Hi All,

I am new to Rogue Trader and eventually for my first class decided to become Astropath. Currently I am getting to rank 3 so I will prepare for choosing new discipline.

Astropath starts with Telepathy which actually it seems to be one of the strongest if not the strongest discipline in game especially for role play purpose it provides.

Now I was thinking about a discipline to boost my fighting damage capability as we have a lot of fights during session.

From what I have read Telekinesis and Voidforst seem to be the most suitable.

My question is regarding the voidfrost discipline although the idea of some frost power seems to be cool, the whole techniques seem to be really weak. Ok dealing 1 point of fatigue to enemy is nice but eventually the enemy will die way faster before you will be able to add enough fatigue to make him unconscious. Considering the fact that there are no many voidfrost techniques compared to telekinesis this discipline seems to be really under powered or maybe I am missing something ?

Are you overlooking the -10 penalty to the sink that any amount of fatigue imposes?

If you want combat effectiveness there are more ways than just straight damage to enemies. The Soul Ward Discipline for example can turn your psyker into a veritable Cleric of the Emperor, buffing allies and weakening enemies. Now, if that fits with your character's personality is another question entirely.

Now, if you are dead set on raw combat power then Telekinesis will probably fit the bill, though Telepathy has some pretty powerful tools as well like Psychic Scream and of course Puppet Master. Nothing says **** you like possessing an enemy brute and beating his allies to a pulp.

With Navis Primer, the Telekinesis discipline allows you to potentially generate additional void shields in ship combat at the low low price of a Hellish Willpower test. It's an undeniable benefit.

I've always been a fan of Divination. You get to spout vague but prescient phrases to astound your friends with, and Blessed by the Emperor grants you decent ability with a sword (force sword, of course) while protecting you from incoming hostile fire. You want more offense? Pick up a flamer. I find voidfrost to be the least useful of all disciplines, though I admit it depends on the campaign. Some of the later supplements' alternative disciplines are rather situation dependent.

Divination... why you do this Errant. I thought you cared for your fellow GMs, and yet you would unleash such madness upon the GM of this game.

Hi All,

I am new to Rogue Trader and eventually for my first class decided to become Astropath. Currently I am getting to rank 3 so I will prepare for choosing new discipline.

Astropath starts with Telepathy which actually it seems to be one of the strongest if not the strongest discipline in game especially for role play purpose it provides.

Now I was thinking about a discipline to boost my fighting damage capability as we have a lot of fights during session.

From what I have read Telekinesis and Voidforst seem to be the most suitable.

My question is regarding the voidfrost discipline although the idea of some frost power seems to be cool, the whole techniques seem to be really weak. Ok dealing 1 point of fatigue to enemy is nice but eventually the enemy will die way faster before you will be able to add enough fatigue to make him unconscious. Considering the fact that there are no many voidfrost techniques compared to telekinesis this discipline seems to be really under powered or maybe I am missing something ?

Yes dealing damage is more effective at killing than causing fatigue but defeating through fatigue allows you to capture the target alive. Apart from the standard "lets interrogate him" this allows you to sell living xenos or beasts, a profitable endeavour. Slowing and binding enemies (also possible with the discipline) helps with this too.

Soul Ward (Navis Primer) might be the most effective in combat but only if you are aiding good warriors on your side (arch-militants and xenos espesially).

Still if you wish a more lethal combat boost there are options there too. Theosophamy (Into the Storm) is great but a bit limited in what you can affect, still you can just specialise your telepathy for damage a bit and bring our theosophamy when your buddies encounter a daemon. For a simple damage arsenal Telekenesis will also do and might be what you are looking for.

SCKoNi, I actually have fun as the GM coming up with those vague but prescient phrases for the PC astropath to spout. Ask yourself what might happen in the near future and figure out a vague expression that could explain the 2 most likely outcomes. It hits most of the time and misses just enough to keep the other PCs guessing about the astropath's sanity. It helps if the player of the astropath is good at acting creepy, too.

Simply giving the astropath the mechanistic advantages of the divination discipline won't give your campaign that edgy feel, either. The diviner can have all manners of dreams and I try to come up with 1 or 2 for the beginning of every session. Often, that generates more mental fodder for the player of the astropath. An astropath with both Telepathy and Divination can easily become the top adviser of their Rogue Trader, acting as Master of Aetherics, Master of the Comm, and Spymaster...an information broker that eclipses the more mundane methods of the Seneschal.

Of course, everything is dependent on the flavor of the campaign. If you're playing the pirate dynasty, tooling around in a frigate, you might very well find that extra shield that Erathia mentioned just the tool your party needs to survive. If your group is prone to space-dungeon crawls then TK or voidfrost might be your cup of tea. If your primary opponent has been and looks to be demons, you might need to check into one of the disciplines that specializes in combating them. But for me, divination gives advantages in all campaigns.

I guess I've just had really bad experiences with players treating Divination like a joke, constantly making augury readings and overall just slowing the game down for all the other participants. If you've managed to make it work in your group then you have found something I haven't, because from my time with Divination its nothing but trouble and headaches for everyone involved.

As for everything else, its really dependent on the personality of your psyker and what powers would best suit it. Telekinesis is as said the go-to for straight combat strength, and also provides some fun out of combat actions you could take. I mean, it may be strange to the primitive eyes of those not blessed by the Emperor's divine light, but you just can't be bothered picking up that amasec with your bare hands.

TK is the go-to when subtleness isn't considered. It's the throw-a-boulder approach. It's popular because it's the easiest to use to make it useful. But, all the disciplines become much more useful when employed subtly, and any of them can be. Consider the locked door. The brute would try to batter it down. A more subtle person would use Precision TK to manipulate the tumblers. It's the same result...use TK to open the door. Brute force has distinct limitations.

What happens when the door is too big for TK and is locked with an electronic passkey? You might use psychometry to see what buttons have been pushed in the past, and in what order. Or you can use psycholocation to find the person with the passcode, ID, or key to get through.

But I can certainly see situations where TK is more useful, and I can understand the desire to prefer visible feats of power.

Yes dealing damage is more effective at killing than causing fatigue but defeating through fatigue allows you to capture the target alive. Apart from the standard "lets interrogate him" this allows you to sell living xenos or beasts, a profitable endeavour. Slowing and binding enemies (also possible with the discipline) helps with this too.

Note that this use of Voidfrost allowed our Astropath to capture some intact Hrud specimens by freezing them solid, whereas since they normally dissolve upon death. It was quite a valuable source of profit factor that he argued for.