Well, to be blunt, I am new and trying to get into Dark Heresy. Not quite sure where I'd fit in, I decide after looking at the books to try and make a sort of Tech Priest support, designed for keeping the group going no matter what, instead of being a huge immovable wall or a bastion of firepower. But being new, there are just some things that are stumping me and I don't know if I am doing it right at all.

If anyone can give me a hand and either help me finish or turn me around to the right direction, I would really appreciate it.

A note before I start, this uses stuff from IQHB, Lathe Worlds, and Lost Dataslate.

Homeword/Origin: Perinetus (The Lost Dataslate/Lathe Worlds)

Forge-world Characters from Perinetus gain Trade (Armorour) (S), Trade (Wright) (Int), and Trade (Technomat) (Int) as untrained basic skills.

My thinking here is that with these three trades, not only will I pull in a bit extra for my monthly income, but I cover three important areas: Trade Armorour means that I can keep my groups armor and weapons going constantly, and the group doesn't stall because one or two characters suffered critical fails and lost their good guns. I can also roll to upgrade armor to Good quality, and a few other neat little tricks. Trade Wright is debatable, but it comes with the origin. The best use I can figure out of it so really justify it is that it lets me repair and take lore checks on vehicles, meaning that on the off chance my group can take alternate routes with a vehicle, I can try and make sure it's in working order and everything. Finally, Trade Technomat covers the rest of it, maintaining the groups technological items and even being able to repair things in-world like broken cogitators and so forth.

The idea is like I said to keep the group able to move: Things that would otherwise slow the group down don't, or not as much.

However, I am new, so I might be missing something. Feel free to chew the newbie out.

For Divination: There is no Substitute for Zeal: +2 toughness and willpower

Stat-wise, I feel like I am well-off

WS:28
BS:37
S:33
T:34
Agi:30
Int:45
Per:34
WP:35

Advancements:

I took Evaluate partially for flavor, partially for function. It fits with the idea I have going so far of my Tech Priest handling gear and equipment. Being able to appraise a given item of it's market worth or for distinguishing features fits this. Plus, it lets me quickly help the group hock otherwise undesirable stuff for the best price.

After that, I took Technical Knock so I could help keep the group pouring on the fire in a fight. Being able to unjam a weapon seems pretty valuable, and everywhere I look it says that this is a good to-have skill.

Feedback Screech is next, to give my character something I can do in combat. Making enemies lose a half-action seems pretty solid.

Finally, I got Logic.Like I said, I am trying to design this character in the mind to support the group so it doesn't get bogged down. Being able to have a better chance at Tech puzzles to go with Tech Use, and with Technomat as well it seems a solid triad.

After that, the skills I got are as follows:

Tech Use
Common Lore (Tech)
Common Lore (Machine Cult)
Literary
Secret Tongue.

Now, going forward with this character, I am highly confused. At which point do I get my first cybernetic augment? I wanted to take a Medicae Mecha, but that is expensive as hell. Do I get one for free, or what? I can't seem to find anything in the rules to help. And I really want that Medicea Mecha, so I can also take care of injuries in the field.

Hi, and Welcome! Both to these forums and to the world of the Adeptus Mechanicus

Playing a Tech-priest can be a lot of fun, just remember and embrace that you're playing more than just a tech, you're a priest of a very secretive cult that hoards and protects knowledge of science and technology. You're a much techno-sorceror as mechanic, and can also be a very hard Warrior-Scholar.

Your main advantages are going to be extreme resilience (cheap Toughness advances and access to mechanical improvements, The Flesh is Weak, etc) and high Intelligence with related lore- and crafting-skills.

To your questions.

As untrained basic skills you're not actually a tradesman. You're like the uncertified computer geek who has picked up a lot of skills through tinkering and exposure, but never bothered to get a degree. As such, you do not get the Tradesman income, even though you can use these skills (though at a severe penalty). Not that it matters, a Tech-Priest makes more than a tradesman anyway (see p124).

Your stats are quite nice, and if your game is combat heavy you should expend 350XP to increase your Toughness to above 40. This will give you a TB of 4, which is subtracted from all damage you take. Every single hit. Well worth it

As Advances go, Feedback screetch isn't all that great. It will hurt your friends as well as your enemies, only cause them a moments distraction (one half-action), and can only be used every now-and-then (long/random cooldown).

Pilot and Drive might be better choices, unless others in your group have those skills? Agility is not your thing, but even with basic training you can operate those vehicles quite well, and it's in-line with your mech/support role. You should also be able to maintain them with your Tech-Use.

Most of your other choices are good, but some are very dependent on how your GM runs things. Logic for example. Discuss with your GM in what situations you would use it: Does he expect you to solve puzzles yourself, in real-life, or is this abstracted away and resolved with skill-tests?

Secret Tounge (Tech) is only going to be usable with other adepts of the Mechanicus, and even then only if you want to speak privately when others are present. Not terribly useful IMHO.

As for further implants, you're going to have to buy them, unless your GM is feeling very kind. Typically Dark Heresy characters start out as poor smuchs with no money and crappy gear, but this will change as you progress.

The Trade and income rules in DH were always a bit wonky, but IIRC you get your monthly payment every time you gain 400XP (can't remember where I have this from) or a month passes in gametime. And every time you rank up, your monthly pay increases. Either way, 500 Thrones is going to see you saving for a while. You get the skill at Rank 2 though (just a few 100 XP away), and with a medkit you're going to be quite effective already.

Good luck

Ah, alright. That makes sense. Having them off the bat for income would be unbalanced. Is there an advantage to having them this early, or would it be better to get something else to start with in that department? The Dataslates book which it comes form does offer other choices for origins with different benefits, but that was the one that kinda appealed to me. I do want to craft my Priest with flavor, but mechanics wise I also want him to be helpful.

Here is a short list of the other Origins and what they offer.

As you can see, it's a very varied list and it leaves me conflicted, because I want to build an interesting past for my Tech Priest, while also giving him some skills. I am tempted for Lathe-Hesh because it gives the Technical Knock for free, opening up 100xp for something else. If I go with replacing Feedback screech, that's 200 I can put elsewhere. Same with Logic, adding 300 to free XP to spend.

My thoughts there are that if I switch to Lathe-Hadd for Technical Knock, I can drop my advancements entirely and spend a hundred xp for The Disciples of Thule from the IQHB, which gives me:

Now if you wanted to start off as your team Armourer then

Now if you wanted to start off as your team Armourer then

Origin: Mechanicum Research Station

Characters originating from a Mechanicum Research Station begin play with training in one of the following Skills: Common Lore, Forbidden Lore, Scholastic Lore, or Trade. They also gain the Talented Talent for that specific Skill.

Take Trade (Armourer), and get Talented Talent for that as well for a nice +10 bonus to the check

and then take The Disciples of Thule package, yes you loose -5 from your Weapon Skill just means that you don't want to get into melee if you can avoid it. Might I suggest carrying a Hack Shotgun with red dot for those, times u can't avoid it.

Now you have a weapon's handler, very nice to have... and some useful skills to help out your party

Hmm, that could work. I was also thinking of getting a Steel Burner Las Pistol.

Class Range RoF Dam Pen Clip Rld Special Wt Cost Avail

Pistol 30m S/-/- 1d10+4E 2 10 Full - 2.5kg 100 Very Rare

It has a fairly good stat-line, and the pen is very nice, being on par with a decent Plasma, and all for a 100. It also falls under Basic so it can be purchased right off the bat. 30m is not the longest range ever, but 1d10+4E at Pen 2 with a clip of ten will give anything getting up close pause unless they have some really heavy armor I figure. At 50 Thrones more then a basic Las Pistol, I figure it's worth taking. Plus, it saves me from having to drop XP on training for SP weapons.

So, maybe a good approach would be to take the Research Station Origin, and the Thule Package for a 100. Then I can drop another 100 on Technical Knock for being able to unjam weapons. Another hundred can be dropped on Sound Constitution for the extra wound. Then, depending, I can drop the last 100 on a statline boost, or grab a Drive/Pilot skill. Once I hit rank 2, I can also take Weak is the Flesh, and start adding on armor points by getting the Machine Trait there, and at 6 and 8. That should give me a fairly decent start to being able to tank a fair bit, and keep my group up and running both gun-wise, and by taking Medicae and Medicae Mecha at ranks 3 and 4.

Alright. Here is what I hope to be the final version.

As a sidenote, you may want to talk to your GM about all tech-priests/those with Mechanicus Implants swiping the Heart of Steel and Skin of Iron Traits from the Crimson Guardsman of Lathes Worlds.

Heart lets one use Intelligence for Fellowship skills/tests when interacting with tech-priests/adherents of the Machine God; this got to sneak in as a rules change as part of Ascension as well.

Skin gives a free cybernetic implant/upgrade or one-step quality improvement to an already installed cybernetic implant at odd-numbered ranks. This is very handy because mechandrites - and other cyberaugments - are very expensive, yet a core part of the Tech-Priest's schtick.

Also worth spending XP on, using the Contact rules from Inquisitor's Handbook, getting in good with the AdMech - spend enough XP on a Contact (which can be an organization), and you can get 30% off on prices, one or two step improvement in availability, when acquiring equipment through that Contact, be able to request favors, borrow time to get skill tests done in the background, etc. This, however, is probably going to need to wait a bit before you can spare the XP to invest in tricking out a contact.

As a sidenote, you may want to talk to your GM about all tech-priests/those with Mechanicus Implants swiping the Heart of Steel and Skin of Iron Traits from the Crimson Guardsman of Lathes Worlds.

Heart lets one use Intelligence for Fellowship skills/tests when interacting with tech-priests/adherents of the Machine God; this got to sneak in as a rules change as part of Ascension as well.

Skin gives a free cybernetic implant/upgrade or one-step quality improvement to an already installed cybernetic implant at odd-numbered ranks. This is very handy because mechandrites - and other cyberaugments - are very expensive, yet a core part of the Tech-Priest's schtick.

Also worth spending XP on, using the Contact rules from Inquisitor's Handbook, getting in good with the AdMech - spend enough XP on a Contact (which can be an organization), and you can get 30% off on prices, one or two step improvement in availability, when acquiring equipment through that Contact, be able to request favors, borrow time to get skill tests done in the background, etc. This, however, is probably going to need to wait a bit before you can spare the XP to invest in tricking out a contact.

I may do that. The only Mechandrite I really want at the moment for this guy though is the Medicae one, and I think you need the Medicae skill to really use it. Does it mean I can purchase the Mechandrite, and then later attach it when I have the skills I need? Or by taking the skill, do you get Mechandrite use skill for the one you took?

*Edit

After reading through it, I understand now. doesn't give you the skills for use, but it does give the implant or lets you upgrade it like you said. So I could take something like Auger Arrays at Rank 1 and it would be common. And by the time I hit rank three, I can purchase what I need for Medicae Mechandrite and then be able to use it.

Or you could get the implant even before you have the training to use it, technically. This would generally be for if you just made the rank with the talent on it, but don't have quite enough XP to get the talent right then.

Think the Medical Mechandrite needs a talent too, might be grouped under Utility, but not sure offhand.

I really think it's something that should've gotten added to all tech-priest/Mech Implant careers, and it is something that I routinely add on as a houserule, and usually ask the GM about, whether I'm playing a career it's relevant for or not.

Thank you. That has helped alot.