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Witch Hunter Eurydice's Warband

Started by Corvidian, February 17, 2018, 03:35:31 PM

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Corvidian

Hello everyone! New user here, decided I would start off by showing off my 28mm scale warband for Inquisitor.


Witch Huntress Kore Eurydice herself.  Basic Inquisitor Greyfax model, nothing too fancy.


Servo-Skull "Haxtes". From Deathwatch Overkill set, nothing converted.


Veteran Sergeant Munro Kerr. Simple Guardsman with med-kit.


Ogryn Rourke. Straight out the box, nothing converted.


Squat Áki Hrafn. Converted Kharadron Overlord model.


I'll make a further comment on their backstory and equipment.

Corvidian

#1
Inquisitor Kore Eurydice
  Gear:
Power Armor (All locations except head)
Power Sword (Rare)
Condemnor Bolter (Mk IV drum mag) (Psycannon attachment) (Rare + Legendary)
Frag Grenade (Common)
Krak Grenade (Rare)
Inquisitorial Badge (Ordo Hereticus)
Servo-Skull (Hunter-Skull; Bio-Scanner, Motion-Tracker, Psi-Tracker) "Haxtes" (Exotic)
Bionic Eye (Left, Advanced with Range Finder) (Exotic)
  Abilities:
Ambidextrous
Force of Will
Leader
Mind Scan (Psychic - Telepathy)
Sanctuary (Psychic - Daemonology)
Word of the Emperor

Sergeant Munro Kerr
  Gear:
Flak Armor (Arms, Legs, Chest)
Lasgun with Bayonet (Common)
2 Frag Grenades (Common)
Medi-pak (Rare)
  Abilities:
Hipshooting
Medic
Nerves of Steel

Ogryn Auxiliary Rourke
  Gear:
Flak Armor (Left Arm, Legs)
Ripper Gun
4 Big Frag Grenades
  Abilities:
Hipshooting
Hurl Opponent ("Using Space Marines")
Shield ("Using Space Marines")
Shoulder Charge ("Using Space Marines")
True Grit

Squat Auxiliary Áki Hrafn
  Gear:
Carapace armor (all locations with average sight auto senses and Infrascope, and built-in comm-link)
Meltagun (Exotic)
Breacher (Reach 2, Damage 2D10, Parry -25%. Critical hits cause instant Crippled result regardless of cover, armor or forcefield)
2 Frag Grenades (Common)
Re-breather (Exotic)
Bionic Arm (Left arm, Advanced, Implanted Breacher) (Exotic)
  Abilities:
Deadeye Shot
Fast Draw
Rock Steady Aim
True Grit

Corvidian

#2
Personal Data
  Kore Eurydice
Born: [REDACTED]
Creed: Puritan, Monodominant
Ordo: Hereticus
Birth and trials:
  Born on Imperial hive world [REDACTED], raised in the Schola Progenium under the Adeptus Ministorum subsection. Lost an eye in an encounter with a fellow student, but the rival came out worse from it, barely surviving Eurydice's skill with a knife. During Inquisitor [REDACTED]'s visit to recruit acolytes, Eurydice sought him out and insisted in being taken under his tutelage. Due to her questioning and contentious behaviour, the Schola and Inquisitor finally relinquished, and she was on her way to become an Acolyte proper.
  Assisted in cleansing the mining world of [REDACTED], accompanying Ordo Xenos Inquisitor [REDACTED] when the cult known as [REDACTED]  turned out to be a hive of [REDACTED] of the [REDACTED] genus.
  Executed the heretical witch and agitator [REDACTED] on planet [REDACTED] after satisfactory evidence of heresy had been presented. Eurydice then proceeded to lead a large scale investigation and purge of the entire [REDACTED] system to root out any of aforementioned heretic.

  Sergeant Munro Kerr
Born: [REDACTED]
Creed: Imperial
Deeds of Valor:
  Veteran of several larger engagements, most notably survived the invasion of planet [REDACTED] under uprising from xenos sympathists, known as the [REDACTED] Cult. Survived due to tactical acumen and hogging cover, as well as exploiting cult behaviour and thus infiltrating the front lines and sabotaging Goliath trucks controlled by enemy forces. After sustaining damage Munro stayed out of fire and assisted medicae and emergency personnel, along with making close friends with the ogryn known as Rourke. Recruited by Inquisitor Eurydice post-battle, along with Rourke.

  Ogryn Auxiliary Rourke
Born: [REDACTED]
Creed: Imperial
Birth and trials:
  Raised on the prison planet [REDACTED], Rourke served as any other ogryn. Sent to planet [REDACTED] to serve as PDF heavy infantry, he survived the uprising of local [REDACTED] cult. Rourke lived solely due to ogryn physiology and guardsman Kerr's medical abilities (all other medical personnel currently posted reported deceased). Showed great feats of bravery and loyalty while protecting greater assets, such as officer [REDACTED] until said officer expired. Rourke now refuses to leave Kerr's side, even insisting on sleeping in the same room (to Kerr's frustration).

  Squat Auxiliary Áki Hrafn
Born: [REDACTED]
Creed: Ancestral coupled with Imperial Creed
Birth and trials:
  Born on a Homeworld annexed by the Imperium, into a family of miners. Hrafn grew up working the mines, though he left the planet to travel the stars. Known as a bounty hunter and mercenary, Áki is respected within the milieu and fellow guns for hire, and is feared for his brutal approach to apprehending and/or killing bounties wanted dead, especially with his grotesque use of a breacher to ensure that no walls can stop him when the quarry is aware of him. He also utilizes a melta weapon of unknown pattern (likely Squat manufactured). Enlisted by Inquisitor Eurydice to track down a suspected witch and heretic; served with her for over ten years (to date).

Haxtes
[ALL RECORDS EXPUNGED]


C&C and input welcome. A note on the bases: I will give them better bases when I can afford it, so nothing too fancy yet.

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Corvidian on February 17, 2018, 03:38:24 PM
Inquisitor Kore Eurydice
  Gear:
Power Armor (All locations except head)
Power Sword (Rare)
Condemnor Bolter (Mk IV drum mag) (Psycannon attachment) (Rare + Legendary)
Frag Grenade (Common)
Krak Grenade (Rare)
Inquisitorial Badge (Ordo Hereticus)
Servo-Skull (Hunter-Skull; Bio-Scanner, Motion-Tracker, Psi-Tracker) "Haxtes" (Exotic)
Bionic Eye (Left, Advanced with Range Finder) (Exotic)
Hmm. Inquisitor as a game has a very different power level to WH40K. The game is mostly about covert and semi-covert operations, so the game isn't really balanced for one character to turn up with power armour, a power sword and a boltgun in every game.

A lot of Inquisitor scenarios are chance encounters and small situations that suddenly escalate, so if a character isn't going to have multiple models, their gear represents a median between what they carry constantly out of general paranoia, and what they'd bring along for a small fight.
(Ergo, if they show up in every game wearing power armour, they must wear it pretty constantly! As a gamesmaster, I'd have to penalise you for how that lack of subtlety would hinder your investigations).

For balance reasons, I'd suggest downgrading a number of these to make the character less of a power house.

The boltgun isn't really possible to downgrade while remaining WYSIWYG (although it can certainly have something less grossly overpowered than a Psycannon attached - I had to massively decrease the power of Psycannons in my Revised Armoury project, they were ridiculous in the rulebook armoury), but the power armour could potentially be downgraded to light power armour (which we normally give Armour 8) or carapace, and there isn't actually a power sword that I can see on the model.

Also, pick one auspex for the servo skull. Aside from it being overpowered, they can be enough of a chore to keep track of in-game when you've only got one, let alone three.

QuoteAbilities:
Ambidextrous
Force of Will
Leader
Mind Scan (Psychic - Telepathy)
Sanctuary (Psychic - Daemonology)
Word of the Emperor
I'd suggest making her not psychic. It's a bit much with all the heavy equipment, and it also doesn't fit the background - it's staggeringly rare for Progenia to be psychic, as they're far more closely observed and tested than many sections of Imperial society.

QuoteSergeant Munro Kerr
This feels very basic, without much character to really make him stand out. It's easy to have Imperial Guard Veterans feel very monotonous if you don't do things to differentiate them.

You need to do things like explore what forms of combat they specialise in.
One of my absolute favourite rules in my entire collection is on Sgt Daniela Kronen, a tunnel fighter from the night world Mordant Prime. She could just feel like a generically fast guardswoman, but I gave her a rule that lets her halve penalties for darkness. It's not staggeringly powerful compared to some skills and equipment (many effectively entirely ignore darkness), but that rule is one of the biggest parts of making her feel like she's actually a tunnel fighter.

What I'm thinking for Kerr is that "Nerves of Steel" also doesn't seem very appropriate for a character who apparently survived by "hogging cover".

I think that would be made more interesting if he had a fairly middling Nv, but got a bonus to his Nv the more of his locations were in cover versus the source of the attack in question.
I'm thinking perhaps +5 Nv per location (possibly very light cover wouldn't count), for a theoretical +35 once only one location is visible, which would mean that even with a fairly mediocre Nv he'd be pretty brave by the time he was in solid cover. It also encourages you to play his character (but doesn't force it - I find "ruleplay" doesn't work very well in Inquisitor).

QuoteOgryn Auxiliary Rourke
You've used Hipshooting and True Grit twice in the warband. If the same skill (or a similar skill) is being more than once in a warband, you need to give particular consideration to whether it's really necessary. Aside from it perhaps being a sign that you're adding the skill because "it's good", it dilutes the uniqueness of each character.

You mention he has an insistence on following Kerr.
Although as I say above, "ruleplay" doesn't work well in game, so I'd steer of any rule that absolutely forces him to keep a given distance, it'd still be interesting to have take effect in game, so this could perhaps be handled by a custom rule that penalises him when Kerr isn't around (he's distracted and/or panicked) and/or forces him to take Wp/Ld checks to not run off looking for him.

QuoteSquat Auxiliary Áki Hrafn
This is really quite a mishmash of skills and equipment that doesn't make massive sense together.

Deadeye Shot is kind of taking the proverbial with a meltagun (it's not exactly a precision weapon and it's going to be horrific even without the chance for extra headshots), Fast Draw doesn't work with meltaguns (it's for pistols only) and it's a "quick shooting" skill that's an odd combination with a "take your time" skill like Rock Steady Aim.

Personally, I'd suggest trashing all the shooting skills, giving him an inferno pistol instead (although rarer, it's less powerful in game and more appropriate to the size of what's on the model) and swapping in some skills based around his bounty hunting background - there's a lot more to bounty hunting than just killing a man once you catch up with him.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Corvidian

Thanks mate, the input really helps.

Changes I'll make because it makes sense:
Removing psychic abilities on Eurydice. I'll talk to the GM about power armor. I couldn't find any rules about Condemnor Bolters, and the GM suggested using it as a bolter with psycannon attachment. Due to her lack of ammo, it'll be at most one shot per game (since it's a crossbow bolt and not an actual psycannon). As for subtlety on power armor, Eurydice is about as bombastic as Tyrus, so subtlety isn't really an option to her; maybe her acolytes, but not her directly.
Making her power sword a regular sword (despite Greyfax having a master crafted power sword in the rules).
Giving the servo-skull Motion-Tracker instead of all three.

Munro is recently recruited, and is more of a support-fire character than a specialist. Over the years of service he might branch out, but for now he'll stay with his bolter. I'll also remove his Nerves of Steel and Hipshooting. Considering giving him Rock Steady Aim instead to give him more of an edge, especially when he's in cover.

Regarding True Grit, it's one of the abilities suggested on the Ogryn rules, though I might can it in favor of letting Áki have it (squats are tough, yeah?)

Áki's inferno pistol is going to be a hassle in a campaign game, considering ammunition, if my GM isn't going to be kind about it. As it's a Legendary weapon, I won't get ammo between games unless the GM allows it. So I changed it from Inferno Pistol to Meltagun, though an Inferno Pistol will make more sense (considering the model), so I'll change it to that and deal with it.
What kind of abilities would you recommend giving him instead, to reflect his bounty hunter skills?

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Corvidian on February 18, 2018, 10:31:28 AMI couldn't find any rules about Condemnor Bolters, and the GM suggested using it as a bolter with psycannon attachment.
I've not yet written rules for a Condemnor Bolter, although I've written rules for pretty much everything else.
(Between the Revised Inquisitor Armoury, the work-in-progress Inquisitor Revised Edition, all of my own characters, and all the times I've helped other people with their characters, I may well have written more Inquisitor rules than anyone else, including Gav Thorpe. The rules may get a lot of flak, but they're actually really quite beautiful when you study it that closely).

Anyway, I'll give it some thought.

QuoteRegarding True Grit, it's one of the abilities suggested on the Ogryn rules, though I might can it in favor of letting Áki have it (squats are tough, yeah?)
Ogryns are notoriously tough, so True Grit isn't out of the question for them, but using it twice in a warband can get a bit over the top. Characters will be up and down like yo-yos.

QuoteAs it's a Legendary weapon, I won't get ammo between games unless the GM allows it.
I would recommend your GM against using the campaign rules in the rulebook. They're not actually that well balanced. The experience system allows characters to level up ludicrously fast* (and it encourages aggressive play, as there's no experience points for sneaking or talking), and the wargear system can be really stingy.

*Personally, I'm not much of a fan of characters levelling up in Inquisitor. It seems weird to me that an Inquisitor with decades of experience would become appreciably more skilled after a raid on a vault or after capturing a wayward informant.

Also, it's much harder to keep balanced. When I write characters, I've carefully chosen the stats, skills and equipment to make the character fair and interesting, so I only mess around with that if there's something wrong with it (if the character proves to be over or underpowered compared to what I intended) or if something particularly interesting happens (e.g. after one game day where he spent a large amount of it on fire, one of my Inquisitors had his longcoat fire proofed).

QuoteWhat kind of abilities would you recommend giving him instead, to reflect his bounty hunter skills?
It depends on what kind of bounties he brings in.

If he ever needs to bring targets in alive, then he might benefit from a skill like Subdue.
Tracking skills of various sorts are pretty much vital, although these are difficult to make mechanics for as game skills, so may be better represented as a campaign bonus.  (For this, you'd need to talk with your GM about the campaign rules).
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Corvidian

Can probably just buff up the Ogryn toughness, depending on what the GM says.

Don't know if we'll level up characters or not, we'll see the first session.

As for bounties, pretty much anything I'd say. Job's a job. With Deadeye Shot he could just use the inferno pistol to melt a leg off, that way they can't get away, but will survive since the wound will (probably?) be cauterized.
Where are the rules for Subdue? Can't find it in the rulebook.

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Corvidian on February 18, 2018, 02:19:13 PMCan probably just buff up the Ogryn toughness, depending on what the GM says.
Inquisitor doesn't handle very high toughness values well. Because any damage after armour adds at least one injury level, regardless of the character's toughness*, you often just end up with the death of a thousand cuts.

* The way injury works is actually a very good system**, so I don't recommend trying to house rule it, but it does break down if characters get much over about T80.

** The fact that the injury caused is based on the damage of each individual hit rather than keeping a running total of the damage caused to that location allowed me to do some really neat things with the Revised Armoury where certain weapons treated the character's base injury value as higher or lower than normal. Several of the attempts I've seen to house rule it would completely break that mechanic.


This is why the Dark Magenta rules (which are certainly the best Ogryn rules) give Ogryns extra injury levels rather than a very high toughness. That way a Meltagun actually has a chance to do them some hurt, but a stub-auto will need a lot of hits to do anything.
(Similarly, Dark Magenta's Space Marine rules roughly halve their toughness, but give them a lot of special rules to compensate. It works much better).

QuoteWhere are the rules for Subdue? Can't find it in the rulebook.
Originally White Dwarf, but they were later reproduced in the 2002 Annual, specifically page 16:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0ganwy2cd2vcthw/2002p14-16+Campaign+Experience.PDF
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Corvidian

#8
Thanks, the Subdue is written up and noted. I'll also note down the rules for ogryns using the Dark Magenta rules, as that's where I got the stats etc.

What are your thoughts on keeping Deadye Shot and Fast Draw for Áki with the Inferno Pistol? Should I scrap it or keep it?
And Claustrophic for Ogryns, should that still be a thing? They don't have that in 8e, so I personally think it should be nixed to keep up with the meta.

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Corvidian on February 18, 2018, 03:35:25 PMWhat are your thoughts on keeping Deadye Shot and Fast Draw for Áki with the Inferno Pistol? Should I scrap it or keep it?
I'd be inclined to scrap Deadeye Shot. The Inferno pistol isn't exactly a precision weapon, and while it could be argued that Deadeye shot could be used for disabling shots, the temptation is always going to exist to use it for extra headshots, and it really doesn't need that bonus!

If you do want that kind of thing, I'd suggest a "Disabling Shot" skill instead - something like: can modify location up to +/- 20, but only as long as it will hit a limb.

Fast Draw... well, it's not going to make him drastically overpowered. You can't aim when using Fast Draw, so it may actually make him less likely to hit. (And that might have an interesting playoff - there's the question of whether he's willing to potentially waste the first of the three shots he gets in a canister by not taking his time over it).

QuoteAnd Claustrophic for Ogryns, should that still be a thing? They don't have that in 8e, so I personally think it should be nixed to keep up with the meta.
I'd (almost) never use what the main WH40K rules are doing as a guide for Inquisitor. Inquisitor is driven by the fluff, and can afford detail that would bog down WH40K.

Although Ogryn's claustrophobia might have been streamlined out of the main 40K game (as I recall, it was negated by having a Bonehead in the squad, so it often wasn't in effect - and players often forgot about it when it was), it's still part of the canon and I'm sure Black Library authors will be using it for decades to come.

Even when things have been faded out of the setting, Inquisitor is still a natural home for resurrecting all those bits of fluff that were a small side box in a 2nd edition codex. (One of my characters is shamelessly lifted out of a single page in a one-off White Dwarf article).
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Corvidian

Alright, I see where you're coming from. And naw, I doubt Áki would want to risk such precious ammunition when he can simply shoot properly instead. So here's what I've put so far. Looks alright now then?

Inquisitor Kore Eurydice
  Gear:
Power Armor (All locations except head)
Sword (Common)
Condemnor Bolter (Mk IV drum mag) (Psycannon attachment) (Rare + Legendary)
Frag Grenade (Common)
Krak Grenade (Rare)
Inquisitorial Badge (Ordo Hereticus)
Servo-Skull (Hunter-Skull; Motion-Tracker) "Haxtes" (Exotic)
Bionic Eye (Left, Advanced with Range Finder) (Exotic)
  Abilities:
Ambidextrous
Force of Will
Leader
Word of the Emperor


Sergeant Munro Kerr
  Gear:
Flak Armor (Arms, Legs, Chest)
Lasgun with Bayonet (Common)
2 Frag Grenades (Common)
Medi-pak (Rare)
  Abilities:
Rock Steady Aim
Medic

Ogryn Auxiliary Rourke
  Gear:
Flak Armor (Left Arm, Legs)
Ripper Gun
4 Big Frag Grenades
  Abilities:
Big and Brutish
Claustrophobia
Hard to Kill
Hurl Opponent ("Using Space Marines")
Shield ("Using Space Marines")
Shoulder Charge ("Using Space Marines")









Squat Auxiliary Áki Hrafn
  Gear:
Carapace armor (all locations with average sight auto senses and Infrascope, and built-in comm-link)
Inferno Pistol (Legendary)
Breacher (Reach 2, Damage 2D10, Parry -25%. Critical hits cause instant Crippled result regardless of cover, armor or forcefield)
2 Frag Grenades (Common)
Re-breather (Exotic)
Bionic Arm (Left arm, Advanced, Implanted Breacher) (Exotic)
  Abilities:
Nerves of Steel
Subdue
True Grit

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Corvidian on February 20, 2018, 01:09:17 PMInquisitor Kore Eurydice
I'd still be inclined to at least drop that Power Armour to AV8 "Light Power Armour". When you consider that the characters in the original game who have power armour are wearing half a tank (e.g. Witch Hunter Tyrus), this is clearly not offering quite the same level of protection.

As far as the Condemnor Bolter, having thought it over, I'd suggest this for the Stake Crossbow:
QuoteStake Crossbow:
Basic, Range C, Accuracy -20, Damage 2D6+2, Shots 1, Reload 2, Exotic.
(Weight +15 for a combi-weapon, Wt 30 for a stand-alone weapon).

Ignores warp armour and psychic forcefields. The stake is considered both a Silver and Holy/Blessed attack.

If a psyker or daemon takes any damage after armour/cover/forcefields, they immediately lose 2D10 Willpower, and the stake embeds in their flesh.
While one or more stakes are embedded, the psyker/daemon is treated as rolling one less 6 (to a minimum of 0) when calculating Risky Actions for Psychic powers. Removing the stake requires an action and a successful Strength test - if failed, the location gains an extra bleeding wound.
The original Psycannon rules were grossly overpowered (doing double damage to all psykers and triple damage to daemons was not well balanced on a weapon that was already doing 2D10+4 damage).

The suggested rules above will still be fairly nasty against psykers and daemons, but slightly more accurate to the fluff of the weapon (causing a psyker's powers to go out of control, rather than just doing massive damage to them).

I've also decided to keep it reloadable, because while that's how they choose to balance combi-weapons in the main WH40K game, it seems silly that an Inquisitor can't carry more than one silver stake! (Also, it just seems really cool in my mind for an Inquisitor to knock a psyker down with one stake, then menacingly walking forwards while loading another stake and reciting charges against mankind).

If you're prepared to give my rules writing a chance, I'd also recommend taking a look at the Bolter rules in my Revised Inquisitor Armoury project.

http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=33.0

These make bolters a bit more interesting to play and play against. They get to roll extra damage dice and discard the lowest, meaning they seldom leave flesh wounds, but they also treat all cover values as +D6 higher (the same as how ceramite armour gets +D6 against heat based weapons) because of the chance of the impact detonating their warheads prematurely.

It makes for strengths and weaknesses that make bolters feel more different from lasguns or autoguns than just more damage. (Similarly, lasguns get fun additions like being more accurate for automatic fire because of their low recoil).
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles