Ok, me and two fo my players have been arguing over sorcery/psy rating rules for awhile now, as we can't agree on the definition of the rules. So on the one hand, one of my players says that according to the rules, taking a sorcery rating will boost his next buyable psy ratings by one (i.e. if he bought sorcery at rank 4 and whatever his rank 5 would be, if it offered a psy rating of, say 4, that psy rating would be bumped to a 5 to compensate for the sorcery rating basically giving him a psy rating of 4 already) Through this he says he can achieve a psy rating over the normal 6 you can get.

My other friend says that sorcery doesn't boost all the other psy ratings and basically just renders the next psy rating moot by taking sorcery. The rules in the book seem like it could go both ways, it isn't really clear. I'm hoping you guys have a better understanding of the rules, and can help me out here.

Look on page 119 of Disciples of the Dark Gods - if you are already a psyker, the Sorcerer talent gives you a +1 to Psy Rating, and Master Sorcerer talent gives you +2 to Psy Rating.

That acts as a modifier though, you still buy the normal Psy Rating talents, you don't skip any.

In this regard, your 1st player is correct. However, being a Sorcerer does make him a heretic, so if he does go that route, and others of his team find out, they would be obligated to kill him.

Thanks for clearing that up! And while the rest of my Psykers team are obligated to immolate him in holy fire on the spot upon discovery of his sorcerous leanings, he can already effortlessly crush people into bloody basketballs at psy rating 5.

Also, the sorcery powers Molten Man and Endure flames both reduce damage from lasers, meltas, and plasma sources by half, if you maintain both does that make you invulnerable to those weapons? Player 1 says two halves make a whole, the book doesn't clarify.

Nah, I believe those powers just overlap, not stack. So the damage is still just halved.

Also, those aren't "sorcerer" only powers, regular psykers can get them too (if that is why you are going sorcerer).

Normally with multipliers in DH they don't just stack but add up.
So 2 multipliers of x2 are not x4 but x3.

So if one has two effects that give 1/2 I would say it's 1/3 if you combine them.

MILLANDSON said:

But in the example with his first player, its making this notion that psy rating purchased is effectively one higher than listed (because of sorcery), and therefore giving more powers (or a different set of powers) than normal. Doesn't the rate of discipline powers alter at different psy ratings? That shouldn't change.

Sorcery is a bonus on top, and has no effect on the psy rating purchased via xp. It does give an effective bonus when casting of course.

And the second player is wrong in the notion that sorcery negates the bonus of the next psy rating (just because you have an effective psy rating of 5 (4+1) because of sorcery doesn't mean that the psy rating 5 talent is pointless, PR 5 makes an effective rating of 6 (5+1).

KommissarK said:

That's what my post says... I'm not sure where you're thinking I said anything different to you

Here's something I think someone missed. If someone is stacking Psy ranks & Sorcery, I believe the Threshold goes up by 2 that you need to achieve. So someone who has a 'normal' Psy rating of 3, and then 2 levels of Sorceror (through Sorceror and Master Sorceror), would give them an effective Psy rating of 5. They could try a Seal Wounds at the normal threshold of 20 with 3 dice, or do it with sorcery with a threshold of 22 with 5 dice.

That's not actually true. The threshold increases by two if you're utilizing Sublime Arts....which if you're a psyker, you don't need to use. What you're talking about is the passage on pg. 168 that states, "Arcana that duplicate an existing Psychic Power are treated as the same but has its Threshold increased by 2 for a sorceror." This passage has to be taken in context, since it's talking about non-psyker sorcerors. If you have a Psy Rating, and take the power as a Psyker power (through the traditional Psy Rating talents) then the threshold isn't increased. Only if you're taking them as Arcana's are the Threshold increased by 2. Hope this helps clarify.

MILLANDSON said:

Sorry, yeah, mainly I was trying to point out that the first player in the OP's example was still not entirely correct (you said they were, but yes, you had stated the rules correctly).

It appears that the player was assuming that by having the sorcery talent, that the next time a psy rating is purchased, the psy rating talent is one higher. So if the psyker had psy rating 1, bought sorcery, then purchased what was labeled as "psy rating 2," that they actually gain the effect of buying "psy rating 3" (the mechanical effect being gaining discipline powers early).

I arrive at this from the phrase "taking a sorcery rating will boost his next buyable psy ratings by one."

I was trying to point out that sorcerey is effectively separate from psy rating, and should only actually be considered when focusing powers, not when buying powers/arcana

Since aren't all minor powers effectively also minor arcana (but just have a higher threshold?). But for a sorcerer/psyker, could be both learned.