Hey. I'm new to this game and RPGs in general and I have some questions about psykers in BC. For all intents and purposes let's say the psykers is devoted to Tzeentch and has his mark.

1. When do you apply a WPB? (Does it add to damage for psychic powers)

2. I have not found anywhere you add the WPB so what is the use of Unnatural Willpower?

3. Best talents to buy?

4. Best psychic powers to buy?

5. A basic run down about force weapons and channeling psychic power through it.

6. Wartime gives Unnatural WS does that bonus apply to my initial weapons attack?

7. Anyways to lower chance of psychic phenomena?

If you have any other wisdom or tips about playing pykers in BC I would love to hear it.

Thanks everyone

1. Wherever it's explicitly referenced, though such occasions are extremely few.

2. Unnatural WP is an Unnatural Characteristic, so the primary benefit there is adding additional DoS equal to half the Unnatural bonus (rounded up).

3. Warp Sense, of course. Other than that, Warp Lock is the only universally relevant one. Several of the other psychic talents are situational depending on your playstyle.

4. Bolt of Change is amazing. Precision Telekinesis is weird as hell but can really come in handy in some situations. Beyond that, check out whatever gives big bonuses for your preferred playstyle; there's a lot of useful selection. Ignore the Pyromancy tree, though, because those are trash against anything that matters.

5. As passive benefits, you get +1 Damage/Penetration per Psy Rating. When you hit, you may make a Focus Power test (your choice of strength) as normal opposed by the target's WP. If you win, deal 1d10 damage per DoS that ignores damage reduction.

6. It doesn't add any direct effects, but as above Unnatural WS adds some DoS to your melee attacks (and thus perhaps more attacks with multiattack actions). If you decide to focus on being a melee psyker, Warptime and Precognitive Strike synergize well with Swift/Lightning Attack and Crushing Blow.

7. Nothing will prevent you from triggering on a push besides Warp Lock, but a Warp Staff from Tome of Fate prevents you from any chance of triggering on unfettered. Just for that property alone, it's one of the best weapons in the game.

The most important thing to to know about psikers is that the focus power test waaaaay over whelms any defensive test so an unfettered force sword strike with a wp of 50 is an 80% against what 40? My group is becoming unhappy with the one-sidedness of it and are thinking of either seriously modifying it or banning psikers.

If the defender has a psy rating, they get to apply 5x that too.

If you're scared of enemy psykers, you need to praise Khorne more. A character with a Collar just laughs at them.

Psykers are meant to be powerful, astronomically so since they are glass cannons. There is no archetype in existence that does not have the power to b******s up something so badly in a single action. Unless they use every power at fettered level, which would severely hamper their abilities, there is always a chance of rolling phenomenon. Then it's only a 25% of going to perils with modifiers depending on environmental factors. Perils have a chance of wiping out the player or the party such as summoning massive daemons to tear them apart, causing irresistible rending damage, massive explosions centered on themselves and dont forget that a 100 result is an unavoidable wipeout without any chance of burning infamy to survive. No character option has that chance of wiping themselves out in a single move. Even a fumbled grenade throw which blows up in your face can (unless your GM bans it) allow you to infamy burn to survive.

Force sword channeling, it's still a psychic technique which arguably could be forced to obey the above. There is a chance that when you tap that well of power you fall in and burn horribly.

Short thing to keep in mind about psykers, stupidly fun to play but be careful how you use them as otherwise they can go up in a puff of smoke.

Glass cannons? With two powers you can have un WS, agility, and toughness at +10. Add a true grit talent and you're out tanking the plauge marine.

Glass cannons? With two powers you can have un WS, agility, and toughness at +10. Add a true grit talent and you're out tanking the plauge marine.

You're right, glass cannon is the wrong term but I couldn't think of something which meant: "Massive damage but has a chance of blowing itself apart".

I mean I could always say Ork designed cannon...

2. Unnatural WP lets you add degrees of success (half you unnatural bonus I believe) to WP tests. Seeing as most powers are WP tests, this is great!

3. Talents: Warp Sense, Warp Lock, Sacrifice (slaves are stupidly easy to get, and sacrificing someone to push divination powers or powers that need to be sustained is a great way to cast from Psy Rating 8 at character creation!), all of the usual talents (stuff like Step Aside is useful for everybody - I'm sure there's a thread for that somewhere else on this forum).
5. Force weapons: get one! I won't re-type the entire force rules (because I'm lazy and they're simple enough), but here are my 2 cents. Fighting in melee is generally suboptimal for a psyker, so consider it your backup for when it's unavoidable. To use it, I generally just activate it and all out attack + Swift Attack, hoping that you'll land at least one hit (it should generally deal enough damage to cripple your target if your Psy Rating is good). Remember that even if you used an All Out Attack, you can still use Precognitive Dodge to avoid retaliation!
7. I love the lulzy randomness of Phenomena myself, so I generally don't try to avoid them too much. I'd just take Favored by the Warp and roll with them - you'll rarely get Perils, and anything else is rarely worth the effort (Warp Lock is IMO rarely worth it's cost).

"Wisdom" about playing psykers in BC and powers to choose:

Remember, you're not a combat monster! Sure, you can make yourself into an unkillable deathmachine - but that's not essential (most other PCs can do that). Get one or two ways to kill people (say, Doombolt and Bolt of Change), and one or two AoE control powers (stuff like Foul Cage), before maxing out utility. This means telepathy (Mind Probe, Compel, Mind Link) and divination (remember that Unnatural Senses bypass walls and doors - that seems like a good use for 100xp! Personal Augury is also a must). Then, focus on making yourself effectively unassailable and uncatchable - get Precognitive dodge, Warp Speed... I'd also get stuff like Flicker, Mantle of lies and Protean form - the utility they give you lets you face any kind of situation (and divination should let you ). Use Sacrifice to push a few powers like Warp Speed or Precognition, and then sustain them all day at ridiculous Psy Ratings.

When you're done with all that, then you can get more fancy ways to kill people if you feel like it. I've never really done that myself - except for Laughter of Thirsting Gods (Primordial Annihilation). That power is insanely lulzy, and deserves to be used in every boss fight, ever Stuff like Psychic shriek and the Telekinetic attack powers can generally just be skipped as a waste of XP - Doombolt is better is almost every situation.

If the defender has a psy rating, they get to apply 5x that too.

If you're scared of enemy psykers, you need to praise Khorne more. A character with a Collar just laughs at them.

Interesting theory, but buying Phantom Parry seems like a fun way to mess up an enemy psyker.

Favoured by the Warp is a good defense against unwanted SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome) due to Perils

Gong the route of Bastion of Iron Will is good for resisting those petulant novices who do not rightly respect your POWAH! (Watch out for this, it can get very expensive xp-wise.)

I disagree with Talon regarding Psychic Scream. I like it but mostly for SM-types.

Mind over Matter is extraordinarily useful. Why fight the critter or SM or whatever when you can push them off the edge of a cliff/hive balcony/ etc. Falling damage should be rightly feared. (Except in cases where jump packs/flying mounts/winged mutations are present)

I do agree with Talon's advice about thinking you might be a combat monster. I have a Slaaneshi Psyker who uses Compel and Delude to full effect. I even defended against a party member who accused me of lying (I totally did) and trying to get him killed (that was my intention) by deluding the rest of the party into agreeing with me. LOLOLOL Already had a nice Charm and Deceive percentage (and who really thinks to sink points into Scrutiny except the Social guy LOLOL), which went into the stratosphere with Delude. Good times!