Just to double check I'm running these weapons correctly (IH, pp. 187-188).
Can the additional damage power roll trigger Psychic Phenomena?
In order to receive additional dice of damage a simple success on the opposed WP roll is not enough it must be by one or more Degrees of Success?
The Strong Minded talent won't help with the opposed test, what about Resitance (Psychic Powers), Mental Fortress or Hexagramic Wards?
Yes, you need at least one degree of success on the opposed test. However, as long as you achieved more degrees of success than your opponent, you get the full benefit of your degrees of success. So if you have 60 WP and rolled a 10 (4 degrees of success) and they had the same WP and rolled 20 (3 degrees of success), you get the full 4d10 damage for your 4 degrees.
And yes, you have to roll at least one die to manifest the power, and so you can potentially trigger phenomena. Also, technically, you cannot use any other Power in the same Round, except Resist Posession (as per erratta).
Anything that gives a straight bonus to resist Psychic Powers will work. So yes to Mental Fortress (they were the target of a Psychic Attack) and Resistance (Psychic Powers) and Hexagrammic Wards (they are resisting a Psychic Attack), but no to Strong Minded (their mind is not explicitly targeted). Also, the Wards would likely double the armor's value against the initial attack, since the weapon deals its damage primarily with Psychic force.
Hodgepodge said:
Yes, you need at least one degree of success on the opposed test. However, as long as you achieved more degrees of success than your opponent, you get the full benefit of your degrees of success. So if you have 60 WP and rolled a 10 (4 degrees of success) and they had the same WP and rolled 20 (3 degrees of success), you get the full 4d10 damage for your 4 degrees.
And yes, you have to roll at least one die to manifest the power, and so you can potentially trigger phenomena. Also, technically, you cannot use any other Power in the same Round, except Resist Posession (as per erratta).
I thought 10 was the threshold for a DoS (so WP 60 rolling a 10 would score 5 DoS). While I think you are technically correct I had thought that the 'difficulty' of the test would be set by the opponent, thus if the above were rolled and a WP 40 opponent had rolled a 20, only (5-2=3) DoS would be applied.
That's a point, I hadn't thought about that one. Our Psyker thought Force Weapons might be a bit overpowered but I think that balances them out quite well.
EDIT (should have been entered below the following quote): I'd also be tempted to say that the Hexagrammic wards, if there is any armour left after the initial damage, would still apply against the additional damage as a very special case.
Hodgepodge said:
Anything that gives a straight bonus to resist Psychic Powers will work. So yes to Mental Fortress (they were the target of a Psychic Attack) and Resistance (Psychic Powers) and Hexagrammic Wards (they are resisting a Psychic Attack), but no to Strong Minded (their mind is not explicitly targeted). Also, the Wards would likely double the armor's value against the initial attack, since the weapon deals its damage primarily with Psychic force.
Khouri said:
You're right about the numbers there, I did the math as if the WP was 50 for some reason.
Hexegrammic Wards are a special and rather rare case, so inventiveness on the part of the GM is certainly called for.
Also, one thing about stuff being overpowered in DH is that one slowly learns that basically everything is terribly lethal if well played. The main concern is bringing that back home to the players without TPKing them gratutiously, rather accidentally letting them get to powerful when it comes to offense.