Alright, so my group and I are just starting out Dark Heresy, although we've all been avid 40k fans for a while...and most of us have been roleplaying for years. We've got:

Arbiter

Tech Priest (although he's leaving in two months)

Guardsman

Cleric

and myself. I've chosen a Psyker. With my GM's assistance, I've gotten him built up to a point...but I keep feeling I'm either missing something....or didn't do something right. Mainly I'm having a hard time choosing powers and such. Here's what I've got:

Character Name: Scab

HomeWorld: Mind Cleansed (My GM cackled madly with this)

Career Path: Psyker

Rank 1

Divination: A mind without purpose

WS: 32

BS: 28

Str: 37

T: 37

Ag: 36

Int: 30

Per: 36

WP: 52

Fel: 25

Starting Background: Living Nightmare

Willpower, Simple Advance

Psychic Powers:

-Discipline: Biomancy

Minor: Chameleon

Minor: Truth-Seeker (might change this, not sure what'd be better)

Minor: Unnatural Aim (feel I very much need it with my horrid BS, although I might skip and take a damaging power instead)

Minor: Fearful Aura

Discipline: Seal Wounds

Gear: Flak Vest, Clothes worth 5 throne.

That's the meat of what I've got. I'm having a hard time deciding my powers really. Any suggestions?

Well the first tthing I'm curious about is how you seem to have a discipline power at rank 1? Discipline powers arn't normally available till rank 4 unless your GM is giving you them early. Although good luck hitting Seal Wounds threshold of 20 on 1 dice!

The minor powers you've mentioned sound fine though. Generally speaking for the first 3 ranks all a Psyker can do is be another guy with a gun or a sword helping out bash in heretics. The minor powers are more irritants than anything or just cheap tricks. Healer is a must for quick health recovery till you can get Seal Wounds later. Spasm is amusing and handy if a bad guy has a big gun. Flash Bang is like an unlimited flash grenade pack. Weapon Jinx can be very handy and speaking as a GM can be annoying as hell. Unnatural Aim is fantastic. I could go on but the thing to remember is there's no proper offensive minor powers, view yourself as a normal guy fighting for the emperor with a few tricks up your sleeve.

When you hit rank 4 however the real fun begins. If you are indeed going doing a Biomancy route it's an amazing Discipline with a good mix of powers for any occasion.

Brolthemighty said:

I've played a few psykers in different sorts of campaigns, and the first thing I would strongly suggest - especially given there is a Cleric in your party - is to ditch Fearful Aura. It gives you a fear rating, which will also affect your party members, and if you start giving the Cleric Insanity Points, he/she may well turn around and burn your face off. Also, in my experience, you'll be amazed at how most enemies will either be immune to it for one reason or another, or simply not that bothered by it.

What I would buy in its place is Spasm. That will serve you well at low levels (it's a great thing to do in a fight to support other party members and makes an enemy waste half an action standing up, rather than Lightning Attacking or Full-Autoing - useful from first level to Ascension!) and continue being useful at higher levels, when Fearful Aura really will be pretty meaningless.

I would also suggest you might want Distort Vision over Chameleon. Unless you specifically want to make Conceal checks (which Ch will do and DV won't), which probably won't be your strong suit anyway as a psyker, also, mechanically:

Chameleon is a half action, and sustained, and gives people -20 ballistics to hit you in combat.

Distort Vision is a free action, not sustained, but gives people a -30 to all attacks until the start of your next turn (unless they have non-visual ways of tracking you, or the Blind Fighting talent).

That one is a bit more dependant on how you want to play the game, but personally I'm still using Distort Vision at Ascension, whereas I don't think I've ever used Chameleon. I really would not recommend Fearful Aura, though.

Truth-Seeker may be pretty good, though I've never used it myself. If your group are going to do a lot of Interrogating, it may be handy (though it's unlikely anyone will start with the skill, so you may struggle). I suggest you may like to consider Inflict Pain instead. That gives a -10 to all checks if they fail a WP test, which is handy in an Interrogation (mechanically and also from a roleplay point of view, as with a mere glance you inflict horrible pain, which is going to be disconcerting to say the least) and it will also be useful in combat situations, which Truth-Seeker won't.

Moving into Biomancy once you reach Psy 3, starting with Seal Wounds, is very solid. I'd recommend Discipline Focus and Power Well ASAP, because the errata made SW a 20 Threshold power (which is absolutely fair, given how strong it is), and your Psy 3 psyker may find it hard to manifest.

Good luck with playing your psyker! Have lots of fun! And may your Perils of the Warp be few and far between.

you have 52 WP, so you have already won the game.

1. At level 1, you choose the fear aura spell, healder, and you also likely get chamelon, call item, and uh flashbomb (the blind grenade spell)..I like dimension slide, and suggestion(disciples of the dark gods), and there is a trusting aura as well (forgot the name, from radicals handbook)
2. level 2, just get whatever, just survive till you MAX your willpower out. You dont need any more powers till rank 3... MAX YOUR WILLPOWER OUT, AND HIDE INTHE CORNER WHILE YOUR MATES DO THE HEAVY LIFTING. level 2 goes fast anyway.
3. level 3, your willpower should be maxed out, so get your psi 2, pick random stuff. you'll be getting like 7 minor powers anyway, so just ham it up with whatever floats your boat.

So by level 3, you will have 72 WP. You also want to get the discipline focus talent, giving you a +2 to TK. you also want to getthe power well as much as possible (it stacks, available at certain levels, similar to the way sound constitution is)

Now, AFTER you have maxed your WP out, get your psi-2 AND psi-3.

If you want to 'win' the game, this means you start by getting Telekinesis, probably get force barrage, but maybe push (because this power is off the chain broken). next get TK shield. you can follow up with push after TK shield, its usually bes to get force barrage first.

at this point you can fling barrage with near guaranteed success, since you have +7 WP, and +1 or 2 from power well, and another +2 from discipline focus... and 3d10 of dice . you have a 72 WP, better than the BS of any other character in the game till ascension (and even then you will likely still be better), meaning that you hit, ALOT with your force barrage... dealing (1d10+7) * 7 ... or 87.5 damage (with some trivial mitigation from armor and tough) to 1 creature, or lots to a couple.

So at level 3, you will be the best combatant in the group, and you should be immune to more or less everything so long as your assassin or guardsman is managing melee combat from reaching you. Short of snipers with the godlike long las, or the occasional GM cotrived lasgun las weapon toting hit squad, or PDF/imperial guard regiment (why would you be in combat with them unless its genestealer infestation), nothing can hurt you. Daemonhosts melt before you if you win initiative, slaugh die, space marines will live , so dont get cocky.... yet.

If your GM allows 'fettered casting' rules, get push first, and barrage 3rd. Push as a 13 threshhold, and its like auto KO to 1 person a round, which lets you interrogate them/torture/whatever. Its overbleed is out of control powerful, and since you are fettered, you will almost always cast and not have to worry about the daemonhost. force barrage has a 19 or something high, so its still easy as cake to cast at psi-5 fettered, but if you want to rock the whole game w/o having to worry as much, push is your spell.

If you are worried your GM might ban stick you at this moment, then you can try hiding your godlike power with using the push power, or maybe getting something like the psychic blade power. your GM will still ban stick you however, BECAUSE YOU ALREADY HAVE A COMPLETELY BROKEN STATISTIC AT A COMPLETELY BROKEN LEVEL, AT LEVEL1... you can neither claim you wont be min maxing, because you already have (52 starting WP is min maxing to the hilt), and no spell you choose will not be overpowered with a 72wp ... So my reccomendation is to go for broke before your are hit with the nerf bat/ or forced into retirement, or gunned down by lasweapon hit squad.

Now at level 4 and up, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Some psykers elect to pickup a 'Las cannon Sword'. You dont really need this at all, since no right minded creature or human (friend or foe for that matter) wants to be next to you for any number of fatal reasons. with your 72WP, you will out damage any melee in the group, but it would still be less damaging than casting a spell... so mainly this is pretend you actually use/need gear, or what to pass yourself off as not completely broken.

If you are running a throne based game, (IE buying gear as opposed to earning or requisitioning it), then you should spend your money on armor, or a rosarius if you can scrape the paper needed to purchase it... otherwise storm trooper carapace is a far far better investment.

your next discipline is going to either be biomancy for healing and regenerate, Pyromancy for Fire resistance (NOT MOLTEN MAN) which will more or less complete your immunity to ranged attacks, or Telepathy for Mind shriek (if you havent got push already), telepathy, dominate, or mind scan.

• If you choose biomancy, you will more or less be immortal, as will your party be when you heal them too, even if they are landing lasgun wounds on you ( becaue you probably TK shielded their SP weapons away already... lasguns can sorta tickle, not like anyone uses them tho, and without full auto, only large amounts of them will kill you... YOU ARE IN COVER, ARENT YOU? )
• If you choose pyromancy you can get the resist fire spell. This discpline sucks tho, because it is made for psykers with sub 40 starting WP, and resist fire is the only thing you will use , aside from occasional firestorm because you want to kill squads of space marines in 1 round.
• If you choose Telepathy, your party wll no longer need to ask 'politely' for information, interrogate, or anything else for that matter that involves social interaction. This is because you can dominate them or mind scan them (using the sneaky option) with near guaranteed success due to your maxed willpower.
• you WILL NOT choose divination, because this is where low WP psykers go. There is nothing here for you. your powers are better than any ranged weapon, aside from the las cannon, which is unlikely to be in your hands anyway, if the gm has any sense at all.

The main thing to remember here, is because your WP is maxed out... you just need to choose Telekinesis as your starting discpline (well psi 3 anyway), because TK benefits the most from high WP. then follow it up with one of the 3 above.

so when you get your second displine you will

1. Be the primary damage deal AND damage sink
2. probably be the primary information gatherer. even if you dont get telepathy, interrogation is a WP based skill, meaning you will be getting the information the old fashioned way.

Ranks 6 and up... I strongly reccomend getting the into the jaws of hell ability either yourself, or someone else. OR get fearless on everyone. Then just spam fear 4 minor power evey round, or psychic shriek. all combats short of daemonhosts will break in 1 round, unless they are fearless as well, or at a distance, aka snipers.

Your pretty much immortal, SO LONG AS YOU PLAY INTELLIGENTLY, AND DONT LET ARROGANCE SHADOW YOUR ACTIONS. This being so, I'd seriosuly consider rolling up a new character, because your GM is likely to ban your character around rank 4. either because he is regreting you playing a psyker, or other in the group are tired of playing second string toon. (siince you do everything better, include get all the best skills and talents)

Niqvah said:

I agree with everything you said here, except for biomancy and fearful aura.

1) fearful aura is godly, especially if your party is all downed... and you need a get out of jail free card. fearless also makes it strong if your mates possess it.

2) His starting WP is 52. So he should clearl pump till 72 WP, then abuse Telekinesis and get biomancy second. Granted biomancy is safe, but then he will be the heal bot, and if you are careful about combat, you can get a Tech priest with medicae and a high int to do the healing instead, whereas with a 72WP, he is a mad wrecking ball with push or barrage

linearblade said:

linearblade, I can't begin to understand your evident dislike of the Psyker class. Maybe you have had bad experiences? Starting with 52 WP is very good, but it hardly breaks the game. Also, if you want to roleplay rather than just play a board game, it isn't all about making the most efficient stat and power machine. Brolthemighty has already expressed an interest in Truth-Seeker, which suggests to me more interest in a character-driven game than 'winning' in combat.

I've played three psykers, each in a different group/campaign style, and none of them upset the rest of the group or the GM. They were well-statted and had a good selection of powers, but I didn't automatically beat all the opponents or deal hugely more damage than other characters. Plus, the game is not all about combat, and as Fellowship is hard for a Psyker to buy up, in social situations (which you may well get into a lot), my character really takes a back seat to others in the group.

Niqvah said:

I have both played as the psyker, and played with the psyker. I'm not looking to troll here, but the OP asked for advice and I gave it . I then elaborated on the pros and cons of building this psyker.

I am more than willing to start a separate thread and argue why the psyker is immortal, but I dont want to derail this thread. My advice on how to build the psyker was designed to be sound, not as a troll attempt.

and Yes, I detest psyker balance in the original system, however it is not my intention to argue that here, only how to properly build a psyker with 52 wp.

OK, aside from your strong opinion on the Psyker, which I still disagree with from my experience (though I don't doubt it depends how your GM runs the game, and how you as a player like to roleplay)...

linearblade said:

Fearful Aura will cause problems for the rest of your party. What characters do get Fearless won't have it until Rank 7 or 8, and by that level, your enemies will almost certainly have it as well, if they didn't already. Heretics, daemons and xenos may well be totally unaffected by it from Rank 1. Your Cleric, as I suggested before, will not, and will be upset when they turn around and see you looking daemonic.

Force Barrage does not ignore armour or toughness, so it's good, but with no penetration, you may have trouble dealing a great deal of damage, even with the high WP bonus. Also, as ever, the more dice you roll, the more chance there is of Perils of the Warp, which is not good for you or the party.

Finally, the GM should not allow the Fettered system at Dark Heresy level. It is for Ascension play, and (in my opinion) would really unbalance a DH game since it would make it far too easy for a Psyker to pull off many powers with no risk. The risk is one of the balancing factors for a Psyker.

Alright, so all great advice. Let me just address a couple things.

1.) Powers - The GM said I started w/ my WP's bonus in minor powers (I started with a 47) and 1 Discipline power. So that's what I did.

2.) Discipline - I'm pretty set with Biomancy. Sucks that Seal Wounds was changed to a 20 Threshold, but makes sense as well. Looks like I might just have to pick up lightning bolt instead. Darn, lol. Thanks for the advice in taking Telekinesis....it does look like an interesting discipline, just not what I'm going for with this Psyker. Maybe next time.

3.) Fearful Aura - I had been wondering how many things would show up as fearless, and yall have confirmed what I thought. Its more likely to get me killed by the Cleric then save my keester. Switched to Spasm.

4.) Chameleon - Originally I was going to play that I just sat in the back all concealed up and shoot with abandon.....but then I rolled a horrid BS. So Distort sounds like it might be better. I'll look into it. Thanks!

All great advice, thanks everyone! Keep it rolling. I'm loving all the tips from people who've actually played it!

Brolthemighty said:

As GM he can do whatever he wants, but this is in total violation of both the rules and player balance, assuming that he doesn't similarly supercharge every other player.

(Also, as a GM, if you came to me with those stats I would think you had cheated.)

Well, he makes us all roll in front of him....so no chance of that really.

As far as being supercharged, I don't know how supercharged I'm gonna be. I'm starting with 12 Insanity Points, and my sanctioning left me with "Hunted." My GM has just smiles every time my char. gets brought up. Should be a load of fun....until I die

Alright, so with the fact that Seal Wounds is now T 20, I'm looking at Constrict (Force choke FTW) and combining that with Inflict Pain. And then for Minors: Healing, Truth-Seeker (again, combined with Inflict Pain for MacGuyvering some interrogation,) Spasm (for when baddies are lined up, or has a big gun)

What do you think?

Looking over the Errata 3.0 document....I don't see anything stating that the Seal Wounds Target number was increased to 20. Can someone point me to the right area?

Edit: NVM, found it

Interesting Question, I think your GM may have mis-read the "rules" on Pysker's but it's his choice as what he uses. A starting WP of 47 is massive. Seriously impressive, only recently looking at the DH book, i would have thought the max starting WP was 45 for a Void Born. As for Pysker's being godly even with your massive WP stat, I have only thing to say KHORNE DAEMONS only followed by a GM's favourite word when you have a powerful char IMMUNE.

The combo my psyker has used to great effect was Weapon Jinx and Deja Vu. I took two gunmen out of a fight with a string of weapon jinx (1), weapon jinx(2), deja vu (1), deja vu (2), deja vu (1), etc. This let the rest of the group take care of the more pressing melee and close range enemies.

That's actually a nice combo! Having read the Weapon Jinx errata, I can see people taking it now....

I have a Biomancer in my group. Although he did not start with WP 52 (more in the vicinity of 45 (void born) since I let them all start with a single maxed out stat). Even so despite the errata on Seal Wounds this power, combined with Regeneration are still lifesavers. The entire party would be dead several times over if it wasn't for this power. At his level he can easily go from last man standing to everyone's up and running. In fact Fatigue is the party's worst enemy as the Psyker can only heal one person at a time of fatigue. Seal Wounds is basically Mass Heal from D&D.

I disagree about Fearful Aura though, the times the Psyker has used it it has been pretty darn effective, from elite mercenary kill teams to even a high-rank enemy assassin (fainted dead away). Sure some things are Fearless or have other traits, but they are NOT the majority in say the Haarlock Legacy and not in my games.

As for the "friendly fear fire" effect the basic solution to it is to position yourself behind your friends before you use it, when they are otherwise engaged or distracted by fighting. You don't need to sustain the power, a single use it enough and you can stop sustaining it before your turn is over and when your allies glance behind to see why the enemy is fleeing from you can give them an innocent shrug

And as stated it is great when you are surrounded by enemies and your friends are all unconscious.

Sure the party will fear and suspect you and may want to burn you as a witch, but they are likely to want to do that no matter how "nice" you are. Which is why you should make sure your Inqusitor doesen't hate you and allow the cleric or whatever to burn you

I understand where Seal Wounds and Regenerate are going to be lifesavers (literally) I'm just really torn with good starter powers. I can't see Healer being all that worth it, since it's d5 every 6 hours. That leaves me with 4 Minor powers to start. Everyone has thrown out such a varied list of suggestions, all of which has been good. Here's what I'm thinking with having read the errata...and the suggestions...as well as my thinking.

Weapon Jinx - With it no longer screwing up all electronics around, and jamming a single weapon, this makes it very useful for those times when we come up against someone wielding something nasty.

Truth-Seeker - I still really like this power. With us not having an actual interrogator, I can see this helping.

Inflict Pain - Inflicting pain at a glance is just cool. Mechanically speaking it could help with making them fail their tests vs. Truth-Seeker as well as Constrict, the Discipline power I think I'll pick up.

Fearful Aura - There are just too many times this would be useful. Yes, if it goes wrong....the Cleric will kill me. But the Cleric will kill me if things go wrong anyways. At least he's not a Redemptionist. Besides....we've also got a Tech Heretic in our group....so he'll have his hands full, lol. (We're starting out working for a Rogue Trader instead of an Inquisitor.)

Discipline Power, Constrict - I think of my options, this one is the most useful. Decent target number to achieve after an invocation, has some good combat and non-combat applications. Seems to synergize with other powers taken.

This is where I'm at right now. I know, I know, I didn't take Healer. But as I said....it doesn't seem all that useful, and I'll be picking up Seal Wounds when I can. I would've liked to take Unnatural Aim and Healer (just as an emergency heal), but I'm not sure what I would to do so. Although Pyromancy looks awesome in a "Burn the Heretic" way, I like having the options to take some heals and such. And Hammerhands. That looks fun

Niqvah said:

RE: fearful aura. you the players will be in every game. not every npc will have fearless, and for those encounters you will dominate. Not to mention every time you get accosted by gangers , or savages or whatever... adversaries that have no bearing on the adventure itself. Why risk death (because even a lowly ganger with a fire bomb can kill you) when you can just evage the encounter altogether.... so I'll stand by my original assessment of fearful aura being godly.

Force barrage... with 70WP, you are doing 1d10+7 x 7, without any overbleed. an opponent with toughness 8 will still take on average 4.5 damage per hit, which will yield 31 damage... almost certainly enough to knock any creature dead, and leave the bulkiest ones in the critical levels. Force barrage only fails to auto kill against power armored individuals. like I said in my post, get pyromancy if you want to go kill space marines.

re: fettered. I disagree with you. However this is not the thread to discuss, so I shall not

Brolthemighty said:

healer IS awesome. you need to combo this with the medicae skill (tech priest should get it)... 1d5 per 6 hours at rank one IS GODLY. here is why:

1) look at the natural healing rate... waiting around for healing the natural way isnt going to work.

2) medicae isnt gonna heal you to full, only patch up existing wounds.. lessening your wound total.

On the other hand, I blew up all my gear once and killed myself with the healer power and perils of the warp. (everyone in the group agreed this was stupid, and we switched to fettered casting rules ever since, which made the game oh so much better, especially for the main psyker of the group who wasnt me!) so I wouldnt plan on casting it every chance you get unless you get fettered.

Constrict is bad for you, The reason is your WP is so high. You should refrain from choosing powers that are for 'lesser' psykers. Its also been errata'ed, so contrict was nerf bat because it was an overpowered power. Basically, it boils down to this:

Since pyromancy (excluding halocaust) has fixed amounts of damage, even a 30 WP psyker can get use out of it. but anyone who can take advantage of their superior willpower should, and as such force bolt does 1d10+7 (in your case) as opposed to 1d10+5 (firebolt). Ya, fire bolt has alittle greater range, but battles are rarely in this middle range for long. they are mostly short range, or occasional sniper battles.

I would be like wasting your discpline power on something like precognitive dodge... its just as effective for a low WP psyker as it is for the god emporer of mankind.

If you are a guardsman with 60 BS and 60 STR in a warzone environment , do you rock the assault cannon in a war zone, or do you rock an autogun? (just remove any subtlety from the equation)

Brolthemighty said:

you need to look at the telekinetic power 'push' its thresh hold 13, and pits your WP against their strength. So you basically knock people out every round and its super easy to cast.

On a side note, its the only real way to take prisoners reliably.

linearblade said:

Meh, my psyker used to take prisoners with by shooting them with a shotgun That as of course before I invented my own ballistic critical tables.

I can see the power in Telekinesis...but it would leave us without any healing once the Techpriest leaves (other than possibly the Healer minor power)

I'm not saying Fearful Aura is never useful, but I do feel - especially when you get to higher levels - it is limited. I am also not a great fan of powers that could mess up other members of the party. As a Psyker, you are already risking Perils of the Warp all the time, which will make other team members (and indeed your fellow roleplayers) nervous. If you start making them take Fear tests, and they start gaining Insanity Points from you (and Corruption, possibly, as the source of this Fear is technically Warp-based) they are not going to be happy.

If you don't agree with my experience as a Psyker, take my experience as a Cleric. I was already unhappy with having to work with a Psyker, and when he got Perils of the Warp in maybe the fourth game, I took nine Corruption Points in one hit. I turned around and killed the Psyker (he burned a Fate Point).

Now, roleplay-wise, this was balanced out by the Inquisitor smacking us both down and telling us he put us together and we darn well have to work together, and some in-character learning to grudgingly work together... but I just think that, if you can minimise the amount of animosity the party will have towards you, or at least avoid doing things that are likely to increase it, why not go that route?

Also, if you are teamed up with NPCs (e.g. Enforcers, another Inquisitional group, Arbites...) it could cause them huge problems and compromise your combat.

In my opinion, Fearful Aura is not worth the trouble. Unless you get lots of Overbleed (possible, I grant you, but as ever, more dice = more danger) you are going to be Fear 1, possibly 2. Anyone with Insanity of 20 (or 40 in the second case) will ignore it. That is aside from anyone with Fearless, or other effects that mean they ignore Fear.

The usual progression is that at Psy 1, you get WP Bonus / 2 in minor powers (three, with 52 WP). At Psy 2, you get the same (if you wait until you've bought your WP up to maximum - 72 - you will get four). At Psy 3, you then get your first discipline power. It's in the main rulebook in the Talent section under Psy (each level has a description, which aren't all the same).

I would suggest, from a roleplay point of view aside from game rules, it's more fun to start with just minor powers. You really have to think about what you do and how you do it, and may well prove weaker in combat than other characters (though you will have useful utilitarian abilities). Then, you start blossoming at Psy 3, which is really good fun, and something to massively look forward to.

To throw it out there, if you were to not start with a Discipline power (as per rules as written) Healer is still a really good choice, even if you pick up Seal Wounds later. It'll be a few adventures before you get Seal Wounds, and even then it's handy to have something relatively easy to pull off, that you can use to heal people slowly over a day or two.

Without psychic healing, one fight can really knock the party back and mess up an investigation (even with Medicae, it will take your party many days of rest to heal fully). Healer might be worth reconsidering...

I'll cede the point on Healer. And with Seal Wounds being T 20, it'll be a bit before I can reliably cast it. I'm going to be contacting the GM tonight to see whether he assigned my WP bonus in Minors, and a Discipline to start on purpose...or if it was an oversight on his part. That'll take care of it.