So im making a Greater minion for my Commisar-ish Apostate (Strategist, Tactician, Command etc. Think Radec from Killzone 2). I was thinking of making a standard mutant/robot bodyguard to defend me but thats.... Boring.

Instead im trying to make a useful Servo-Skull seemingly made from Forgecrafted gleaming brass with exquisite ornaments and speaks perfect Low Gothic in a unnervingly calm voice. So far it will be called Adjutant and support/assist my character on skillchecks. In effect an advisor.

If it pans out well i might go further and make it a Superior minion from the Tome of Excess, but it will have to be a greater one first.

I have made a build below but wondering if there are any better ideas on the forum.

Im leaning to the Trait Parasite (Tome of Excess) for the last trait, any better choices?

Also near **** all Talents are useless for a servoskull without weapons, any ideas?

In fact any ideas to flesh out the minion would be welcome.

Adjutant

WS (01), BS (01), S (23), T (40), AG (40), INT (40), PER (40), WIL (25), FEL (40)

Skills: (9 ranks + 1 language) Tech-Use (+20), Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis), Stealth, Dodge, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Awareness (+10), Scrutiny

Traits: (7 traits) Size (2), Flier(6), Machine (6), Dark Sight, Sonar Sense, Unnatural Perception (4), ?

Talents: (11 Talents) Infused Knowledge, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?

Armour (Extremely Rare) Scrap Code Generator

Weapon 1 (Very Rare) Good Craft Signal Jammer (Undetectable)

Weapon 2 (Very Rare) Comm Leach

Other Gear in the future?: Auspex, Hololith Vox, Magnoculars, Combi-Tool, Glow globe.

it really depends on what type of gear your GM will let you put on the skull, personally all of my servo skulls have a flak helmet, but with a greater minion you could go higher.

I would probably give it a vox bead so it can talk to your character over long distance.

for defense maybe give it the phase trait so it can disappear when trouble starts?

talents...not really sure.

on a side note I once had a player make a similar minion( lesser) he gave it a camocloak to help it hide and wired some halluciagen grenades into the things jaws. it actually drove an NPC insane by dropping the grenade on him, then messing with him while hiding behind it's cloak.

Servo-skull with a 40 fellowship? lol

I suggest dump 39 to BS and add some gun to it... (or granades)

The problem really is robots and cyber-zombies not that advanced originating from the Imperium of Man....to be advisers or capable to progress or learn...(maybe side-quest plot to steal some tau/eldar/necron tech?)

I love the idea.

Agreed about lowering fellowship. Adjutant isn't going to be commanding anything - he doesn't need or deserve high fellowship. More intelligence and more perception are your primary aims. You might consider lowering the Machine armour in favour of Unnatural Intelligence .

Not sure if both Dark Sight and Sonar Sense are worth it; one or the other is probably enough.

The problem really is robots and cyber-zombies not that advanced originating from the Imperium of Man....to be advisers or capable to progress or learn...(maybe side-quest plot to steal some tau/eldar/necron tech?)

From the Imperium, yes. But the works of the true mechanicum include both fragments of literal intuitive AI (successors of Kaban) and Daemontech hybrids which can duplicate the effect.

I'd suggest Fearless type traits. An AI servoskull shouldn't be demonstrating fear or self-preservation instincts. Equally, Cold-Hearted renders it (mostly) immune to having its loyalty to you tested.

Other than that, if perception or intelligence is increased, Combat Sense or Combat Formation might be good (whichever stat is better in the final version).

If dodging is a significant part of your defence, Step Aside never hurts.

Combat formation may be better, as it can give a whole team a boost.

I once made knowledge servo-skull (lower minion) with 1 BS, but I gave it hand flamer.
But if you add BS, some camo-armour, and somehow a modified weapon with accurate, you'll have nice invisible sniper.

All good ideas. I have made some changes and put in some “lore” now that i had some time over. To give some feedback on some of the posts:

The characteristics seem to be limited to 40 unless i have missed something. I really want a noncombat skull, and fellowship was more “non-combat” than the other ones, even though Bs would be more useful. The skull will have some personality left, but unless i can raise the stats somehow i guess i can move some over to BS.

Gearwise my Apostate have "Peer Dark Mechanicus (3)" after a few successful favors, so i have atleast some chance of gaining stuff, iether trough tests or compacts. The microbead feels like a no-brainer now that you mention it. I guess i'll blame it on too much drooling after the big and rare tech in the book instead. Camo-cloak or Phase trait is also very nice ideas. Traitwise both darksight and sonar may very well be overkill and i ended up skipping both. =P

Also about Talents. In my foolish mind i thought Machine trait had anti-fear built in but it seems like it was "only" against psychic powers. Now that i have made a “psychic servo-skull” though i feel like i have to few talents instead of to many. ^^

My Apostate already have Combat Formation with Unnatural Intelligence (2) from a Good craft Cerebral Implant (took me a long time to get) so im not going for Unnatural Intelligence on the skull. I don't want to boss around someone smarter than me, he is supposed to assist me, not lead me by my nose. =)

So here is Adjutant V 2.0

Adjutant is a finely crafted Servo-skull with brasslike exterior and excuisite ornaments that screams out it's owners power and influence. It has no visible additions to the skull except the ornaments, but it does have a longer than normal piece of the spinal column left intact. Adjutant seem to have been blessed with a very responsive and capable machine-spirit..... Almost too capable. Many people feel uncomfortable with it's silent, near human glare.

Adjutant was crafted by the Idolitrex Magos Baranas from an unfortunate psyker loyal to the Imperium. Thanks to his heretical understanding of technology and sorcerous skill the now named Adjutant have been left with most of his psychic powers intact. Furthermore the subservient Servo-Skull has been filled to the brim with large stores of knowledge and technological understanding. Most of his personality has been purged but he still have enough mind to learn and adapt.

Adjutant is outfitted for an on the field advisory role and has many ways to monitor communications, subjugate machine-spirits and disrupt or hide his masters movements from the eyes and ears of the Omnissiah. He can also give assistance and advice about most common subjects due to the vast datastores of knowledge he contains.

Though Adjutant do not have any manipulators he is still able to affect the materium trough his psychic abilities with enough force to bend plasteel or finesse enough to assembly circuitry within machinery. This can of course not be shown to the lesser men who worship the Imperium and cling to less capable skulls.

Should he be put in danger his warp-driven core gives the ability to phase from reality to avoid harm. This however comes at the cost of most of his ability to monitor or affect the world around him.

WS (01), BS (40), S (01), T (40), AG (40), INT (40), PER (40), WIL (40), FEL (08)

Skills: (9 ranks + 1 language) Tech-Use (+30), Psyniscience, Security, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Scrutiny (+10), Scholistic Lore (Tactica Imperialis)

Traits: (7 traits) Size (2), Flier(6), Machine (6), Psyker (Bound), Unnatural Willpower (4), Phase, ?

Talents: (11 Talents) Warp Sense, Infused Knowledge, Psy Rating (7),

Powers: Mind over matter, Precision Telekinesis,

Armour (Extremely Rare) Scrap Code Generator

Weapon 1 (Very Rare) Good Craft Signal Jammer (Undetectable)

Weapon 2 (Very Rare) Comm Leach

Other gear: Microbead, Hololith Projector,

Now i have a few undecided parts left.

The Characteristics still feel off. Is there a way to raise them above 40 that i have missed? I'd much rather have higher Int and Wil than BS.

Traits: Still have one Trait left. Ideas?

Talentwise, are there any better Talents to choose that is worth lowering the Psyrating for?

Powerwise, for now I'm satisfied with his ability to use Telekinesis to use his other skills, but I was also looking at Divination (Personal Augury) and Telepathy (Mindprobe) to simulate the ability to predict battlefield outcomes and tear information from captured soldiers. Should i lower Psy-rating and get them now or wait for a Superior minion upgrade? Are there any other interesting powers that i havent thought about?

Gear: With some successful Aquisition-tests i got a microbead and a Hololith projector. Any other good stuff to cram into the skull?

well since it is a psyche you could always give him force-teeth...lol.

well since it is a psyche you could always give him force-teeth...lol.

Sir Robin : What's he do? Nibble your bum?

-Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Also in mind came Murray from Monkey Island. At least this thing doesn't have trouble moving around.

More like morte from Planescape Torment.

well since it is a psyche you could always give him force-teeth...lol.

Sir Robin : What's he do? Nibble your bum?

-Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Also in mind came Murray from Monkey Island. At least this thing doesn't have trouble moving around.

More like Morte from Planescape Torment.

Hmm, perhaps i should keep the fellowship and get social skills instead. Make him talk just as much as Morte and Murray just to annoy the party. ^^

According to Tome of Excess the Phase trait counts 2 traits, in the expanded minion section.