The Coterie of Inquisitor Felbranche

[Zakkeg]

Hey look, I'm back! I know, I know, you don't remember me. See left for my old handle. What's that? Still don't remember me? Ah, bugger. Guess I'll have to make a new name for myself, then. But no big yellow welcome, please - that would just be awkward.

Anyway, I thought I'd (re)start simply. So here are stats and a short writeup on my latest character. Pics should be forthcoming in the P&M section... just as soon as the bloody ProCreate ships and I can get to work.


GRENDEL, ORDO SICARIUS OPERATIVE

WS    BS     S     T     I    Wp    Sg    Nv    Ld
91    57      65   59   94   69     58    79    39
Close Combat Attacks
Weapon   Reach   Damage   Parry Penalty   Notes
Lathe-Sabre   3        2D6+6           -0%           Lathe Weapon
Knife               1        D6+1            -25%   
Unarmed        0         D3+2              -   
Ranged Attacks
Weapon      Type    Range    Firing Mode    Accuracy    Damage    Shots    Reload    Weight
Knife        Thrown    E                 Single               -5            D6                 -         -              10

Abilities: Acrobatic; Catfall; Combat Master; Dodge; Feint; Force of Will; Stealthy; True Grit
Traits:
Moritat: No Moritat death cultist will kill using a weapon without an edge unless absolutely no alternative presents itself. They are thus unused to them, and suffer a -20% penalty to WS/BS when attempting to utilise any such weapon.
Equipment: Lathe-sabre; knife; 6 throwing knives; grapnel and line; spur (injector, 3 doses); hardened body glove (AV 4) to all locations incorporating re-breather and infrascope.


Ordo Sicarius Personnel Files
Operative 2454613 – Codename: Grendel
Handler: Inquisitor Felbranche
Statistics: 37 years Terran; Height 5'11"; weight 72kg; fair skin; brown hair; grey eyes; left hand dominant.
Distinguishing Features: Cult tattoos covering much of left side of body.
Given name [REDACTED]. Born on [REDACTED], a minor hive world in the [REDACTED] sector. Initiated at birth into the Reaping Wind, a type 7 death cult believed to be a local offshoot of the Moritat. Likely progressed quickly through ranks, given relatively young age at time of recruitment and high esteem displayed by fellow cultists. Encountered by Inquisitor Felbranche 996.M41 during Operation Smiling Carnodon, in which the Inquisitor [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. The Reaping wind had apparently been aware of the activities of [REDACTED] for some time, and were waging a private if relatively unsubtle war of their own. Willing and capable allies, they proved invaluable to the eventual capture/termination of [REDACTED], with operative 2454613 being particularly instrumental. Subsequently drafted into Inquisitorial service with the blind support and blessing of the Reaping Wind.

Handler's Notes: I have found Grendel to be a highly competent and valuable asset, though he is something of a blunt instrument (a rather ironic term for this particular individual). He displays little interest in socializing with the other members of my staff, preferring to spend nearly all his waking hours in training and/or meditation – when it comes to Grendel, the two are often nearly indistinguishable. The others have described his presence as unsettling, with particular mention of his "empty eyes." Frankly I am inclined to agree with them. He displays no visible signs of fear; I truly believe he would walk straight into the teeth of heavy bolter fire had he not been trained otherwise. I expect he would have made an exemplary Eversor. Nonetheless, he is a loyal and indispensable resource. In short, I am lucky to have him.


____________________________________________________________________________________________________


Yes, I'm fully aware that his WS and I are very, very high. While I do more or less subscribe to the "conclave standard," this is deliberate. He's an absolute nutter who has no higher ambition in life than to slice people into convenient, fun-sized pieces, and he is so very good at this that Inquisitor Felbranche, a man whose entire existence is (theoretically) dedicated to dealing with the deadliest individuals in the Imperium, stood up and took notice. He (Grendel) is furthermore expected to deal with said individuals on a semi-regular basis - violently. He is very good.

Apart from that, any thoughts?



As an aside, does anyone else think that we really need a better formatting system?

[Shannow]

Welcome (back) to the Conclave!

How about a tiny yellow welcome

A very one dimensional character stats wise, though I don't say that as a bad thing by any means, given his rich background and equipment, as well as his inability with blunt object it works extremely well and having one or two charcters who aren't hugely good at a lots of things is always fun, snipers are my favourite though!

My only problem is that he has a huge amount of skills, which adds a huge amount of power, even more so than a high Ws, I would certainly lose force of will, as though he is strong willed he is not blindly stupid, as you say in the handlers notes, his training prevents him from doing ridiculously stupid things, and force of will is generally reserved for those truky insane or will absent individials such as servitors.

Would lose feint as he really doesn't need it and also one of dodge, catfall and acrobat as they are all powerful and similar in their chracterfullness.

This is of course my opinion and other may disagree, and I'm not trying to put you down, but I think they do really over power him.

Look forward to seeing models

Rob

[Zakkeg]

That's just it, though - he is truly insane. (See "absolute nutter" in above post.) Not frothing-at-the-mouth crazy, perhaps, but the man is nevertheless thoroughly off-kilter. That's what happens when you're raised by a sect of psychotic murderers.

The thing about Dodge, Catfall and Acrobatic is that, while thematically in similar territory (which is precisely why I gave him all of them), they don't actually overlap at all mechanically. If you want to represent somebody who can drop four stories and land on his feet, throw himself out of the path of a sniper's bullet, and make leaps that would give ordinary sane folk the runs, you don't have any choice but to take the lot.

I'd suggest looking at Derek's rather excellent article on agents of the Officio Assassinorum - if you don't have a copy, I believe it can be found in MarcoSkoll's archive available here. Grendel is supposed to be just about capable of going toe-to-toe with one of these lads (or ladies, in the case of the Callidus) - it's more or less his job description. Apart from Combat Master (from that same article), he doesn't have any tools he doesn't need for the job. Even as is, he's more or less going in with one hand tied behind his back. Of course, when it comes to Officio assassins, that's exactly how it should be.



Incidentally, Derek, any chance we'll ever see your take on the Culexus Temple? We've all been waiting years...

[Shannow]

The problem with absolute nutter, is that to me that seems like an odd person to take on subterfuge back alley missions with you, unless you can count on him to control himself and not go needlessley throwing himself in danger, so personally I would still regard him as having either enough sense to not jump in front of bullets, or his inquisitor has enough control over him to prevent him doing so, which I don't think force of will is really designed to portray, but something that a high leadership on the inquisitor and command systen would.

Again, though I see he is going up against Officio Assassinorum characters fluff wise, in game officio assassins are dsigned to be used singularly on there own, and presumably you will not be using this chap on his own? Thereofre if your gaming group generally adheres to the conclave standard it seems like the overall warband would be massively overpowered, even if you had a mediocre inquisitor paired to him.

Having said that what power level will you be playing at? And again sorry if that seems attacking, I guess I'm just more accurately justifying why I said drop all thise things.

Rob

[Zakkeg]

Ha! "Gaming group"... If only. This is as much a theoretical exercise as anything, at this point.

With that in mind, I don't particularly see Grendel as the type that you take out for walkies. Felbranche would bring him along if he's absolutely certain that he needs one or more individuals to be made very, very dead. Apart from that, he mostly stays home and does whatever it is that psychotically myopic swordmasters are wont to do. As an operative of the Ordo Sicarius, he would also be operating alone much of the time, or at least with backup at considerable remove.

Game balance is, sadly, more or less irrelevant here. I statted him up mainly because I enjoy doing that sort of thing, and I wanted to know if I got the idea across more-or-less according to the conclave standard. I do want him to be playable, but again, it's mainly theoretical.


Oh, and if you want to see what Felbranche himself looks like, he can be found in the Recongregator Sourcebook. Pay no mind to the slightly slipshod writeup - the draft copy got used by mistake.

[Shannow]

I think there is another clave member in ontario...but big place Given that from what you say he would only be used if against say an officio or a space marine then my criticisms are much less relevant which is good!

I will have a browse in the sourcebook for him tomorrow I'm sure! Though now bed beckons, as 5:40am is a terrible time to be posting....

Rob

[Elva]

Did someone call my name? I am also in the Dominion of Upper Canada, born and raised.

Edit: Sorry if this has nothing to do with Inquisitor, I'm just eager to see a fellow canuck 

[1337inquisitor]

well isn't that a coincidence i'm from British Columbia (have fun in your -40 winters Ontario, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) Any who this weapons chart seems a bit unnecessary but i'll admit i like the detail.  Though this Lathe-Sabre seems a bit weird like why 0% parry penalty because only shields have no parry penalties but that because shields are a big hunk of material meant for blocking and knocking. Also why a +6 damage modifier when you could just do a 3D6? well anyway those are my two cents.

[Zakkeg]

Admittedly, that could probably use some explanation. Grendel's stats etc. were copy/pasted from a Word document (where it all looks much prettier thanks to the tables, which sadly don't carry over), intended as both background sheet and quickref. Hence the superfluous detail. As for the Lathe-sabre, it's built that way because it's actually a template which I translated from DH and then applied to the sword from the LRB. It looks like this:


Lathe: The astronomical and gravitic alignment of the Calixis Sector's Lathe worlds creates the conditions for the production of metal alloys of rare and singular properties. Such a strange metal is used to fashion the legendary Lathe blade. So phenomenal is their strength and structure that they can have paper thin edges yet be flexible enough for the blade to resist breaking under the impact of the most powerful blows, and can even remain unaffected by the devastating action of a power field. Any edged weapon classified as standard (i.e., not chain, power, etc.) can be a Lathe weapon. It gains +5 Damage, and its Parry Penalty is reduced by 10. Such a weapon cannot be destroyed by power weapons. A Lathe weapon can never be master-crafted; it's master-crafted already!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I've actually got a whacking great file full of this sort of thing - some cribbed from other sources (Nexus Hive in particular - only fair, since they nicked my admittedly overpowered Swordmaster ability from a post on the original Conclave), some translated from DH, and some of my own design. Maybe one day I'll get around to posting it...

[1337inquisitor]

Still i don't think that any form of weapon except the shield should have a PP of 0. Also with a WS of 91 he is ALWAYS going to parry with near impossible kill ratio with the not being able to be broken by power weapons only making harder to kill him. Also with his dodge and high IN he'll also be hard to shoot at. But i still think it would be better off as a 3d6 damage rather than +6

[Zakkeg]

Shields have additional special rules that apply to parrying which still make them better at it. You seem to be forgetting the progressive parry penalties, as well as the fact that Dodge can only be used once per turn.

That said, he's supposed to be hard as all get-out in close combat. That's the entire point. Dodge, apart from being highly characterful (which is really the more relevant issue), helps him get there.

About the Lathe property: it's +5, not +6. The extra +1 is from Grendel's Strength. So the difference is:

2D6+5+1= 8-18 (average 13)
-versus-
3D6+1= 4-19 (average 11-12)

As you can see, they're not quite equivalent. More importantly: if the Lathe property simply added D6, it would A) diverge far more from its DH roots, and B) complicate things when applying the property to short swords/halberds/etc. (I hate having to roll differently-sized dice in one go.)

[1337inquisitor]

don't add strength into the equation because it gets confusing to tell what the modifier is (anyway since I guess it's one handed blade it would only count half your character's ST). but any way i think you may find this link quite interesting for customizing close combat weapons http://www.freewebs.com/closecombatweapons/index.htm
Even with successive parry minuses and only once per turn dodge then he would still be almost impossible to kill

[Zakkeg]

I feel like I'm being punished for something...

As far as I can tell from my (many and thorough) readings of the rulebook, full Strength applies for the purposes of damage bonus except in cases where you're trying to use a two-handed weapon in one hand. See the footnotes on p.66 of the LRB and extrapolate. Therefore, +1 damage bonus. I'm sorry that it was confusing - as I said, it's included here because it was included in the original, which was meant to double as a quickref. I fully admit that copy/pasting everything may not have been the best idea.

The website you linked, while excellent, does not cover Lathe weapons. (I also think it overcomplicates things by encouraging modifications for just about everything, rather than reserving them for truly exceptional objects, but that's just me.) Lathe weapons are very specific objects, not just a collection of modifiers. Each one is a singular work of art. I could've just given Grendel a power sword and averted this whole discussion, but I like Lathe weapons. I also like my rules for them, and as such they are not subject to change without very strong cause. Good? Good.

Finally, read the rest of the thread. He's supposed to be difficult to kill. If he wasn't, he couldn't do his job. The man fights agents of the Officio-fething-Assassinorum.

Can you tell I'm becoming just a little bit annoyed? I'm sorry I had the audacity to criticize your first choice of model for your feudal world Inquisitor. I promise not to do it again. Ever.

[1337inquisitor]

well i'm those people that has to knit pick everything i see even if there's nothing wrong (and i'm as stubborn as a mule). Sorry if i came across as harsh. (anyway this has nothing to do with the model which is still an open thing for me, I just said it would be likely choice). But the character is still a nice design and i have to ask. will it be a solo character?

[Zakkeg]

It's not harsh so much as repetitive. Surely you can see that? And yes, the intention is that Grendel would primarily operate solo - as stated several posts ago. Please, please, please read the thread if you're going to comment.