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 ChocletEyeOfTerror wrote:
Dark Gods? Khorne? Anyone?

I think the OP meant characters that can be used in actual games.

Horus, of course.
Darnath Lysander is pretty cool. Even though he isn't a chapter master, he's really the epitome of the Imperial Fists. He's tough as nails, and a real close combat monster. Master Crafted S10 Ap1 with 4 wounds and 2+/3++ can pretty much take any non-primarch special characters.
The Swarmlord is extremely bad***. Even though hes not a character per se, he really stands out. Rules wise, a WS9 instakilling Monsterous Creature with 5 Wounds? and a 4++ in close combat, nothing can really stop him that's not EW.

Garran Crowe- Who wields the demon blade of basically unlimited power. And only uses it as a beat stick to beat people down with.

That must take some freaking guts to use.

But Kayvaan Shrike comes to mind also.

Ahriman is in my opinion by far the most badass character in 40K.

The man has so much character to him. There is more to him than "I'm chaos, I'm bad" (he's not the only one, I know), in fact I'd say he is a good guy and the only reason he is on the bad side is because the imperium didn't leave him a choice.. He wanted to protect his whole legion from the taint of the warp but ended up almost destroying it. He got banished from his legion for what he did and instead of holding a grudge against his legion he dedicated his life to saving his brothers.
+ He's a badass psycker.

The Sanguinor of the Blood Angels. He is so badass most of his army doesn't even know he exists!

Plus if you go on battle with a pose like that its the very definition of badass in my book.


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 th3maninblak wrote:

 Murdius Maximus wrote:
Commander Dante is hands down for me the most badass. 1,100 years as Chapter Master of the BA, and probably more time served before hand. I love that he leads from the front and can be found where the battle is thickest and most brutal. I really like that he was never the best, nor the most powerful, but always up to the task to get the job done and come out alive. I love his back story and just think he is a general badass.

Close second for me is Imhotekh the Stormlord.

I agree with this, though 2nd would be Mephiston. And in the fluff Dante is around 1400 years old =)

If you read the warriors of the dark millennium on Dante you get a really good idea of how awesome he is. I wont spoil it, but its one of the best pieces of 40k fluff ive ever read.

LOL Dante is a badass too, only character in 40K that's so badass he choose 1 guy in the opponit's army to takes -1 wound, WS,I and Attack before the game even starts.

Morbo.

He's so badass that he singlehandedly assaulted himself right out of the latest Astra Militarum codex, because Astra is for sissies and he's still with the Imperial Guard.

Well there's Kaldor Draigo but he's a Mary Sue
There's also Sly, Kharn, Doombreed, and Doomrider.
I would like to mention SIIIIIINNNNNDDDDRRRRIIII as well

Lord Solar Macharius. Most successful imperial leader since the emperor. Brought something like 1000 worlds back into imperial hands in 7 years. Possesses space marine like quickness & combat prowess yet is only human. Not a genetically engineered powerhouse. His greatest downfall is his success. Those under him eventually began to lose the will to fight because they had known nothing but the horrors of war for decades on end & were only human. Planetary governors & his generals were jealous of his power/success & conspired against him.

Gotta reach waaaay back to 2nd ed for my one true champion.

Wolf Guard Ranulf, who stood even bigger and stronger than his primarch, Ranulf met his end along side his back facing down a hoard of orks. And when the orks had finally killed him they were so terrified of him they believed him to be a tiny god and was only sleeping. So when his fellow wolves eventually found him, the orks had built a shrine for Ranulf and his guard to sit upon, and placed at this shrine was all da best dakka, choppa, an' gubbinz the orks could muster in offering in hopes that Ranulf would not be angry when he awoke.

Fething seriously, I'm not even making any of this up. This is freaking GW written fluff! Terrifying thing is that the old fluff still holds kinda true, in 30k most primarchs are strength 6 unless their auged by their armor like horus, or are totally roided out like angron. Ranulf was strength 7 even before you applied his power fist!

Trazyn the Infinite, because he plays in-universe 40k with life size miniatures.

(He also plays 30k, if the rumours of his primarch collection are to be believed. (which they are))

garvial loken.
dude got stomped by a titan and then lived to change his name to CERBEROUS, ain't no one gonna beat that.

Anval Thawn, the last perpetual.

The guy has been alive for most likely tens of thousands of years. He's seen the Imperium from before its infancy. He's seen it rise... and fall; looking at it he realizes that the grimdark universe is becoming more and more grim and dark. And he hates it, but keeps trying to save it.

 Melissia wrote:
The common guardsman.

The special characters have plot armor and uberbadass special snowflake weapons and armor, and faces the most terrible foes of the galaxy with the skills of a thousand battles and trainers from around the galaxy.

The common guardsman has flak armor and a lasgun, and basic training if they're lucky-- and faces those same foes.

I stand by confessor Dolan Chirosius as the most badass character of 40k. That guy got no special snowflake weapon or armor that we know of, and so much plot armor that he died as soon as someone tried to kill him, yet still managed to be incredibly influential in this specific episode of the Imperium's history .

Thinking about it, none of the badass I listed had any snowflake special wargear, but the other two (Ciaphas Cain and Sly Marbo) have ton of plot armor, and therefore the skills of a thousand battle too .

Quickjager wrote:
Anval Thawn, the last perpetual.

The guy has been alive for most likely tens of thousands of years. He's seen the Imperium from before its infancy. He's seen it rise... and fall; looking at it he realizes that the grimdark universe is becoming more and more grim and dark. And he hates it, but keeps trying to save it.

except to be made a GK he can't have been alive that long. a perpetual he may be, but he is a young perpetual if that is the case

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Marbo.

This is not up for debate.

Yarrick, Creed.

Ollanius Pius, before he was immortal.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Ollanius Pius, before he was immortal.

"I am the harbinger!" - The man himself.

Well OP said no Emps or primarchs, so I'm guessing that excludes Marbo as well...

I think I'm going to have to re-iterate what others have been saying and go with Ollanius. Just a regular dude who stood up to one of the most destructive forces the galaxy has ever known. And if he is a perpetual, well that just means he's going on to more badassery, and thats fine by me.

 Toastaster wrote:
Well OP said no Emps or primarchs, so I'm guessing that excludes Marbo as well...

I think I'm going to have to re-iterate what others have been saying and go with Ollanius. Just a regular dude who stood up to one of the most destructive forces the galaxy has ever known. And if he is a perpetual, well that just means he's going on to more badassery, and thats fine by me.

Well if I cannot vote for Marbo, change my answer to Kharn (what a guy).

Stumper Muckstart.

He once shot four spinning coins out of the air while blindfolded. He can strike you down from across the battlefield and there isn't gak you can do about it. You're a multi-wound model? Stumper don't care. He adds +D3 to the number of wounds he inflicts. You have a 2+ save? Stumper doesn't give a gak. Feel free to subtract -D3 from your save, sucker.

Oh, you say you killed Stumper? Guess what? He costs less than 50 points and therefore awards no VPs for his death. Merry Christmas.

Yarrick, who else has a power klaw, rides in a baneblade painted black and gold while having the semi title of nemasis to greatest ork warboss in history

So being a GK player, I would have to go with Anval Thawn or Garran Crowe. If only Mortarion's Heart was the thing we knew about Kaldor Draigo instead of the ridiculous entry Matt Ward wrote him, I would be throwing Draigo's name up there but alas, it is not so. Anyway, Thawn kicks arse and is not a jerk to xenos and Crowe holds a daemon blade and doesn't use it's power. Both awesome in my book.

The Imperial Fist player in me though, have to go with Lysander, he is one tough fething dude to have been through the amount of crap he has been through and survived let alone rise from the ashes to become what he has become.

Swarmlord for me. Only sent to action when it gets tough. If killed is regrown with knowledge of how he list, therefore always getting stronger and stronger. And can never truely be killed Without completely wiping every last trace of the tyranids

For me it's Asdrubael vect by far, although Lelith is certainly up there demanding some respect.

Lelith literally dances around in a bikini, going toe to toe with Space marines, Tyranids and all the other craziness of 40k with knives... knives! That's just completely badass.
And Vect is so ridiculously cunning he makes the characters of Revenge look like monkeys by comparison. Why send flowers to taunt your foe when a black hole in a box is so much more amusing.
Anything which can survive in Commorragh is badass, these two thrive there!

Marbo is not in danger. He is the danger.

Cypher. Ingame he has an absurdly good statline, effectively shoots his pistols in melee, and well, he dual wields pistols. With a bit of luck he can blam his way through entire squads, and/or Hit and Run to escape. What isn't awesome about that.

Fluffwise, he's one of the surprisingly few untouched big mysteries. Noone knows his intentions except himself, is he loyalist, or traitor? Is he long-living, or just a figurehead position? Why does he carry the sword around and generally do things for inexplicable reasons?

 Mr.Omega wrote:
Cypher. Ingame he has an absurdly good statline, effectively shoots his pistols in melee, and well, he dual wields pistols. With a bit of luck he can blam his way through entire squads, and/or Hit and Run to escape. What isn't awesome about that.

Fluffwise, he's one of the surprisingly few untouched big mysteries. Noone knows his intentions except himself, is he loyalist, or traitor? Is he long-living, or just a figurehead position? Why does he carry the sword around and generally do things for inexplicable reasons?

'cause Rule of Cool, that's why!

Eldrad. Reasoning is very, very simple: every other character listed, plus any that will be listed after, is doing what Eldrad wants them to...

...just as planned.

Seriously, it is easy to get swept away with the 'roid infested Superman clones in this fiction, but Eldrad? He is the person who makes those people do what he wants, then THANK HIM for it.

Dante. Out-strategizing time manipulation, being chapter master for the last millenium and a half, always having a mask on like a Char-clone from gundam, causing a wound before the game starts.

Now if only he was a little better for his points on the table. EW and a not-unwieldy waste of his initiative 6 would be a great start.

Kharn the betrayer! He is the most brutal cqc fighter ever plus he is a brutal anti psyker.