Of potential interest to would be arch-hereteks out there!

Question

The talent "Vile Intrusion" in the Arch-Heretek profile on p33 of Hostile Acquisitions has prequisites of Electrograph Use and Mechanicus Implants. But Electrograph Use is not listed in the Arch-Heretek alternate rank. Is Vile Intrusion intended to be limited to Arch-Heretek Explorators or is there a cost for an Arch-Heretek version of Electrograph Use?

Reply

That's a very good question.

This was actually intentional decision, to give Explorator Arch-Hereteks a bonus ability; non-Explorator Arch-Hereteks do not have direct access to the Vile Intrusion Talent.

However, at the GM's discretion, it is possible for any Explorer to take non-standard Skills, Talents, and Traits appropriate to his or her background as Elite Advances (see page 39 of the Rogue Trader Core Rulebook for specifics on Elite Advances).

The specifics of how the character would go about acquiring the Mechanicus Implants and Electrograft Training needed to access the Vile Intrusion Talent are, of course, up to the player and the GM, and could range from ambitious plots to steal the implants of Tech-Priests to unlock their power to unforeseen consequences of mad, heretical scientific experiments. There's lots of interesting space to explore here.

Thanks for writing in! I hope that this has been helpful.

--
Max Brooke
Associate RPG Producer
Fantasy Flight Games

Very interesting. Thank you very much for sharing. =)

Thank you. It's not a thing that had occurred to me, but it's good to know that if I ever get into that situation, that it is entirely intentional.

You're both welcome. Why not share the FFG replies, methinks?

I just noticed something, though, while fiddling with a Skitarii Assassin concept in my head; Augmenticist from pg.74 of Into the Storm can take Electro Graft Use , and is open to anyone except Explorator , Missionary , Ork or Kroot at Rank 2 .

So you could conceivably take any career (except Missionary , Explorator , Navigator , Ork or Kroot ) at Rank 1 , take Augmenticist at Rank 2 , and become a full-fledged Arch-Heretek at Rank 3 . I'd even call it an appropriate progression, depending on character of course.

Just a suggestion in context.

A good spot! The only issue being there is some overlap in the advance scheme of those two alternate ranks. But it would work for sure.