Warmenhoven's Warband (Charachters)

[Warmenhoven]

Right so now that i've got some pictures of my warband up, (linky), it's time to flesh out their charachters a bit more.

I haven't really made up any backstory for most of the warband yet, atm i'm kinda just seeing what types of personalities the models produce wilst playing with them so hopefully i'll add more to this as time goes on. I'd also more than apreciate any imput you guys have to offer as you probably know more than me about balance/charachter creation etc etc etc.

Captain Caleco Decimidius

He is the leader of this inquisitorial warband tho not an Inquisitor himself. He was the right hand man to Inquisitor Van Arkiel and his trusted companion. I hesitate to say friend as i imagine there to be too much respect fot the inquisitor coming from Caleco's side for their relationship to be classed as a friendship. Can't really seem to get the concept across apropriately tho. Kiiinda like two guys who meet and really like each other as friends but are too macho to show it, that sort of awkward ness but with the undyiing loyalty of best friends. Hope that makes it clear. Anyway the inquisitor is dead.

Prior to his death the Inquisitor (Radical Ordo Hereticus Recongregationist) was putting into action his Grand Scheme which he had been working toward most of his life. This was understandably an undertaking he pasionately belived in and this has been passed onto Caleco who see's it as his calling, so much so that when his Inquisitor died (no doubt whilst meddeling somewhere he shouldn't have been not quite sure on the details) Caleco decided to take his seal and not report the death in order to finish what his master had set in motion. He has still retained the old warband as they trust him (almost) as much as the inquisitor himself and are quite use to being under his command because, well, he was their commanding officer.

As you can see i still need to flesh it out here and there and any sugestions are welcome. Particularly as i have no clue really what the Grand Scheme was, obviously it would have to be something suitable gandeous and not completable within campaigns as it's what keeps the band together and give's them an excuse to turn up in any game we might want to play. The other gaping hole in the fluff is how the Inquisitor got killed. It would have to be somewhere/happen in such a manner that his death wouldn't be reported back to the imperium through other means (maybe some far off military research facility which subsequently blows up?) but i also would like it to be something not necesarily heroic but at least respectable, no tripping on a penut and stabbing himselfself with the spoon he was using to eat a yoghurt! =P

Erm not sure what format to post the char sheet in but i'll try my best to make it readable.
--------------------------------------
Stats:
WS - 64
BS - 5157
S - 69
T - 67
I - 64
Wp - 63
Sg - 68
Nv - 75
Ld - 81
Speed - 4

Equipment:
Light Bolt Pistol (x2 reloads)
Power Sword

Skills:
Leader

Armour
Head: 0
Arms: 3
Chest: 5
Abdomen: 5
Groin: 4
Legs: 2
--------------------------------------

He still needs some more skills i feel to flesh out his charachter but i can't really see what would make him 'complete'. Atm he's not really powerfull and tends to get shot A LOT ergo spends most games recovering/on the floor at some point which is not really what i would expect from to all intents and purposes my inquisitor charachter. That said i may just be playing him wrong as i feel his stats are quite good, he seems to walk out of most encounters, with a little bit of a limp sometimes but on his feet none the less. So yea any thoughts about what whould be a good addition?

Geting tired now but i'll post up the rest of my guys tomorrow mornign (if i remember, brain like a sieve sometimes!).

[EDITED AFTER READING COMMENTS]

After having hired Caleco as his bodyguard (is there some sort of bodyguard training order in the Imperium?) the Inquisitor quickly realised that he was actually deceptively smart but preffered to keep to himself. Always wanting to improve his companions Van Arkiel began placing Caleco in charge of progressively harder and harder missions to see what he was capable of, it was soon apparent that Caleco had an aptitude for command and a sharp mind which allowed him to take advantage of most situations. Over the years as he lead more and more mission Caleco became the unnoficial commander of the warband untill one day V.A. realised it would probably be a good idea to promote him and give him an actual rank. Having built up quite a reputation with the other members this decision was met with unanimous aproval. To mark the ocatoin he was gifted his current weapons by the warband which were deemed to be more apropriate to his new rank.

Having gone from bodyguard to commander Caleco now became V.A.'s protoge and as such has picked up many of his masters ways, being skilled in deception, espionage and just generally causing a mess without attracting too much attention to himself. Caleco has also adopted V.A.'s philisophical viewpoints and although he is unquestioningly loyal to the Imperium he does see it as a corrupt shadow of what it could potentially be, as such he has taken it upon himself to complete what V.A. put in motion and change the Imperium for the better.

Originally the model was concieved as the bodyguard of my previous warbands leader (a rogue trader) but after preforming admirably on several occations and hilariously on one occasion he quickly progressed to be my favorite model and i decided to form this new warband around him. In my mind tho he was still originally hired as a bodyguard for the inquisitor and this to a certain extent justifies the supreme toughness and armour values. The streangth was a by product of his armour as it was needed to keep him at a sensible speed for someone who's supposed to keep up with his charge and protect them. As a bodyguard he would also spend a lot of time training etc so it's not like he's just an imperial captain who sits around all day having tea and planning stratagies. I imagine him to have a personality reminicent of the cliced 'gentle giants' you get in many stories but with a touch of modest genius thrown in. His intelect is a natural aspect of his charachter but i think his toughness and streangth are trained atributes, toughness being an amalgamation of both his physical toughness but also his mental capability to push himself.

also upped his BS, he seems like the person to aim before shooting so 77% chance of hitting should be good enough but what do you guys think?

[dumdeedum]

Some extra background on who he is and where he came from would be nice to have. What is his personality like? Where did he come about his weapons? Why is he so strong and tough? What is he good at, or what does he enjoy? What kind of situations does he excel in and which does he struggle in? Is he 'radical' like the inquistor was?

All those were just random questions that I made up as I went along, but should give an indication of what your character is like as a person, rather than just being the (ex) friend of Inquisitor Van Arkiel and succesor to his life work and a bunch of numbers.

I think you should also say he has some armour, as those clothes and breastplate should provide at least a little protection.

As for everything else he seems, pretty mediocre in terms of skillfulness, pretty hardcore in terms of strength and then good at everything else. Also if you answer the above questions it should hopefully lead to some more skills.

Hope that wasn't all just a load of rubbish.

James

[Flinty]

In addition to Dumdeedum's useful points (and I dont think I have ever said this) his stats might be a tad low for combat, and the figure definately looks as though he's wearing at least 2 or 3 points of armour. If he gets shot a lot, maybe swap BS for WS - or just up BS a tad - as he might be more effective with better ranged attacks, his power sword should then make up for a low WS if he ever gets toe-to-toe with anyone.

Thinking about his background should suggest some abilities (leader, maybe), otherwise it might be best to leave things deliberately unclear. Maybe Van Arkel just dissappeared/was killed by an opposing Inquisitorial faction/has gone deep undercover, or maybe Decimidius killed Arkel once he discovered the truth/ramifications of his master plan?

A warband searching for a lost Inquisitor, looking for revenge, or trying to work out what is required to complete/stop the master plan all seem to be valid reasons for them to stick together to me. Mystery and half-truth can cover a lot of fluff holes as well as being valid explanations...

 

[Warmenhoven]

Thank you so much guys completely slipped my mind that i should probably write about his personality rather than just his history =/ also i can't believe i forgot to put his armour values up!

The armour values are: 0 head, 3 arms, 5 chest and abdomen, 4 groin, 2 legs.

The questions and suggestions were more than helpfull and have got me thinking a bit again, whould anyone mind if i edited the OP rather than start a new one so that all his info can be together in one chunk?

[RobSkib]

Kinda makes it awkward to re-read, as the following posts are commenting on a post that doesn't exist, but it's probably better that way. His Strength and Toughness are a bit high, aren't they?

[Metellus]

Just write the new stats in an 'Edited' section, and use that for any future edits. For a semi-constant lurker like me, it works well enough.

[dumdeedum]

One method which could be used is to edit the original post, but without deleting anything, so anything you want to change, you strikethrough and any new stuff in red.

[Warmenhoven]

Edited the OP and am now quite happy with him but further suggestion are ofc. welcome =]

Next charachter on the list:

Archie Kilpatric

--------------------------------------
Stats:
WS - 32
BS - 61
S - 50
T - 55
I - 70
Wp - 33
Sg - 68
Nv - 41
Ld - 34
Speed - 4

Equipment:
Plasma Carbine 'Susan': normal cept it can fire semi (2) at D10 less damage and can re-roll on the malfunction table

Custom Revolver: revolver, range F, +5 acc

Digital Inteface Implants: for hacking and what not also CC weapon reach 0 D3+3 dmg -25% parry

Multi-tool: (again for accessing stuff/repairing etc etc GMs discretion really as to what it can do

Web solvent

Ether Communications Decoding Device: (listen in on other ppl's radio chatter, quite funny when they can do the same =]

Custom Revolver Holster: (grants the skill quick draw when used witht the custom revolver

Displacer field: (for the hilarity that always ensues

12 revolver shells

Skills:
Tinkerer: +10 to understanding/using unfamiliar tech

Armour
Head: 0
Arms: 1(R) 2(L)
Chest: 1
Abdomen: 2
Groin: 2
Legs: 1
--------------------------------------

Archie, as you can tell, is my tech guy, he loves to tinker with things and is always running about the ship 'upgrading' this and that tho sometimes not entirely successfull...well for it's original purpose anyway. Few would argue that his plasma oven makes the tastiest steaks in the universe even though it was originally supposed to be an upgrade to the ships maintenance jetpacks. Archie is brilliant at everything mechanical and a very logical guy and as such has decided that he's verry allergic to bullets, the only remedy being lots and lots of bulletproof cover between him and the origen of the bullets. Or just not being in a dangerous situation in the first place. He has however been on enough missions to know that sometimes things need to get done the hard way and will do so through loyalty to his old master and Caleco. The guns Archie carries are both heavily modified and the plasma gun in particular is sacred to him so much so that if you dare touch it you better be ready to find that your bed has been rigged to launch you into the nearest bin.

His low ld shouldn't be taken as an indication of disloyalty but rather his lack of social skills and innability to convince/command/be forcefull. Not sure about his willpower could be that he's so distracted in his mind the whole time that it makes it easy for psykers to sneak in and manipulate things.

Brother Millitant Bartholomew

--------------------------------------
Stats:
WS - 63
BS - 41
S - 70
T - 66
I - 49
Wp - 84
Sg - 41
Nv - 57
Ld - 71
Speed - 4

Equipment:
Wych-bane: reach 4, 2D6+2, -15%parry, counts double dmg for knockback, always causes bleading to psykers

Reinforced Shield

Hand Axe

Litanies of Spite: psykers targeting him must re-roll successfull Wp tests

Chest and abdomen have additional D10 forcefield armour vs psychich bolt attacks

Skills:
Witch-hound: +20% to awareness vs psykers

Force of Will

True Grit

Word of the Emperor

Armour
Head: 0
Arms: 4(R) 0(L)
Chest: 6
Abdomen: 4
Groin: 2
Legs: 2
--------------------------------------

Brother Barty, as suits an Ordo Hereticus warband, is a proper which hunter, trained from a young age to resist psykick attacks and hunt down the foul heretics who dare to corrupt the imperium. Prone to bashing his way through doors in order to go give the cultist on the other side a good head bashing, Caleco tends to use him when discresion is not the order of teh day and things need to get done through sheer force or if he suspects things might go terribly wrong. Barty is the kinda guy that will generally drop everything he's busy with as soon as he catches a sniff of a which and go pound him/her/it into the ground before resuming with his previous actions. That said his loyalty to the warband is second to none and he won't let someone bleed out on the floor to go galavanting off after a psyker, he'll help them to a safe spot, stop the bleading make sure they've got a gun and then charge off. Though more wise than clever he none the less posseses some intelegence due to the education he recieved during his training...usually enough to know that being near archie when he's tinkering isn't such a good idea.

gah just realised what a huge chunk of text this has become! I'll let people coment on these guys before putting up some more char.s later.

[RobSkib]

I'd love to see some backstory or history behind Archie and Bartholemew. I know you've written a lot about the design choices, but I'd be really interested to see what you'd come up with in a brief "from then til now" kinda story. I think it would help get your characters straight in your head and help you assign them personalities and traits if you had at least one or two distinctive events in their lives that turned the characters into who they are today.

Also, I'd love to see a little more detail as to *how* they joined forces with your Inquisitor - where were they when it happened? What caused your inquisitor to take notice and recruit them on the spot?

[Warmenhoven]

Well what do you know Caleco ended up on the floor again =/

We played two games this weekend, the first one Calleco got shot from behind by a cultist up in a window (3rd time that's happened!) and then later in the game got stabbed in the lung by a diff Inq warband member with a powersword because he tried to talk the situation out. What makes it worse was that she was pummeled to the ground by Barty then he stopped the fight and healed her leg while trying to explian that he too was an Inquisitorial agent who could use their help. meh guess he should just realise that most people are less talkative than him. That game ended with Archie being captured.

Second game (still with a serious chest injury only stopped from bleeding out by some bio-foam) he went toe to toe with the same (now rival) Inq char to try and save Archie but got his leg skewered in the process. He managed to grin and bear the acute injury to his leg and seeing as the situation was dire, got up and charged back in, now at speed 2. Needless to say Calleco being Calleco things didn't go so well. The bolt pistol shots he fired managed to do sod all and he couldn't land a hit with his sword. Meanwhile the other powersword, still coverd in his dried blood from last game, managed to find it's mark again, lacerating his chest. The game ended with Archie out of action from system shock and Calleco stunned for 3 turns on the floor with acute leg and chest injuries...oh yea and he still has a light injury on his other leg from last last game.

I dunno, Calleco has the amazing ability of always managing to stay just alive enough to walk out of a situation at the end but he still doesn't seem to be able to pull his weight. I mean he is to all intents and purposes my Inquisitor but atm he can't even deal with rival inquisitor's grunts let alone actually pose a threat to them. I'm at a loss as to what to do because i really don't want to make him overpowered but at the same time i don't want to be steamrollered by anything better than a standard Inquisitorial stormtrooper =/

I could always just up his WS to high 70/80, making him a really adept swordsman but then just play a more shooting/support role when going up against cultists etc?

Or maybe give him a bonus to his dodge/parry with a special skill?

Was also thinking of giving him a convertion field to ward off those annoying shots that always manages to floor him.

any ideas?

also reading this weekend but i'll try and get some more backstory on Archie and Barty when i get back as well as load up some more char sheets for teh other members of my warband.

[Jamas Orian]

personally I'd send him to the nearest medical facility so he can be fixed up!

As for his lack of apparent usefulness, have you tried yet standing back a bit and shooting?