"Inquisitor Arnulf" aka Cypher

[Cortez]

Okay, I think this is probably more a GM or (this is how he gets away) thing, but the fluff makes mention that he can somehow hide/shroud his psychic signature so that folks can't find him - then he escapes. I stumbled over that bit while skimming his dataslate.
I don't think it's necessary for in-game use as such but I could be wrong?

Like Eternal Warrior I think that's more suitable in a campaign setting. Always escapes, can't be captured etc.

As for Plasma weapons, I agree that they are poor when compared to Bolt and Melta weapons. Even in the bad old days of overpowered god-like inquisitors they weren't popular, they're even less so considering the general lack of heavily armoured characters at Conclave events (I don't think I've ever seen a Tyrus conversion at a Conclave event).

I've been thinking about this for a bit as I was considering sculpting a Plasmagun for the Missionary I'm working on, here are some of my thoughts:

Melta weapons are a bit too accurate when compared to Plasma, especially at the short ranges most inquisitor action takes place at. Lower The accuracy penalties to -5% on Plasma weapons, increase the penalties for Melta weapons (they are supposed to be more reliable but less accurate).

I quite like the recharge idea as it makes the weapon feel and play differently, the RIA version just feels like a riskier pistol with ammo and reloads etc.

You could go with 4 settings:

Low Power: 2D10+5 (2D10 pistol), no risk, no recharge.
Low Power multi shot: add semi 2/3, risky, no recharge.
High Power: 3D10+5 (3D10 pistol), risky, recharge 1
High power multi shot: add semi 2/3, higher risk, recharge 2

Another option would be to make it riskier the more times you fire it without letting it cool down/recharge. So you can fire it once with no penalty, fire it a second time (in a consecutive action) with a low risk + chance it'll need to recharge, three times - higher risk of overheating running out of charge and so on. Each action spent not firing it would allow it to cool down/build up charge again. Can also spend a maintenance action (checking gauges, coolant levels etc.) to double the recharge for that action (once per turn).

[mcjomar]

Not to go completely nuts but it is hinted that he is actually a Psyker...... Or at least he is the loyalist librarian who fought alongside Luthur on Caliban (I forget his name).

Zahariel, and there are suggestions and theories that this might not be the case, given that outside of his ability to always escape, he never uses psychic powers on the battlefield.
There are two other possible choices, given events in The Primarchs, and other HH books involving the Lion

However, in regards to Cypher. He still has a Heresy issue Plasma Pistol which was more destructive than the later (and safer) imperial versions but at the same time, less safe to use. The fact that it is a master crafted version of the heresy era weapons should really curb the effects of the dangers to the wielder. So Maybe the heresy (and Chaos) weapons should be Rld1/2 but have a higher chance of overheating and/or exploding catastrophically.

The trick with Cypher is that his plasma pistol does not Gets Hot, and he can fire it twice in the shooting phase along with his bolt pistol, while a standard plasma pistol can only fire once, and does Gets Hot.
Would his pistol being master crafted negate the risky/hazardous state of a normal pistol of that era?

As for Plasma weapons, I agree that they are poor when compared to Bolt and Melta weapons. Even in the bad old days of overpowered god-like inquisitors they weren't popular, they're even less so considering the general lack of heavily armoured characters at Conclave events (I don't think I've ever seen a Tyrus conversion at a Conclave event).

Except for Lord Borak's model which ended up with my Hot Potato incident 

I quite like the recharge idea as it makes the weapon feel and play differently, the RIA version just feels like a riskier pistol with ammo and reloads etc.

For my part I take the opposite stance due to weapon artwork in 3rd edition rulebook (nice diagrams showing where fuel cells are plugged into the weapon), and the way plasma weapons worked in the Chaos Gate PC game (stable, no Gets Hot, limited to 6 rounds on pistols, 8 on plasma guns, and only the Cannon had high or low power settings, first shot takes lots of action points, rest are cheap to represent weight of fire or something).

You could go with 4 settings:

Low Power: 2D10+5 (2D10 pistol), no risk, no recharge.
Low Power multi shot: add semi 2/3, risky, no recharge.
High Power: 3D10+5 (3D10 pistol), risky, recharge 1
High power multi shot: add semi 2/3, higher risk, recharge 2

Another option would be to make it riskier the more times you fire it without letting it cool down/recharge. So you can fire it once with no penalty, fire it a second time (in a consecutive action) with a low risk + chance it'll need to recharge, three times - higher risk of overheating running out of charge and so on. Each action spent not firing it would allow it to cool down/build up charge again. Can also spend a maintenance action (checking gauges, coolant levels etc.) to double the recharge for that action (once per turn).

I think I like the second one a little more maybe, in general terms, with or without ammo.
It would cause Mordecai and Samantha to be more sparing with their plasma pistol shots (as if they weren't already).

[Cortez]

I have to say the work you did on this guy is amazing.

You mentioned creating a more normal space marine character at the last event, but honestly I don't really think that is needed. He wasn't noticeably more powerful than the other marines, in fact I would say that he was more balanced for a regular Inquisitor game than Banus, Lycus, Paulinus or the unfortunate traitor Arkus, which probably didn't do him any favours considering Saturdays scenarios.

I think he would work fine as a single character in regular conclave events, especially when you consider that they aren't usually just about killing as many enemies as possible!

[mcjomar]

I think part of the reason he works - outside of basically being 40k's answer to Carmen Sandiego - is that his Gun-Fu means that when he doesn't have his C'tan Phase Knife, he can't use his strength bonus in close-combat, and so can't rapidly mulch dudes in seconds the way a power-weapon equipped marine can.
Being further restricted by ammo counts means then in close-combat, if he runs out, he's down to fists - not bad as he's a space marine, but still not murder-crazy, like Artemis is.
Plus the fact that there are so many secrets and mysteries attached to him in the 40k lore, the fact he impersonated an Inquisitor at least once, and the fact that he's also been at the centre of a lot of questionable events that any Inquisitor worth their salt would be asking questions about means he's good to slot in anywhere - although being a named character, I'd still be tempted to only use him as a GM NPC from here on out.