This is something I am interested in, as it came up in a conversation. What exactly would happen to a force weapon within the field of an untouchable? Is it rendered simply a normal weapon as the field pushes the psyker's will out of the weapon? Obviously, the part of the weapon counting as a psychic power cannot be used on the Untouchable, but what would happen if the force weapon were to make contact? The very DNA of the untouchable pushes back the warp and psychic influence - the Pariah gene that is. Would the psyker even feel psychic backlash when the weapon hit as his will is forced back into his own body?

So, how exactly would it work?

Untouchables are not quite a DNA bomb to psychic enties. The actual status of this is more like a water and electricity being the normal human being, electricty passes easily though this medium(the soul / being of a human) . That stated an untouchable is more like a wooden medium to said electricity. Some things can affect the medium but most will have a limited effect at best. A force weapon thus is nothing more then a good quality sword against an untouchable.

Hope that aids you.

The force sword would simply be rendered a normal sword in the presence of the Untouchable's null field.

I'd disagree with the idea of an Untouchable being a wood medium. The field around an Untouchables acts as wood per the rules, so to say that it is possible for psychic activity to happen within it but is reduced greatly, but as for the actual Untouchable themselves - I'm not aware of any warp/psychic activity that counters their abilities. I didn't mean so much as them being a DNA bomb as forcing the will out of the medium the psyker is channelling into, pushing the psy-energy back so to say. A full-blown Pariah seems more suitting to that level, consuming the psy-energy in the process.

*directly counters their abilities (ie. a telepath being able to read an Untouchable's mind etc.)

Honestly I'm hard pressed to remember an instance where a null/blank is hurt by something like that. Basically think of a null as water and psykers/warp/so on as fire. A really strong daemon or psyker might manage to over come a really weak null, but mostly that is at a distance. Remember that he power for of a null is measured by how far his/her field extends.

It should be noted the same doesn't hold true for psykers. Who tend to suffer pain and discomfort touching a null/blank. I doubt a null would brea force weapon, but I'd worry about the force weapon befre the psyker.

There is no way to "counter" an Untouchable and read their mind. They simply do not have a presence in the Immaterium.

Exactly why the wood metaphor does not apply directly to them but more so to the field around them.

Well from a technical standpoint activating the secondary ability of the Force Weapon would not work on the Untouchable, nor would it's increased damage or penetration by virtue of psychic strength work. It would be much like if a regular old person picked up the weapon and used it: a good quality mono weapon...which could still do some serious damage to a Untouchable, or not depending on their toughness and armour.

From a fluff point of view I would imagine that a psyker would know the person they are attacking is a null and striking them sucessfully would fell like touching the void of space. Cold, desolate feeling, empty and sickening. Nothing so far as to actually mechanically impede them but still a significant 'feeling' on the inside. Kinda like when you hit something and the shock sends a wave back into your arm that makes you feel a little numb, but in their case it would kinda echo in their body/mind. That is how I'd run it.

DarkPrimus said:

Bingo! No limited use of psychic powers, even for a major daemon or alpha level psyker. An untouchable is the trump card for all things psychic. And thats why they are so rare and should be treated so. A bullet still works wonders though.

Jlid said:

Way I see it, sure they are untouchable, but the ceiling above them isn't, nor the ground below them. I find it's an incredibly small security, especially since I've started to take off my gloves, and the players have gotten to the smart enemies.

Fideru said:

Exactly. A daemon can still engage in physical combat with an Untouchable (despite incurring penalties to do so), and the more resourceful ones will find other ways to deal with them...

A daemon in the campaign I ran made a Dark Pact with a mindwiped player, slowly returning their memories over the course of the campaign. In the finale, the players and the null Interrogator who was in charge of them finish off a group of cultists, seemingly halting the daemonhost ritual just in time. Then the body twists and mutates, and the daemonhost stared at the PC and spoke their true name, saying "Raise your weapon against your false master". And the player shot the null in the back of the head.