In my campaign i usualy have an assassain or two try to kill my pcs every few sessions (just to mix things up) the assassians always vary in some way and i want to make something that will really scare the living emperor out of them. i want to make an assassain with a necrontyr phase blade and yes i know those are extremely rare and xenoheretical though ive only heard of them once inside of the necron codex for the 40k army, and i thought it would be a good idea because necrons are all but unheard of in the calaxis sector so they would have no idea what the sword is or how its doing this. If they kill the assassain then this would open up to the alcolytes going to tech priests and finding out information on the undying enemy or going to the assassinorium to find out which assassain could possibly be allowed such a weapon.

theres only one problem...no idea for the stats on the weapon hehe

any ideas? anyone? please?

You realise that the C'tan phase sword used by the Callidus assassins is basically a Necron Phase blade, they are pretty much the same thing. Thing is they are limited to the Callidus temple so the easy way to do it would obviously be to send them up against a Callidus Assassin. This comes with the slight downside of that they will all die without much they can really do about it, a Callidus is just way above thier heads.

Not sure how to procede actually with that one. You could have it reclaimed off a dead Callidus but then again it would have to be from something able to kill a Callidus...

Anyone else got any ideas?

Kaihlik

well does anyone have the stats on a callidous assassain? i could always nerf the stats and say he was an innitiate...or if any other ideas arise those would be lovely.

The fractal edge blade (calling it a C'tan blade will probably cause problems... very forbidden lore!) I've got in-game is a 40cm blade mounted in a special forearm sheath on the assassin, it does 1D10+SB to living material, it does absolutely nothing to unliving material and really doesn't give a **** about daemonic resistances or toughness bonuses. Downside, you can't parry with it.

For the lack of anything else I qualify it as a power weapon.

I do have a Culexus assassin statted up + special gear, he is a scary son of a *****.

What are all of these things you speak of and where can I learn more?!

TheDoctor: Do you really want someone to post the stats of a Callidus? 'cause they have not made it into any original FFG-Book i'd use the profile they have in the Inquisition-Codizes of 40k (they were free to download there, but i don't know if they still are) and then altered to fit into the D10-system.

I would give them the following:

WS BS S T AG Int Per WP Fel

55 55 45 45 50 40 40 40 40

Wounds: 20

Skills : Acrobatics +20, Awareness +20, Blather +10, Charm +20, Chem-Use +10, Ciphers (Officio Assassinorum) +20, Climb +20, Common Lore (Tech, Imperium, Imperial Creed, War) +10, Concealment +20, Dodge +20, Deceive +20, Demolition +10, Drive (Ground, Hover) +10, Inquiriy +10, Intimidate +10, Lip Reading +10, Literacy +10, Logic +10, Medicae +10, Scrutiny +10, Search +10, Pilot (Civilian, Military) +10, Secret Tongue (OA) +20, Silent Move +20, Security +20, Silent Move +20, Survival +10, Swim +10, Tech Use +10, Tracking +20

Talents: Ambidextrous, Armour of Contempt, Arms Master, Assassin Strike, Basic Weapon Training (Primitive, Laser, Melta, Plasma, SP), Berserk Charge, Blade Master, Blind Fighting, Catfall, Chem Geld, Combat Master, Concealed Cavity, Counter Attack, Crack Shot, Crippling Strike, Crushing Blow, Deadeye Shot, Deflect Shot, Disarm, Dual Shot, Dual Strike, Exotic Weapon Training (Needle Pistol, Needle Rifle, C'tan Sword), Fearless, Furious Assault, Gun Slinger, Hard Target, Heavy Weapon Training (Primitive, Laser, Melta, Plasma, SP), Heightened Senses (all), Hip Shooting, Independent Targeting, Iron Jaw, Jaded, Leap Up, Light Sleeper, Lightning Attack, Lightning Reflexes, Marksman, Mediation, Melee Weapon Training (Primitive, Shock, Chain, Power), Mimic, Natural Armour 2, Orthoproxy, Pistol Training (Primitive, Laser, SP, Melta, Plasma), Precise Blow, Quick Draw, Rapid Reaction, Rapid Reload, Sharpshooter, Sprint, Step Aside, Street Fighting, Strong Minded, Sure Strike, Swift Attack, Takedown, Total Recall, Unremarkable, Wall of Steel.

A single Callidus Assassin has to be able to do the job of a full group of PCs, sneaking in, gathering information, calling for the authorities and then eliminate the leader of the heretics. He gets all the toys he needs either from the Temple or picks them up on his mission (with his stats, skills and talents no problem). There are two unique pieces of equipment that are only employed by the Temple Callidus that should be mentioned:

Polymorphin: Instead of undergoing intense plastic schurgery for every mission the Temple implants a special material called Polymorphin into it's initiatives, which allowes them to change their shape, size and sex at will. Although the change takes some time to complete it is still only a matter of hours instead of weeks it still enables the assassin to simply kill a cult member, slip into his cloths and gear and mimic his behavior in record time.

C'tan Phase Blade: An ancient weapon from a dead civilisation, with unparalled lithality. it simply has no physical phase, allways going for and back in reality. In game terms: The C'tan Phase Blade ignores armour, cover, force fields, hexagramic wards, demonic protection (like unnatural toughness), all other forms of protection and cannot be parried. By having no mass of it's own it does not profit from SB.

Name Type Class Damage Pen Special weight

C'tan Phase Blade - exotic - melee - 1W10+10 - X - Tearing, Fast, special (look above) - 1,5 kg - not for sale

In case you're wondering about the large stats, and big lists of skills and talents: They are Assassins who made it past Imperator Mortis/Assassine Palatine, and are therefore in a range of 16-30k ExP, way above most PCs. And that are only those who survived the challenges of the Temple at the beginning of their real training.

I would go so far as to say your stats aren't big enough. A Callidus should be able to go toe to toe with an Astartes and come out the victor a good percentage of the time. AFAIK Temple Assassins have as many implants as a Space Marines, just different ones to make them insanely strong, fast and agile. I would probably be inclined to link a C'tan Phase swords damage to degrees of success on the to hit roll. Basically if you hit well you will just take someones arm off regardless of any other factors.

Also the background in DH that says Assassins who survive long enough get taken into the temples goes against their previous backgound which said that they were taken in at a young age.

Yeah I really wouldn't put a group up against that in anything other than a one off horror scenario. Best way is to have them come up against something that has gotten a hold of it another way. I would actually leave it out, too many people are focused on the tabletop races to consider the myriad other unusual threats which are in my opinion more interesting from a DH prespective.

Kaihlik

P.S. All Callidus Assassins are female, its something to do with the Polymorphine that works better on woman.

A "Phase Blade" doesn't have to be of C'tan/necron orgin. You could simply have it be a Halo device, or a device of some other long lost alien race. (As the new RT demo adventure shows Halo devices aren't just for extenting life...) Personally I prefer warp blades, or daemonic weapons. A phase blade might be more easily used by the PCs while warp/daemonic weapons aren't

Stats:

C'tan Phase weapon modification:

+5 damage, +15pen, must be a basic edge weapons (no chain, mono, shocking, power, force,,,,)

Lesser warp weapon:

+4 damage, warp quality, weapon must be a basic/chain weapon(no power, or force), may have mono or lathe enhancement,

Lesser daemonic weapon:(All contain a 30WP daemon which can attempt to force a will vs will roll to control wielder.)

Khorne +6 damage +4 pen, wielder "gains" frenzy+berserk charge+furious assault talents, weapon must be a basic/chain weapon(no power, or force), may have mono/lathe/shocking enhancement

Nurgle +3 damage +4 pen, toxic quality, wielder and victum must make a toughness rool vs disease, weapon must be a basic/chain weapon(no power, or force), may have mono/lathe enhancement

Tzeentch +1 damage +6 pen, +10 to hit, , weapon must be a basic/chain weapon(no power, or force), may have mono/lathe/shocking enhancement

Examples:

Phase Stiletto Melee, 1d5+4(1d5-1+5), pen 17, Fast

Warp sword Melee, 1d10+4, pen 0, blanced, warp

Daemonic (mono) Officer's Cutlass (Tzeentch), 1d10+1, pen 8, shocking,+10 to hit

Daemonic (Khorne) Chain Axe, 1d10+10, pen 6, tearing,wielder "gains" frenzy+berserk charge+furious assault talents

Humm, I must admit I don't know much about Necrotyr Phase Weaponry, but couldn't you base the stats on something similar to the Sollex-Aegis Energy Blade from IH (pg. 135)?

Kaihlik said:

Not sure this is true - In "Harlequin" Meh'Lindi the Callidus meets another Callidus, who's a he. This is on the sand planet where they're looking for the dreadnaughticised rogue Callidus master.

DifferenceEngine said:

lol if i wanted something to absolutely terrify my pcs i would send them against some flayed ones. but as for the stats no a sollex energy blade wouldnt work because a phase blade doesnt need a power source...this would be so much easier if FFG introduced necrons into DH or RT *hint hint wink wink cough cough* but nonethless you can call it a ctan phase blade just no one but a few tech priests would know wat the heck your talking about even most of the assassains dont know what they are probably they just know they are incredibly powerful.

****, almost right. I though it might be almost all but decided to be decisive (and wrong), its just a bit wierd to hear of a callidus refered to as a he. Its also more disturbing for the Govener whos "mistress" has been replaced by a Callidus watches it turn into a he. Its just not what you want your last words to be, "What do you mean you are a guy, ugh that means when I..."

Kaihlik

ThenDoctor said:

I had a Callidus Assassin figure in a campaign once. I used the Tabletop game stats for it and pimped it a bit to be awesome and ninja-like. Just be liberal with giving it cool skills and talents and try to focus on making it profficient in what the Callidus Assassins do (infiltration, disguise and generally sneaky kills). So an Assassin going the Ninja way, but with good values in Disguise and different social skills (like Charm and Blather) and of course access to some seriously wicked specialist weapons (like the C'Tan phase sword).

However I wouldnt play it like a "normal" enemy that simply tries to kill the PC's at any given opportunity. A Callidus Assassin would more likely disguise his or herself using polymorphine and try to get close to the acolytes in a normal way and then try to pick them off when they are alone.

Also about stats for the Phase Sword. It would probably be considered as a Warp weapon with a really high Pen value (warp weapon to bypass standard armour, high Pen to bypass forcefields). Of course they wont work at all against a C'Tan, keep that in mind.

well actualy it makes sense for a high powered assassain to have the enhancments and ability to switch genders its really only hormones and prosthetics...albiet a little slaneeshi but most assassains in my opinion are very slaneeshi or very khorne. and who said i didnt like picking my alcolytes off one at a time mostly i have those sessions be a horror session and end with them being severly injured in need of bionics or a fate point burning.

Well, Kaihlik poined ot that the Callidus-profile of mine was too weak, so i dug up my old second-edition 'Codex' Assassins (I refuse to call 26 pages a codex) and modified that pofile:

WS BS St Tg AG In Pe WP Fe

65 65 55 55 65 55 55 55 55

Wounds: 20+

Skills: Acrobatics +20, Awareness +20, Blather +10, Charm +20, Chem-Use +10, Ciphers (Officio Assassinorum) +20, Climb +20, Common Lore (Tech, Imperium, Imperial Creed, War) +10, Concealment +20, Dodge +20, Deceive +20, Demolition +10, Drive (Ground, Hover) +10, Forbidden Lore (Adptus Mechanicus, Inquisition, Warp) +10, Inquiriy +10, Intimidate +10, Lip Reading +10, Literacy +10, Logic +10, Medicae +10, Scrutiny +10, Search +10, Pilot (Civilian, Military) +10, Secret Tongue (OA) +20, Silent Move +20, Security +20, Silent Move +20, Survival +10, Swim +10, Tech Use +10, Tracking +20

Talents: Ambidextrous, Armour of Contempt, Arms Master, Assassin Strike, Basic Weapon Training (Primitive, Laser, Melta, Plasma, SP), Berserk Charge, Blade Master, Blind Fighting, Catfall, Chem Geld, Combat Master, Concealed Cavity, Counter Attack, Crack Shot, Crippling Strike, Crushing Blow, Deadeye Shot, Deflect Shot, Disarm, Dual Shot, Dual Strike, Exotic Weapon Training (Needle Pistol, Needle Rifle, C'tan Sword, Neural Shredder, Poison Darts), Fearless, Furious Assault, Gun Slinger, Hard Target, Heavy Weapon Training (Primitive, Laser, Melta, Plasma, SP), Heightened Senses (all), Hip Shooting, Independent Targeting, Iron Jaw, Jaded, Leap Up, Light Sleeper, Lightning Attack, Lightning Reflexes, Marksman, Mediation, Melee Weapon Training (Primitive, Shock, Chain, Power), Mimic, Natural Armour 2, Orthoproxy, Pistol Training (Primitive, Laser, SP, Melta, Plasma), Precise Blow, Quick Draw, Rapid Reaction, Rapid Reload, Sharpshooter, Sprint, Step Aside, Street Fighting, Strong Minded, Sure Strike, Swift Attack, Takedown, Talented (Inquiry, Intimidation),Total Recall, Unremarkable, Wall of Steel.

Special Equipment:

Polymorphin: Instead of undergoing intense plastic schurgery for every mission the Temple implants a special material called Polymorphin into it's initiatives, which allowes them to change their shape, size and sex at will. Although the change takes some time to complete it is still only a matter of hours instead of weeks it still enables the assassin to simply kill a cult member, slip into his cloths and gear and mimic his behavior in record time.

C'tan Phase Blade: An ancient weapon from a dead civilisation, with unparalled lethality. Once actvated, the blades molecular structure changes rapidly, fickering to and forth between a material and immaterial existence. It no longer reactes with 'dead' materials, only with living tissue. The weapon therefore ignores all armour (even warded), energy fields and cannot be parried. However, it also does not profit from the wielders strengh bonus.

Name Type Class Damage Pen Special weight

C'tan Phase Blade - exotic - melee - 2W10+10 - X - Tearing, Fast, special (look above) - 1,5 kg - not for sale

Neural Shredder: Another weapon of unknown origin, it is sepculated to be one of the Psi-weapons of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. The particles fired from this weapon attack the mind of the targets, and only specially warded fully sealed armour offers complete protection. Everybody hit by the Shredder's particles has to make a hard willpower-test. Since the damage is dealt like a psionic power, any bonuses against Psy-attacks (Restistance, or Hxagrammic wards) work as well. A succes prevents any damage, a failure means the loss of 1D10 wounds, ignoring armour and toughness. The weapon is fired like a flame-thrower, althouh it cannot set anything on fire.

Neural Shredder - exotic - 15m - special - X - flame - 3 kg - not for sale

Poison Darts: The Callidus Assassins often have to keep most of their weapons hidden in order not to be identified. They are, however, never unarmed and allways carry an arsenal of poisoned darts with them in hidden pouches on their body. They are usually used on unaware targets, and utter useless in combat, since they are very thin and have to be used on rather soft spots. A Callidus Assassin with Poison Darts however is trained to ram them into the weak spots of enemy armour even in the midst of battle, where the poison itself will take care of the rest. The Officio Assassinorum equipes it's agents with the deadliest poisons available, often making them themselves. Therefore the toxic-damage is 2D10, not the usual 1D10.

Poison Dart - exotic - Melee or thrown - 9m - 1W10 - 6 - toxic, fast - 0,2kg - not for sale

albiet a little slaneeshi but most assassains in my opinion are very slaneeshi or very khorne.

Most assassins of the Officio Assassinorum are emotionally dead, so they're pretty much antithetical to the powers of chaos.

Skills: Acrobatics +20, Awareness +20, Blather +10, Charm +20, Chem-Use +10, Ciphers (Officio Assassinorum) +20, Climb +20, Common Lore (Tech, Imperium, Imperial Creed, War) +10, Concealment +20, Dodge +20, Deceive +20, Demolition +10, Drive (Ground, Hover) +10, Forbidden Lore (Adptus Mechanicus, Inquisition, Warp) +10, Inquiriy +10, Intimidate +10, Lip Reading +10, Literacy +10, Logic +10, Medicae +10, Scrutiny +10, Search +10, Pilot (Civilian, Military) +10, Secret Tongue (OA) +20, Silent Move +20, Security +20, Silent Move +20, Survival +10, Swim +10, Tech Use +10, Tracking +20

Considering that Officio assassins will likely be the third tier of the assassin career (on the same level as Death Watch), I'd assume there will be higher bonuses - somewhere around 50, possibly.

Also the background in DH that says Assassins who survive long enough get taken into the temples goes against their previous backgound which said that they were taken in at a young age.

If someone is good enough to compare to the ones that were trained from birth, why waste the material?
It's the same way with the guardsmen: Inquisitorial Stormtroopers are usually recruited from the top 5% of the Schola Progenium cadets, but they'll still give us the career extension for guardsmen in Ascension.

maybe you need to look at this from another angle as opposed to just from the Callidus assassin viewpoint. there are 2 organizations that can have access to such a weapon. 1. being the current you are affiliated to...the Inquisition...i am positive if anyone would have acess to weapons so terrible and arcane it would be them. an exceedingly rare gift. a meritorious award. stolen from some one else it was gifted to. wiping out another rival warband where someone else had that manner of weapon. etc. 2. the other organization...most likely of all. the Adeptus Mechanicus. if anyone has access and the secrets of making such a thing it would DEF. be them. keep in mind, what the Mechanicus gives to the Imperium is most likely a mere fraction of what secrets they truly keep.

another which is even simpler...a blade of such origin in some very wealthy persons private collection of xenoartifacts.

the liegekiller said:

You should probably shoot that inquisitor in the face before he starts trying to get you to mule the rest of his heretical xeno-tech weapons.

Although actually I think the best part of this thread is not how to get one of those weapons in the PCs hands, but how hard and fast the =][= will come down on them when knowledge leaks out. It would be a great segue into a radial campaign. Everything is just a matter of perspective, suddenly the good guys are the bad guys and vise-vesa.