I'm in a game where I'm playing a Hellknight Signifier of the Order of the Cipher (a GM created order)
The Order of the Cipher is an offshoot chapter of the Order of the Scourge who specialize in clandestine operations. They work as spies and secret agents. If the Order of the Scourge are the Hellknight "police" then the Order of the Cipher are the "undercover cops."
The GM has left it up to me to develop more of Cipher's fluff.
Specifically, I need to come up with what their Favored Weapon is, and also what their order's armor looks like (for those rare instances when they reveal themselves).
Any ideas are welcome.
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Clandestine ops would lend itself to the dagger, as it is a weapon that is easy to conceal, but still deadly in a skilled wielder's hands. The armour would be light and form fitting as to more easily be hidden underneath clothing or robes but with a distinctive mask so that upon revealing their true nature the hellknight's targets would know that they have been uncovered by an agent of the Order of the Cipher.
Daggers are Simple weapons. I kind of like the imagery but I think that the Hellknights, as a military order offering specialized weapon training, would go with a Martial weapon. Almost all the other orders use martial or exotic weapons as their signature. I think the Heavy Mace is the only one that isnt.
I like the mask idea a lot though. That ties in with what Signifiers already do.
Kukri is a good suggestion. I like it.
Each Hellknight order has visually distinctive full plate armor.
For Cipher I'm thinking I'd like to go with two kinds of armor
For light armor, I'm thinking a light armor that fits under clothing. d20pfsrd lists a spidersilk bodysuit. That seems very appropriate.
The order still needs a suit of platemail for their heavies
Any suggestions on the visual appearance of the armor(s)?
What about appearance? What does the platemail look like?
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I'm still sticking with my form fitting plate that doesn't look too bulky even under robes so that even in Hellknight plate they can still be stealthy or disguise themselves. Add in an imposing but nearly featureless mask for light, face plate for heavy, possibly like this.
I like that concept as a base, but they're Hellknights. I feel there should be something extremely visually distinct about the armor. "Person in faceless mask" just doesn't go far enough.
My thought was to cover the armor in vertical runes written in Infernal, like someone took Matrix Code and made armor out of it.
Basic versions wouldn't glow or cascade like that, but enchanted ones certainly could.
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Given their propensity for clandestine ops, I personally don't feel like it should be super flashy or distinctive in a way that their plate draws the eye, instead perhaps focusing on a angular design that makes it hard to look at or focus, an unnerving and therefore imposing suit, but one that fits the theme of the order as well.
I agree with Cr5500cricket. Since subtility is their thing, something flashy and instantly recognizable may not be a good thing. Their distinctive armor may just look like the standard full plate at first but upon closer inspection, these runes become visible due to subtle coloration or something akin to an invisible arcane mark that with a command word that causes these runes to reveal themselves. This trick is a technique used by Thrune agents that the Chipher order could adopt.