Resistance (X) states

"When you pick this talent select a group to be resistant to.You gain a +10 bonus when making a test to resist or avoid the object of your resistance"

So if I choose Resistance (Psychic powers) does this mean I get a +10 to dodge an incoming fire bolt since I'm trying to avoid it?

And to what extent do you get a +10 to resist the effects of the powers? Do you get a +10 on the agility test to not catch on fire when hit by a fire bolt?

While I could see it being interpreted either way, I'm not sure exactly how it should be applied. Therefore, I direct you to the |Rules Questions| link. PLease share with us what answer you receive. I would very much like to know the official ruling from the developers on this one, especially since I just recently picked up Resistance ( Psychic Powers ) on my Adept. Hurray for Rank 6: Comptroller.

-=Brother Praetus=-

After asking how this talent would work regarding dodging fire bolts I got the following answer

"The +10 is to resist AND avoid. So yes you would get the bonus when dodging!"

Now to convince my EXTREMELY stubborn GM that it is supposed to work this way....

yay...

Deynomeas said:

Much the same on my end.

-=Brother Praetus=-

That... that makes absolutely no sense!

But hey, who am I to complain about gimping psykers? Us 'normals' need all the **** help we can get!

Deynomeas said:

Well that is certainly an interesting twist. So you instinctively dodge better when your opponent is a psyker? Still, I am sure most players will gladly take any help they can get against psykers.

I see it as using your own willpower (or your own understanding of the warp) to slightly alter the trajectory of the bolt.

Just my two cents

I've discussed this with my GM and some of the other players and we've got the following out if it. If a psyker must make a test to hit a target with resistance (psychic powers) he/she takes a -10 to that test.

I've already told my GM that this is way more powerfull than a +10 on a dodge test but he stated that he just can't understand how being resistant to something makes you better at dodging it so he made it a passive "repulsion" effect.

Oh well, I'm not complaining

Deynomeas said:

If that is the answer FFG gave about Resistance (Psychic Powers), then according to that same logic the Strong Willed Talent will let you roll Dodge twice when dodging those Firebolts! Nice, this will improve the chances of everyone else against Psykers.

Thought experiment that will hopefully set this to rest.

Think about it this way; people in real life have been intentionally building up resistances to things for many years. For example, especially in a more intrigue-riddled real life past, something very much like the in-game Resistance (Poisons) was built up the hard way: taking small doses, learning their taste, smell and physiological effect, acclimating your body with counter-agents, etc. etc. Resistance has more implicit to it that a simple specific physical hardiness, it likely also represents the result of experience and training/becoming accustomed to their effects, how to counter them, and so forth. A character with Resistance (Poisons) isn't just physically heartier once he's been poisoned, he's also harder to poison in the first place because he is better at detecting, pre-empting, and avoiding them.

If you adopt this view, which I think evolves naturally out of the concept of "building up a resistance" to something, then a bonus to dodge makes plenty of sense. Don't get too hung up on the name, it does tend to give the idea of a purely physical/passive response. This power represents both an adapted physique as well as specialized know-how. If you've got Resistance (Psychic Powers), you've seen psykers in action, studied their moves, perhaps been on the receiving end of them... your increased chance of avoidance doesn't always have to do with any "warp effect" or "psychic toughness." You've also just developed a few active tactics and patterns to your benefit, as well as other passive effects.

As an aside to Jan Solo, the ruling doesn't connote that at all. Strong Minded is very specific about it's purview: it allows you to re-roll failed Willpower tests to resist any Psychic Powers that affect your mind. Several layers of specificity there. First, it only allows you to re-roll Willpower tests. Secondly it affects Psychic Powers only, and thus will not help against such things as drugs. Thirdly the power must affect your mind, and Psychic Powers such as Telekinesis (and Fire Bolt, etc) which have a physical effect are unaffected. Notice also that it specifies only allowing you to re-roll tests made to -resist- the power, not both to resist and to avoid, as in the case of Resistance.

Resistance (psychic powers) could also indicate intuition, you feel the hair in the back of you neck rise and you simply duck just in case. Or perhaps it takes the psycher a second longer to cast the bolt because of your resistance, giving you more time to get out of the way. Or the bolt actually veers of course because of your resistance.

As long as you don't read resistance as direct physical hardiness there is a multitude of ways you could become better at dodging. As At Last Forgot said, don't get to hung up on the name of the skill.

In two groups (out of three) I GM at the moment this has come up, and I left it to the players to decide after a session as they were spending xp. They agreed That the resistance was a willpower bonus and NOT a dodge bonus. They (we) found no logic in the dodge-issue, but the question came up anyways. We read it as a "physical resistance", not a mental conditioning. It will grant you a bonus to resist psychic powers, but not the dodge objects.

Simply because Resistance (psy powers) does not give you knowledge of the warp or magical hoodoo-dodge abilities.. otherwise skills such as (FL) warp, (FL) Psykers or several others would grant the sames bonuses.

So in our interpretation, if you have a chance to resist a power (usually says so in the description o the power being used) you get a +10 bonus. But you do not get a +10 dodge bonus to dodge the rock which was telekinetically flung at you.

But that's just our opinion =)

Simply because Resistance (psy powers) does not give you knowledge of the warp or magical hoodoo-dodge abilities.. otherwise skills such as (FL) warp, (FL) Psykers or several others would grant the sames bonuses.

Or maybe it does give you that very specialised knowledge (or rather: gut feeling) and it simply isn't included in any other skill. Take a look at sorcery: You can have Forbidden Lore Warp, Daemons, Psykers, Heresy and whatever else and you'll know a lot about sorcery. But if you don't have the actual talent Sorcerer, you can't put that knowledge to a practical use.

Just to add on this, having re-read about it a bit, the Strong Minded talent actually specifies that psychic powers having a physical effect, i.e. Telekinesis, are unaffected by this talent. No such thing is said about Resistance so I don't see why one would rule that it doesn't work against physical aspects of psychic powers.

Jan Solo said:

Strong Minded only lets you reroll willpower tests. So while resistance (psychic) gives a bonus to dodging fireballs, strong minded doesn't help because dodging isn't a willpower test.

These Psyhic shooting attacks aren't like normal shooting, there isn't a roll to hit and they are otherwise uneringly accurate (if cast succesfully) so there clearly a lot more going on. if you need a narative you could asume that that 10 percent of the time the fireball doesn't curve through air as it normally would.

I had missed that wording before, but it does make the talant more useful (as it should be for members of the Inquisition) rather than psykers suddenly deciding to only use direct damage attacks which ignore psychic defenses.