I'm trying to figure out, what penalties rules impose on psykers not in the moment, when they invoke their powers, but just because they are psyker.

I know about 2 instances:

1)They cannot wear psy-jammers

2)Some weapons are more effective against psykers(bolters with psycannon bolts, catechist crossbow etc). But all of these weapons either haard to obtain, or uneffective against non-psykers, or both(IMHO).

Is there any other things, that screw psykers more than non-psykers, or don't allow them to get what other characters can get?

(and yes, I know, that psykers are viewed by society as freaks, but i want to know about hard munchkiniac, non-roleplaying but rollplaying disadvantages)

Sorry for my english.

Well, the non-psyker always had the advantage of not worrying about triggering an "unfortunate" event when they use their skills (E.g. "unfortunate" = walls bleeding, deamons manifesting, that sort of thing).

DW

I have already said, that i am interested in examples, which screw you just because you are psyker, even if you don't use your skills. Or wargear/talents/something which psykers cannot obtain/use. Oh, I also remembered, that psykers cannott use halo devices. They don't lose too much.

Though it isn't a mechanic per se, it is both lore and reinforced as a suggestion to GMs that Daemonic forces nearby will flock towards the ripe, tasty potential hole in the universe that every psyker remains, even with only a remote chance, unless dead.

It doesn't matter if you actually use your powers, though that brings the Hounds of Hell faster than doing nothing. That's a significant disadvantage, because daemonic forces are nasty SoBs to a man(it? thing?) and not the sort of attention you'd ever want to have, especially in an undercover situation.

Deathwatch has an anti-psyker bolt ammo that, I believe, is still just as nasty as a normal bolt ammo against non-psykers (but no nastier, i believe).

Blood of Martyrs has a few you've missed as well amongst the Faith powers. The most egregious that comes to mind would be how psykers get a chance of an extra 1d10 unmitigatable damage and having psyker abilities cut off on a single failed willpower test, even while they gets maimed by their own corruption when subject to the Soul Storm act of faith.

I'm certain there are other examples where psykers rate extra damage, and frankly, faith powers are on the whole very, very potent abilities even if the target isn't getting smacked for extra just for existing as a psyker.

Psykers can't use heavy weapons

They can. Rules don't forbid them to do it. They can buy Elite Advances for heavy weapons. In Ascension they can choose career of Interrogator and buy any weapon training. Hey, and what about psycannon? It's intended to be used by psyker.

Dart Mobius said:

Saying they can buy Elite Advances for Heavy Weapons is less meaningful - Elite Advances are not always available. Saying they can just wait until Ascension is also less meaningful - Most groups will play for years before reaching ascension, if they reach it at all (mine has yet to reach it, for example). It also requires the psyker to be an Interrogator, which isn't even close to being a common occurance.

Also, it is generally a bad idea to invoke "The Rules don't Forbid It" in any argument, even though you aren't making the full fallacy. By your own definition, the rules don't forbid Scum from having a Psy Rating of 6, so long as the DM allows them as the Elite Advances...

I'm curious... what is the purpose of this thread? Are you having trouble with a psyker player, and need to bring him/her in line? Do you have a point to prove either way? Because asking strangers to gather data for you without understanding the real purpose of the data might not end up bringing you what you really need.

Psykers loose their usefulness when you´re up against untouchables, such as the slaught.

A character that is a psyker should be spending a lot of his time and xp on developing those talents.

The benefit of not being a psyker is that you can spend that on something else.

In my campaign the psyker is using the rogue trader psy rules which I adapted to DH. So far it works fine.

Alox said:

A bit of this plus more. If you choose to be a psyker class but don't spend any points on psychic powers and don't use any, what ever you try to do will be significantly worse than a career that does it as their thing, even if you get some stuff elite advantages you'll be ploughing far more point into it than the other character.

As you say you can be an interregator to unlock some weapons things but assassing or guard can be interrogator to unlock the basic psychics and they'll also have the fighting abilities available when they are dirt cheap.

So a psyker who doesn't psyk is a second class citizen and second class combatant but if you do use psychics there's a real risk of messing up everybodies day (plus the associated chances of awesome destroying the enemies plans). I think most players will say that psykic powers can be massively effective when used wisely but you shouldn't rely on them completely. Take a gun too for the Emperors sake, make sure someone else has a med kit etc.