Seriously... why? You would think someone as seemingly useful with cybernetic implants and stuff would have serious bonuses to the game play mechanics. But the more I search into the classes of a tech-priest, the more cheated I feel that class has gotten. Prove me wrong you heretics! And I say that with all possible love.

Actually, if one class in overpowered it is the Techpriest.

* Good Lore Abilities
* Good Combat Abilities
* Cool techno stuff

Downside

* Bed social skills

Aaargh! The forum ate my post! It needs to be resanctified right now! Someone has angered its machine spirits...

Oh well, to reiterate:

Seriously... why? You would think someone as seemingly useful with cybernetic implants and stuff would have serious bonuses to the game play mechanics. But the more I search into the classes of a tech-priest, the more cheated I feel that class has gotten. Prove me wrong you heretics! And I say that with all possible love.

Let's see:

-Techpriest make great secondary or even primary fighters. Lot's of toughness, Sound Con, Weapon Trainings and of course all the little gizmos you could want. If you take the Mechanicus Secutor rank from the IH, better bring along a handkerchief for your guardsman - a tricked-out Secutor with several ballistic mechadendrites (preferably with a flame pistol, a melta pistol and one or two other little surprises), a Mining Helot Augmetic, a good basic weapon and Dragonscale Power Armour (forget those stupid 1D5 hours battery life!) is a nightmare in combat (let's see... +30 strength, +20+x toughness, 8 points of armour... try breaking that , heretic scum!)

-He's also the second most lore-y character of the game, right behind the adept

-Further, he gets medicae at the second rank, along with cheap int advances to go with it

-I also like to call techpriests warp-less psykers. Seriously? Floating, multi-purpose tentacles, inducing fear, spontaneous healing and throwing glowing balls of energy? And all of it without a witchhunter breathing down my neck and me developing a severe aversion to the number '9'? Why, yes!

-Finally, there's of course his most important skill: Tech-Use. If there's a gadget, it's quite likely he's the only party member who knows how to operate it. If he isn't, he's still the one who can make improvements ( any test with machinery involved can officially be aided by tech-use for a +10 bonus) to it. And quite often, he's also the only one allowed to do stuff with tech, so unless you want a group of Skiitari after you because of what you did to that corrupt noble's cogitator, you better bring a techpriest along...

* Bed social skills

I really, really don't want to know...

hmmm, seems like i been looking at it all wrong then. I will have to sit down on the crapper with the book and look through tech-priests more seriously. I appreciate the imput though, my friend is thinking of being a tech priest and he wanted my recommendation but couldn't find a reason too. I didn't know he was so adept at using weaponry neither, and his "magical" skills all have negatives attached to them. Negardless though, it seems i underestimate the power of machinary and how the machine gods dont look down on me. All hail the power of ON!

and his "magical" skills all have negatives attached to them.

Only until you have either Electrical Succour (third rank, lets you recover fatigue by communing with a powered machine) or Energy Cache (fifth rank, lets you use most of the talents without getting fatigue in the first place).

Tech Priest are versatile and idd the Securter is insane...

No, a Techpriest is a very strong supportive character, a good combatent and generally knows alot.

Downside: Bad social skills and difficult to RP correctly

I was gunna say, what's not to love about this character!? I've played two missions as one now and am really looking forward to getting this guy up and running.

It was the image of the character that got me interested, not how good he can be. I've found I don't need to say alot during missions, but am always being asked to unjam guns for other acolytes. Now i've purchased medicae, I can see them flocking round for that too. Eventually he'll be a walking encyclopedia, and I've also been toying with the idea of buying this guy an autocannon once he's got really good strength and toughness...if that doesn't say kick ass, I dunno what will.

Ps. And who wouldn't want a wee flock of Gun Skulls flying about!?

I'm just waiting for the day I can say..."Get em boys!"

All of the above and you can get your friends into trouble ^^

"No, I'm sure of i-..Hmm what? He did-GREAT OMMNISIAH! Assassin! Get outside now, you violated the machine spirit!" The ebst excuse to lock the Assassin in a toilet for slapping the broken Recaf machine

Speaking of Tech-Priests in power armo(u)r... is this feasible? How would they fit?

bogi_khaosa said:

Power armour tends to be bespoke in the first place - there's no one-size-fits-all power armour, and it needs to be sized to fit the wearer well, given how necessarily rigid the plates are. For example, the suits worn by the Astartes are built from an assortment of pieces from disparate suits, chosen and altered to fit the (current) intended wearer, occasionally with new components added to signify a particular honour (for example, a Captain's promotion might see a new curaisse or pauldron forged especially for him). Every component is a relic in its own right, with a history of use and repair that might date back centuries or millennia and particular superstitions associated with each one ("that was the vambrace worn by Sergeant Ethulian when he died on Tarrax, and before him, Brother Solis wore it during the last stand on Tobansworld against the Orks; for six generations of Astartes has it served, and all who have worn it have died as heroes to the Chapter")

Consequently, a suit of power armour for a Tech-Priest would be made to fit that Tech-Priest, including all his additional appendages and implants. It wouldn't fit a different Tech-Priest unless the two were extremely similar in height, mass and configuration.

The IH states Dragon Scale to be the Tech-Priest Power Armour equivalent.

8 AP on all location, +10% Strength and inbuild respirator & photo-visor, all for a measily 7.500 thrones

The power of the tech-priest is vast indeed *drools on shirt*

Probably the only real criticism of the Tech-Priest I have (despite being my favorite all-around acolyte to play as) is that as far as group composition goes, Tech-Priests rarely, if ever, fit the dynamic. Most groups usually have a single fighty character, maybe two (along the lines of a shooty guardsman and a fighty assassin), with either an Arbitrator or Scum thrown in for good measure. The last two groups I've seen had two Assassins each, with a Psyker compounding it.

So, adding in the odd Tech-Priest kind of throws a wrench into the works. The Mechanicus seems like the odd man out in pretty much any group. There's no way to play subtle as a Machine Priest, so any undercover jobs are usually automatically blown thanks to the various augmetics. My favorite case of this had been a particular instance where my Priest, having been Fully Ressurected after a run in with a melta gun, was asked to accompany a group of considerably more stealthy acolytes. Having been fully rebuilt with a Machinator Array, my character was more than able of flattening most armed resistance, but infiltration was simply not an option, given his 7 foot tall, mostly robotic ass. Also, it didn't help he was probably the only knowledgable character in the group.

It's just a thought, I suppose. Tech-Priests seem like an awkward addition to most teams.

I think that's what BI was aiming for when they made DH Good stats, equipment, skills, talents etc etc.

Social interactions? Psh, whatevers. Stealth? Stealth lives in my Meltagun barrel ^^

Hmm, maybe.

It just seems like Tech-Priests violate alot of the unspoken rules for a squad of investigatory-focused acolytes. They're almost incapable of disguise, given their dispositions, they can't form a cogent deceit given their backgrounds and mannerisms, and thanks to the hundred pounds of whirring/buzzing/popping machine parts, they aren't really that quiet, either. Then again, Tech-Priests are terrifying, and asking too many questions after one usually winds one up 'dismantled'.

I rescind my above statements. Tech-Priests are excellent investigatory characters.

Shad said:

I see where you're coming from, with Tech-Priests having all the cyberwidgets and general inhuman appearance. However, a case could be made that, in certain places (hives, forge worlds, ships, etc.), tech-priests are all over the place. The proper robes and insignia, and a tech-priest in service of the Inquisition becomes a tech-priest in service of the Administratum, or in service to the PDF, or an Enginseer of the Imperial Guard, and so on. If you can't do that, then you have to use him the way mob bosses use big guys named Guido, as a looming presence in the background that scares people into doing what the Acolytes want them to.

They're almost incapable of disguise, given their dispositions, they can't form a cogent deceit given their backgrounds and mannerisms, and thanks to the hundred pounds of whirring/buzzing/popping machine parts, they aren't really that quiet, either.

Actually, there's a very simple disguise for a tech-priest: Chuck the robes, get some other characters to give you orders and pretend to be a servitor or (if you want a little more free will and go among underhive gangers) a pit slave. There are very few settings where you can't bring one of those along...

Cifer said:

I doubt that any tech priest would willingly part with there ropes, or that anyone would like to see them without.

I doubt that any tech priest would willingly part with there ropes

I doubt that many members of the ecclesiarchy would willingly part with their symbols of faith, yet priest characters are still expected to go undercover if the mission warrants it. So your point is...?

or that anyone would like to see them without.

Another part of inquisitorial work where "liking it" is not on the list of priorities, then.

I think perhaps he was referring to the poor souls in the unfortunate position of viewing a disrobed Tech-Priest, which I must imagine is an unpleasant, nay, scarring, event.

For all the bonuses that they are imbued I would think that they can (and certainly) must be as troublesome to use as a psyker considering (if you're role-playing them right) that they are following their own agenda's and place the priority of the Mechanicus even above that of the Inquisition. If you follow the fluff and the description of the Tech-Priest, they usually work with the Inquisition when it suits their purposes and have no problem parting ways when things go south (now that would make for an interesting situation if you're Ad Mech decides to leave you hanging on order from a High Magos)

Shad said:

The tech-priest in my group tends to spend most of his time back at the group's current base, plugged into several cogitators and a vox-caster, directing the group and providing them with information. When he needs to go undercover, he goes undercover as a Tech-Priest - afterall, it's not easy for those who cling to the weakness of flesh to tell the difference between one tech-priest and another, and the servants of the Machine God are numerous and ubiquitous enough that most people on worlds with any reasonable level of technology won't consider it too strange to see one. Impeding the work of a tech-priest is at least as significant a matter as impeding any other figure of authority in the Imperium, afterall, and they tend to hang around with all sorts of people (anyone who owns their own starship will, for example, have at least one tech-priest on hand for the ship's maintenance and upkeep).

Shad said:

Tech-priests are no less able to lie than anyone else - you don't need a Decieve Test to lie under most circumstances anyway (it's only in a situation where the lie directly affects someone else is a test required) - and being focussed on logic, rather than emotion, does not preclude deception. Indeed, the Mechanicus are an extremely secretive group, only too inclined to hoard and conceal knowledge for their own uses. They're not your typical con artists by any stretch of the imagination, but they can be remarkably surreptitious if the situation calls for it...

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I agree with you in the actuality of the universe, but as far as rules are concerned, a Tech-Priest is found somewhat wanting in matters social, more appropriately, anything relying on his or her Fellowship score. Considering it cannot be upgraded, is often reduced by starting packages, and reduced even more so by things such as the machinator array and full resurrection, pulling off a charm, deceive, or inquiry test is almost impossible if not based on a Tech-Use test.

Shad said:

As I said, though, lying does not inherently require a Decieve test, just as reading does not inherently require a Literacy test, and being able to see does not require an Awareness test - merely the ability to test against those skills in the first place (which, as decieve is a basic skill, means that anyone can do it, at any time, under any circumstances; only when your deception directly affects someone else, it's of significant narrative importance, or the consequences of failure are particularly significant is a test required).

For Inquiry, I've houseruled that anyway, in a limited fashion:

Binary Chatter (Revised Talent)
Your body has been modified to speak and interpret the binaric cant of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the primary form of speaking the language known as ‘Tech’. This allows you to interact more proficiently with servitors, granting a +10 bonus on any test made to instruct, program or question them. Further, if you have the Secret Language (Tech) skill, you may communicate with any other character possessing that skill and the Binary Chatter talent in the binaric form of Tech, allowing swift transfer of information and more complex interactions in a shorter space of time. This means that you may use the Logic skill as if it were Inquiry only when interacting with characters possessing the Binary Chatter talent who are able to speak Tech.

At which point, tech-priest characters become essential for communicating in any meaningful fashion with other tech-priests...