"All machines within [50m] cease to function for one round."

My reading of this is that from the moment the power is activated until the psyker's next action, all guns fail to fire, power swords/chainswords etc effectively become regular primitive weapons, plus vehicles, mechanical doors etc fail to work, and even power armour presumably fails meaning the likes of space marines will be effectively paralysed.

Is this right? If so, it seems horribly broken. My party have used it to devastating effect. Bearing in mind there's no way the opposition could know the power has been activated - every time they use the power, in anything other than a very long-range encounter (few encounters take place at greater than 50m), the opposition lose a full round as they pull the trigger and nothing happens.

I've been contemplating a couple of "fixes" for this:

- One possibility is to have the power produce some kind of perceptible effect which is relatively well-known amongst those with common lore: imperium or similar, tipping them off to what has happened so they don't lose a round.

- Another thought is that the power's effectiveness depends on the strength of the machine's spirit. i.e. a weapon that has been properly cared for, had the proper litanies spoken over it and holy oils applied, gets some kind of saving throw to avoid deactivating.

What do others think? Is this power too strong, or am I misinterpreting it somehow? Any other ideas for fixes?

Have you read the errata?

Weapon Jinx on page 168 should have the first three sentences of its description replaced with: “You reach into a nearby weapon with your mind to disrupt its function. Any one weapon within range that is not in the primitive weapon category instantly jams.”

I hadn't spotted that one - thanks.

(It now seems a bit underpowered, but I guess you can't have everything!)

It can disarm an enemy without any resist check. Also with overbleed more weapons get effected. So a high power psyker using it can disarm quite a few people.

And remember, it's only a minor power. It's not meant to be amazingly powerful.

Well, I'll leave it up to my players to decide whether it's any good or not. Personally I think if you have to spend an action to neutralise one other person for a round (i.e. spending an action to stop an action) that is fairly weak.

Obviously, it is just a minor power, but compared to some other minor powers it is weak. But there again, on balance I'd prefer psi-powers were made weaker - they are just so awesome right now that it is scary to contemplate.

Cardinalsin said:

It doesn't disable them for just one round. It disables them until they manage to unjam it (an unmodified full action BS test), then they have to reload the weapon before it can be used. Unless they change weapons, but that can also be to your advantage since you are their weapon out of action, so they switch to one that is less effective against you. For example, if they don't have a spare gun this forces them to either approach you for melee giving you more powers to chose from, or they are not a threat for a few rounds.

If the weapon overheats, then the weapon is out of action for the next round (as it cools) and they either take damage or can't use it for longer as they have to pick it back up.

Then we have grenade jams. My interpretation is that the grenade explodes on the 10, anything else and the next grenade fired will be a dud. So this is the only time where they are only disabled for the one round.

Another question your gm needs to answer: How will the NPC know that the gun has jammed ?

Overheat is obvious. But for others, wouldn't they have to try and fire it before they find out ?

Bilateralrope said:

The trick you want to do is use the power before actual combat breaks up and enemy starts to fire. When they suddenly notice the thingy don't go boom like its supposed to it will be pretty difficult to clear it before you get shot full of holes...

Underpowered? I would love to have a psyker with that in my group if we ran into a plasmacannon bearing badguy.

I missd the errata and the power as written proved extremely useful when my players encountered Necrons - didn't work on the Pariah though

Of course it did also freeze up the Space Marines and Sister of Battles power armour

It did give them time to get the Talisman of Vaul and those who were staying to activate it to where it need to be and those not making the ultimate sacrifice escape the Hulk with minimal cassulties.

The value of this power depends on your circumstances. If your 6 man team of acolytes is kitted out in heavy armour and waging war on the local underhive then using it to jam the stub pistol of the lone juve-ganger you corner isn't all that awesome. Not a bad move, just not "awesome". Put that same 6 man team in formal attire in an open ballroom when a custom gun-servitor with twin-linked heavy stubbers walks in through the kitchen door and this power is FRICKIN' AMAZING!

If your Psyker uses it right, this power is simply Gold. At Psy 1, it's good. At Psy 4, getting several degrees of Overbleed, it's KILLER.

Edit: My bad, didn't realize the necro. Was just perusing the House Rules section.

Would it work on a grenade? Does a regular frag grenade count as a device? I assume it's using a simple pin. Crossbows?

EDIT: never mind, I reread the errata.

Inquisitor sapiens potensque said:

A jammed grenade would be a nasty surprise for them if they get BOOM on the explosive mishap table. But if they get anything else, you would know if they rolled Dud or It Might be Okay '. A dud would be fine, but the other means that the grenade that landed harmlessly at your feet could still explode.

Next time I want players to have a worrying ally, I'll give them a psyker who keeps using weapon jinx on enemy grenades.

I seem to have overlooked the sheer intimidation factor for this power I mean just walking into a room of thugs pointing their guns at the lone psyker, and he just smiles at them saying "I don't think so".. then their guns mysteriously ceases to work, almost like the Emperor protects the psyker again all harm

I don't even think I would require an Intimidate test for that