In the campaign I'm running I was planning on having the kill team confront a wayward Ordo Xenos inquisitor. I wanted to have him loose some arco-flagellants on the kill team prior to them having to fight the inquisitor himself. I remember from the game Inquisitor that the arco-flagellant was one of the few things in that game with a chance of taking down a space marine (assuming it could close), however there are no rules I know of for such creatures in Deathwatch or in Dark Heresy. Also, when I thought about putting the rules together myself, I noticed that the iconic weapon of the arco-flagellant, and their namesake; the electro-flail, is utterly terrible and would be of absolutely no use against a space marine, still, I'm fairly sure arco-flagellants are meant to be pretty scary.

Basically, does anybody know of any rules for anything like an arco-flagellent/has anybody put together any unofficial rules and what would be your suggestion about making them more powerful so the battle brothers don't brush them aside. I don't want to field them as a horde as I feel that dilutes how scary they are meant to be, I'm really looking to make them about as powerful as their Inquisitor iteration.

The Dark Heresy supplement Disciples of the Dark Gods has stats for Archo-Flagellents, and the Rogue Trader supplement Hostile Acquisitions has stats for Murder Servitors. If you have access to either of those books, you should be able to extrapolate reasonable DW -scale A-Fs; otherwise you could 'ramp up' the Combat Servitor from the Adversaries section of the DW core rulebook and give it power weapons...

There are Arco-Flagellants in Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy, though I'd have to sift through my books to tell you where exactly. However, the combat system in these games (including Deathwatch) is quite different to and less lethal (especially to Space Marines) than Inquisitor - the way Toughness negates damage means that very, very few things will be able to scratch someone like an Astartes.

Assuming you don't want to houserule the combat mechanics, your options would be to either put the Arco-Flagellants into Hordes to apply a +1d10/+2d10 damage increase per attack (gaining increased frailty in return), or to houserule your own Arco-Flagellants into something more dangerous, either basing them off the official profiles or creating your own from scratch.

[edit] too slow

[edit] too slow

In Your Face!

Damned OCD- I never know what's going to trigger it. I really have no interest in arco-flagellants for DW , but now I can't stop thinking about them ...

Here's my take on how I would adapt them. The Passive mode stats are straight out of DotDG , while the Active mode is a hybrid of that and the Murder Servitor from HA , both goosed up a little:

ARCO-FLAGELLANT (Passive Mode)

WS: - BS: - S: 30 T: 40 Ag: 30 Int: 10 Per: 20 WP: 40 Fel: -

Movement: 3/6/9/18

Wounds: 12

Skills: None.

Talents: Fearless.

Traits: Dark Sight, Machine 2, Trigger Word*.

* Trigger Word: Arco-flagellants are fitted with pacifier helmets that keep them in a state of docile dormancy. This state is changed by a word or phrase, and once the trigger word has been registered the arco-flagellant immediately switches modes (from Passive to Active) and switches its profile to the Active profile presented here. An Active arco-flagellant is returned to Passive mode by another trigger word. Trigger words can be delivered by speech, electronic signal via vox, or by psychic message using the Telepathy psychic power.

Armour: Machine Plating (Head 2, Arms 2, Body 3, Legs 2).

Gear: Internal micro-bead (to receive/relay instructions only).

ARCO-FLAGELLANT (Active Mode)

WS: 40 BS: - S: (8)40 T: (8)40 Ag: (6)30 Int: 10 Per: 30 WP: 40 Fel: -

Movement: 6/12/18/36

Wounds: 25

Skills: Acrobatics (Ag) +10, Awareness (Per) +10, Climb (S) +20, Dodge (Ag) +10.

Talents: Ambidextrous, Berserk Charge, Combat Master, Crushing Blow, Fearless, Heightened Senses (Vision), Lightning Attack, Melee Weapon Training (Universal), Swift Attack.

Traits: Dark Sight, Fear 1 (Disturbing), Kill Programming*, Machine 2, Physical Overload**, Trigger Word, Unnatural Strength (x2), Unnatural Toughness (x2), Unnatural Agility (x2), Unnatural Speed, Unstoppable***.

* Kill Programming: An arco-flagellant must always charge into combat when it can (utilizing its Berserk Charge talent), and when in combat, it must take a Multiple Attack option when it can (utilizing its Lightning Attack talent).

** Physical Overload: Every combat Round, after the arco-flagellant has acted, a 1d10 should be rolled, and on a roll of ‘10’ the arco-flagellant suffers 2d10 Damage (ignoring armour and Toughness Bonus).

*** Unstoppable: An Active arco-flagellant is immune to the effects of Critical Hits (except those resulting in the destruction of limbs or death), Fatigue, or Stunning and must be reduced to -10 Wounds or be completely dismembered in order to be destroyed.

Armour: Machine Plating (Head 2, Arms 2, Body 3, Legs 2).

Weapons: Implanted electro-flails (1d10+12* I; Pen 3; Flexible, Power Field, Shocking).

*Includes Strength Bonus for Active mode and the Crushing Blow talent.

Gear: Internal micro-bead (to receive/relay instructions only).

I gave the electro-flails a power field (with corresponding AP) to give them roughly a 50% chance of wounding a Space Marine. Since Codex: Deamon Hunters calls electro-flails Power Weapons, I don't think this is out of line.

I don't have my Inquisitor book to consult anymore- I traded it to a used book store years ago, after it became obvious that I was never going to play Inquisitor but before DH came out...

Edit: Can anyone tell me how to delete a post?

Well you could translate their TT stats over (using the Grey Knights codex):

WS5 BS1 S5 T3 W1 I3 A4 Ld8 Sv -

Which equates to lots of medium-high-damage (but low-Pen) melee attacks but being easy to squish. So yeah use Hordes.

(The FFG published ones are considerably tougher, now that I think of it. A Guardsman is more durable in TT.)

Well you could translate their TT stats over (using the Grey Knights codex):

WS5 BS1 S5 T3 W1 I3 A4 Ld8 Sv -

Which equates to lots of medium-high-damage (but low-Pen) melee attacks but being easy to squish. So yeah use Hordes.

(The FFG published ones are considerably tougher, now that I think of it. A Guardsman is more durable in TT.)

Wow, they've really been neutered. In Codex: Witch Hunters (which was, what, 4th Ed.?) they had Invulnerable Saves to represent dodging.

Wow, they've really been neutered. In Codex: Witch Hunters (which was, what, 4th Ed.?) they had Invulnerable Saves to represent dodging.

They do have Feel No Pain, though. So I take back the Guardsman comment. They're slightly more durable than a Guardsman.

Arco-flails count as close-combat weapons (not power).

I like translating stuff from the tabletop as well - using items and characters from both sources as a sort of Rosetta Stone.

And yes, Arcos have been nerfed badly .. though, they've also been buffed in some regards, being made stronger and more likely to hit. Overall, it seems they were made into even more of a cheap berzerk unit.

That being said, you could easily take both the old and the new stats and pretend they're both okay, representing two different patterns or models of Arco-Flagellants. The fluff descriptions from both the 3E codices and the new 6E books hint at Arco-Flagellants being somewhat individualised, anyways, when they mention that they could be equipped with several different kinds of melee weapons, which have just been grouped together into a single one for gameplay/abstraction purposes.

Whipped up something quick and dirty:

3E/4E version

5E/6E version

WS 65, BS 20, S 65 (12) , T 35, Ag 40, Int 10, Per 25, WP -, Fel -