A character may acquire no more Lesser Acolytes than his or her Fellowship bonus. If a Lesser Acolytes is killed, he or she can be replaced by making an Influence test (subject to availability modifiers, Ordinary (+10) difficulty when near an Imperial world, Challenging (+0) when aboard an Imperial Ship, etc). Characteristics The Lesser Acolyte has 180 points to spread among its characteristics, with no one characteristic higher than 30. Lesser Acolytes never have Influence. A Lesser Acolyte's Strength, Toughness, and Intelligence characteristics cannot be less than 01 (i.e. players must put at last 1 point into these characteristics when creating them), other characteristics may be 0 (i.e. have no points put into them). A Lesser Acolyte with 0 in a characteristic automatically fails all Skill and Characteristic Tests based on that characteristic. A Lesser Acolyte’s characteristics also cannot exceed a certain value as determined by the power level of the Lesser Acolyte. Skills Lesser Acolyte's automatically gain Common Lore (Imperial Creed, and Imperium), Linguistics (Glossia, and either Low Gothic or High Gothic) and may choose up to 4 Skills to be Trained in. A +10 bonus may be added to one existing Trained Skill for each Skill less than 4. Talents Lesser Acolyte's can take up to 5 talents that he or she meets all the prerequisites for. Traits Lesser Acolytes can take up to 3 traits from the following list: Armour Plating (1-4), Darksight, Machine (1-5), Regeneration (1-2), Psy Rating 1, Soul-bound, or Unnatural Characteristic (+1). Or players may “trade in” Traits instead of taking them, adding instead +10 to a Characteristic (no Characteristics may exceed 30). Equipment/Wargear Lesser Acolytes are usually equipped with either one rare (or less) suit of armor, or one rare (or less) ranged weapon, or one rare (or less) melee weapon. All other equipment must be acquired by the Throne Agent that the acolyte answers to. Loyalty Characteristic Each lesser Acolyte has a loyalty characteristic that starts out equal to the Fellowship characteristic of their superior (the character that purchases the Elite Advance). Lesser Acolytes differ from NPCs in that they are not controlled by the GM. Instead they are controlled by the player in the same way as his own character. In effect, a Lesser Acolyte represents an additional weaker character run by the player, augmenting his abilities in the game and presenting him with different ways to overcome challenges. Lesser Acolytes are not completely subservient to their character’s will (even the most fanatical of Lesser Acolytes are not completely infallible), and in certain situations may not do what the character wants (or they might just get it wrong). The GM makes a Loyalty Test for the Lesser Acolyte whenever a player wants one of his character’s Lesser Acolytes to either: • Risk their life (combat does not count provided the character is fighting alongside them). • Perform a task out of character (i.e. not attacking a hated foe or not looting the dead). • Follow orders in their absence (i.e. left on guard duty or sent off to kill someone). The GM rolls 1d100 against the Lesser Acolytes Loyalty. If the roll is equal or less than its Loyalty then the Lesser Acolyte performs as the player wishes. If the roll is greater than its Loyalty then its nerve has failed or something has gone wrong and the GM takes control of the Lesser Acolyte for the remainder of the encounter.
