Darth Smeg said:

Albeit those things might be funny, I only advise it to happen at a point where EVERY nearby pc is stunned or otherwise occupied. My players would tenaciously claim a +20 to their next attack on U-thak "since he is clearly not having any kind of defence going on at the moment"

Vore-weapons from Creatures Anathema could be fun to throw at a Psyker!

Let's say the Psyker manages to pass his Very Hard Willpower test to act during the agony of being burrowed into and eaten alive. How would you handle psychic powers directed at a worm eating it's way into your own body?

Directing bioligntning into your own body must be painful

Sorry to drop into this conversation so late...
And I would like to start by first noting that I actually really enjoy having psychers in my game.

Now, that said, I think the best way to keep a psycher in check is the party of players, on more than one occasion my players have executed a psycher becuase they believed he was to far gone. Now, at one point, 2 of the players killed the psycher and two other players for being corrupted when it was only the Assassin that was actually corrupted. True the psycher did have a fair number of corruption points and there was a demon incursion going on and a war with a massive heretic faction... but point being, the psycher was still loyal.

I try to remind my players on a somewhat frequent basis that the psycher is to be watched, and even though he is sanctioned and strong enough to resist temptation, his will can still be dissolved by the corruptive power of the warp. I think it adds more fun and depth to the game when the players can only trust each other so far, when the psycher starts getting a decent amount of corruption I will occasionally pull them out to tempt them with dark pacts, I do this with all the players, but less frequently, and since all the players knows whats going on, it makes them paranoid about each other, but only to a certain point. And there are plenty of other reasons I will pull a player aside for a moment, so they are always guessing.

If I had a psycher that was too strong I would do two things:
1: have the players run into a member of the ecclysiarchy who gives them a short stern sermon on the evils of corruption and the duties of the pure and loyal to watch the easily tempted (aka. psychers) and to purge them if needed.
2: If the story allowed it, I would have them tempted in their dreams, one by one I would pull the players aside and describe a dream where they were faced by a beautiful / terrifying being who tempts them with the dark powers of the chaos gods.

Now, if the players are playing the setting right they will not talk about it in game becuase it would be a sign of corruption. But they would all know that everyone else was tempted too, and after the fanatical priest, it should help to add some healthy paranoia between the players. And just for fun I would probably give each player that resisted 1 level of fatigue for 1 day of game time. Of course, if anyone accepted they would not get the fatigue.

Just food for thought here....

As noted, you have 4 key ways to suppress an acolyte's special abilities (be they psychic or otherwise) - outclass them, stop them using their abilities, put them in a situation where their abilities don't help or else make using their abilities risky for other reasons.

1. There's always someone better than you: Remember that as the GM you have an unlimited special effects budget. If all else fails, have a Lord of Change, Farseer, Psykana Templar or similar enter stage left. After all, if he's that good, he's more likely to be sent into these situations...
2. Dare I use it?: Overt use of powers will risk alerting the heretics (you don't need to have much psynicience to sense a psy rating 8 power going off!). Equally, whilst there's no such thing as a corrupt-o-meter, enough Hereticus inquisitors will know he's a powerful psyker (because that's the capacity he serves in) and they may well decide that that's enough reason to put him to the question as is.
3. My powers are useless!: From psykana wards to khornate blessings to untouchables, there are plenty of ways to make a foe partially or completely immune to psychic powers. Again, the more powerful he is, the more likely an intelligent heretic is to know of his existance and take precautions.
4. Err...I can heal or blow stuff up: A mission focusing on politics in a hive-spire needs interaction skills, diplomacy and subtlety. Warp lightning does not fall into any of those three categories.

Magnus Grendel said:

Simply: yes.

Gregorius21778 said:

AKA the reason the C'Tan went to sleep.

bogi_khaosa said:

No, according to the fluff the C'Tan went to sleep becuase they were being beaten by the Eldar and the Old Ones several millenia before the Fall of the Eldar and the rise of the Imperium.

Although Enslavers are a fun race to play around with.

Artanyis said:

It may have been retconned, but the Necron codex states specifically (pg. 26) that the Old Ones were wiped out by the Enslavers, who emerged from the Warp, attracted by the psychic energy of the War in Heaven,

The C'Tan were happy about this, but noticed that the Enslavers were wiping out all their cattle, so they went to sleep until the Enslavers were finished and new life had time to arise.

This is alluded to in Deus ex Machinus (or whatever it;s called) when the Deceiver says something like"no, we weren't dying, but everything around us was."

EDIT: I copied a few paragraphs from the codex but then realized it might violate IP, so I deleted them. Anyway, unless it's been retconned, the Enslavers did indeed cause the C'Tan to go into their status tombs, doing so by wiping out the Old Ones and their minions and so everything the C'Tan might want to eat (and at the same time interrupting the Great Project of sealing off the Warp). So the C'Tan slept, knowing that eventually the Enslavers would flee back to the Warp and after millions of years new life would arise to harvest.

Thus, these are Bad Dudes. The guys who wiped out the Old Ones and drove off the C'Tan were those beasties in Creatures Anathema.

EDIT2: I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm pretty sure this is alluded to tangentially in Creatues Anathema itself.

What I did to my psyker is that he woke up with a null ring(basically a null rod permantly attached) on him. He got it off but it takes him 12 hours for him to use minor psycik powers and a full 24 to use his major powers

Null rods are fun, always feel free to have a heretic carrying one

bogi_khaosa:

I dont remember seeing anything about it in the Creatures Anathema for Enslavers. But I haven't looked to closely either. And yeah, it was probably retconned. I know in the OLD Eldar Codex, and the Craftoworld Codex it talks about the War with the Necrons, the "Dark Machines." It also says that the Wraith technology and the Warp weapons were created as a means to fight the Necrons on equal terms as they can not survive in the Warp without one of the leaders, I forget what they are called...

But considering there is nothing about this in the last Codex release, and they retconned the Fall of the Eldar to such an extravagant way, it doesn't surprise me that they would change the history of the universe that much. Which is sad, the old fluff was REALLY cool. Although if they did change it that drastically, there are giant holes in the history, like, were the Eldar still Uplifted by the Old Ones? If the Old Ones were wiped out by the Enslavers how did the Eldar survive? Considering the discrepancies with the fluff now, I think I'll just keep following the old fluff :-D

Artanyis said:

It's a very vague allusion to the Enslavers having been responsible for immense plagues in the past.

I dunno which codex takes precedence fluffwise-- Necron codex is, what 1995 or something? We'll see what the new one says. But anywhere it's there in the old codex: Old Ones with Eldar and Krork were pushing back the Necrons, then the Enslavers showed up and killed just about everything, so the Necrons hybernated. (60 million years ago IIRC -- I love how GW times this with the great extinction on Earth.) Presumably a few Eldar and Krork hid or something, then the Enslavers left when there were too few minds left in the materium to keep them there,

One other detail: the C'Tan are said to have felt vindicated because it was the Old One's creation of so many psychic creatures that had made the Enslaver Plague possible, so they brought it on themselves, while the C'Tan used cold material science.

Ok, that story makes a bit of sense, although, Eldar were supposedly near the height of their technology when they helped fight the Necrons, so I guess if they were involved in the near extinction it would take them that long to recover and rebuild... ehh, sounds fun, but still kills some of the air of awesomeness that the Eldar had for me.

And back on topic, not sure if its been mentioned, but snipers, simple, clean, effective ambushes. A target that is unaware does not get a reaction, this is for players as well as NPCs. If they walk down an alley and a few teams of snipers on the roofs down at the end of the alley fire at the head of the psycher and possibly the tech priest, even a basic long-las can have a good effect. think, a skilled merc squad, BS of 65 shooting at an unaware target, full aim with a scope and an accurate weapon, at least a +30 so you have to roll under a 95, yes you have a hit. Use a Hotshot Charge Pack, gives it 1d10+4 Pen 5 with Tearing (roll 2 dice, choose the highest) and Accurate (+1d10 of 2 degrees of success to a max of 2d10) Run your sniper teams in groups of 2 placed all other ambush zone so they are getting shot at from everywhere, the Long-Las HotShots are a max of 34 dmg with pen 5, and you can always do things like mighty blow and sharp shooter and things to kick up the damage and accuracy of the shooter. The point of the 2 man teams is so one can reload the rifles and the shooter can switch back and forth between the 2 with quick draw and using a 1/2 aim after the first shoot every round.

Example: This is all done randomly, I just rolled it out.
So lets say the player is wearing carapace armour, 6 everywhere. has a toughness of 3, normal human and 14 wounds, not bad for a psycher.
First sniper team rolls an 11, aimed action at the head. that's more than 4 dos so its 3d10 tearing, the sets of dice are 1,1 9,1 and 8,7 so thats 18 damage +4 for the gun and +2 for mighty shot totalling 24 damage at AP 5 so thats -1 for armour and -3 for the toughness 20 damage the psycher is now at -2 wounds and has a critical effect of "The blast of energy dazzles the target, leaving him blinded for 1 Round." now he doesnt even have his reaction for next round becuase dodge is a sight based reaction.

That was 1 shot, from 1 team... imagine greater, and there are better weapons and talents to use.

To revisit this idea (which is a very important idea that all GMs should keep in the back of their minds at all times), I can share with you my latest little ploy to make my Psykers life harder.

During an attack on a public place where the players are thrust into the roles of defenders (during Damned Cities), the Psyker used his twisted powers to heal a dying man. Focusing the power of the warp, he Seals the Wounds of this screaming politician and minor noble, whose guts were busting out of his torn abdomen. Before the shocked eyes of several witnesses, the flesh seals itself, closing the wound while glowing with a bright, white light.

Obviously a miracle! This man must obviously be a Saint!

So now he has his own little following, a group of very annoying people who wish to be with him, follow him, venerate him, learn from him, protect him. At all times. He is trying his best to get rid of them, much like Brian when people thought he was the Messiah. But it's not working, the group is growing as the word spreads and hope is felt on Sinophia for the first time in centuries.

'course, not everyone thinks it's ok to go around thinking you're a Saint. The Ecclessiarchs take a dim view of these things. They might just decide that this is Heresy, and that someone might need a little burning.

And there's always someone who's jealous of this mans fame. Or who just wish to be famous by shooting someone famous.

And it was really funny to describe the car that was following them, not managing at all to be subtle about it, just to watch the paranoid Acolytes blow it up with an RPG. Walking over to it just to discover the burning corpses of some of his followers, burned fliers depicting the Saints return scattering amongst the debris.

Good times

Nice! I never thought of that angle. I have done the "Witch! Burn it!" approach where teh players then had to keep their heads low from EVERYONE. But making them a celebrity, that is genius. I will have to use it at some point.

By the power of the chaos gods, I demand this thread to be revived!

Since there properly also are other GMs out there that want to screw with their Psykers would I personally want to add my little advice that there are fitting to almost all Psykers no matter their rank. A little simple psychic power called Weaken Veil (P. 168). We do all know how lovely perils are, and with this little power do you no longer invoke it on 9's alone, but 8,9 and 10. Sure it does add +2 to the power roll as well, but that could be negated with some clever GMing if needed.

It would not be far fetched to say that some cultists have been to chaotic and ripped some small tears in the universe that have this effect, or to have a mad Psyker that the acolytes could fight against that have a love for this extra kick of power.

The greatest danger for a Psyker is his 9's, let him fear 8 and 10 as well!

Let him have his +2. Especially if that makes him more likely to invoke the powers of the Warp his mind.

Weaken Veil is pretty much designed to hamper psykers.

You want to deal with a psyker? Really deal with a psyker?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q

You want to deal with a psyker? Really deal with a psyker?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q

Hilariously, it's possible for Psykers to survive this with tricks like Time Slip.

Allright. We all hate Psykers. Everyone does, it's only natural. Now, how to really ruin their day? When they reach Rank 8, Psy Rating 6, and just Seal Wound/Regenerate everything you do to mess them up. When the Psycik Blade their way out of all the lovely traps you put them in. When they Shape Flesh and fly away from all the other trouble you drop them in.

Let's have it! Torpor in their drink, Weakened Veils, I'm all ears

Change the warp phenomenon chart, just make your own.

Add that with weaken veil. Oh he rolled a 35 on phenomenon, the psyker is ripped from the materiem into the warp, he returns 2d10 rounds later and gains as much corruption.

So, we're talking Dark Heresy. That means we're talking Inquisition. That means we're talking Inquisitorial politics and rivals.

You wan't to make your Psyker cry? Culexus.