Hi,

Pretty basic question, I hope.

When using Precision Telekinesis, is the weight limit of this power still reliant on the Basic Technique: Mind over Matter? (page 171 of core rule book)

So 10kg x Psy rating

Many Thanks

Anyone?

That's really not enough info. The 10kg x PR is about moving things slowly, and doesn't work on anything alive. The description seems pretty clear. If the 'path were trying to pick a lock from distance they'd substitute their PF for their Dex before adding their Security.

What is it you, or your player, are wanting to do?

Hey, thanks for your reply.

One of our players is trying to use telekinesis to carry and fire his gun.

Is this a role-playing exercise? Is he/she trying to impress the natives? Is he/she trying to get an extra action per turn for nothing?

He's using it in combat.

Let me guess...your player wants to substitute their Willpower for Ballistic Skill in this case? I'm curious how other GMs view this. It smells and tastes like rules-lawyering to me. Yes, the gun would require Willpower to manipulate, but I'd be reluctant to assume that Willpower sufficed for training, especially at range. Would your player also be able to wield a dancing sword at range, replacing WS with Will? Could they then still use the Force special ability of force swords at range?

RAW, it seems possible. I probably wouldn't allow it. Can I drive a tank at range? Shoot its guns? How about steering a small craft filled with explosives into my opponent's space ship? Was this power designed to supplant remote controls?

Hard, hard issue to take on fairly, I would talk to the player and hammer out a good working house rule that makes you both happy and keep your hair firmly in your head.

I'd be tempted to (at the very best) allow the player to attempt it with half their willpower rating (as though attempting a basic skill untrained) and double the penalties for ranges because they're not able to sight along the gun and all of the skills they have related to firing a gun just don't apply the same way when using telekinesis. If it is anything other than a las weapon I'd likely make the player 'drop' it after every shot due to the recoil.

That is if I allowed it at all.

Now if the player had lost a limb and they were trying to learn a telekinesis based power to replace the limb without a cybernetic I might be a little more open to something like that. Though corruption points would likely be involved.

There are some key rules at play here.

"The object can be moved slowly within the range of the power. Objects move far too slowly to be used as an attack, however." That seems to rule out sword-play at a distance.

"Additionally, this raw lifting ability does not function on living beings, as the smallest movements tend to unbalance the psyker's mental focus." This seems to apply to Weed's concept of recoil, also. That force will simply mess with the psyker's control. Perhaps a single shot, but semi-auto or full auto? Probably not.

Seriously though, why doesn't the psyker just carry the weapon? The answer seems clear to me. They want to substitute WP for BS, which seems real cheesy.

Here's the real solution, and it applies to more than just Astropaths. Your BS sucks? Get a flamer. Want more range? Get an autogun or something with similar RoF and lay down suppressive fire for your team.

Even then, WP would only determine how well you could hold it still, I'd still require BS to actually hit anything with it. In addition, "Far to slowly to be used as an attack" could also be argued to include tracking speed of the weapon, meaning you'd never keep up with a moving target.

I'd happily allow it to pull the trigger on a gun someone else is holding or that is tucked into someone's belt but aiming and firing a gun effectively with telekinesis is pushing it a bit far.

Some really good feedback here, thanks.

As you say, using WP in this way seemed really cheesy to me as well, but I didn't know how to argue against it.

My friend then took it too far by trying to use a heavy weapon. To which I said it was too heavy based on the psy rating.

He then attempted to substitute his strength with his will power to calculate his lift/carry/push, which is just stupid and naive.

So, he then pushed his psy rating, summoned a demon on perils of the warp and promptly died.