He have had only two sessions so far in Dark Heresy 2nd Edition, and it's turning out to be a pretty awesome campaign. One thing about it is that our Inquisitor is a very, very busy man, and we are essentially left to simply run around doing what we want. The problem with this is that we can't use his contacts nor his Influence to any degree, since using his name would give away who we are. A friend of mine, the Tech- Priest Seeker, (how quant and normal) is trying to figure out if there are any other bionics he can have at the beginning. In past 40K RPG's, the Cog Boy has always been given a choice of any two starting bionics at common quality. I know he can start with an optical 'nendrite, but nothing else?

Also, the reason I bring up the Inquisitors Influence is because, even with the Replace the Weak Flesh special talent, he can't roll for sh#t... Most of the bionics start at rare and get even lower, and even with his bonuses, he's still rolling under a 30 or 25 more often than not, and that's for common quality. He wants to pick up commerce just to be able to better get bionics, but his character has already started off weak. Almost killed twice in the first combat alone, and all Fate Points spent, and with the inability to use our Inquisitor's whopping 75 for Influence, he's worried on how difficult it is to get his bionics.

So, to sum up, he can't get bionics very often, and even when he can, they aren't very good. Without ways for him to up his Influence, I'm worried he will be underpowered. Hell, my Cleric is more powerful than he is, and my combat stats are crap...

Are there any ways to use an Inquisitor's influence even when he's not around, and is there something we missed going over starting bionics?

Thanks guys, and have a nice day.

If he's absolutely desperate he can always sacrifice 1d5 Influence to automatically succeed at an Influence Test, with Degrees of Success equal to his Fellowship bonus.

(p.269 Core Rulebook)

Of course, that will make things harder in the future - that is until he gets Commerce.

The other thing is, have you been explicitly forbidden from using your Inquisitior's Influence? Because if not, you'd only be dropping the Subtlety by like 5/6 - at least just for the Tech Priest - which isn't terrible if you're generally quite a subtle and sneaky lot.

IIRC (dont have a book right with me, so I cant quote the passage), during character creation you can automatically aquire amout of items of (max) Scarce Quality up to you Influence Bonus. And since Mechanicus backround makes all implants two tiers of availibility "cheaper", so heeeell-ou mechandrites, autosanguine, logis implants, subdermal armour...

EDIT: page 81 of the Core, "Equip Acolyte". Replace the Weak Flesh works even on this aquisition

IIRC (dont have a book right with me, so I cant quote the passage), during character creation you can automatically aquire amout of items of (max) Scarce Quality up to you Influence Bonus. And since Mechanicus backround makes all implants two tiers of availibility "cheaper", so heeeell-ou mechandrites, autosanguine, logis implants, subdermal armour...

EDIT: page 81 of the Core, "Equip Acolyte". Replace the Weak Flesh works even on this aquisition

Ah, perfect then. Very nice of you to respond, and also, I completely forgot about the 1D5 subtlety burn for automatic success. I will tell him. He hasn't finished choosing his equipment either, so that's perfect. I read over that section a couple of times, but you can always miss a few things. And, according to our GM, if we use out Inquisitors Influence, our Subtlety will almost bottom out. Very harsh, but he's had games before of players powergaming and wants to keep us moderately low powered so we don't cream every encounter after a few requisition tests. I understand this, but that limitation on using our personal Influence for everything is going to cost at some point. Anyway, thanks for the comments guys.

Sounds like your tech-priest needs to work on his networking to get that Influence stat up.

What sort of bionics do you see making him better at combat? He shouldn't be any worse than any other character, unless he totally stat-dumped all the combat relevant stats. Cybernetics won't fix that.

Augmetics provide Armor, which helps.

Augmetics provide Armor, which helps.

?

They increase the Toughness of a location by 3, rarely enough to put you into the next bracket.

Heart Replacement (or whatever it's called) and Subdermal Armor and Skull Plates do give you AP though, that's true!

Edit: Now with the real names!

Subskin Armor, Cranial Armor, and Bionic Heart.

Yeah, definitely good stuff. Good reason to get that hot-shot las gun out of storage. :-D

Augmetics provide Armor, which helps.

?

They increase the Toughness of a location by 3, rarely enough to put you into the next bracket.

Where are you seeing that? I can see that it adds 2, but it's not to your Toughness, but to your Toughness Bonus (p.180) so that would increase the Soak value in that location by 2 - not increase the Toughness Characteristic by 2.

Yeah, Augmetic limbs add 2 armor to a location, Subskin Armor adds 2 to all but Head, Bionic Heart adds 1 to the Chest, Cranial Armor adds 1 to Head. Now it is debatable if Subskin Armor and Bionic Limbs stack.

Augmetics provide Armor, which helps.

?

They increase the Toughness of a location by 3, rarely enough to put you into the next bracket.

Where are you seeing that? I can see that it adds 2, but it's not to your Toughness, but to your Toughness Bonus (p.180) so that would increase the Soak value in that location by 2 - not increase the Toughness Characteristic by 2.

What he said.

Also I seem to recall the really good ones giving a +10 to strength, a little extra edge in melee is allways nice too.

Cybernetics do tend to make you a little beefier than normal. And to Flail-Bot, it's not making him better in combat, it's making him less squishy, as he is the squishiest member of our party right now. Barely 10 wounds, mediocre armor, decent Toughness though. We have kinda remedied that a little now though. Kudos to our GM, he is pretty reasonable, despite, erherm, history with a Tech-Priest going crazy with the bionics. Still, thanks guys. Until next time.

Wait what? Bionics give +2 SOAK to a location?

*pulls out Core book and starts reading furiously*

As for the +3 to Toughness, that may be a leftover memory from 1e! :-D

Edit: HOLY EMPEROR! +2 Tougness BONUS!?

Robo-assassin tank build here I come!!

Does it count towards mechandrites? Or wait what? I also live from too many leftovers of DH1

Only Bionic Limbs do the +2 Toughness bonus. Not ALL augmetics. That would get insane.

Only Bionic Limbs do the +2 Toughness bonus. Not ALL augmetics. That would get insane.

Right.

Body doesn't get it, but Subskin Armor exists and Bionic heart gets you 3 Armor (no TB bonus) for the body, instead of 2 TB and 2 Armor for Limbs (subskin and bionic limb).

Although, the DM could certainly argue that Subskin Armor doesn't stack with Bionic Limb since there's no skin there!!

Head only has 1 Armor available (Cranial Armor), since Subskin Armor doesn't apply to head.

Nice that they kept heads as the weakpoint. Very classic. :-D

There's a reason my Tech-Priest back-up put a third of his Armour-Monger points into his Head armor.

Although, the DM could certainly argue that Subskin Armor doesn't stack with Bionic Limb since there's no skin there!!

Head only has 1 Armor available (Cranial Armor), since Subskin Armor doesn't apply to head.

Nice that they kept heads as the weakpoint. Very classic. :-D

I also ascribe to this. Allowing the two to stack here gets ridiculous quick, I tend to think that DH2 lacks "The Flesh Is Weak" for good reason.

Only Bionic Limbs do the +2 Toughness bonus. Not ALL augmetics. That would get insane.

Right.

Body doesn't get it, but Subskin Armor exists and Bionic heart gets you 3 Armor (no TB bonus) for the body, instead of 2 TB and 2 Armor for Limbs (subskin and bionic limb).

Although, the DM could certainly argue that Subskin Armor doesn't stack with Bionic Limb since there's no skin there!!

Head only has 1 Armor available (Cranial Armor), since Subskin Armor doesn't apply to head.

Nice that they kept heads as the weakpoint. Very classic. :-D

How I fluffed it back in Rogue Trader for 'Subskin' armor, was that since all your doing is adding thin carapace or metal plates, why not be able to just bolt them onto the bionic limb in question? It's essentially the same thing, and an extra 2 armor that stacks with everything is pretty **** cool.

In DH2, things like "armor plates" can begin to prompt issues with subtlety. Ultimately though, soak is very strong and needs to be strictly controlled. Mutual exclusivity or non-stacking also inhibits munchkin-ing, which can quickly get out of control in this kind of crunchy system.

One bit that we have enjoyed about bionics is allowing "sub-systems" for higher grade bionics that allow the incorporation of additional wargear if you can requisition a high quality version of that gear. Best Craftsmanship Limbs with Best Craftsmanship Recoil Gloves = Recoil Dampening Arms.

Well, once you're a Tech-Priest, subtlety in the 'don't get noticed' sense can be difficult. Any augmentations are easily explained (The Flesh is Weak) however, so if you have a viable cover it shouldn't be a concern.

Well, once you're a Tech-Priest, subtlety in the 'don't get noticed' sense can be difficult. Any augmentations are easily explained (The Flesh is Weak) however, so if you have a viable cover it shouldn't be a concern.

Actually, I am playing with the concept of undercover Tech-priest, in way of "hi, I am from maintenance, we got noospheric heads up, that your power-conduit machine spirits are erratic". It really depends on your take of 40kverse, GM and place (much easier done on Forge- and Hiveworlds, than on Feudal planets), but these things were something I liked on Factors and Mech-Assasins from DH1 Lathes worlds (when everybody went mad about Venatorii).

Exactly. Undercover works. Hiding your tentacle robot limbs and bionic eyes gets a little difficult.

Actually, couldnt mechandrites be hidden under the robes (coiled around the body/limbs)? And for face, I swear Mechanicus Factor has some sort of prosthetic face, and Radical´s Handbok has bionic called Twitch-Mask, which is especially made for masking? Much will depend on qualitty of bionics in question (I think it is one of the most common perks of Best Quality). I would be more concerned with masking the heat/energy signature.

Or go completly other way and mask your Mechanicus character as servitor. Ordained techpriests could have some theological issues with it, but Skiitaris, tech-dabblers or Infiltraitors would be more accomodating.

Well, once you're a Tech-Priest, subtlety in the 'don't get noticed' sense can be difficult. Any augmentations are easily explained (The Flesh is Weak) however, so if you have a viable cover it shouldn't be a concern.

Actually, I am playing with the concept of undercover Tech-priest, in way of "hi, I am from maintenance, we got noospheric heads up, that your power-conduit machine spirits are erratic". It really depends on your take of 40kverse, GM and place (much easier done on Forge- and Hiveworlds, than on Feudal planets), but these things were something I liked on Factors and Mech-Assasins from DH1 Lathes worlds (when everybody went mad about Venatorii).

The notion of an "undercover" Tech-priest is strangely terrifying...like, he looks normal and is really friendly, but under the skin it's all cogs, wire and steel. <shudders>

Reminds me of the Major from Hellsing, a being that appears human yet is at the same time utterly monstrous.

Or you could just run him as Inspector Gadget!

And just like that... the horror was gone...