[zasapamasawasa]

Hi all, just wanted a little feedback on my new character...
FLUFF: "The Black Death" is an incredibly mysterious and stealthy assassin rumoured to be working for the Golden Throne, although the Officio Assasinorum won't even admit he/she exists. The Black Death slinks unseen through the shadows, handbow readied, and puts a poisoned quarrel into the leg of an enemy Inquisitor's acolyte from afar. As the unlucky victim starts to scream and writhe, attacking his own allies, the Black Death sneaks on, single-handedly destroying an entire warband from secret hiding-places with poisoned darts, and up close, darting out to deliver the fatal knife wound before slinking back into the shadows. The Black Death is an incredibly useful ally to have, although he/she never works with a warband, only alongside them when it suits his/her own ends. There are even rumours among those who know of the Black Death that the assassin is not human...

PROFILE:WS   BS   S     T     I    Wp    Sg    Nv    Ld    Speed   
95     85   70  70 100   80    80  120    50         7

The Black Death is ambidextrous.

Talents: Acrobatic, Blademaster, Catfall, Dodge, Lightning Reflexes, True Grit.

Psychic Powers: Psi-track, Enforce Will.

Weapons: 3 throwing knives, a handbow with quarrels poisoned with Hallucinogen and a long knife. (reach 2)   

Equipment: Range Finder, Medi-pak.

So, what do you think?

[Kaled]

Do you have a model for him? There are some nice models out therethat would be perfect for this guy.

To be honest, I'm not keen on him - he's underequipped for an Officio assassin and the whole Officio connection seems pointless. Just make him a member of an assassin cult instead. If he's not human then I'd definitely not make him connected with the Throne - he could be part of an alien (or daemon) influenced cult...

His stats seem OTT. Why is he Speed 7? How does he have superhuman Nv? His WS & BS are so high he wouldn't be much fun to play, or play against? Why is he so well educated? Why the psychic powers? They're not mentioned in his background?

That all said, I do like the idea of an assassin who uses hallucinogen to spread fear and discord before striking himself. If I were you I'd invent an assassin cult that operates in that way, make his stats more sensible and maybe give him more equipment, such as a hallucinogen gas grenade or two.

[zasapamasawasa]

PROFILE:  WS    BS    S     T     I     Wp    Sg    Nv    Ld   
                85     80   70  70  100   80     60   70    50   

The Black Death is ambidextrous.

Talents: Acrobatic, Blademaster, Catfall, Dodge, Lightning Reflexes, True Grit.

Weapons: 3 throwing knives, a handbow with quarrels poisoned with Hallucinogen and a long knife. (reach 2)   

Equipment: Range Finder, Medi-pak, 3 Hallucinogen grenades.

Well, I've fixed the profile and given him some grenades, might add more stuff in future, but have yet to think of some fluff. Does anyone else have any ideas? Also, no, I don't yet have a model for him. I was thinking of kitbashing the Severina & Sevora minis, but do you have any suggestions?

P.S Sorry about the previous mistakes, I'm kind of new to Inq. and this was just a first draft.

[Kaled]

No need to apologise - the central idea of an assassin who uses hallucinogen is good - it just needs a few tweaks IMHO.

As for models, Pegaso do a nice ninja, and Draconia have an excellent crouching assassin, I'm also sure Andrea have some nice models that would work for this guy but I can't access their site at the moment. I used Eisenhorn's body with Stone's legs to make a cloaked assassin. Converting the sisters would be extremely difficult - I'd definitely advise against that approach.

[Darksinger]

He sounds good actually. and the statline might look a bit overpowered, he/she is all on his/her lonesome out there, hings might get a bit hot if he/she is surrounded by foes.

[Adlan]

Like Kaled Said, nice concept. Background needs some work, as do the stats, but then, so does everyones first character.

The way I like to do a model is come up with a concept, find a model and bitz that fits the concept, build the model, and then develop the character. Everyone has a different style (Marco Skull is so devoted to getting exactly as he likes it he learned to scult and makes his own from scratch now  ).

With that, a model suitable for being a black shadowy death assasin, and using a handbow, shouldn't be too hard to find. My advice is rummage through your bitz box and see what you have on hand, use the Inquisitor modelling resources thread (Found Here to look through various manufacturer's to see what's available as a base figure. Eoliths Dracula might work quite well (and has just been updated), hang some grenades on his belt, hand swap for whatever crossbow you can conjure up, and either greenstuff or headswap to give him a cloaked head. Of course, that's just one idea, there's bound to be dozens if not hundreds of other base models, and thousands of ways to do it.

When it comes to the rules, I'd probably drop true grit and lightening reflexes, and tone down the strength and toughness a little. And use Stats that are not just multiples of 5, it's a d100 scale for a reason .

 Why does his knife have reach 2 when blademaster makes it reach 4 anyway? Why not have a different skill than blademaster, and use a short sword? How Many Quarrels does he have? And why not coat all his weapons with the poison (at least the throwing knives).

The Medipak doesn't seem very characterful to me for an assassin. What about some does of an antidote to the hallucinogen he uses instead? Might be useful incase he or an ally gets dosed by accident.

When it comes to background, is he going to be connected with a warband? If you are intending to take on whole other warbands with one figure, you can bump up the stats and gear quite a bit, and I'd still say the odds are against you. Like Darksinger says, if he's on his lonesome, then he's if anything underpowered.

If he is connected to a warband of an inquisitor, or such like authority figure, background can be a fun if slightly formulaic description of his cult, his recruitment by the authority figure, and some of his recent escapades.

A devout cult that believes to not worship the emperor is madness, and so the enemies of the emperor should be killed by madness for example, could be a fitting cult for his origins.

[Alyster Wick]

The concept is cool.  I like a lot of the ideas you present but there are some congruency issues you create for yourself by flooding them all in at once.  Having a specialized assassin that works directly for the throne is great but it doesn't really work if the individual is an alien (you'd also expect him to have better wargear).  However, the idea of a cult that believes they receive visions from the Emperor and then send an assassin out to act on the visions could work great with the current equipment package you have (the idea of a cult like this utilizing hallucinogen drugs as tools of war also makes perfect sensee).  Likewise you could develop some other cult around the individual if they aren't conclusively human (or you can say that some doubt whether he is truly a man, suggesting that he's more than human, perhaps some type of Thorian ideal body, which would also make him a target of investigation for Thorians). [/rambling paragraph]

Anyway, I'd echo the sentiments that (if he's meant to be a lone player-character) that he's underpowered, but I'll add a caveat.  You should keep his skills in their current lowered form (perhaps lending a bit more variety with different numbers so it isn't all 5's and 0's) but improve the equipment.  Yes there's a certain romance in the handbow but some kind of high tech dart gun would be cool.  He/she could also have some type of hand held delivery device ala Scarecrow and opt to spray their prey in the face with a hyper virulent does via an improvised attack up close.  No damage, but a harsh penalty on their T test to see if they're affected. There are all kind of tricks/traps/talents that he/she could get. 

Anyway, love the idea of a cult devoted to hallucinogenic weaponry.  Refine it a bit and it's gold!

[Adlan]

A short addition to my post. For your first character, do not make a one man band unless that's really what your heart is set on. It'll make everything harder, limit your playing style and might make your gaming experience a lot less fun. It's true to learn the rules, play 1vs1, but do so with characters designed to be part of a larger warband. Gives you somewhere to expand.

[zasapamasawasa]

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys, I never thought it would get this many!

Onto the assassin though, I think I do want to start with just one guy and not a whole warband for the simple reason that I barely have any money at the moment and 54mm minis are not cheap! (Bearing in mind I'm 12 and have to wait 2 months to save up for 1 GW (Inq.) miniature. ) I will get a full warband at some time, to go with this guy, (maybe a whole cult of assassins, now that would be fun... ) it's just that I can't really afford anything else. As for a miniature, I'll have a look through those links you suggested, Adian. As I'm quite competent with GS I could try to get a mini with roughly the right pose/looks and GS it. Also, for the handbow, I'll just get a WFB crossbow, file off the current hand and stick it on.

As for the profile and fluff, rest asssured I will work on them some more, but I've got to go for a while now so will probably reply late in the afternoon.

See you round,

Zasapamasawasa

[Kaled]

Alyster is right - if you're going to make him a one man warband then the best thing to do would be to make his equipment more powerful rather than increase his stats. Maybe make up stats for some sort of high tech handbow - perhaps one that's effectively a small rail gun which takes a standard las weapon powerpack as it's energy source and has a magazine of half a dozen poisoned quarrels. He's okay up close, especially if his knife has hallucinogen toxin, but he needs to pack more of a punch at range.

That said, you ought to try to find something to accompany him - maybe a familiar or cyber-creature. It would just help stop him being outnumbered. One man warbands can be fun, but all it takes is one unlucky action role to leave him stranded in the open and an easy target for your opponent. To help on that score, if he's the type to do death-defying leaps and suchlike then give him Heroic.