noon here with a noob character. harsh feed back welcome

[jakob]

i'm new to the Inquisitor game, though i've been browsing it for a while. also, i'm pretty familiar with the general 40K universe. i have a basic idea for a single character though i will need some feedback and advice from anyone. i can handle any criticism, no matter how harsh just remember, i am a noob

i have a rough idea for a background fluff here as well
NAME: Jakob
jakob grew up on a fairly wealthy and (relatively) peacefull civilised world. however, this world had a large population of subjucated mutants. his civilian life was comfortable, safe and with a decent education. he knew he was 'different' however when during his 16th year he was run over by a transport. instead of quickly dying on the road as he was expecting he was amazed to find his shattered bones begin to regenerate and heal almost before his very eyes. his excessive bleeding soon stopped and before he knew it he was back on his feet with barely a scratch to show for it. he knew he shouldnt have survived the accident. it was at that point he knew he was a mutant. fully aware of his planet's policy towards the mutant population he decided to keep his power a secret. as the years went by however the mutant population grew more and more resentfull of their human overlords. terrorism soon became commonplace, with attacks occuring almost daily. this planet was no longer so safe and secure. as hatred and predjudice for all mutants grew jakob realised he could no longer stay for fear of anyone finding out about his true nature. so, on his 19th year he ran away from home, eager to get off-planet before the mutant situation became a full blown uprising, which it later did. he joined up with a crew on board a rogue trader vessel, a crew who had no qualms about working with muties. in fact, the captain was most impressed with jakob's incredible powers of regeneration. while jakob has no serious physical strength, his intelligence and 'gift' have proven him to be very usefull.

WS  BS  ST  TG  I   WP  SG  NV  L
35  40  35  39 45  50   60  60  55

equipment:  laspistol and short sword.  carapace (6) on chest, unarmoured everywhere else
skills:   Regeneration, Impervious, True grit, wyrd-regeneration

[RobSkib]

For a first character, that's spot on the money. Simple but plausible background, sensible (if a little low in some places!) stats and well-rounded equipment and skills. My only problem is that given his fair experience at fighting, I'd expect some of his stats to be a little higher in places. It does depend on what kind of games you play though - in my games, that same character would be 10 higher across all the physical stats, which is what I'd consider a disciplined guardsman, gang leader or hired gun with a fair bit of killing experience to have. The WS, BS, S and T are what I'd expect from a hastily-recruited militia force, who have only ever practised shooting sacks of flour - he just seems a little physically lacking for someone who has got to where he is through cracking some skulls!

[jakob]

thanks for the input. i had figured a character would be better underpowered than over powered. my thoughts on this character was that he got to where he is not so much by cracking skulls but by having his own skull cracked open only for him to put it back together again. if he was part of a warband then he wouldnt be the 'muscle' but more of the 'living shield' or the 'distraction'. though maybe i might bump his stats up a bit. or give him some combat stimms? he could be an indestructible stimm junkie . . .

[Inquisitor Cade]

I feel cheated, you give us a mandate to criticize harshly then present such a restrained character, I'm going to have to get creative...
Umm, aha, you haven't begun each sentence with a capital letter, and also  you could commarize some of those full stops and combine the sentences to make the passage a bit more fluent.


Seriously though the stats and kit are very restrained. These stats suggest he doesn't bother trying to keep fit at all, and has hardly used that short sword of his. I'd suggest you alter the background somewhat to allow for him to be a bit more capable. I suppose the regeneration is what makes the character viable in games of Inquisitor (without it he'd be completely out of his depth and almost certainly dead) which is a shame because it is the one part I really don't like.
This is the second character with this ability to be posted recently (see http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=241.0) which backs me up when I say that it is hugely unoriginal. Almost every mutant that appears in inquisitor seems to have regenerate in one form or another. What makes it even worse in my opinion is the lack of other mutations. We discussed this before in the thread that I linked, but the probability of a genetic mutation being so beneficial is miniscule to begin with. To say it is the only mutation that the character has makes it even more improbable, to the point (in my opinion) that the character becomes implausible. The extreme example of regeneration that this character demonstrates exacerbates things further.

My advice would be to eithe make the character a more general (and plausable) mutant, with at least as many disabilitating mutations as benefitial ones and a lesser version of regeneration, or to forgo the mutation plot all together, besides purhaps his sympathy towards them, and focus instead on the rogue trader crewmember/pirate/Jim Hawkings side of him.

Maybe he could wear his long lost Grandfathers pendant (rosarius, not that he knows it) and so when he was hit by the car he was saved by a 'magical' wall of light. That would give him a character twist (and an in game asset) to replace the wolverine like regeneration.

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, I'm going to try and criticise...

The first thing to bear in mind is that 40k mutants are not your typical "comic book super mutant".  Other than psykers, very few have "mutant powers" without being visibly mutated.
For this reason, it would be very rare for a character to not know that they were a mutant.  I'm not saying he has to have tentacles or a tail, but he'd almost certainly be visibly marked. To give an example, the regenerator amongst my collection has jet black eyes, (seemingly) white hair, and mottled skin - not impossible in a regular human, but improbable enough to mark him out.

I'd also note that getting to 15 (which would be your 16th year) without ever injuring yourself is very unlikely - not to mention that discovering your powers in a life threatening event is very cliché.

Now, if you've given him a Wyrd power, he's a psyker. The Blackships tend to come about every decade on most planets (and on a planet with a large mutant population, more frequently) - he would almost certainly have been found and scooped up by them in his early teens (particularly as Wyrd powers tend to "manifest" earlier in life)

You also may want to think about the combination of Regenerate (the psychic power) and Regeneration (the exotic ability) together.

Next thing... Regenerators with armour, while possible, are something I prefer to avoid.
Ask yourself - if you have the power to heal from bullet wounds or cuts in seconds, why trouble yourself with heavy (and expensive) armour? It does depend on the regenerator, but it needs justification it wouldn't do on a biologically mundane character.

Stats-wise: I'd bump a few of those stats up. Strength and Toughness stats in the 30s are particularly low.

Also, anyone who has the advantage of being able to make fatal mistakes in combat, yet get away with it, would probably build some reasonable fighting experience. Learning is best done through mistakes (so you know what NOT to do next time) - while most people can't learn combat that way, he can, so he'd likely be at least respectable.

~~~~~

However, relatively minor concerns that can mostly be fixed with a few background tweaks. A very fair and restrained character for the most part.

EDIT:

Almost every mutant that appears in inquisitor seems to have regenerate in one form or another.

Depends on how you define mutant. Psykers are technically mutants.

Also, it's hardly surprising that mutants on the table tend to be somewhat beneficial. If you're going to recruit a mutant, you're not going to recruit the one with novelty talents or the one who can barely walk...

[Inquisitor Cade]

Quote from: Inquisitor Cade on Today at 07:00:24 PM
Almost every mutant that appears in inquisitor seems to have regenerate in one form or another.

Depends on how you define mutant. Psykers are technically mutants.

Also, it's hardly surprising that mutants on the table tend to be somewhat beneficial. If you're going to recruit a mutant, you're not going to recruit the one with novelty talents or the one who can barely walk...

Good points, When I said mutants I wasn't counting psychic powers as mutation, which while technically incorrect is the way the rulebook does it.

It's true that the few mutants that appear in =][= games are likely to be particulary exceptional, but that doesn't make another with regenerate original. I fear that all to often the thought process goes:
"regeneration, that's cool. I'll make a mutant so he can have that, and throw in some token disabilities too (or not)"
Rather than:
"I think a mutant would make sense in the group, but he'd need some attribute that made him worth hireing. Regeneration might be good (but other ideas might be a super photographic memory, a remarkable sense of smell or good old fasioned super strength).
While there is nothing inherently bad with the former, it's popularity with players (I too went down that path, fortunately before I started putting models to characters) far outstripsts it's occurance within 40k.

[jakob]

hmm,yeah, fair comments, you've got me thinking for sure. i do have other possible characters in mind (in fact, i've got quite a bit). i should probably look around a bit more too see what kind of characters people most like to use so i can suggest one thats different.

another character here with fluff: Someone who was being turned into a servitor (for whatever reason) but somehow managed to escape from the mechanicus with his free will still intact. now uses his augmented cyborg (psyborg?) body and intelligince to make a living as a mercenary. (too cliched?). he's not an all powerful Terminator but enough to deal with grunts

WS   BS   ST   TG   I   WP  SG   NV   L
45   50   50   45  40  45   45   50   50

equipment: (TP) lasgun, laspistol, bionic eyes - include: range finder, infrascope, laser sight, motion predictor
                   3 points of armour all over body
skills:          invulnerable


again, this is just a rough idea, i'm just throwin it all out
                     

[MarcoSkoll]

It's true that the few mutants that appear in =][= games are likely to be particularly exceptional, but that doesn't make another with regenerate original.

No, regenerate is not particularly original. However, the range of "mutations" within the rulebook is small. Your choices are basically either Wolverine, or Dracula. (That said, the rulebook's suggestion to mix the two for a character that uses other people's blood to regenerate... I'm not sure I've ever seen it done.)

I'd like to see mutants with all different kinds of traits (some more inventive aliens wouldn't hurt either), but I can't see them being immediately forthcoming in great quantity.

~~~~~

@Jakob: That's a somewhat unlikely backstory. If you want a character like that, I'd make them an AWOL Skitarii.

[jakob]

allrite, the guy's a rogue skitarii. is there much of a difference? isnt a skitarii just a fancy combat servitor? this is where my knowledge of 40K isn't so hot . . .

[MarcoSkoll]

allrite, the guy's a rogue skitarii. is there much of a difference? isnt a skitarii just a fancy combat servitor?

Skitarii, in basic terms, are the AdMech's augmented version of the Imperial Guard (usually better equipped though) - although the individuals can act as anything from bodyguards to full on soldiers.
They retain free-will, unlike servitors - although many have some emotional suppression.

You'd be dealing with a Hypaspist, the basic infantryman. Possibly they were an unwilling conscript to the Skitarii, who then finds some opportunity to escape their Mechanicus masters...

[jakob]

i see, a hypaspist. any oppinions on his stats/equipment? again, i tried to keep it as conservative as possible, though he should stand up in a fair fight.

maybe i should give him a knife or similar. and maybe some hatred towards mechnicus priests for messing him up?

[Adlan]

To be honest, you are being as harsh on your own stats as possible, so I'm not gonna comment, save that you could be more powerful and still be below 'conclave' level.

However, my Harsh Advice is, Do you have a Model?

My Recomendation now is Concept, then Modell, then Back Story and Then Stats. I didn't do it for my first character, but he was RP only at first... now I try and follow it for all mine, it produces much rounder, fuller characters.

So, settle on a Concept, Build a Model, then come to us with stats and backstory

Concepts you've got so far:
Secret Mutant
On the Run Mechanicus Agent (Servitor or Skitarius)

[MarcoSkoll]

Any opinions on his stats/equipment?

Stats before bionics should be sort of the same as Imperial Guard. Equipment should be decent - the Skitarii are supplied direct by the Mechanicus, so they get better stuff than the rank and file of the Guard.

I tried to keep it as conservative as possible, though he should stand up in a fair fight.

That's very conservative. I'd probably add 10 on to each of those stats before any augmentation if I were doing the character. (I'd also randomise them a bit from bands of 5)

And maybe some hatred towards Mechanicus priests for messing him up?

Without a doubt. Things like that add good roleplay, particularly if he starts following his personal vendetta rather than perhaps what his employer wants him to do.

Hatred of what he is... yes, perhaps, but be wary of taking it too far. It's on the cliché side to have cyborgs start to question their humanity.

[Adlan]

Why not go the other way? He loves being a cyborg, he just hates the mechanicus for doing it in the way they do.

[MarcoSkoll]

Perhaps, but equally, that could be cliché if taken too far. Refer to vampires in fiction - who seem to largely fall into a category of loving or hating what they are.