Greetings fellow heretics.

The campaign I am running is just getting into Ascension level and I have two PC's that have ideas for custom talents they want to take. One is an Assissin that has gone the gunslinger route. Primarily using bolt pistols and just runs around shooting things in the face. His main goal is to fire more shots in a round. The other is a Psyker that is starting to get a little terrifying. His goal is to use psychic powers as a reaction. (this is the one i am primarily worried about) Well, they gave me their ideas on what they wanted to do with their new talents and I refined them down to what you see below. These are my first draft but I would love to get some input on what you think. I am primarily worried about breaking the system or creating a loop hole that I guarantee they will try to take advantage of.

Lead Storm
Regardless of the fire rate of the weapon, the gunslinger with this talent can fire 6 shots off in raid succession. This is achieved by using the recoil of the weapon to pull the trigger faster than normal. You cannot use this talent to fire more rounds than are in a single clip. Using this method puts the weapon under extreme duress. Any firearm used in this way will temporarily lose the Accurate & Reliable qualities if it has them. It also temporarily gains the Overheats and Recharge Qualities. This talent may be used with others such as Independent Targeting or Hip Shooting, though each will incur a -10 to BS due to the difficulty and ferocity of this attack.

Mental Alacrity
The Psyker has honed their mind into a flexible and reactive weapon. His familiarity with certain powers allows him to use them in place of his reaction. Upon taking this talent, select a number of powers equal to the Psykers unmodified WP. These can be used in place of his reaction. Due to the speed of which he has to manifest the power, the psyker doesnt have time to fully prepare mentally. Psy Rating is halved for purposes of manifesting any power used this way and must roll on the psychic phenomena table. This talent can be taken multiple times to gain access to more powers. The stress of manifesting under such short notice has its toll on the psykers body, inflicting one unavoidable fatigue for each use.

Any and all input is welcome. Thanks in advance!

~Ramma

I'll only comment on the Ballistic Talent, as I don't feel qualified enough to talk about Psychic Powers:

Lead Storm sounds majorly overpowered, essentially making those bolt pistols better than dual-wielding two boltguns on full auto (12 shots versus 8). The "drawbacks" sound both unrealistic as well as useless, given that bolt pistols only have 6-10 rounds at all, meaning he'd have to reload anyways (I presume he's using two Sacristans?). The loss of the Accurate quality also sounds just like a token pretence drawback, given that this trait does nothing to a weapon unless used with the Aim action - which is only possible for single shots. And I don't even want to think what this talent could do when applied to weapons like melta pistols.

My suggestion: For every 2 shots the weapon is able to fire in semi automatic mode, simply have this talent add +1 shot to a SA attack (e.g. a Sacristan's S/2/- becomes S/3/-, whereas the Minerva-Aegis' S/4/8 would become S/6/8).

If you want to attach drawbacks to this talent, I'd suggest making the RoF increase optional whilst simultaneously attaching a small BS penalty to it in order to represent a loss in accuracy in favor of speed: Should the character choose to fire on maximum speed, he will only gain a +5 BS from semi auto attacks instead of the usual +10. He will have to announce which of the two "versions" of semi automatic burst available to him he is testing before rolling dice.

How about this:

Double Tap:
Prereq.: BS 40, AG 40
The character has learned to pull twice in quick repetition.
As long as the Clip allows it he can fire twice at -10 as a full action.

Isn't that what the semi automatic burst is supposed to represent, though?

Both of these seem ripe for abuse. With that said I have been kicking around an idea of something similar to your lead storm idea only more restricted. What follows are more restricted versions of what you proposed.

Lead Storm -

As a Full attack action you may double the RoF of your weapon(s). Doing this removes the Accurate and Reliable traits, the weapons range is halved and the weapon will now jam on a roll of 86 or higher. The normal bonus to BS from firing in semi or full auto mode is no longer granted. When using the Suppressive Fire action in conjunction with this attack the pinning test is made two steps more difficult.
This talent may not be used with any weapon with the Recharge or Overheat trait. Energy weapons must be modified with a Challenging (+0) Tech Use test before they may be fired with this talent. This modification is considered Tech Heresy by the Mechanicum. Use of this talent is considered spiteful and abusive to the machine spirit of the weapon used and any interactions with Adeptus Mechanicus personnel should be considered one step more difficult if they are aware of the talents use.

Mental Alacrity -

The Psyker has honed their mind into a flexible and reactive weapon. His familiarity with certain powers allows him to use them in place of his reaction for a round. Upon taking this talent, select a number of powers equal to one half the Psykers unmodified WP bonus. These powers can be used in place of his reaction. Due to the speed of which the powers are manifested, the Psyker may not use any bonus from an invocation. Psy Rating and WP bonus are halved for the purpose of manifesting any power used this way. The Psyker automatically rolls on the psychic phenomena table with a penalty equal to one half his total WP. The stress of manifesting under such short notice takes a toll on the Psyker, automatically inflicting one level of fatigue every time this power is used.
This talent does not allow a Psyker to manifest more than one power a round. This talent can be taken multiple times. Each time this power is taken the Psyker may add a number of additional powers equal to one half his unmodified WP bonus.

Just my thoughts, but I tend to be more restrictive in these type of things. This way they have there uses, but are less likely to be abused.

About the Psyker talent:
Do you ignore the rule that a psyker may only use one power per turn regardless what kind of action it uses?
If you do it is too powerful in my opinion.

If you apply all normal restrictions like only one power per turn and using powers counts as making a standard attack, ist's ok. While the psyker will not have lots of options left about what to do with his full round action (or two half actions) if it may not be an attack or psy power.

Lynata said:

Santiago said:

SA Burst is also used on pistols, though, and there's loads of weapons who have a profile of S/2/-, hence my theory.

In fact, it's already "hidden" in the name, too - though one could argue it is an oxymoron. Burst fire (as per the definition you are referring to) is always automatic, semi-automatic means you still have to pull the trigger once for each shot (hence the "semi", with the "automatic" just denoting that a weapon is loading the next bullet by itself).

The way DH mechanics work, what you mean is always the third value in a weapon's RoF profile - the Full Auto Burst.

That kind of flexibility from the psyker needs to have a drawback other than fatigue, and "unavoidable" doesn't mean "un-removable," I mean heck, there's a Minor Power for that. I guess it will hamper him for a little while at least though, and that works out, wouldn't want it to be too harsh.

Maybe prevent him from using other Psychic Powers both this turn and the next. He'll think harder about using it if he's helpless afterward. Think Hyperbeam.

Just as a point, make note of what the Errata did to Corpus Conversion. You pay 2 PERMANENT points of Toughness burn to get an additional burst of power when they need it, that's how dangerous it is to give Psyker's spontaneity... they went through that much of a change to try and balance it. Not saying you need to be that harsh, but just to give you a sense of scale.

Either way I'd avoid giving psykers any real power boost in Ascension unless you're modifying the rules somewhat, Unnatural Willpower just breaks them too quickly when coupled with the RAW Fettered Casting.

See my thread javascript:void(0);/*1301590697300*/

PS: If this is for a character going Psyker Primaris, consider swapping this ability out for Scholastica Psykana Training, rather than being just a Talent. Ascended Traits SHOULD be more powerful, this is approaching the level of Preternatural Speed and is better than some, and currently the Primaris ability is... underwhelming.

Consider how disappointed you would be if you fell into a radioactive vat, and as your super power gained the ability to... kill yourself.

I'll speak to your Lead Storm Talent. I'd simply suggest that it grants the Storm quality to any pistols wielded by the character. When applying the Storm quality the reliability of the weapon decreases by one grade.

Lead Storm
When wielding a pistol the character may choose to treat the weapon as if it possessed the Storm Quality. When firing the weapon as if it had the Storm Quality, treat the weapon's reliability as one grade worse (i.e. a Reliable weapon jams on a roll of 96 or higher, a normal weapon jams on a roll of 91 or higher and an Unreliable weapon jams on a roll of 86 or higher).

As an aside I noticed a lack of options for ranged combat specialists to get more than two attacks a round, while melee combat specialists can get four. My solution was create ranged versions of Swift Attack and Lightning attack. Perhaps your player will find these useful.

Rapid Fire
Prerequisite: Ballistic Skill 35
The Acolyte's skill and accuracy allow him to fire off multiple shots quickly and accurately. As a Full Action he may make two ranged attacks on his turn. If he has the Two-Weapon Wielder Talent and is wielding two ranged weapons, he gets the advantage of Rapid Fire with only one of the weapons, and a single attack with the other. If he has the Two-Weapon Wielder Talent and is wielding a gun in one hand and a melee weapon in the other, he gets the advantage of Rapid Fire with the gun and a single attack with the melee weapon.

Hail of Lead
Prerequisite: Rapid Fire
The Acolyte's hard training and amazing reflexes grants the ability to lay down a barrage of fire. As a Full Action he may make three ranged attacks on his turn. If he has the Two-Weapon Wielder Talent and is wielding two ranged weapons, he gets the advantage of Hail of Lead with only one of the weapons, and a single attack with the other. If he has the Two-Weapon Wielder Talent and is wielding a gun in one hand and a melee weapon in the other, he gets the advantage of Hail of Fire with the gun and a single attack with the melee weapon.