I'm just basically wondering if these would all stack. I'm pretty sure that Abhor the Witch and Resistance would work fine and dandy together all the time, and that Strong Mind would kick in and function when the particular conditions of that Talent apply. I'm not really sure of any reason why they wouldn't stack, but it's just this feeling I have that maybe for some reason they wouldn't.

MegaDandy said:

A matter of interpretation. Personally I would not let them stack. I see the Abhor the Witch test as an additional test. That way if a psy power can be resisted, there is to chances for the SM:

1) The special Abhor the Witch test which is WP+0. If that succeeds, the Marine is unaffected.

2) If it fails, you proceed with the psy power as normal which means possibly a WP test for the psyker's opposed Focus Power test. To this test Resistance and Strong Minded apply.

Alex

The way I read this in the rule book the I'd run it the following.

Step One: Abhor the Witch Triggers making a Challenging (+0) willpower test.

Step Two: Resistance (Psychic Powers) is applied to the Test in step one, as is strong minded if it applies.

If the test succeeds, nothing happens if the test fails.

Step Three: Normal check with resistance and strong minded taken into effect.

Here's why I believe this to be the case. Resistance says it is applied whenever a character is attempting to resist the effects of the subtyped group, and Abhor the witch specifically states that the character "must make a challenging (+0) test whenever he is the subject of the effects of a psychic power, daemonic power, or other warp based power." The key word being effects .

Additionally Strong Minded stats the character may re-roll failed willpower tests to resist any psychic powers that affect his mind.

Now understand that also means the character rolls for any friendly healing, buff or any other psychic effect a librarian would wish to use on him. Which is why I would allow them to stack. The character is resiliant vs psychic powers, it does not descriminate against friendly or opponent's psychic powers. Also Strong Willed only lets you reroll a failure if you choose to, it does not let you reroll a sucessful test to resist.

Overall a character resistant to psychic powers will in the end be effected less by them because they are specialized to resist them, however this also means that a friendly librarian will also less often be able to aid, help, or heal the character with psychic abilities. I understand an opponents psychic abilities will come into play more often but not allowing them to stack means that character has spent a lot of advancements towards something with a less probable rate of helping him than most other talents he could have picked.

No reason to penalize a player for wanting to be protected against one specific type of effect most of the time.