Dark Heresy party comp

[PapaMojo]

So in DnD, a well balebced party is important. You need your tanks, dps, medics, wizards, skillmonkeys, etc. So what roles are needed in Dark Heresy, and what roles(the DH equivalent of classes) best fill those roles (the function of the party member)?

[Anonymouswizard]

Roles required (Careers in brackets):
-Somebody to know what's going on so the party can fight it (Adept, Psyker)
-Somebody to shoot the person in the know when they begin to know too much (Guardsman, Arbitrator)
-Somebody relatively normal, so people don't realise you're working for the Inquisition (Scum, Guardsman, Cleric)
-A creepy person so people don't bother you too much (Psyker, Tech-Priest)


Joking aside, there's really little need for a specific party setup, beyond somebody ready to shoot the psyker if it looks like they're about to summon demons.

In general, a face, somebody decent at combat, and somebody able to deal with technology (Tech-Priest, Exploratorer, Techmarine, or whatever your game's version is) should be somewhat standard in any WH40kRP party. The easiest setup is Rogue Trader, where every Career is required to run a ship (which the PCs start with, and can eventually buy more of), but any roles not picked by PCs will be played by NPCs.

[Morty]

Which edition of Dark Heresy is this? You mention roles, which suggests the second edition, but I could be wrong.

[Wraith]

Dark Heresy is less about classes and backgrounds, than it is about skills and talents.

Provided that a couple of people can use healing kits, someone else can use tech/scanners, someone can haggle/intimidate/diplomacy on behalf of the group and someone else can at least recognise Psy-phenomena if not actually use it, then you're probably going to be okay. Most classes have access to at least one of these to some extent - Administratum Clerks can pick up Psykery and Tech, in particular - so as long as everyone has a different one at character creation you're set for most low-level challenges and can evolve from there later.

Being able to handle a gun or blade competently is usually a good idea for everyone, of course, but you rarely need to have a specific Tech Priest/Admin/etc setup.

[PapaMojo]

Which edition of Dark Heresy is this? You mention roles, which suggests the second edition, but I could be wrong.

It's second.

[JellyPooga]

In Dark Heresy, it's far more important to have a group that is appropriate to the game/campaign being played. DH has a huge combat favour in the rules, but in my experience there's a better chance of having an almost entirely social campaign in DH than, for instance, D&D and it's dumgeon crawls because the source material lends itself better to investigation and horror than it does that "dungeon crawl" paradigm.

Yes, it's at least vaguely important to have at least one guy (or gal) on the team who can handle a firearm and most characters probably want to invest in a "not dying brutally in combat" skill or two, but it's not a necessity.

A Psyker is useful and powerful, but is also a double edged sword. Certainly not necessary.

A "quartermaster" definitely comes in handy for obtaining those hard to locate items. Essential? No.

A tech guy can open a lot of doors (literally and figuratively), but so can brute force or a silver tongue.

About the only character I would consider essential to any DH team is the Face-man; the guy who has the talky-talky down pat. The charmer, the interrogator, the guy who...at the end of the day...does the thing that in 90% of missions you get sent on actually needs to be done i.e. investigate the corruption by talking to people, locate the corruption by talking to people and destroy the corruption by...you guessed it....talking to whoever has the authority and/or firepower to do so.

For a game that has so few solid rules for it, DH is a game about talking to people more than any other single aspect. You need a talky person. Everything else is just nice to have.