I have been asked by one of my group that he wants to be a Deathwatch Chaplain. When he gets there he asked about Blessing a Undertaking / Person /Melee weapon or a Ranged Ammo Clip and giving out Purity Seals. I looked into it and the closest I could find was details was in Dark Herasy book "Blood of Martyrs" which have details listed for Clerics of a significant level.

Any idea about when you learned folks think a Chaplain should be able to do these Services and how to sort out the Requis and game effects?

Thanks

WiseGuy said:

Well, if you are playing a Rank 4+ (req. for Chaplain) then it should be fine to perform blessings. These should be performed in downtime. There should be material costs that should cut into the Chaplain's requisition for the next mission.

Here are some ideas;

1. He needs to roll a skill in order to be successful. (Lore: Imperial Creed)

2. He should have to pay material costs from his requisition for the next mission. You will probably have to make some sort of conversion from the material costs used in Dark Heresy. If the skill roll fails, the requisition is lost for the mission and must be repaid after the next mission if he wants to try again. Performing the rites and blessings should take a lot of time.

3. Be careful when allowing a chaplain access to Dark Heresy and blessing the kill-team. I think the abilities he already has are focused pretty good. His Icon of Duty ability is awesome. Perhaps, just allowing them the same bonuses as an Oath would work well.

4. As a final note, a Chaplain is not a member of the Ecclesiarchy, they do not worship the Emperor in the same fashion. You might not allow him the same powers as one with a Faith Talent, like Pure Faith. If you do allow him to perform the blessings then you should reduce his fate for the next mission. Also, if you are going to combine the books you could make him take the talents.

As far as in game effects from the blessings. I would stick to the services on page 126 of Blood of Martyrs. One of the things I am working on is creating Purity Seals that work in my game. The blessings work well. I would keep the material costs the same - a direct conversion to requisition. Sanctifying a weapon would probably be outside the reach of a Chaplain anyway (that would cost 500). I like the blessings because they are temporary shields of faith but I think that is a problem at the same time. Adeptus Astartes don't worship the Emperor as a god and therfore perhaps would not have the faith required to bless an item. Chaplains are a bit different and I would probably allow this in my game if we were able to work out a system that used up requisition (to get the oils and sacred items needed for the blessings) and that reduced the Chaplains fate (through the use of faith).