Hey,

I've hit a dryspell and I'm looking for interesting NPC ideas. Not personalities, those I have plenty of put together, but mostly loyalist NPC's that my players can fight are getting...lackluster in their imagination.


Anything else will do as well, but mostly loyalists. Specifically ecclisiarchy troops, as I don't know alot about them, exept sisters of battle and then rather limited.

Thanks in advance I don't mind if you point to books I can get that contains the NPC's in question.

NPC, but "no personalities"? ...are you asking for mere stat blocks with three to four lines of description?

I am currently unable to copy&paste, but if you go over to www.darkreign.org and enter "Riccard" into the search window you will get a link to "Witch-Hunter Riccard & Retinue". While all of them might have a little to much personalty (?) they do have stats. Those are "DH, 1st Edition", so. Which means you will need to tweak some talents to your liking.

If you are generally in need for "Forces of the Ecclisarchy" I guess the DH1st Edition "Blood of Märtyrers" might be helpful. If I remember things right, it did contain stats for Zealots, Arco-Flaggellants and the like.

Well, for character NPC's with involved personalities I already had a small rooster. Maybe personality is the wrong word. I don't need complete characters, I need antagonists with a bit of extra flair then trying to make sisters of battle, beefing up guardsmen etc. So far they managed to piss off The benevolent cardinal Benedictus Constantinus Von Socratus The Third.

I'll defineatly look into it. Archo-flaggelants and penitent engines would be good. Just not sure how to stat them and how they'd act in combat. That personality I need. I just don't need individual character personalities.

For your generic chaff, the Ecclesiarchy and the Sisters of Battle would make for strong opposition to a group serving Chaos. Squishy enough to give the human players a chance while fervent in their devotion and belief to make them not fear even death and encourage them to go toe to toe against a Chaos Marine and probably give them a **** good fight. Look in Dark Heresy 2 as they have one as a supporting character with some pretty nice acts of Faith which can really hurt higher corruption ones. Alternatively if you wanted to make them suffer and if they have been naughty/infamous enough, have you considered making use of members of the Officio Assassinorum? An Eversor Assassin would make for a nasty fight, having exceptionally high speed, strength and resillience to fight them off.

However it sounds like you wanted a primary antagonist or at least a significant one. Inquisitors are always good for this. I'm working on one at the moment, Inquisitor Pericles Sturngard. A particularly aggressive and dedicated Inquisitor, he will make no effort to hide his presence when he arrives in sector and will handle all problems by bringing the adamantium reinforced hammer down upon anything which gets in his way. Unrelenting, impossible to negotiate with, he knows what he wants and will burn entire worlds at the drop of his hat if it so required it. His veterans are all the same, his elite guard have an almost fanatical and dedicated nature and would give their lives in his name because they know if they were to fail him or speak out of line then he would turn his wrath upon them.

Inquisitors are good in general for an NPC. Some are psykers, some are radicals and will use alien or even slightly heretical methods (daemonhosts) to achieve their victory, some make massive pomp and ceremony when they arrive while others will be quiet and infiltrate within society to watch and observe. Their power and authority is absolute and they can command any Imperial asset they require to get the job done, perfect to use against a team. The scope for customisation with these is therefore excellent.

Failing that we could turn to IG assets, a Commissar would never hurt...much.

I could share Abidel, but I don't know how badly you'd want your party hurt, The stat revision to BC/2.0 might tone things down though.

If you want someone challenging but not unbeatable to give your team a reversal of fortune though the Lord Inquisitor might be able to help.

(Hate typing from phone, no spell check)

Wonder if he'd be appropriate. Ghaundan? Calgor?

Any idea how to stat those out though? I only know sisters of battle from DH1 (slightly, we never played with one) and watching batreps online (no one plays them). How would you rule the faith stuff they have? Is it in one of the DH1 books maybe?

Inquisitor would be a good idea, maybe an hereticus one with close ties to the ecclisiarchy. I'll have to look into that.

Give him to me SirRunOn, my players can take a beating. They're killing eachother more then i am so i need to up my game !

Any idea how to stat those out though? I only know sisters of battle from DH1 (slightly, we never played with one) and watching batreps online (no one plays them). How would you rule the faith stuff they have? Is it in one of the DH1 books maybe?

Inquisitor would be a good idea, maybe an hereticus one with close ties to the ecclisiarchy. I'll have to look into that.

Give him to me SirRunOn, my players can take a beating. They're killing eachother more then i am so i need to up my game !

There's a statline for a Sister of Battle as a Reinforcement NPC in DH2 (Dark Heresy Core Rulebook p296) along with a number of faith powers you could use. I can't give too much away as it would probably get me an earful for giving it out but some of them make for excellent adversaries for a Chaos team, particularly some of their powers which do extra damage to daemons and anything with more than 20 corruption. Playing one of them you would need to think of them as martyrs, each are usually willing to die for a cause and are supposed to represent a shining example for the lessers. They will be the one to keep at bay the mutant, heretic and chaotic abomination with holy light and purity so they will be unlikely to bow down to your team and many could rather die in a blaze of glory than fail or be captured.

Inquisitors, also good. If you want a lot more bite, tie him into the Ordo Malleus as opposed to Hereticus. The former would give you the potential option of calling in the Grey Knights to really kick seven shades of *ahem* out of your team if they start getting too powerful and bringing daemons and big nasty things into this world while the latter ties into the above and can let you bring in the Sisterhood. Believe me, a full team of fully statted Grey Knights (again potential statline in DH2, P299) can really bloody hurt. An inquisitor of any Ordos can probably call either but some have an easier time than others.

Hmm, I have the DH2 book, but after playing with the beta rules for awhile we did the dumb and moved out when it came out. I'll have to look back into it!

I don't expect people to post rules from the books, merely state the book and hopefully page number and I'll have what I need

Hmm, I have the DH2 book, but after playing with the beta rules for awhile we did the dumb and moved out when it came out. I'll have to look back into it!

I don't expect people to post rules from the books, merely state the book and hopefully page number and I'll have what I need

From what I heard the Beta was like any beta test of anything since the dawn of time, patchy and full of a number of dubious bits but overall not that bad when it hit full release. The stats for a full sister, on the pages mentioned, are truly excellent.

One final idea to consider if you are after an antagonist, consider if you will a rival chaos lord/heretic. The nature of chaos means that many will be vying for the favour of the gods and others can be highly competitive. Someone who is willing to go down the same dark path as your anti-heroes, willing to bless themselves with dark boons, artifacts and powers will make a fitting challenge. You can turn chaos marines, daemons and heretics at your own warband. The beauty of it is as well, potentially the winning side can absorb the assets and take what they need from the losing side to elevate themselves further.

Ecclesiarchy antagonists are rather simple to do, if I'm being honest. There's essentially two ways to go if you're excluding SoB.

1. Frateris Militia. This is the horde type opponent. Essentially, picture this being the angry, torch-wielding mob that gets raised from a particularly pious population by a particularly influential ecclesiarchy priest. The priest being the "boss," but the danger is in the numbers.

2. A hand-crafted boss priest or storm trooper commander. Insane stats would not be beyond the realm of possibility. Nor would it be unusual for either to have a formidable panoply of weapons and high end armour. Given the right equipment, one of these mortal could even do some significant damage to a CSM in a stand up fight. I particularly like this direction over the former, but they can easily be blended.

Alternate idea: Puritan Inquisitors make for great antagonists, for a number of reasons. They can be power armour-wearing, sanctified/power weapon-wielding badasses. Plus, they generally come with a retinue of badasses who can pose a danger to anyone. Finally, these individuals have the authority to levy an entire planet's resources against any target they choose. This forces the players to be smart.

Disclaimer: I've done all 3 of these before and am more than happy to discuss with you in detail.

Also, pentinent engines and acro-flagellants. That's the point where imperials and your own hosts are equally scary and barely distinguishable.