So I REALLY need your opinons on this one guys.

One of my players wants to play an unsantioned Psyker. Not instantly I can see like a million difficulties. Like how psykers got through long mental training and exersises before they are santioned, how the santioning helps to protect the psyker from the warp. Problem is I don't know how to handle this mechanically. He says he doesn't want to play some ordinary psker as they are kind of bland which I agree with, but I still don't know how I can work the guy into the mechanics. I was thinking roll extra times on perils of the warp/phenomena chart, But he thinks that isn't fair which I may agree with, Then maybe adding to the threshold values of his powers, maybe even not letting him gain discpline powers. But these all seem too big for it to be fair on him. Maybe I can increase the chances of getting the phenomena i.e. 8 or 9 instead of just 9.

Really need your help.

Hoodedcrow.

Giving reference to Creatures Anathema their are Psykers called Verminspeakers. As you, I and cannon has it the Holy Terra and their Black Ships round up Psykers for use in Scholastica Psykana. "Sometimes a Psyker slips through the cracks" The Inquistion views this as heretical activity. Most of the time rounding them up and bringing the avenging fire upon them. For your pc, being unsanctioned is a pretty cool thing that would give the character dimension. Always having to watch his back to see if his/her secret is revealed. Their are some advances for the Verminspeaker. The first Elite Advance is taken at character creation. "They are born not trained." taking this elite advance, the Psyker mut take the beastmaster power as soon as it is ready. and take powers from the telepathy discipline. Advance Cost 200xp. Gain the Unsanctioned Trait as well as the Primitive Trait. The PC gain the survival and awareness skill and gain the Call Creature psychic power. You would not add 3d10 to your starting age.

Advance Cost Type

Common Lore(underworld) 100 S

Disturbing Voices 100 T

Heightened Sense 100 T

Minor Psychic Power VerminSpeaking 100 T

Sound Constitution 100 T

Survival +10 100 S

Tracking 100 S

Dark Soul 200 T

Decieve 200 S

Hardy 200 T

Iron Jaw 200 T

Jaded 200 T

Major Psyhic Power Bestial Ally 200 T

Melee Weapon Train(Chain) 200 T

Peer(The Insane) 200 T

Verminspeaking:

Threshold 10

Sustained: Yes

Focus Time: Full Action

Seeing and hearing from the eyes and ears of nearby creatures.

50 meters

May only take a half action each turn

Overbleed: For every 5 points ofver the threshold you can extend the the power by 10 meters

Bestial Ally

Threshold: 18

Sustained: No

Focus Time: Full Action

Range : 10m

Like a charm spell when the beast becomes your ally. The beast must have less than 20 wounds, and Intellligence less than 5

The creature must makes an opposed WP test. If the Psyker wants the beast to harm himself he must make a hard(-20) WP test. One more thing the verminspeaker cannot have anymore creatures under his psy rating.

Yeah I know of the verminspeaker. But I'm trying to keep to the normal careers for a while you know i'll talk to him about it though. He has given me a solutino I think I like though

He rolls and extra die for casting powers but discards the lowest. All nines are taken into account for the warpy badness. he also doesn't get the santioning side effect. I'll run verminspeaker over with him though.... it may be the way to go.

Well, if it's "interesting" you're looking for, there's the Nascent Psyker from the IH. He can be any career he wishes and still have psychic powers. He will automatically succeed in their use, but each use automatically generates a phenomena/perils. Not boring in the least ;-)

Make sure that he knows that his fellow Acolytes are likely to do unpleasant things to him if they find out he's unsanctioned. Witchcraft is nothing to sneeze at, and a kneejerk "blow his head off with a bolter" reaction is completely in character.

Thanks for the help guys. He has for some reason dropped the issue and is trying to write up a normal psyker. Thanks for the ideas though I hadn't seen some of that stuff in the books. I'll know what to do if it comes up again.

A psyker (or any character) is only as 'normal' as the player makes them.

You might want to remind your player that psykers aren't really 'normal' to start with... would you be normal if you could reach across reality into the vast space that is the warp and bend it to your will? Don't discount the fact that every time you reach for the warp you never know what might be reaching back! Throw in a few years in the hold of a Black Ship and being exposed to a fraction of the will of the Emperor and you have a nice recipe for unique personalities.

Personally, I would have a hard time allowing a pc unsanctioned into my game unless the player had a solid background story and was willing to sink xp into a 'fake' sanctioning. I just don't see an Inquisitor worth his/her rosette knowingly dealing with an unsanctioned witch for any length of time. Talk about an easy way to find a bolter sized hole in your skull.

Yeah what about the radicals they would easily allow an unsanctioned psyker in their ranks don't you think?

You are probably right about the history/personalities though I'll run it by the guy and try help him along. He is usually very good at the whole character thing anyway so it shouldn't take him too long to come up with something decent if he hasn't already. I'm sure that he should be able to come uip with something unique in his own way.

Yeah what about the radicals they would easily allow an unsanctioned psyker in their ranks don't you think?

Certainly not "easily". Radical does not mean stupid. It might be that a radical inquisitor finds a talented young wyrd and trains him on his own because he does not want to lose him to the Black Ships and Terra - the chances for a psyker to make the trip back from there aren't exactly great even for "good" psykers after all. However, this already represents a risk for the inquisitor. Anything less than a complete training just asks for Rogue status.

The only way any inquisitor would use a psyker that is not trained by him or Terra would be as a catspaw that is disposed of after its mission is concluded - essentially setting one enemy of mankind against another.

their are the emergent Psyker Rules in the Inquisitors Handbook, but that makes the Character Something else with Psyker options tacked on at the cost of a Rank.

Cifer said:

I'm going to have to take issue with this particular statment regarding any topic.

Inquisitors are of such varied points of view, degrees of morality, strong personality, and levels of sanity that you really can't make a broad statement about "the ONLY way ANY inquisitor would" anything.

Maybe you can make such statements about particular inquisitors or even inquisitorial factions, but trying to apply such a restrictive view point to all the varied bearers of the Inquisitorial Seal just doesn't fly.

If you're looking for something mechanics wise to represent the unsanctioned psyker, let him make a character as normal from one of the non-Psyker career paths, then have him purchase a lever of Psy as an elite advance with his starting XP. Assign powers accordingly. Any further powers or Psy levels can be treated as additional elite advances.

To represent the unsanctioned psyker's lack of control over the Warp, whenever the player makes a Power Roll, role 1 additional die that is distinct from the others. We'll call it the Wyld die. The player may roll the Wyld die, though the GM may wish to roll it in secret. Ignore the results of the Wyld die, unless it comes up 9. On a Wyld die result of 9, treat the result as if it was a normal part of the Power Roll. This increases the likelyhood that the unsanctined Psyker will trigger Supernatural Phenomenon and Perils of The Warp, but also allows the chance for a momentary spike in power, as their lack of training means they are less likely to be able to control the forces they are attempting to command, making them the hidden psykic threats the Imperium fears.

@DocIII

I'm always against making generalizations.

However, in this case, one should not forget what organization we're dealing with. Anyone who has become an inquisitor has done so because he was deemed worthy and capable by another inquisitor to protect humanity from its foes. One of the most obvious of such foes is the untrained psyker, aka the Daemon 5 o'clock snack. I don't believe that any inquisitor (see? I'm doing it again) who is truly blind to a danger this omnipresent would either be elevated to his office or remain there for any time.

The only way i can see an unsanctioned psyker being part of a team for any length of time is if their Inquistor follows the belief of the PolyPsykana in Diciples of the Dark gods.

Otherwise the inquistor should KNOW that their acolyte is sanctioned and if they are not, they wouldn't of made it to the group.

There is also the possibility that no one has mentioned so far except for kinda Cifer.

Perhaps the Inquisitor is a Radical who has decided that there is no better way to root out heretics within the Inquisition as well as without than by using an unsanctioned Psyker and placing them with other individuals (the PC's) that for some reason are considered weak willed and temptable by Chaos. The Inquisitor is both playing out rope for the acolytes to hang themselves with but also enough in the hopes that they will ensnare other weak willed individuals and heretics so that they can be quietly (or not so quietly) exterminated. The weak will be culled and the strong will be elevated...kinda sounds like a Radical Istvannian to me.

Plus side is the players are happy cause they get to play individuals of dubious background, disadvantage is that if only some want to spiral into darkenss you will either have a schism that ends up with either one group killing the other or you having to split them into two distinct groups where the 'pious' ones get co-opted into a more Puritan Inquisitors retinue who is investigating the other Inquisitor for heresy (who will prolly execute the acolytes when he's done anyhow for possible corruption) and the others 'stay' with the original radical. So either a very fast progression to the campaign or a very long one of cloak and dagger style machinations depending on the style of the players and the GM.

Cifer said:

When the published game material includes full feldged Inquisitors who are sorcerers using daemon weapons, I don't think there's really much strength to this argument. (Take a peek in Disciples) If you go further into background material (TT, codexes, novels, etc.) you have inquisitors summoning daemons and using daemonhosts as tools. You're trying to tell me that a guy who runs around with a daemon on a leash would automatically think an unsanctioned psyker was too great a threat to use? That doesn't even get into the istavannian types who start rebellions and heresies because they believe that the Imperium needs conflict/threats in order to get/stay strong.

My argument still stands. The difference between the radical practices you mentioned and using an unsanctioned and untrained (I've already mentioned that Inquisitors may take the training/examination of psykers upon themselves) psyker as an acolyte is that the former tools are kept on a very short leash. The daemonhost is generally imprisoned somewhere while its not being used and the daemon weapon is at the side of the inquisitor himself. Acolytes, on the other hand side, are usually expected to work on their own with nearly no assistance by their Inquisitor who may be half a sector away.

Verminspeakers are unsanctioned and suffer no game-mechanical penalties.

I daresay they represent the few psykers that are stable enough to function despite being unsanctioned. It's the same with Corruption Points: According to the rules, noone except the PCs and some major NPCs get them. Most simply mutate when the GM deems fit.

Cifer said:

Which is rule I don't like, since it makes the rules for reading a corrupted person's mind somewhat superfluous. It also means minor NPCs can't suffer Mental Trauma (except at GM fiat). I would give minor cultists and so forth a few CPs right off the bat and 20-30 Insanity Points. (Not that I would roll for each and every one of a horde of cultists failing their Fear rolls.)