Looking for Inquisitor Creation Tips

By oreet, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

So last month my monthly RPG group got together, and as a group, created our player characters. This coming Sunday my players begin doing the bidding/work of an Inquisitor who does not exist yet.

So I am looking for tips on how best to create my group's Inquisitor. He/She should be fully fleshed out character (I'll come up with backstory and everything) including a full-blown character sheet.

As far as creation rules would go, how best should I approach stats, skills, talents, etc? I don't want him/her to be a god, but I don't want the group to be able to take him/her down in a fight right away, if things were to come to that.

Some background I have come up with is that this Inquisitor will mostly focus on Xenos threats, but will take up any case that requires the Inquisition's attention. I'd rather the Inquisitor not be a psycher, but maybe just the ability to sense psycher activity (psyniscience or whatever that skill is called (at work, so no book handy)). He/She will play fast and loose with the rules, at times, sort of an ends justify the means sort of person.

tl;dr version:

I'm making my group's Inquisitor, mechanically in the game's rules, how do I go about making a powerful Inquisitor character sheet?

I'd just give him a big wodge of XP and work it up.

I think he's supposed to have a minimum Inf of 70 to be an inquisitor - I'd give him several thousand XP - I think the Ascension mechanics in 1st edition gave you about 13,000XP as the 'mark' for Deathwatch and Ascension characters.

Edited by Magnus Grendel

12-13 thousands XP is a right amount to create a very powerful yet not invincible character.

You work it up like a regular character.

As for the description, on dark reign, there is an "instant inquisitor maker" that gives plenty of ideas, you change what don't fit, and you flesh the stuff you got.

When I've been making Inquisitors, I just throw stats at the wall and figure out how I want to give them talents related to their role; Almost every talent available for their specialty, a middling number in what they dabble, one or two outside of their bailiwick.

There're a few tables on the internet, I used one a couple of times (I think it's on Dark Reign) that can make both generic Inquisitors and standout ones, but it's not a mechanical creation, just fluff.

The most important thing is the Inquisitor's personality, quirks, traits, etc.

Our Inquisitor is a bull of a man that prefer the direct approach, he is stoic in nature and will always fight on despite all odds. His colleagues have already withdrawn from the sector and abandoned their efforts there.

He has chosen to stay until the end (so everyone know they are doomed with him).

He likes to delegate responsibilities, has worked closely with the Imperial Guard and even the odd Marine squad in the past.

He is boisterous, likes to interrupt people by banging his fist on any nearby piece of furniture (usually tables).

He can also take to the front line if need be but prefers to micro-manage relationships with the local factions in power and securing additional resources for his own private crusade.

I advise to not focus too much on rules, if you need a character sheetfor him to support your ideas just build it as you would for any npc: give him stats, skills and talents you feel appropriate and don't worry for his actual power level, the power of an inquisitor isn't in stats but in influence. You can have an inquisitor very weak in combat but he will still be beyond the reach of your players, inquisitors are schemers and politicians and you have to beat them at their game before you can hope to confront them, when players realize their inquisitor has access to knowladeges and resources they didn't even knew existed you will have clearly set him beyond their reach.

If you're making an inquisitor make his character sheet only if he's gonna fight. Otherwsie forget the mechanics and focus on his character.

For example Inquisitor Hortensia of Hefaeston Forge World. She always meets acolytes while wearing golden mask and long, red cloak. The meetings are held in different manors in the Forge World and many her friends always attend. They're all masked and always listening cauciously to what the inquisitor and the acolytes are saying.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. We ended up having to cancel our session on Sunday, which gives me more time to settle on what the inquisitor will be like. I'm going to take the advice of not worrying so much about his/her stats for now, and focus on personality, appearance, quirks, etc.