I rustled this up for a player after telling him that crossing the galaxy to meet a Tau was out of the question, it's still a big WiP and I'll probably need an entire new career for him :/ But here're the base stats, traits, skills and talents

This is assuming the player comes from the Fire caste since that is what my player is requesting. The Traits however, are universal to all Tau.

But later on, I will add the 3 other castes (water, air and earth). I'm not going to add Ethereals.

WS: 2D10+15
BS: 2D10+25
S: 2D10+15
T: 2D10+20
Ag: 2D10+20
Int: 2D10+20
Per:2D10+25
WP:2D10+20
Fel:2D10+20

Starting Traits:

To the future we look
You treat Tech Use as a basic skill but are somewhat bemused by the Imperiums primitivity of Technology, meaning you take -10 to tests using Imperial technolog. (Imperial tech counts as anything requiringtech use to use, or pilot or drive). This can be overrode by purchasing Tech use (Imperial) later on.

The Ethereals have given us the future, we must enact it.
You act with a purpose near unheard of to other races. Once you have made a choice, you will stick to it. In game turns, this means you can be rather literal, and will give others a hard time if they try to change your plan of action. Bearing this in mind, you do however recognise where others skills exceed your own, and will defer to their wisdom if your plan relies on a skill or force you do not understand.

How far we have travelled....
As a race, you realise that you have come far in a short time, you gain:
Forbidden Lore: Tau History
Forbidden Lore: Ethereals as basic skills. You are also somewhat bemused at the Imperials stagnation and lack of foreward progress.

We have travelled beyond the need for such primitive needs....
All Tau start with;
Exotic Weapon Training: Pulse Pistol.
But you will shy away from Physical combat at all times, resorting to it only if absolutley nescessary. You will try to convince others to your philosophy as well.

Skills

You start with: Speak Language (T'au) and can spend 200xp of your starting 400 xp to learn Speak Language (Low Gothic).

That's all I have so far, C&C would be greatly appreciated, as I'd like to fix what the base before moving on

cyclocius said:

Why are they better shots than humans? Just because they prefer to use ranged weapons exclusively in warfare does not mean that they're naturally better shots. The Perception score... fair enough, really (their eyesight can see further into the infra-red and ultra-violet portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, but they have difficulty focussing quickly on distant objects), but the Agility seems too high for them - they're not exactly the quickest of races in 40k, afterall.

It was my understanding that the Tau are, in general terms, on par with or slightly behind humanity in a physical and physiological sense, which they compensate for with their technology.

cyclocius said:

Imperial technology really isn't as primitive as many people assume, and while it may be wreathed in superstition and while detailed knowledge of how it works is carefully guarded and possessed only by a few, Imperial technology is still extremely advanced. The technology of the Tau is more evenly distributed amongst their civilisation, and more widely understood by the populace, but it isn't inherently better... for a start, the Tau can't figure out Warp travel...

That aside, I'm in favour of Tech-use as a basic skill for Tau characters. I'd be inclined to give them Literacy as a basic skill as well, representing a solid basic education...

cyclocius said:

That isn't a trait. It is, rather, role-playing advice for Tau characters, but it has no direct impact upon the game mechanics.

For game mechanics, I suggest something along the lines of:

"When in the presence of a member of the Ethereal caste, all Willpower tests made while directly working towards fulfilling the Ethereal's commands count as one-step easier. However, any Willpower tests made to resist or otherwise be noncompliant with the instructions of an Ethereal are two steps more difficult."

cyclocius said:

New skills invented isn't a big deal, but are they necessarily Forbidden Lore skills? Forbidden from an Imperial perspective, certainly, but they'd be more akin to Common Lore skills for Tau characters, surely...

cyclocius said:

After the weapon proficiency, the rest of that trait is just role-playing advice, rather than anything that influences game mechanics.

cyclocius said:

Surely it'd be better to include Speak Language (Low Gothic) in the first rank (and maybe even the starting skills) of the appropriate career paths, rather than putting that note there.

Personally, my inclination for Xenos PCs (I've done some work for Eldar, Kroot and Orks in this regard) is to include traits that emphasise their inhumanity, with the following two being the main examples of this:

Non-Imperial
This character was not raised amongst humans, and knows little about the culture and history of the Imperium. The laws, traditions, religion and superstitions of Mankind are unfamiliar and alien to characters with this trait.
Effect : The character suffers a -10 penalty on all Common Lore and Scholastic Lore tests relating to the Imperium of Man.

Speak Not Unto the Alien
This creature is a member of an alien species, viewed with a mixture of fear and loathing by those of other species, and significantly different in form and thought as to make any kind of social interaction a greater challenge.
Effect : This creature counts all Fellowship-based tests as being two steps more difficult when dealing with creatures of a species other than its own. Equally, those of other species treat their Fellowship-based tests as being two steps more difficult when dealing with him.

With traits in general, it might be an idea to make most of them common to all Tau, while changing one or two for each specific caste, so the Water caste would gain additional benefits on social and interaction skills, while an Air caste Tau is a naturally more proficient pilot, and an Ethereal counts as having Unnatural Fellowship (x2) when dealing with other Tau, etc...

Thanks for the crit

For the BS bonus, since I'm doing the Fire Caste, I assumed that the Tau Mantra of ranged over close etc etc would be sort of trained to them at a young age, not sure if that's the case though :/

For Trait 1: I wrote that up with the difference in tech being the main idea, in my mind, Eldar and Tau have Apple Macs (look flashier, work etc etc) while the imperium has an Old windows laptop (It'll get the job done with a rattle and a clang). Also, for the Literacy, I didn't want him to be too overpowered... He already had 2 +5s on his stats and only 1 -5 and, while stats arn't everything, the player this is for isn't that great a roleplayer, so for him, stats matter a bit more.

For Trait 2, I agree it has no direct impact on game mechanics, but I wasn't exactly sure how to implement it, since the PC would be...pretty much an entire galaxy away from his ethereal :/

For trait 3; You're right there, I'll retify that in the next update

Trait 4, again, you're right.

I think, with the traits, I was trying to emphasise the Tau's alienness from the Imperium, showing how their traits would set them apart from the other acolytes. My players pay great attention to any bonuses granted by talents and I think I was hoping that, by scouring through the trait text, a bit of RP goodness would rub off on him :/

And for the starting skills, again, I was trying to emphasize the Tau's alienness, without paying attention to how hard this would make the game for the player...

Many thanks I'll retify it next update