So, I'm creating an adversary in my Dark Heresy campaign, and I'm trying to avoid the predictable sorcerer route by making him a silver-tongued, manipulative, charismatic cult leader (i.e. a BC Apostate) intsead. Obviously, he will try to avoid getting into combat himself (he has plenty of followers and bodyguards to hide behind), but the rpg tradition is a final face-to-face confrontation with the Bad Guy at the end of the scenario. So, I'm trying to come up with a build that will stay true to his nature as a master manipulator, but not make him too easy to kill once it hits the fan. Some of the 'charisma' Talents in BC look pretty interesting, but I don't have any first-hand experience in using them. Have any veteran Apostate players out there come up with uses of manipulation Talents that have a signifigant impact in combat (other than just ordering followers to their deaths, of course)?

 Take Fallen demagogue from adversaries section, add apostate paragon to it. Combine skills and talents, chose better of two characteristics, et voila! Or if you want good fighting guy and devious on top of it, take fallen prophet from Disciples of the Dark Gods.  

The key talent would be Unholy Devotion and a minion with lots of Agility, Toughness, Wounds and Armour.

create a Great Minion Minion with the machine trait. Size Hulking at least.

The Apostate Arch -enemy can enter inside the BIG Robot.

Build the melee combat minion with regeneration trait, high machine trait, unnatural toughness and other nice traits.

Et voilà, you'll have an Apostate ready to stand your players.

 I like the idea of robot in which you can ride! Its like ME 3 :) He'll need autocanons and missile lanchers :) Maybe daemonic possesion to have even more toghness and wounds! Yay. 

My Apostate wasn't all that great in combat. She had a Plasma Pistol and a Power Mace, and could ward off the odd small attacker, but her real offensive power came from her ability to get everyone to do what she wanted simply by talking  to them. To make up for the lack of combat ability, she had a big combat-servitor with double chain-blade arms. Not subtle, but it kept her alive long enough for the two Marines in the group to come to the rescue whenever she needed it.

BYE

 Thanks for the replies! I can see that Unholy Devotion will be big (I perfer the vatient Defend Me! from the Fallen Demagogue adversary write-up- based on a Fellowship roll rather than Agility). And Inspire Wrath will be handy... Betrayer sounds interesting (kill a minion for an Infany bonus), but I'm not picturing a good in-combat use for it...

Howdy,

What about using someone who is a combat monster and that the players already trust to be the final physical hurdle before cutting down the begging and now defenseless apostate?  This would really showcase the master manipulator part if you could use someone they know and trust, like another acolyte they know or even an inquisitor they've worked with before (depending on the scale of your game).  They could be the real meat and potatoes that defends the apostate, and once his final knight is down he's pretty well going to try rear-end kissing to not get squished.

I think this could add some more tension to the situation as well.  This way instead of just smashing the apostate, they have to decide how to take down his champion that they know and like, and that could still do some good in the world.  Do they go guns blazing and reduce him to paste, or try to drag the combat out to convince him or show him the evidence he needs to not try to crush their skull?

Hope that helps; think its a cute blend of the minion idea (which could still be there) and a really good roleplay opportunity.