The Conclave

Inquisitor Cepheus
Background:  Cepheus is one of 3 surviving pupils of the venerable Inquisitor Enoch. Enoch, now in his third century, has become a strong advocate for the Polypsykana, a Radical philosophy that believes that mankind is evolving into a totally psychic race. This perspective has been adopted by his students, including Cepheus, even though he is not a psyker himself. Cepheus is the latest of Enoch's disciples, and though he does not share the bond that his mentor and his fellow pupils do, he has followed in his master's footsteps and become a member of the Ordo Malleus. In his study of daemonology, Cepheus became fascinated by the link between the Warp and the minds of humanity. The tides of the Warp are shaped by the emotions of sentient minds, a incoporeal reflection of the physical universe. Even the Dark Gods of Chaos, it is said, were born of mankind's most fundamental emotions, anger, pleasure, ambition, despair. Cepheus believes the Warp is indivisible from the mind and that is this link that humanity must master. A few years ago, Inquisitor Seras of the Ordo Xenos (another of Enoch's pupils) was murdered by the Eldar. Seras too was a Polypsykanist and sought to study the Eldar as a psychic race, particularly fascinated by their soulstones. The Eldar are an aloof race, however, and Seras tried to delve too far into their secrets. Cepheus recovered fragments of his colleague's research, learning sketchy details of the Fall and the creation of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Since then, Cepheus has pursued more information about the Fall and the origin of the demonic.

Cepheus is somewhat paranoid- due to the nature of Seras's death, he himself tries not to have too many confidants and is particularly keen to avoid attracting Eldar attention. He has a dislike of military-types and has few contacts in the Imperial Guard, Fleet, or Adeptus Arbites, and tends to look down on those more militaristic Inquisitors who use such blunt instruments. He is often willing to turn a blind eye to many lesser evils, in exchange for helping him fight the greater one. A Rogue Trader smuggling xenos goods or a Magos delving into forbidden research would find something of an ally in Cepheus, as long as they continue to to work for his benefit.

WS: 56
BS: 75
S: 52
T: 55
I: 70
Wp: 70
Sg: 80
Nv: 60
Ld: 85
Speed: 5

Abilities:
-Leader

Equipment:
-Light Carapace Armor (4 pts.) on chest
-2 pts. of armor on all other locations except head
-Refractor Field
-Hexagrammic Wards
-Stubber w/ fire selector (6 man-stoppers)
-Calesvol with 2 reloads

Calesvol is a custom-made anti-Warp pistol crafted for Cepheus by a reclusive order of gunsmiths on the world of Nyphariel. It counts as a "blessed" weapon
Type: Pistol
Range: E
Firing Mode: Single
Accuracy: +10
Damage: 2D6+4
Shots: 1
Reload: 2
Wt: 20
Any demonic or psychic character hit by Calesvol takes 2D10+2 damage instead of 2D6+4. Any demonic or psychic character wounded by Calesvol must take a Willpower test, with negative modifier equal to the amount of damage done to them. They add D3 points to their injury total for every 10 points the test was failed by. In addition, psykers have a chance (equal to the amount they failed the test by) of losing one random psychic power.

Daemonhost Tanysbryd
To compensate for his lack of psychic abilities, Cepheus created the Daemonhost Tanesbryd shortly after his elevation to the rank of full Inquisitor. Tanysbryd is a Tzeentchian daemon, a middling entity in the daemonic hierarchy who is described by the Liber Daemonicum as commanding "forty legions of Pyrodaemons." Cepheus has taken the road of caution, binding much of Tanesbryd's true power in favor of ensuring that he is kept bound and servile. Tanysbryd possessed great strength and the ability to breath fire, as well as the capability to detect psykers and daemons and act as a psychic lightning rod.

WS: 53
BS: 4
S: 55
T: 53
I: 60
WP: 92
Sg: 90
Nv: 75
Ld: 23
Speed: 4

Abilities:
-Possessed
-Fiery Blast
-Magic Absorption
-Witch-Hound

Psychic Powers:
-Wyrd- Warp Strength
-Detection
-Firestorm

Firstly:

Welcome to the Conclave

Secondly, a few questions and suggestions:

QuoteThis perspective has been adopted by his students, including Cepheus, even though he is not a psyker himself.

Given that Cepheus is not a psyker, what was it that drew a Polypsykanan to consider him as a student?

QuoteCepheus is somewhat paranoid

This is probably a bit contradictory with keeping around one of the most capricious and least trustworthy entities that could possibly exist (that is, the daemon).
If you want to keep him having few confidants, that might be better justified with the fact most people would consider dabbling with daemons extreme heresy and he'd rather not be executed for that thank you very much.

QuoteCalesvol

The way your damage modification works means the thing gets better at going through cover or armour when there's a psyker behind it, which doesn't really make sense.
I also think the rules for Banishment (even if slightly modified) probably aren't the best thing to use - the ability's often considerable power is tempered by the risks of being a psychic power and the target being able to resist, so putting it in a context where it's reliable and risk-free is less good.

There were rules for sanctified ammunition in Fanatic Online 31 (http://www.mediafire.com/download/njjzjyniwm4/) though (or indeed, in my "Revised Inquisitor Armoury" (http://www.mediafire.com/download/tmrdryt6eytxbho/) project, but that might be more overwhelming).

QuoteMagic Absorption

The short answer to that would be "No", I'm afraid.

It was very much over the top in the first place (it might have been reasonable at a lower percentage, but 90% is preposterous), but when you couple it with the fact daemons can already nullify psychic powers, you might as well say "immune" - and immunity is generally a very boring thing in Inquisitor.

While we're talking about Tanysbryd's abilties, it's normal for daemons to have one (or more) Daemonic traits and be Fearsome. Seeing as he's supposed to have an affinity for fire, it could be possible to craft him a new daemonic attribute that centres around heat?

~~~~~

Not trying to put you off in any way though! The raw ideas have good potential - so if I'm sounding harsh, I entirely apologise!

QuoteGiven that Cepheus is not a psyker, what was it that drew a Polypsykanan to consider him as a student?

This does require some explanation: Cepheus was originally an acolyte of Inquisitor Haddrikh, who had known Enoch for much of their respective careers. Haddrikh was a psyker, but was nowhere near as powerful as Enoch, and regarded his abilities (such as they were) to be more of a tool. Many years ago, Haddrikh and Enoch had pooled their efforts to take down a powerful cult in the Urybdis system. Haddrikh and his retinue went to intercept a daemonic artifact that was changing hands, and the Inquisitor was killed in the shootout, though Cepheus was able to retrieve the artifact. Impressed, and considering Haddrikh to have been killed on his watch, Enoch felt it his duty to take Cepheus on as a student.

QuoteThis is probably a bit contradictory with keeping around one of the most capricious and least trustworthy entities that could possibly exist (that is, the daemon).
If you want to keep him having few confidants, that might be better justified with the fact most people would consider dabbling with daemons extreme heresy and he'd rather not be executed for that thank you very much.

From one point of view, you can always trust a daemon to be untrustworthy! (You're right though- a better reason would be that he doesn't want to let anyone to catch on to his heretical dealings)

QuoteThe way your damage modification works means the thing gets better at going through cover or armour when there's a psyker behind it, which doesn't really make sense.
I also think the rules for Banishment (even if slightly modified) probably aren't the best thing to use - the ability's often considerable power is tempered by the risks of being a psychic power and the target being able to resist, so putting it in a context where it's reliable and risk-free is less good.

There were rules for sanctified ammunition in Fanatic Online 31 though (or indeed, in my "Revised Inquisitor Armoury" project, but that might be more overwhelming).

Haha, I thought I'd done something wrong there. It's my first attempt at making a weapon, so I figured I'd mucked up somewhere 8P My original concept for Calesvol was sort of a single-shot anti-daemon coup-de-grace weapon, similar to the Thor .45-70 "hand rifle." http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090226235347/metalgear/images/6/60/THOR_.45-70.jpg (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090226235347/metalgear/images/6/60/THOR_.45-70.jpg)

Either I'll make Calesvol's ammo Sanctified or drop it and load Cepheus's stubber with a few Sanctified rounds.

QuoteThe short answer to that would be "No", I'm afraid.

It was very much over the top in the first place (it might have been reasonable at a lower percentage, but 90% is preposterous), but when you couple it with the fact daemons can already nullify psychic powers, you might as well say "immune" - and immunity is generally a very boring thing in Inquisitor.

While we're talking about Tanysbryd's abilties, it's normal for daemons to have one (or more) Daemonic traits and be Fearsome. Seeing as he's supposed to have an affinity for fire, it could be possible to craft him a new daemonic attribute that centres around heat?

When I saw the rules for Magical Absorption I did pause and think "...90%? Really?" You're right, it's too much. And yeah, I suppose Fearsome would be a given. I was toying with giving him Invulnerable before, so maybe I'll give him that, or perhaps (something I just made up) Immolation, causing his body to be wreathed in magical flames. This would give him Warpflame  as well as maybe reducing the accuracy of shots fired at him (as the flames obscure his body- which obviously make him much more conspicuous). I kind of want to give Tanysbryd relatively few powers, though, as Cepheus is concerned more with containing him than unleashing his true destructive potential.

Welcome to the Conclave.

I'm going out this morning, so I'll take a look at his background (and at the Daemonhost) when I get in, but I can look at his stats and loadout now.

Firstly, his stats (with the exception of his WS and S) are all "nearest 5" or "nearest 10". A lot of people generally see this as a bit boring. We've got plenty of other digits to play around with, so there's no reason to just round them off.

His BS strikes me as a bit high, but by contrast his Nv is a bit on the low side considering that he's an Inquisitor. Given that he deals with daemons and extremely horrible things, I'd take ten points off of his BS and put them into his Nv.

Gear looks fine.

Calesvol... this is going to cause some massive problems. Marco has already highlighted the main issues with it, though I'll just point out that a good hit from that thing will just put a psyker out of action after one hit. I understand you want to have an anti-psyker/anti-daemonic weapon, but just making it Rending or Tearing against psykers (and Sanctified against daemons) ought to be fine, particularly if you integrate it into his existing stubber (and then call that Calesvol).

Note that I'm using Revised Armoury stuff because really, it's a very good resource and gives you something more special than just another "rulebook" stubber -- if you merge his stubber and Calesvol, and keep the "custom-made" bit, you could easily justify (say) a Heavy-Duty Stubber with the Improved Barrel upgrade. You should even be able to keep the "lose a random power" bit on the special anti-Warp ammunition without too much difficulty, if the ammo was made specifically to take out psykers and daemons. He's supposed to have a fancy gun, so give him a fancy gun :P


EDIT: I'm now back. I'll take a look at the Daemonhost now, then the background when I've actually gotten myself settled down.

Firstly, the Wp and Sg are huuuuuuuuuuuuge. I understand that's probably meant to be the case but if he's a mid-ranking daemon, I might be tempted to drop both of those by about 10 points (as 90 is about what I'd reserve for an Exalted Herald, or something even bigger)
His BS is also incredibly worrying, did you mean to put 4? :P

As Cepheus is supposed to have bound the daemon very carefully, it might be worth redistributing some (more) points from its Wp and putting them into Toughness. The stronger the binding is in Dark Heresy, at least, the less powerful it is (physically and psychically), but the more resilient it is (to make up for the drop in power).

On the subject of daemonic abilities, have a look at this thread (http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2169.0) where I explored traits associated with daemonic possession -- there's no reason you can't port them over to daemonhosts as well. While we're at it, where is Witch-Hound from?

Background time. I'm keeping my two posts separate for ease of reading and reference.

Quote from: daxxglax on June 11, 2013, 09:45:41 PM
Inquisitor Cepheus
Background:  Cepheus is one of 3 surviving pupils of the venerable Inquisitor Enoch.

Well, at least you didn't go for a "sole survivor" type of backstory.

QuoteEnoch, now in his third century

And at least the old boy's still alive.

Quotehas become a strong advocate for the Polypsykana

You probably should've explained more clearly that Enoch is a psyker, as I had to go to your addendum where you talked about Haddrikh to find this out.

QuoteThis perspective has been adopted by his students

Out of loyalty, or were they coerced into sharing Enoch's philosophy?

Quoteincluding Cepheus, even though he is not a psyker himself.

You've addressed the reason for a Polypsykanan to take on a non-psychic student; this is fine but needed to go into Cepheus' actual backstory. As a follow-up question, what would make a non-psyker choose to court the Polypsykana ideology?

QuoteCepheus is the latest of Enoch's disciples, and though he does not share the bond that his mentor and his fellow pupils do

Well, fair enough, he's not a psyker so he's probably a second-class citizen of sorts.

Quotehe has followed in his master's footsteps and become a member of the Ordo Malleus.

Fair enough.

QuoteIn his study of daemonology, Cepheus became fascinated by the link between the Warp and the minds of humanity.

...and presumably developed an understanding of sorcery from there? He does have a pet daemonhost, and let's face it, being psychic is not a prerequisite to becoming a sorcerer.

QuoteCepheus believes the Warp is indivisible from the mind and that is this link that humanity must master.

This seems to be a further hint that he's interested in sorcery, particularly since Cepheus isn't psychic.

QuoteA few years ago, Inquisitor Seras of the Ordo Xenos (another of Enoch's pupils) was murdered by the Eldar. Seras too was a Polypsykanist and sought to study the Eldar as a psychic race, particularly fascinated by their soulstones. The Eldar are an aloof race, however, and Seras tried to delve too far into their secrets.

Well, that does tend to happen when you show too much of an interest in something as, erm, intimate as the mechanics of Eldar spirit stones.

QuoteCepheus recovered fragments of his colleague's research, learning sketchy details of the Fall and the creation of the Chaos God Slaanesh.

That's generally privileged information -- while I imagine the Imperium would know some sketchy details pertaining to the Eldar being more powerful "back then" than they are now, I'd think it would be rather difficult for many Inquisitors to learn about the Fall and the birth of Slaanesh.

QuoteSince then, Cepheus has pursued more information about the Fall and the origin of the demonic.

This ties back in with the above, although "the origin of the daemonic" isn't too far-fetched a thing to research in and of itself.

QuoteCepheus is somewhat paranoid

See Marco's notes on whether "paranoid" is the right word to use when he's got a daemonhost in tow!

QuoteHe is often willing to turn a blind eye to many lesser evils, in exchange for helping him fight the greater one

That actually sounds a little like one of my own Puritan characters, to an extent, but nonetheless you may want to draw more of a line (even if the line itself is a bit wibbly).

QuoteA Rogue Trader smuggling xenos goods or a Magos delving into forbidden research would find something of an ally in Cepheus, as long as they continue to to work for his benefit.

Sounds very much like a "you have outlived your usefulness" kind of guy...

QuoteTo compensate for his lack of psychic abilities, Cepheus created the Daemonhost Tanesbryd shortly after his elevation to the rank of full Inquisitor.

This is more or less an explicit note that either he's practicing sorcery, or has a pet sorcerer (or two).

QuoteTanysbryd is a Tzeentchian daemon, a middling entity in the daemonic hierarchy who is described by the Liber Daemonicum as commanding "forty legions of Pyrodaemons."

Yes, I borrow concepts from Goetic demons as well...

QuoteCepheus has taken the road of caution, binding much of Tanesbryd's true power in favor of ensuring that he is kept bound and servile.

I assume, then, that he's either twice- or thrice-bound. This can then be reflected in his game profile, as I indicated earlier.

Quote from: KovalHis BS strikes me as a bit high, but by contrast his Nv is a bit on the low side considering that he's an Inquisitor.

Ah yes. A call I forgot to make. Possibly more because he's a Malleus Inquisitor than just because he's an Inquisitor though.

QuoteNote that I'm using Revised Armoury stuff because really, it's a very good resource

... but I will admit it can appear intimidating in its scale.

However, if you are looking for a single shot rifle calibre pistol, the "Heavy Pistol" I wrote for it is intended to cover that kind of thing - it used the similar Thompson Contender as its "base".

QuoteYou should even be able to keep the "lose a random power" bit.

I've not really liked this for a while, as the number of powers doesn't determine a psyker's "strength" - just their versatility. The rules more represent amnesia than weakening or loss of control.

To reference my characters, the rule would effectively be useless against Maya*, but would heavily affect Marco**.
* She's supposed to be able to use her abilities in really creative and varied ways, so she has 29 different powers! That includes minor ones like being able to boost the power of her voice, so losing a few doesn't really affect her.
** Who has only two abilities, but they're Wyrd abilities and thus supposed to be utterly inherent and intrinsic.

The effect should really be the other way around, so I'd suggest that it would actually be better dealing willpower damage.

QuoteFirstly, the Wp and Sg are huuuuuuuuuuuuge.

Actually, I'd say that's fair for a mid-ranking daemon. Not being human, daemons are able to hugely exceed the limits of the 1-100 "human" statline.

However, as he's supposed to be a heavily bound mid-ranking daemon, that does affect things; he'll be able to draw on less of his power and should probably see a reduction of his Wp for that reason.