Long story short, I'm playing a Biomancer psyker. Since about the second session of Dark Heresy my group's known that I was planning to pick up Regeneration. My Psyker's approaching Rank 6, and I figured I'd finally get around to picking it up. However, my GM finally took a good long look at it for the first time, and I think he very nearly fell out of his chair, before quickly going on a rant about how insanely overpowered it is (granted he rants about close to everything in Dark Heresy, Psykers just seem to be his preferred target).

Needless to say he's less than thrilled with the idea of my Psyker obtaining the ability.

Recently I've been discussing with him methods of balancing out Regeneration via Houserules. Thus far I think the only idea we've agreed on, is to give it some semblance of the Healer power drawback, in which there are severe consequences for attempting to use Regeneration multiple times within a certain timeframe (what these consequences are, and what that timeframe is, is still on the discussion table).

One idea he has proposed is to change the power almost entirely to: "Recover 1d5+WPB in damage, and, if this would bring the caster above his starting wounds, he may regenerate one lost limb, organ, or recover permanent characteristic damage" with the stipulation that the Psyker in question must have LOST a limb, organ, or suffered characteristic damage to use Regeneration at all.

While certainly a more acceptable version the power, the issue I take with that particular example is that it's rather underwhelming for a Power with a Threshold of 23. Regrowing limbs, granted, is exceptionally powerful, but even so, if comparing it to powers like Soul Killer or Telekinetic Barrage, it just no longer seems to hold up.

So I suppose I'm looking for suggestions as to how to balance out Regeneration, and make it acceptable for a Threshold 23 power, without "making the Psyker completely unkillable, unless you're using Flame weapons."

Make every use of it have a chance of inflicting 1d10-WpB corrpution points.

Cause 1 CP per point over starting wounds and 1d5 CP for any regrown limb.

I mean come on... you are using the very stuff of deamons to grow back body parts not just speed up natural processes but force wholesale reconstruction, literally gaining limbs from tapping into the sea of madness.

Corruption and the risk of mutation should be part of the package.

Make every use of it have a chance of inflicting 1d10-WpB corrpution points.

Cause 1 CP per point over starting wounds and 1d5 CP for any regrown limb.

Trying to avoid the gaining corruption points thing-- well. Half doing it. That's what I'm proposing as the consequences for doing it repeatedly. Similar to Healer, you're able to control it as long as you do it infrequently, try to do it too often and then you risk running into all the problems.

Besides which, gaining corruption points would not solve the primary issue my GM has with it, which is that it makes a character using it borderline unkillable.

Isn't that the point of Perils of the Warp? Correct me if I'm missing something but I don't believe any other Psychic Power inherently causes corruption just for casting it for (arguably) half its intended purpose (in this case the regrowing of limbs), but that corruption gained is as a result of the Psyker screwing up (ie. Psychic Phenomena/Perils).

Besides which, gaining corruption points would not solve the primary issue my GM has with it, which is that it makes a character using it borderline unkillable.

I think the key to keep the power the way it was meant to and to appease your GM is to make a cumulative penalty for sustaining the power. Perhaps unlike normal sustaining, there is a risk of triggering phenomena? Alternatively, it can only be sustained for a number of rounds equal to the caster's WB?

Honestly this power is a bit overrated. It's or more less handled the exact same way you would treat a PC with a high TB and Armor points. That extra 1-5 wounds per round of sustainment can easily be mitigated with a full auto-fired Autopistol.

Besides which, gaining corruption points would not solve the primary issue my GM has with it, which is that it makes a character using it borderline unkillable.

Alternatively, it can only be sustained for a number of rounds equal to the caster's WB?

Ooooo. I like this idea very much.

And yes. I agree with you, but I'm not the one running this campaign. In my own campaigns I'll more or less let my Psykers pick up whatever they want and have the power operate as it says on the tin (minus Divine Shot... I've house ruled that you can take dodge rolls vs Divine Shot). Regardless, if it helps my GM get over it, I'll balance out this power, as it's the first time he's seriously complained about a Psychic Power since I got Healer.

I've found that by the time a psyker can reliably cast Regeneration the Acolytes will face enemies who can maul them in a quick flurry of attacks. In cases like this, Regeneration is only good for repairing the damage post-battle and won't make a huge difference in combat. But if your GM has his reasons for not liking it, he's perfectly entitled to them.

Limiting the power to WPB rounds of healing is an elegant solution, and if you really need the extra healing you can recast the power again. You may suffer an increased chance of spontaneous warp rifts, but that's part of the job for psykers

Yep. Figured our solution out, and it worked very nicely.

Used the idea of limiting Regeneration rounds to WPB, and also added the condition that fatigue basically counts as additional wounds, rather than Regeneration instantly removing Fatigue (so if a character has three levels of fatigue and five wounds, and rolls a 5 on Regenerate, they'll remove the 3 levels of fatigue and then 2 additional wounds on top of that).