So, I was wondering if anyone might be able, and willing, to give me a little assistance on a thing? I have a cheesy NPC for Rogue Trader, who goes by the name Inquisitor Ursula Von Cossrath, and she happens to be a Radical Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, following the Oblationist path. Before coming to the Koronus Expanse, she was one of the top minds put against the Tau, making her one of Ebongrave's favorite people (he had no idea what all she was actually doing, though she does fight Tau, and seek to eliminate them, so...) When the Tau made their way to the Koronus Expanse, her specialty got her assigned to assist in dealing with them, before they can get too big a foothold, too close to Calixis. If you were to accompany her into battle, you might see her use her modified pulse pistol, and no one has seen her little project, a cobbled together stealth suit (she scrounges little bits from enemies, here and there), who doesn't work directly fore her, but there's one other little tidbit I want to give her; I think it would be cool if she had a drone slicer. I know that they have drone controllers, but it doesn't say really how they work, in Mark of the Xenos. How might a gizmo she cobbled together to hijack enemy drones work, mechanically? Tau write-ups don't incorporate Tech-Use, so I hesitate to just make it that simple, when she'd stomp them, so what might be a good opposed roll, or something, to reflect her ability to steal drones? The Inquisition appreciates your assistance.

Why not just take a page out of the Arch-Heretek book?

I like it, except that the Tau have drone controllers, and might try to resist it; this is part of why I mentioned they don't seem to have Tech-Use in their write-ups, even with the most advanced of tech. Is it fair to have her get the bonus of a skill, vs. just their attribute? If the Arch-Heretek tried this, he'd have to roll against the Servitor's WP, but if that Servitor was, say, the Gun-Servitor of a Tech-Priest, or a Techmarine, their MIU link, or whatever lets them command a servitor, might let them resist with Tech-Use, rather than just WP; the Tau have that equipment, but not that skill. Should I flub that some of the leaders DO, or just give the Inquisitor/person using this piece of hardware the advantage of going at it in a way no one expected?

Well subversive programming is only supposed to work against machines that have limited intelligence. If someone with an intelligence of 20 or higher was directly controlling the machine I would rule that the subversive programming attempt fails automatically. That said as long as someone is directly controlling a drone I would make it so that it took at least a half action to make the drone do anything.

Ordering a drone to do something and then letting it decide how to do it isn't direct control. Piloting the drone manually is.

In my mind what would happen is this.

Tau Drone Controller: "Drones 1-5 fan out and flush the enemy from behind that cover."

Inquisitor: "Drone 3 attack the Drone Controller."

Tau Drone Controller: "Argh! Why are you shooting at me?" *ducks behind cover and manually takes control of the errant drone with some form of remote control. While Drone 3 is being remotely controlled it cannot be subverted*

Inquisitor: "Drone 2 attack the Drone Controller."

Tau Drone Controller: "Argh! Why does this keep happening?" *Turns all drones onto manual control requiring a half action to direct each drone. All drones are now immune to subversion*

Hmm, I like it, and think it could work. Doesn't seem like something I'd feel terrible about players getting their hands on, which is what I was going for, even without players to worry about. Thank you.

it would be resisted by INT and skill of controller or designer.

also I would limit the skill to a ceiling of Lang: Tau or Xeno-Lore:Tau, which ever is less.

Also Logic.

I'm thinking I might say "Intelligence or Willpower, whichever is higher", as my MotX book has a higher WP for drones than Int for them. As for the language, I might cheat, and say that the base unit she "confiscated" possessed a rosetta engram, to better facilitate use by Human Auxiliaries in the Jericho Reach. Of course, Cass has captured a few Tau, so she also might've tortured parts of their language out of them; she can be a very vicious, smiling b**** when the moment strikes. At least, unlike Eldar, Tau is mostly "just another language", without subtle gestures, tones, and lilt of speech each contributing to the context of the statement. I say one of my RTs CAN understand it/read it, at least haltingly, but it's sort of like Han Solo can understand Chewbacca, and he'd sound just as ridiculous, if not insulting to an Eldar listener, trying to actively USE their language. Thank you for the thoughts, Egyptoid.

What we got and they don't are powerful psykers. Kidnap and brainwash some of them and they will divulge their secrets...all that with a smile for the glory of Xeno Communist credo

In DH2 there was some hacking/deciphering device that could prove useful.

Adaptive Logis-Engine (Enemies Without p. 42)

Besides why not hack directly into Tau Earth Caste scientist minds?

What we got and they don't are powerful psykers. Kidnap and brainwash some of them and they will divulge their secrets...all that with a smile for the glory of Xeno Communist credo

Sadly, I hadn't invested in DH2, beyond the first book; wasn't sure if it would take off, and after buying so many FFG 40k materials, and not really using them, I suppose I finally thought better of it. Sounds like a nifty device, though.

As for mind-**ping the Tau's minds, I suppose one could, but numerous other sources like to give them Psychic Resistance, among other things; apparently, they played Dark Crusade, and took Kais' seeming inability to hear the voices of Chaos, beyond thinking there was static on his comm, as typical. At least I seem to remember the Ethereals, and the CSComms having it. I sort of like to think that their lack of psychic potential, as a race, seemingly having left them unscathed by psychic shenanigans, and the constant effect of the Ethereals, does make them resilient toward psychic intrusion, though your mileage may vary. While it isn't concrete, part of Inquisitor Von Cossrath's interest in the Tau's science seemingly stems from their resistance to her mind powers, since the OX oblationist is definitely a psyker of some respectable power. In that way, she can still sow discord, and hamper her enemy.