I've been playing DH for roughly 6 months now. My current (first and only played character) is an adept. Now I've been playing RPG's for roughly 15 yrs; D&D, Shadowrun, some of the White Wolf games, and everytime I get into a new game/system I personally like to think up characters and make them. Now I have an idea for a tech priest and a moritat assassin that I've got a few questions if I could implement my ideas. Now I know ultimately it's up the whoever the GM is to allow such ideas, but I wanted to ask the forums and see what differing people would allow before even bringing the ideas up IF I get to play either of these characters.

First the Tech Priest:

The current idea is an ex-soldier who after many a campaign got tired of seeing his comrades in arms fall. He doesn't see the human body as a weak thing that needs to be replaced, but as a machine which is incomplete with some inherint weaknesses. So he decided to join the Adeptus Mechanicus, as a way to better strengthen the weaknesses in the human body. Now after joining the acolyte cell the character has made it his personnal mission to go out and purge the tech herectics and aquire archeotech and xeno tech for the Adeptus Mechanicus. A front line soldier for the Adeptus Mechanicus if you will.

Now my question is: After gaining the utility mechandendrite talent could the character adapt the mechandendrite to house ammo clips in a secret compartment that when needed would allow one full clip to spring forth and allow the mechandendrite to reload a weapon. The idea is basically have two of these UM's and two gun mechadendrites with the machinator array talent to have two mechadendrites with bolters attached to them. Trying to make himself the "perfect" soldier. (On a side note it would make having two weapon wielding ballistic and rapid reload more believable and not have to put one gun down to reload.)

Now the Moritat:

This character is the current family heir to a long line of moritat assassins (Was thinking noble but after looking at moritat package, apparently can't be noble). Her weapons of choice are a pair of weapons (which is the question at hand of this topic more of that later) that have been handed down from mother to daughter for several generations. Now this character inherited them from her grandmother because her grandmother only had sons. Taught her skills by her grandmother, this character IF ever played has gone out to prove herself now that her grandmother has taught the character everything she can and has since passed away.

Now the question at hand: The weapons this character has is a version of Talim's weapons from Soul Calibur. They look like billie clubs but on the long end of the club is a sword blade, possibly a shortsword. On the short end would be a Kusari (the ninja sickle). She is fully trained in the use of this weapon that way she could spin the weapon around to use either side of the weapon whether the blade or the kusari end. Now the blade end would use the sword damage chart, but when using the Kusari end, what would the damage be? I've looked in the core book and Inquisitors and RT and none of the books has any entry for a sickle type weapon, (if allowed in the game).

Alright, I'll take a look.

Shibby1431 said:

As far as I am aware people enter the Mechanicus at a very early age to be indoctrinated into the Cult Mechanicus proper and to limit and hopefully eliminate the links that individual would have to anything else. I might be wrong but I have never heard of a case of an adult converting to the Mechanicus or the Mechanicus recruiting. Also the character sounds like if he did join the Mechanicus he would be placed in the Tech-Guard and not become a Tech Priest as his interests lie only in the persecution of the Mechanicus' wars and not in the Quest for Knowledge. There are a few fan creations for that path. However, that same inclination towards destruction could make him an excellent Secutor.

Shibby1431 said:

Well, the Inquisitor's Handbook has the "concealed weapon augmenic" bionic enhancement so I'd say it's possible. It also passes my dual tests for something like this: "Does the fluff support it?" and "Is it cool?" Did you want this to just represent rapid reload or would you want it to have another effect? If you want it to have another effect I might say an xp cost is reasonable. However, as you can already get free action reloads with rapid reload + duplex clips (I think they stack, right?) a throne cost wouldn't be unreasonable either. I say go for it.

Shibby1431 said:

Yeah, I think the Noble line would be a bad idea. If you are a member of the Moritat you'd cut your links with things like Noble families so you wouldn't get the advantages a Noble background gives you.

And was the grandmother guilty for not dying in the service of the Emperor? I'd think that Moritat wouldn't want to die in bed. Did she retire?

Shibby1431 said:

I'm not familiar with Soul Caliber and I always flinch when people try to make rules for some weapon from a different game that doesn't fit in the background at all and seems to be designed just to give a character a big advantage. However, this isn't the case here and seems reasonable.

It'd say it would have Unwieldly as the Scythe and moon blade, both similar blades, have it. As far as damage goes, I'm tempted to say 1d10 but that makes it a rather useless accessory if you already are getting sword damage. 1d10+1 might work too.

The Techpriest character concept has a few flaws from the game universe standpoint. The biggest and most glaring being the "guardsman joins the Mechanicus after seeing war for a while". There may be some unusual exception made (it is a BIG galaxy) if the circumstances are just right, but it is certainly an odd origin. The Mechanicus DO maintain a standing military force on all their Forgeworlds and naval vessels known as the Skitarii (Also known as the Tech Guard). The Skitarii are basically the Mechanicus version of the Guardsman but with a bit more cybernetic augmentation and ALOT less individuality (some of the more troublesome and independent parts of the brain are routinely removed or bypassed!). The bonus being they are well equipped, often fighting in Carapace armour and armed with Hellguns.

The utility dendrites having concealed bolter magazines is easy enough to accomodate. Mechadendrites are by definition a cybernetic body part and IH has rules for concealed weapon mounts. Discuss this with your GM, but I see no reason why concealed ammo would be that far of a stretch as long as it is documented in advance. For a combat oriented Techpriest the idea is.... well.... LOGICAL.

Regarding the Moritat. This is pretty solid ground you are on here. Perhaps Grandmother is not so much "out to pasture" as she is retired from all but the most extreme cases of field work now, putting her years of experience to good use: Training the next generation of assassins! Having an aged veteran in a DEATH CULT is a rare asset, not to be wasted. If this was my game I would definately pull some "Yoda-esque" deception as to her "harmless and frail old lady" thing and the occasional stray dead Magistrate investigator laying in two pieces in the garden.....

The weapon in question is a double weapon with a sword blade on one end and a kukri on the other? Sounds like an exotic melee weapon. If I am picturing this correctly then I would build this as a sword (duh) with a "combat knife" (the kukri) sticking out from the pommel. Given that this is an heirloom I would probably make both ends mono (or finely crafted to COUNT as mono, despite "low tech" forging methods... Kinda cool) and would DEFINATELY require the character to come up with the weapon's name and heritage. By name I don't mean the style of weapon, I mean the weapon's individual name (All true Katana and Kris blades have an individual name and according to tradition, personality.) The Combat Knife is basically one of those "is it a really big knife or a small sword?" items (Like the blades the Catachan IG carry) and is detailed in the IH. Non-trained users would need to spend a "ready weapon" half-action to switch grip to use the other weapon end and probably would suffer a -10/-20 penalty for lacking training (-10 if you have Melee: Primitive, -20 if you don't) plus survive the presumably pissed-off assassin who owns the blade.

For the elbow blades, I'm going to suggest a completely different approach. In my opinion, the entire weapon should be treated as a single weapon, rather than give it two different stats.

If you look at Talim's move set, she does not use two different fighting styles depending on which part of the blade she is using. She switches seamlessly between the two, using whatever is most advantageous at the time. The entire thing functions as a unit, so you are never going to be using one part of the blade exclusively, assuming you are using the weapon correctly.

(Check out videos of Tonfa training techniques for an idea of the style)

So, one single weapon. Deals damage on par with a short sword. Here's what I'd give it, before Mono:

Elbow Blade

Class: Melee

Damage: 1d10-1 R

Pen: 0

Special: Fast, Balanced

Weight: 2 kg