Hey Folks,

I have trolled around these boards for a little while but this is my first post. I am pretty new to the whole 40k universe and have been involved in a game for a couple months now. I wanted to create some other characters to get a feel for the game a bit more and had some questions about my new character that I was hoping you guys could assist with.

First of, he is a Forge World/Mechanicus/Warrior. The idea behind him is a Tech-Priest who is modded completely for Battle and have an obsession with weaponry. I want to fit as many on him as possible legally. I don't care if I ever fire some of them. I'm building him as a backup to my other character so have plenty of extra exp and aquisitions to start so that isnt an issue. He is pretty strong (48) and i picked up Bulging Biceps so that it makes sense to carry the weapons.

Main Questions:

1 - Can I have 2 shoulder mounted basic weapons? I want a grenade launcher (with fire selector) on one shoulder and a Flamer on the other. Can they be connected to one MIU Weapon Interface? I just want to be able to make them usable hands free.

2 - His main weapon will be a Heavy Stubber with a Fire Selector and Ammo backpack. It seems odd to have a blanket "multiply your clip x 5" rule for it. Such a blanket rule for all weapon and ammo types seems to be a really odd way to handle it but seems to be ok for the stubber at least. Any problems with multiple ammo types and is there a limit to how often I can switch ammo types? Is it limited to each burst?

3 - He doesn't believe in dodge so he needs to be super durable. His Toughness is in the 50's so that is awesome and I didnt want anything heavier than Imperial Flak Armor for the sake of a background choice I may make. To make up for this, i am using a bionic arm, leg, heart, and both subskin and cranial armour to beef him up. With all of this.. stuff. my weight is becoming an issue. It looks like my STR allows for 68kg max carry weight and I am at least 6 over that so may need to move some stuff around to buff my STR some more. A lot of stuff doesnt have a weight associated with it so I guess it doesnt count? I know mechadendrite (and a baleful eye... lol) are heavy but it doesnt ever say how much. Does a bionic leg help with carry weight? anything you guys can think of to help that is a bit "outside the box"?

Overall, i think i will enjoy this character for a couple of reasons. He thinks he is super charming but comes off very annoying and bolsterous (backed up with his lack of social skills and 30 fellowship). He will want to talk all the time but will get the party into more trouble than anything else if they don't check him every now and again. He will be have all kinds of cool ammo and dmg types to mess around with.

Sorry for the novel but had some pressing questions before I present him to the GM for approval. I want to get him as close playable as possible before then! Look forward to any help you can provide!

Not sure how much you know the theme, and not a lot of help on the system side here..

But there is an in setting group that's basically what you speak of:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Skitarii

10/10 Mary Sue. Kek.

Thank you. That is exactly what i am looking for as far as his theme. It will give me some source to read for backstory for sure.

It sounds like you want to play a Skitarii!

You'll want to get your shoulder mounted weapons as a Ballistic Mechadendrite. The good news with these is, you can have as many *** Mechadendrites as your Toughness Bonus.

For the MIU question, the rules themselves suggest that MIU weapons are generally shoulder mounted without explicitly being a Ballistic Mechadendrite, meaning they don't count towards your mechadendrite cap.

For your ammo questions, the Fire Selector is said to allow you to choose what ammo type you fire that round. It's not a permanent "Now I shoot FIRE" thing (unless you always choose to shoot fire).

I would suggest that you speak with your GM about your weight concerns. A suggestion I may offer is some custom fluffed Bionic legs, instead of gaining Sprint and +20 to jump checks, ask if it can instead be some sort of Bracing array instead. Your characters feet and ankles are fitted with Smart-drills and miniature bracing rods. When you take the Brace action, your character 'sets up'. Next turn you fire EVERYTHING, the good quality bionic legs alleviate your encumbrance concerns by increasing your carry weight.

I have mixed feelings about suggesting these, but [Athletics (Heft)] rules on page 98 of the Core Rulebook reads that you can temporarily boost your character's Strength by 10 for the purposes of weight limits. Seeing as your Warrior Role has the Strength Aptitude, Athletics is a relatively cheap investment. Further, given your choice of Heavy weaponry, the [bulging Biceps] Talent serves two effective purposes.

As well, the [synthmuscle] Implant will grant [unnatural Strength (1) or (4)], depending on the implant's craftsmanship. This achieves the above result without numerous Athletics Tests, though you can always combine both.

Lastly, regarding the Heavy Stubber itself, the [suspensors] Modification can halve its weight.

There are other possibilities to explore, but I would refer to other game lines.

I completely forgot about synthmuscle. That will definitely help with the weight issue. I also like the idea of changing up the bionic leg bonus' to be more fitting to the character (I think the gm would go for that). I don't mind sacrificing sprint or jumping for that since he isn't much for speed.

For the weapon MIU, I like the idea of the flamer being set to that so if I get into some melee with a some terrifying lightning attack thing, I can just full action disengage and fire the flamer as a free action. I can keep the grenade launcher as a mechadendrite then? Didn't know that. Awesome.

That should get me close to where I need to be. Thanks for all the help!

The weapon mechandrite counts as a Laspistol with infinite ammunition. Any other weapon needs a special talent (at least it was like that in DH1e. In 2nd this talent is not in the books yet.) But even with the talent you were restricted to Pistol weapons. So no Grenade Launcher, I'm afraid, except your GM rules otherwise.

I've sparked a huge discussion about this here: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/131180-mechanicus-secutor/

Besides reading through that (has some good info) I'd say dump the warrior background for two reasons: (1) fluff wise no admech ever started out as a warrior, those would be skitarii, which would be more along the lines of forge world with imperial guard than admech (stating skitarii instead of imperial guard as the group you belong to). and second, it's stronger ingame, you actually get the same / better aptitudes with Sage.

Also note it's not stated you can only have one weapon MUI, only one weapon connected to it at any time. Technically you could link all your weapons if you can find all the WMUI's

I also believe that any implants you recieve don't count against the weight you can carry, them being effectively part of your body (someone can weigh 120kg, and still have 60~ additional carrying capacity with no downsides in RL, these kinda people don't have the strength equivalent of a demon, trust me...)

lastly, if you want to forgo dodging, you NEED the best armour you can find, no exceptions. If your character doesn't want it for some reason, you will die pretty quickly unless you can alpha strike every encounter.

Besides reading through that (has some good info) I'd say dump the warrior background for two reasons: (1) fluff wise no admech ever started out as a warrior, those would be skitarii, which would be more along the lines of forge world with imperial guard than admech (stating skitarii instead of imperial guard as the group you belong to). and second, it's stronger ingame, you actually get the same / better aptitudes with Sage.

Please consult the [Player Notes: Roles] sidebar: "[Roles] are more a mindset or attitude that a character adopts over his lifetime and operate only within the context of the game " (emphasis mine). In my opinion, a Warrior mindset is more appropriate for a Skitarii(-to-be) than a Sage mindset. For a combat-oriented character, [Expert at Violence] will see much more use than [Quest for Knowledge]. The Aptitudes are a mixed bag; the Defence and Weapon Skill Aptitudes may be seen as sub-par, but the Finesse Aptitude (that has an important synergy with Ballistic Skill) is out of reach either way. Chargen by RAW will always "waste" Aptitudes for this particular concept, I feel, but Warrior would be my preferred Role for a Skitarii.

Sure, but in that one shouldn't be playing adeptus mechanicus in my eyes since it makes no sense; no one in the ad mech came in with "I want all them there guns to use". That would be more of an IG mindset (or someone who would get drafted straight into the skitarii, again, not joining the adeptus mechanicus). The problem with this in a broader sense is that the books as written do not support the character concept well enough. Maybe some discussion with the GM could allow the porting of various concepts out of the DH 1.0 Lathe worlds book?

Sure, but in that one shouldn't be playing adeptus mechanicus in my eyes since it makes no sense; no one in the ad mech came in with "I want all them there guns to use". That would be more of an IG mindset (or someone who would get drafted straight into the skitarii, again, not joining the adeptus mechanicus). The problem with this in a broader sense is that the books as written do not support the character concept well enough. Maybe some discussion with the GM could allow the porting of various concepts out of the DH 1.0 Lathe worlds book?

I disagree with Desolator. Any combination can be explained with some imagination. If they hadn't wanted people to try out unusual combinations they would have made the recommended character creation paths mandatory. For example a warrior tech preist, besides being skitarii, could be expalined as being a weapon smith or a magos in charge of an armory who enjoys using the weapons he's made or keeper of respectively or perhaps he is a demolitions expert whos loves the smell of burning promethium and the sound of explosions and heavy weapons fire. Tech preists also serve in the imperial guard to repair vehicles and weapons on the front line and even then I think ad mech makes more sense than imperial guard because they are still tech preists with all the tech priest augmentations and training just on loan to the imperial guard. A front line tech preist would still likely have to pick up on how to fight and may come to enjoy it.

Even Skitarri can argueably be better represented by ad mech than imp guard. For one, skittarri are meant to be heavily augmented, which is better represented by the ad mech background ability. Second, they are still a branch of the ad mech not of the imperial guard as far as I am aware so common lore ad mech makes more sense than common lore imp guard. Ad mech also gives weapon training SP which lines up better than las since the traditional skittari weapon is a specialized shotgun.

To OP:

1- Largely up to your GM if you can have one on each shoulder. Also remember that even though they can be fired as a free action you can still only fire one each turn. You would need two weapon interfaces to keep them both plugged in at once.

2- I agree the ammo backpack being a multiplier is a bit strange and leads to odd situations but oh well. Remember the fire selector is a max of three different ammo types. You choose ammo type at the start of your turn and thats the ammo it will use that round. So essentially yes, limited to each burst. You might want to consider using the ammo back pack for the grenade launcher instead of the stubber. It will be able to take better advantage of the fire selector and the crazy variety of grenades and it could be difficult to explain how you reload a grenade launcher that is wired into your head and shoulder mid battle while reloading the gun in your hand isn't a problem. Ammo type makes a much bigger difference for the grenade launcher than the difference between ammo types for solid projectile weapons.

3- synth muscle might be your best option for carry weight or raising your strength some. Bionics don't have a weight listed so do not count towards your carrying capacity presumably because they are part of your body. For durability armor monger could be useful. Make sure to use cover when available. Make sure to get the various survivability talents like true grit, die hard, iron jaw etc. Don't forget to buy sound constitution for more wounds. There are a few options in Only War as well if your GM is allowing you to pull from that.

Ballistic mechadendrites count as laspistols with unlimited ammo but require the mechadendrite use (weapon) talent instead of the weapon training las talent. It could give you something to use your reactions for since you won't be evading anyway but being tier two the talent is a bit expensive for someone with so many other guns anyway.

Well, all the Techpriests that follow the Militant Branch of the AdMech would like to disagree that it is uncommon for them to be warriors.

These are the Brains that lead the Skitarii and dedicated their life and existence not only to create and maintain weaponry but actually use and field these tools of destruction.

To me this is very much a definition of warrior.

For an actual Techpriest the AdMech Background seems to be the way to go, as for the troops the IG background does work though. The amount of augmentations of the Skitarii is very much dependent on their home world and some of them might not get their hands on more advanced gear than some gifted IG regiments like the Elysian Drop Troops where else other Skitarii Legions, especially those in service of Titan Legions, may field huge masses of extremely potent individuals that might even bring an astartes to shame in some regards.

Haha! And a Skitarii army is confirmed!

http://www.beastsofwar.com/warhammer-40k/mechanicus-show-online-warhammer-40k/

Really hope a future DH book gets us some more info on these bad boys, that's NEAT stuff there.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Skitarii

Skitarii are not tech priests. That was my point. If someone wants to play a warrior ad mech (tech priest), that's a thing, but that's not a skitarius; that's a Mechanicus Secutor. Yes, I am somewhat of a lore freak

OP, For more survival against melee, I also believe that the utility mechadendrite has the equivalent of a devensive blade incorporated into it, giving you +15 on parry or something.

The [Adeptus Mechanicus] Background does not necessarily lock the character into being a Tech-Priest. Even if the Skitarii are not Tech-Priests, Skitarii can easily qualify as Adeptus Mechanicus Warriors.

I agree with Asymptomatic.

If you want to play a techpriest oriented on battle (commander of skitarii or else), you do a mechanicus warrior.

If you want to do a skitarii, you can either take IG or Adeptus Mechanicus as a background, and you can take the warrior too, but the Arbites equivalent of skitarii could aslo be representend by the seeker, for example. So yeah, basically, you decide what is your character, and then you chose what fits it.