so... nearly everywhere in every book tech-priests are ruled out to take psy powers except for minor mutation Wyrdling do I see this right?

so a Hive mutant basically let's me choose 2 minor mutations so I can choose Wyrdling and then as I count as a psyker I can take elite advancements to boost my psy (probably big eyes or brute as a second mutation)

with an average WP of 30 I got 2 powers let it be heal and something with a low treshhold like trick... granted I can't go for major powers or higher psy rating if my GM does not allow but rolling a 5 with 1d+10+4 (wp3 and a foci) is not that hard to roll healer with a PT of 7 is only a 10% not working once I spent the xp for 40 WP all without elite advances

I know tech-priests and psykers are powerfull enough as is and a hybrid character would be overpowered and there is a reason no tech-priest ever get's the choice to get psychic powers and this very much seems like an abuse of rules

let's go even further we use twist to roll randomly for a major mutantion and get corpulent

so we have a tech-priest with 2d10 +25 toughness +5 wounds he like buys 2 steps of toughness and gets a helot device and a machinator array summs up for 2d10+55 toughnes (x2) if he was lucky he rolled 15+ toughness and now has 70+ toughness (x2) and enough wounds or maybe he was cyber ressurected and has 3d10+50 he can't be healed by the medicae skill but who cares

provided he gets hurt at all (with a standard flak cloak damage reduction is at 17) he can use his psychic healer skill and after the first use he rolls with a 70% chance for the heal effect getting damage if it doesn't but with enough wounds to temporarily loose a few he can manage to heal himself endlessly (except for that bad luck streak that has to come eventually)

so is it possible to be a wyrdling tech-priest? or do I only have the option for brute/corpulent for an 80+(x2) toughness techpriest (that can buy another 10 toughness when he get's the XP)

Sirion said:

Honestly, a mutant Heretek that large is entirely too noticeable and makes an easy target for large amounts of bolter fire (Shoot the Big Ones!)

Rules-wise, I'd say it's entirely possible to be a mutant wyrdling tech-priest as you have outlined.

Background-wise, however, I'd say the only way that would happen is if you were a heretek who was created/trained by a heretek. This is because no Tech-Priest sect (unless they break from the Priesthood) would elevate a mutant to the august rank of Tech-Priest. Mutants are defective. Defective machines are used only when absolutely necessary and never in a way that would damage or compromise non-defective machinery. Only a fool would have a hundred rare machines in perfect working order dependant upon a defective machine.

As psykers go, the reason there are no Tech-Priest psykers isn't for balance or because of some rule number thing. It's because of one very simple fact:

There are two kinds of psykers, sanctioned and unsanctioned. Sanctioned psykers are owned by the Imperium and their loyalty is first and foremost to the Imperium and the Emperor. A Tech-Priests loyalties must be, first and foremost, to the Priesthood and to the Machinegod. Since there'd be a conflict of loyalties (never mind that, technically, the Adaptus Astratelepathica owns the psyker) the Mechanicus won't indoctrinate a sanctioned psyker into the fold. While there'd be no conflict of loyalties with an unsanctioned psyker, well, everyone knows what is to be done with them, and placing them in a leadership role with access to all your secrets certainly isn't it.

Finally, the icing on the cake, Tech-Prists just strait up don't like psykers.

Further, while possibly not quite canon, Purge the Unclean introduced the concept that certain high-level implants (presumably the Rite of Pure Thought) would make it impossible to access psychic powers.

Other than that: Yeah, it's not going to happen. Mutant tech-priests will be found out only slightly slower than mutant Sisters.

Graver said:

There has been only one instance of a psyker becoming a tech priest in lore. It was in the paperback that was released alongside the release of DH. And that tech priest was an unsanctioned psyker that entered the priesthood with the expectation that the bionics would wipe out his psyker potential. And apparently it worked too.

well there is this elite advance package or something in IH that effectively makes you a latent psyker (which is not sanctioned by then but maybe become so later on) so with all these exceptions (tech-priests can't do that) I thought there was a good point to it balance reason or not (I didn't ever hear/read of one either) but I couldn't find a clue anywhere about tech-priests gaining Wyrd ... since it is too unlikely to get Wyrd by chance as you get mutations with insanity I didn't want to build upon it... rolling for characters 'till divination comes up gain a mutation and becoming wyrd I didn't bother but with the hive mutant it did fit rather good... so new question

when I do get a mutation because of insanity and get Wyrd with my tech-priests... should I reroll or accept it and say ok I'm a psyker but the techstuff supresses it anyway so basically it's a psykers can sense your psy rating and nothing else happens... or should I go with it and play it (although I won't ever be sanctioned)

hive mutants are radicals anyway so probably he sticks to other radicals, they maybe don't have so much trouble with a psyker techpriest as long as it fills the cause (correct use of the idiom? I'm no native english speaker) and don 't mind if he is somewhat corpulent either

and for the tech-priests wouldn't allow mutants as they are dysfunctional... he prolly could get his mutations after becoming a tech-priest?

also of course I couldn't find very much rules on latent-psyker you can't just learn powers versus you just have half of your WP-bonus as minor powers with a psy rating of 1

and then again if all fails what about an evil campaign where you play some tech-heretics?

and another thing that's bugging me is ... if tech-priests hate psykers that much (which I didn't read anywhere but here) why do they make these psy foci (at least that'S what DH core-book says which is not very exact for some matters)

I think hate is to strong a word. The average tech priest isn't any more anti-psyker than the rest of the 40k population. (Which is fairly anti-psyker, and very anti-rogue psyker.) One of the major issues is that warp technology is forbidden outside a very small number of devices. (Mostly defensive psy blocking.) A tech priest psyker would be constantly tempted to use warp based tech. Mutants are similar. In both cases the tech priest would have to under go some sort of procedure to eliminate the psi or mutation. The tech priest could hide it, but he risks being executed if discovered by other tech priest. Also most Inquisitors aren't going to allow such tech heresy to go on. Sure it's not their area, but it sets a bad precedent and worse may piss of the tech priests.

That said a radical Inquisitor might be happy to have a mutant, a psyker, or even sorcerer tech priest. Mainly as the tech priest would be wholly dependant on the Inquisitor keeping the secret.

Sirion said:

One of things that is somewhat "explained" in the "Purge the Unclean" paperback is that when a tech-priest aspirant goes to do his vocational studies, he has the majority of his right brain scooped out and replaced with tiny cogitator devices, to help him veiw reality around him from an analytical detached way. Essentially, all the creativity is scooped out and replaced with computer brains. Psyker powers, as derived from the very fabric of Chaos are pure emotion, creativity and the like, given form and function. Chaos, by its very nature, is the antithesis of the tech-priest vocation.

Tech priests don't *hate* psykers at all. In fact, they feel nothing towards psykers, or anyone else for that matter. Psykers do fall under the category of being unquantifiable, unable to be categorized (as Chaos is the essence of variety), and therefore an anomaly that stands in the way of a better, more organized universe, and therefore should be expunged.

Does that help?

@illithidelderbrain

One of things that is somewhat "explained" in the "Purge the Unclean" paperback is that when a tech-priest aspirant goes to do his vocational studies, he has the majority of his right brain scooped out and replaced with tiny cogitator devices, to help him veiw reality around him from an analytical detached way. Essentially, all the creativity is scooped out and replaced with computer brains. Psyker powers, as derived from the very fabric of Chaos are pure emotion, creativity and the like, given form and function. Chaos, by its very nature, is the antithesis of the tech-priest vocation.

Not quite - the Rite of Pure Thought is a very high-level upgrade that is usually granted only to senior members. Remember that Vex was jealo- considered it illogical that a youth such as Tonis had it while he didn't.

@Sirion

hive mutants are radicals anyway so probably he sticks to other radicals, they maybe don't have so much trouble with a psyker techpriest as long as it fills the cause (correct use of the idiom? I'm no native english speaker) and don 't mind if he is somewhat corpulent either

and for the tech-priests wouldn't allow mutants as they are dysfunctional... he prolly could get his mutations after becoming a tech-priest?

Sure, he could do that. Apart from the question of whether the interfaces of his bionics would still work in his twisted flesh, he'll have some interesting things to explain as soon as he applies for any kind of cybernetic upgrade which would presumably entail a full pre-op examination.

so a tech-priest probably dosn't even want to be a psyker at all because he wants himself to be part of a better universe and in the way of the omnissiah psykers are not part of this world... so if a tech-priest gets Wyrd he not only needs to hide it but seriously wants to end this "condition" (probably by getting a cyber brain?) (and if that helps what about psykers with cyberbrains?)

or I need to create a twisted hive mutant ring of psyker tech-priests that "suffer the same tragedy" and help each other... or see themselves as a new pwnage elite race and strive for domination (which is rather chaos) as logn as it is a community big enough to do the surgical stuff for implants (what means in game terms there need to be at least 2 tech-priests helping each other with a decent medicae skill and decent equip)

so a tech-priest probably dosn't even want to be a psyker at all because he wants himself to be part of a better universe and in the way of the omnissiah psykers are not part of this world... so if a tech-priest gets Wyrd he not only needs to hide it but seriously wants to end this "condition" (probably by getting a cyber brain?) (and if that helps what about psykers with cyberbrains?)

No loyal imperial citizen would want to be a psyker. First you have a chance of having your head a'splode when you first discover your abilities. Then there's a non-negligible possibility of not being snatched up by the agents of the Black Ships but by some pyromaniac Redemptionists. Next, you'll have to be categorised as being strong enough to merit sanctioning instead of becoming emperor-chow. Then there will be a multitude of ways to die during the sanctioning process, though alternatively you can just be horribly maimed (see: Astropaths. Oh wait, you can't !). And finally, the Imperium expects to be paid back for the ressources they invested into you by letting you serve in a more or less life-and-soul-endangering capacity.

Being a psyker in the Imperium is just no fun. Being a psyker outside the Imperium is a little more fun until either the Imperium gets you or you discover the reasons why the Imperium prefers its psykers to be sanctioned and a daemon eats you.

or I need to create a twisted hive mutant ring of psyker tech-priests that "suffer the same tragedy" and help each other... or see themselves as a new pwnage elite race and strive for domination (which is rather chaos) as logn as it is a community big enough to do the surgical stuff for implants (what means in game terms there need to be at least 2 tech-priests helping each other with a decent medicae skill and decent equip)

They'll also need to somehow have access to the actual implants.

Sirion said:

Well I guess that could happen. Although they wouldn't be tech priests. They'd be heretechs of the worst stripe. Their cybernetics from salvage, stolen, body snatching, and murder. Now this doesn't sound like an organization a PC would be a part of. Unless of course the PC's inquisitor was really radical. Now the idea does sound like a great idea for a cult threat....

Well, I don't know about the Purge The Unclean adventure (never played it, never readed it), but I readed the novel wirted by Sandy Mitchell. To have some psychic background while being a tech-priest has only happened once... with gory results.

Let's say the only thing a techpriest can have regarding psychic powers is... to be an Untouchable. And that means he won't wanna meet the Necrons, because they will make him a Pariah... (to his "delight"...)

Well, I don't know about the Purge The Unclean adventure (never played it, never readed it), but I readed the novel wirted by Sandy Mitchell. To have some psychic background while being a tech-priest has only happened once... with gory results.

That was the event Illithid and I were referring to.

Let's say the only thing a techpriest can have regarding psychic powers is... to be an Untouchable. And that means he won't wanna meet the Necrons, because they will make him a Pariah... (to his "delight"...)

As opposed to not wanting to meet the Necrons because they'll rend you apart, either slice by slice or atom by atom?