The Imperium of Man lives and dies by the soldiers that make up the vast armies of the Imperial Guard. While the Space Marines may get the glory, the Inquisition the credit, and the Sisters of Battle the admiration, at the end of the day the line in the sand is formed by regular men and women with the guts to stand up to the monsters at the door and say "No."
These are the Classes available to the players in Only War
Tropes applying to all Regulars
- Red Shirt: The players starting out, and the role of Comrades.
- The Squad: Naturally.
- Surprisingly Elite Cannonfodder: Hopefully.
Heavy Gunner
For when a lasgun simply doesn't cut it. Heavy Gunners are armed with heavy weapons such as heavy machine guns, missile launchers, or heavy flamers. Their special orders focus on assisting with heavy weapons, helping load the weapons and giving extra weight to assist accuracy.
- BFG: The biggest ones available to your party on foot, at any rate. Your starting choices are a missile launcher, a heavy machine gun, or whatever your Regiment's favoured heavy weapon is - which could be anything from a mortar to a heavy flamer to an honest-to-the-Emperor plasma cannon.
- The Big Guy: If they're hauling around this kind of equipment, they better be.
- Demolitions Expert: The closest you get with the regulars.
Medic
Because on the battlefield there will be casualties, and making sure that those soldiers are back on their feet so they can be thrown back into the meatgrinder is very important when you're fighting the horrors of the 41st Millenium. Their comrade advances involve them training their partner in field medicine.
- The Smart Guy: Due to their aptitudes and starting Intelligence boost, and Medicae relying on Intelligence, medics tend to be the smartest and well-learned member of their squad.
Operator
Vehicle specialists, Operators put the pedal to the metal and bring to bear the Emperor's fury by way of tanks, mechs, and anything else the Office Munitorium sees fit to provide. Their special orders let their partner take a gunner slot or put out fires in their vehicle.
- Drives Like Crazy: Maybe. Conservative driving can get you killed, but driving too crazily may get you in an ambush.
- The Engineer: This class specializes in technical skills and comes equipped with a wide variety of tools and gadgets to aid the squad. These include scanners, repair tools, and demolition implements.
Sergeant
Non-commissioned officers with the duty to lead their men to survive the hour. Their special skills are focused on commanding the squad's comrades, helping the whole party.
- The Face: Insomuch as this game has one, being Fellowship based characters.
- A Father to His Men: Not required, but their skills and recommended advances lend itself to this.
- Sergeant Rock: Can be played as this, or less benevolent.
Weapon Specialist
The basic, "no-frills" guardsman. They can carry lasguns, light flamers, or shotguns, and are the best all around at shooting or stabbing their way out of situations. Their comrade advances are similarly no frills, with their partner pinning their target or passing them their backup weapon.
- Boring, but Practical: Want a character with decent health, a decent starting weapon, decent comrade advances which allow the player to take potshots at pinned enemies at their leisure, and will always be useful no matter the army? Weapon Specialist is your guy.
- The Generic Guy: Even among the rest of the Guardsman regulars. They shoot good, have fairly basic equipment, and can choose whether to focus on melee or ballistic combat.
- Multi-Melee Master: Starting with three picks of the Weapon Training Talent allows Weapon Specialists to be extremely versatile, whether they want to specialize in melee weapons...
- Multi-Ranged Master: ...or just carry around bucketloads of guns. Or even a mix of both!
- Walking Armory: Specifically, an Advance allows the Weapon Specialist's Comrade to function as one, and even swap weapons as a free action.
Auxiliary members of the Imperial Guard who possess advanced training or unique talents, they are mixed in with the Regulars in order to give a surprising twist.
Commissar
Heresy! BLAM!! The Commissariat was formed in order to answer the age old question: How do you properly motivate poorly equipped grunts who are facing possible death at the hands of Xenos or cultists? The answer, something even scarier behind them. Commissars have no comrade, instead focusing on terrifying the squad into working harder.
- Bad Boss: By design. They shoot their teammates' Comrades in order to 'encourage' the rest to fight harder. They can also take a special Talent that gives them a significant bonus to attempts to 'motivate' their Squad through fear.
- Boom, Headshot!: Summary Execution, which allows the Commissar to execute other players' Comrades in exchange for giving them a health boost if they're at critically low health.
- Chainsaw Good: Chainswords, 'nuff said.
- Commissar Cap: Naturally, alongside the greatcoat and red sash.
- Cool Sword: One of their starting items is a good-quality chainsword, which means it's likely to have been blinged out just a little bit more than usual.
- The Political Officer: It comes with the hat. Or possibly vice-versa.
- Sword and Gun: Begins armed with one bolt pistol and one chainsword, and appropriate advances can allow the player to use both at once.
Ministorum Priest
There's a lot of uses for a priest on the battlefield. Counseling their flock when their faith seems to be failing, comforting the dying before they take their last breath, burning heretics with their consecrated flamer... Their Comrades assist them in spreading the word of the Emperor.
- As the Good Book Says...: Although their Good Book may be a little meaner then the Good Books of the 3rd millenium.
- Badass Preacher: Any that aren't will get weeded out by the front lines pretty quickly.
- Cool Sword: 40K's signature chainsword, to be specific.
- Kill It with Fire: Starts the game with a basic flamer.
Ogryn
Big, dumb,and capable of tossing cultists like lawn darts. Ogryn are Abhumans whose prodigious strength make them welcome members of any squad in a firefight, but what they boast in brawn they lack in brains. Their comrade advances show their childlike attention towards their "Little 'Un".
- The Big Guy: The biggest. Even their Comrades count as this in comparison to everyone else, gaining a fourth wound state in comparison to every other comrade's three.
- Claustrophobia: Part of their special rules. Ogryns hate being in confined spaces, be it in a vehicle, a building, tunnels, or anything else of that nature.
- Dumb Muscle: Due to their Abhuman physiology. They suffer from a whopping -15 Intelligence, meaning even the smartest Ogryn can have only 25 INT starting out.
- Heroic BSoD: If they lose their Comrade then Ogryn will be inconsolable for hours, bawling their eyes out.
- Made of Iron: Most Guard armour doesn't really fit them, but they have anywhere between two to three times the health of any other Speciality even on a bad roll.
- Undying Loyalty: To the point where if they are seperated from their partner, they go into a frenzied state until they are reunited.
Ratling Sniper
Infiltrators and snipers extraordinaire, these tiny soldiers are ideal for finding a good spot to cover the party and unleash hell with their long las or sniper rifle. Their comrades can learn to be efficient spotters.
- Hobbits: A grimdark version, naturally. They even come with a high tech version of the cloaks used by the most famous examples, which helps offset their fragility.
Sanctioned Psyker
An unpredictable element, trusted by no one. Sanctioned psykers use their influence over the Warp to attempt to assist in battle, but odds are they will just make things worse. Their comrade watches them constantly, keeping them safe and in check even as they look for any signs of corruption.
- Psychic Powers: Naturally. This being 40K, this can go terribly wrong.
Storm Trooper
Members of the Empire's most elite regiments of the Imperial Guard, Storm Troopers are attached to units across the galaxy as a potent booster of skill and morale. While sometimes ridiculed as being jumped-up toy soldiers, everyone has to respect their heavy-duty hellguns and combat skills. Stormtroopers don't have comrades, instead acting as mentor and protector to the rest of the squad. Notable for being one of the only specialities that never received any official advanced specialities, alongside Psykers and Commissars.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Storm Troopers have the best gear at the start, hellguns and carapace armor.
- Made of Iron: They start with +5 Toughness, as well as a selection of skills which make them difficult to hit.
- Taking the Bullet: They gain an advance which lets them do this for their fellow guardsman, relying on their heavier armor to absorb the blow instead.
Tech Priest Enginseer
Worshippers of the Omnissiah, these mystics of metal keep the Emperor's arsenal in good repair. They have abandoned weak flesh for strong steel, and this is reflected in their comrade, a robotic Servitor. Their advanced specialities allow them to focus more on personal combat, repair skills, or commanding a much larger number of Servitors to do their bidding.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Or they mean that you have religion.
- Genius Bruiser: One of the most powerful classes at character generation, being both a religious functionary on top of being a brilliant engineer.
- The Minion Master: Enginseers may command Servitors, potentially a lot of them with advanced training, and can gain access to more specialized variants as well.
Found in the Hammer of the Emperor splatbook, advanced training specialties act as Prestige Classes for the Regulars, able to be accessed at 2500 XP. They represent further specialization and abilities that Player Characters and their Comrades can use.
Brawler
The kind of people who see a charging ork and drop their lasgun to reach for their sword. Brawlers focus on melee combat, and their comrade advances make them stronger.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Their Comrade advance, letting them take on massive amounts of foes at no penalty.
- Combat by Champion: Part of the framing around them suggests this kind of approach for Game Masters; have encounters where the enemy squad has a Champion that the Brawler gets to fight, whilst all the other characters work around this. It even specifically points out that this approach works very well on Orks given their culture.
- Combat Pragmatist: ...but the same section also notes the worst nemesis of the Brawler is someone who won't hesitate to just put a bullet through the Brawler's head mid-posturing.
- Dual Wielding: Start with the Ambidextrous talent.
- Master Swordsman: Most likely, although the range of melee weapons is fairly wide.
Breacher
For when you absolutely need to guarantee a big boom. Breachers are seldom trained, often self-taught, and they either keep a cool head or they die from their own bombs. Their comrades act as steady hands and capable assistants in sapper duty.
Commander
Some people have a magnetic presence about them, an ability to get others to put their life on the line. Commanders are such people. Like the Sergeant, Commanders have sweeping orders which give orders to everyone's comrades. They also can have up to five Comrades at a time.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Inevitable, given the number of Comrades a Commander has. They're still a PC in an RPG.
- The Minion Master: Having many more Comrades than usual, and all.
Field Chirugeon
On the battlefield, you pick up a few tricks, and some of the most important is field medicine, getting your buddies up and moving before the big ugly comes to eat you. Comrades with the Field Chirugeon specialty gain the ability to help convince their patients that they aren't that badly hurt, soldier.
- Back-Alley Doctor: The lack of medical licence isn't going to stop them from trying to get their unit up and moving, though
- Worst Aid: Although it's better then no aid. Justified as they aren't trained medics.
Master of Ordnance
They say that Infantry is the Queen of War, while Artillery is the King of Ordnance. The Master of Ordnance lets you demonstrate what the King does to the Queen. Their Comrade assists them in this endeavor, allowing them to signal distant artillery batteries to blow their enemies to oblivion.
- Death from Above: And by god does it hurt whoever it lands on.
Scout
Moving behind enemy lines, the Scout's job is to reconnoiter, soften the target, and sneak back to the party with their info and gains in tow. Their comrade lets them avoid detection and set ambushes.
Sentry
For when the party needs to keep a specific area safe, no one is better. The goal of Sentries is to detect threats to the party before they appear, and eliminate them with extreme prejudice. Their comrades help make them completely unambushable.
Sharpshooter
One Shot, One Kill. That's the motto of the Sharpshooter. The goal is to eliminate threats before they even know they are a threat, to reduce the Imperium's enemies to chunky salsa before they can respond in kind. Their comrade, like the ratling sniper's, acts as their spotter and backup.
- Expy: Of the Ratling Sniper, only as a regular Guardsman. They even have identical comrade advances.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Although it doesn't get too Egregious until the player has maxed out their BS advances and talents
Tank Ace
Extremely skilled behind the wheel of the Imperium's mighty machines, Tank Aces can bring even the vilest forces arrayed in the galaxy to their knees with the proper application of Baneblade or Basilisk. Their comrade assists them in lining up their shot and tipping the needle.
- BFG: Their specialty is driving the Imperium's many metal boxes and make their trombone moan to the screams of enemies.
