Telekinetic Shield and stacking

By Kamikazzijoe, in Black Crusade Rules Questions

So I have a player who's planning on pushing Telekinetic Shield at the start of every mission and sustaining it throughout.

The power states its cover so it does stack with his power armor

normal cover degrades as its damaged

It is a sustained power.

Given those 3 facts does the psychic cover take damage like normal cover?

Does sustaining it cause some sort of regen?

My first instinct is to make it take damage and force him to recast it to renew it. Functionally turning it into psyker ablative armor.

I believe other games treat [Telekinetic Shield] as [ablative armour], so yes you could just do that. My view is that sustaining the shield will only maintain its current status, even if that status means 1 AP. If your player wants a stronger shield again, he can recast the shield as you already stated.

More towards putting that player in his place, maintaining a Psychic Power should not simply be turning it on and watching it go. If he really his going to insist on keeping that shield up all mission every mission, I feel like you should punish him for it. Maybe some crazy daemon is attracted to the Warp energy that this guy is constantly pumping out. A band of renegade psykers who want to eat his flesh or something. He could just get a fat wad of Corruption or Insanity for his trouble. I really feel like Psychic Powers should be invoked meaningfully, so if a psyker wants to use his power in every single circumstance, he's going to pay dearly for leaning on the Warp too much.

Edited by Asymptomatic

My first instinct is to make it take damage and force him to recast it to renew it. Functionally turning it into psyker ablative armor.

It is called a cover and should work like cover, including rules for destroying it. Sustaining only allows the user to maintain the barrier - or what's left of it.

Why punish him for it? Obviously he's scared of everything. But if u insist on punishing him take him to an imperial/khorne world where using his psychic abilities attracts unwanted attention. Or if he's late game and ur worried about it just being too op, try the "Eclipse Pulsator" pg 185, with some assassins. But it really shouldn't be a problem. A good hit from a lascanon or plasma cannon should do the trick. Or if you want to really get under his bubble, use the Hell Hammer Lascanon pg 154. Hit him with some heavy hitters that he has to waste his dodges on then blast him with that from a cloaked assassin. Teach him real quick to trust in his psy-powers(sarcasm). Or if he thinks he's boss and invinsible, there's a wonderful spell called "Unbalanced Mind" in the Tome of Fate. If your not familiar with this spell it is an exalted spell that requires an opposed wp test, remember psykers can add their psychic might to these tests, and push if I recall, so a desently built chaos space marine sorcerer can pump a 14-19 psy rating ('warp conduit' pg 133 and burns infamy point with +30 to test, so +40 alltogether. +10 from bound pg 206 push, +30 for warp conduit and grab child of the warp pg 120. Another +1 to psy when pushing). Anywho. So get around 60 wp on this guy from xp, then add a maximum of +70-95= 155 to roll, unless u incorporate the +60/-60 rule. Pg 241 & 201. Roll ur opposed wp test if the "enemy" psyker wins, ur problematic psyker is forced to roll on the Perils of the Warp chart in addition to any other rolls from himself pushing on the test. The "enemy" psyker adds +5 to to the roll(for Perils of the Warp ) for every degree of success rolled on the focus power test. (I.e. rolls a 56/155 means 9 DoS 9×5=45).

Finally it stuns him, up to u if it stuns whether he is successful or not, doesn't specify. Great way to Hella punish him.

But there's nothing like a Bloodthirster throtling him like a rag doll screaming "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!" then proceeding to add his skull to Khorne's throne with repeated swings from his giant axe.

Could give him some blessings of Nurgle tho for constantly fearing for his life, nothing like a bibig hug to make u feel safe.

Edited by DarthKaleashth

If your not familiar with this spell it is an exalted spell that requires an opposed wp test, remember psykers can add their psychic might to these tests, and push if I recall, so a desently built chaos space marine sorcerer can pump a 14-19 psy rating ('warp conduit' pg 133 and burns infamy point with +30 to test, so +40 alltogether. +10 from bound pg 206 push, +30 for warp conduit and grab child of the warp pg 120. Another +1 to psy when pushing). Anywho. So get around 60 wp on this guy from xp, then add a maximum of +70-95= 155 to roll, unless u incorporate the +60/-60 rule. Pg 241 & 201.

First of all, the -60/+60 modifier limit isn't an optional rule. It's standard in all 40k rpg lines.

Second, that's not how the psychic strength option for opposed willpower focus power tests works. It's only the defender who may apply that bonus to the test, the attacker doesn't have the option.

When resisting an Opposed Focus Power Test, a psyker may select a Power Level for any Willpower Test to resist a power, adding his Psy Rating as normal to the Test.

Ahhh, iv read threads where bc was in the dark with the +60/-60. Though in my games our GM has it optional for the players and we didn't use it because at the time we only found it in the summoning ritual area. It works for our enemies too though so it's not a stacked deck.

As for the opposed, I believe the wp test opposes the fpt, don't have my books with me atm but if I recall corectly it's basically the way I explained it. My wording was wrong I admit but, fpt vs opposing wp test. So wp+psy rating vs wp+psy rating, unless the fpt calls for a different skill like perception or Psyscience.

But thanks for adding to the thread and helping Kamikazzjoe with his problem.

The rules state that you add your effective Psy Rating times five as a bonus to all Focus Power Tests, so you do that independent of which attribute or skill you test. Thus, a psyker with lots of PR and the Precognitive Dodge is almost impossible to hit.

Yep, in effect both the attacker and defender involved in an Opposed WP Focus Power Test apply a (Psychic Strength level) PR x 5 bonus to their test. For the defender it's optional, though. However, you'd be stupid to not at least use it fettered, as it's a free bonus without any risk.

The issue is that it seemed like he suggested to stack the normal FP rules and that added Opposed WP rule on top of each other for double the bonus.