Tech-Priestess Orla Riall

[kaled]

Afternoon all,

Being as the 'Clave is down, I thought I'd start a thread here about my latest character - she's a Tech-Priest working for Magos-Explorator Vaal Kryzak (but will often be used as the leader of the warband in place of Kryzak). The model is loosely based on John Blanche's sketch of Koriel Zeth in the Visions books and is converted from the Daemonhuntress model. Originally she was going to be armed with an Inferno Pistol, but I decided I wanted her to be the close-combat character of the group and decided to give her a Sollex-Aegis Energy Blade instead (as featured in The Inquisitor's Handbook for Dark Heresy).

Front view
Back view

The Sollex-Aegis Energy Blade is described as having a blade of coherent high-energy plasma that materialises from the hilt as a blazing, roaring column of blue-white fire. Below you can see my prototype built from a green lightsaber. Comments are appreciated as to whether people think it adequately represents the energy blade, or suggestions for how it can be improved or done differently. If I do decide to go down this route, the actual model with be made from a blue lightsaber with the wire painted electric blue & white.
WIP energy Blade

As I've never played Dark Heresy, I'd also appreciate people's opinions as to how to translate rules for the Sollex-Aegis Energy Blade to Inquisitor. One question I had is in Dark Heresy, as well as having the 'Power Field' attribute which means it can break weapons that do not have it, the energy blade rules talk about it destroying weapons but don't mention an exception for ones that have the 'Power Field' attribute, so does this mean the energy blade can break those weapons too? One forum I looked at seemed to think so, but I'd appreciate a second opinion.

Other rules such as the wielder's strength bonus not being applied to the damage roll, characters not being able to be stealthy while it is activated and it needing fuel from a plasma cannister are easy enough to translate to Inquisitor. As for the rule about the blade slipping and a hit being worked out against the wielder, I figure this could be on a 96-100 when rolling to hit or parry. I figure Reach and Parry Penalty should be comparable with a power sword, but I'm not sure what damage it should have - in Dark Heresy it does slightly more damage (1D10+6 vs 1D10+5) and is slightly better at penetrating armour than a normal power sword (Pen. 7 vs 6).

As for the character herself, I'm thinking a couple of skills like Deflect Shot and Dodge She'll have plenty of bionics, a few gizmos to increase her awareness (the skulls floating around her head), and maybe an electro-graft increasing her WS. As for weapons, I want them to be fairly low-key compared to the energy blade, so perhaps a digi-laspistol built into her left hand and perhaps some sort of stun gun on her left-hand mechadendrite.

Comments and suggestions gratefully received.

- Dave

[MarcoSkoll]

My concern is that braid/plait looks much too wide at the top end, and unusually long for hair. It's hard for many people to get hair much longer than waist length (although not impossible, some people can get ankle length hair)

That is assuming of course it is actually hair, and not something else. I can imagine that Magi would have a habit of having shaven heads (or hair loss through some more advanced method), given it's "inferior organic stuff that gets in the way".

But if it is hair, it's nice to see the use of a style that's not common on Inquisitor models.

[kaled]

My intention for the character is that she has replaced a large proportion of her organic body with bionics, but has done it in such a way as to leave no doubt as to her sex - hence things like the breasts, high heels and long hair.

I wanted to try to give her something of that grotesque femininity that John Blanche manages to put into his sketches of female members of the AdMech.

[MarcoSkoll]

A perfectly valid point, and a good choice of inspiration, I'm just not sure the hair works quite right the way it is - it's far too thick a braid.

I'm probably more attentive to it than most people will be, given I'm used to frequently drawing braided hair in my artwork, so you might find that it's fine with most people, but to illustrate my point, a link.

Nonetheless, excellent work.

[kaled]

When you say it's far too thick, far too thick for what? It is a little thicker than amost real hair, but as you pointed out, it's a lot longer too. That said, I would have preferred it if it was a touch thinner.

What about the sword? What do people think of that? Does it conjure up the right sort of image?

[Ghost Rain]

Nice job on the model.

I find the hair to be just fine, I really like how it looks, it adds more of a mystical feel to the character in my opinion.

Concerning the energy blade, I have no idea such weaponry existed in the Warhammer 40,000 universe!

[MarcoSkoll]

Long braids aren't notably thicker than shorter braids at the top, they just taper more slowly.

As far as a definition of "coherent high-energy plasma", that's the typical explanation for how a lightsaber might work, so that's the way I'd be going about it.
As for rules, obviously, you want to be somewhere near the power sword, but perhaps plus a couple of points of damage, and with a lower Encumbrance.
While making it so it could damage power weapons might be reasonably accurate, it's something that really needs to be considered carefully from a gameplay perspective rather than perhaps a background one.

[kaled]

Originally Posted by Ghost Rain

Nice job on the model.

Thanks.

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Concerning the energy blade, I have no idea such weaponry existed in the Warhammer 40,000 universe!

They're very rare - few outside the AdMech have them, and the secrets of their operation are little understood even by their makers in the Tech-Priest sect of Sollex. Eisenhorn had a lightsaber type sword, but IIRC his was a power sword without a physical blade rather than a blade of coherent plasma.

Originally Posted by MarcoSkoll

Long braids aren't notably thicker than shorter braids at the top, they just taper more slowly.

What you say is true, but braids such as the one you posted a pic of earlier are limited by the amount of hair that grows on a human head - in this case (and in the case of the Callidus from whence it came) there isn't such a limitation.

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As far as a definition of "coherent high-energy plasma", that's the typical explanation for how a lightsaber might work, so that's the way I'd be going about it.

I agree, but this is 40k not Star Wars, so I figure Catferret's (I think it was him) description of it as like a messy lightsaber fits better. I.e. it's still a coherent plasma blade, just not quite as coherent as a lightsaber.

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As for rules, obviously, you want to be somewhere near the power sword, but perhaps plus a couple of points of damage, and with a lower Encumbrance.

Since close combat weapons don't have a weight (except the default of 5), and I never bother with the encumbrance rules anyway, I'm not so bothered on that score*, but when you say damage somewhere near that of a power sword, what were you thinking? 3D10+2? 5D6+3? 3D10+4? (He says, plucking numbers out of thin air without really thinking about them.)

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While making it so it could damage power weapons might be reasonably accurate, it's something that really needs to be considered carefully from a gameplay perspective rather than perhaps a background one.

True - so what would you say the issues are from a gameplay point of view? That said, Inquisitor is a game where rule of cool and fluff plays a more important role over things like game balance and fairness (relative to something like 40k). In many ways, despite its fearsome description, the energy blade is no where near as good as a power sword - a cannister only supplies enough fuel to power the blade for about a minute, it will damage the wielder 5% of the time and strength provides no bonus to the damage done.


* However a quick look at The Inquisitor's Handbook tells me that in that game a power sword weighs 3.5Kg and an energy blade just 1Kg, so if you do want to use things like encumbrance there's a starting point.

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, I've seen people with waist length hair with braids, and they're no thicker than shoulder length braids. And some people can grow ankle length hair, it's just rare.

As far as Encumbrance goes, I too tend to work on the basis of "not too much and it'll be alright" - but I do use the numbers as guidelines.

I'd be tempted to go for damage in the ranges you were listing - unfortunately, DH is not something I know, so I can't really translate one to another.
My inclination would be 5D6+1, 3D10+3 or close to one of them.

My point as regards "gameplay perspective" is that being able to lop any and every weapon in half is going to make it very hard for opponents to fight back in close combat. Obviously, if defending they can dodge - but then there's no chance of counter attack. If attacking, they then have to face a high likelihood of their weapon being sundered.
This is of course the same thing as a mundane weapon user experiences against a power sword - but against a power sword, the weapons which can fight back aren't one in a billion.

You also have to wonder a little about the science of it. Power swords are a form of energy field, and given the nature of plasmas, they would presumably interact in some way with this field.

I'm not sure. There are reasons to go either way. I'll sleep on it.

[Ghost Rain]

Remember this game does not deal with whats fair.

[kaled]

Originally Posted by MarcoSkoll

Well, I've seen people with waist length hair with braids, and they're no thicker than shoulder length braids. And some people can grow ankle length hair, it's just rare.

All very true, but how many female Tech-Priests have you seen who've attached artifical hair to the back of their bionic skull? The thickness of braids grown in real life has little bearing on the thickness of this one - my character is hardly going for a natural look.

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As far as Encumbrance goes, I too tend to work on the basis of "not too much and it'll be alright" - but I do use the numbers as guidelines.

My philosophy tends to be, if the model doesn't look overloaded then the character isn't. Of course, if someone isn't playing by WYSIWYG and their character has pockets like Guybrush Threepwood, then that philosophy doesn't work so well, and I'd perhaps look at the encumbrance rules.

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My point as regards "gameplay perspective" is that being able to lop any and every weapon in half is going to make it very hard for opponents to fight back in close combat.

This is true, but that's a situation the vast majority of my characters face when they come up against a character with a power sword. On the other hand, it would be possible when fighting a character with an energy blade, to play for time - we've all seen characters successfully Dodge a whole turn of attacks and they could break from combat and back off - a cannister of fuel will only last 5-6 turns, so this tactic would be especially viable if the wielder of the energy blade had already used fuel in an earlier combat.

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Power swords are a form of energy field, and given the nature of plasmas, they would presumably interact in some way with this field.

Possibly, but, going by Dark Heresy game mechanics, that might not be the case - in which case we'd simply make up some techno-babble to explain it. The rules for the energy blade state;

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Whenever a wielder successfully parries another weapon while using an energy blade and succeeds with two or more degrees of success, the wielder automatically destroys the other weapon.

Whereas the rules for weapons with Power Fields, which the energy blade also has, state;

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When you successfully use this weapon to Parry an attack made with a weapon that lacks this quality, you have a 75% chance of destroying your attackers weapon.

My interpretation would be that the energy blade has the Power Field attribute so it cannot be broken by other weapons that have it, but that it uses it's own mechanic for breaking weapons rather than the Power Field one. Whether my interpretation is correct is, of course, open to debate.

[precinctomega]

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Long braids aren't notably thicker than shorter braids at the top

Mine is. Very thick and chunky at the top and tapers to a thin end. The reason being because I have exceptionally thick hair (comes of having such a thick head, I guess*). I would imagine that a female magos with an interest in exaggerating her gender might well choose to have implanted hair, or even implanted monofilament wire to replicate hair.

*I thought I'd say it before you lot did.

R.

[MarcoSkoll]

I don't know the mechanics of the DH system, but "two or more degrees of success" implies a degree of unlikelihood - perhaps a scarcer chance of power weapon breaks.

Then again, I've got a temptation to say tie it into some factor on the hit/parry rolls. Critical success (either 01-05 or under a tenth of the required roll), or perhaps making a successful counter attack (possibly in place of making an actual attack).

It's just come to me that given it's a plasma weapon, armour with the ceramite upgrade should presumably get the bonus against this form of weapon.

[kaled]

Okay, this is my first bash at some rules for the energy blade...

Sollex-Aegis Energy Blade

A product of information obtained from the Aegis Data Fragment and utilising the properties of the Sollex focusing crystals, this is one of the rarest type of weapons in the Imperium - a power blade of coherent high-energy plasma. Devastatingly powerful, only a few Sollex-Aegis Energy Blades are held by individuals outside the Mechanicus, and their secrets little understood even by their makers in the mysterious Tech-Priest sect of Sollex. Although potent beyond even most power weapons, they can also prove treacherous to the unwary as the energy blade can fluctuate, laser containment fail, or the insubstantial blade slip unexpectedly. [From The Inquisitor's Handbook p.135]

Reach=3 Damage=3D10+3 Parry penalty=-10%

- Assuming the character has the hilt in their hand, activating or deactivating the energy blade is a free action that can be combined with other actions as normal.
- If an energy blade is parried, or successfully makes a parry, there is a 75% chance that the opponent's weapon is destroyed - even power, shock and force weapons are vulnerable to this effect. The energy blade itself cannot be destroyed by power weapons.
- While the energy blade does have a degree of density and mass, physical force applied to the swing contributes nothing to the weapons effect, and so no additional damage is done if the character's Strength is over 50.
- An unmodified roll of 96-100 when attempting to hit or parry means the insubstantial blade has slipped unexpectedly and the wielder suffers a hit from the energy blade to a random location.
- The energy blade consumes cannister fuel, with cannisters usually being worn on the belt and fed by a cable to the hilt. A cannister is good for 5 turns of operation (turns where the blade is active for at least half of the characters successful actions). Changing the cannister takes two actions.
- Due to the harsh actinic light and furnace-blast roar that the blade produces, the wielder cannot attempt to be stealthy while it is switched on. The GM should impose suitable modifiers to any awareness tests made to detect the character while the blade is activated.
- Deflect Shot can be used with an energy blade, however only shots from energy weapons can be rebounded back at the firer; solid rounds are vaporised by the plasma blade.

[MarcoSkoll]

That brings up an interesting question. Daemon weapons - destructible or not?

While one could argue the daemon held together their vessel, daemons are fickle and might be able to use it as an opportunity to escape, which would give all kinds of fun for the GM.

[kaled]

I decided to leave it for the GM to decide - in some situations I'd say no, in others it could be rather exciting if the bound daemon was released...

[Ancelyn1331]

Very nice work, Dave. I like the energy weapon- inventive.

[Ynek]

Pretty good, Kaled. The energy sword ought to look rather good once it's painted up... But I hope you haven't glued that wire in place yet, otherwise it's going to be a real dog of a job to paint it without getting white paint all over the green glow-rod.

Although, I feel I have to echo everyone's concerns that the braid is a bit thicker than it ought to be, but this isn't a major issue.

Overall, it's another great model from the Kaled workbench... I particularly like the rosette of servo-skulls floating at her back.

[Hadriel Caine]

braid looks fine to me. could easily be dreads or something. many reasons to have thick hair.

I can't wait to see paint on this. It'll sell me on the energy weapon I think. Not convinced atm to be honest mate! Like the stats etc but looks a lot like a light sabre to me

I really like the way you've blended components in the main body and like the 'femininity' and delicacy of the bionics compared to usual GW AdMech stuff.

think you've achieved that Blancheian look rather well myself.

Adam

[kaled]

I'm glad people have commented on the blade - I'm still not convinced it's perfect, but so far I haven't come up with a better plan (and neither has anyone else!). I think the addition of the wire makes it look a lot better than the plain lightsaber and I hope it'll be improved further when it's painted. The green prototype looks okay, but I think the final blue/white version will look a lot better.

I started painting her yesterday - so far the plan calls for a bronze body and red robes with a white cog pattern along the edge. I plan to do the skulls silver and her mechadendrites metallic black like those on my Gruss conversion.

Once she's finished I'll look at arranging a game so I can give her a spin - maybe around here, or perhaps at WHW depending on who's up for it.