OK, so a bit of background.

My group operates around the 'core story' of an Inquisitor's organisation. We switch over GM's regularly and this 'core organisation' allows us as GMs/players to keep our stories linked together while exploring all sorts of different games (DH/RT/etc, threads, styles, stories and so on. This is something the massive bloat of the various core rules and supplements support quite well.

Anyway, i've been running a DH Rank 4 acolyte team for a few sessions and will be handing over shortly to another player.

He plans to open up the exploration of another, more senior part of our Inquisitior's organisation with some Rank 8 PCs just on the cusp of Ascension.

So, rambling aside, i've spent a bit of time putting together a Rank 8 PC - in this case a psyker (telepath/biomancer) heading into the Interrogator role in Ascension.

So here's my observation…

DH characters don't really improve , they expand .

OK, so your stats are probably starting around 35, and with increases you may put +10 on perhaps, and with the skills you may slap on a +20 here and there, ok but that's about the limit of your actual vertical improvement. In a few key areas you may get your PC up to the dizzying heights of skills in the 60-70 range, but really i didn't feel like this was really a substantial improvement.

Now then, on the other hand, what i observed did happen is that the character expanded vastly. I was bolting on a mass of different talents and skills that the PC could do, often stuff i really wasn't that interested in, but had to go with because my improvement lines were maxed out.

So really, it seems to me that DH characters don't really get significantly better at what they're focussed on doing, but at higher ranks they get much broader in the skill and talent base.

This felt oddly unsatisfying.

Am i mistaken? Has anyone else taken a PC through to Ascension and found the same thing?

So you double you skill at something, and you don't feel that is "significant improvement?" Taking your example, say you want your adept to be really good at Medicae. You started with 35 (your number) added 20 to Int and +10 to Medicae (as you suggest). This gives you a 65 Medicae, twice what you started with. Seems significant to me…

And thats before taking any bonuses into consideration. Say the task is fairly ordinary, so you get a +20. To begin with, that brings you to 55, and almost even chance; but at the end of advancement it would give you 85. Plus you could have obtained high quality tools or cybernetics that would give you a bonus to the test or result (anything from another +10 to Cortex implant for Unnatural Int).

Yes, this is a limit to how "good" you can be, but I think that is realistic. Your starting scores are somewhat indicative of your potential. If you start with a high Fellowship, you are a naturally likeable person who will find it easier to learn methods to make people like you, so you have a higher maximum possible ending point, if you develop it.

The point about branching out, or expanding, also seems fairly realistic. Going through life and experiencing new things will add new knowledge and new skills, not just reinforce previously learned ones. Especially a life where you are moving around from place to place, meeting new people, exposed to new places and ideas, and over coming new challenges; like an Acolyte.