The title says it all in basic, really. ^.^

I know that preparing a character sheet for your Inquisitor isn't essential, and probably far from necessary unless you're planning to use it, but following a reading of the relevant section in the Core Rulebook is just left me thinking... How much XP?

Personally my players are starting at the starting-XP - 1,000... Unless I'm mistaken in what the default starting XP should be?

I suppose I'd like to ask about your guys' Inquisitors too, how much XP if you gave them (if at all), what you did in a situation where you needed his stats without having them prepared, and generally just information on the Inquisitors that you've crafted?

Inspiration is welcome!

I tend to give Inquisitors 13k+ XP, it allows them to be proficient at a multitude of things while excelling at a few others.

Wrong approach.

Don't give him/her X-amount of XP to spend, give them all the abilities you want them to have and then calculate how much XP they have based on those abilities.

This way you get an Inquisitor that is exactly as competent as you want it to be, without struggling over "do I spend this XP on improving his X skill or getting Y Talent?". You also then have an XP figure to use as a base-line to work out the rate at which you hand out XP to your players and to gauge the difficulty of the encounters you'll actually be using the Inquisitor in.

...Having said that, yeah, an Inquisitor should probably end up with around 13,000+XP. Anything over 10,000-11,000 would probably do for a particularly young, new or (dare I say it) incompetent Inquisitor (relatively speaking, of course).

The Inquisitor the PCs work for isn't a PC, they're a plot device. They have all of the strengths and weaknesses the plot demands.

Yeah, when I build Inquisitors, I firmly go the 'what should they have' route, not the 'how much does it cost' method. Mine easily clear 20,000 experience, though, if not 30,000.

This fellow is a lot of fun. On the other hand he isn't the "player's" inquisitor/pet plot device.

Image might be a little big. As you can note I just took a concept and went with it. I don't even know how much exp he's used!

I should clarify my original post, apologies.

I'm about to run a game with three Inquisitors, each one is a Player Character and they have 18k XP each. In the prior campaign, we had one Inquisitor who had the 13k I originally recommended. But when building NPCs, as many have said, I give them what they need to have to fulfill their concept. So I have an Inquisitor who's based on Reinhardt from Overwatch. He default has talents like Thunder Charge (and prerequisites), the Raptor talent from BC and a bunch of other stuff that matches that character. Just to be faithful to the character concept.

Consider this, a player character changes over the campaign. They might have a level in Tech Use that they didn't intend to have but they picked up for that one session where the Tech Priest couldn't show up. A lot of little expenditures here and there that ultimately make them a fleshed out character. NPCs don't necessarily have to do this, they are typically built with a core concept that you facilitate by giving them expensive talents, skills and equipment. You might put a level into Scholastic Lore: Heraldry here or there to flesh them out and show that they have other pursuits of course. But a character at one XP cap will not be the same as an NPC at the same level of XP, because they're built differently and for different purposes.

Depends on how strong you want him to be and how "ancient" he is.

For example, in my campaing, my acolytes are something like at 15 000xp.

Their Inquisitor is way higher than that and I consider my acolytes as very competent agents but very far from the end of their career.

In what circumstance do you see your Inquisitor needing to roll for something (outside combat, anyway)? The danger in giving your Inquisitor a full stat-block is that they can transform from an NPC into a GM-PC.

That's if you have them as a regular occurrence/with the party. My Inquisitor has been met... A grand total of three times. I use the stats I give them as a rough 'this is what they know/are capable of' on top of for if they actually show up. Instead of going 'they know everything' I write down what Lores and Trades they have. I write them up first, figure out what they should have, then I use that. They aren't perfectly omniscient or helpful, so why should I just apply plot-device levels of use?

My Inquisitor is only ever a voice emanating from a servo-skull or penning a mission briefing and has never been seen. The warband does have occasion to interact with Interrogators sometimes, but they tend to be back-office types who don't directly involve themselves in missions, and are for the most part unhelpful jerks.

I use the maxim of "The interrogator/inquisitor knows anything that helps advance the story/gets the warband out of the dead end they're in/is cool". I do, however, avoid having them sitting there as a pool of lore skills that the warband can tap into. If the party ask the interrogator to answer questions for them, it has an influence cost, or reduces their subtlety, depending on the question being asked.

I meant to write that I'm in with the "narrative device" crowd, but it's actually nice to have a stat block. Just in cause a PC decides to randomly shoot the inquisitor.

I wouldn't build him using the character generation though. There is simply no reason why anyone should be compelled to do that. You're not adding him to your "Random Encounter"-list, are you? It's not really practical compared to just giving him the stuff that you see fit, and it is hardly justified in-universe, what with inquisitors being described as total hipsters so diverse and often outright excentric.

Well... My personal inquisitor is named Lord Inquisitor-Commissar Sir. He was a veteran of an Ork WAAAAG where he fought and killed a high ranking orc in single combat, by placing a plasma pistol to his face and blowing his brains everywhere. This gained him, along with his other things, the rank of Lord Commissar. This was in his 'early' life and then he was recruited by the Inquisition and did enough work for them to be a full blown Inquisitor... which he then gained the rank of Lord in as well in a hundred years or so.

He carries around Archeo-tech Bolt Pistol and Plasma Pistol along with two force weapons. His house has ever shifting pictures down a long hallway of the heretics he has killed in combat or though 'trial' The pictures are not the same any time the characters go down the hallway, and they ask every time if the pictures are different and they always are. This hallway is possibly the length of a football field and is just covered in full blown portraits of this people.

Needless to say, my characters decided session one that Lord Inquisitor-Commissar Sir is not someone to be ****** with and they basically leave him alone as much as possible because honestly they know he most likely doesn't care about them that much considering he is both a Lord Inquisitor and a Lord Commissar.

That being said, Lord Inquisitor-Commissar Sir is a very nice guy (for the standard) and honestly is even what our modern day people might call 'reasonable'. But I always play it by ear.

He carries around Archeo-tech Bolt Pistol and Plasma Pistol along with two force weapons. His house has ever shifting pictures down a long hallway of the heretics he has killed in combat or though 'trial' The pictures are not the same any time the characters go down the hallway, and they ask every time if the pictures are different and they always are. This hallway is possibly the length of a football field and is just covered in full blown portraits of this people.

How does he use said force weapons?

Remember that commissars aren't recruited from psyker stocks, and force weapons are useful in the hands of psykers. Otherwise, they are just "good" basic swords.

I created an Inquisitor modeled after "Elsa Mars" from American Horror Story

Estrildis Riothamus (Inquisitor)
common expressions "mein liebling" "vunderbar"

In essence here you have a "user" of people who treats those around here as children that she adores - but woe to the individual who threatens or crosses her or her "family"

The Dark Heresy group I'm running only deal with other agents and interrogators. The Inquisitor himself/herself doesn't appear - to be honest, that's my standard rule. Even for agents of the Ordos, there should be a real sensation of " oh holy ***** it's the Inquisitor ."

I've sometimes in the past had one of the 'agents' turn out to be the inquisitor themselves. Inquisitor Grieve was one of my favourite characters; they occasionally got briefings from someone claiming to be the inquisitor (with codes to back it up) but never the same each time. They ultimately figured out that it was a telepath from somewhere else 'puppet-master-ing' them each time.

They gave up paying attention to who was delivering the briefings after this, until the party's psyker picked up Forbidden Lore (Psykers) for the first time. One thing he was rather surprised to learn was that the ability had an effective range of about fifty metres. Which was a radius significantly smaller than the size of the party's base...

I personally don't write down stats for my Inquisitor, as he rarely comes in contact with his Acolytes, so they don't have chances to make any checks against him.
Also I tend to create an aura of authority that prevents the player from playing with the idea to be anything else than subordinate to their Inquisitor.

The Aura of mystery and authority surrounding the Inquisitor, is created because the Acolytes rarely meet their Inquisitor, as he deals with more pressing matters, but this also give the players a feel of independence and they have room for creativity which enables funnier gameplaysessions while also helping the atmosphere.

My last Inquisitor was called Aurelius Von Flammberg III he was a tall man with a shaved head, wo would wear servo armour and wield a gigantic Energy Sword in the shape of a Flammberge.
He would be kind and pragmatic, however his work to close the Warp storm thingy, from the core rule book, drove him to unconventional means.

Sadly we had to stop the campaign and decided to start anew

The next Inquisitor will be different, wearing a black cloke on black armour and having long black hair and a short beard.
He will have ambitious goals for his Acolytes and expects them to reach them.

He will also often test their capabilities and their faith in the emperor, as only able beings are allowed to serve the emperor, incompetence is punished with death.
As a crusader type Inquisitor he will be a Puritan Inquisitor and as he is inspired by Vlad Van Tepes, I will probably call im Vlad or something.


However, if I would give my Inquisitor stats...
I would look what I want them to have and give it to them, while trying to not make them stronger as a Space Marine i.e.
I would not look specific for XP, as he sould allways have more XP spent than his Acolytes, but it would probably be around 10k XP, so ten times the starting XP.

To me, an Inquisitor's motivations, contacts and enemies are the most important part of his character. I will develop stats for the Inquisitor once my players are experienced enough to accompany him on a mission, but for the time being he doesn't need that level of detail. It is very helpful to know the Inquisitor's general philosophy: which Ordi he belongs to, whether he is a Puritan or a Radical, his preferred methods of operation, etc. Any contacts he knows that could assist the Acolytes or enemies who may try to thwart them are all important to know.

And of course, always be sure to give your Inquisitor an Influence score, as the players can use it when necessary.