Hello everyone,

My gaming group recently finished our last mission and are in the process of Ascending to throne agents. Only thing is that our GM has said he wants at least one of us to go into Inquisitor.

After reading through Ascension and discussing it with the rest of my playing group, we have mostly decided on what careers to advance to. Our Assassin is going to Vindicare, our Psyker to Primaris Psyker & our Techpriest to Magos (all pretty straightforward and expected). We also have a Scum who is really not impressed with the 3 choices he has, but doesnt want the Inquisitor responsibility so is left with Desperado.

This leaves an Adepus Sororitas and my own Guardsman. She is leaning toward Interrogator (as she has lots of interrogation skills already) but is open minded about the choice. Im not greatly impressed by Stormtrooper career at all, or crusader for that matter. So it seems one will be the Inquisitor and the other the Interrogator.

So my questions: 1) Any advice on which of us should take which career (and why)? 2) Both of us are interested in attaining Psychic powers but cant figure out precisely HOW to get this psi rating 1 needed to open this up without taking nascent psyker (which is an accident waiting to happen). How can this be achieved?

S.K.

2) If you want to become a Psyker you just have to choose the General Transition Package The Mind's Eye Opens which gives you Psy Rating 1 and the Sanctioned Psyker Trait.

Solomon Kane said:

1) Inquisitor...

That's likely a discussion between the GM and the two of you. The Inquisitor is in a position of power but they need to be balanced IRL with the rest of the players in decision-making and such. There is a good section on establishing this in Ascension. Off-hand, whichever one of you likes and thinks strategically or long-term. Also, a Sororitas Inquisitor is going to some hell-on-fanaticism...

2) Psy Powers

a) Well, the easy way is to take Nascent Psyker, discovered latent during your Transition and then sent off to be Sanctioned. The Transition is supposed to take several years so it would just require the agreement of your GM.

b) An Interrogator (and I think Inquisitors should get this too) receive Wild Talents/Skills from any Career. There is a restriction on Psyker Career Talents but not Adepts... a Rank 7 and * Adept can gain Psy Rating 1 and 2. Voila! An Interrogator can easily pick up Psy Rating 1 from that. The problem lies in that the Psykers Gift Trait has to be taken at the beginning... so that's something to discuss with your GM. The Adept loophole may be a whoops but I think it works really well. An Interrogator can't get sweeping psy powers but can get some low-level stuff. When they ascend to Inquisitor they can hone these even more. It works well in flavor and theme. A lot of people think that Psy abilities should never be given out after chargen. I'm not one of them. You;ll have to discuss this with your GM...

c) In building a character Top-Down method, it's a lot easier obviously.

EDIT: Doesn't Minds Eye Opens require you to have Nascent or Psy 1 already?

@Inquisitor
If you are not against it, TAKE IT!

First and foremost, the Inquisition NEEDS more "hands down" guys like your guardsman to fill the ranks. Had you have a look on the scene recently? They are so overrun with psykers and clerics that they even starte to use literal SCUM just to get people with a less-esoteric/more-practical point of view!

Second (and more serious) if the Sister-Player toyed with Interrogator and already played the part recently, leave it to her/him.

Third, taking the =I= is caring for yourself. Since you will have an Vindicare with you AND a primaris psyker, their should not be to much need for ANOTHER combat-worthy type. So, shoulder the burden of duty the god-emporer manifested in your destiny and HEED THE CALL!

There are a number of considerations here:

1)There isn't any reason that the Inquisitor must be the Inquisitor career. It's most common but the primus psyker, (what ever the priest is), the interrogator, and even the crusader are fine for non-standard Inquisitor. I'd argue that Gideon Raveno fits more with a primus career than an Inquisitor.

2)The mind's eye opens requires some prep. You need to work out with your GM getting the required traits.

3)A Inquisitor is always going to be a 2nd rate psyker. Which is fine if you are just planning on picking a few choice powers. (Divination!!) Sure people are going to say if you pump xp into you'll outstrip the primus. Sure, but you:

a)Spend a lot more XP

b)Don't get the special talents. Being able to shift your rolls on the tables up and down by 5% is vital to survive.

c)A strict reading of the psyker chapter indicates that only Primus psyker can do the varying levels of PSI. If that is your GM's reading then a high PSI score is a death sentence. Unless your GM lets you roll fewer dice, but in that case a high psi score is much less useful.

d)A psyker who goes Primus starts with a massive lead in psi score, talents, and powers than an Inquisitor starting from ground zero.

4)Note if psyker powers are really interesting I'd go minds eye opens to Primus....

Dalnor Surloc said:

Comparing Primaris and Inquisitor Psykers, I point to exhibit A:

Inquisitor:

Rank 9 availability of Unnatural Willpower

Primaris:

Rank 14 availability of Unnatural Willpower.

Game, set, match.

Edit: For the record, I actually asked FFG about the "multiple Psi Ratings" thing.

I said:

Rule Question:

This question is in regards to the Ascension rulebook, specifically one of the possible Ascended Traits for the Inquisitor class - the Psyker's Gift.

Its text allows the selection of several talents as elite advances, but it does not state whether these talents are available in limited or unlimited quantity.

Can an Inquisitor with The Psyker's Gift take a specific talent (for example, the Ascended Psychic Power Talent) more than once? If so, is there a suggested limit, either in overall quantity or by rank?

Thanks!

Ross Watson said:

There is no limit on the number of Elite Advances you wish to take.

See page 43 in Dark Heresy for more details.

Unatural Willpower is all well and good, but a Sanction psyker is going to have a 6 PSI and 2 power well to start. Which puts him about 4 dice ahead of an Inquisitor starting at a 2 psi score. The will is going to average about 6 point bonus, but the power well brings that down to only 4 points up. Also keep in mind that the willpower boost is only going to net you about a much as the average of a single psi dice. All and all the Inquisitor will need to buy 3 more psi to reach the psyker's average roll. That's 3,500 XP which is pretty much all of rank 9 without buying a single power. Mean while the psyker has boosted his psi by +1 for 800XP, and bought an accended power for 1000XP. The Inquisitor is spending 2/3 of a rank to get that power. Sure it's great if you are a power gamer wanting to have a single power uber power, and boost your psi score to ungodly levels

But wait!! page 124 clearly states that if a psyker survives to be evalated to Primaris he gains the ablity to use his powers Fettered, Unfettered and Push. An Inquisitor is unlikely to pull off any of the powers in the Ascension without having 4-5 dice of psi. Without the Favored of the Warp talent or being able to use his powers fettered such an Inquisitor will be eaten by the warp sooner or later. Or not be able to use his powers often.

Now one can argue that a psyker should take the Inquisitor career. It really depends on if the GM goes against RAW about being able to use psi at an unfettered level only as a Primaris. And if he lets you buy PSI, and powers willy nilly. Personally as a GM I would let any imperial trained psyker do (Fettered/Unfettered/Push). But I'd also cap the Inquisitor to only be able to buy psi score every other level. In which case a psyker is pretty well balanced going either way. (Sure he doesn't get the willpower bonus, but he has more xp to by psi score and powers.) And power gamers switching to Inquisitors aren't able to suddenly become more powerful than a psyker who has been developing powers for years. And finally my players aren't constantly being eaten by the warp, possesed, causing it to rain blood...

"3)A Inquisitor is always going to be a 2nd rate psyker."

This is only potentially true if and only if you're transitioning from a non-psyker career into a Psyker Inquisitor.

"b)Don't get the special talents. Being able to shift your rolls on the tables up and down by 5% is vital to survive."

Honestly, as useful as that is, suffering an additional effective 3.2% chance of instant death when rolling Perils of the Warp is a fairly substantial tradeoff. Furthermore, I wouldn't consider it 'vital to survive' given that most Perils results are tolerable, the odds of Perils are still fairly low even with a great deal of Psy Dice due to Favoured of the Warp, and that a great deal of power, which is often more than sufficient, can be exhibited by casting at the Fettered level, given the far greater importance of the psyker's WP Bonus relative to Psy Rating used in DH. Further, because the Inquisitor can have a higher maximum Psy Rating, his Fettered manifesting is ultimately better than the Primaris'.

"c)A strict reading of the psyker chapter indicates that only Primus psyker can do the varying levels of PSI. If that is your GM's reading then a high PSI score is a death sentence. Unless your GM lets you roll fewer dice, but in that case a high psi score is much less useful. "

Not true. Going by a truly strict RAW interpretation, _a_ psyker (not necessarily a Primus), can manifest powers at various levels.

"d)A psyker who goes Primus starts with a massive lead in psi score, talents, and powers than an Inquisitor starting from ground zero. "

Goes without saying, but the Psyker who becomes a Psyker Inquisitor will be ultimately and decisively more powerful, and will prove superior to Primaris counterparts immediately due to Unnatural Willpower 2x.

It is possible I missed the rule but I don't think you need to have a psy level to be an inquisitor as extreme puritan factions would kill anyone with a psy rating. So even if there is a rule saying you must have a psy rating to be an inquisitor I would just ignore it.

Zelsior said:

I had the same reaction when I read the first few posts. What, every Inquisitor is a Psyker now ? This makes no sense.

Kyorou said:

No, Inquisitors don't have to be Psykers (but they can, if they want to).

My thoughts…

1. The expanded Psy rules (Push/Fettered etc) were first provided in RT. There they were listed as being an optional ruleset for DH for those who wanted to use it. (RT p172). The inclusion of the rules in Ascension makes them the ruleset for Ascended Psykers. According to the fluff, the new rules represent high-level training by the Scholastica Psykana that allow those powers.

“Sometimes these psykers are identified while still in training on Terra… Other times, the Scholastica notices a sanctioned psyker who seems unusually talented…”

“If a psyker lives long enough to be elevated to the rank of Primaris, he learns how to mask his presence from the warp. A psyker can modulate, or fetter his powers by reducing the warp energy he siphons through his mind.” ASC p124

Certainly, you can handle psykers and their powers in any way that works or you prefer. That’s what games are all about.

The way I’m going to represent it in my game is that this additional level of control is the result of specific and additional training. I’ve been thinking about making it an Elite Advance available to a Psyker at Psy-4 or something. Cost like 300-500XP. That’s only because IMO the Sanctioned Psyker of low level is basically a neophyte in the application of the Warp. They’ve been Sanctioned (made safe) but their powers are still raw. Hence the greater risk when they draw on the Warp. The Astropath, as indicated in RT and Primaris in ASC, are the recipients of this additional training.

2. Of course an Inquisitor doesn’t need to be a Psyker. I think it’s very clear that many Inquisitors are not. They receive training and mental blocking techniques represented by Indomitable Will and Mental Aegis but there’s no need for them to be an actual Psyker.

Gregorius21778 said:

You know what, I think i will... now theres persuasion for you!

But now i have a decision to make - do i find some way into getting Psychic powers (i still want to stay away from nascent Psyker if i can) and spend my xp building this up, or do i bite the bullet and spend the horrendous XP to get my FEL up (argh - the guardsman needs to learn to talk politely!) and then start buying all the influence talents? Whats the best ascenscion package to take?

S.K.

Solomon Kane said:

Well, is there in your group another PC with influence talents ? I read there's already a Psyker who is going Primaris. A few Psychic powers are always nice to have but, in the interest of the group, I'd say go for the influence talents if no one else has them.

Sometimes, being an Inquisitor is about sacrifice, about seeing your precious xp go into social stuff and taking it like a man.

If your Guardsman intends to go the Inquisitor route I would definately suggest going for a package that gives you some extra Willpower, Perception or Fellowship. Other than that, go with what "feels right" for the character. If you have a crapload of insanity points then some of the more extreme packages start to look alot better.

In my group the Guardsman is looking the most likely to become the Inquisitor as well. She is noble-born Cadian, so the "trial" package that adds +10 Will is looking very attractive to her. Of course it helps that she already has a Fel46 with only one advance spent on it so far. She is also the team's Prime.

So it seems that Trent Reznor was right after all: "Pretty little hate machine"

Solomon Kane said:

Note that a little psy goes a long way. With the early (x2) boost to your will bonus. You'll have a base 6-10 manifestation plus your dice. This lets you pull off most minor powers easily with one psi die. Look at spasm, the healing power, weapon jinx (see errata), the aim/dodge powers. Divination is also good bang for the buck. Going all in with psi is costly.