I was wondering for unnatural toughness and wounds when it comes into play. The astropath in my game is a mutie freak and has the mutation where he gains unnatural toughness, and the whole time we have been playing we assumed it was included when calculating your starting wounds, but after reading Into the Storm and the Ork stats where it specifically says do not include unnatural toughness until after having rolled for wounds, is that how it works period? SO when rolling for your starting wounds as a character with unnatural toughness do you simply use your normal toughness modifier or the unnatural one?

In addition, I am running LotE and ther is the Farseer with unnatural willpower. In the rulebook for psykers it says that unnatural willpwoer has some benefit to psykers making their psyrating better and adding to opposed rolls. But I am still confused on how this works. Do you add your unnatural will bonus to psy rating? So the farseer with a modifier of 10 and a psy rating of 8 is treated as an effective psy rating 18? Or is it you multiply the psy rating by the unnatural stat (2 for instance)? And for the opposed rolls does it mean that you recieve your willpower bonus for psy powers? SO a farseer with a modifier has a +10 to opposed checks or does it work some other way?

Also when using psychic powers during combat most of them are half actions, does that mean you can use 2 a round? Or are they like melee and ranged attacks where you can only do it once a round?

AngelOfMercy777 said:

My decision not to count Unnatural Toughness for the purpose of starting wounds was made in order to prevent a starting Ork from running around with nearly 20 wounds at the start... that's acceptable for an experienced Ork, but not necessarily a starting one. I would carry along that precedent, as it keeps characters' wounds at roughly the same point to start with, but that's just my personal preference, rather than an official ruling.

AngelOfMercy777 said:

Right...

Unnatural Willpower (x2) grants an effective bonus of +2 Psy Rating (+10 to the test) added after you've determined how many you're using. It doesn't count towards whether a power is Fettered, Unfettered or Pushed, so a Psy Rating 8 Farseer can use 4 of his Psy Rating for a Fettered power, and then he'd get an effective bonus of +2 psy rating on top, bringing his total bonus to +30 (5 for each point of Psy Rating, as normal). The bonus is equal to the multiplier - so Unnatural Willpower x3 would grant +3 Psy Rating, and so forth.

When it comes to opposed tests, treat it as you would normally for an Unnatural Characteristic - they already grant a bonus to opposed tests (so the text in the sidebar in the psychic powers chapter is just a reminder of this), giving a number of additional degrees of success equal to the multiplier, so long as you pass in the first place. In this case, it means that the Farseer gains two bonus degrees of success on opposed Willpower Tests.

Also note that the Farseer has all the Telepathy and Telekinesis powers, he also benefits from Discipline Mastery for all those powers, granting him a further point of effective Psy Rating when using them, which once again doesn't count towards whether a power is Fettered, Unfettered or Pushed.

To illustrate more clearly, as there's a lot going on there, I'll give an example.

Farseer Serrenon invokes a Telekinetic Shield to protect himself from the Explorers attempting to raid the world the humans know as the Dread Pearl. He is cautious, only using a small measure of his power to create the ward, and thus is only using a Fettered level of power - Psy Rating 4. As he has Unnatural Willpower (x2) and has mastered the Telekinesis discipline, Serrenon has an effective Psy Rating of 7 for this power, and thus the Focus Power Test for Telekinetic Shield is against a score of 94 (WP 59, +5x Psy Rating). Easily passing the test, Serrenon gains an additional 7 points of AP, for a total of 13 including his armour, which due to the benefits of Rune Armour, cannot be reduced.

The next turn, seeing Hadarak Fel move towards him, Serrenon uses Mind War against the Rogue Trader. Turning the full might of his power against the human, Serrenon uses his full normal Psy Rating of 8. To this, he adds +2 from his Unnatural Willpower, for a total of 10, meaning that he is testing against a total of 109 (WP 59, +50 for 10 Psy Rating). His Focus Power test is opposed, so Fel makes a Willpower Test to fend off the ancient Seer's mind. Defending himself admirably, Fel rolls a 2 for his Willpower Test, scoring 4 degrees of success. Serrenon, however, is a far deadlier mind, rolling a 15 and scoring 9 degrees of success, plus an additional 2 for his Unnatural Willpower, for a total of 11, tearing through Fel's mind with contemptuous ease. Serrenon, having scored 7 degrees more than Fel, deals 8d10 X damage (1d10, +1d10 for each degree the target was defeated by), reduced only by Fel's Willpower Bonus of 4, dealing 36 damage, removing all 22 of Fel's wounds and causing a fatal critical hit to Fel's head, detonating the Rogue Trader's skull with a flare of dying thoughts and actinic lightning.

I think it's safe to say that Farseers are capable of some terrifying things...

AngelOfMercy777 said:

As noted on page 236, you cannot take the same half action twice - as Focus Power is often a Half Action, this means it can only be used once a turn.

Thank you so much for the clarifications.