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I've just started getting interested in Dark Heresy- played one session with myself and another player. Before long, of course, my planning for Dark Heresy turns to thoughts of Eisenhorn. Or rather, one of his enemies: Ecclesiarch Dazzo. I think Ecclesiarch Dazzo has some great potential as a character.

He's a high-ranking member of the clergy, and as you'd expect he spends a lot of time negotiating, charming, and conspiring. But when crisis strikes, instead of reaching for his gun, Dazzo wields immense psyker powers. I think it's fascinating, and I was disappointed to find that there are no psyker-based branches to the Cleric career. (But Adepts? Come on!)

How would you make a psyker Ecclesiarch? I acknowledge that Dazzo is certainly a very high-level character, but how would he grow to that point? When would you start allowing psyker talents, and what prerequisites and cost would be required? Would you buy them as Elite Advances or make an alternate career branch?

I think he was a rogue psyker and managed to get into the echlesiarchy. He probably just hid the fact that he could control the warp for a long time and eventually charmed his way to the top. It would be really awesome to be able to be a cleric with those powers. I think there is a mutation that you cna get that will give you a psy rating.

Talk to your DM, the rules mention elite advances being a thing you can do if your DM allows it. Just don't expect to be able to pay the normal price for your psyker levels, and that is even if your DM allows it.

There are faith powers in the blood of martyrs book, use those for reference.

Are you quite sure that character is what you think he is? An Ecclesiarch is not just a high-ranking cleric, he's the boss of the entire Ministorum and a High Lord of the Imperial Senate on Terra.

Confused by the description (at first I thought it's just Dan Abnett having some idea again) I did a quick search on the internets, and a couple pages claim he was a fraud. That said, maybe this angle is still useful for you? A Psyker character who uses his social skills, amplified by his psychic talents, to ursurp leadership of some local parish or lead a small cult, styling himself a priest?

It's much easier to pretend to be a priest as a psycher than to do it the other way around. With that one power that gives +30 to interactions, it's easy to be liked.

ph34r wrote:Talk to your DM, the rules mention elite advances being a thing you can do if your DM allows it. Just don't expect to be able to pay the normal price for your psyker levels, and that is even if your DM allows it.

Yeah. The book also mentions custom careers (Core Rulebook, p.43)- I think this'd be a bigger-scale thing than an Elite Advance. I guess my interest is to develop a custom career, but I wonder what would seem amenable to more experienced players.

Lynata wrote:Confused by the description (at first I thought it's just Dan Abnett having some idea again) I did a quick search on the internets, and a couple pages claim he was a fraud.

Well, he's definitely corrupted by Chaos. As to whether he was ever legitimately bestowed the title of Ecclesiarch, I'm not sure how anyone would know. Eisenhorn himself never questions the notion, even after being the target of Dazzo's psyker powers, as far as I remember.

Do you have the links for those webpages that said he's a fraud? I found one mention on the Schola Progenium site.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here was an idea I came up with: the concept is a faithful member of the clergy who travels around with another psyker. The other psyker is sanctioned, but after the cleric is exposed to the other psyker's manifestation of psychic phenomena, he comes to realize that he is, himself, sensitive to the warp.

Requirements: be affected by, or present for, another psyker's manifestation of psychic phenomena.

Psyker advances:
-Psynicience (This must be the first.)
-Psy Rating 1
-Psy Rating 2
-Psy Rating 3
-Psy Rating 4
-Psy Rating 5 (6 would be right out; I'm on the fence about 5. Might be better to cap it at 4.)
-Minor Psychic Power
-Psychic Power
-Power Well
-Discipline Focus
-Favored of the Warp
-Fettered Casting (Modified from Ascension: Limit your power roll to half of your dice, rounded up. Does not manifest psychic phenomena. Incurs one fatigue point per attempt.)

(To do: establish minimum ranks and prerequisites for each Psyker advance. My idea is that it would cost the cleric whatever it costs the psyker, plus 100 exp, and would require a rank one higher than a comparable scholar-track psyker to achieve.)

Each time the cleric acquires a psyker advance, he is shaken by the realization that he has become the witch he once so hated. Upon learning the advance, he gains 1d5 insanity points minus the number of Strength of Mind advances (listed below), to a minimum of 0.

(These are chosen, not because they are all already psyker-related, but because they're largely non-psyker-related. This gives them an ancillary benefit. This character advancement scheme does not add any ways to obtain these: they are obtained as normal for a character. Not all of these may be normally available to a cleric.)

Strength of Mind advances:
-Forbidden Lore (Psykers)
-Flagellant
-Insanely Faithful
-Iron Discipline
-Meditation
-Strong Minded
-Mental Fortress
-Unshakeable Faith

This way, the character could either take the Insanity points (risking losing their character, or costing XP to remove) or pay for the extra upgrades first and delay their growth as a psyker. I think that makes for an interesting tradeoff.

Angrypuffin wrote:Do you have the links for those webpages that said he's a fraud? I found one mention on the Schola Progenium site.

That's one of the sites that popped up during my search - though my first step was the Lexicanum. Unfortunately his page only exists in German, so I'm not sure if that's helpful to you. I can say, however, that such "mobility" is rather untypical of a High Lord of Terra and leader of an entire Adeptus, as is the supposed chance his psychic talents remained hidden for the many decades it would have taken to rise to this post. The Imperial Cult holds a firm stance against "witches" as part of its creed, and it's not as they wouldn't do purity sweeps regarding such matters.

Now, I'm not saying that something like the legend surrounding that "woman pope" in the real world is unapplicable in 40k, but in light of what this guy does over the course of the story, the alternative seems somewhat more fitting.

Your other idea about the "awakening" psychic potential (which is also a viable option) reminded me of something I read in another novel, though, specifically that crooked cleric from Faith & Fire with his ancient machine. I don't think I should spoiler much here, but you could keep in mind that there is a lot of potential for Apostates within the Ministorum who may simply come to believe something not in line with what the Holy Synod decreed, and then there is always stuff like the warp, daemons or even archaeo-technology that may be able to change people.

I still think you could just play the character as a Psyker wearing a priest's clothes and behaving in a clerical manner, though. Easier to balance, and easy to explain with the psyker mechanics coming from his body whereas the roleplaying comes from his character/personality. Just add a couple necessary knowledge skills (either as Elite Advance or perhaps rather by swapping them with Telepathica ones from standard progression) and you're good.
Alternatively, use the Cleric career and then take the Nascent Psyker background package? The choice would probably depend upon how you want it to fit into that particular individual's background, i.e. if he is faking his clerical profession or if he's a real priest who happens to develop formerly undiscovered abilities. The latter might even be a reason for how he ends up within the Inquisition, for the Church doesn't take too kindly to that kind of stuff.