Hey!

How is everybody?

So I had a quick question about the rules.

I am starting a new game- and I have given my players 5500 Exp to generate their characters.

One of them wants to make a psyker- a Templar Calix to be precise. However, he wants to later on become a tainted Psyker as well. Keep in mind that this all in character creation- so for all intents and purposes, my question is of purely mechanical nature ( meaning the player is backing up his decision in the background of his character, and this is more of a question of how i should deal with his advance scheme).

Now the problems show up when you see that Templar Calix has a "Less then Corruption and Insanity" requirement, whereas Warp Tainted has a MORE then 15 Corruption requirement.

On the one side- If he takes Calix at rank 4, when its first an option- but then branches out at rank five to tainted psyker, would he still be able to go back and take other advancements in Calix? The rule books does say you can take buy talents and skills from previous ranks... but I will admit the situation is unclear, as Calix contains a total of 7900, enough to move a player several ranks.

I have currently allowed him to do it- mostly because this is going to be an investigation heavy game, and the horrors that they WILL encounter are quite capable of defending themselves in direct combat- so even if the PC was trying to power-game it really wouldn't be an issue. I am just curious as how his advance scheme would work out.

Another option would be the "Calix has exited the building" whereas when he leaves the alternate rank, he'd need to reapply to it all over again, and would be unable to do so because he has more then 10 Corruption- but that kinda makes no sense to me, because it strikes as a peculiar club- once your in, your in for life. Unless you openly become a traitor that is. Perhaps the 10 point limit is there to encourage early entry in a game where people actually start out at 400 exp?

Opinions? Interpretations? Suggestions?

Thanks!

DH core rulebook, page 42, the first sentence:

"You may buy Advances from any Rank Advancement Scheme that you currently or have previously held."

So yes, RAW-wise the character can still take advances from his Templar Calix rank after losing the ability to join them, unless you require a TC Mentor to train him in those skills, which will be an issue if he's ditched formally by the Templar Calix.

So basically, mechanically he can do it; it's just a matter of roleplaying as to whether or not he will have the opportunity to train in Acrobatics, Secret Tongue (Templar Calix), etc.

I personally would block the player from buying any further advances from the Templar package once they have picked up Tainted Psyker, especially since they are doing all of this during character creation. Normally a character can buy advances from any career rank that they are in or have previously been in, but it is still subject to GM approval. In this case it is a player combining two radically different alternate career paths (ones emphasizing PURITY vs. WARP TAINT no less!) and then conjuring up a background to justify making such a hybrid. I could see maybe if during game play a Templar slowly (and secretly!) fell to temptation and taint but took steps to conceal the truth from their friends, coleagues and fellow Psykers (many of whom can "see" your soul) then I would allow them to continue training as long as their secret remained locked away. Doing this at character creation just screams abusive to me and I would penalize it accordingly.

Put in another context:

"So my character is covered head to toe in Sith tattoos, murders random people on the street and openly blasts away with the most vile and corrupt Dark Force powers at the drop of a hat, but the Jedi have accepted me into their Medical corps." Would and should earn similar scorn. What you described is more or less the same thing, just with a 40K flavour instead of Star Wars. It does not make it any less absurd.

Sounds like hardcore munchkinism to me...not that it is needed, since the Templar Calix is beyond insane in itself.

Hey!

Thanks for the answers!

No worries- the game is investigative in nature, and all of the fighting skills in the world won't save him from the horrors beyond. Quite the opposite really- the mission takes them to a remote village in dusk, where Tzentch manipulates a cult into awakening a greater unclean one dormant in the hills, all while a madman recovers (the halo-device infused) remains of a sorcerer who wishes to complete a ritual he began years ago, but was luckily stopped before he managed to succeed. A

ll of this on a town build around the remains of abandoned xenos temples that were used by (probably the slaught-the simulacra or the cryptos seem too weak, but i'd like to hint that some of them might be around hidden about) to harvest the warp energy of the unclean one of their own purposes.

The point is, there's going to be very little fighting- and any fighting that does happen, is going to be hard enough that it might force the Psyker to reveal his hand, and cause his entire squad to turn on him or blame him for the problems.

With the squad being at 5.5k Exp, all of them can one shot most moots they will come across- and will be very hard pressed to hurt the stronger stuff, what with daemonic and unnatural toughness- the reanimated sorcerer is going to have quite a bit of Arcana as well, and more then one way to protect himself.

There's even a chance that the Psyker completely turns to evil, and becomes one of the bad guys himself- perhaps if he happens to come across one of the halo devices that have been left behind. Then his munchkinery will work in my favor

Saldre said:

Since psykers normally can't use halo devices, you must have house-ruled that they can, right?

Wait what!?

They can't!?

I honestly must have missed that part!

Darned, One sec!

Frick! I can't believed I missed that ONE sentence!

Well, Yeah, I guess I am going to have to house rule it.

When Tzentch is involved, anything is possible, right? Right?

Jan Solo said:

There's a specific type Halo Device published in Forsaken Bounty which requires warp energies to power it; living conduits to the warp, such as Psykers and Navigators, are the only beings it works for/on. Otherwise, in general, yeah. No Dark Pacts, no Psykers and no possessed. The devices refuse any master but themselves.

-=Brother Praetus=-