditions are met without the need to invest action points points in actually using them for example standing adjacent to an enemy attacking a target for the first time so on and so forth I won't read through each and every one of these talents tool tips but if you're curious about optimal builds or why you might pick a specific one ask away in the comments below and I'll answer all that I can if you're interested I might even do a build Guide Series in the near future moving on from talents though we have abilities while talents are passives that give you advantages under specific circumstance ances and conditions abilities are active use meaning you need to choose to use them they'll typically cost at least one action point will'll often have cooldown timers and they can vary in style from offensive to defensive to support there aren't nearly as many abilities as there are talents and you can only acquire a select handful so make your decisions wisely their availability is determined by your character's class as we'll discuss in just a moment as well as in part by their background with psychers for example you'll see that abilities are also where you pick new psychic powers you'll notice that many abilities tie into your characteristics or Associated bonuses don't hesitate to take a look at your upgrade path and decide what abilities you'd like to unlock over time and spend upgrades on the appropriate characteristics too either through direct upgrades to set characteristics through talents that boost them or through the use of equipment that provides Buffs some abilities however don't rely on characteristics for efficient use instead simply providing Buffs and support for the character or other party members when used or applying debuffs to enemy targets at the cost of action points movement points or exploits and at times the enemy will actually have an opportunity to resist in the case of an attack this can be through a Dodge or a Parry but in some cases it involves a toughness check a willpower check or something else entirely as befits the ability being used often abilities will rely on stacks of one thing or another to become available or they'll become more powerful depending on the size of the stack exploits are the most common example here applied on enemies through the use of attacks and abilities but generally speaking if you ever come across an ability that relies on Stacks or charges of something it's a good idea to rightclick on the ability and then hover over the name of the stack if possible this will explain to you exactly how the stacks are required and will in turn allow you to plan and pick accordingly in other cases only thoroughly reading the tool tips will let you know exactly how Stacks or charges of an ability can be acquired like using the bounty hunters hot on the trail three times in a battle to add a charge of hunt down the prey or how a master tactician gains stacks of tactical advantage to then use to buff allies with Inspire Lynch pin or strong point these things are often not clearly labeled outside of tool tips so make sure to spend some time reading these thoroughly and using the nested tool tips to make informed decisions for example you want to make sure your arch militant is alternating melee and ranged attacks in order to fully take advantage of their ability to acquire and use stacks of Versatility finally it's worth noting that many abilities will have a temporary impact over the course of a number of turns and as such it's vital to use abilities in the right order if an ability increases the impact of the character's next attack in the turn for example you'll obviously want to use the Ability before you perform an attack since by default characters can only attack once per turn at other times abilities will apply status effects to characters like Run and Gun applying winded the Run and Gun adds a free attack to the character and though you can attack from range after using Run and Gun the winded status effect reduces the efficiency of any ranged attacks after use so you'll typically want to shoot first without penalties then use run and Gun and then either shoot with a penalty or use melee instead that winded status effect lasts through to the following turn two so be prepared preped for the hit tier character's capabilities before taking on the penalties again as with talents I'm not going to read through every tool tip here but if you have any particular questions about specifics or would like to see a video dedicated to particularly interesting choices let me know in the comments below archetypes and leveling up archetypes here are the equivalent of classes or careers they determine what options will be available to your character when picking abilities and talents or upgrading skills and characteristics and they'll determine what sort of heroic acts and Desperate Measures you can use as well archetypes will also impact the order in which these upgrades actually happen while some archetypes gain access to new abilities first others will gain access to characteristic upgrades first or some will get talents first and so on and so forth while in the long term things mostly even out in the short term it means needing to take into consideration what choices are coming up as you make your picks the back-to-back characteristic upgrades of a soldier will allow them to very quickly take a characteristic from one bonus level to another whereas the same cannot be said for a warrior that can't do that back-to-back upgrade as you cross level 16 and 36 you'll unlock new archetypes while the last one is always the Exemplar with lots of upgrade options within including unique Exemplar talents and access to as yet unacquired talents from previous archetypes in the middle you'll have to pick from three depending on the type of character you're developing again each option here has slightly different orders in which different upgrades are unlocked and your archetype determines what sorts of abilities and talents become available keep in mind that certain archetypes will unlock unique Concepts through their Keystone features like how the Bounty Hunter marks targets as prey and then they can use abilities to bolster attacks or actions against said targets sometimes these benefits apply to allies too such as the Bounty Hunter marking a Target as prey and then using the raid ability to bolster Allied attacks against that Target another example of a unique concept here is tactical Advantage for the master tactician as outlined earlier stacks of tactical Advantage are gained over time through the increase of momentum and can then be spent on abilities to bolst to them based on the size of the stack then there's the arch militant encouraged to alternate between melee and ranged attacks to build up stacks of Versatility which can then be used to unlock more powerful effects from a multitude of abilities like confident approach which allows the arch militant to always deal maximum damage at least for the current battle keep in mind the kind of character you're building and pick their archetype accordingly get the most out of your decisions it's important to note here that certain abilities and talents are unique to a specific archetype not only does this mean other characters of different archetypes won't have access to them but it also means that once you cross the threshold from one archetype to another you won't have access to the same same set of options as before since your character has adopted a new archetype through upgrades you'll still be able to use the options you'd unlocked earlier of course but you won't be able to unlock additional options from a prior archetype until Exemplar status where there are specific slots to do so Origins with all that explained all that's left to do is actually build your character your home world origin Triumph and Darkest Hour will impact conversation options and roleplay while also applying modifiers to various stats and helping determine what talents or abilities will be available to unlock during upgrades so make sure you choose accordingly but at least you now know what all these numbers mean and you understand the difference between a talent and an ability and a characteristic choosing archetypes will highlight which future archetypes you can pick and which characteristics and skills you can upgrade over time and the characteristics screen will either let you double down on those or fill in the gaps it's up to you just keep in mind how the tens digits are important as characteristic bonuses here and then you can pick a ship name and you're off I hope my Approach here helps you wrap your head around how characters actually work as you get into character creation and progression if so consider hitting the like button drop any questions or thoughts of your own in the comments down below and if you're excited for more tactical RPGs strategy gaming and city building consider subscribing to the channel as always a massive Thanks goes out to all of the channel members and patrons who've been suppored the channel on a monthly basis y'all keep us live and running smoothly and of course a big old Thanks goes out to each and everyone of you for watching until next time cheers

Channel: PartyElite

Views: 20,339

Keywords: rogue trader, rogue trader 40k, wh40k rogue trader, rogue trader gameplay, rogue trader 40k gameplay, rogue trader 40k guide, rogue trader guide, warhammer 40k rogue trader guide, how to play rogue trader, how to play wh40k rogue trader, rogue trader tips, rogue trader game, new crpgs, new crpg 2023, partyelite

Id: CshSypPlsT0

Length: 19min 44sec (1184 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2023