Mareus Forsal is the character which I will use the most in my games, as I like to think that my inquisitor would be getting Mareus to do the investigating, both to make him learn and to prove his skills.
I will post his backstory at a later date, as it is still being written fully, but here is an (extremely) abridged version.
Mareus Forsal was brought up on the world of Askriel IV, among the nobility of the planet. As such, he was trained to fight with the paired knives that the warriors of his homeworld consider to be the 'true' waepons. Askriel IV has a distinctly poor view of firearms and those that use them, as they allow even the most unskilled coward to kill a warrior who has dedicated his life to learning to fight.
However, a career in the military of Askriel was not to be, as Marues developed telekinetic powers. Wether this was linked to the psychic experiments of the Cult Of The Hrud Masters that had manifested on Askriel or not is debatable, and Forsal is still kept under supervision to this day.
When Inquisitor Draco Ferox arrived to investigate the cult, he recognised forsal as a fellow telekine immediately, and referred him to the scholasta psykana. After the purging of Askriel, Forsal was judged to be sound and strong enough, in both mind and body, to accompany Ferox, and learn from his the shadowy business of the Inquisition.
As he retains the prejudice of his homeworld toward firearms, Ferox had him tutored in the use of throwing weapons, and Forsal has since become quite the shot with them.
Forsal prefers to work unseen, and is a firm believer that the majority of Imperial citizens are ignorant for their own good.
-------------------------------
And here's the profile I chose for him after reading a few articles on balancing characters:
WS 69
BS 57
S 60
Tl 55
I 61
W 72
Nv 47
Ld 63
Equipment:
2 throwing axes
2 Throwing knives
2 Knives
Psychic powers:
Telekinesis
Skills;
Leader;
Hipshooting;
Blademaster?;
-----------------------------
Feedback/modification and suggestions would be appreciated. My namesake, Inquisitor Ferox wil be more of an occasional game guy, and I will be using Mareus as the basis for my core group. I'm debating blademaster, but it's that or hipshooting, and I want to be able to represent him being good at using his throwing weapons, not a good shot generally.
Also, on a semi-related topic, is it possible to aim with throwing weapons?
Thanks in advance for any input, no matter what it says. If you think I need to rebuild form the ground up, that's fine.
Why not go with both? He's hardly overpowered in terms of stats and equipment. You could also write a special rule only allowing him to use the hipshooting ability with throwing weapons.
I do think you might want to add a few more throwing knives/axes or a pistol otherwise he's going to run out of ammo rather quickly (unless you intend him to use telekinesis to summon the weapons back, which is going to be tricky).
Quote from: Cortez on November 02, 2011, 05:21:06 PM
(unless you intend him to use telekinesis to summon the weapons back, which is going to be tricky)
Tricky, but cool. I'd definitely go with him doing that.
I'd also maybe think about creating a psychic power that enables him to 'guide' a thrown weapon to it's target. That may give some bonus to hit, or to the location roll, or allow him to hit a weak spot in the armour - something along those lines.
I'd allow aiming with throwing weapons - as a keen target shooter, I can tell you that a lot of aiming is about simply waiting for the right moment to fire.
Some of it might include judging the wind, range, etc (all of which can apply to thrown weapons, judging the angle and all that), but the "waiting for the right moment definitely can.
One other thing - your profile is missing a stat, probably Sagacity.
~~~~~
QuoteAskriel IV has a distinctly poor view of firearms and those that use them, as they allow even the most unskilled coward to kill a warrior who has dedicated his life to learning to fight.
This comes up every now and again, and I always find it a little bit odd as logic goes.
People may call the gun an equaliser, but if you compare a fully trained special forces soldier to a street punk, then I know which way I'd call it. Training and experience is still paramount.
The "Honour of facing off against a foe nobly" story that often justifies close combat characters is one thing, but what you've just said is "They dislike guns because they're more efficient".
Thanks for all the replies so far.
His Sg sould be around the 40-50 mark, and I was intending to use his telekinesis to pull the weapons back into his hands, hence the low amount of equipment. I could give him a couple more throwing knives, but I want a lightly-equipped character, so I'm not really looking for armour or anything too large or heavy.
Kaled, I like the idea, and might go with increasing his chances of making a placed shot on the fly, or just giving him the ability to get a critical hit with a thrown weapon, to represent him hitting a weak spot in an adverary's armour/bionics.
As to the background fluff on guns, I wanted a character that had a reason not to use guns, and so I decided that he needed to be raised with a bias against guns. The reason for this is because it's very hard to rebel against what you were brought up with, especially if everyone around you thinks the same thing. I think that taking a middle-aged view toward projectile weapons (the Pope once outlawed crossbows on a similar principle) befits this, and the Imperium seems like a place where a world like this could exist, as there are feral worlds, and I imagine Askriel to be a sort of more developed version, but where development of weapons has taken a different path.
I could give him a chance of making a critical hit with a throwing weapon, or just go with the good old poison coating on some, though I'm not sure that this fits with his background.
Thanks for all of the feedback so far, and I'll try to finish his background and get it up when school allows.
Quote from: Draco Ferox on November 02, 2011, 10:07:24 PMAs to the background fluff on guns, I wanted a character that had a reason not to use guns, and so I decided that he needed to be raised with a bias against guns.
Yes, but I suppose that what I'm saying, in different words, is that it's a rather clichéd approach for the "Doesn't like guns" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoesntLikeGuns) thing.
There are a lot of possible reasons for people to not use guns, but many never get used. The "It's dishonourable" is fairly bad, but the "They're too efficient" is both overused and a bit daft.
I'd like to see someone work with something like the idea from the short story where Cherubael foretold that someone would be shot with their own gun - which would be reason enough to give up guns.
The specifics could of course be different. What if, perhaps, the Emperor's Tarot was read at his birth, and it predicted he would be killed with his own gun? After that, his family might certainly raise him to never use guns.
That could certainly be a twist on the whole idea of a blade-only fighter.
Ooh, I hadn't thought of a prophecy. Thanks Marco!
I agree that the 'brought up that way' backstory is a little weak, but it was the only thing that I could think of at the time.
I've given it a bit more thought, and maybe he could have had a bad experience with guns when he was younger (accidental manslaughter involving a family member springs to mind), and this has put him off forth rest of his life, as he cannot break the association between the use of guns and the harming of someone he loved.
This could also tie into the prophecy, which he might have ignored, and this was the equivalent of a warning to take it seriously from whatever power is controlling the prophecy.
Also, would the prophecy allow him to use other people's guns if there was no other option, as they're not his 'own' gun per se, but with some sort of penalty, such as a willpower/nerve test to allow him to fire representing him forcing himself to overcome his fear of the prophecy, and if failed, he must spend an action hurling the gun away (or some other suitable action of self-preservation)
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on November 02, 2011, 05:56:27 PM
The "Honour of facing off against a foe nobly" story that often justifies close combat characters is one thing, but what you've just said is "They dislike guns because they're more efficient".
In many historical cases of opposition to firearms, it's opposition to them because they'll put me out of a job.
Lovely character, I'd second giving him the chance to critical hit, fits the character.
Quote from: Adlan on November 03, 2011, 05:48:22 PMIn many historical cases of opposition to firearms, it's opposition to them because they'll put me out of a job.
True, but that was during the introduction of firearms. The Imperium is entirely au fait with guns, so the idea of "newfangled machinery" is a bit out of place.
Sure, there are feudal worlds, but in those cases, I imagine that there's a lot of anachronism compared to genuine Medieval life - things like the soldiers being dressed in chainmail but using lasguns (Which I think I need to add to my list of models to make).
In fact, where the culture still had any ties with the Imperium, it's most likely that it would be the rich noblemen who had access to the guns, and therefore the most likely to be happy to use them to keep the peasants in check!
QuoteAlso, would the prophecy allow him to use other people's guns if there was no other option
It could do. Whether he chooses to is another matter. The Tarot is vague, so what was read as "his own gun" could in theory be as general as a gun he once held.
In any case, if he had perhaps owned a gun when he was younger and then decided to take the prophesy seriously, then he might go so far as to have it comprehensively destroyed just to be sure.
Updates to the character:
Has undergone a sex change to become Marais Forsal, as I felt that my warband needed at least 1 female, and the role of acolyte fits perfectly.
Fluff change:
The reason for her dislike of guns is owing to an accident with one in her childhood which resulted in the death of a friend and the near-fatal wounding of her sister.
I was thinking of maybe getting giving her weapons the flight power, though obviously they wouldn't be daemonic. This could be because they are made from materials which have a psychic resonance, dramatically lowering the difficulty of TKing them.
She could have wyrd-telekinesis, but I want my namesake to have a wyrd power (psychic impel), and 2 in the same warband seems a bit much.
If multiple characters would both be telekinetics I think that would be a bit strange, but perhaps the interrogator somehow really likes people who know telekinesis.
I was working off the fact that my inquisitor feels an affinity for her. After all, it's a big, dangerous galaxy, and being ostracised for being able to make things hover only makes it worse. I have no other psychic characters, and none of the other disciplines really appeal to me, so telekinesis it is. If I make another psychic character, they'll likely have telekinesis, or maybe suggest, but I don't feel like throwing fireballs at people...
He could even specifically have sought out someone with telekinetic abilities to learn how to better use his abilities.
It occurs to me that if she is using telekinesis to guide thrown knives you can probably justify a dislike of guns by a lack of aptitude and bullets being harder to guide (which they presumably would be). Even she may be better at guiding specifically those knives due to familiarity or even if they're made with the purpose in mind. It still seems likely she'd conceal a laspistol, 'just in case'.
Just a quick question. I don't plan to give her powers like willed shot (though that would be cool), and from the beginning I intended her to be able to pull the weapons back to her, I am currently agonising over whether to give her focused psyker or wyrd for telekinesis. I would like wyrd, but seeing as she's my main character, I wouldn't like her to be able to use it for much else, and I don't want to write a load of new special rules for her to get bonuses for some things and penalties for others, as I feel it slows the game down too much. I have decided to completely drop the wyrd on my namesake, so I won't be having it twice in a character group, but am hesitant to use it on my primary character, in case I ever do a dedicated telepath or something like that in future
I would go for focussed psyker as the character is clearly focussed on using telekinetic powers and not much else.