Higher End Pariahs in Inq

[Alyster Wick]

I'm creating an Inquisitor that is basically the ultimate radical (though he'll have a model he will mostly appear as a rumor).  For his main errand boy I wanted to give him a Pariah since he'd very often need this kind of extreme protection given his pastimes. 

I didn't want this to be just any pariah though, I wanted to create a character as potent as a well trained psycher, just on the other end of the spectrum.  Below are a couple thoughts I had but I wanted to enlist some help validating these abilities as well as some thoughts with how to implement them.  Any fluff on pariahs would be appreciated as well. 

Abilities (in addition to general pariah abilities):

Fear the Abyss- Persistant power.  The pariah opens up the void that is its soul and causes all around him to feel the emptiness of nothing.  When active the pariah is counted as Terrifying.  Any character testing to see if they are effected subtracts the amount the pariah passed his WP test (psychers triple this). 

Mind Eraser- In close combat the pariah may make a mind eraser attack as if unarmed.  Rather than causing damage, if the hit is successful and the Pariah passes a WP test then the targeted character is automatically stunned (they will wake up after passing a  T test in the recovery phase).  The character will lose all memory of 1 round per every full 5 points the Pariah passed his WP test by.

I have a couple more ideas but I have to run to the office, will post later.

[MarcoSkoll]

Any character testing to see if they are effected subtracts the amount the pariah passed his WP test (psychers triple this).

Terrifying is already a very powerful ability. Piling extra penalties on it will mean the only characters who still have the guts to charge are those who have Force of Will or crazy high Nv values (and by crazy high, I mean triple digit values).

If I were doing this, I would make so that the -40% penalty of Terrifying is replaced by his success on the Wp test. I'd also at most double penalties on psykers - more than that would be utter overkill.

Mind Eraser

I think this perhaps too much. He can quite easily wipe the memory of the entire game from anyone's mind, regardless of how strong their mind is.
Personally, I'd make it he takes a Wp test, and the other character then has to test with a penalty equal to the amount the Pariah passed by. The amount that test is failed by is then used to define the memory loss - probably at a rate of 1 turn per 10 points. This is after all a brief touch, not a prolonged attempt.

I'm not doubting that Pariahs this powerful can exist (see the Culexus Assassins), but there's a realm between what can exist and what should make it onto the Inquisitor table, even in the hands of the GM.
As these abilities presumably don't come with the normal caveats of psychic powers, I'd suggest that they don't have the potency of a psyker.

[Kasthan]

I'm currently making a powerful pariah and he has (at the mo) got these:
Pariah ability (see sgt. Black pdf)

Soulless Shriek (Diff 5): Soulless Shriek is a ranged power. The enemy must take a Willpower test. If he fails, he is stunned for one turn for every 10% (or part) that he fails by. If he rolls more than double his Willpower then he collapses and become a casualty. (Just Psychic shriek for a pariah, might add a further pentaly against psykers)

Demoralising Aura (Diff yrdsX2 [or could be 3]): This is a ranged power, with a maximum circular radius range of 8 yrds. The victims must pass a Nerve test or be pinned, just as if they had been hit with a shooting attack, with an additional negative modifier to their Nerve value equal to the amount the test was passed by. (This has not been game tested)

[Myriad]

Good ideas, although I've never been convinced the pariah ability is as trainable as that of a psyker - the ability is more of a passive attribute than something useable.

Fear of the abyss, as written, seems almost certain to make any psyker run for the hills.  Soulless shriek I quite like, since it's quite a crude ability, and evocative.  A passive aura that has effect when the pariah is first spotted is another thought.

[Alyster Wick]

Terrifying is already a very powerful ability.

You're quite right, I hadn't read over the rulebook in a while and just used that as an afterthought.  Consider it amended.

As far as Mind Eraser, I think I'll amend it to make a sort of tiered damage system.  Change the effects to 1 round per every 10 points and have the first 3 levels stun and any levels beyond that will erase a turn.  The purpose wasn't for him to rampantly negate the game for folks, more for him to be able to move around strategically. 

I'll take him back to the drawing board and bring a full character back.  I would love to RP the warband one day (in the right setting). While he is meant to be a bit of a monster he isn't meant to be a game-ender.  He'd be RPed as a very loyal servant who doesn't feel empowered to act much on his own, thus he wouldn't go around indiscriminately erasing brains for kicks.  It would, however, be an incredibly foolish or powerful foe who would stand up to him on even ground.

[precinctomega]

For general info: INQ2 includes three levels of bluntness - blunt, untouchable and pariah - with scaling degrees of effect upon the tabletop.  The actual rules are currently a bit "meh" and subject to tinkering, though, so I'll be watching this thread with interest.

R.

[Kasthan]

PO could you give us a rough idea on what you have worked up. Is it a sliding scale (blunt to pariah) or are each different things? Also how rules work (no major detail required)?

This is because I am currently working on a warband that features a blunt (the Inquisitor), a "strong" pariah (a physically crippled mutant) and a "weaker" pariah (A capable warrior, but is a psychopath).

I think, as obviously Alyster does that "strong" pariahs could work like psykers. This would be very crude, playing on the nature of pariahs causing fear, hate and depression.

@Alyster: I think your mind eraser should be a 'touch' power, requiring the character to physically touch them skin on skin. This would represent your character wiping the mind and makes a clear difference from a psychic power.   

[Alyster Wick]

Kasthan, really liking your abilities.  Anyone with other thoughts on abilities feel free to join in.  I've always liked the background on Pariahs and would like to see them utilized more.  Has anyone seen any stats for a Culexus Assassin in INQ?

I think your mind eraser should be a 'touch' power, requiring the character to physically touch them skin on skin. This would represent your character wiping the mind and makes a clear difference from a psychic power.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, it was always meant to be a 'touch' power.  While still rather powerful he'd be daft to attempt it on a power weapon wielding fellow for fear of losing a hand during the parry.

Working on another power, some thoughts on it would be good.

Ripples in the Void:  Difficulty 20. This is a ranged power (maximum range WP/4).  The Pariah wallows in his hollowness and lets the warp essence of those around flow into him.  The Pariah becomes aware of anyone within range of this ability as he can feel them like stones in a river. Anyone in the effected area must pass a WP test or spend their first action pausing for breath.  Something is out of place, they just aren't sure what...


DISCLAIMER:  I think pariahs with abilities should be incredibly rare based on the fluff (far more rare than psychers).  I do not intend these materials to be used indiscriminately but I think it's an avenue worth exploring.  If there's a place that pariah's fit in it's Inquisitor (or a Necron army...).

[MarcoSkoll]

DISCLAIMER:  I think pariahs with abilities should be incredibly rare based on the fluff (far more rare than psychers).

Definitely. My own estimate for the prevalence of even "normal" Pariahs is perhaps one in ten billion human births. Even an exceptionally powerful psyker class like Gamma or Delta is about one in a billion.

By my guess, what you're talking about is one in a trillion at least. Not easy to come by in the slightest.

[Kaled]

Has anyone seen any stats for a Culexus Assassin in INQ?

There's a Fanatic article on them (available from the usual place), but it wasn't well received at the time.  There were also a couple of attempts to make rules for them on the old 'Clave that I might be able to dig up...

[Kasthan]

@ Marco or others in the "know", roughly how many people inhabit the imperium?

Does anybody have thought upon the affect of the pariah gene on that person's personality or is it the affect it has on those around them cause problems for them?

To what extent is the imperium's knowledge of the pariahs and the genes that cause the mutation?

What do people other than myself and Alyster think of pariahs having a rough equivalent to psychic powers?

[MarcoSkoll]

@ Marco or others in the "know", roughly how many people inhabit the imperium?

Some people (I forget who) on an older version of the Conclave apparently estimated it about 3.3 quintillion, but I personally think that sounds rather too high.

That's an average population of 3.3 trillion per each of the million planets of the Imperium, and that's about 500 times the population of Earth. That's not an unreasonable value for a hive planet (probably even an underestimation), but the issue comes down to actually being able to provide the nourishment and energy to keep those people alive.

Assuming a million planets similar to Earth, allowing a reasonable fudge factor for improved agriculture... I think you could perhaps provide sufficient food supplies for of the order of 100 quadrillion people.

Actually having put that number down, I think I have to I have to revise my estimates of Pariah rarity. True pariahs (not just blunts or untouchables) probably need to be closer to about one or two per fifty billion births. They're described as "maybe one individual per planet per generation".

As such, I'd estimate the number of "Pariahs with abilities" within the Imperium as a five figure number - somewhere between ten thousand and a hundred thousand, so the kind of thing that exists on one out of a few dozen planets.
Of course, actually FINDING that individual amongst the masses... that's the tricky part.

[Alyster Wick]

Of course, actually FINDING that individual amongst the masses... that's the tricky part.

My Inquisitor had been monitoring high level imperial communications across a number of sectors for close to a century to find his

[kamikaze watermelon]

I think that would do it.

[Kaled]

That short story about the Sisters of Silence (The Voice?) has a description of how they use their powers and the different powers they manifest - might be useful in making up rules.