Isn't the easiest way to simple give adepts and priests more oppertunity to shine? If everything is about combat then people will take combat careers, but if other things also show up that gives problem to an unbalanced cell then maybe that could lead to people investing in a career that's actually useful.

 Oh, I always give every character their time to shine. If we had a cleric he'd have ALOT of extra options if they went to the local chapel. The skills they choose will matter, so will the skills they don't. Obviously not every session but I try to do it. The probem is, career choices limit what they're capable and the limitations a party setup are difficult to fix, witthout someone dying and rolling another class and overly punishing them for it isn't right. The adept however will be given more time in the limelight due to the others having to share combat, hopefully it'll get the psyker to focus on utility as much as combat etc.

our group has 2 Clerics - Father Des the Fire and Brimstone preacher, played by a newbie to 40k, and Father Nic, well the more social skilled but sometime more ???  morals played by a old hand to 40k.

Playing an Adept right now in a PBP game. We have the following: Tech-Priest, Arbite, Guardsman, Scum, and a shooty Assassin. Clearly, they were lacking in direction and organization. They needed someone to pull together all the disparate clues and form them all into one fundamentally sound whole. Perhaps the Tech Priest might have been able to cobble together a feeble cogitator of some small merit to collate all the data, but that would take too much time. Better to have a sound mind, grounded in faith and bolstered by Knowledge to put a full picture on the investigation we wish to present to the Inquisitor. (guess who is shooting for Legate Investigator :D)

 Additionally, my Peers in the Administratum would happily assist me in *re-directing* much needed supplies AWAY FROM THE EMPEROR-FORSAKEN ROCK YOU CALL A PLANET if you cross me. It's quite simple really. You cross me, I cross your home off the resupply ledgers. Ponder that and reply back to me tomorrow with your acquiescence to my demands. (Use that as a selling point anytime!)

I have never had anyone play an Adept yet, oddly enough.  I've had several people play Clerics in DH, and in RT people have played every career from the Core Book.  I've never punished a group for not having a certain class/career, but I have on a few occasions recommended to them to hire/request a skilled person in the areas they were lacking in as a group, for a few sessions.  During those times I've made those NPC's shine and showed them what they were missing, but after that, the group went their own way and the game continued on as normal.  I've always tried to guide my games to what the groups main attributes are, whether this was investigative, combat, or social (though rarely was it ever social, besides in RT ;).  So really, from my experience, it just depends on what the individual person wants to play.  Best of luck to you though.

I must say that Verispex Adept is quite godly when it comes to playing DH. You will never be good in combat, and encounters, where you shine are gonna seem quite boring for the rest of the group. But I would say that a cool Adept makes a great force multiplier for the story. Just make sure you sprinkle in some Deceive, Charm and don't make Fellowship your dumpstat. 

Demagogue alternate rank works wonders to enhance Adept socially. You can see it here: 

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/Salvation%20Demands%20Sacrifice%20(Web%20Quality).pdf

holy junkballs! i have never seen salvation demands sacrifice! other than this and the lost dataslate, are there any other web only addons?

deadlyhammer said:

Just one for Rogue Trader that added extra Dark Eldar stuff, and one for Ascendsion with Battle Sister characters.

Wouldn't Carl Thonius in Ravenor have started out as an Adept?  And, the doctor who helped Patience in the same series, a 
"religious" man, could be a cleric.

Desire is a really big part of Roleplaying, the desire to play the more "intellectual" or spiritual careers often requiers someone who really likes playing that occupation.  What i highly suggest is not to try and force that option onto your group, its usually an indicator of the type of game your players want to experience based on the classes they take.

My game for instance is really heavy on the combatants, and I need to constantly remind myself that I can't run a large intellectual conspiracy or investigation, my players dont think that way so they avoid playing classes that might force them ot think like that.

Sure there are plenty of ways to entice player to try a different class, for me I like to point out that Clerics in the Imperium can be just a psycho as a Moritat and they get access to Flame weapons really early on, thier is no need for them to play up the Preacher aspect to being a Cleric, just that they have a faith and to quote a particular move "Are on a mission from God".

Adepts are a bit trickier, the biggest benefit is thier breadth of skills.  They are the go to guy for knowledge but thier is no need to make then jsut a walking library, they can easily become the front-man of a Acoltye cell with the right alternate level or really go dark and become a Sorceror.  I would say the best thing about Adepts is that out of all the career's they are the most likely to know what is really going on and just how dark the night really is.  If you get a good player you can feed off that fact and use the adept to feed terror to your players.

But it really is all about personal desire.

If you want to see the religious aspect of the Imperium and your players dont want to experience it first hand, use your adventures themselves to highlight that aspect.  Bring in religious NPC's and a attatch Adept when they need answers froma dusty tome of lore.  Let that slide a little and move on with what your group wants, that way no one feels like thier playig something they didnt originally intend, AND you get the added bonus that showing off NPC;s this way will help to encourage a player to try out that class, when they are out of Fate Points.

- Raith