Thanks that's what I imagined (unless otherwise specified etc). Had to check for the psyker in our party after he whined how bad force barrage was. Well, used against orcs with unnatural toughness and armor 4, duh... maybe he should have picked up psychic blade instead?

In the errata of RT, there is two psychic powers which can be dodged so...

A Point of clarification, if I may.

Hammerhand & Psychic Blade are 2 examples of manifestations (I think there are others) of Psychic powers that are manifested, and then treated as a 'normal' weapon in all respects. From that point on, they can dodged. Hammerhand can be parried, but I would suggest that the defender make a strength test to hold onto their weapon aftwerwards, since Hammerhand gives an effective x4 multiplier to a Psyker's usual strength. Parrying a Psy Blade should be equally dangerous since it's pure force; it should have the same effect as a wielder using a Power sword or a Force weapon, on the defender's weapon. Ergo, I'd strongly reccomend dodging either attack. Unless you HAVE a Power sword to parry with.

Hammerhand can be parried, but I would suggest that the defender make a strength test to hold onto their weapon aftwerwards, since Hammerhand gives an effective x4 multiplier to a Psyker's usual strength. Parrying a Psy Blade should be equally dangerous since it's pure force; it should have the same effect as a wielder using a Power sword or a Force weapon, on the defender's weapon.

I disagree on both accounts. Firstly, parrying by just blocking the enemy weapon is stupid - no experienced fencer would do this, especially if he values his own blade. You generally parry by giving the enemy weapon a bit of an extra drift in another direction not directly opposed to his strike. Secondly, there is no weapon that can sunder another on an attack. Power weapons can sunder only when parrying and Force weapons can't sunder at all. Thirldy, both Hammerhand and Psy Blade are dangerous enough already without the "It's psychic, therefore it is better!" effect.

"Pure Force" sounds nice and powerful until you realize that the thing permanently altering an enemy's face when you push your fist into it? That's pure force as well. Without "pure force", no kinetic damage is going to happen at all. Psykers using telekinetics only cut out the middleman and conjure up the force without the accompanying physical weapon to transfer it to an enemy - whether this is more or less powerful than the normal way depends on the psyker and the power used.

Cifer said:

Hmm. You argue that no experienced fencer would do this... in essence using real world fighting mechanics in the game, then bash me for pointing out that a pure force weapon can't and wouldn't cut through a defender's weapon because of game mechanics.

In your second paragraph I didn't understand at all what point you were trying to make, can you please clarify?

Also, in the game I play in, Force Weapons seem to work the same as a Power Weapon. This may be a house rule, or perhaps a misunderstanding on my part. I have been playing the game about a year now. But I learn quickly.

One more thing. Regarding all the threads on this post. Given that opponents can dodge a bio-lightning attack (half action), can a Psyker who is in melee with an opponent, use a Feint (half action) then follow with the lightning? If we're going to treat the Psy powers as a regular attack action, it would seem then Feints could be used to set up Psyker attacks as well (albeit only in melee).

Denmar1701 said:

In general you could use a Feint action to setup a psychic attack but unless the resulting attack is a melee attack using the Standard Attack action the benefits of the Feint action will be lost. Since bio-lightning is nether a melee attack nor uses a Standard Attack action it couldn't benefit from a Feint action.

N.B. I've used RT's version of Feint which differs from DH's by restricting the following attack to a melee attack.

@Denmar

Hmm. You argue that no experienced fencer would do this... in essence using real world fighting mechanics in the game, then bash me for pointing out that a pure force weapon can't and wouldn't cut through a defender's weapon because of game mechanics.

The game mechanics side of both is pretty clear: Hammerhand has no rule saying it can knock a weapon out of an enemy's hand and the Psy Blade hasn't got the special rule "Force Field". Therefore, both effects don't happen by the RAW - there's no room for arguing them. Since you seemed to argue from a real world perspective (saying that a blow that strong would have to disarm an enemy and essentially implying that the rule of this not happening was not realistic), I answered from a real world perspective as well, noting why it wouldn't have to happen.

In your second paragraph I didn't understand at all what point you were trying to make, can you please clarify?

You said that the Psy Blade is super-awesome because it's made of Pure Force. I demonstrated why it isn't. Pure Force is nothing special - it's employed by every attack there is apart from those of damage type E.

Also, in the game I play in, Force Weapons seem to work the same as a Power Weapon. This may be a house rule, or perhaps a misunderstanding on my part. I have been playing the game about a year now. But I learn quickly.

Force Weapons do not have the Power Field special rule and neither do their rules in the text indicate they work that way. Force weapons are good quality mono weapons with a few extra rules (additional damage and penetration by psy rating and the possibility to channel psy power through them). Nothing more, nothing less.

One more thing. Regarding all the threads on this post. Given that opponents can dodge a bio-lightning attack (half action), can a Psyker who is in melee with an opponent, use a Feint (half action) then follow with the lightning? If we're going to treat the Psy powers as a regular attack action, it would seem then Feints could be used to set up Psyker attacks as well (albeit only in melee).

As noted, Feint can be used to setup melee attacks (by Rogue Trader, which I generally consider a kind of Errata for the DH rules). If a power is (or contains) a melee attack, then using feint to improve it is fine.