In my upcoming campaign we have one female player. She will be playing the part of an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with a group of 6 Deathwatch. I am allowing the character to have a suit of Ignatus-Pattern Power Armor from page 143 of the Ascension book. It is mentioned in that book that some of those suits are thousands of years old. In the Deathwatch book on page 163 the box on Detailing A History Of Valor suggests that it is possible to develop different Armor History than the list provided. I think it would be neat to have an armor history for the Inquisitor's armor, but I don't really think any on the published list for Astartes armor is necessarily a good fit.

Anyone have any cool ideas that I could surprise my players with?

BTW the Inquisitor is a potent Psyker as well and so the group has no Librarian. Perhaps that will help spark some ideas. Thanks.

Besides being a Psyker, what else coudl define her as a character? Is she stealthy-sneaky, does she do acrobatics, could she use a built in cogitator-datajack, speed, strength etc etc etc. Does the armour have it's own very active machine spirit that take over when she's unconscious? Perhaps it's kitted out with anti-grav plating, maybe a psychic hood?

Off the top of my head..

The armor was commisioned and designed for one of the Living Saints ( name ). During the battle of ( name ), the Living Saint martyred herself in the face of a great enemy, spurring her followers into such a fanatical rage, they charged the field in devotion to the Saint and the God Emporer himself shown His light upon them, decimating their foes, retaking their world, recovering the martyred saint's body and armor and shedding the most holy of light upon the darkest of shadows.

The living saints body was entombed with her armor, however it is said she rose from her tomb on the 100th anniversary of her death and gifted the armor to a chosen warrior born from the bosom of her homeworld. Since that time it has been passed on every century until it came into the possession of a chosen Ordos Inquisitor, the spirits of past warriors and the Saint herself feeding their zeal and strength into the armor.

From the background you stated it sounds like a bonus to willpower or fellowship would fit along with a negative that since the machine spirit is used to leading that it protests while attempting to sneak making loud noises at inopportune times. Just my 2 cents

I like the Saint idea...but how would the armor's Machine Spirit function in this regard? Perhaps a boost of strength, just at the last moment, to help the occupent strike down the heretic? However, sinch the Machine Spirit longs to bring death to the heretic, it seems to not respond very quickly if the occupent turns to flee from the heretic? So, a +3 bonus to the user's Strength Bonus in combat with "heretics", but no +1 movement bonus when fleeing from a "heretic"?

If that is too close to the Astartes Power Armor histories, then how about a blessed suit of armor? Maybe the armor seems to gleam in the midst of battle with the foul and heretical? This could lead to a -10% to WS and BS to enemies in combat, but this bonus would be lost if the wearer of the armor is not "pure of heart". Meaning, as long as the wearer is at the front of the combat, fighting with all of their might, then the miracle will happen...

Just some ideas.

Also, something to consider. The abilities mentioned above would work well for an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor. However, the character is an Ordo Xeno Inquisitor. So, you could have the same armor capabilities, but change the story and description to match the character's background. After all, the Ordo Malleus would not let another member of the Inquisition wear a blessed suit of armor except another Daemonhunter...

CaptainLoken said:

Excellent point! However, I was shooting for the idea that the armor is only passed down to those who were born from the Saint's homeworld ( I.E. the world where she martyred herself). While it would be something that the Malleus would love to get their hands on, we can make some sort of fluff with an Ecclisiarchial decree that the armor is only blessed upon those born of the world, and it just so happened that this Inqusitor ( the one in question ) was the one chosen to recieve the armor. One can't deny the words of a Living Saint.

You could easily ad in your idea that it was given to an Odro Malleus Inquisitor, but she transferred to the Ordo Xenos, perhaps there was some sort of xenos infestation in her homeworld. This gets more into the character background though...

Excellent ideas for me to think about, thanks everyone. It's a shame I am at work right now since I am itching to do some work on this.

For any interested here are a couple that I came up with. I will probably use the first one for the Inquisitor in my game.

The Emperor Protects –
This suit of armour has shown a penchant for avoiding enemy fire over the millennia of its existence. The machine spirit seems to always be able to know just when to weave and turn in order to prevent an enemy from hitting it with ranged weapons. However wearer’s often find it more difficult to hit their own targets with ranged weapons as the suit’s predilections make it difficult to remain still if the wearer is under fire.

Effects: Any attacker suffers a -10 penalty to their Ballistic Skill to hit the wearer of this armour (note that this counter-acts the normal “Hulking” modifiers resulting in a net of +0 modifier to the attackers Ballistic Skill Test). The wearer also suffers a -5 their own Ballistic Skill whenever she is under fire. This means that attacking a foe that is not shooting back can be done without penalty (including surprise rounds and the first round of combat in which the wearer has won the initiative).

No Shield May Stay the Blade of Justice –
Many previous occupants have worn this suit of armor while smiting the foes of the Emperor; as a result its machine spirit has become adept at directing its wear’s strikes past the defenses of their enemy. However this focus on penetrating the enemy’s defense causes the suit’s perceptions to become dangerously focused.

Effects: Any attempt to Parry an attack from the wearer suffers a -10 Penalty as the suit’s machine spirit subtly guides the blow. The wearer suffers a -20 to their Perception and Perception based skills in regard to all but the target of her attacks (Note that the armour’s modifiers to perception, if any, can counteract this penalty somewhat).

Those are excellent ideas, I might yoink them for an Ascension game I'm planning. As a further idea to throw out there, doesn't the Inquisitor's Handbook detail the rules on pentagrammatic and hexagrammatic wards? Maybe the armour belonged to an Ordo Malleus or Ordo Hereticus inquisitor who sought added protection against daemons or psykers, and so the armour is positively festooned with these kinds of wards. Another idea could be that this armour is actually a re-purposed Scitarii armour and its Machine Spirit is incredibly advanced, but loath to damage other Machine Spirits.

Great Ideas. How about something like an aegis suit? I don't remember the exact rules but something about psychic defenses as well.