I have two questions about the tech priest starting equipment.

1. On page 62 it lists the tech priest specialist equipment. In that section it says that they can have one starting ballistic mechadentrite of choice. Does this include one equiped with a plasma pistol or inferno pistol?

2. On page 63 under Mechanicus it says that a tech priest character starts play with a good craftsmanship MIU and two additional good craftsmanship cybernetics of choice. Does this include a Baleful Eye which is near unique?

If both of the above are indeed correct then a techpriest is potentially more heavily armed and armoured than a storm trooper. I'm not sure if this is intended or not considering a tech priest also gets a companion and arguably has one of the most useful skills in tech use.

"of Choice" does appear to imply you can put whatever compact weapon available you want on there, a rather incredible deal. I do appreciate that we can choose; it would be nice to be able to pick out patterns within the same close availability, but perhaps a few more limits? Say, pick any one pistol of availability no lower than Rare; it automatically gains Compact and Good Quality, or something.

The Bale Eye is kinda stretching it due to its availability, but its a legal pick.

However, "sacrifices some of the normal abilities" could use some clarification. What does it normally grant, and what does a Good Quality one grant its user? Does it Fatigue on a jam like the new DH integral weaponry?

The Techpriest is in dire need of rebalancing. As he is now, he starts with the best potential equipment through his bionics, the highest number of Aptitudes at 8, a Comrade and a wide slew of skills and talents.The only reason anyone would want to roll anything else is because they're butt-ugly.

JuankiMan said:

Their comrade isn't anything special, it's a servitor. Also I agree limiting starter bionics to very rare or better, would take away Baleful Eye @ chara-gen. Other than that the availability of bionics is limiting outside chara-gen.

Manyfist said:

The Baleful Eye isn't that awesome. Instead a Techpriest can nab Good Cerebral Implants for Unnatural Intelligence and Good Subskin Armour and he becomes a supersmart Storm Trooper Carapace-equivalent wearing monster. And absolutely nothing stops him from picking additional stuff like everybody else, not only bionics. I remember a Mechanicus Secutor one of my players rolled in Ascension. The guy connected a Power Armour to his potentia coil, implanted himself with sub-skin armour, cerebral implants and a machinator array and lugged around a heavy bolter around with his Servo-Arm. That monster wasn't a person anymore, he was essentially a light assault vehicle that couldn't miss Tech-Use tests even on purpose

JuankiMan said:

Good Cerebal Implant is near-unique, so with very-rare or better @ chara-gen for bionics would stop Tech-priests from starting with it. Also Acension is all kinds of broken.

Manyfist said:

I did worse pre-ascension, using Mechanicus Secutor from Inquisitor's Handbook. I had a lascannon and a pair of Hellpistol mechadendrites, and a breacher.