so my question for everyone out there is how do you feel about frightful presence? its a minor power and one of my players took it and right now hes gonna average a fear rating of 3. thats to everyone who can see him and they get a -20 to their WP roll to resist it. the way its worded i dont see a reason other than nonfailed saves that the psyker with a MINOR power can make a whole room **** themselves and set them up for a coup de grace. the errata has nothing on this. any thoughts?

The one time my player used this power, it was agaisnt a room full of Logician agents who, per Disciples, have a special way of dealing with fear- so it only sent one enemy with a phobia, the rest were relatively unaffected.

I would suggest dealing with it by sending out A) Monsters. B) Stressing that other players looking at the man when this happens ALSO have to deal with the Fear Test. C) Its all fine and dandy to Coup-de-grace the local thugs in a street gang- but, like in Einsenhorn, any minion worth his whole will likely be mind-scrubbed and warded in order to resist both fear and psychic interrogation.

On a purely mechanical note, at psy rating 2 and with 6 Wp Bonus, my player has only managed Fear 2. Must be rolling really well to get that Fear 3 rating all the time...

the players are starting at 6000 exp so the psyker is at psy rating 4 and has a WP bonus of 6

Fnipernackle said:

There are a couple of Minor Power that are rather powerful ruleswise. Still, all these sort of powers have an influence that is not part of the rules but more part of the "metalevel" of the 40K background. Using Fearful Aura (my Psyker player did this a lot) means that all in the vicinity must test, friend (i.e. the other PCs) and foe alike.

PCs gaining Insanity Points and/or being unable to act in combat due to failed Fear tests are often not that amused, even moreso if they play true to their character (about all Imperial citizens dislike or even hate Psykers). One of the main jobs of Arbitrators for example is to apprehend any un-sanctioned Psykers and probably also sanctioned ones that use their powers openly. Guardsmen as well are often schooled to kill any Imperial Guard Psykers that seem to lose control. Clerics (let alone Sororitas) are often rather hateful and strongly opposed to such kind of behaviour as well.

Besides, if used against a group of mooks, 7 out of 10 will be scared as hell and will either flee or devolve into an embryonic posture. But the other three will open up with anything they have against the Psyker. With "all" I mean total overkill measures like throwing multiple grenades, using heavy weapons to full effect as well as other secondary measures to make sure the witch is buried beneath tons of rubble/steel/whateverisathand. The leader type of opponents will go against the Psyker first as well, because they are often intelligent enough to realize the threat they pose. Any opponents, that know about the PCs, will target the Psyker first; all others will target him after showing a power like Fearful Aura.

About all sort of allies the PCs could have with them (Imperial Guard, PDF, Arbites, Enforcer etc.) won't look kindly on such kind of behaviour, even if sanctioned by Inquistorial order.