My first Inquisitor Warband

[wargame_insomniac]

Hi

After my long missing figures I am looking to pull together stats and background for my first warband. My first stab in the dark:

1) Inquisitor
Ws 75. Bs 60. S 55. T 55. I 80. Wp 85. Sg 75. Nv 80. Ld 80.
Force of Will, Leader,  Enforce Will, telepathy, Sanctuary,
Daemon weapon, stubber, Flak Armour,
(I am wanting a senior Inquisitor, starting to err to radical side, focus on Ws over Bs, good mental skills, spread of Psychic skills)

2) Bounty hunter
Ws 60. Bs 75. S 60. T 60. I 70. Wp 65. Sg 55. Nv 75. Ld 55.
Deadeye shot, Hipshooting, Lightning Reflexes, True Grit,
Autogun, revolver, Flak Armour,
(Thinking and old grizzled gunfighter)

3) Enforcer
Ws 60. Bs 50. S 50. T 50. I 60. Wp 60. Sg 50. Nv 65. Ld 55.
Lightning Reflexes, Nerves of Steel, Quickload
Shock Maul, Suppression Shield, Pump Action Shotgun, Carapace Armour, Cyber Mastiff
(Thinking young fresh faced earnest enforcer)

Obviously I need to flesh out background in full- the above is just my first initial thoughts.

I am likely to be facing stock warband, possibly Covenant, Delphan Gruss, Josef.

(It is possible might also have to face Dannica as well- if so will probably take an Arco-Flagellant to compensate).

I know the above stats might differ from Conclave Standard- I have tried to go for middle ground between stock ability stats and Conclave Standard, as I will be facing a stock warband.

Thanks

James

PS: What sub-faction is Covenant? I know he is a Puritan but what sort?

[RobSkib]

First up, it's good to see you're breaking out of the mould of stock characters. They're not very much fun to play with, and its hard to get attached to characters you havn't 'birthed' yourself.

What's with all the multiples of 5? I understand its easier to work modifiers out when things are nice round numbers, but Inquisitor is a D100 system for a reason, not a D10 system. If its easier, there are 10 stats, so try and have each stat with a different second digit, from 0 to 9. It'll help break up the monotony of a boring statline.

They need names obviously, or they're just faceless mooks, but I'm sure you know that. Backgrounds don't need to be hugely detailed, so long as you know what their overall goals are in life and how they're likely to react in a given situation, then thats all you need.

Excuse the copy pasta, but I'm going to show you my own 'ready reckoner' ideas I've put together myself over the past 7 years of creating Inquisitor characters and teaching new people to play.

- We limited the number of bolt and power weapons to one per warband. These can both be on the same person if the player chose, but then the character could not have a mix of both ranged and melee special abilities.

- One True Grit character, and one Heroic character per warband. If you're feeling adventurous, make sure whoever is True Grit cannot be Heroic too, otherwise people default to giving both to their Inquisitor. It will make your players think twice - is my Inquisitor really that hard, or is he more likely to pull off some badass stunts? Same goes for other abilities as well, such as lightning reflexes. The more abilities and duplicate abilities you have in your warband, the less unique each character will feel.

- Encumbrance. There are some rules somewhere, but the rules we use are Double Strength, plus 50, is your Encumbrance limit. Armour costs 10 'encumbrance' per point of armour, reloads weigh 1/10th of the weapon's weight, and any misc items weigh 5. Melee weapons weigh the maximum damage they can cause, so a d10 sword would weigh 10, whereas a 3D10 power sword would weigh 30. Obviously you can debate these weights to your heart's content, but we also found this acted as a primitive (and somewhat more useful) Ready Reckoner, and Encumbrance doesn't just represent weight, but also bulkiness, ease of transport, how easy the item is to maintain etc. Sure a regular halberd is 10 encumbrance and a power halberd is 40, and they'd weigh roughly the same, but a power halberd is going to require all manner of tools, fuels and skills to keep it in good working order, and the 'upkeep' of the weapon is 4 times that of the mundane version to compensate.


Just a couple ideas for you to play with in your group, as I know from experience that starting out in a fresh gaming group can be very difficult - there's always one guy who brings a character packing the dual bolt pistols, ambidextrous, gunfighter and a wrist-mounted stormbolter!

Feel free to use/abuse/discard as you please, that's what Inquisitor is all about Hopefully you can take some of these away to your own gaming group to keep the power gaming down as much as possible, at least until everyone gets into the spirit of the game, and realises its just as fun when your own guys do as badly as the other team!

[DapperAnarchist]

A couple things - Force of Will is often thought to be better for those characters who are literally incapable of fear - Servitors, the utterly insane, the mindlessly fanatical, and the deeply impaired. An Inquisitor might be better represented by just having a high nerve, or reducing the effects of Fear or Terror, or counting both as just Fear-causing, or something similar.

The other thing - what powers does the Daemon weapon have? Also, remember that it is a character in its own right!

[wargame_insomniac]

Thanks for the comments- the multiples of 5 were just putting stuff down quickly- will try to mix it up the way you said.

I don't have any power weapons or bolt weapons- just one Daemon sword, so i should be ok there. No power armoured guys, just one carapace armour and that is nt my Inquisitor.

Yep names and full background to come as i work it out.

The only duplicate skill I have is that 2 characters have Lightning reflexes- i could always give the bounty hunter Rock Steady Aim instead.

So how would this be as a starting point for playing vs stock characters?

Thanks

James

[wargame_insomniac]

Hi DapperAnarchist .

re Force of Will my starting point was looking at Eisenhorn. As the comments in Conclave Standard seemd to recommend toning down stats from those in main rulebook, I was going for a sort of Eisenhorn-lite. Not quite as strong but the same sort of flavour.

If Force of Will was nt appropriate I could substitute with Nerves of Steel? But then have given that to Enforcer and so cant give to Inquisitor if trying to avoid duplication. I don;t really want to give inquisitor heroic as thats not how I see him.I don't think Word of the Emperor fits as my character is verging on Radical side so that rules that out for me.

I guess I could simply increase Wp instead of taking Force of Will.

have nt even begun to think about Daemon Weapon yet- will have a think as to how i want to paint it and then reflect accordingly in appropriate daemon power.

Thanks

James

[MarcoSkoll]

If Force of Will was nt appropriate I could substitute with Nerves of Steel?

Nerves of Steel is best reserved for those with no sense of self preservation, rather than the merely brave (which a high Nv represents admirably).

Force of Will is much the same. Unless the character is blasé (rather than merely brave) about facing off against opponents that dangerous, a high Nv will do the job.

I should note that I have a slightly different view on Fearsome/Terrifying to the rulebook, treating it as a measure of how dangerous the character appears.
A Space Marine, Ork or Pitfighter looks dangerous, a daemonhost feels dangerous - ergo, they get Fearsome. (Yes, I know that SMs aren't fearsome in the rulebook. They should be.) An ugly mutant is not in that same league and shouldn't get Fearsome (in fact, almost nothing "human" or close to it should ever get Fearsome, no matter how cool their scarring might be).

[wargame_insomniac]

Ok- will have a rethink about Nerves of Steel and Force of Will.

Been looking at the daemon weapon properties- like the sound of bound, daemonbane and magical force.

I had a further play around with my character before I went too far with painting. I found that Covenant head would fit on Eisenhorn body with a bit of snipping. That meant a much younger character so I then filed down his callipers. That will affect the character of my Inquisitor- probably fresh faced and newly promoted. Got me thinking about his first steps to radicalism, probably Xanthite, when he acquired Daemon sword.

A question- how would binding/banishing a daemon work? I guess that is a bit of an open ended question. So how realistic would it be that a failed banishment would not have destroyed the daemon but simply bound it to material plane, in this case the sword?

I am thinking along the lines of my characters mentor being in Ordo Malleus and engaged a daemon. He sverely weakened the daemon but was mortally wounded in turn. My character stepped in and tried to finish the job. But lacking the mental strength and expertise of his mentor he was unable to succesfully banish the damon, despite it's weakened state. So the banishment did'nt work as intended and resulted in the daemon being bound to the sword instead.

How does this sound as a character background? Is it feasible?

Thanks

James

[Adlan]

Sounds plausible to me. Something similar happened in the esinhorn books. Did he use his masters death to bind the deamon, or was it a complete accident? Was his master trying to bind it? How did it breach the material relm in the first place. Is the sword his masters personal sidearm? How did he know what to do with a bound deamon blade, such knowledge alone is pretty radical.

[wargame_insomniac]

Hi- just finished re-reading Hereticus last night. I presume you mean where Eisenhorn binds Cherubael into the body of Fischig using the power of the Malus Codicium? It has been pointed out to me that it would be harder to bind a daemon into an inanimate object such as a sword as opposed to a damonhost. Also Eisenhorn had the power of that book.

And plus Eisenhorn was also some way down the path of radicalism at that point than I had envisaged my character. I am thinking that the first step was an involuntary one, then the character tries to rationalise it after the fact, thinking no harm done and it was only a little step....

I was figuring that the daemon had been already been summoned into material realm by Tzeentchian cultists. My character and his master intervene, killing some of the cultists with the rest of cultists fleeing, and then having to combat the daemon.

It has been suggested that maybe the Tzeentch daemon "chose" to enter the sword, initially unbeknownst to my character, for it's own purposes. That fits in quite well with an overall campaign idea I was contemplating- need to run it past my likely opponent. Let me see what he thinks and will then pull together the various strands of the character concept.

Thanks

James

[wargame_insomniac]

Is this the best place to post my first draft of character background?

Thanks

James

[Darksinger]

yep, here it is. post away.

btw, your statlines arent the worst i've seen. Belive me.

[wargame_insomniac]

Thanks

The stat lines were an attempt to bridge the gap between rulebook and Conclave Standard, thinking that I would be playing against rulebook generated characters. Hopefully it now appears that we can get several players for a campaign and that everyone seems to be happy with Conclave Standard. That means I can tweak the stats further.

I will post the first draft of my character concept- concentrated solely on Inquisitor so far- trying to explain how he came to possess a daemon weapon and walk down the Xanthite path. I have a clear idea as to the (shorter) background of 2 further characters: a veteran gunslinger and an impetuous scout. My 4th character is undecided and depends on whether I can convert a Techpriest in the way that I want.

This first draft character concept is without seeing any of the character concepts of the other campaign players or working out the overall campaign story arc beyond some first suggestions. I think I want to finalise all 4 of my character concepts before I start statting out any of them- also want to make progress painting them in case that prompts anything further.

All constructive criticisms much appreciated- this is just first draft.

Thanks

James

James

[wargame_insomniac]

The orb gradually swelled to fill the shuttles viewscreen. Veritas III. This was the second time I had seen this sight. In a way it was apt- I was returning full circle to where it all began seeking who knows what. My name is Thorvald Hesjedal, Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus.

Ten years ago I first travelled to Veritas III with my mentor, Lord Inquisitor Lennart Taramaee. I was just a mere Interrogator, having entered his service a dozen years earlier fresh from college. He taught me the ways of the Imperium, of the Inquistion and of the Ordo. I had two and a half centuries of experience and dedicated service to absorb. I was a conscientious student but I still had much to learn.

We were in pursuit of a cultist, Jarno Koren, a self-admitted acolyte of Chaos. We had followed this heretic across four sectors, finally running him to ground or so we hoped. We cornered him in an uptown hive along with rest of his accursed coven. We barely arrived in time. When the strike teams swept in the cultists had just finished their unspeakable rituals, summoning a daemon of Tzeentch no less. With bursts of flame and volleys of las-fire and autoguns we made our entrance. We cut them down lin no time, all apart from the foul monstrosity that they had summoned into the material realm.

Lord Taramaee swept forward, wielding his blessed Greathammer with a speed and dexterity that belied both his advanced years and the weapons great weight. I felt the temperature in the room plummet as the daemon unleashed his warp-stained magicks. The runes on my armour glowed white hot as they protected from the worst. I saw Lord Taramaee score a great gash down the daemon's right flank. In return it's talon's struck out gouging my master's breastplate and leaving him stricken.

Filled with divine rage I rushed in, hammering the daemon repeatedly with my falchion. Whether I got in a lucky blow, or my master had already wounded it with his Greathammer, I do not know. But uttering the scared rites I slew this monstrosity, banishing him from the material plane and sending it back to the warp from whence it came.

Dazed and drained from the struggle I hurriedly went to my master, ensuring the medics saw to his wounds. The rest of the retinue secured the area and deatined any remaining cultists for further questioning before receiving Imperial justice. We found no trace of Jarno Koren- it appeared that he had escaped our clutched yet again.

The Ordo looked very favourably on my performance in the face of the Ancient Enemy. With a glowing report from his sickbed, Lord Taramaee recommended me for full promotion to Inquisitorial rank My heart swelled with pride and the opportunity to serve the Imperium more fully. They say pride comes before a fall. How true those words would prove to be.

At the hour of my greatest triumph I faced my lowest moment. On the journey home I had strange dreams, hearing a soft voice as I slept promising me great knowledge and understanding. I initially shrugged it off as the perils of travelling through the Empyrean. But the doubt nagged away at me. When cleaning and reconsecrating my falchion the voices returned, quiet, intelligent, subtle, insidious.

I quickly realised that something of the daemon prince had remained on this material plane, seemingly bound within the sword. I lacked my master's expertise at banishing daemons, but I knew enough about the differences between banishment and binding. Maybe in the heat of battle I had erred in the rites of banishment. Although that prospect was dire, the alternative was that the daemon had voluntarily chosen to imprison itself within the sword's steel.. And that was a chilling thought.

What I should have done was turn the dammed sword over to my Ordo. Or even consulted with my master. But I chose to covertly perform the rites of binding on the sword. It was nt as if I had I had succumbed to the dangers of the warp. And surely we should use all the tools available for the protection and the furtherance of the Imperium. It was nt as if any harm had been done....

For nine further years I served under Lord Taramaee. Although his physical health was steadily worsening, his mind was still as sharp as it had always been. We continued to hunt out the enemies of mankind, protecting the Imperium with our vigilance and endeavour. Despite the best efforts of the sisters of the Order Hospitaller my master never recovered from Veritas III. The daemon's claw had penetrated too deep- the surgeons could nt be sure that all fragments had been removed and any attempt to be sure would be fatal.  I took on more and more of the day to day burdens until the entire staff reported direct to me.

On his deathbed Lord Taramaee summoned me for one final briefing.  He passed on to me his final words of wisdom and expertise. Clasping my hands he looked me in the eye and asked me if there was anything I wished to share with him. In my second moment of weakness I assured him that there was not. He seemed to know but how could he. If he did know he said nothing and whispered his exhortation to protect the Imperium from all it's enemies, ancient and new. He closed his eyes for the final, leaving me in my private shame that I had betrayed his trust at the last.

And so here I was, returning to this humid overcrowded pit, filled with the whole spectrum of humanity.  I had received an urgent communiqué from my operative Inia Kalinic.She was my best eyes and ears and I trusted her judgement implicitly. If she did not trust even a coded message through Inquisitorial channels then it must be of some great import. Thus I travelled to meet her in person planetside. Hoping that this visit to Veritas III would be auspicious than the first.more

[Darksinger]

You mentioned you had an undecided 4th character? I look forward to seeing what he/she is like. Hopefully its not just another human, but your characters don't sound like radicals, so i'm fully prepared for it not to be an alien.

As for your background, it looks good. Only a few picky bis.

1- what is your inquisitors name?

2- what Ordo does he work for? Sounds like Hereticus, if he's tracking cultists, possibly Malleus if its demon related.

I'd like to note i'm not the best resource or judge of background. I'd wai for others to reply before continueing.

[wargame_insomniac]

Hi- in the opening paragraph I mentioned that my character's name was Thorvald Hesjedal and that I am an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus.

In the earlier post I mentioned that my other characters include a veteran gunslinger and a young scout, and that I was thinking of making 4th character a Techpriest if I can do conversion I have in mind.

In terms of Radicalism I wanted a character that was only just going down that road. I figured Xanthite as the model is wielding a daemonsword.

What else would you suggest to radicalise the warband? I don't want a daemonhost (too radical for me at the moment and don't have suitable model). I could do an arco-flagellant or a mutant but that would mean using the stock models for Damien or Quovandis respectively. I am trying to avoid using stock models if at all possible.

Thanks

James