Where to Start?

[leadjunky]

Well after lurking here and viewing every blog I could find, I have finally started to collect figures and bits (28mm). I couldn't wait to start building a character and I will post pictures as soon as I have finished with the painting eventually. I began with a somewhat simple figure build - just a generic gunman. I had a bounty hunter in mind when I started and he will fit in to almost any band.

I am now ready to start with a concept - I plan on one of the warband members being a Sister and I guess a priest-type should be included. I'd like to end up with 5-6 figures, but I am not sure if it should be led by an inquisitor or something else. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

[MarcoSkoll]

Firstly:

Welcome to the Conclave!

Beyond that... well, your ideas don't really give much to make suggestions on, but I can say that it's by no means necessary for every "warband" to include an Inquisitor (regardless of the name on the rulebook).

I have a warband lead by a Rogue Trader, am working on one based around a fugitive (trying to avoid falling into the Inquisition's hands) and will eventually get around to an Ecclesiarchy warband.

If you're including Sisters* or Priest-types, it sounds either like possibly a Puritan Inquisitor's warband or an Ecclesiarchy warband. The specifics of a bounty hunter might let him fit well into either. (The Ecclesiarchy does sanction "Witch Finders", not that far from a bounty hunter.

* On that note, which type? Sisters Militant can be used in Inquisitor - I have one myself** - but they can heavily push up the "power level" of a game, so Dialogus, Hospitalier and Famulous Orders are often more amicable choices.
** She will eventually be part of the previously mentioned Ecclesiarchy warband, which will include: a loud mouthed preacher (with a mobile caterpillar-tracked pulpit); probably all of a Dialogus, a Hospitalier and a Famulous (said preacher might happen to be a wee bit of a pervert); and maybe a pilgrim/sidesman/holy relic bearer type. So while the others won't be necessarily be useless in a fight (after all, almost all Sororitas come from the Schola Progenium and have some combat training), she'll really be the only one who's actually good in a fight, which should help stop her powerful weapons and armour unbalancing things.

[leadjunky]

Well thanks for the input.  I have one of the Sister Repentia that I was considering. I may go with a younger Puritan leader whose zeal and one-mindedness may get him more than he intended. Maybe an arco-flagellent for some close in havoc and a penitent gunman of sort. Maybe later add in some more clerical support such as a preacher or missionary type. The "witch finder" you mentioned sounds very interesting. I guess they locate witches and otherwise help to purge the unclean? Thanks.

[MarcoSkoll]

I have one of the Sister Repentia that I was considering.

That's probably generally a less problematic way of including Militant sisters - the power armour and bolters are the main concerns.

Maybe an arco-flagellent for some close in havoc

If you're including an arco-flagellant, it's best to make sure it's really adding to the character of another character in the group. Not being possessed of any real personalty beyond "KILL MAIM MUTILATE" themselves, they're never going to be posed with a dilemma and will never add to the story by doing something creative or unexpected. Inquisitor is part roleplay, in any case... and they've not got much character to add to that.

So, at least in my opinion (and perhaps only in my opinion), it's better to only add an arco-flagellant if establishing that your Inquisitor uses arco-flagellation as a punishment or has the strong Ecclesiastical connections involved is an important aspect of their personality.

There are other possibilties that could be more interesting to explore - the Inquisitor rulebook mentions other punishments such as the Rat Pit,
skin-purging and deathmasking.

We asked John Blanche a while ago what he thought these punishments might be (as they originally come from his notes and sketches) - and he didn't really have any fixed answer, so there's some flexibility here.
I later  proposed a reasonably popular idea that deathmasking might be similar to the theories behind the "Man in the Iron Mask":

Perhaps Deathmasking is akin to the theories about the Man in the Iron Mask - someone whose identity has been killed, and themselves permanently hidden beneath a featureless mask so that, as far as the world outside knows, they died with it. Maybe it's even got psychically implanted blocks that prevent them ever speaking/writing/otherwise conferring the name they once had.
Such a complete loss of identity would seem a pretty fitting punishment for the nobility, for whom their standing and identity is so much. They can only look out past unfeeling eye-holes at people who know they were once somebody but are now an unidentifiable non-person.

... so they know who they were and the Inquisitor will probably know - but as far as everyone else is concerned, he's just *insert designation here*.

There are any other number of metaphorical deaths that could be used though, so that idea could extend to any of a wide range of punishments.

I've been considering for a while that a "psyborg" character of mine, whose identity and memory were wiped for reasons unknown to him (perhaps he was a heretic, perhaps he's a loyal servant who found out too much one day), might in theory be an aspect of death-masking - a death of not just his name, but also who he once was.
(Although, in his case, he retains free will and is perfectly cogent - ask him a question and he'll give you a rational answer. He just has no idea who he was or what he did. Hence, he's almost suicidally brave, not really having anything to lose except the chance at redemption for his forgotten flaws).

These could all be more interesting things to chase down than an Arco-flagellant who doesn't really have much to separate him from any other except what chemical cocktail he's on and which weapons got grafted to his arms.

The "witch finder" you mentioned sounds very interesting. I guess they locate witches and otherwise help to purge the unclean?

More or less. When talking about a "witch finder", the traditional thing to imagine is the "burning psykers at the stake" type - but other possibilities include a more conventional bounty killer (using more "modern" weapons for the job of killing this threat) and some will be less-lethal hunters who capture psykers to be bundled on to the Black Ships (you've got to have astropaths and something to feed the Golden Throne).

The Imperium is pretty big - the ways in which psykers might be tracked down will vary greatly across its million worlds!

[Draco Ferox]

Not being possessed of any real personalty beyond "KILL MAIM MUTILATE" themselves, they're never going to be posed with a dilemma and will never add to the story by doing something creative or unexpected. Inquisitor is part roleplay, in any case... and they've not got much character to add to that.

Having both a repentia and an arco-flagellant in the warband might pose an interesting challenge to a leader who thinks that an all guns blazing approach isn't always the right one. The flagellant themself might not be good for roleplay, but having it with you certainly opens up more options for any associated characters and NPCs*.

As far as what to do with your character, it looks like you're going for a pretty fanatical warband, with the penitent and a firebrand puritan as well as the aforementioned characters. Having the priest be a world-weary and practical veteran assigned to (not always successfully) temper his wilder ideas might work well, as a little intra-group conflict is always interesting for roleplay purposes, as long as you keep it low-key enough to not threaten the integrity of the group itself.

You could also have your leader be "on probation" after some previous over-zealous act, forcing him to constantly contrast what his heart and brain are telling him to do.

The "witch finder" you mentioned sounds very interesting. I guess they locate witches and otherwise help to purge the unclean? Thanks.

Witch finders are basically sanctioned bounty hunters who have a special charter, written in wych-blood, that states that when they suspect a witch, they have influence just below an inquisitor, such as requisitioning. They tend to be hard-bitten individuals, considering that their trade is to hunt down the most dangerous of humanity, and they tend to mostly be 100+, as in their profession, you either do well and survive for a while, or you die very quickly and messily.

You can find some rules pertaining to them in Marco's mediafire archive. Links are in his sig and here

*whom I assume would immediately become terrified and unwilling to say anything lest they say anything wrong, arco-flagellants being what they are

[leadjunky]

Yes I like these ideas.  A priest to temper the faithful? Might round them out. For some range I am thinking a former PDF or mercenary type, maybe a pirate paying for his sins through service. Maybe he is bound in servitude or is now on a pilgrimage to save his soul. I may set aside the flagellant for now. The repentia can be my hth heavy and the inquisitor of course. This would give me the inquisitor, sister, useful pilgrim, the priest, and then perhaps the sanctioned witch finder.

[MarcoSkoll]

they tend to mostly be 100+, as in their profession, you either do well and survive for a while, or you die very quickly and messily.

Statistical maths doesn't really agree.

Let's say an average witch-finder starts at the age of 20 and has a 10% chance of dying in any given year. This means about 50% will die by about 26-27 years old. 90% will die by the age of 42.
Now, obviously the percentages shift. An experienced (that being an older) witch-finder will probably have a lower chance of dying year on year than when he was a newbie, so the tail end of the scale is probably longer than that. But still, the fact that it's a high risk job will actually mean that the mean and median ages of the people involved in it will be towards the younger end of the scale.

In short, even a decade or two is really quite a while in that kind of role...

I suspect a similar thing with the Inquisition - although we keep creating 100+ year old Inquisitors, centenarians are probably actually a minority in the Ordos, given the lethality of the job.
This is not unreasonable, narratively - we're hardly interested in Inquisitors who go and get themselves killed a few months after they get their promotion. We prefer to play those that are successful, be it through luck, skill or sheer bloody mindedness.

But that doesn't mean the unfortunates who die a year or two in don't contribute to the statistics.