Hi all.

I will skip over the usual drama on this topic. If you feel the need, reffer back to one of many earlier threads. Continuing on...

I am thinking about offering a new Ascended career to one of my players once the team gets that far (the first three are about a mission away!). The character in question is a "shooty" assassin from Scintilla and favours dual stub-autos, sniper rifles, or dual chainknives, not to mention a flair for the dramatic. Pre-release he was borderline-arroused by the idea of the "Desperado", though once we had the book in our hands it was pretty clear it was simply the "epic Scum". He then debated Vindicare back and forth, deciding that was what he would probably do after spotting the nice talent that removes the shooting into melee penalty. So since neither is really the right fit for the poor fellow and keeping in mind the broken Dodges of the Vindicare (my only real beef with that career) I have been thinking about some sort of hybrid career path.

Call it the "Gun-Saint" as a working title. The idea being a street savy and stylish gunslinger type, sort of like a Death Cultist with pistols. If you are thinking Grammeton Cleric, you are in the ballpark. Special traits would include the Gun Kata (a few extra "dodges" against gunfire, probably using the Intelligence Bonus for the number) and then a choice of one of three options. One would be Carnival of Carnage and allow the shooter to treat weapons fired on semi-auto as having 1 higher ROF in their hands if stationary, or allow normal semi-auto fire as part of a move. Not quite sure what the other two options would be just yet. The skill/talent list will draw heavily from both the Vindicare and Desperado trees but obviously will not include all of the options from either.

Origin careers: Assassin, Cleric, Guardsman, Scum

Have any of you already done something like this? Willing to share ideas or an outright copy of your write-up? Desperately in demand for something like this yourself?

Hmmmm,

Sounds interesting:

How about this?

Transition Package:
BS: +10
+1d10 Insanity Points



Ascended Trait:
The way of the gun

The character has handled guns as long as he can remember, any ranged weapon under his care and wielded exclusively by him is treated as being one step higher in craftsmanship.
Additionally the character has such an amazing insight when it comes to gunbattles, knowing where the dangers and his opponents are, the characters gains one extra reaction to be used to dodge any ranged attack which originates from 30 meters or closer.

Choose one:

Malleable Trajectory:
By curving the trajectory of the bullet or recocheting the shot from a solid object the shooter can negate any cover save for cover that fully encloses the target

Rounds all Around:
When wielding two pistols that can fire on semi-auto the shooter can fire a number of shots up to the total semi-auto RoF to any target within normal range in a 360 degree circle, this is a full round action.
So if the shooter is wielding two pistols with the following RoF (S/3/6) he can target up to 6 individual targets around him as a Full Round Action

Quick Draw Master:
At any time during a round the shooter can spend a reaction to draw and a fire pistol (Single shot and Semi-Automatic only), no matter how many reactions the character has he can only do this once per turn.

Double Wielding Master:
When firing two pistols capable of Full-Automatic fire the shooter can fire both pistols (fully automatic only) at a single target as a full round action with the Twin Linked Special Trait.

I additionally felt like there was a gap somewhere around this area where certain character concepts fell through the cracks.

I noticed that one of my old PC's, an Untouchable Metallican Gunslinger Scum, didn't really fit into any of the ascended careers. Being an untouchable, the Fellowship-focused desperado didn't feel quite right. Being a gunslinger, and also given the temperament of the character, Vindicare, Interrogator, and Inquisitor were out. Being utterly atrocious in anything that resembled Melee, Death Cult was likewise out. So even branching beyond the official options he had, there was nothing suitable for him.

While I don't have as well a thought out response as Santiago, one way to tackle the special abilities is to think of the various "faces" the career is to have. You mentioned that, first and foremost, they are gun fighters and you have that down in the primary Ascended Trait and the first selectable one. Now you need to have a trait that will focus on the Street Savvy aspect for those who wish to be a touch less shooty and a bit more savvy. Call it "Dangerous Charm" or "Killer's Allure" or some such, something that gives them a bonus to charm checks with those who would normally be sexually attracted to their gender while they have their guns strapped to their hips. Another direction is to focus on an outsiders vision of who and what they do, call it "Gunfighter's Rep" or some such, and have it give them bonuses of some verity to intimidation while in possession of their guns due to their street rep.

Just some thoughts.

One would be Carnival of Carnage and allow the shooter to treat weapons fired on semi-auto as having 1 higher ROF in their hands if stationary, or allow normal semi-auto fire as part of a move.

Note that Rogue Trader already nearly allows this - you can give up the bonus to BS in order to do a half-move when firing a weapon on semi-auto.

The player in my group that inspired my thoughts on this has been pretty enthusiastic about the idea, so it looks like I will be drawing this up in alot more detail sometime soon-ish. It will be too long (not to mention awkward) to simply do the "wall of text" post. Would eventually posting OpenOffice pages work for those interested, or would PDF conversion be required? Still batting around ideas for the all-so-delicate "pick one of these" part, but the actual career tree is surprisingly painless so far. More to come....

Well,

Just give him the choice of a few and let the player choose...

AND...

Put the finished product on Dark Reign

I'd love to see the finished product if you're happy to put it online. Thanks to this thread, I may well offer this as an option to players in a future campaign.

Zillia,

I have a very similar problem with a redemptionist-bounty hunter, he's a sniper specialist but with serious religious leanings towards the red redemption - he is from a Death world where the only preachers mad enough to visit were redemption - none of the standard guardsman careers fit his character. At the moment my work-around is going to be heirophant or Archmilitant from RT.

I'd be very interested to see what you come up with for your gun-saint, as it may inspire me to put something together.

Surak

ZillaPrime said:

I have quite the same issue with one of my players playing a metalican assassin.

What I was thinking is just letting him become a Desperado.

However, I think the Vindicare is also fine for that type of character.