Hey all. Inquisitor Cassian is my first attempt at a character (the clue was in the title), so have at him!
Inquisitor Cassian
BACKGROUND
Cassian was born into nobility on the planet of Dalynihr IV. As per tradition, he was removed from his parents and lived amongst a relatively large extended family, numbering around 70 or so individuals, inside the clan mansion. There, he was trained for the running of the planet along with his cousins. The training was broad, meant to give the scions an understanding of politics, economics and military tactics, as well as personal combat skills, at which he excelled. Cassian found this broad approach difficult, preferring instead to focus on one subject to the exclusion of all else until he was satisfied that he had learnt and understood enough about it. This is how the first twelve years of his life passed.
On the eve of the new year, Cassian began complaining of headaches, and would disappear for days at a time. His family were worried about this, and quietly put out feelers for help. They received word that an esteemed Magos Biologis was in the sector and would visit Dalynihr IV as soon as he could. Meanwhile, Cassian continued to endure nightmares and spoke of a reflection of the mansion with ghosts instead of people.
When the Magos arrived, he diagnosed the young nobleman as having psychic powers, and gave the family the option of summary execution, or formal training at a Scholastica Psykana. Cassian left with him that day.
He spent the next nine years honing his mental gifts, with his single-minded focus frustrating his teachers. However, it gave him a mastery over his abilities that his peers did not. Gradually, his talents as a psychic tracker were shown to be his strongest, and he often used as a way to find runaways.
At the age of twenty-one, a senior Inquisitor by the name of Hugo von Garst requested a tracker, and Cassian was sent. He helped to root out the Cult of the Creeping Heart, and distinguished himself in combat against their Magus, demonstrating that he hadn't lost his duelling prowess. Impressed, von Garst offered him a place on his staff, which Cassian accepted.
In fifteen years of service, von Garst began to realise that Cassian's particular way of thinking made him a perfect tool for long operations. He sent him to work with his then-Interrogator, Herl Navand, who had started an investigation on the opposite side of the sector. With Cassian's relentless determination, after seven years a smuggling ring was exposed, and subsequently dealt with. However, Navand was killed after the first four years, and Cassian took over as the head of the operation.
On his return, von Garst took him as an Interrogator, to replace Navand, and raised him to the full rank of Inquisitor thirty years after that.
A further eighteen years after Cassian successfully completed his first investigation, a secret war exploded across the Orthrand sector. A war of ideologies and dissatisfaction with other Inquisitor's methods had finally reached a breaking point. Cassian escaped the sector as quickly as possible, leaving after a furious firefight with the bombastic Inquisitor Ultian.
BELIEFS/METHODS
Cassian follows the creed of his old master, and believes that the Emperor must walk amongst His subjects again. However, whereas von Garst believes in more traditional resurrection methods, Cassian sees any option as one to be used. In particular, the power of Chaos is one that he believes can provide the Emperor with a body. To this end, Cassian is a member of the Ordo Malleus and has been conducting research into the transition of souls to the Warp. As part of this research, he has summoned and bound Sikuratil, a Daemon of Slaanesh. Since the binding, Cassian has suffered from a Warp malady, which makes his body extremely fragile to external forces.
PROFILE
WS BS S T I Wp Nv Sg Ld
72 56 57 38 73 88 81 68 51
Abilities – Dodge, Feint
Psychic Powers – Detection, Psi-track, Instability
Wargear – Force sword, laspistol, robes on all locations but face
Well, there you go! What do you think?
What I think is that it shouldn't fall to the Adeptus Mechanicus to "diagnose" someone with psychic powers. That's the job of the Black Ships and the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.
His Toughness is also ridiculously low, as is his Leadership, and by contrast his Willpower seems really high even for a psyker. I know he's more or less a Xanthite and has ended up pretty frail as a result of binding this daemon, but 38 is just unnecessarily crappy.
His gear's a bit minimalist, and I'm surprised that he'd be going somewhere without any spare batteries for his laspistol. You've also largely glossed over his service history under von Garst -- it might be nice to see some of the things he's done, or what's made him think the way he does.
It's not, however, inconceivable that a Magos Biologis
could diagnose psychic ability. A good medical auspex could probably pick up the unusual mental activity. I do however think, that even for nobility, a Magos deigning to run medical errands seems unlikely. I'd prefer that it might be a renowned Medicae.
What I'm really not keen on though is the "squirt beats up the big bad and an Inquisitor is impressed enough to offer him a job" routine - it's one of the most tired clichés in Inquisitor backgrounds.
In this case, it firstly requires me to believe that a newcomer, presumably out of practice for several years and in his first real combat, is likely to outshine grizzled veterans who've been doing this for years.
Secondly, I think most of my Inquisitors would be less than impressed - more likely "what the hell were you thinking? That was a good way to get killed and leave me without a tracker. You're a gorram liability."
Thirdly, there's not really such a thing as a job offer from the Inquisition. You don't get to choose.
A more likely approach is "squirt is competent/lucky enough to not die horribly after 30 seconds working for the Inquisition and has useful skills, so the Inquisitor recruits him".
For my tastes in character development, I'm also a little bit pressed to know what Cassian (is this his first name? Or his last?) is actually like as a person. The only personality traits I can glean from the background are "focused" and "relentless", which doesn't tell me what he might be like to talk to, how he treats his underlings, what his pastimes are, if he's optimistic or cynical in his approaches... these are all interesting fragments of personality.
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Regarding his profile, I would normally call T40 a bare minimum for player characters, as even this is frail enough to be underwhelming. If I have to go more frail, I prefer to do it with a lower strength (which does have an effect, with knockback or dropping weapons).
To repeat something I said recently:
QuoteExperience has taught me that "glass cannon" is a poor balancing method in Inquisitor - a high likelihood of both extreme success and failure only ensures that the character will be a damp squib as far as game excitement.
They either do really well and never give their opponents a chance... or do really badly and never give their opponents a challenge.
Statted this way, Cassian has that same problem. His low toughness isn't a good balance for his prowess, because it makes his successes too binary.
I'd also say that an Inquisitor, if afflicted by warp malady, would have three options:
- All kinds of purification methods, probably a mix of exorcism and unpleasant drugs.
- Augmetics and bionics to counteract the effects.
- Withdraw from field service and act through agents. An Inquisitor's knowledge is worth more than their physical prowess.
Not to say that he shouldn't have some frailty (it's an interesting trait), but Toughness has a fair claim to challenging Initiative for the most important stat in Inquisitor.
As regards what Koval said about his Wp... I'd agree. My highest Wp psyker is Wp 85, and other than an Sg of 63, nothing else is above 52 and five of her stats are in the 40s. Psychic powers is the only thing she does well. (Although she can fake competence in other areas through using her powers. For example, she can use her psychic awareness and telepathy to anticipate the flow of close combat - represented by temporarily improving her WS.)
I feel a stat of nearly 90 would represent a very powerful and dedicated psyker with no other focuses (such as the expert swordsmanship). I'd suggest that losing 10 pts from that Wp would still be decently representative of his claimed psychic control. (I'd suggest lower if he had more offensive powers, but nothing there is that unpleasant.)
And yes, as Koval says, Ld 51 is really low for an Inquisitor.