I'm wondering what's the biggest ship an Inquisitor could permanently get hold of. BFG had at one point special Inquisition ships that were basically what Space Marine cruisers would look like if they were allowed to have any, but I guess those belong to the Ordos and are given out for special missions. I'm working on the concept of a monodominant in your face-Inquisitior who doesn't think much of discretion but prefers to arrive in the biggest possible ship with a load of Sisters and Arbites to crush any resistance.

IMO: Grand/Battle Cruiser with flotilla of support/escort vessels.

Ouch, that's quite a lot on a permanent basis.

The Dark Millennium TCG had some Inquisitorial ships - you might want to look up their cards, they come with some pretty pictures and perhaps you can make out the classes?

http://wh40k.lexicanum.de/wiki/Dark_Millennium_%28Kartenspiel%29#Kartensets_und_Erweiterungen

The page is German (like many other articles, it doesn't exist in the EN Lexicanum yet), but just click on the respective sets in the list at the bottom and you'll get to the galleries.

I'd be sceptical towards entire permanent fleets of Inquisition ships under command of a single Inquisitor, but this assessment is based purely on my own observations as well as the understanding that, whilst the Imperium is big, there aren't that many capital ships around. I could be wrong on this.

[edit] And if you have a really keen eye you'll spot the original cover of the Inquisitor's Handbook.

Lynata said:

Thanks, most of those match standard Imperial classes, nothing exclusive to the Holy Ordos. Here's a pic of a conversion of the Inquisition Black Ship (I think they renamed it to Inquisitorial cruiser so it doesn't get confused with those of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica).

Lynata said:

No problem.

Lynata said:

That's my main question. What's the biggest ship an Inquisitor can keep on a permanent basis without other peers of the Imperium getting interested in him returning it? A Lord High-Admiral or Space Marine Chapter Master will probably want his battleship or barge back after some time, other Inquisitors may become concerned because he's amassing too much power etc.

Lynata said:

[edit] And if you have a really keen eye you'll spot the original cover of the Inquisitor's Handbook.

Since I started with Dark Heresy around the time Deathwatch came out I have no idea what it looks like. However the cards verified my worst fear about one of the pictures from the rulebook. Those half-naked girls who have put their eyes out or tacked a few stripes of parchment to their tongues are actually Repentias. I'm wondering how many of them die through the strikes of their blind squadmates.

uh...yeah. I retract my previous statement.

An Inquisitor MAY have UP TO a Grand/Battle Crusier as his PERMANENT main ship, but a Flotilla would likely only come about in a few rarer circumstances. So I'd say one main ship on a permanent basis, calling up other ships as needed from the Adepta, Navy and other Allies. The size of the main ship would likely depend upon the Influence and status of the Inquisitor. A Powerful, Experienced and Very Influential Inquisitor could have permanent use of a Grand/Battle Crusier with the ability to call up support vessels as needed. A newly minted Inquisitor might not have a ship at all. I personally like the Frigate as an Inquisitorial Naval vessel as it has a lot of versatility. If you're REALLY interested in 40K Ships, you're definitely going to want to look at some of the Rogue Trader books, especially the Battlefleet Koronus supplement.

In a game I'm in that will be starting soon our Inquisitor (former guardsman officer) is an Istvaanian and very militant, the GM is letting us start with a ship so we chose the Cobra as the basic hull. We'll be running around the Jericho reach in this.

In another game where I'm actually the Inquisitor we've talked about getting a ship but if we do we'll likely go for something discreet like a transport ship and not a warship. Attracting attention isn't something every Inquisitor wants but if this militant Inquisitor doesn't mind or it works in his favour most of the time a big ship on hand backing up the threats of your rossette can make an impression... if he's got a grand cruiser here who says he doesn't have virus bombs on it too?

Depending on the Inquisitor I'd say raiders and frigates are the most common to be permanently loaned to them, they're fast and attract a lot less attention than a cruiser!

Mjoellnir said:

There's not many examples of an Inquisitor doing this. The closest I can think of is the Inquisitor Lord Kobas Aquirrare (sp?) who seemed to operate a small fleet. He was extremely unusual in many ways, as he was both an Inquisitor Lord and a Rogue Trader. You can look him up on the Rogue Trader timeline on the support page for that game.

The suggestion seems to be that he was highly unpopular within the Imperium (implying that he pissed off other Peers of the Imperium, as you mention) and was given his Warrant of Trade as an alternative to a knife in the back.

The size of his ship and fleet is uncertain: there are at least two names advanced as the title of his flagship, for example, but the suggestion seems to be that it was a battleship.

In many ways, he's a bad example of what you're looking for, as it would seem he wound up the Imperial powers that be so much he was exiled. So maybe the answer is "something smaller than a battleship!"

Grinnenstadt said:

I have them all.

Thanks for the replies, Inquisitor Moriarty the Merciful (that's what you get if you make Warhammer 40k NPCs while you should be writing a bachelor thesis about fairytale motives in Sherlock Holmes stories) wants to thank you for his shiny new battlecruiser.

What are the reasons for choosing a battlecruiser?

It's the upper limit most people agree on here and that's what he's pushing. He's the perfect mix of the militant and the judicar from Ascension p.158/159 (conquer first, judge later) mixed with a really big dose of faith and deviousness. The smallest possible ship for what he needs would have been a Space Marine Strike Cruiser, but getting one of those is all but impossible and there are no official rules for them. Cruiser would have been the next best, but since it's the only ship he has the additional weapon slot can really help making place for fighter squadrons to cover the back of the ship.

There's not many examples of an Inquisitor doing this. The closest I can think of is the Inquisitor Lord Kobas Aquirrare (sp?) who seemed to operate a small fleet. He was extremely unusual in many ways, as he was both an Inquisitor Lord and a Rogue Trader. You can look him up on the Rogue Trader timeline on the support page for that game.

That's part of the fun in 40k. In the RPG there are not many examples. In the tabletop (both 40k and BFG) all of them do it.

Mjoellnir said:

Mjoellnir said:

However the cards verified my worst fear about one of the pictures from the rulebook. Those half-naked girls who have put their eyes out or tacked a few stripes of parchment to their tongues are actually Repentias. I'm wondering how many of them die through the strikes of their blind squadmates.

As mentioned, there was an Inquisitor with a Warrant of Trade. It's mentioned that he was previously an scion of Rogue Trader family and an Inquisition acolyte and inherited the Warrant of Trade after rising to the rank of Inquisitor. He then basically acted as the Inquisition's eyes and fist in the Expanse, pursuing and destroying heretics outside the Imperium.