[Dark Heresy] Sell me on Tech-Priests

[Longes]

So, I'm trying to get into Dark Heresy, and I have trouble understanding the role/functionality of Tech-Priests. How do I build one? How do I play one? What role in the party does the Tech-Priest takes?

[Grim Portent]

Tech Priests serve a similar function to adepts, they focus on Int based skills with a focus on tech rather than lores. They're durable, having cheap toughness advances, access to the machine trait (if Lathe Worlds is being used) and can get a variety of utility based cybernetics.

They can do a lot of stuff in most parties, they can hack locked doors and encrypted computers, hotwire cars and jury rig a reactor into a bomb. They can lug around huge weapons and learn lore skills that are otherwise hard to access.

In the early game they usually focus on tech use, lores and Int, mid-game they start to become the toughest guys in the party, usually able to have machine 2-3 and a Toughness bonus of about 5 or 6, high end of the game they have a huge array of useful bionics, tons of utility skills and can shrug off most small arms fire with a grin before cleaving their enemies in two with a power axe or blowing them away with a heavy bolter.

They can also serve as the party medic very easily.

They are a touch hard to roleplay as standard tech priests as canonically they have little to no personality, but most of the people who've played tech priests in my group play them as odd balls and exceptions to the norm, Drunken Tech Assassins, Homicidal Magos Errants, Mumbling Scholars and Jovial Doctors are fun ways to play them.

They can be built and played in a lot of ways and the more extra books that are used the more they can do, they can become evil scientists, warp ritualists, spies and assassins, diplomats and police dog handlers, to name a few.

[Asmodai]

The key to understanding the Tech-Priests is understanding the relationship between humans and Machines in 40k. The only people with the requisite skills and knowledge to manufacture and maintain technology in the 40K universe are a bunch of red-robed priests that believe Science, Engineering and Mechanics are all religious rituals. So, they bless the machine, cover it in sacred oils, ritualistically press the buttons and lo and behold it WORKS! A piece of metal and plastic has been suddenly brought to life! Truly it is the miracle of the Machine God.

From our perspective this is nuts. But everyone in the 40k setting learns about science and technology from these guys, so everyone belives that is how it works.

The Priests themselves are a varied lot, but most of the higher ranked ones seek communion with the Machine Spirit by replacing a lot of their own bodies with cybernetics, becoming more and more devoid of self and becoming more as the Holy Machine.

This isn't mandatory, though. If you're content with being a lower rank priest or are messed up enough to hang out with a inquistor or rogue trader, you're likely more of an outlier and can play the quirky tech priest. It's just that the other priests may find you weird and cause you problems over it.

In game function the tech priests are technology specialists. They get immense bonuses to Intelligence, can use Intelligence as Fellowship and get cybernetics as advances. They can work any tech you encounter in the setting including even Archeotech and Xenotech. They can mantain and upgrade the weapons and armor of the group, and with enough training some can actually make new things. This makes them quite useful to any party and allows the group access to better gear and the ability to interact with technology which is rather rare in the 40k universe.

[jaybird]

They are a touch hard to roleplay as standard tech priests as canonically they have little to no personality, but most of the people who've played tech priests in my group play them as odd balls and exceptions to the norm, Drunken Tech Assassins, Homicidal Magos Errants, Mumbling Scholars and Jovial Doctors are fun ways to play them.


Any cogboy in the service of the Emperor's Left Hand, in fairness, is probably the exception rather than the rule.

[Destro_Yersul]

Also the lack of personality thing only really happens once they've gone through the Rite of Pure Thought and replaced the creative half of their brain with cogitator bits. This applies, largely, to senior techpriests only.

[Grim Portent]

Also the lack of personality thing only really happens once they've gone through the Rite of Pure Thought and replaced the creative half of their brain with cogitator bits. This applies, largely, to senior techpriests only.

True, but most of the enginseers and other low ranking priests in the fluff tend to be somewhat emotionally stunted and weird by human standards anyway, since they aspire to an absence of emotion resulting in them being aloof and indifferent until something causes a strong emotion. Perhaps I should have described it as them canonically tending towards vast degrees of social ineptitude, it would have been more accurate.

[The Glyphstone]

True, but most of the enginseers and other low ranking priests in the fluff tend to be somewhat emotionally stunted and weird by human standards anyway, since they aspire to an absence of emotion resulting in them being aloof and indifferent until something causes a strong emotion. Perhaps I should have described it as them canonically tending towards vast degrees of social ineptitude, it would have been more accurate.

This also describes a sadly significant percentage of gamers, so it's possible such a character is in fact more relatable.:smallbiggrin:

[Dead_Jester]

So, I'm trying to get into Dark Heresy, and I have trouble understanding the role/functionality of Tech-Priests. How do I build one? How do I play one? What role in the party does the Tech-Priest takes?

The important thing to know is that Tech-Priests are probably the most flexible class in the game; with a lot of good utility skills, and the potential for good combat abilities, they are pretty damn good no matter how you build them. However, you have 3 primary build options for Tech-Priest; the mechanic, the loremaster, and the weapon platform.

For the mechanic, take some trade (armourer), some tech use, some talents that improve your utility role. Also grab Medicae, your Int is already godly. This build works best if you hang back, grab a powerful weapon and shoot stuff till they die, fixing stuff when they have issues.

For the loremaster, the Adept might be a bit better than you for sheer breadth of knowledge, but you can a lot of stuff to improve intelligence, and a better set of utility skills (again, tech-use and Medicae are important here), as well as better combat skills. Heretek (Radical's Handbook) is always good for the pile of lores, although, like the name says it's pretty much damning.

The first two can easily be combined in a single character, and still perform well; you are the stereotypical intelligent machine, with more or less insanity and mad science involved, who's primary purpose is support.

The last option, admittedly my favorite, is the path of the Secutor. Essentially, you grab all the toughness and strength you can get, enter the Secutor alternate advance, grab some Mining Helot Augmentations, and become a bullet proof engine of death with three melta guns. You'll end up with literally no Fellowship, ridiculously low Agility, but ungodly amounts of strength and toughness, so just walk up to people shooting, and when you get into melee, cut them in half with your Omnissian axe. It should be said that this path is somewhat overpowered, as, before Ascension level play, you'll be nearly immune to damage and dishing out more pain than anyone else. However, because you are still a Tech-Priest with dirt cheap intelligence advances, you can still be good at tech-use and medicae even as a miniature titan.

For any tech-priest, also remember to look at their unique talents available to them; a few Luminen things are pretty good, and Electrical Succor means that fatigue is a thing of the past for you. Maglev Transcendance is always great, especially with the secutor build allowing you to fly over the puny mortals and rain death upon them.

[Destro_Yersul]

The last option, admittedly my favorite, is the path of the Secutor. Essentially, you grab all the toughness and strength you can get, enter the Secutor alternate advance, grab some Mining Helot Augmentations, and become a bullet proof engine of death with three melta guns. You'll end up with literally no Fellowship, ridiculously low Agility, but ungodly amounts of strength and toughness, so just walk up to people shooting, and when you get into melee, cut them in half with your Omnissian axe. It should be said that this path is somewhat overpowered, as, before Ascension level play, you'll be nearly immune to damage and dishing out more pain than anyone else. However, because you are still a Tech-Priest with dirt cheap intelligence advances, you can still be good at tech-use and medicae even as a miniature titan.

This reminds me of The Magos Paratus, an Ascension level techpriest I cooked up a while back. He had an MIU meltagun and carted an autocannon around as his default weapon. He was a little bit absurd. Took the Secutor alt-rank and the Heretek alt-rank on him. Techpriest is the only career I've ever managed to run out of XP before buying everything I wanted.

[Dead_Jester]

This reminds me of The Magos Paratus, an Ascension level techpriest I cooked up a while back. He had an MIU meltagun and carted an autocannon around as his default weapon. He was a little bit absurd. Took the Secutor alt-rank and the Heretek alt-rank on him. Techpriest is the only career I've ever managed to run out of XP before buying everything I wanted.

Ah, the good old autocannon... So many good memories of blasting daemons, heretics, xenos and innocents to bits, all for the low low cost of only 1000 thrones!

My personal favorite was having dual mechadendrite meltaguns (we used the BC melta = 2x pen up close) to butcher armored stuff, switching to the heavy weapon du jour when needed. With maglev transcendance of course. It really contributes to the vengeful god imagery.

[Nightgaun7]

I'm quite fond of techpriests. My favorite was some Emperor-damned mutant that became a heretek and eventually managed to pass himself off as a real techpriest from some far-off sector. He was tough even by techpriest standards and specialized in making servitors, cybermastiffs, gunskulls, and more to augment the party. As well as bionics.

[nickia]

My first tech priest is actually my favorite. he had good stats in everything (including fellowship), and had four concealed Servo-arm Mechadenrites (through which he often channeled luminen surges), an enhanced potentia coil, and two integrated phased plasma rifles. He would often crawl unnoticed along ceilings and walls, while directing three or four battle servitors, only to drop on the back of the BBEG to deliver 4 luminen surges, and if he survived that, four plasma rifle blasts to the back of the head the next turn.

[TimeWizard]

Since a majority of other classes are good at shooting (Guardsman, Arbiter, Assassin) and a few are good at melee (Arbiter, Cleric) I constantly found myself as redundant to the fighting. Then I got a Flamer. Get one as soon as possible. Flame weapons don't roll to hit, they AoE, and they have good damage and some armor piercing. Oh, buy a full suit of Flak Armor, that plus toughness upgrades and buying all your Sound Constitution upgrades make you really hardy. Early on you're more of a specialist in Tech, like a psychotic living lockpick. I have a big group (7 members) so I focus on being a Utility Man, the living sort-of-breathing swiss army knife. Door? Security. Wounds? Medicae. Big door? Demolitions. Darkness? Optical Mechadendrite. The Lumen (Shock/Blast/Charge) line of Talents is really cool too- for the cost of one Fatigue, you have one Lascarbine's worth of Hadoken that can never be taken from you or suppressed. If you take Electric Succor (and you should) you can freely charge anyone's Las Ammo for free when you are near a power source, or for a fatigue anywhere at anytime. You can even make those not cost Fatigue with a talent. That's right- your hands are UNLIMITED LASGUNS. THAT NEVER JAM. You can fix weapon jams by hitting it with a crowbar. You have Sacred Machine Oil- which is Literally Magic. SMO can fix broken plasma coils. At mid-tier you can M. Bison up off the floor for a few minutes each day, which also lets you Adam Jensen from falls. Don't even get started on Archeotech and Xeno tech, which are not only EXPLICITLY BETTER then anything else in the game, but can only be used by you. For the amount of XP everyone else spends on learning to gun some more you can create a secret compartment anywhere on your body. Oh, want a grenade where your blood pumper organ was? I have an Archeotech Psyker Futuresight Tarot Deck in my face, because you also get a poison filter for free. You can Mimic any voice, remember anything with Total Recall.

Then you get Science Tentacles, and suddenly everyone is standing a little farther from you then they used to.

[TheDarkOne]

The tech priest character that is in the Dark Heresy novels(Scourge the Heretic and Innocence Proves Nothing) is a pretty good example for role playing I think. Unfortunately it's an unfinished series, and it seem likely to remain that way.

[CombatOwl]

The key to understanding the Tech-Priests is understanding the relationship between humans and Machines in 40k. The only people with the requisite skills and knowledge to manufacture and maintain technology in the 40K universe are a bunch of red-robed priests that believe Science, Engineering and Mechanics are all religious rituals.

Anything else is heresy. One of the many roles of tech-priests in a 40k game is to root out tech-heresy. They can be every bit as dedicated and ruthless at finding and killing enemies of the Adeptus Mechanicus as normal inquisitors are towards enemies of the Ecclasiarchy.

That said, once a tech-priest reaches Magos, it's pretty inconceivable that they're not deep into tech heresy, since they undoubtedly understand the science underlying the equipment the Imperium can actually build--even if they pretend not to in front of everyone else.


So, they bless the machine, cover it in sacred oils, ritualistically press the buttons and lo and behold it WORKS!

There's some strong, strong implication that the sacred rituals thing is pretty much just a cover to disguise actual understanding--so that they don't get killed by dogmatic inquisitors. Especially for Explorators and high-up tech-priests.


A piece of metal and plastic has been suddenly brought to life! Truly it is the miracle of the Machine God.

At least that's what they tell everyone else. And since only hereteks understand science and technology outside the Mechanicus... well, that's just evidence the hereteks need to die, right?

[shadow_archmagi]

That said, once a tech-priest reaches Magos, it's pretty inconceivable that they're not deep into tech heresy, since they undoubtedly understand the science underlying the equipment the Imperium can actually build--even if they pretend not to in front of everyone else.

to avoid inquisitors


Two points:

1. According to The Lathe Worlds (the supplement for Dark Heresy), the Admech is technically not within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. Inquisitiors can go anywhere in the Imperium of Man, but technically the Admech is a sovereign, allied empire, rather than actually part of the Imperium. (This is also touched on in numerous other places, including the delightful novel Titanicus, where there's plenty of talk about tensions between the two separate groups). Inquisitors ain't got authority.

2. Tech Heresy is very much a matter of context in almost all cases. A Magos who invents a better lasgun? He's a genius! A technomat who does the same thing? Depending on his boss, that's insubordination, hubris, and or blasphemy. (and in a couple years, said boss will probably unveil his new lasgun design.) There actually are Admech weapons research facilities, and new things get released occasionally. The only things that are always forbidden are warp-based technologies like Vortex missiles or raising the dead engines. Xenotech is also highly censured, but there are specialists who deal with it.

3. If you'd like an explanation of how there can be lots of highly intelligent machine-lords working hard to discover new things all the time, and yet there's still a relative lack of progress, the answer is wizards. As in, your average Magos has the same mindset as your average wizard. He's far more likely to say "Ha ha! I have mastered gravity itself! I will build an awesome hoverboard, and share it with no one! Ha ha ha!" or, if he's feeling very generous "I will have all my factories start production immediately! I will rename the planet! Soon, every forge world in the sector will look enviously towards Hoverboardonia, but they'll never uncover my secrets! Ha ha ha! I'll finally show Magos Rival and Genetor Thinkshesogreat that it was me all along who was the greatest!"

3B. Then, if they think they have enough pull, Magos Rival and Genetor Thinkshessogreat will accuse Hovermagos of tech-heresy out of sheer spite, making it unlikely his hoverboards will ever see mass distribution.

[Lord Raziere]

or to put it another, Magos think like MAD SCIENTISTS. its not about getting things done, its about having awesome stuff that they can cackle madly about.

that and there is the possibility that the Imperium is actually progressing technologically, its just they have to keep up the facade that they aren't and that things have always been the same. So when a new lasgun comes out, they don't say its a new lasgun, thats heresy, so instead they say its a lasgun they have always used, in an orwellian "we have always had this kind of lasgun. totally" kind of way, and since everyone believes that they always have this kind of lasgun, this doesn't lead to Tzeetnch heresy, and if people question it they just say that its a lasgun made according to the traditions of some far away planet and everyone believes them because the Imperium is large enough and people ignorant enough to not know any better, made all the more plausible by the fact that there probably is a planet who has a long tradition of making a better lasgun than everyone else anyways.