For one, the way each 'power' is listed with it's effects is way too much like magic spells, which erks me.

For another... well, it's just not very dynamic... and also too dynamic. At the same time. it's almost as if their was a power for 'lift pencil' and another power for 'lift cup' and yet another for 'push button' (ok, these are all covered under spectral hands, or at least basic TK) rather than just having a single telekenetic power that gets more powerful the more your skill develops in it. All of the TK spells do similar things and the only real reason to seperate push and fling from spectral hands and percision telekenisis is to make more spells for the player to spend points on purchasing. Which is important, so it's not unbalanced, I mean a psyker's powers can already be pretty terifying if you've got a creative player with spectral hands. Sure 'fling' describes how to throw objects, but with a strength of 52 (like his spectral hands) what keeps him from just using that to throw things? or to push people by pushing their armor? or slicing people in half with a sheild, or using telekenisis to move, say... a person's brain from inside their head. wouldn't take much force, nor percision, the brain is pretty big. actually it says basic TK cant affect creatures (hu? well I guess that's good for game balance, but then he could just use persision TK, which I'm glad has a 23 threashhold for what can be a 'I kill you now' spell, meaning he's got to be at psy rank 3 to use it with much success.)

Also a fear rating of 2 from fear aura makes most human foes irrelevant, but most fear was a little too powerful anyways... so I added a 100 point buffer on the 'shock' table that describes your level of fear before you start to suffer serious consequences. I mean, the final battle of 'illumination' could end before it starts if nobody can manage to squeak under a -30 fear test (-10 for demonic presense, -20 for fear level 3) or more if they are fatigued, and they might have to take this multiple times, adding to your level of fear each time. So if you fail your first and roll up a -10 penalty for an hour (-40 on the next fear test), then fail again you might go catatonic.

But as it applies to enemies, a 30-40 WP is ok for general thugs right? with a fear aura of 2 only 80% could fight on with any effectivness.

So does anyone have any home brewed psychic stuff? I dont want to nerf psykers, especially since they dont get any real attack powers till they get to psy rating 3 (assuming you dont let them beat people to death using their own weapons with spectral hands). But I dont want him bulldozing his way through everything ether. He wants some attack powers (like force blast I think) but his tendancy to inflict pain on everyone who looks at him funny makes me wary of that, especially since I want them to be undercover and I dont really like killing the team just because their psyker cant keep his head to himself.

Er, if you're reffering to Fearful Aura for the Fear stuff, keep in mind that it affects allies as well. Sure, it's great if you need to clear out some villagers with pitchforks, but not if the cost is permanently traumatizing the rest of your team.

Although it is a little silly that a rank 1 Psyker could concievably achieve a Fear Rating equal to what is possibly a manifestation of one of the Chaos Gods...

On the other hand, keep in mind that, in character, the entire team should be justifiably paranoid about the Psyker being possessed. So, if he pulls a high Fearful Aura and one makes their check, their first move should be to attempt to euthanized the "possessed Pskyer."

All but my most experienced players shy away from psykers because of the danger they invoke on not only themselves but the entire party. Those that do play them use their powers conservatively so I rarely have anyone complaining of their power. However, I do agree that many of the powers are lackluster, especially the ability to control fire which I think should have been merged with telekinetics. Oh and if you have a psyker that worries you with their overuse of power just remind them and the other players that if he screws up, you won't save them. If that doesn't work have him taken in by his inquisitor for a mindwipe as his personality is to volatile for their work.

LordMunchkin said:

You make me so jealous. Loan me a few of your players , if I could get one to play a subtle psyker so that mine could compare and contrast and see that a psyker is capable of so much more than just being a weakling with the ability to inflict pain on everyone around him... then he might improve. Of coarse I could use an NPC but that has the ability to backfire badly since it would be Me using my knowledge of what will and will not work with my vission of the setting.

I've tried to get him to be more careful with his powers, but when captured his first action (after healing himself) was to 'channel the warp.' meaning to just use his powers at full strength, not really activating any of his powers but mess around with stuff with the specific intent of inflicting some perils of the warp. I told him that he knows it's a very bad idea, and more akin to putting a live grenade in your lap and hoping you hurt everyone else around you more than yourself. He spent the rest of the game after that passed out from a combination of self inflicted fatigue damage and brutal beating he got after that. He was sure that if someone could wake him with a stim for even a moment he could use dull pain to take all the fatigue away (I had him woke up at fatigue level 6 with a stim before, not very lucid but awake). I wonder how much is dull pain supposed to remove? If he keeps using it he would be all fine in seconds. And how much fatigue is even posible? he got up to 12 levels of fatigue (that's more than his total wounds) because of critical damage and perils of the warp.

As for the fear thing, yeah, he scared everyone around him and didn't care that he tramitized his team. but one of the strange things about the way fear is described is that it's always taking the run away approach to the natural 'fight or flight' fear response. So if someone fails a fear check against him they are more likely to run than to attack him.

As for the fear thing, yeah, he scared everyone around him and didn't care that he tramitized his team. but one of the strange things about the way fear is described is that it's always taking the run away approach to the natural 'fight or flight' fear response. So if someone fails a fear check against him they are more likely to run than to attack him.

There's a simple way around fear: Get frenzy and flagellant - frenzy immunizes you against fear and flagellant allows you to enter frenzy as a free action.
...which is why using fear aura against a mob of Redemptionists is a Bad Idea.
Alternatively, buy a round of autoinjectors and link them to a medical auspex. As soon as the latter notes an increase in certain hormones and other bodily signals of "I'll need a new pair of pants pretty soon", it hits them with a dose of frenzon or another happy combat drug cocktail.

Other than that, the best deterrent for a psyker usually his own group-mates. Once his powers have gone awry a few times, they mostly put the bolt-rule into place: "You use powers when it's not necessary and screw up, we put a bolt through your skull." Don't hesitate to let his powers kill the group. He chose them and the group chose to put up with him.

Finally, about the "I channel the Warp" stuff... he'd better hope his inquisitor never finds out about that, because consciously drawing the warp powers into real space is exactly why the Imperium is wary of psykers.

Actually, I'd assume after seeing him use his Fearful Aura, anyone who did make the Fear check would probably euthanize him on the spot, unless they knew him well and were prepared for the power. And those who failed it would probably be coming back with whatever forces they could scrounge up to fight the possessed Psyker.

Wow, it's almost been a year. Am late but I'll say this.

Fearful Aura will affect your Team Mates, yes, but I argued that it's description does say it affects anyone that looks upon you. It has been the case for a while already, and we had a plan to either have me in front or have the guys divert their eyes when I say a key word.

Sure there's been accidents. I accidentally cause a shipwide mutany (people were running in fear and cause a riot) with many casualties in the thousands simply because I forgot to turn it off. Lesson learnt (I am not corrupt, OK!)

But it was only later that the GM decides to say it is too powerful and that averting your eyes won't do since it's Fearful "Aura."

Come on! Verminspeak isn't speaking with a vermin, it's seeing from the vermin's point of view. Should I follow the name or the description? It's called "Aura" because it sounds better than "Scary Look."

(Yes, this is be ranting! Rawr!)

IIRC it is only the fluff-description that talks about looking at the character, the description of the powers effect just says that anyone near you gets affected by fear. So your GM got it right, the actual effect trumps the fluff imo.

Not that I have the book here, but that is how I recall it at least.

Well, that's where the argument got nowhere between me and the GM. He say that it is an Aura so it is not dependant on sight, then he proceeds on asking me the range of the power and disbelieving me when I say it is my character "range: you".

I am looking at the description right now, now I am not sure if it is fluff anymore, but I can ultimately agree that he gains the Fear trait.

It kind of doesn't make sense though that an ally would suffer its effect when my psyker is on their side and that they know about it. It's sort of like having a Dragon fighting for your side, building up morale and causing fear against the enemy. Or in Dark Heresy, a Demon meeting it's followers.

Somonelse said:

In DH, daemons eat their followers and have already shredded their souls. It doesn't matter who you are, you fear the daemon which is why you have to be a special kind of crazy to summon the things up in the first place. So, it makes perfect sense for your comrades to fear the fearful psyker. In most normal situations, he's one step removed from a daemon but when he pops Fearful Aura, he might as well be one of those soul munching, Emperor hatting, engines of corrupting damnation that will see your life cut short and your afterlife completely forfeit -that's something to fear, I don't care who you or your friends are ;-)

I surrender, I admit defeat and bow before you and your clan. Anyways, I think I kind of driven this off topic or we've concentrated too much on Fear.

A lot of the Major Powers seem inflexible and very similar, telekine in this case. It is disatisfying but it also seem right. They are all telekine powers learnt to be used differently or controlled at different levels, therefore requires experience to buy and it also provides a number for the power roll. Gaining a Psy Rating is progression, early on you can't use Precision Telekinesis without a gamble. What I am most disatified is why I would need Force Bolt if I have Fling and vice versa. Telekinesis does not affect living flesh directly because the creature have a will of their own, therefore you can't squeeze someone's brain but can form a strong wind or ball of energy to "Push" them down. "Spectral Hand" is good for only simple tasks maybe equivalent to one hand, and so it shouldn't be able to do the offensive stuff Omnicrazy mentioned.

In contrast the Minor Powers are amazing! I've had the most fun with them, just try to avoid those that just gives a bonus or a re-roll. Sure there are some offensive abilities (that don't do damage though). Here are some examples:

"Deja Vu" - We were getting our arse kicked fighting 3 against 1 on a boss guy dual wielding power swords. What we did is delay (some had higher initiative), let him strike us, then step black and "Deja Vu" continuously (lucky he failed his WP test everytime). We laughed at him as we pulled up our guns and shot him (well the other guys did) till he is dead. "Don't bring a sword in a gun fight," said my team mate.

and "Spasm" - Another guy tried to use blood to form a ritual for something (we guessed summoning a demon), he was drawing something until I interrupted him with this. Unfortunately, my GM allowed him to continue with it, although I thought it was my best use for it.

I've been wondering about "Healer," technically I can heal an enemy and keep healing him within the 6 hours and cause damage assuming his Toughness is low enough.

You could kill someone with Heal yes, but you need to be close and he will probably try to stab you, shoot you, burn you, blow you up or all of the above while you do it

Honn said:

...and he would need to agree to it ;-) After all, "you may only use this power on a willing target" and all that... really more like as psyker assisted suicide at that point. A long drawn out psyker assisted suicide...

I made a lot of stuff for psykers a couple of months before Ascencion came out.

I worked with was was there already, and expanded the rules for Discipline Mastery quite a lot.

First of all, I redefined what "Discipline Mastery" meant, to be 8 Powers of a single discipline AND the Discipline Focus Talent for the same discipline.

After this, I Made a lot of modifications to the existing abilities, tthat were ONLY available to those who had mastered the discipline.

Example:

Telekinetic Shield: a Master Telekinetic has the option of creating a much more powerful shield, but the drawback is that it will only work vs. one type of damage (Rending, Energy, Impact or Explosive). The psyker may add his WP bonus to the AP of the shield if he chooses to do this.

I also introduced new powers, that built on the ones in the book or modified those in the RT book to fit with DH

-Telekinesis: Psychic Shield, Telekinetic Barrier, Telekinetic Flight, telkinetic Force Weave, Telekinetic Spike

-Telepathy: Incorporal Self, Delude, Puppet Master, Psychic Scream, Reprogram (NPC power only)

-Divination: I had problems coming up with something I was happy with in this category to be honest, so only the existing powers were modified for discipline Mastery

-Biomancy: Arc Bio-Ligtning, Beaweponed Extremities, Inert State

-Pyromancy: Immolating aura, Melta Lance

The Fear aura, have changed as follows:

The Initial Fear Rating is 1.

Overbleed: For every 10 points by which you exceed the Threshold, your Fear rating is increased by 1, to a maximum of Half your current Psy Rating (rounding up).

Graver said:

As concerns cultists and other antagonist NPCs, the rules for Insanity are a good way of "getting around it" when it comes to Daemonic, Psychic or Warp effects. To paraphrase the rule, every 20 Insanity Points lets you reduce the effective Fear Rating by 1 point.

The majority of chaos worshipping cultists left sanity and purity far, far behind them so Fear ratings would have a much reduced effect on them...

Chaplain Uziel said:

I see this a lot with new players. In fact, I thought of doing much the same thing when I started playing the game. Fortunately, I have players in my group, as well as other GMs who managed to curb my enthusiasm.

The point I am trying to make here, often the game works the way it does because of the universe that is set in. I would strongly recommend reading several of the fiction books (try Ravenor or Eisenhorn) before changing the game wholesale, because you're not satisfied with the game and the powers that Psykers have.

If you do insist on changing the game to suit you, please remember that those people who have read the books know why things work the way they do. Hence, the changes you make may be good, and make plenty of sense, but they won't be 40k.

A player in my game, who is one of the GMs in our other game put it this way to me the other day. A Psyker doesn't get experience and then decide that he's going to go out and study to be a telekine. What he does is he wakes up one day and discovers that he is a telekine.

It's akin to D&D wherein you have Sorcerors and Wizards. Wizards go out and study to learn their magic, but with Sorcerors it's built in. In 40k all Psykers are like Sorcerors. And you have only one source to learn to control your power, the Imperium. If you fail to do so, you become emperor chow.

Remember, this is a setting that has the really good technology, shrouded by ritual and ceremony. No one is there by and large to encourage Psykers to develop new techniques... it's usually the other way around. So if you see a lot of similitude in powers, well, I hope that you now understand a little better why.

If you increase the Threshold of all Power rolls for say +2 for each Fatigue Level, then a Fatigued player will even think twice of using Dull Pain. Have tried it for a while now, and now the Psyker is actually rest and or mediates before "safely" using his powers again. He does however use Dull Pain in a pinch.

QUOTE efidm=199068]

I've tried to get him to be more careful with his powers, but when captured his first action (after healing himself) was to 'channel the warp.' meaning to just use his powers at full strength, not really activating any of his powers but mess around with stuff with the specific intent of inflicting some perils of the warp. I told him that he knows it's a very bad idea, and more akin to putting a live grenade in your lap and hoping you hurt everyone else around you more than yourself. He spent the rest of the game after that passed out from a combination of self inflicted fatigue damage and brutal beating he got after that. He was sure that if someone could wake him with a stim for even a moment he could use dull pain to take all the fatigue away (I had him woke up at fatigue level 6 with a stim before, not very lucid but awake). I wonder how much is dull pain supposed to remove? If he keeps using it he would be all fine in seconds. And how much fatigue is even posible? he got up to 12 levels of fatigue (that's more than his total wounds) because of critical damage and perils of the warp.

I halfway agree with you there, but under the condition that the Psyker had previously bother to explain what he could do, and perhaps shown them under calm conditions. Even then, I'm not sure they would become Immune, but it would definetly help. However, if he has not bothered to do this, and just goes... surprise!, Then I wouldn't blaim any PC who thought something bad (possession perhaps) had happened to him, and acted accordingly.

Somonelse said: