Decided to homebrew these for use in an upcoming game. Without further ado, here you go.

Adept
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Intelligence
Starting Aptitudes: Intelligence, Knowledge, Fellowship, Tech, Defense, Social
Starting Skills: Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (War) or Common Lore (Tech), Logic, Scholastic Lore (Legend)
Starting Talents: Light Sleeper or Resistance (Cold), Total Recall, Weapon Training (Solid Projectile or Las, Low-Tech)
Starting Equipment: Common-craftsmanship Stub Revolver and 2 clips of ammunition, Flak Vest, Staff, robes, writing kit, chrono, data-slate
Starting Wounds: 6+1d5

Arbitrator
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Toughness
Starting Aptitudes: Weapon Skill, Offense, Toughness, Defense, Social, Willpower
Starting Skills: Common Lore (Adeptus Arbites, Imperium), Inquiry
Starting Talents: Jaded, Rapid Reload, Weapon Training (Solid Projectile or Las, Low-Tech, Power)
Starting Equipment: Good-craftsmanship Shotgun (pump action) and 4 clips of ammunition, Common-craftsmanship Power Maul, Common-craftsmanship Carapace armour
Starting Wounds: 11+1d5

Assassin
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill
Starting Aptitudes: Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Finesse, Offence, Agility, Perception
Starting Skills: Awareness, Dodge, Acrobatics or Stealth
Starting Talents: Deadeye Shot or Sure Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Training (Las, Solid Projectile, Low-Tech)
Starting Equipment: Common-craftsmanship Long-las and 4 clips of ammunition or Good-craftsmanship Mono-Sword, Knife or Common-craftsmanship Laspistol and 2 clips of ammunition, bodyglove
Starting Wounds: 10+1d5

Scum
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Fellowship
Starting Aptitudes: Ballistic Skill, Finesse, Fellowship, Social, Agility, Fieldcraft
Starting Skills: Charm or Deceive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Starting Talents: Technical Knock or Quick Draw, Light Sleeper, Weapon Training (Solid Projectile or Las, Low-Tech)
Starting Equipment: Common-craftsmanship Autogun and 1 clip of ammunition or Common-craftsmanship Shotgun (pump action) and 3 clips of ammunition, Good-craftsmanship Autopistol and 1 clip ammunition, knife, street clothes
Starting Wounds: 9+1d5

Add in the Tech-Priest Enginseer, Sanctioned Psyker, Ministorum Priest, and Storm Trooper. You now have a ghetto DH 2e.

Looks good, reminds me a lot at this:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kCmPqlXb5QWJS1cyYPkTx1mAXEO3SdwnyG3O3O_ZjqE/edit

A document with a collection of OW houserules including somewhat similar DH career conversion. I prefer your version of the assassin though.You might want to give each of them a bit more extra gear like the Imperial Guard have. Like manacles for the arbitrator.

Wow, I'll have to look at them more closely, but those look great!

Thank you (and I again, I apologize for hijacking your other thread).

Musclewizard said:

I saw those and agreed with a lot, but they were a little weak to be balanced with Only War. I think these guys actually need a bit more gear, which is why my next project is a replacement for the Regiment system. It decides what kind of warband you are, who your Inquisitor is, etc. Should be excellent.

LuciusT said:

Bah, it's fine. Everyone's stupid on the internet sometimes. I'll keep working!

That would be really a really cool project, detailing the talents and gear that the different Ordos and Inquisitorial Cells would use. Send me a PM if you need any help with it.

DJSunhammer said:

Probably something like:

Ordo (Hereticus, Xenos, Malleus)
Inquisitor (Puritan, Radical, Different factions)

Cell Specialty (Decides gear, skills, maybe a talent or aptitude)

And then maybe something for the Inquisitor's allies or enemies. Any other ideas?

Not at the moment. We can take a lot of the cell directives from the existing DH books but would need to make up new ones for the Ordo Xenos. As far as I know there isn't a Xenos source book to base anything on.

DJSunhammer said:

Each Ordo should at least give Forbidden Lore to its relevant topic. As for characteristic modifiers…

Malleus: +3 WP, +3 Per
Xenos: +3 Int, +3 Ag
Hereticus: +3 BS, +3 Fel

How's that for a start? Or just let the characters choose two?

There are some odd limitations that come up when you put characteristic bonuses on the Ordos. For example, with a Fel bonus on Hereticus it makes that Ordo look like the more social of the Ordos, which is true to an extent , but it isn't so true that there is justification for it in a game system. I would manage it like this.

Ordos: Certain Skills relevant to that Ordo such as Forbidden Lore: Warp for Malleus or FLore: Heresy for Herticus and so on for skills that makes sense. Perhaps two skills per Ordo, one FLore and one other skill that doesn't affect combat. I say this because the Ordo chosen will affect the flavor of the campaign and the enemies you fight, but it won't largely affect the way you fight them in any purely mechanical fashion. Which is to say, you will pretty much shoot or stab or smash a heretic in the same way that you would an alien or a daemon. You might also introduce pieces of gear that are unique to each Ordo here. Though nothing like what we see in OW. We would want something that adds to the group as a whole, rather than determining what the group uses in broad strokes. These pieces of gear would be things that aren't directly designed for combat, though it is fine if they serve a double role in combat.

Inquisitor: This is where I would put characteristic modifiers, both positive and negative mods. I say this because the temperament and style of the Inquisitor is going to have a huge influence on how the group operates. I would have several categories that are not Ordo specific, each category will have different choices related to an aspect of gameplay. One category might pertain to militant Inquisitors, another might be to Investigative and maybe one for something else.

Cell Directive: This is also going to affect gameplay a great deal in the same way that the Inquisitor will, though hopefully in some way that is significantly different from the Inquisitor choice and can complement that choice at the same time. My thought is to introduce one, at most two, additional Aptitudes here and maybe some bonus talents that pertain to the function of the cell. I might also put characteristic modifiers here as well. Maybe creating an acolyte cell that is very similar in shape [as far as rules are concerned] to the regiments that you can create in the current rules for OW.

I still think that you should try to keep at two non-characteristics aptitude per career (even though Ratling has 3 all the others has 2):

For example like this:

Adept non-psyker: Knowledge, Social, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, Fellowship, Agility
Adept psyker: Knowledge, Psyker, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, Agility

Adepta Sororitas: Offence, Defence, Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Perception, Willpower, Toughness
(if using blood of matyrs there is a lot of varity on this though)

Arbitrator: Defence, Leadership, Ballistic Skill, Toughness, Intelligence, Perception, Fellowship

Assassin: Finesse, Fieldcraft, Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Agility, Perception, Intelligence

Scum: Fieldcraft, Social, Ballistic Skill, Agility, Fellowship, Perception, Toughness

Looks good, although I agree with Alox on limiting the non-characteristic aptitudes (with the new xp costs, the original problem of not having enough aptitudes to do anything has been mostly tamed). Also, I think the Arbitrator should have 10 wounds and Scum 8, but that's mostly because I don't think that an arbitrator should be tougher than a battle hardened guardsmen or that a scum is inherently tougher than the average guardsmen.

It's OK but I have issues with arbitrator.

Take away offence and willpower aptitudes, and give him fieldcraft and intelligence. In DH he's got plenty of driving skills, tracking etc plus he has cheap intelligence.

err give him weapon skill, how else can he beat up innocent people with his shock maul and riot shield?

I have little spare time at the moment, but I want to support this project.

I've tried to create a coherent 40k system for a while now and this looks very promising.

Adept: Intelligence, Fellowship, Perception, Willpower, Knowledge, Social

Arbitrator: Weapon Skill, Fellowship, Intelligence, Fieldcraft, Defense

Assassin: Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Agility, Perception, Finesse, Fieldcraft

Scum: Agility, Fellowship, Perception, Ballistic Skill, Social, Fieldcraft

I'm not too happy with Scum or Assassin stuff, and feel like one of those for the Arbitrator might be wrong.

Any ideas for extra gear? I'm planning on most Inquisitorial kits giving at least one Frag grenade (everyone had them in Dark Heresy!)

If I may make a suggestion for scum is that maybe you should drop a aptitude and give it intelligence. The reason for that is that scum is a very different beast than any other career options even in dark heresy. These guys are more likely to do, meet, and know illegal things that would send them to the torch if they were ever found out. Scum are more likely to deal with xenos and mutants which could give them access to things that a adept would normally not know unless the adept is trusted enough to know. Scums are more likely to use heretek than any other career.

The second reason is that the scum has always been sort of the jack of all trades. Skilled in many things and master at none. Just getting intelligence will open a lot of doors, but it won't make it all cheap for them. They can never be smarter than a adept because the adept would have intelligence and knowledge aptitudes. I guess what I am saying is just having intelligence will ensure that scum will get to dip their fingers in the lores that they are not suppose to get into and tech use, but never as cheaply as the more focus of specialists.

I forgot to make this point too…

I personally would give the Arbitrator leadership aptitude. They are naturally the authority figures that most citizens of imperium are legally allowed to know about. Also who is going to lead the police riots when things go bad and public order needs to be restored?

Snowman0147 said:

I agree that scum is a bit of an odd jobs guy, I swapped int and tough between assassin and scum in my model, and it looks more right now:

Adept non-psyker: Knowledge, Social, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, Fellowship, Agility
Adept psyker: Knowledge, Psyker, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, Agility

Adepta Sororitas: Offence, Defence, Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Perception, Willpower, Toughness
(if using blood of matyrs there is a lot of varity on this though)

Arbitrator: Defence, Leadership, Ballistic Skill, Toughness, Intelligence, Perception, Fellowship

Assassin: Finesse, Fieldcraft, Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Agility, Perception, Toughness

Scum: Fieldcraft, Social, Ballistic Skill, Agility, Fellowship, Perception, Intelligence

I do think Arbites should be BS over WS. Also have you given thought to the special abilities?

Back from a long trip!

Note to self to work on the Arbitrator.

I am horrified by the thought of making a Battle Sister specialization. A Sister of Silence sounds fun… Any input?

Unholy_Ravager said:

I have to disagree: Arbitrators are primarily close combat specialists. (They often use shields after all!) I think WS is more appropriate. BTW, Don't Arbitrators carry Shock mauls rather than power mauls? Also, If using Standard Arbites armor it would be light Carapace, Not the heavy stuff.

Radwraith said:

But at the same time they use combat shotguns with executioner rounds (often with the shields).

Honestly, I would say they have both moderate BS and WS advances, and focus their characteristics elsewhere.

I'm torn over the Arbitrator. He swings his Shock Maul around and shield-bashes rioters a-plenty, but is also armed with a Shotgun. For now, I'll keep him with the WS aptitude, on the thought that you don't really see the Arbites running around with lots of long-ranged weapons.

Battle Sister
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Willpower
Starting Aptitudes: Willpower, Toughness, Ballistic Skill, Fellowship, Offence, Faith
Starting Skills: Common Lore (Ecclesiarchy), Common Lore (Imperial Creed), Forbidden Lore (Heresy)
Starting Talents: Hatred (Heretics), Unshakeable Faith, Weapon Training (Bolt, Chain Flame, Low-Tech)
Starting Equipment: Common-craftsmanship Sororitas Powered Armour (7 AP all), Common-craftsmanship Bolt Pistol and 3 clips of ammunition, Good-craftsmanship Chainsword
Starting Wounds: 9+1d5

Sister of Silence:
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Willpower
Starting Aptitudes: Willpower, Intelligence, Fellowship, Toughness, Knowledge, Social
Starting Skills: Forbidden Lore (Inquisition, Psykers), Awareness, Linguistics (BattleMark)
Starting Talents: Oath of Tranquility*, Quick Draw or Takedown
Starting traits: Untouchable
Starting Equipment: Good-craftsmanship autopistol with 4 clips, bodyglove
Starting Wounds: 6+1d5

*Oath of Tranquility: Any time the character gains Insanity or Corruption points, lower the amount gained to 1.

I'm trying to work out this Cell Creation thing and it's just kicking my ass. The asterisks are chosen separately per character.

Cell Creation

Home World/Origin*
Same as in Only War core rulebook
Imperial Divination*
Roll on Dark Heresy table, page 34.
Ordo
>Ordo Hereticus
Starting Skills: Forbidden Lore (Heretics); Deceive or Intimidate
>Ordo Xenos
Starting Skills: Forbidden Lore (Xenos); Logic or Tech-Use
>Ordo Malleus
Starting Skills: Forbidden Lore (Daemons); Psyniscience or Scrutiny
Inquisitor
>Puritan
>Radical
Special Equipment
>Cleanse With Fire:
Each character gets an Exterminator on a weapon of choice; gain Weapon Training (Flame)
Cost: 4
>Grenadiers:
Each character gets 2 Frag Grenades, 2 Smoke Grenades;
Cost: 2
>Infiltrators
Each character gets a Chameoline Coak; trained in Stealth
Cost: 3
>Close Quarters
Each character applies the Mono quality to any one melee weapon of choice, or a Pistol Grip to one ranged weapon of choice
Cost: 3
>Drugs
Each character gets an Injector and two of the following;: dose of Detox, Frenzon, Slaught, or Stimm; trained in Medicae
Cost: 2

Plushy said:

Oath of Tranquility may fit the fluff perfectly, but it is obscenely powerful. I would go with "reduces Insanity or Corruption points by half to a minimum of 1."

As for Inquisitors, you should look through Ascension. There are more than just Puritan and Radical Inquisitors, those are really just generalizations. There are complete factions, the Xanthites, the Thorians and more. Use those factions to choose the Inquisitor and add bonus skills or talents [not both] based on the personality of the faction.

Also, the Sisters of Silence were never a social faction. They existed to hunt and battle psykers, alien or human, it didn't matter. Your profile doesn't really match their lore. They should be roughly equivalent to a Sister of Battle, but with different gear. No power armor, for example, they wore carapace armor.

I think I'll make that exact change to the Oath of Tranquility. Maybe scrap the SoS for this power level, and just make some sort of buyable Untouchable trait.

I'm really struggling to find factions that would make sense mechanically. What sorts of bonuses would something like a Thorian or an Istvaanian give? It just clunks against an internal wall in my head.