ARCHETYPES: Apothecary, Techmarine, Tempest and Ex-Clade Assassins

By JediMike42, in Black Crusade House Rules

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I couldn't sleep and decided to get the most out of my night. Here are some proposed Archetypes for CSMs and ex-Clade Assassins (because really, I just want to play in that game). Listed with the Archetype title is their cost and if you break up the archetypes into their base stats, they work out thusly: Apostates at 5700-6350 with OK Gear, Hereteks at 3600-3800 with Excellent Gear, Renegades at 4850-5200 with Good Gear and Psykers at 3700/3800 with Okay Gear. As for CSMs, Champions are at 1650-1700, Chosen at 2000, Forsaken at 1800/1850/2050/2100 with GoodGear and the Sorcerer clocks in at a whopping 2250 experience.

Down at the way bottom of this post are associated Talents, Traits and other pertinent information.

Review the stuff below and leave questions, comments, suggestions or your own archetype designs. I'm personally wondering if the Vanus Minion Horde is destined to fail, and what nifty special ability could be given to the Venenum.

Enjoy.

TECHMARINE (1550/1650 with Nice Gear)

Skills : Common Lore (Tech), Tech Use, Forbidden Lore (Archeotech) or Forbidden Lore (Warp) or Forbidden Lore (Xenos), Logic or Security, Scholastic Lore (Astromancy) or Scholastic Lore (Chymistry)
Talents : Technical Knock, Total Recall, Armour-Monger or Weapon-Tech, Lesser Minion of Chaos (must be servitor or servo-skull) or Cold Hearted
Wounds : 15+D5
Gear : Legion Servo-Arm (interfaced with power armour), Interface Port, one good quality cybernetic implant.
Special Ability : Tech-Marine Implants
Tech-Marines start with Mechanicus Implants and a common quality cybernetic implant (noted above). The loyalty of any servitor or servo-skull minions is increased by +10.
APOTHECARY (1850/2100 with Good Gear)
Skills : Dodge +10, Forbidden Lore (Xenos) or Tech Use, Medicae, Medicae +10 or Tech-Use +10
Talents : Iron Jaw, Jaded, Hard Target
Gear : Legion Bolt Pistol, 4 Photon Flash Grenades, Narthecium Injector, 40 Doses of Narthecium
Wounds : 16+1d5
Special Ability : Narthecium Medic
The Apothecary is trained in the use and upkeep of a Narthecium Injector, usable in combat. As a Half Action (requiring 5 doses of Narthecium or a similar compound) the Apothecary can make a Difficult (+10) Test to apply First Aid to a fellow Space Marine, raising their threshold for Light Damage to 3 times Toughness Bonus and doubling the amount of damage healed by first aid. When using something other than Narthecium, the test becomes Hard (+20). In addition to this the Apothecary is capable of surgically implanting cybernetic limbs and extracting the geneseed from fallen Space Marines.
TEMPEST (1450-2100 with Okay Gear)
Skills : Intimidate, Parry +10, Awareness +10 or Intimidate +10
Talents : Frenzy, Sound Constitution, Battle Rage or Furious Assault
Gear : Good Craftsmanship Chain Greataxe or two Good Craftsmanship Chainaxes, Legion Bolt Pistol
Wounds : 16+1d5
Special Ability : Berserker's Fury - Once per encounter, a Tempest can make a Charge action at double his normal movement rate. This does not have to be in a straight line at any point and ignores difficult terrain.
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CALLIDUS 250 C + 2050 S + 3100 T = 5400 Total with Great Gear
+5 to Fellowship
Skills : Awareness, Charm, Linguistics, Deceive, Stealth, Deceive +10, Linguistics +10 OR Stealth +10, Common Lore (two), Forbidden Lore (2), Scholastic Lore (2)
Talents : Ambidextrous, Empathy, Weapon Training (Las, Primary, Thrown), Jaded, Mimic, Unremarkable, Polyglot, Exotic Weapon Training (one), Paranoia, Iron Jaw OR Catfall
Wounds : 15+1d5
Gear : Best Craftsmanship Exotic Weapon (usually a mouth-gun or something else extremely discreet but ultimately the choice is up to the PC), Good Craftsmanship Laspistol or Best Craftsmanship Throwing Knives, Best Craftsmanship Mesh Armor, Dataslate, Combi-Tool, 3 Doses Polymorphine OR 6 Doses Polymorphonium
Special Ability : Serpent's Tongue (as Apostate)
CULEXUS 250 C + 2250 S + 3000/3200=5500/5700 with Good Gear
Toughness +5
Skills : Acrobatics, Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Logic, Operate (Surface), Parry, Stealth, Security, Survival, Tech Use, Stealth +10, Acrobatics +10 or Dodge,
Talents : Ambidextrous, Cold Hearted, Weapon Trainings (Bolt, Las, Power, Primary), Street Fighting, Unarmed Warrior, Die Hard, Iron Jaw, Lightning Reflexes, Catfall or Leap Up, Hip Shooting or Killing Strike
Wounds : 16+1d5
Gear : Best Lasgun OR Good Boltgun, Best Laspistol OR Common Bolt Pistol, Best Craftsmanship Sword OR Common Power Mace, Carapace
Special Ability : Animus Blast
The Pariah can focus their repulsive energies into a single blast extremely deadly to Psykers and creatures of the Warp. The range is equal to the range of their Negation Sphere x 5 and does an amount of damage equal to their Untouchable Talent(s) x1d10+Willpower Bonus. This does double damage against Psykers and ignores any Unnatural Toughness or Armour. However, their very presence unsettles and irritates people. They will always suffer a -30 on all Interaction tests.
VANUS 100 C + 2300/2450 S + 2450 T with Excellent Gear
+5 to Intelligence
Skills : Command, Forbidden Lore (any two), Logic, Scrutiny, Awareness, Common Lore (any two), Inquiry, Linguistics, Scholastic Lore (any two), Security, Tech-Use, Charm OR Deceive, Tech-Use +10 OR Security +10 OR Logic +10
Talents : Technical Knock, Weapon Training (Las, Shock), Total Recall, Weapon Tech, Lesser Minion of Chaos 4, Hotshot Pilot, Minion of Chaos (Horde), Mechadendrite Use
Wounds : 12+1d5
Gear : Best Craftsmanship Shock Gauntlet w/Advanced Cogitator, Best Craftsmanship Laspistol, Mesh Armor, Dataslates, Combitool, Camo-line Cloak and Vanus Operative Cybernetics Suite
Special Ability : Vanus Operative
As an agent of the Vanus Clade, you received Best Craftsmanship Cerebral Implants, and possess an advanced cogitator on your person comparable in size to a wristband. You receive the Cranial Circuitry implant, Cerebral Implants (Unnatural Intelligence +2), Cranial Armour (+2 Head Armor), Interface Port, Mind Impulse Unit and Optical Mechadendrite cybernetics. He also gains the ability to control Horde minions if he so chooses, taking the Minion of Chaos feat, enabling his Lesser Minion to become a horde of Magnitude 10. For each additional purchase of this talent, increase the size of the horde he can control by 5. He can control a number of Horde groups equal to the number of Lesser Minion of Chaos talents he possesses.
EVERSOR 100 C + 950 S + 2900/3100 T = 3950/4150 with Excellent Gear
+5 Agility
Skills : Dodge, Parry, Awareness, Stealth, Dodge +10
Talents : Ambidextrous, Frenzy, Jaded, Lightning Reflexes, Quick Draw, Rapid Reload, Weapon Training (Bolt, Las, Plasma, Power, Primary, SP), Swift Attack OR Two-Weapon Wielder (Melee) OR Battle Rage
Gear : One Best Melee Weapon (or Good Power Melee Weapon) OR Two Good Melee Weapons (or two Good Power Melee Weapons), Good Craftsmanship Plasma Pistol or Best Craftsmanship Combi-Bolter, Eversor Operative Implants, Carapace Armour.
Wounds : 19+1d5
Ability : Eversor Operative
This members of the Eversor Clade are feared throughout the Imperium and well beyond. They are more constructs of destruction than human, their muscles replaced and improved, weapons grafted to their reinforced and unnaturally tough bodies, which themselves have been re-engineered to reward them for killing through subdermal injections of adrenaline and a cocktail of other stimulants and painkillers. They receive Unnatural Strength 2, Unnatural Toughness 2 and Unnatural Agility 2. Subdermal plating gives them a 2 (all) armor bonus similar to the Machine Trait . They also receive 4 Chem Injectors (Rose, Scab, Slaught, Stimm), Black Blood, Blade Tines and Cybernetic Senses (Sight, Hearing)
Vindicare - Marksmanship
Renegade: Ballistic Skill specialized, get a cursed weapon, specialize it and get tons of ammo types. Take Clade talent.
Venenum - Poison
Renegade: Weapon Skill / Agility specialized, Get Stealth, Sleight of Hand and Scholastic Lore (Chymistry). Take Clade talent, maybe a Special Ability to construct poisons in makeshift conditions with virtually no materials?
Clade Exile - Unaligned Tier 2 Talent
Before turning your back on the Imperium of man, you were a member of the Officio Assassinorum. The time spent with whichever Clade you were associated with eventually corroded your being, whether through indulgence in psychotic murderous rampages, the weight of thousands of dead souls or simply the promise of power you have become an exile. Any enemy of that group you encounter gains the Hatred talent against you for every 30 points of infamy you possess. The knowledge you've brought with you is of great value, and in addition to being able to craft the tools required to utilize your specialized skills you gain a +10 on all Acquisition Tests given your status and resources.
Untouchable (bought in Sequential Tiers, Unaligned)
Your entire life people have shunned you, avoided you or outright hated you, and you've never understood why. You are a blank, a pariah, a black hole in the immaterium and a bane to anyone with a soul. Your very finite mortality has it's perks however, and your very presence disrupts Psychic Powers and the Warp. You negate Psyker Powers or Warp Presences with a Psy Rating equal to or below your Willpower Bonus + 2 in a sphere emanating from you in Willpower Bonus + 2 meters. If a Psy Rating is above the Negation Threshold it still has only a 50% chance of working.
Tiers 2 and 3 raise the Negation Threshold by 2 and the distance your sphere extends by 2 meters.
Special: Untouchables suffer a -30 modifier to all Fellowship tests due to their repulsive nature.
Polymorphine :
Cost : Up to GM. It’d be pretty hard to get this stuff though.
Availability : Unique
Duration : Until another dose is issued.
Effect : Successful use of this drug allows an individual to take on the shape of any other humanoid creature. Note that this will not work on non-human entities such as Genestealers or Tau. Another injection will cause the individual to return to their original shape.
If the user of the drug does not have the Empathy skill, they must pass a -30 willpower test, or lose control of their form change. Their bones and flesh will warp and shift, becoming more and more twisted until their skin splits and their organs spill out onto the ground in a heap or steaming entrails. It’s not pretty. The character is then dead.
Polymorphonium
Cost : Normally about 500 thrones a dose, but dealers may vary widely.
Availability : Very rare
Duration : Until another dose is issued.
Polymorhponium is the black market counterpart for Polymorphine. While easier to get, it is alot less stable, and can result in far worse consequences.
Effect : Successful use of this drug allows an individual to take on the shape of any other humanoid creature. Note that this will not work on non-human entities such as Genestealers or Grots. Another injection will cause the individual to return to their original shape.
If the user of the drug does not have the Empathy skill, they must pass two -30 willpower tests, or lose control of their form change. Their bones and flesh will warp and shift, becoming more and more twisted until their skin splits and their organs spill out onto the ground in a heap or steaming entrails. The character is then dead.
Empathy (three available, sequential tiers, Alignment: Tzeentch).
The assassin puts themselves in the mindsets of their targets to structure their changes. Without this skill, their changes would run rampant and they would be reduced to a quivering sack of flesh. It also allows the assassin to correctly mimic their intended target’s personality.
Effect: When a person injects Polymorphine that has the Empathy talent, they must pass a Challenging (+0) Willpower Test. Failure by two or less degrees indicates that their form is not perfect. They may have forgotten a small mole, a scar, or something equally small.
If using Polymorphonium, failure by three to four degrees will not only show an imperfect change, but the user must also pass a Toughness Test or roll once on the "Minor Mutations" table. This talent also grants a +10 bonus to Deceive checks related to Disguise for every tier above the first.
Failure by five degrees or more results in the user becoming a sack of flesh. (See above)
For example, an assassin has disguised herself as the wife of a crime boss. The boss asks his wife about her day, which would not require a test. Then the boss asks her what she would think about having another child. An Empathy test would be required to reply as the wife would. Or if an alcoloyte wanted to mimic a xenos. Most citizens of the Imperium don't see xenos every day, so interaction would not require a test/. However, if said alcoloyte was posing as an Eldar to another Eldar, he would have to past a test to act like a member of the race would.
Example difficulties:
Mimicking a nobody, an unknown hired ganger = +30
Becoming a regular at a bar = +10
Impersonating a trusted bodyguard = -10
Acting as an age old friend = -20
Resisting psychic interrogation = -20
Turning into a member of a far fetched race, such as an Eldar, or acting ike an Eldar to another Eldar = -30
Note that studying a target adds to the roll. If Philinidus was to study a gang leader for a week, he might get +10 to his role. If Susanah is an expert on Jokaero, she might also get +10 to het roll.
Special: Empathy can be used in combat as a move action to confer a single +2 Unnatural bonus to the following characteristics: Strength, Toughness, Agility, Perception. For each additional tier of this talent the number of affected characteristics increases by one, to a maximum of 3 that can be combined to give any attribute a bonus of +4 (so +2/+2/+2, +4/+2, +4/+1/+1/, etc).

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I like the look of a lot of these. That Tempest may want to begin aligned to Khorne, the way the Thousand Sons archetype preview is. Eversors are traditionally armed with a bolter-needle pistol combi-weabon and a poisonous power claw thing. I feel like your Untouchable trait is a little awkward in its wording.