Now, i was sitting here a moment and wondered what it'd be like to play one of these guys.

Lots of fun no doubt, especially as my last character was a Techpriest and that was full of AwesomeBadWrongFun.

But what class to go for?

Imperial World (forgeworld) Guardsman? Doesnt quite do it, doesnt show the fact that this sort of character has been trained to be specifically adept with technology, though nowhere near to the degree that even a novice techpriest would be, and to be a sort of specialist soldier (skitarii are about the same degree of kickbutt as say a stormtrooper..).

What core class, world, training packages etc would you go for to make this kind of character?

D'ya reckon it could be done with say the Sororitas class with a little tweaking? Do some outright skill/talent swaps with the refs permission?

Maybe you will find this thread on the Dark Reign forum interesting:

http://vidzup.com/forum/index.php?topic=1322.0

Cha-Ching! just wat i'm looking for

Velvetears said:

I've got a player using a Skitarius in my current game. It's a Forgeworld-born (see The Inquisitor's Handbook, page 9) Guardsman using a custom Background (Skitarius Hoplite - a basic augmented soldier, but not hugely special and as lacking in social skills as the average Techpriest), and two Alternate Ranks (Hypaspist at Rank 2, adding implants and so forth to the character as they develop beyond the conscript-meatshield phase, and Praefect- also known as Praetorians or Herculianii - who are elite, heavily augmented shock troopers, some of whom are the size and strength of Ogryns, but with armour plating and advanced weaponry), and selective rebranding of a few items (his photo-visor and infra-goggles are corneal implants, while his Recoil Gloves are a framework of bars, cables and hardpoints along his arms to mount his weapons onto so that he can fire his Hellgun or Grenade Launcher single-handed).

By way of a preview - as I plan to release these rules in full, along with assorted other shiny mechanicus things, as an unofficial supplement called Ex Omnissiah Scientia - here's the background package and the first alternate rank:

Skitarius Hoplite
Home World: Forge Born
Cost: 200 xp
The teeming, faceless legions of the Tech-Guard—Skitarii as they are known to their Tech-Priest masters—are the primary armed force of the Adeptus Mechanicus. For all matters military, the Skitarii are employed, from the hordes of the weapon-servitors and combat helots who make up the bulk of the Tech-Guard, to the serried ranks of augment-soldiers who form its shock troops.
Within the ranks of these augmented warriors there are many further divisions, from the mechanised phalanxes of Cataphractii vehicles, MIU-bonded to their pilots, to the heavy weapon specialists and artillerists of the Balisterai, to the humble Hypaspist infantry and elite Centurions who fight beside the God-Machines of the Adeptus Titanicus and who’s might is equalled only by the legendary Adeptus Astartes.
These Skitarii—for the term applies as much to these warriors specifically as it does to the Tech-Guard as a whole—all begin as mere hoplites, arrayed in mighty phalanxes and expended as readily as the hoplites’ own ammunition.
Through hours of augmetic surgery and alchemical treatments, these warriors are purged of emotion, their weak flesh bolstered with blessed steel and their souls bonded with their weaponry to make them more efficient as the Omnissiah’s sword.
Effects
Apply all of the following changes to your character:
Characteristics: Increase your starting WS by +5, and reduce your starting Fellowship by -5.
Skills: Replace the choice of ‘Drive (Ground Vehicle) or Swim’ with ‘Drive (Ground Vehicle) or Secret Tongue (Tech)’
Talents: Remove the options for Pistol Training (Primitive) and Basic Weapon Training (Primitive). You begin the game with Chem-Geld and Binary Chatter.
Insanity Points: You start the game with 1d5 Insanity Points.
Skitarius Implants (Trait): Your weak flesh has been fortified by blessed steel and sanctified circuitry. You have been judged a worthy host for the following implants:

• Unconcerned with Flesh: The warriors of the Skitarii are focussed utterly on martial pursuits, honing themselves into perfect weapons in the name of the Omnissiah. Consequently, they have little time or patience for matters of the flesh. You may not purchase Fellowship advances. In addition, any and all Fellowship-based skills cost twice as much to purchase.
• Electro-Graft: This is a small port that is grafted into your nervous system. Once you have been properly trained, this will allow you to interface with machine data-ports, and certain types of data-nets. Electro-grafts can take many forms, such as electoos, skull shunts, finger probes or spine jacks, though ruggedly-designed skull shunts or spine jacks are the most common amongst Skitarii.
• Cranial Circuitry: This is a series of linked processors, implants and cortical circuits that augments your mental capacities. Most sit within housing bolted onto the skull, while others nestle within the brain itself. As you grow in the seriousness of your devotions, more and more of the brain that deals with useless things such as emotion and intuition can be scooped away to provide room for additional augmentations. Skitarii cranial circuitry is robust and often crude-looking, and shares many traits with the circuitry of vehicles and other blessed machines of war.
• Respirator Unit: This implant covers the lower half of your face with a network of grilles and tubing. It purifies your air supply, granting a +20 bonus to resist airborne toxins and gas weapons. The respirator unit also houses a vox-synthesiser capable of transmitting your voice in a variety of ways. Respirators can appear and simple grille units or intricate mask-like carvings.
• Weapon Actuators: Your arms are covered in an intricate array of hardplugs, cables, support struts and servo-motors, allowing you to connect directly to your weaponry. In time, your bond with the spirits of your weapons will increase, granting you greater efficiency in battle.
• War-Mantle: This is a framework of metal, wires and impulse transmitters bolted onto your spine, shoulders, lower ribcage, and extending over and through the upper arms and thighs. For most Skitarii, this is a support structure for the other implants, but the more augmented Skitarii have additional augmetics fitted directly to the war-mantle itself—for Balisterai and Cataphractii, these implants connect the warrior more closely to their machines of war, echoing the haptic implants of a Titan’s Princeps, while for the deadly Centurions, their war-mantles allow their strength and size to be augmented and their bodies fitted with armour plating, turning them into veritable juggernauts of destructive power.

Skitarii Hypaspist
WE ARE ALL BUT A WEAPON IN THE RIGHT HAND OF THE EMPEROR.
—Exhortationes Principiis Titannorum, Divisio Militaris
Where Hoplites are generally little more than vat-grown conscripts, those who demonstrate themselves to be fit for a greater purpose are granted advanced training, superior equipment and the blessed gift of cybernetics.
Such warriors are known as Hypaspists, named after a band of elite warriors from Terra’s ancient past. A Hypaspist phalanx (company being the equivalent Imperial Guard term) consists of 256 augmented, weapon-bonded soldiers, purged of emotion and operating with mechanical precision and brutal logic. Each phalanx is further divided into two ‘centuries’ (platoons), each consisting of sixteen maniples (squads) of 8 warriors each. Each maniple possesses a shared identity—the maniple’s designation is used both to refer to the maniple as a whole, and to any one individual Hypaspist, something which is somewhat confusing for those unused to the ways of the Mechanicus, but which the Skitarii themselves are more than used to.
This is not to say that they are not individuals, but as with many servants of the Machine, it is second nature to subsume themselves into something larger, to view themselves as simply another cog within the divine machine, an outlook that only becomes more firmly entrenched with the purging of emotion.
For some Skitarii, even the purging of emotion cannot dampen human ambition or the will to achieve ever greater heights, and such aspiring soldiers consider their time as Hypaspists as a mere stepping-stone on the path towards greater augmentation, greater prowess and greater unity with the Omnissiah.
Becoming a Skitarii Hypaspist
Hoplites, like all Skitarii, are born not chosen. Theirs are lives not of the foolish choices or inexplicable passions of the flesh-bound, but of the ordered purpose and cold logic of the Omnissiah’s chosen warriors. Whether flesh-born or vat-grown, every Skitarius is chosen from millions of squalling children born every day on each Forge World. Through intense genic scrutiny, the weak are culled and the capable are sifted and assigned their life’s vocation.
Those keen of eye, steady of hand, resilient of form and aggressive of temperament are taken for the Tech-Guard, and will know nothing else until their lives end in the Machine-God’s service.
It is likely, as you spend xp on this Alternate Rank, that your character will advance several Ranks in the Guardsman Career Path. While doing so, you can use the following titles for your Skitarii character instead of the standard ones if you wish. After taking this Alternate Rank, you can enter any of the branches, though the Praefect rank (an Alternate Rank which replaces Rank 6: Assault Veteran) gives many more opportunities for augmentation and development into a truly terrifying augmented warrior.

Required Careers: Guardsman
Alternate Rank: Rank 2 or higher (500xp)
Other Requirements: You must originate from a Forge World, have a BS of 35 or more, the skill Secret Tongue (Tech) and the Skitarius Implants trait.

Advance Cost Type Prerequisites

• Dodge 100 S -
• Drive (Ground Vehicle) +10 100 S Drive (Ground Vehicle)
• Ciphers (War Cant) 100 S -
• Common Lore (Machine Cult) 100 S -
• Tech-Use 100 S -
• Basic Weapon Training (Launcher) 100 T -
• Quick Draw 100 T -
• Sound Constitution 100 T -
• Concealed Cavity 100 T -
• Common Lore (War) 200 S -
• Logic 200 S -
• Heavy Weapons Training (SP) 200 T -
• Two-Weapon Wielder (Ballistic) 200 T BS 35, Ag 35
• Disturbing Voice 200 T -
• Autosanguine 200 T -
• Weaponsoul 200 T Weapon Actuators
• Rite of Pure Thought 300 T Cranial Circuitry
• Slaughter Node 300 T Cranial Circuitry

Slaughter Node (Talent)
Prerequisites: Skitarius (Cranial Circuitry)
The most ferocious of machine spirits reside within the implants in your skull, and with their help you can unleash bursts of calculated, logical fury. You may enter a Frenzy (as per the talent) as a free action at any point, and while Frenzied, you may continue to parry as though you had the Battle Rage talent. Further, you may voluntarily end your frenzy at any time as a free action. You may only enter or leave a frenzy once per turn – you cannot do both in the same turn.

Weaponsoul (Talent)
Prerequisites: Skitarius (Weapon Actuator)
Through your blessed implants, you are made closer to the spirits of your weapons, and with that unity comes increased lethality. When you aim with a weapon connected to your Weapon Actuators, you gain an additional +10 to hit. This does not stack with the Accurate quality. In addition, you gain a +10 bonus on all Ballistic Skill tests made to clear a jammed weapon connected to your Weapon Actuators.

N0-1_H3r3, you sir are a scholar, saint and no doubt a sinner.

This is just about perfect for what i was after.

For a moment, i was dreading hacing to mod the guard template.

(and i picked up the Inq HB today so much stuff makes a lot more sense now)