Severin Reed - Pit Slave Fighter

[Kaled]

I'm still not sure I agree and it's isn't what I'd do with the character, but he's yours not mine and I could well be wrong so go with it - use him in a few games and you'll soon know if his stats are right.

EDIT:

The high WS also accounts for the facts that the weapon isn't 'like an extension of his own body' the weapon IS his own body

I see your arguement, but but something feels not quite right and I'm not sure I can put my finger on what it is precisely...  If the above is correct then it sounds like a character who is good at both armed and unarmed combat should get a boost to his WS when fighting unarmed.  I wonder if there's some confusion between things that are a function of the character's weapon and things that are a function of his skill?  The difference a weapon makes to a warrior's ability to fight is covered by things like the weapon's parry penalty and reach.

[MarcoSkoll]

Sorry it's taken me quite so long to get to commenting on this.

Personally, I'd make his psychon an injector (with a healthy number of doses), not a gland. Yeah, strictly, the rulebook doesn't say it can be used with injectors, but a character who was constantly under the effects of it wouldn't really be half as coherent as parts of your background describe him as.

I also imagine that Guilders wouldn't want their pit fighters constantly violent - it's something you'd want to turn on before a pit fight, and turn it off again afterwards. I guess it would be done by remote control (perhaps Zophar has a remote for it?)
The other reason I suggest it is that uncontrollably frenzied characters are a bit of a problem in-game. As a result, most characters with frenzy have some kind of on/off switch.

As far as his stats, I wouldn't give him quite such a high WS myself. Personally, I'd imagine a Pitfighter was more about flailing and hoping to hit/not get hit than necessarily the precise blows, and  parrying/dodging skill that WS 82 suggests.
But, based on his background of persistent pit-fights and having been picked out because he was the one that survived the whole "elimination" tournament, and the generally moderate combat prowess of the other models in the warband, I'll give it to you.

One thing I do have to question is the fact that two of the models in this warband have True Grit (Sarthuul's Regeneration daemonic weapon power and Severin's straight True Grit).
One model with True Grit can make a warband tough to fight - they just don't stay down and out. Two? Well, it could make them a particular challenge at the Spring Conclave. Not that I'm arguing with your justifications (nor am I saying it just can't happen), but I generally try and find excuses against, rather than for, using the same abilities repeatedly in the same warband.

[Brother_Brimstone]

I think the point about psychon is a good one, and I shall make the ammendment (i suppose, for the sake of consistensy we could say it's an implanted injector).

The point about true grit was entirely what I wa slooking for when I requested comments about my warband as a whole - due to my lack of experience with Inquisitor, I don't have much of an idea of large an effect on gameplay these things have. While I agree on not liking to 'double up' with my skills in one party - i generally don't like it because it would indicate that the characters are too similar - and I didn't consider that to be the case this time because Zophar has a daemonic nature allowing him to stay alive longer than humanly possible (which was always in my conception of Zophar - he being so tainted by the warp that he no longer has 'mortality as we know it), whereas Severin is simply a massive guy to whom giving up isn't even an option - he's just too bloody minded. However, if you think that it would unbalance game mechanics, I can always remove rit from his profile.

Do you think I should bring in a different skill/ability to replace it, or do you think I should just leave it as is, minus the true grit ability?

Also, because of the seemingly unanimous result on Severin's WS, i've decided i'll lower it by 10, leaving him with a still impressive, but less overwhelming 72 - I want severin to be formidable in combat, but not unbeatable. Part of what motivated me to give him a high WS, beyond the obvious fluff reasons, was that in-game I wanted his performance to reflect the description of his abilities in the fluff. In the fluff I try to describe him as a fearsome killing machine - I don't think a killing machine is very scary if it's fairly regularly missing its target!

Thank you very much for your input, it's greatly appreciated.

EDIT - I also found quite a good way of dealing with the fact that I feel that Severin should have an advantage in that he only has his arm weapons in the form of the 'Weapon MAster' ability from the recongregator sourcebook. I'm going to add that to his profile, but if anyone objects, please tell me so.

Also, I never thought about it before now, but would 'deflect shot' make sense? After all, if we think something might hit us, we raise our arm reflexively. If severin does this, he will effectively be doing a 'deflect shot' action. I shan't put it in until someone says whether this would make sense or not.

[MarcoSkoll]

I suppose, for the sake of consistency we could say it's an implanted injector.

Sure - that works fine. But that's not to say big vials of foul coloured serums don't look great on a model.

However, if you think that it would unbalance game mechanics, I can always remove it from his profile.

No, it's not that it's necessarily going to overpower the game. But you will need to watch out to see if it is just too much - if you think the other players are getting frustrated because they just can't keep your guys down, it will need a fix.

However, if you are looking for an alternative, one possibility is a rule I use:
Pain is Nothing - From a lifetime of injury, a damaged nervous system or whatever else the galaxy has thrown at them, the character has long since become unhealthily acclimatised to pain, and it now means little to them.
For the purposes of System Shock (both tests and SS value) and Consciousness, the character's toughness is increased by half. Additionally, the character ignores the first point of speed lost due to injury.

This rule makes it harder to put the character down in the first place, but doesn't mean they keep getting back up over and over. Swapping out True Grit with Pain is Nothing might be a fix you could look at - it would also stop a Speed 3 character ending up unable to do much at all the moment he suffers a speed penalty.

Part of what motivated me to give him a high WS was that in-game I wanted his performance to reflect the description of his abilities in the fluff.

At some point, you have to give way to practical concerns. Background is written according to the needs of plot, not necessarily accuracy.

I've got characters whose fluff sets them out as practically invincible in combat. They don't however get astronomical WS values, because there's a difference between what makes a good piece of fiction and what makes a good game.
The protagonist realistically dying on page 2 is not normally considered a good work of fiction. The player character beating up everyone they meet is not normally considered a good game.

I don't think a killing machine is very scary if it's fairly regularly missing its target!

It might actually be more scary. After all, if a killing machine hits its target, then said target is probably no longer in a state where it can be scared about what happens when it does connect.

The fact that every blow doesn't connect doesn't stop it being dangerously scary and scarily dangerous.

...the 'Weapon MAster' ability from the recongregator sourcebook. I'm going to add that to his profile, but if anyone objects, please tell me so.

Actually I'm going to observe that for most purposes +1 reach is actually MORE "powerful" than +10 WS. Not only does it confer the same +10% to hit and parry, but also -10% to the enemy's hit and parry attempts!

Personally, I'd make him a low Speed 4 and just keep his WS in the mid to high seventies. That would keep him one hell of a combat fighter but without having to give him an unusually high WS or multiple combat skills that don't really relate to someone who fights by the unsubtle method of bludgeoning his opponents.

... actually, given the fact that you don't actually have a Speed 5 character in the warband, you might perhaps want to go further. Maybe Severin gains +1 action dice while actually in hand-to-hand combat? That would give a feel of a frenetic, vicious combat. I might think about scrapping Furious Assault if I did that though.

[Kaled]

I agree with Marco in that him hitting less often could make him scarier in some ways - if people know that one hit will likely put their character out of the game and it's almost certain that he will hit, then they'll probably be pretty fatalistic that their character is about to go down. If instead the player knows that one hit will take his character out, but there's a chance he'll be able to avoid the pit fighters blows for long enough to land some of his own then there's a lot more tension, the whole fight is more of a nail biting affair. It's the same with my ogryn, if he lands a blow then you're notlikely to be getting up for a good long while, but a skilled opponent has a fair chance of dancing around the ogryn for long enough to beat him.

But as I said before, try him out as he is - after a few games you'll know if you need to make changes.  Most of my characters aren't right first time - there's nothing wrong with tweaking things to get them right.

[Brother_Brimstone]

I like the idea of the 'pain is nothing' rule, so i think i shall implement that. I shall take out the Weapon master skill and leave his WS as is - 72.

After that, i think I shall leave him for now, wait to play him and see what happens. That way i'll be able to gauge how powerful he actually is once he's in game.

Thanks for the ongoing help.

[Inquisitor Cade]

The background say he can't feel anything below his shoulder. Surely that means he has bionic arms, not just implant weapons.
And what heavy weapon did he used to have that nobody else could carry?

I'd say the Ws should go even lower. I'd say 70's was the realm of martial experts and he is a bit too thugish, though maybe I'm underestimating the teaching power of frequent fights to the death.

[Brother_Brimstone]

He has got bionic arms - thats why his arms have 6 armour on them. I didn't put a standard 'crude, improved etc...' rating on them ebcause they are unique. They aren't 'arms' in the sense of they look anything like arms, theyre big lumps of metal wired up to his nervous system. They are heavy and armoured (hence the high armour), but the strength improvement is factored into his overall strength.

As for the heavy weapon he could carry, if you've ever played necromunda, you will see what I mean. Each gang has a 'heavy' which is what severin was. The 'heavy' carries a heavy bolter, lascannon, autocannon or any other weapon that is just far too big for the gang leader or any of the gangers to carry. Now justifying where gangers get a hevay bolter from is a different issue, but Necromunda says they can get them from the guilders, so that's the fluff i'm working from.