First character (unguided, no malice (not deliberately op)). Criticism Sought.

[Inquisitor Vale]

Hello,
Thanks once again. I have revised the Inquisitor again:

Inquisitor Ollanius Sabbat Sebastian Vale, Ordo Hereticus (Amalathian)

Born: 621.M41, Alpha Calixtine (aged 392).

WS   BS   S   T   I    Wp  Sg   Nv   Ld   Spd
55    57   35  61 62 82    84    73  81     4

Clarification: S 35 denotes the strength of his relatively unaugmented left arm. His heavily augmented right arm has strength 50

Talents:
Leader

Special Rules:
Advanced Age
Despite bracing by augmetics and drugs, Inquisitor Vale is an aged man. He cannot sprint and suffers the following movement penalties:

Walking: -1 yard
Evading: -2 yards
Running: -1 yards

Strong Will
Inquisitor Vale has served the God-Emperor for over three centuries and seen many horrors. He will meet them now with righteous wrath. He is not subject to the limitations imposed by the trait ''Fearsome''. Characters possessing the trait ''Terrifying'' affect him as if they possessed the trait ''Fearsome''.

Weapons:

Archaeotech Laspistol
Type: Pistol   
Range: C   
Acc: –     
Damage: 2D6 1D3   
Shots: 35
Rld: 2
Wt: 15

Null Rod with Shock Generator (Criticism Welcome)
[Square brackets denote part of the Untouchable rules about which I am unsure -- do they apply to Null Rods?]

Reach: 2
Damage: D6 + 3, against psykers and daemons 2D10
Parry Penalty -25%

The Null Rod is not liable to be broken when parrying power-weapons.

The Null Rod renders its bearer completely immune to psychic powers, the effects of Psychic Phenomena, and all forms of Warp energy – such things simply fail to affect him.

[In addition, Daemonic characters, and characters using Warp Sight, suffer a -30 penalty to Awareness tests
made to detect the bearer by sight. Furthermore, the bearer may not be detected by means of
the Detection, Psi-Track or Warp Perception powers.]

An Null Rod  additionally projects an "aura" extending 3 yards out from its bearer. This has the
following effects:

• Psykers using their powers within this aura, or using them on anyone within the aura, suffer a
penalty to their Psychic test; this is a -50 penalty, modified by +5 for every full yard between the
bearer and either the psyker or the target (if both are within the aura, measure to whoever is
closer to the bearer).

• The above modifier also applies to Willpower tests made to sustain persistent powers if the psyker or
target is within the aura.

• The aura also robs force weapons and daemon weapons of their special properties, and Daemonic
characters lose all of their Daemonic attributes (with the sole exception of This Form Is Fragile).


Armour
Robes (Armour Value of 2) on chest, abdomen, groin, right leg and left arm.
Robes (AV of 2) + advanced bionic leg (+2) on left leg. [omit movement increase to indicate age] = 4 *
Robes (AV of 2) + advanced bionic arm (+2) on right arm. [Strength 50 right arm, lowered because of age] = 4 *
1x Advanced Bionic Lung (as Average Bionic Lungs)
Refractor Shield (2D6)

[Koval]

do they apply to Null Rods?

A variation of them probably would, but toned down a bit. Yes, that's a smaller bubble, but he's pretty much packing the same anti-psychic firepower as a full blown Untouchable.

Surprisingly, it's also an easy fix, just change the Psychic test penalty on the aura from -50 to -30 and you're good. The effect of a null rod is primarily a personal one anyway, with a bit of anti-psychic *thwack* for good measure.

Rather than 2D10 damage against psykers and daemons, I'd make it 2D6+3 (so just one more base damage die) and give it the Shock Weapon rules. It's supposed to be nasty in a completely different manner to "I just made your arm explode lol".

[Inquisitor Vale]

Hello,
Thanks. I was thinking I had overegged it while I was mopping the floor at work last night!

Null Rod with Shock Generator (Criticism Welcome)

Reach: 2
Damage: D6 + 3, against psykers and daemons 2D6+3
Parry Penalty -25%

The Null Rod counts as a Shock Weapon (query -- should it have an incressed effect against psykers, daemons)

The Null Rod has a 10% chance of being broken when it parries a weapon (it is apparently made of obsidian and so is not a dedicated weapon).

The Null Rod is not liable to the greater chance of being broken when parrying power-weapons.

Effects

The Null Rod renders its bearer completely immune to psychic powers, the effects of Psychic Phenomena, and all forms of Warp energy – such things simply fail to affect him.

In addition, Daemonic characters, and characters using Warp Sight, suffer a -10 penalty to Awareness tests
made to detect the bearer by sight. Furthermore, the bearer may not be detected by means of
the Detection, Psi-Track or Warp Perception powers.

An Null Rod  additionally projects an "aura" extending 3 yards out from its bearer. This has the
following effects:

• Psykers using their powers within this aura, or using them on anyone within the aura, suffer a
penalty to their Psychic test; this is a -30 penalty, modified by +5 for every full yard between the
bearer and either the psyker or the target (if both are within the aura, measure to whoever is
closer to the bearer).

• The above modifier also applies to Willpower tests made to sustain persistent powers if the psyker or
target is within the aura.

• The aura also robs force weapons and daemon weapons of their special properties, and Daemonic
characters lose all of their Daemonic attributes (with the sole exception of This Form Is Fragile).

Psykers [and Daemons?] treat the bearer of a Null Rod as fearsome (to indicate the disruption to their thoughts caused by the field, see the shattering rule to offset it)

[MarcoSkoll]

Personally, I'd say that holding a null rod is rather less effective than being an untouchable or even being around one; The Inquisition goes to quite some lengths to find those one-in-a-billion individuals (whose mutation is hard to detect and actually makes them less likely to be found) which sort of implies they can't be replaced quite so effectively by a warded obsidian stave. Okay, null rods are hardly common, but the fact they can be manufactured must make them considerably less bother to acquire.

With that in mind, I personally wouldn't have them confer complete immunity to their owner, particularly if I were skipping some of the additional drawbacks I'd normally give to an untouchable that powerful. (Normally, I'd give them the Emnity rule from whichever Dark Magenta article it was, giving any allies within their area of effect -1 Speed, because their aura just generates mistrust).

I'd need to think on exactly what I'd do though, as just handing out Wp penalties is a problem too, as the psychic power rules are just a mess.
(I wrote my two minor null characters rules where the penalties are ignored when calculating the chances of psychic feedback, because I can't imagine that there'd be more psychic feedback when someone who earths psychic energy is involved).

it is apparently made of obsidian and so is not a dedicated weapon.

This is a bit of a tangent, but that's not entirely true. Various Mesoamerican cultures used the macuahuitl, an obsidian edged sword.

Obsidian fractures very cleanly, meaning that cultures from the stone age onwards have been about to knap it and produce blades with an edge of about 3 nanometres - roughly ten atoms across. Obsidian scalpels are still used for certain surgical procedures, as they make any steel blade look blunt in comparison (although, yes, they are far less durable and hard-wearing).

Anyway, more on topic, given the rarity and value of a null rod, I'd say they'd be fairly generously reinforced and possibly even protected by miniature field generators (partly because if they do shatter, you really don't want to be covered in atomically sharp fragments). I don't imagine they're all that fragile.

[Inquisitor Vale]

Hello,
Thanks. The shattering was introduced to balance the null rod's considerable power. I am slightly flummoxed about how to proceed -- advice welcome, especially if you would be willing 'to think on it'.

[Alyster Wick]

Been following this thread since it's beginning, just haven't gotten a chance to comment

So I totally agree with Marco re: the null rod. The current rules make it far too powerful relative to untouchables. Also, were it that powerful, one would think that it would have dire effects on the wielder. Untouchables are despised and distrusted by those around them due to their unnatural nature. An object that mirrors their effects would be torture for the person using the object. Given the current rules, I'm thinking that Vale would be suffering from a number of ill effects mentally. In that case, there are a number of articles to provide you with inspiration on that front in terms of rules for battered sanity. Oddly, the Warp Malignancy rules from "The Fickle Warp" article would fit well (check Marco's post in the Inquisitor PDFs sticky in this section of the conclave for the article). I say "oddly" because the source of the insanity there is supposed to be over exposure to the warp, but I think some of the effects could be tweaked to make them serve your purposes.

If you check out FO58, the Lectures on the Wych - Part 2 has some great null-ish objects for inspiration (check out the Warp Disruptor rules). Again, this article can be found in Marco's post in the aforementioned sticky.

To give more direct feedback, just forget about giving the rod a chance to break. It has a shock field and it's a super special weapon. Giving it a 10% chance to break seems silly and like you're intentionally nerfing yourself. If it breaks during a campaign you'll have to bend over backwards to explain how he gets another (I'm assuming he doesn't have a stockpile of them) and then you're entire character and how they play will be effected. Don't get me wrong, I really dig that you're trying to be mindful of your character's power level, but there are better ways to do it (see the idea re: giving him a warp-malignancy type condition due to sleeping with his null rod under his pillow for a couple centuries).   

To be a little more helpful, I'd say give a -30 modifier to any power targeting the wielder or anyone w/in 3 inches of the wielder. Allied psychers treat the wielder w/ Enmity (as Marco described above) and possibly make Vale paranoid (he has to pass a Leadership test each turn or he's a -1 speed) due to over exposure to the Null Rod (this is a permanent condition at this point, no longer due to proximity to the rod). You could expand Enmity to include non-psychers within 3 or 10 inches depending on your tastes, but I'm not sure if its necessary. Nice, simple, and direct. Relatively easy to remember and not too cumbersome to implement.

Anyway, happy hobbying! Hope that's helpful.

[Inquisitor Vale]

Thank you very much (A happy New Year, by the way -- good grief, 2016). I have added several penalties I find characterful. They have been taken from an unofficial Dark Reign supplement.

Null Rod with Shock Generator (Criticism Welcome)

Reach: 2
Damage: D6 + 3, against psykers and daemons 2D6+3
Parry Penalty -25%

The Null Rod counts as a Shock Weapon. It is not liable to the greater chance of being broken when parrying power-weapons.

A Null Rod crackles with antipsychic energy, projecting a dampening aura for three yards around the bearer. Any psyker wishing to use a psychic power against the bearer, or anyone within the aura, takes the psychic test at -30 willpower. Allied psykers treat the bearer of a Rod with Enmity.

Despite being a potent anti-psychic weapon, a Null Rod is an extremely dangerous thing to wield. The scholars of the Ordo Malleus believe that psychic ability resides in the electro-chemistry of the brain -- psykers have especially bright brains, as they do bright souls, crackling with mental energy. The dampening of mental energy associated with a Null Rod takes its toll on the sanity of the wielder, more or less depending on his strength of mind, eventually causing dementia, blackouts and death.

Mental Decline
Inquisitor Vale has wielded a null rod for centuries. Bolstered by neural implants granted by the skill of the Mechanicum, his formidable memory and scholarship have declined extremely slowly, but more and more noticeably.

After each game, the player must roll 4D6 and subtract the results from his Sagacity, Willpower, Leadership and Nerve in that order. He plays the next game with these lesser statistics and may never augment them.

Blackouts
Once Willpower and Leadership have fallen below sixty he has a 5% chance of a blackout (equivalent to being stunned) at the start of a turn.

Paranoia
He has grown paranoid, apt to see threats everywhere. He must pass a leadership test at the start of each turn or suffer a -1 speed penalty.

Palsied Hand
His remaining living hand (his left) has started to tremble with palsy, so that he finds delicate work more and more difficult. A He must pass another Action Roll to perform any action which the Gamesmaster deems delicate (e.g. rewiring a cogitator console, picking a lock).

I confess that several of these were added for fluff reasons -- they add a whole new element to his character, a great scholar steadily declining and leaning more and more on savants, servitors and interrogators, concealing his decline and accepting it with Amalathian resignation to the Emperor's will.

[MarcoSkoll]

Any psyker wishing to use a psychic power against the bearer, or anyone within the aura, takes the psychic test at -35 willpower

That's roughly the same as the rulebook's Pentagrammic Wards (which halve the psyker's Wp, which is going to be equivalent to around -30 to -40 for most psykers).
Penalties like that aren't too unreasonable if you house rule the psychic overload rules down a few notches; by default, something like that can quite easily make a psyker fail a test by a huge margin and lose a huge fraction of their Wp in one go, as well as the problem that the power just doesn't work.

I suspect this is the main reason I don't see a lot of dedicated psykers on the table; most psykers I recall meeting can be pretty competent without using their powers. I have a couple, but they're piled with special rules to stop their brains melting by turn three.
Koval's Revised Powers are a good approach, as they ditch the Wp loss on failure (although not on a Risky Action).

My inclination might even be to make a null rod a bit more powerful than wards, but a flat penalty as high as -50 would have the issue that it can penalise lower Wp psykers to almost impossibility. (Compare the chances with a -50 penalty for a Wp 60 or Wp 80 psyker). Again, a little thought needed.

For food for thought, here's the relevant rules that go with Giovanna Ciris, one of my two low-power nulls. She's an Arbitrator whose resistance landed her in an anti-witch squad (where her natural defences got somewhat supplemented by specialised training and gear).
She's only partially resistant and sometimes gets into trouble as a result (being psionically blind, she usually misses the "gut instincts" that'd warn others to get out of there), but the upside for her is that puts her several notches above the point where she'd inspire revulsion in everyone (although she's not exactly great at forming relationships).

Upsilon: Gia treats all psychic effects as if reduced by two degrees of success; this can negate their effect on her. Creatures with warp sight are at -20 to detect her by sight.

In her case, her resistance most strongly manifests as a very low mental connection to and perception of the warp, leading to a particular resistance to telepathy, something which has been further augmented by extensive anti-psychic training.
She may/must "nullify" any psychic effect that would affect her perceptions, emotions or mind (taken each time/turn it would affect her, as appropriate) - this is automatic if the power is indirect and hasn't/can't nominate her as a specific target for the power (e.g. an aura around another character or an illusion cast at a point on the table).

In all cases, this trait only affects a power's effects on her only (not others) and is ignored when considering psychic overload.

Inscribed Armour:Any psychic power targeting a character wearing inscribed armour is treated as ranged. If already ranged, it doubles the penalty.

After each game, the player must roll 4D6 and subtract the results from his Sagacity, Willpower, Leadership and Nerve in that order. He plays the next game with these lesser statistics and may never augment them.

I'm assuming that's not cumulative (else he's going to be a drooling imbecile around game 5), so what about doing it the other way around?

Randomise his stats as X+2D10 at the start of the game, where X is a few points less than their current value. About 10 if you want him to have moments of brilliant lucidity, or maybe 15-20 points if you want him to seem like a shadow of a once brilliant mind.

There's not really much functional difference doing it at the start of the game, but it's going to be easier on the bookkeeping than trying to keep around notes between games.

His remaining living hand (his left) has started to tremble with palsy, so that he finds delicate work more and more difficult. A He must pass another Action Roll to perform any action which the Gamesmaster deems delicate (e.g. rewiring a cogitator console, picking a lock).

I'm not sure quite what you mean by another action roll (those actions need two successful rolls?), so I'd probably just make it a -20 penalty to any delicate work that needs his left hand.

[Koval]

Any psyker wishing to use a psychic power against the bearer, or anyone within the aura, takes the psychic test at -35 willpower

That's roughly the same as the rulebook's Pentagrammic Wards (which halve the psyker's Wp, which is going to be equivalent to around -30 to -40 for most psykers).
Penalties like that aren't too unreasonable if you house rule the psychic overload rules down a few notches; by default, something like that can quite easily make a psyker fail a test by a huge margin and lose a huge fraction of their Wp in one go, as well as the problem that the power just doesn't work.

The fact that the rules at the top of the page are pretty much a lift from RIPPA (the reference to This Form Is Fragile gave it away) says to me that we're already looking at house-ruling the overload rules down. I don't think the null rod rules as he has them are that nasty anyway.

[Inquisitor Vale]

Koval: I am very sorry. I should have put that it wasn't my own work, merely changed figures, done swiftly and lazily for the sake of getting something together quickly -- I was recommended to use a toned down version of the untouchable rules from the RIPPI. I see that it's bad conduct and I'll make sure it won't happen again. I'm ill inclined to introduce house rules as the house presently consists of me!

You can see that it has been deleted thoroughly in the most recent revision.

While I remember, I should add that much of the text  of the revision is fashioned from a Dark Reign supplement.

Will think over it in the morning.

[Koval]

Koval: I am very sorry. I should have put that it wasn't my own work, merely changed figures, done swiftly and lazily for the sake of getting something together quickly -- I was recommended to use a toned down version of the untouchable rules from the RIPPI. I see that it's bad conduct and I'll make sure it won't happen again. I'm ill inclined to introduce house rules as the house presently consists of me!

You can see that it has been deleted thoroughly in the most recent revision.

Mate, that wasn't what I was getting at. I wouldn't have made RIPPA if I didn't want people to use it. What I was saying was that it looks like the house rules in RIPPA are already in play if you're using the (otherwise very nasty) Untouchable rules, which is fine.

If they're not, then of course the null rod will need to be toned down further, but at the moment it just depends on how you handle psychic powers failing.

[Inquisitor Vale]

Oops! Hope no harm done -- got it drummed into me by my aunt (a pre-publication book reviewer) not to copy other people's work as half her work seemed to involve rooting it out in other folk.

Edited: to remove the word 'drubbed' and replace with 'drummed' as it seemed rather insulting to my dear aunt, God rest her, the kindest of women.

INQUISITOR VALE REVISED – RIPPA not used.

Inquisitor Ollanius Sabbat Sebastian Vale, Ordo Hereticus (Amalathian)

Born: 621.M41, Alpha Calixtine (aged 392).

WS   BS   S   T   I    Wp  Sg   Nv   Ld   Spd
55    57   35  61 62  82    84    73  81     4

These show his innate mental capacities. The special rule Mental Decline produces the following results:
Wp 71 Sg 73 Nv 62 Ld 70

Clarification: S 35 denotes the strength of his relatively unaugmented left arm. His heavily augmented right arm has strength 50

Talents:
Leader

Special Rules:

Advanced Age
Despite bracing by augmetics and drugs, Inquisitor Vale is an aged man. He cannot sprint and suffers the following movement penalties:

Walking: -1 yard
Evading: -2 yards
Running: -1 yards

Strong Will
Inquisitor Vale has served the God-Emperor for over three centuries and seen many horrors. He will meet them now with righteous wrath. He is not subject to the limitations imposed by the trait ''Fearsome''. Characters possessing the trait ''Terrifying'' affect him as if they possessed the trait ''Fearsome''.

Weapons:

Archaeotech Laspistol
Type: Pistol   
Range: C   
Acc: –     
Damage: 2D6 1D3   
Shots: 35
Rld: 2
Wt: 15

Null Rod with Shock Generator
Reach: 2
Damage: D6 + 3, against psykers and daemons 2D6+3
Parry Penalty -25%

The Null Rod counts as a Shock Weapon. It is not liable to the greater chance of being broken when parrying power-weapons.

A Null Rod crackles with antipsychic energy, projecting a dampening aura for three yards around the bearer. Any psyker wishing to use a psychic power against the bearer, or anyone within the aura, takes the psychic test at -40 willpower. Allied psykers treat the bearer of a Rod with Enmity.

Psykers and sorcerors regard the bearer of a Null Rod as Fearsome.

Despite being a potent anti-psychic weapon, a Null Rod is an extremely dangerous thing to wield. The scholars of the Ordo Malleus believe that psychic ability resides in the electro-chemistry of the brain -- psykers have especially bright brains, as they do bright souls, crackling with mental energy. The dampening of mental energy associated with a Null Rod takes its toll on the sanity of the wielder, more or less depending on his strength of mind, eventually causing dementia, blackouts and death.

It causes the following Special Rules to take effect:

Mental Decline
Inquisitor Vale has wielded a null rod for centuries. Bolstered by neural implants granted by the skill of the Mechanicum, his formidable memory and scholarship have declined extremely slowly, but more and more noticeably.

His innate mental capacities are all rated -15 at the start of every game.

In order to determine his capacities at a given time, the player must roll 1D10 four times at the start of each game and add the results to his Sagacity, Willpower, Leadership and Nerve in that order. [I've dropped the penalty to -11 to indicate that he is a formidable but declining mind, not already a lost one.]

Blackouts
As a result of long wielding a Null Rod, Inquisitor Vale has a 10% chance of a blackout (equivalent to being stunned) at the start of a turn.

Paranoia
He has grown paranoid, apt to see threats everywhere. He must pass a leadership test at the start of each turn or suffer a -1 speed penalty.

Palsied Hand

Clarification: The reference to a second Action Roll was because I forgot there was a Sagacity test to pick a lock etc. I meant that, should a sufficient number of Action Rolls be passed to encompass the lock-picking, he would have to roll another D6 and pass it to see if he managed to pick the lock – effectively imitating the Sagacity test.

His remaining living hand (his left) has started to tremble with palsy, so that he finds delicate work more and more difficult. He suffers a -20 penalty to the Sagacity test required to perform any action which the Gamesmaster deems delicate (e.g. rewiring a cogitator console, picking a lock) involving his left hand.

Discussion
As I understand it the great difficulty with psychic modifiers lies in this rule:

If a psyker fails a test, there is a chance that he will suffer mental damage from the powers unleashed in his mind. For every full 10% that a psyker fails a Psychic test by, he loses D10 from his Willpower characteristic.

Let us allow a psyker of Willpower 80, without concentration, to attempt to cast ''Storm of Lightning'' on Inquisitor Vale, standing ten yards away.

The innate difficulty of the power is 5, and the difficulty increases by 1 per cent for every yard betweem the psyker and his target.

Thus, the unmodified roll is 80 -15% of 80, i.e. 80-12 = 69 => our psyker must roll 69 or less to use the power.

But, modified by the Null Rod, our psyker must roll 69-30 or 39 or less to use the power. This is, to my mind, all very well. However, for every 10% of 39 our psyker fails there test by (e.g. for every four points over 39 he rolls) he loses D10 from his willpower. It's quite conceivable to imagine rolling five, six, seven D10. This could rapidly become crippling.

If RIPPA is used the permanent willpower hit only comes into play, not when a psychic roll is failed, but if the risky action roll now associated with psychic powers is failed. I could, then, cheerfully increase the willpower hit of the Null Rod to -35 or -40 to indicate it is stronger than wards without being painfully unfair (or adopt some of the Untouchable rules again, such as the Warp Sight penalty and the weakening of Daemons and their weapons). I would use RIPPA myself, but the only other person whose reasonably local is Van Helser and I'm inclined to follow whatever he uses.

Is this correct?

[MarcoSkoll]

I haven't a chance to check out your full post at this exact moment, you updated it while I was writing, but a couple of quick points:

Hope no harm done -- got it drubbed into me by my aunt (a pre-publication book reviewer) not to copy other people's work as half her work seemed to involve rooting it out in other folk.

Nah, we're much more casual than that about rules. It's courteous to tip the hat when you're first borrowing (partly because it helps others if they want to look things up), but when people can use the same rules, it's tidier (and easier) than them all having to come up with their own set. I'd even say rather complimentary to have other people think your rules are good enough to borrow.

Is this correct?

Not quite. As far as the fact that it's the penalty on a failed psychic test that's the problem, yes, but not for the maths.

Inquisitor only rarely uses true percentage modifiers, even if it normally says things like -15% (and when it does use modifiers that are a fraction of the stat, they're usually states as things like "a fifth"). Almost always, they're using percentage points, so -15% just means -15.
Personally, I just write all my modifiers without the old % convention, because it avoids any such confusion.

As a more minor point, the Storm of Lightning power doesn't actually use the Ranged penalty, it has to be specified in the power's description.

[Inquisitor Vale]

Thanks -- I've just remembered something I was going to ask you re. digital weapons. That the Jokaero were not considered Xenos was something of a surprise -- am I correct in thinking that non-intelligent life other than Man (and the Jokaero are mere parrot-like mimics) are not deemed Xenos?

[greenstuff_gav]

i always seen it that useful aliens / mutants were kept around; the Jokaero, Squats Ratlings and Ogryn... too useful to purge but that maybe the cynic in me!