If an Imperial Psycher rolls Wrydling or Hellspawn.

By Apache, in Dark Heresy Rules Questions

I have an Imperial Psycher at Psy Rating 3. We finished an epic session last night and I've ended up having to roll a minor mutation at the beginning of the next session. Looking through them I saw that one of them, Wyrdling and one of the Major Mutations, Hellspawn give you a Psy Rating (1 and 2 respectively).

How does this effect Psychers who have already surpassed the Psy Rating 1 or 2 that the mutation gives you?

Apache said:

I have an Imperial Psycher at Psy Rating 3. We finished an epic session last night and I've ended up having to roll a minor mutation at the beginning of the next session. Looking through them I saw that one of them, Wyrdling and one of the Major Mutations, Hellspawn give you a Psy Rating (1 and 2 respectively).

How does this effect Psychers who have already surpassed the Psy Rating 1 or 2 that the mutation gives you?

The Wyrdling and Hellspawn mutations would do nothing for your Psy Rating, as you cannot have a level of Psy Rating twice. There are a couple of ways the effects could be handled in this case.

  1. For Wyrdling ; instead of Psy Rating 1 , give the Psyker a free Minor Psychic Power talent.
  2. For Hellspawn give two Minor Psychic Power talents, plus the usual Dæmonic Aura , Frightening , and From Beyond traits.

It could also reasonably be interpreted that the Psyker would get no benefit or disadvantage from Wyrdling , as you already have benefited from Psy Rating 1. In this case, a reroll on the table might be prudent. Hellspawn carries with it three additional traits beyond the Psy Rating; those would not change at all, and would be the extent of what would manifest in this situation. Honestly, I like my former idea over the latter. Hope this helps you some.

-=Brother Praetus=-

I would say, in regards to the psyraiting, that such a mutation would boost their psyraiting by their number (+1 or +2) to show the warp twisting the psyker, making them more powerful then they have a right to be. However, this wouldn't be a technical rise in their Psyraiting Trait, they would simply have a permanent bonus to the psyraiting. If they are a psyraiting 3, then they would have a psyraiting 3+1 (and because I'm just tat kind of GM) I would also give them a corruption Point every time they rolled more dice then their psyraiting talent allows for showing that they are falling back on the warp mutation and being corrupted further for it.

Graver said:

I would say, in regards to the psyraiting, that such a mutation would boost their psyraiting by their number (+1 or +2) to show the warp twisting the psyker, making them more powerful then they have a right to be. However, this wouldn't be a technical rise in their Psyraiting Trait, they would simply have a permanent bonus to the psyraiting. If they are a psyraiting 3, then they would have a psyraiting 3+1 (and because I'm just tat kind of GM) I would also give them a corruption Point every time they rolled more dice then their psyraiting talent allows for showing that they are falling back on the warp mutation and being corrupted further for it.

So you would treat it similarly to that of a Psyker picking up Sorcerer and Master Sorcerer from DotDG , with a few tweaks. The option for utilizing Bonus Dice on manifestation rolls, but an alternate detrimental effect. I had thought along similar lines originally, but decided to go with a more moderate rules interpretation and/or adjustment. Either course is entirely viable and potentially fun for the whole cadre. demonio.gif

-=Brother Praetus=-

Thanks for your recommendations. I'll take these ideas to the GM in case it ever comes up. I was surprised actually that there wasn't any information on this topic before, I've searched through here and Dark Reign and couldn't find any other questions asking the same. It must have come up before.

The character I'm playing picks up Corruption Points quite quickly, he's an Imperial Psycher acting as an Interrogater, he's very sadist and employs various torture techniques to extract information and then healing them with Biomancy (rinse and repeat if needed.) I've made the GM cringe before whilst explaining some of the stuff. It's a fairly fun character to play but the Chem Geld makes it difficult in social situations as I'm playing it as he's been stripped of his emotion and compassion rather than just his libido. I'm still really finding my feet with the character in that respect.

I'm reluctant to take Praetus' first scenario as I believe that the Mutations should be a bane rather than a boon to a character, I realise that Corruption can sometimes be beneficial however this seems too much like 100XP on gratis. I'm worried that the GM will just say re-roll if it occurs rather than come up with a solution that fits, and the idea of having Psy 3 (+1) is intriguing.

It may slightly overpower the Psycher though, especially on Seal Wounds if nothing else. At the moment I can heal a maximum of 84 damage in any one round at Psy Rating 3 without power-gaming at all (Power Well (+1), 4WB (+4), 3 Dice (+30) = 35 = 25 Overbleed = 60 + 24). If I got Hellspawn and Psy Rating 6/Power Well 4/WB 6 that would be a maximum of 252 (160 + 92)! Is there anything in the game that even has that amount of wounds? If so, where is it so I can steer well clear of it! :D

They also boost a Psyker's Psy Rating in Rogue Trader (and one can even be taken intentionally), although that has different effects in RT's reworked Psyker rules.

Hodgepodge said:

They also boost a Psyker's Psy Rating in Rogue Trader (and one can even be taken intentionally), although that has different effects in RT's reworked Psyker rules.

Could you elabourate on the rules from RT? They may be able to be reverse engineered to work with DH.

In RT it gives a +1 psi and 2 additional powers to psykers. That said the wrydling mutation as a whole is different in both books. Not to mention that the psyker rules are very different between the 2 games.

The main difference is that Psy Rating doesn't grant powers in and of itself. Also, manifesting a Power is now a Willpower (or sometime Perception or skill) test. You get a bonus to the roll equal to your Psy Rating x 5, with phenomena triggered on a roll of two of the same number. There's more, but I don't really want to type out the whole chapter lengua.gif

Dalnor Surloc said:

In RT it gives a +1 psi and 2 additional powers to psykers. That said the wrydling mutation as a whole is different in both books. Not to mention that the psyker rules are very different between the 2 games.

But the RT book does note that Psy Rating in both games is identical - the way the psychic rules work differs, but Psy Rating 1 is Psy Rating 1, whichever game you're playing, as mentioned in the sidebar on page 172.

Yeah. I'd say it's mostly interpretive.

A psyker gaining Wydling just tells us what we already know- he has inherent psychic power. Yay. I'd probably reroll the result, but +1 to reflect a greater level of talent, paired with some unsightly mutation or terrible Maligancy might be appropriate. Hellspawn, however, is more like giving into the corruption of the Warp wholesale. I'd treat that like being a Sorceror in terms of giving more power in exchange for more risk and the perils of heresy, except stacking with any Sorcery talents the player cares to pick up.

If another player rolled Wyrdling, I'd probably treat it as being a Nascent Psyker.

(In RT I'd just treat them as bonuses if picked up as part of the Astropath's background).