Force Sword and Psychic Powers

By Luo_Kahn, in Rogue Trader Rules Questions

Posted at

Hi all,

I'm play a melee psyker with a forcesword. We have some confusion what you can and cannot do in a turn with psychic techniques, activating the forcesword once or even multiple times.

The rules in the core book are clear. No 2 half actions can be the same, but you can have free actions the same as one of the half actions or full actions. The errata say the following:

Using Actions (page 237):
Under the heading “Using
Actions” add the sentence
“An Explorer cannot perform more than
one of the following during his Turn: an Action with the “Attack” subtype,
using (not sustaining) a Psychic Technique, or using a Navigator Power.
“The only exception to this is that a character may use a Psychic
Technique or Navigator Power that only requires a Free Action during
his turn and still perform an action with the “Attack” subtype on the
same Turn. They may not use an additional Psychic Technique or
Navigator Power during that Turn.”

The question is this: does the activation of the force sword count as using a psychic technique? If it does, i can only activate the force sword once per turn, or only use a technique and not the force sword. Or activate the forcesword once, regardless of how many attacks i can generate (counter attack, swift attack or lightning attack) and no techniques..

I'd be happy about any thoughts...

Greets Luo

Posted at

I'd say there's no conflict with maintaining other Psychic Techniques, as it's a Focus Power test rather than a technique itself.

It's a moot point, because it's a Half Action for the Focus Power Test, and Swift/Lightning Attack is a Full Action.

Posted at

I was under the impression that the opposed willpower/psi focus test was incorporated into the successful melee attack itself and is therefore not a separate half action from that attack, and that using a force weapon wasn't so much a normal or separate psychic power as it's that you are literally stabbing the motherfucker in his soul. However it still generates psychic phenomenon and therefor potentially perils of the warp when you do it. I also remember reading though that you can only proc the effect once per turn.

Keep in mind I don't have the rule in front of me and the last time I read this stuff I was referring to the Deathwatch core rulebook where it might work differently.

Edited by Amazing Larry
Posted at
Nope.


Whenever a psyker damages an opponent, he may make a Focus Power Action (Opposed Willpower) as a Half Action. If he succeeds in making the test and scores more degrees of success than his opponent, for every degree of success, the force weapon’s wielder deals an additional 1d10 E Damage, ignoring Armour or Toughness Bonus.


Deathwatch is different, in that it's a Free Action for EVERY attack you make. You're playing as an Astartes Librarian in that case though, so your familiarity with force weaponry is more to be expected then.

Posted at

Into the storm states that after damaging an opponent, he makes a focus power (opposed will) test as a free action . Since we are using the rogue trader books, that is the rule we keep.

Our main point of discussion is this. Does making a focus power test count as using a psychic power? You can push a focus power test, get psy phenomenons and perils etc. It's just the rogue trader rule set that has this problem. I wasn't able to find this issue with deathwatch, black crusade or only war.

Posted at

Are you sure about that? I copied that block of text directly from my PDF version of Into the Storm, and there's no errata to change it to or from a Free Action.

Posted at

Into the storm states that after damaging an opponent, he makes a focus power (opposed will) test as a free action . Since we are using the rogue trader books, that is the rule we keep.

Are you sure about that? I copied that block of text directly from my PDF version of Into the Storm, and there's no errata to change it to or from a Free Action.

There is nothing in the errata either way. Interesting.

Does making a focus power test count as using a psychic power? You can push a focus power test, get psy phenomenons and perils etc.

Focus Power Tests are defined seperately from use of psychic techniques.

It looks like you can still use the fettered option though.

The definition of Focus Power test make it clear that psychic phenomena (and perils) will be triggered.

Posted at

Deathwatch clarified it a bit. Channeling is a free action and can be done once per turn, provided your attack does damage. Power Levels do apply to channeling. It's a Focus Power test after all.

Alex