Another new Psychic Discipline: Daemonology

By Tetragon Tanebrae, in Dark Heresy

I saw that Lightbringer had made the Logokancy discipline and got inspired. I have seen that there is a Psychic Discipline in the "The Inquisition" background book called Daemonology that focus on the manipulation of the barriers between the two Materium and the Immaterium and though about making the game mechanics for it.

A couple of things to bear in mind

1) I find it a little hard to determine threhold so I just tried the best I could.

2) Most of these powers are fairly specialised and focus most upon the dealing with the Psychic and the daemonic and therefore might not be that helpful on most mission (not to say that some of the more puratan Inquisitors will likely "frown upon" their use).

3) A fair amount of these powers (if not all) might be better suited for enemy NPC than for PC as they are well Daemonology powers

4) I have used some of the Sorcery powers and minor power to use as inspiration as some of them were simply to good to not use, hope no one is angry at that gui%C3%B1o.gif

well lets go...

DAEMONOLOGY : The control and manipulation of the barriers between the real universe and the warp, a powerful and terrible discipline Daemonologists are capable of such things as teleportation, opening and closing the gateways to the immaterium, banishing and taking control over daemons as well as directing the power of the warp into and through them. Though it gives incredible powers to the psyker damnation is never more than a wrong step away.
Note: Because Daemonology is a discipline that involve direct manipulation of daemonic energies each time a psyker using a Daemonology power suffers psychic phenomena he must make an routine (+20) willpower test or gain 1 Corruption Point.

BANISHMENT
Threshold: 16
Focus Time: Extended
Sustained: No
Range: Touch

You focus your powers to draw a possessing warp entity out of its host. You and the possessing entity must make a number of opposed Willpower Tests until one have achieved a cumulative of five degrees of success. If the possessing entity wins or the physical contact is broken the entity is not banished and may act normally. If the Psyker wins the entity is thrown out off its host and may not try to possess it again in twice the psykers Willpower Bonus in hours. Note that as Daemonhosts are bound into their host they cannot be repelled in this manner likewise the psyker cannot use this power on himself if possessed.
Overbleed : For every 5 points by which you exceed the threshold you gain a +10 to the opposed test
Special : You can also attempt to banish the entity from its host without physically touching it, in that case the power has a range of 5 metres but you suffer a -20 penalty to the opposed test.

DAEMONIC AURA
Threshold: 20
Focus Time: Full
Sustained: Yes
Range: You
You draw upon the powers of the warp to sustain you and make you virtually impervious to harm. You can emerge unscratched from deadly hits as is by miracle and shrug of blows that would have killed a man thrice over. As long as this power is active you gain the Daemonic Trait and generate an aura around you that reduced all incoming damage by 1d10. Both are ignored by holy weapons, psychic powers and other beings with the Daemonic Trait.
Special: This kind of power is very draining to use and after the psyker stops sustaining it he takes levels of fatigue equal to the number of times he sustained the power plus one.

DISRUPTION
Threshold: Special
Focus Time: Reaction
Sustained: No
Range: 25m

You channel you powers to disrupt and shatter the manifestation of another psyker’s powers. Whenever someone (or something) successfully manifests a psychic power you may declare that you wants to disrupt their power in this case make a power roll yourself (manifesting Psychic Phenomena as normal) if you beat that power’s threshold then the effects of that power is negated.
However if the opposing psyker made a power roll of twice the powers threshold (or thrice etc.) then you will have to do so as well in order to disrupt the power.
For example if the opposing psyker manifested the power “Fire Ball” (threshold 11) with a power roll of 24 then you would have to make a power roll of 22 or more in order to disrupt the power (11 x 2 = 22).

MALEDICTION
Threshold: 24
Focus Time: Full
Sustained: No
Range: 50m

The Psyker attempts to repel the daemon and force it back to the warp or alternatively seizing command over the entity. The psyker and the daemon makes an opposed willpower test, if the psyker wins he inflicts Malediction. If he wins by two decrees or more he may attempt to force a Daemonic Mastery Test with no modifiers other than the usual (Daemonic Presence etc.) instead, this automatically gives him 1d5 Corruption Points.
Overbleed: For every 5 points of which he exceeds this power’s threshold he gains a +10 to the opposed test.

RENDING VEIL
Threshold: 15
Focus Time: Half
Sustained: Yes
Range: 50m

You dramatically weaken the barrier between Materium and Immaterium allowing the warp to spill into the real world, in effect creating a miniature version of the effects of a Daemon World. Anyone within the power’s range gains a +5 bonus to power rolls but suffers Psychic Phenomena on any “odd” roll (i.e. 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9) in addition Daemonic creatures within the area never have to take Instability tests.
Overbleed: for every 10 points by which you exceeds this power’s threshold anyone adds an additional +1 bonus to their power roll but also gains a +10 to any roll on the Psychic Phenomena and Perils of the Warp tables.
Note: You cannot use Rending Veil in an area where there is already Strengthened Barrier.

STRENGTHENED BARRIER
Threshold: 18
Focus Time: Half
Sustained: Yes
Range: 5m x Willpower Bonus
By mental effort you separate the two dimensions, making it harder for psykers to draw upon the powers of the warp and for daemonic entities to sustain their hold in the material plane. Every psychic power (or sorcery) being used within the power’s range have their power’s threshold increased by 5 and suffers a -10 penalty to any talents and test involving psychic powers (Such as Invocation and Psyniscience) and all creatures with the instability trait suffers a -10 penalty to all instability tests. Also anyone in the area gets a -10 to all rolls on the psychic phenomena table.
Overbleed: For every 5 points by which you exceed this power’s threshold you may either extend its range by 10 metres or strengthening the barrier additionally, increasing the threshold of all powers by an additional 5 and suffering an additional -10 for all psychic talents and instability test.
Note: You cannot use Strengthened Barrier in an area where there is already Rending Veil.

TELEPORT
Threshold: (Short: 13/Long: 19/ Extreme: 25)
Focus Time: Varied
Sustained: No
Range: You
You create a stable gateway through the warp allowing you to move from one location to another instantaneously. This is a far more powerful version of the lesser Space Slip power. Though powerful this power can be very dangerous and the longer you teleport the more power is required and the more disastrous the result of a slip in concentration can be, to reflect this the power has been divided into three different ranges which each have their own threshold, effect and dangers.
Short Range: You may as a free action teleport to any location within 10 times you Willpower Bonus in metres, you must make a willpower test, if you pass you pick your location if you fail roll a number of d10s equal to your WB and appear so many metres away in a direction of your choosing.
Long Range: You may as a half action teleport to any location within 100 metres for each point of your Willpower Bonus. You must make a willpower test, if you pass you pick your location if you fail roll 1d100 and you appear so many metres off target in a random direction.
Extreme Range: You may as a full action teleport to any location within the Solar System, this may be from one starship to another, from one side of a planet to the other or any such thing. Beyond the obvious risk or arriving inside the solid crust of a plant or in the cold void of space it is very hard to make this king of leap through the warp and arrive exactly at the planed destination if arriving at all. To reflect this whenever a psyker makes an extreme range teleport he must make a willpower test with the appropriate modifiers:
The Psyker has been in the location he wishes to teleport to before: +20
The Psyker has seen the location possibly remotely or in pict: +10
The Psyker is in a strenuous condition (fighting, trying to escape a ship blowing apart, suffering suffocation, being on fire etc): -10
The area the psyker is in or wishes to teleport to is psychically disturbed (Daemonic summoning, weak veil between the real world and the warp, has suffered psychic phenomena etc.): -20
If the test is successful the Psyker arrives intact at his desired location, if he fails by less than five decrees he could not maintain he trajectory and arrives somewhere else, this is determined by the GM and by the severity of his failure (for example he could end in the engine room of a vessel if he aimed for the bridge or in the void outside). If he fails by five or more decrees the gateway collapses around him which effectively counts as getting a result of 100 on the Perils of the Warp table unless he burns a Fate Point to avoid such a fate.
Special : If you end up within a solid object after a teleport you are thrown back 1d5 metres become stunned for 1 round and must take a Toughness test, if it is failed you take an amount of X damage to the body depended on with which length you teleported, Short: 1d10, Long: 2d10, Extreme: 3d10.
You may never teleport through psychic shielded areas such as a ward area or a Gellar field for example.

WARDING
Threshold: 14
Focus Time: Half
Sustained: Yes
Range: 25m
You project you powers in such a way that you shield against and deny the daemonic. You may choose a number of targets (including yourself) or objects equal to half you Willpower Bonus (rounding down), these then count as being warded with Pentagramatic wards (see DotDG page 120).
Overbleed : For every 5 points by which you exceed the power’s threshold you may ward and additional person or object.
Note : The size of the objects being warded has its limits, a sword – Yes, a starship – No, the GM has the final say so on this.

WARP FUEL
Threshold: 17
Focus Time: Full
Sustained: Yes
Range: You
You use the energies of the warp to enhance you combat prowess turning you into a deadly killing machine. For as long as this power is active you gain a +2 to you Strength and Agility bonus, you also gain the Natural Weapon and Warp Weapon Traits but may not use any other weapons, whether you need them is another matter.
Special : This kind of power is very draining to use and after the psyker stops sustaining it he takes levels of fatigue equal to the number of times he sustained the power plus one.

I would like to hear your input, as well as positive critigue (and I guess we can't get without the negative as well gui%C3%B1o.gif ).

I've been toying with the idea of homebrew powers myself and I think to do it right will need some lengthy playtesting. Interesting ideas there though. First thing that jumps to mind though is the Extreme range teleport should be dropped to a planet length instead of the solar system as that seems heading towards alpha level stuff which we all know DH Psyker powers are nowhere near.

Here are some Daemonology rules I cooked up when making rules for progression into the Inquisition. I didn't get round to finishing off the Theosophamy rules, but the Daemonology ones should be fine.

I think things like Strengthen Barrier and Teleport more correctly belong in the Theosophamy discipline than Daemonology, as they manipulate the interaction between the Warp and realspace, which that discipline was designed to encompass, but I realise such powers have been lumped in with Daemonology for along time (even by GW!) so the confusion is understandable - it's also why my rules chose to link the two disciplines in such a way that even characters are likely to get confused as to the distinction.

As portrayed in DIsciples of the Dark Gods - Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) [and putting together the right ritual] is all you need to summon and control Daemons. No psyker powers necessary. Also DotDG includes some sorcerous arcana for dealing with daemons. Doesn't cover all the ground the OP did with his list of powers, but there is a good bit of overlap.

DocIII said:

As portrayed in DIsciples of the Dark Gods - Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) [and putting together the right ritual] is all you need to summon and control Daemons. No psyker powers necessary. Also DotDG includes some sorcerous arcana for dealing with daemons. Doesn't cover all the ground the OP did with his list of powers, but there is a good bit of overlap.

I know that, also these is not about summonig daemons (and only one is about controling) one could also simply use them as additional sorcery powers.

I like what you are thinking. It seems to blend in nicely that anyone (with the knowledge) can summon deamons but only Sorcerors can really control them. And of course in the dark recesses of the Ordo Malleus specialist pyskers pour over forbidden tomes in order to banish the deamons (all very WFRP, as should be when deamons are envolved).

I feel like there should be corruption involved with learning these powers but I don't think it needs going into specifically.