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For newcomers to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, creating a strong main character with characteristics, abilities, talents, and origins can be overwhelming. If you're looking to create a custom character in the game, there are plenty of origin choices to consider. One of these is the Noble origin.
This origin doesn't appear in any companion you encounter throughout the game, so it's worth trying out to feel unique and to experience something different. If you want to designate an ally you've chosen as a servant and turn it into a powerful weapon in battle, then this guide is for you!
What Are The Features And Talents Of The Noble Origin?
A character with a Noble origin starts the game with the "You. Serve Me." feature. This ability can be used once per battle, allowing you to declare one of your allies as a servant. When you target a servant with your abilities, they gain a plus five bonus to all characteristics until the start of your next turn.
Additionally, if the servant you've chosen targets the same enemy as you during your turn, they gain a critical hit chance equal to 10 plus your Fellowship bonus.
This makes the Noble character an excellent support character, capable of further strengthening your allies. Therefore, if you choose the Noble origin, focusing on buff abilities that target your allies, in addition to damaging abilities, will make them even more valuable.
The talents that a Noble can learn further empower the allies chosen as servants while also benefiting you:
Talent Name |
Description |
---|---|
You. Do Something. |
If a noble uses an ability on their servant, the servant gains plus one AP next turn. Does not stack with itself. |
You. Protect Me. |
If the noble and the servant are adjacent to each other at the start of the noble's turn, they both gain temporary wounds equal to servant's TGH bonus or noble's FEL bonus, depending on which is higher. |
You. Go On. |
The noble's servant gains plus two movement points every turn. |
You. Kill It. |
If the servant kills the target that the noble dealt damage to last turn, the noble gains plus one AP next turn. |
You. You Are Next |
If the servant has less than 30 percent maximum wounds, the noble can use You. Serve Me. once more in battle, designating a new servant and removing the effect from the previous one. |
Which Homeworld Should Be Chosen For Noble?
You'll be creating a character with a Noble origin, as evidenced by talents, so the Fellowship characteristic will be quite important for you. With this stat, you can provide a higher critical chance for your servant. If you've unlocked the "You. Protect Me." feature, your standing servant will gain more temporary wounds as well.
Hive World is a solid choice, providing a plus five bonus to both Fellowship and Agility, which are your most useful characteristics, but decreasing your Willpower by five.
Additionally, Hive World characters benefit from the starting feature "Strength in Numbers," which grants you half of your Fellowship bonus as Resolve if there are three or more entities (enemy or ally) within a three-cell radius. Furthermore, the other talents of this Homeworld are geared towards staying to your other allies.
Another option for Homeworld could be Voidborn. This provides a plus-five bonus to both Willpower and Intelligence while reducing Strength by five. It also starts you off with the feature "Fortune," allowing you to reattempt failed attack, dodge, parry, characteristic, and skill tests with a 20 percent chance of success.
The "Contagious Luck" talent provided by this Homeworld enhances the success of your allies while decreasing the success chances of your enemies. If you don't prefer Hive World, this could be a good alternative.
What Should Be The Starting Characteristics Values?
Fellowship, Intelligence, and Agility will be the characteristics you use the most. Therefore, starting by increasing these would be very beneficial:
Characteristic |
Value |
---|---|
Weapon Skill |
30 |
Ballistic Skill |
30 |
Strength |
30 |
Toughness |
30 |
Agility |
45 |
Intelligence |
45 |
Perception |
30 |
Willpower |
25 |
Fellowship |
50 |
First Archetype Choice: Officer
If you want to further benefit your allies and make them more deadly, choosing the Officer archetype is a great option. Additionally, since this archetype heavily relies on the Fellowship characteristic, you'll make an advantageous start:
Level |
What To Unlock? |
---|---|
1 |
Voice of Command |
2 |
Commerce |
3 |
Bring It Down! |
4 |
Finest Hour! + Lasting Impression |
5 |
Fellowship + You. Do Something. |
6 |
You. Protect Me. + Fellowship |
7 |
Break Their Ranks + You. Kill It. |
8 |
Blood of Martyrs + Commerce |
9 |
Finest Hour! (Upgrade I) |
10 |
Persuasion + Willpower |
11 |
Characteristic Training: Fellowship + Willpower |
12 |
Take Aim! + Swift Movements |
13 |
Be Vigilant! + Persuasion |
14 |
Toughness + Helping Hand |
15 |
Finest Hour! (Upgrade III) |
In battle, you should generally aim to stand by your designated ally as a servant or alongside other allies as much as possible, both at the beginning and end of your turn. Using your "Break Their Ranks!" ability on a nearby ally engaged in combat with enemies can make them even deadlier.
Additionally, with the "Blood of Martyr" ability, any heroic acts performed by your allies will grant them a minimum of 18% temporary wounds. Furthermore, with the buffs provided by "Finest Hour," your chosen ally will receive a minimum of 18% damage bonus and +18 temporary bonus.
Second Archetype Choice: Grand Strategist
After selecting Grand Strategist, you won't necessarily need to make any attacks in actual combat because you'll have further strengthened your allies. In addition to the Fellowship characteristic bonuses you possess, it will be beneficial to increase Intelligence after a certain point because the abilities of Grand Strategist benefit from both FEL and INT bonuses.
When you can't increase FEL and INT, Toughness might be preferred for further survivability. Try to position your Combat Tactics Areas where each of your allies needs them the most. With this build, the areas you establish will be quite effective.
Level |
What To Unlock? |
---|---|
1 |
Combat Tactics |
2 |
Overwhelming Stratagem |
3 |
Adjusting Frontline |
4 |
Take and Hold |
5 |
AP Increase + Fellowship |
6 |
Fire at Will + Fellowship |
7 |
Killzone Stratagem |
8 |
Coercion + Sniping Zone |
9 |
Intelligence + Base Skill: Medicae |
10 |
Strategic Offensive |
11 |
Intelligence + Medicae |
12 |
Take and Hold (Upgrade IV) |
13 |
Respite Zone + Intelligence |
14 |
Intelligence + Medicae |
15 |
Combat Locus Stratagem |
16 |
Blurred Locus + You. Go On. |
17 |
Lore (Xenos) + Toughness |
18 |
Toughness + Improvised Strategy |
19 |
Characteristic Training: Intelligence |
20 |
Take and Hold (Upgrade II) |
Take and Hold is an ultimate ability that will prove extremely useful. For this, you should choose the combat zone where you have the most allies and have killed the most enemies. This way, you'll grant an extra turn to all your allies in the selected area.
Thanks to this build, the Killzone Stratagem automatically kills enemies taking damage in the chosen combat zone if they have less than a minimum of 28 HP remaining.
Additionally, depending on the situation, you can double the bonuses in an area using the Combat Locus Stratagem, but remember that using it will cause other areas to disappear.
Thanks to the Blurred Locus talent, you'll be able to bring back one of the disappeared areas due to Combat Locus Stratagem's effect.
Third Archetype: Exemplar
You can distribute the remaining talents and characteristics according to your preference. However, continuing without focusing on offensive skills might still be a good choice.
You can further enhance your allies and the combat zones they occupy, making them even more effective. Remember, all you need to do is to survive and buff your surrounding allies. This way, the characters in every part of the battlefield will become highly effective weapons.
Level |
What To Unlock? |
---|---|
1 |
Eager Subordinates + Fresh Start |
2 |
Lore (Xenos) + Opening Strategy |
3 |
Fellowship + Characteristic Training: Agility |
4 |
Move, Move, Move! + Lore (Xenos) |
5 |
Firebrand + Point of Interest |
6 |
Fellowship + Steady! |
7 |
Stronghold Stratagem + Intelligence |
8 |
You. You Are Next. + Characteristic Training: Toughness |
9 |
Tech-Use + Tough as Steel |
10 |
AP Increase |
11 |
Focus! + Tech-Use |
12 |
Steel Resolve + Logic |
13 |
Strongpoint + Intelligence |
14 |
Toughness + Logic |
15 |
Attention! + Wach Yourself! |
16 |
Redeployment + Lore (Imperium) |
17 |
More Than Possible + It Will Not Die |
18 |
Blitz Stratagem + Toughness |
19 |
Tricky Defense + Crossfire Zone |
20 |
AP Increase |