Adeptus Biologis character idea

[Dust King]

This is a character idea I've been playing round with for a while, a rogue organicist with a thing for using xenos parts in his projects.

This character is intended as a antagonist for my Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who has been both lacking a proper nemesis and looking like too much of a good guy recently. So what I wanted was someone who would be both inexcusably corrupt in the eyes of my inquisitor and not really that bad a person.

So this is what I'm thinking of at the moment, what do you guys think of the concept and profile?


Raphael Pace (pronounced PAH-chay)

Description: A renegade Adeptus Biologis whose xenophilic actions have branded him a heretic.

Personality: Although distant to others he is a caring individual who will act to protect and save the defenceless and oppressed. He is dedicated to helping those abandoned by the rest of humanity although this often puts him at odds with the imperial authorities. He focuses on individuals and small problems rather than the big picture, a trait which makes him dangerous in the eyes of the inquisition.

Beliefs: He does not care for authority and loathes oppression. He is still a follower of the cult mechanicus and an organicist, he believes that using xenos organs and tissues is a important technique for the survival of humanity. Although he is not a pacifist he does have a strict code of morals, he will try and save any injured person, even his enemies and he refuses to use poison and disease as weapons. He will kill if there is no alternative but he will do it as humanely as possible.  

Associates: The word 'misfits' would probably not be as accurate as 'abominations'. Pace's saved the lives of his closest associates by performing radical techniques involving a range of xenos biological materials. The result is a group of chimeras, humans with xenos organs implanted to cure and improve them.  

Physiology: Pace has augmented himself greatly over the years, incorporation many elder parts into his physiology. Because of this he bears a strong resemblance to them, he is tall and slender with some elder facial features. He dresses is mechanicus robes fitted with light armour and inbuilt medical equipment of his own design.

Stats: Ws Bs  S   T   I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
          65 50 60 60 65 60  80 70 80

Abilities:
-push the limit: Using his enhanced physiology Pace can increase his speed to 6, but doing so damages his body adding D3 to his injury total every time he uses this.
-Non-lethal: Pace tries to incapacitate opponents rather than kill them, any hit to the arms or legs the targets BIV is at -1, any hit to the head or chest BIV is at +1.
-From the jaws of death: Pace's skill in medicine allows him to perform acts of healing which seem like miracles, he is even able to revive those who have already died. Pace may attempt to bring a dead character back to life, provided they are recently dead* and don't have a crippled head or chest. This takes two actions to perform, the first is a Sg test to see what needs to be done and the next is a T test by the victim in order to recover. Any locations bleeding will continue to bleed and can cause the victim to die again if not treated.
*(I'm not sure what to make recent, technically speaking your brain can survive 4 or so minutes without oxygen before cells start dying. Working with one turn is 10 seconds (from the rulebook) that means it would be 24 turns before the person is beyond help which seems far too much to me, any suggestions?)

Equipment:
Archeotech: regeneration (represents his advanced medical equipment)
Shock Sword: Seems like both a effective weapon and fits character, still not 100% on it though.
Ranged weapon: I'm tempted by a needler but it seems a bit to generic for medic type characters.


The other characters I'm thinking of for his warband are:

-A guardsman with a number of tyranid parts: He was part of a experiment to give soldiers regenerative abilities, but the regeneration was to unstable and began to form tumours throughout his body. Pace grafted on parts of a tyranid which also possessed regenerative abilities, the resulting conflict between his body and the tyranid parts stabilised his regeneration and saved his life. However he is nor grossly disfigured as well as psychologically unstable.

-A former servent with modified pheromone glands from a tau etherial: She was saved from execution for adultery by Pace, he offered her acceptance and power over others if she joined him.

-A runaway aristocrat seeking to atone for his past heresies who has received Hrud implants to hide his identity from his pursuers.

So that's what I have so far, any suggestions/advice would be great

Edit: clarifications and another ability

[GAZKUL]

it sounds really cool, i'm not that good with advice so i'll just say how about thinking about having an ork related bodyguard as they are the most common aline in the galaxy, perhaps a criminal who was experimented on to try and transfer the ork ability of size and muscle growth being stimulated by violence.

[Kaled]

Firstly, is there any reason why you didn't use my Tech-Priest rules? Not that you have to of course, but if there's some problem with them then I'd like to know so I can address it.

I'm not sure that D3 to injury total in return for +2 Speed is sufficient. D3 for +1 Speed maybe...

For returning a character to life, I'd make it more difficult - make it so it requires about 4 actions and needs to be done within maybe 3 turns so it's a real race against time. Will he be able to get to them in time? Will he roll enough actions?  Will the tests be passed? That kind of thing. Anyway, what happens if he's successful? How much injury is healed? And how dead can they be for it to work?

[Dust King]

Hmmm, Thanks for the suggestion GAZKUL, a certain Dr. Banner may make a appearance in this group 

I like your tech-priest rules Kaled, they're probably one of the major reasons I decided to do a mechanicus character. But the more the idea developed the more I wanted to have the character without any bionic upgrades. However this is sort of a first draft and I have only really included the DIY abilities, I was planning to give him some more generic abilities as well as some adaptations of the upgrades in your rules.

The speed 6 was basically a reference to the fact he's using eldar parts and eldar rules give them speed 6. This is a theme I want to try and keep in the character.

An alternative idea I had was if he's moving at speed 6 he is at -2 to BIV (making him BIV 4).

My thinking behind it is this: He has augmented himself so he can perform at superhuman levels and he has done a good enough job that doing this causes no major damage to his body. However moving at this speed still pushes his body to it's limit increasing the chance of exhaustion and internal damage. I wanted to avoid any characteristic tests which would slow down play as well as avoiding anything which would cause him serious injury just by using it.

Your right about the revival tests though, I will make them more difficult. I was planning on giving the dead character a recovery action, if passed then they subtract D3 from their toughness and that's their new Injury Total (I think this would work better than keeping track of how dead a person is on their injury total). As long as a character still has a intact (ie. not crippled) head (brain function) and chest (circulatory and respiratory system) they can be revived, however if they have other locations bleeding they will probably soon die again.

[Kaled]

But the more the idea developed the more I wanted to have the character without any bionic upgrades.

Even an Organicist is going to have bionic upgrades, even if he later replaced some/most/all of the with biological equivalents.

The speed 6 was basically a reference to the fact he's using eldar parts and eldar rules give them speed 6. This is a theme I want to try and keep in the character.

I'm unsure as to what you're going for here - what is it that boosts his Speed?  Has he replaced parts of his nervous system with that of an Eldar?  Or has he implanted Eldar technology into his body?  Eldar technology is psychic in nature - maybe the drawback of using it to boost his Speed comes from that?

I was planning on giving the dead character a recovery action, if passed then they subtract D3 from their toughness and that's their new Injury Total

What about characters who are dead from other reasons other than their injury total being greater than their toughness?

[Dust King]

Even an Organicist is going to have bionic upgrades, even if he later replaced some/most/all of the with biological equivalents.

I'm planning on having him being active for well over 90 years (A time which ties in with my Inquisitor) so I'd imagine he had enough time replace most with biological equivalents. I was thinking of giving him some bionics in his circulatory system to neutralise any toxins he's exposed to, the last thing he wants is for his body to be ruined by some cheap poison. 

I'm unsure as to what you're going for here - what is it that boosts his Speed?  Has he replaced parts of his nervous system with that of an Eldar?  Or has he implanted Eldar technology into his body?  Eldar technology is psychic in nature - maybe the drawback of using it to boost his Speed comes from that?

I'd say he's replaced much of his nervous system as well as some of his muscles and bones. I don't really want to use the alien technology explanation as there is already a techpriest in our gaming group who can use an archeotech device to get more actions.

However I can imagine that since the eldar are such a psychic race perhaps a psychic trace remains in the flesh he has used. I like the sound of this, I'll give it some thought.

What about characters who are dead from other reasons other than their injury total being greater than their toughness?

Well I'd say everything I said still applies. As long as their head and chest are intact they can be revived. Since they have just suffered a lethal wound (or other effect) the high injury total would represent the total mental and physical exhaustion as well as oxygen deprivation. The way I see it a character who has died for any reason should not come back in the best of health.

[Kaled]

I'm planning on having him being active for well over 90 years (A time which ties in with my Inquisitor) so I'd imagine he had enough time replace most with biological equivalents. I was thinking of giving him some bionics in his circulatory system to neutralise any toxins he's exposed to, the last thing he wants is for his body to be ruined by some cheap poison.

I'd have thought some sort of toxin filter would be something that could easily be biological - for example the oolitic kidney.  What sorts of communications and information systems might he have?  How does he interface with cogitator systems or other Tech-Priests?  How does he ingest knowledge?

I'd say he's replaced much of his nervous system as well as some of his muscles and bones.

So a significant proportion of his body has been replaced with Eldar tissue.  Eldar biology is quite different to human so we can consider what other augmentations he'd need.  For example Eldar bones do not contain a marrow analogue, so I guess he'd also have to have adapted his circulatory system in some way.  Instead their bones deliver something like free-roaming lymph glands, so maybe that could be taken into account in his rules.  Also, their bones are much lighter than human ones.  I'm sure there are similar things you could look at around his Eldar nervous system and muscles that may inspire rules.

Well I'd say everything I said still applies. As long as their head and chest are intact they can be revived. Since they have just suffered a lethal wound (or other effect) the high injury total would represent the total mental and physical exhaustion as well as oxygen deprivation. The way I see it a character who has died for any reason should not come back in the best of health.

Is this just for actual death, which is pretty rare, especially due to injury total going above a character's toughness (crippling head wounds are more common), or can he also revive out of action characters who can't normally play any further part in the game.  And how intact do their head and chest need to be in order to be revived?

[Alyster Wick]

I have to agree with Kaled that either some bionics should be there or there should be a more in depth explanation for his avoidance of bionics (just cave and use a couple rules from the tech-priest article, you know you want to!  ).

I also like the idea of him resurrecting characters, but as Kaled seems to be suggesting I'd take a look at having him be able to revive characters taken out of action, not just ones that are technically dead.

Which brings me to my final point.  While I understand the need to create a "good" antagonist to offer contrast to your Inquisitor (who you're aiming to vilify slightly), but you could also add in some darkness to Raphael as well.  For example, perhaps when he resurrects/revives a character things don't always go according to plan (think Re-Animator).  Why not whip up a fun table to determine the character's state of mind upon being torn away from the sweet grip of death?  They could have lost their short term memory and be suffering from paranoia, they could be in a berserk state and rush the first thing they see, certain functions (sight, hearing, balance, etc) may not all come back at once. 

Anyway, just a thought.  Interesting character concepts for Raphael and his merry band.  What abilities do you envision the Ethereal gland to bestow?

[DapperAnarchist]

You could tie his dislike of mechanical parts to something like Magos Corteswain - an encounter with the Dragon Cult, and their xenophilic veneration of the mechanisation of man. As a result, he looks to still improve on the human form, but using the tools of the Old Ones instead of the C'Tan - that is, Eldar, Krork, etc.

[Aidan]

You want Haast to be a bad guy? I can *make* Haast be a bad guy. But my last experience trying to get a hero you were playing to do questionable things (Amers, to jog your memory) ended up with him bedning over backwards to avoid having to. With all that you only won that campaign on account of Max's horrendous luck whenever it most counted.

- - - - -

Anyhow, more on topic, I do likes this one (well, I have liked this one ever since you first postualted the idea). There's great campaign possibilities opening up here - he'd make a great opponent for Haast, and also a wonderful bridge between Haast and the Adeptus Mechanicus authorities-related faction I'm creating at the moment. One more techno-heretic for Valdiim to worry about. And of course, with this guy being not strictly 'nid, there's plenty of room for a 'conflict of jurisdiction' with Essinger.  And of course there's always the possible links to the other two techno-heretic parties (hilarious to have Shrike and Diturian lumped togetehre like that, but its true!)

So is Raphael going to be from Phycon sector (with it's larege AdMech power base) or from elsewhere, only ending up here 'cause it's the furthest end of the road? That info would help place any future scenarios I should start thinking up.

- - - - -

As far as rules are concerned, I like them but you should definitely take suggestions from the guys here. Especially, I can't see this guy going about without *any* form of bionics on him. And, you know, bionics would make it much easier for you to model him.

-Aidan.

[Dust King]

Ok Sorry it's taken some time but here are the new rules and changes based on the feedback


New stuff
Medi-Auspex: An augmentation which feeds real-time medical diagnostic information into his mind allowing him to diagnose and treat complex injuries easily. He can use his Sg instead of another characters T if he is performing recovery actions on them. It also counts as infravision. I'm also thinking of including rules for being able to target a characters vital organs in combat, Like a force weapon only adding D6 when he passes a Sg test

Sins in the Flesh: Eldar tissues still possess an echo of the soul which used to like in them and they resent their new owner, each turn there is a 5% chance he will count as having a crude bionic brain for that turn. Also any telepathy or biomancy psychic powers which target him have their difficulty increased by 10

From Kaleds excellent mechanicus article
Detox Implant, Circulatory Filtration, Synthetic Membranes, medi-mechadendrite

Changes
Stats
Ws  Bs  S    T    I  Wp Sg  Nv Ld
66  49 53 62  71 64  83  74  80

Push the limit: Counts as speed 6 but reduces his BIV by 2

Also the way I see his character has changed; Now I see him as curiouser, he respects human life greatly but he is less respectful of other life forms, he isn't to fussy over what his associates do either, as long as he doesn't have to get blood on his hands (metaphorically of-course). He also cares little for 'the big picture', he would save a group of refugees from a planet quarantined because of a genestealer cult. 

For the Etherial gland I was thinking of close range (2-3 yards) telepathic psychic powers tested against an opponents  toughness, but with a bonus if they are aware she's hostile.

Originally I was thinking of this guy as someone who was trying to build a perfect body and was going to make him look like a slightly twisted eldar (possibly with an eldar face stitched in place of his own) . but now I'm seeing him as more "experimental" based rather than "perfection" based. How I'm picturing him now is a medieval "plague doctor" complete with mask (medi-auspex) and cloak (incorporating regeneration archeotech and medi-mechadendrite)

[Flinty]

Very nice character concept and I think the new, more streamlined approach, gives the right flavour without too many elements ''cluttering'' up the character sheet. I like the idea of a racial memory in transplanted flesh - and I do like the idea that the relevant psychic attacks would struggle, given the conglomeration of bits they are trying to manipulate!

I'd be interested to see you explore his Ad Mech background a little more and how he formed his current beliefs and motivation. Adding Xenos elements to improve humanity is a very radical step, I'd imagine this would not only attract an awful lot of detrimental attention, but possible some interest from the odd (probably very odd) Thorian splinter faction.

Im intrigued by his wanting to help the poor and downtrodden elements rejected by humanity. Does this run to using them as experimental subjects as he can only (in his eyes) improve thier lot? or is it his actions in general that will eventually lead to a better, more equitable system for all?

[Kaled]

Eldar have a high degree of concious/psychic control over their body, so I figure that their flesh must be more 'accustomed' to that type of manipulation and as the Tech-priest presumably cannot control it in that way it would be more susceptible to others using  biomancy/telepathy on him rather than less...

[Dust King]

Argh, just lost all the stuff I'd written for this post

Ah well, here's the readers digest version:

Pace's body and by extension his mind would be unfamiliar to any psykers, even if eldar are easier to control his body and mind are so different from everyone else that they would struggle to manipulate his systems. Basically his body and mind are a mix of different languages, difficult to read and control.

Edit: forgot this bit from the lost post: The psychic echo of the eldar parts also has a instinctive/reflexive defence to try and prevent psychic manipulation and possession etc.

His motivation (First draft version) is he's trying to build people who can survive in the wake of a tyranid hive fleet. He thinks the tyranids can't be stopped so he's trying to make people who can survive until the fleets have passed then go out and recolonise the galaxy.

It was more detailed in the original but this is the essence of it.

[Kaled]

While I understand your reasoning, I'm still not convinced for a couple of reasons. Currently there is no modifier to telepathy/biomancy for unfamiliar biology - maybe there should be, or maybe a biomancer has some innate understanding of biology that means they can use their powers without needing to properly understand the workings of the target's body. As for a 'psychic echo' protecting the flesh - again, I can't think of any precedent for such a statement. Is the actual flesh of an Eldar more resistant to psychic intrustion? Or is it their mind and concious control of their body that gives that effect?

Of course, I know little about xenobiology, so am open to being convinced that I'm wrong - but at the moment something doesn't feel right to me about the technobabble and corresponding rules.