Astropath/Interogator

[Vladimir]

Fluff still in progress.

Josephine Hath
Age: 112 [terran years]
Designation: Ex-astropath, Inquisitoral agent. Possible Inquisitor.
Taken by blackships: 8 years old, Kronictus III noble familly, turned herself in voluntarilly
First astropathic stationing: Dromus Station, Imperial Navy Station, Cadian system. 25 years old.
Inquisitoral Attention: Survived severe wounding during attacks by pirate-cults, age 44. Requisitioned by Inquisitor Magritte Geller. Served as ship-board astropath for 6 years.
Interagator status: Survived severe wounding during boarding by Dark Mechanicus constructs. Proved an able combatant, despite serious wounds. Raised to interegator by Inquisitor Geller.
Present day: Able and powerful accolyte, believed by companions to be on the verge of recieving Inquisitoral Rosette.
Capabilities: Blind- eyes lack pupils. Phsyically weak, though capable of surviving terrible injuries. Potent telepath, also possessing ability to predict the future and numorous minor talents.

Ws 41. Bs 46. S 31. T 70. I 73. Wp 92. Sg 84. Nv 92. Ld 66.
Left Handed.
Abilities: "You Are Not My Killer", Blind, Wyrd- Telepathy
Psychic Powers: Sanctuary, Banishment, "I Shall Tell You Your Fate", Mind Scan, Mesmerism, Puppet Master, "I See You"
Equipment: Needle pistol, force staff, psychic hood.
Blind: Josaphine is completely blind- she automatically fails all tests based around vision, such as awareness tests and rolls to hit or parry.
"You are not my killer": Josaphine knows that she is fated to be killed by an Imperial Assassin, and consequently has no fear of any other creature or dangerous situation.  Josaphine has Nerves of Steel and Force of WIll. However, if she knows an Imperial Assassin is present, she loses these ability, and takes a -25 penelty to her Nerve.
"I shall tell you your fate": Psychic power. Difficulty 10. Josephine peers into the future, showing an individual what lies in store for them- needless to say, most enemies find this extremely unnerving, particularly when she informs them 'you will die of a las-shot to the chest in around five minutes. The shot will be fired by one of your allies', or something similar. This is a ranged power, and the target must be able to hear Josaphine speak. The target must take a Nv test, with a penalty equal to the amount Josephine passed her psychic test by. If they fail, they are stunned for d3 rounds- even if they pass they count Josephine as Terrifying from that point on.
"I see you": Josephine, being completely blind, must rely on psychic senses to navigate. Note that due to the sheer practice she has put into it, she gets a +20 bonus when attempting to use this ability. If successfully used, she counts as being able to see out to a maximum range of 20 yards. Vision is in black and white, and fine details (anything smaller than 3 inches) are blurry and indistinct. She also becomes aware of the location (direction and distance) of any living creatures she cannot see.  This is a persistent ability.

[Kaled]

Blind: Josaphine is completely blind- she automatically fails all tests based around vision, such as awareness tests and rolls to hit or parry.

I came up with the following rule for asto-telepaths;

Warp-sight – While generally blind, astropaths do not act it as they tend to have a sixth-sense in place of their normal vision.  This warp-sight means they count as having a 360 degree field of view - their vision is blocked as normal by intervening terrain as it too has a slight warp-presence that can obscure those behind it.  Characters with the Blunt ability may be almost invisible to the astropath, but a true Pariah will appear as a gaping void, a hole where something should be.  The astropath will know where the Pariah is, but will be unable to actually 'see' them.

In general, I wouldn't expect an astropath to have a WS / BS higher than about 40 to represent the difficulty their lack of sight poses when it comes to combat.

"You are not my killer": Josaphine knows that she is fated to be killed by an Imperial Assassin, and consequently has no fear of any other creature or dangerous situation.  Josaphine has Nerves of Steel and Force of WIll. However, if she knows an Imperial Assassin is present, she loses these ability, and takes a -25 penelty to her Nerve.

Only -25 from an Nv of 92?  That seems far too little - I'd have suggested half Nv and she counts the assassin (or anyone who might be the assassin if she thinks there's a Callidus on her trail) as Terrifying.

"I shall tell you your fate": Psychic power. Difficulty 10. Josephine peers into the future, showing an individual what lies in store for them- needless to say, most enemies find this extremely unnerving, particularly when she informs them 'you will die of a las-shot to the chest in around five minutes. The shot will be fired by one of your allies', or something similar. This is a ranged power, and the target must be able to hear Josaphine speak. The target must take a Nv test, with a penalty equal to the amount Josephine passed her psychic test by. If they fail, they are stunned for d3 rounds- even if they pass they count Josephine as Terrifying from that point on.

Why would they be stunned?  And why would they count her as Terrifying?  I can almost understand the stunning if they're paralysed with fear, but if they think they're going to be (accidentaly) killed by a friend in five minutes wouldn't they be distrustful or fearful of their allies and only really be paralysed with fear as their allotted time runs out.  I like the idea of this power, just not the execution...

[MarcoSkoll]

Few issues I can see...

Not sure on the idea of Ex-astropath. Astropaths are usually rather short lived, and the only real way out of the career is death. However, it's a big galaxy, so I guess we can overlook an exception.

I shall tell you your fate... I'm not so big on the "predicting the future" thing in game. It's an interesting idea, and one thing in novelisations, but the inherent unpredictability of the game means that it's harder to "do right".

Anyway, critiquing it as it is, why do they treat her as Terrifying? Unless she's told them that she's their killer and their death is imminent, that doesn't really make too much sense. Heck, if they're told either that someone else kills them, or that they don't die for years, they might even even become fearless in the same way as her "you are not my killer".

Of course, why they necessarily believe the old lady who claims to predict the future is a matter in its own right. If she's using telepathy to make them believe it, then I'd at least the base difficulty level on the target's willpower. (I guess a quarter would be a good start.)
If you do stick with it, I'd also make it so that it only works once. After they've got over the shock of the first time, being told the same thing again is unlikely to affect them.

Ultimately, you can't really rely on honestly telling someone how they die scaring them. Some people will die in ways that they would be proud to, or that they would be otherwise happy with. Even in an Inquisitor's world, the number of people who will actually be shot by an ally in five minutes is pretty slim.

Personally, I'd probably scrap it and replace it with "Terrifying". If you want to imagine the character is being shown horrible images from their future and that's what's terrifying them, you're welcome to, but it's probably better left open and vague as to whether these are genuine images from their future, or whether she's just making them up.