Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader (CRPG)

Jae is outstanding as a skill monkey. This is known. But she is very mediocre in combat and her quests range from annoying (stealth quest?) to just forgettable terrible. The line in the DMB part is arguably the only mildy amusing part of her entire quest chain. Her nature makes her highly incompatible with certain playthrough styles, because she is not good for Dogmatic and she is basically bereft of story in heretical route. But more importantly, you don't need a skill monkey to play though this game and even if you do the main character can easily suffice, especially if you go Forgeworld origin.

Ok so lets you say you are rolling Iconoclast and want to get your inner darky on... Unless you are playing with the difficulty dialed way down, who are you going to sub in for her? I don't think there is a less effective NPC in the game other than Solomourne. Maybe you could argue Idria? Even Wulfgar can work as a mobile piece of terrain and an Argentia light, especially with the added gear options the last DLC added. On hard she is basically useless outside of handing 2 AP to another actual useful character each turn for most of the game, which Cassia can already do without sucking. Argentia with a pair of hand flamers makes a better dual pistol character (but why bother when the golden bolter of complete rape exists). And she is squishy as hell and locked out of the viable Power Armor options.

I am doing a full on hard dogmatic run right now with a warrior assasin main with a shield built to skill monkey, custom santic sniper op/assassin buff bot (holy fuck is that amazing), Cassie, Argentia, Heinrix, and Wulfgar in the last spot when I don't have to drag a goober for a quest along. I am not really super optimizing things and am pretty much steamrolling the game (If I had gotten the last genestealer fight prior to chapter 3 that might have been an issue) and my main guy hits like a fucking truck, with all skills over 100, and tanking that would make Abelard tuck his balls back. I took things that were good, but nothing like the pyro executioner stuff that autist built his spreadsheets around. The custom santic sniper is the only character I put any effort into really optimizing and that is purely because I wanted a buffbot. And it is still a faceroll on hard, mind you, but who would I replace in my lineup to make room for Jae?

Side note for anyone about to roll with a Dogmatic run, there is some amazing fucking synergy if you avoid ever including Xenos in the party, both in terms of stat boosts and item effects. It is insane how outrageous you can ramp up the stat synergy and resolve building by doing that. Yrliet is good, but she is not that good.

Shmoopy said:

Good discussion but many sleeping on Jae. She is is one of the best skill bot / officer in the game, because this skill which nobody else can get (afaik).

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It is unique to her in that form, but any forgeworld character can basically replicate the effect in reverse and get a good INT out of the trade. And INT has the advantage of also applying to Logic and Tech Use, as well as AE damage in combat. You would be amazed what a high Int combined with an AE mele strike can do for damage in this game. Toss in any of the heroic acts that let you do lots of attacks in a turn and dude with club starts to rival Argenia really fast. And he will be good at everything outside of somewhat Carause or Demolitions. I am ending my current run with all skills over 100 and most over 150. Did the 170 logic test to get the free Heroic action once per combat with him. And at L4 the no armor Dogma action and launching his heroic after getting a Finest Hour from Cassie ends most fights before they even start, except for the final boss types or the more bullshitty necron/genestealer encounters. And I still get all the skill monkey benefits and wearing power armor and shield with a deflection base of around 20. Which is my main beef with Jae in combat, her midling base dodge and inability to use some of the better armor due to certain drawbacks. On hard, armoring up is always best, but if not you better bring 180 dodge and a reroll too the table bare minimum.