Editing Black Crusade (RPG) (section)

==Archetypes==
Characters don't have classes, but instead have archetypes, each of which is apparently meant to be a blanket term for a specific type of character. Chaos has all sorts of mixed individuals with multiple skill sets; so unlike the other games, you don't have a talent tree limiting you to a specialization beside elite advances, but everything is available to everyone. The only limitation is alignment, which gives you discounts and penalties to the appropriate advances.

The PCs, affectionately called the Heretics, come in two flavors: Chaos Space Marine, and Disciple of Chaos ("regular" humans). Marines start the game equipped with stupid levels of combat abilities, but don't start with too much else. Humans are a bit more balanced in that regard, but will often struggle to keep up with the marines in combat.

The Marines have the following Archetypes to start out with: 
*The ''Champion'' is the all-rounder and leader type, good for any situation but not exceptional at any, barring command.
*The ''Chosen'' is the combat-specialist, often seen as a duelist or hero killer build. They specialize in straight up strength of arms, and can be made into any type of combat monster: Ranged, melee or heavy.
*The ''Forsaken'' is the lone wolf and the survivor, essentially a Black Crusade version of a Black Shield. They are practically built for extended operations, survival, and self-reliance. 
*The ''Sorcerer'' is the auto-include magic user. He combines the flexible utility of a psyker with the massive physical power of a space marine, and is especially deadly when combat-oriented psychic powers are taken. Starts with a Force weapon which can make it overshadow melee-oriented Chosens in melee when it comes to fighting big and tough things. Because it has decent chances at one-shotting pretty much anything.

The Human disciples of Chaos have the following:
*The ''Apostate'' is the manipulator and schemer [read: the face]. This one is probably the least combat-oriented class (until he starts gathering hordes of cultists, which under the game horde ruleset are pretty much unbeatable once they reach high enough magnitude) but is probably the class with the greatest utility since he has the highest potential for minions and manipulation. Probably one the strongest archetypes in the core book at the late game.
*The ''Heretek'' is the [[Dark Mechanicus]] adept, and the obligatory tech character. Useful to have for Tech Use tests and crafting, and probably the toughest of the human archetypes with the upgrades available to him. The Heretek is capable of taking on Chaos Space Marines by himself.
*The ''Renegade'' is the combat-oriented archetype for the humans. Strong, but lacking as much raw power as a Marine, yet more flexible. Their weapon options and combat skills are perfect to play various types of combat styles. Melee specalist? Hell yeah. Plasma gun gunner? Yep. Heavy gunner? sure. Sniper? The Renegade's got you covered.
*The ''Psyker'' has more psychic potential and power than sorcerers, but has a higher chance of bad things happening, and they start with the least combat utility. Way better suited for stealth and social psychic stuff, though. Especially considering most deception and espionage-based psychic powers don't work well for Sorcerers, unless they're trying to infiltrate other Space Marines.

===From the Splatbooks===
Each of the splatbooks introduce two archetypes for Humans and for Marines, each themed for, but not necessarily aligned to the corresponding deity. Note that these Archetypes start with more XP than the ones from the Core Rulebook - they are balanced between themselves, and not with the 8 basic ones!

====Tome of Fate====
*''Thousand Sons Sorcerer'' - A slightly stronger Sorcerer that starts with Unnatural Willpower, more talents, more Lore skills, and a bolt pistol with Inferno bolts. He starts aligned to Tzeentch, so he can use psychic powers aligned to him from the start, he can replace the ones or tens die when he rolls Perils and can take a Rubric Marine as a regular Minion of Chaos instead of a Greater minion. He's easily considered to be broken as hell once he starts racking up XP - he's effectively the ultimate combat psyker that can reliably be made in the game.
*''Alpha Legion Marine'' - A sneaky marine who's about fighting smart, with some utility skills. He's great at deceiving people, getting underground contacts, and starting insurrections. Pairs well with the Human archetypes as they can engage in stealth with them.
*''Q'Sal Magister Immaterial'' - A Human character (in the loosest form possible) from the Tzeentch world of Q'Sal. Technically a mutant. He is the most powerful starting psyker, with Psy Rating x4, more XP to sink into psychic powers than anybody else, and the ability to direct the effects of his Perils rolls onto any visible target [[Troll|friend]] or foe (with potential for great laughs) at the cost of 1 infamy point. He has some nice utility skills that give him some limited capacity as a face and a sage, also starts aligned to Tzeentch. If one plays this class be careful, directing perils of the warp at your allies can have serious effects on your long-term chances of staying alive.
*''Idolitrex Magos of Forge Polix'' - An advanced Heretek, with higher quality augmentations and a Psy Rating x1. A mean, but otherwise standard mad scientist from the 40K 'verse. Has lots of talents that revolve around tech, and plenty of Lore skills and stuff that take advantage of his high Int score. Don't plan on relying on his talents as a Psyker at first, since his Psy Rating max is limited to his Corruption bonus. Has one of the greatest powerbuilding potentials, for he can essentially take anything meant for Hereteks or Psykers - can be broken as hell in the wrong hands when the XP starts coming in.

====Tome of Blood====
*''Khorne Berserker'' - CSM. '''"Blood for the Blood God!"''' Everyone knows how great these guys are in combat. Begins aligned to Khorne, but if his allegiance changes, he permanently loses his enhanced close combat rules and a full 8 points from every characteristic. Always take the two Chainaxes! This is what you take when you want to play an adamantine blender. Can also spend Infamy to ignore enemy Parry tests or temporarily become too angry to die.
*''Night Lords Chaos Marine'' - CSM. Stealth and Shock Marine, specialized combatant focused on melee, while incorporating strong stealth and terror tactics, with other stuff to round him out outside of combat. Can come out of the gate with a sweet Raptor "speed killer" build, be good for being brooding and edgy all the time and can grant himself and his pals Fear (or enhance their existing Fear trait) for a full session.
*''Xurunt Frost Father'' - Human. Experienced tribal fighters with great leadership that gets even better if they pass hard enough Strength or Agility checks in battle, but have to kill a worthy adversary at least once every two days or their Intelligence, Perception, and Willpower begin to degrade. Great close combat weapons, but still starts with a bow and arrows, even if [[Derp|those can punch through power armor]]. Also starts out with a giant monster lizard to ride into battle and even kill enemies for you. Plays well aligned to Khorne, and starts that way.
*''Chem-Hunter of Messia'' - Human. Basically a drug-addict Renegade, with a lot of insane survivalist thrown into the mix. A great character for those who are addicted to drugs, these guys get good bonuses when substance abuse is involved. In addition to the effects of any drug, these guys gain +10 to any skill test bonuses, or +1 to any characteristic bonus, or an extra die roll for drug duration, and they can find the higher quantities easily; however, they also get addicted to them more easily as well. They can also make a drug that gives them Unnatural Strength and Toughness (+1) and Frenzy, but can kill anybody else that tries to take it. Starts unaligned, but works well if aligned with Khorne or Nurgle.

====Tome of Excess====
*''Noise Marine'' - CSM. Well, you know who these guys are, and what they are made of. A more powerful version of the Chosen. They begin aligned to Slaanesh of course; and, enjoying its gifts, there is little that they CANNOT hear with great bonuses to hearing. In battle they get bonuses for every person involved in fighting so the more massive battles, the better. Being masters of sonic weaponry, they are very shooty and can enhance their output once per combat, or alternatively force enemies to test willpower or suffer some nasty effects. As they start with a sonic blaster, things start getting loud all the time!
*''Dark Apostle'' - CSM. Not strictly a Word Bearer, but these guys have all the same things: being a loud, charismatic, and influential servant of the Dark Gods. The Dark Apostle is a combination of the Champion and the Apostate Archetype. With their abilities, it almost becomes child's play to convert hordes of Imperial citizens to Chaos! They can affect more targets with their Interactions skills than any other archetype and can build altars and monuments to the god(s), empowering rituals and rites aligned to the corresponding god(s). They begin play with an Accursed Crozius, which <s>is easily</s> looked like one of the most powerful melee weapons without possession, but an editing error posted the stats for the possessed Crozius instead of the regular, which is actually a good-but-not-astounding power weapon, though the possessed version is a certified beatstick. Dark Apostles begin play Unaligned.
*''Pirate Prince of the Ragged Helix'' - Human. Essentially a [[Awesome|Chaos Rogue Trader]]. Aristocratic and pampered, check! Really fucked up, check! Narcissism, influence, ''space ships''... check! It's time to start the '''FUN'''! Seeing as they begin play with a ''space ship'' and various other high-quality crap (because anything less than the best will make them a lesser person and they get very agitated if they're separated from their preferred luxuries), they can have a lot of '''FUN''' that other characters can only dream of - as I said, Chaos Rogue Trader! They begin play aligned to Slaanesh.
** Did we mention they have a ''space ship''?
*''Flesh Shaper of Melancholia'' - Human. Another lot of repressed <s>sick fucks</s> hunters of pleasures. Also, these guys can change their own flesh and bodies of others to gain some very interesting results. As they also have access to the (really broken) Rite of Fleshmoulding, with enough time and "resources" in hand, they can create [[Fabius Bile|their own sort of "space marines"]]. The Rite of Fleshmoulding, which [[Rape|gains bonuses on unwilling subjects]], can give Regeneration (6), Multiple Arms (6), Natural Armour (6), Unnatural Stats (+6), and more. Sounds good, right? Now imagine how broken this can be when combined with any other powerbuild...but it's temporary so you can't rely on it for everything. They start aligned to Slaanesh.

====Tome of Decay====
*''Plague Marine'' - CSM. Papa Nurgle's favorite rotting pus-sacks. Immune to the negative effects of all diseases and can use a special Reaction to take a Toughness test that lets them ignore the damage of the next hit by the number of successes on the test. (If this completely nullifies the attack, they gain Fear (1) against the attacker.) They can also spend infamy to release a cloud of smog and flies that hurts anything within 10 m. They obviously begin play aligned to Nurgle.
**Hilariously broken if one chooses to [[Rules lawyer|exploit]] their immunities. [[RAW]] they are immune to the effects all disease, toxins and poisons unless they choose to accept them. Poisons include drugs, so a Plague Marine can constantly take drugs and choose to gain the positive affect while ignoring the downsides. Slaanesh and Nurgle tag teams are apparently very effective.
*''Warpsmith'' - CSM unaligned. If you really felt left out by the Heretek's ability to be the tech-guy (and thus remove the need to protect a flimsy little bag of flesh), this'll be right up your alley. They can spend Infamy to fuck up any tech in their general vicinity, lead cybernetic Minions more effectively, and gain bonuses when creating Daemon Engines. And seeing as this book comes with the rules for creating daemon Engines like Maulerfiends, you can get some pretty awesome minions... Death to the False Omnissiah!
*''Veteran of the Long War'' - CSM unaligned or aligned as wished. Anything goes type can duplicate a special power from other CSM archetypes at character creation if their alignments are identical, which lets you do some funky things, like making a lesser psyker type. Also gain one of their gear. Can generate fear in the souls of his hated enemies and inflicts extra damage when attacking them.
* ''Writhing World Sorcerer-King'' - Human aligned to Nurgle. A hideous psyker that always counts as unbound with bonuses when they use Nurgle powers. They are also made of worms, which they can summon as a minion.
* ''Death Priest of Mire''- Human aligned to Nurgle. Can boost up weapons with extra qualities and eat corpses for extra toughness. Also able to destroy attacking melee weapons. Overall an enchanter/warrior type.
* ''Plaguemeister''- Human aligned to Nurgle. Basically a plague medic with a vast lore-based knowledge. Able to heal better and of course infect others, although the bonus healing has a chance of side effects, such as getting infected with various diseases, becoming possessed, becoming highly toxic for seven hours or a chance at getting increased toughness.
* ''Daemon Prince'' - Basically if you wanted to keep playing after achieving the win condition. Comes in various flavors but has to be aligned. If your GM enforces this rule, he's officially off of your Christmas card list.