Im working on a npc psyker and trying to work out the maximum numbers of psychic powers is quite frankly mind bending.

They can either be Psy 4, 5 or 6 and depending on initial WP and when you up WP vary quite drastically. I guess what im asking is if there is a table anywhere or numbers quoting what the maximum amount for a psy 6 character can be?

I have seen quotes on here for 19 or 20, yet I worked it out at about 17 maximum with psy 6, void born, 20 in WP at start etc.

If you are making the NPC patterned as a player character following a career path, have you considered "elite" using advances? As a GM you can certainly justify elite advances in any manner you choose. Pay the extra cost, give up some other advance and you are set. Or make up the character to be older because they took time to learn more, etc. Careful, you players may want the same benefit as well and use your psyker as the example that it can be done. Then again, a good GM can do anything they want and the players thank them for the challenge...

Thats kind of the problem I have. If I create something that can't be done without elite advances, I will have players wanting these advances!

I think that a top level 15,000 XP psyker should be more than enough trouble without needing to use elite advances. It is just a pain to attempt to work it all out, which is why if someone has an idea of roughly what can be done, then that would be helpful.

As I said in my initial post, I am pretty sure you max out at 17 powers, but if I can get two full disciplines without using elite advances that would be good too.

>Im working on a npc psyker and trying to work out the maximum numbers of psychic powers is quite frankly mind bending.

>They can either be Psy 4, 5 or 6 and depending on initial WP and when you up WP vary quite drastically. I guess what im asking is if there is a >table anywhere or numbers quoting what the maximum amount for a psy 6 character can be?

>I have seen quotes on here for 19 or 20, yet I worked it out at about 17 maximum with psy 6, void born, 20 in WP at start etc.

Let's see if I can calculate this correctly. Assuming your NPC can get Living Nightmare and/or gets a WP increasing divination and +3 WP from sanctioning:

If a scholar path Psyker first maximises his willpower to 70-76 and, after doing it, raises his psy rating to 6, he gets

1 psychic power from one discipline at psy rating 3, then 4 (WP Bonus 7/2 = 3.5 -> 4) more psychic powers in the same discipline at psy rating 4, then he takes the psychic power talent 5 times (scholar psyker gets access to 9 of these by the time he has reached rank 8) and by doing this he has mastered his first discipline.

He then starts a new psychic discipline by taking psy rating 5, gaining one power in that, and 4 more psychic powers in the same discipline by taking psy rating 6. He then takes the psychic power talent 4 times, and finally has 9 psychic powers in his second discipline. He must get one psychic power more through an elite advance to master his second discipline.

He also gets all minor psychic powers there are, without needing any elite advances, but must take a whole lot of minor psychic power talents.

19 psychic powers total, 10 in one and 9 in second without elite advances and with a WP of 70-76.

Remember that PC psykers aren't as strong as some of the NPC psykers. As far as i can tell PC psykers seem to be about max Beta level, so NPC psykers can be Alpha or Alpha Plus psykers, which aren't listed in the rules. Also I'm not sure how much Sanctioning curtails power gain on a Psyker in Dark Heresy, so theoretically you can say that your NPC psyker is unsanctioned so therefore as greater access to the warp, and therefore more powers then your sanctioned PCs do.

Since pretty much any smart player is going to realize that playing an unsanctioned psyker is a death sentence when they work for the Inquisition, its a pretty safe bet that you can give your NPC as many powers as you want (within balance) and your players won't come back to you begging for super-leet Alpha-plus unsanctioned characters.

If they do, let them play it, then have them hunted down by another Inquisitor who is stauntchly anti-psyker, especially anti-unsanctioned-psyker, who then executes the unsanctioned as a heretic and places the other alcolytes on trial for heresy forcing them to use some social skills to explain why they were associating with a heretic (and explain why thie Inquisitor shouldn't charge your Inquisitor for heresy).

Remember that a psyker can just buy minor, and major powers for XP.

Remember remember the 5th of november!

Velvetears said:

That was, like... months ago, man!

How do you get 70 and above? I have actually rolled my NPC stats up the same way my PCs do, I was fortunate to get a 20 which I assigned to WP and I made her Imperial world for +3WP. In my games, my players roll two sets of 9 numbers, pick the best set, then set their worst statistic to 11.

This gave me 43 WP to start with. The maximum bonus from statistics purchasing is +20, unless im missing a skill or talent?

Even if she were void born, and happened to get the sanctioning WP bonus, she would also need to fluke +3WP off the other character generation chart to hit 50 which is what you would need to get 70, is that not correct?

Darth Smeg said:

Nah, my kewl leet powers are looking forward...

Hindsight is perhaps the most common mutie psyker power yet no one gets burned for it..

Crimsonsphinx said:

Let's see. You can't have WP at 70 or above from every homeworld, only some. And you must have both the Dark Heresy core rulebook and the Inquisitor's Handbook available.

I. First, let's assume you either roll 20 when its time to roll your WP, or assign your roll of 20 to WP if your GM allows that sort of thing.

II. You then either select Void Born, Battlefleet Calixis or Mind Cleansed as your homeworld, getting 25 added to your roll. Now your WP is 45.

III. Now you roll your Sanctioning side effect with a d100. If you roll 95-00, you get Hypno-doctrination which raises your Willpower by 3. Your WP is now 48.

IV. After this, you roll your Imperial Divination with a d100. if you roll 55-58, you get "Die if you must, but not with your spirit broken", adding 3 to WP. If you roll 71-74, you get "In the darkness, follow the light of Terra", adding +3 to your WP. Now your WP is 51. ( If you roll 98-99, you get "There is no substitute for zeal", adding 2 to Toughness and Willpower each. It is not as good, but your WP would still be 50.)

V. Now you select, as your Calixian Background Package, the Living Nightmare for 300 xp which is available to psykers. The Living Nightmare is described on page 35 in the Inquisitor's handbook. Among other things, the package adds +5 to your WP. Your WP is now 56.

VI. Finally, you raise your WP by +20, the maximum stat advance possible. Your WP is now 76.

You don't need all of these above things to happen, of course. It is enough to have a Willpower of 70 to maximise your psychic powers.

By the way, has anyone noticed that the psychic abomination on page 60 of the Disciples of the Dark Gods has a willpower of 65? If one supposes that the abomination has followed the same rules as PC psykers (Which does not have to be so of course), he has rolled 20, has added 25 and has raised his WP by +20 to get it to 65. This would mean then that non-imperial rogue psykers would not get Living Nightmare, nor Sanctioning (which would stand to reason) and neither do they get Imperial Divination (It is "Imperial", after all)

So basically 70 isnt possible to build more often than not. You need to roll exceptionally well on three seperate tables as well as pick void born.

Although if 76 is maximum, you can do this with imperial world too!

Jan Solo said:

NPCs get exactly whatever stats, skills, talents, abilities and powers are required to represent them. They don't, and shouldn't, follow the same creation rules as player characters.

The fact that it gets Psychic Supremacy (unavailable to PCs except as an Elite Advance) and Power Well three times (PC psykers can only buy it twice without an Elite Advance) helps it be more than your average psyker. It has a 1% chance of being subject to Psychic Phenomena when using 2 dice, to which it adds +11 (+9 on non-discipline powers)... though it could easily be more powerful.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Yes of course.

But still, his Willpower being EXACTLY 65 and not for example 64 or 67 or, god forbid, 69, sure makes me wonder whether putting it at 65 is just a coincidence or whether there really is something more (the rules) behind it all

Just remember, with the release of DotDG, PCs can potentially get more psychic powers by taking the Sorcerer and Master Sorcerer Talents, which also add 1 to their effective Psy Rating

Crimsonsphinx said:

You can guarantee getting 50 of that 70 (Void Born/25 Living Nightmare/5 Advances/20) the difficulty is getting that last 20. If you go with a 2d10 x9 assign to your choice there is around 12% chance of NOT getting 15+ on your random roll (You can still get to 70 Willpower if you roll a 14). That leaves you needing 5 or more from the Sanctioning and Divination (needing 1 from each table unless you rolled 17 or more)

There is a 5% chance of getting Hypno-Doctrination an 8% chance of getting one of the three effects that add to your Willpower on the Divination table.

So as a ball park figure. If you roll 15 or 16 on your 2d10 you have about a 0.4% chance of getting Willpower 70+

If you roll a 14 you have about 0.3% chance.

Completely guess-timating the figure, the frequency out of a pool of psykers that rolled 14 or higher, of ending up with a Willpower of 70+ is a little over 1 in 100.

Your best chance is to pick a homeworld with 25WP and hope you roll a 20. In my group thats fairly common when you make 18 rolls for statistics when creating a character. Otherwise you are relying on the other results.

Still if you roll a 20, you can guarantee 70 so thats not too bad, id have just prefered it if it was a bit easier to do.