Hey everyone,
Recently I've been thinking about Adepts turned Psykers, and how the GM and the player can resolve the situation when the Adept is discovered and sanctioning is impending. The Radical's Handbook, page 149, goes over the different options for the player and the GM, sorcery, nascent psyker, and sanctioning on Holy Terra. The sanctioning option, however, has always felt a bit... incomplete, to me personally, as later on the Adept really doesn't even learn basic stuff like Forbidden Lore (Psyker, Warp) and Invocation, or talents like "Favoured by the Warp", but he/she is still supposedly a "proper" Psyker now. It seems like they wanted to give Adepts a bunch of minor powers late game, in the Loremaster and Magister ranks, but they didn't really have a clear vision of how these Adepts would transition.
Then I saw one of the Ascension general transition packages, "The Mind's Eye Opens", page 48, which pretty much is intended for PCs that DO have some psyker power, but have not been sanctioned yet. Pretty much someone who awakens their psychic potential and is discovered (eventually), but his master, the Inquisitor, decides to let him leave and the person goes to Holy Terra for sanctioning. The effects of the package include an increase of the Psy rating by + 1, the gaining of a Discipline power and two Minor powers, and then the character loses 1d5 points of Toughness and his age is increased by 1d5, and you get the Sanctioning Side Effect of course. Essentially, you are discovered, but you are in service of the Inquisition, so they just send you to Holy Terra, you endure some horrible stuff, then come back slightly stronger and sanctioned, and scarred.
Now, obviously this is intended for characters who come out of Dark Heresy and go into Ascension, but to be honest - this package just perfectly describes the sanctioning scenario, gives a little bit of extra boost, etc. Not to mention, the Adept would actually lose a lot of he/she doesn't go through this package - if the PC is simply sanctioned without any other benefits, when he transitions to Ascension he will be on the lower spectrum of power actually. So I had an idea in mind.
Would you, as GMs, allow the player to basically "transition" from the Adept to the Sanctioned Psyker careers with this package? The only changes would be, apart from the package modifications, that on the Loremaster level, the player can only buy 1 minor power (because he will get 2 from the package anyway), or just change the package so that the player receives only a Discipline power and allow the buying of 3 minor powers. Then change "Psy Rating 2" and "Psy Rating 3" in the Magister rank to "Psy Rating 3" and "Psy Rating 4" respectively. Overall, this will give the Adept-turned-Psyker slightly more minor powers, and a total of, what, 3 Discipline powers (depending on WP bonus)? And a Psy Rating of 4 is STILL lower than what a "proper" Psyker would achieve, which is 5 or 6 depending on career paths. When the player rolls 1d5 for increased age, the number would correspond to the number of sessions the player will miss with the party, while he is being trained, conditioned and tortured on Holy Tera, so the experience he will miss in sessions will essentially go into this package. If you want to make sure the player misses at least 2 sessions (years), just make it a 1d5+1 roll.
Also, would you allow the player to purchase, as Elite Advances, Forbidden Lore (Psyker) and Forbidden Lore (Warp) and Invocation? Does it seem like too much?
In the end, no matter how powerful these changes may sound (which I fully realize), in the end the PC will still be less powerful than someone who has been a Psyker since day one of the campaign, and will have more talents, more relevant skills with + 10 and +20s, and a higher overall Psy Rating, not to mention a huge arsenal of minor and Discipline powers which the Adept could not really develop in his last two ranks of his/her career.
So, any thoughts? Is it too much, can it be balanced, and would you consider it? Personally, I think it perfectly fits the whole transitioning process and really eases the PC into its, well.... new career, while also leaving it slightly more powerful, but still not on par with a "proper" Psyker.
Thoughts?
Edited by dobyk21