Ever since I read the errata on this talent I've wondered if any PC would ever use it. Now it feels more like a talent for enemy psykers the GM can throw at players, not caring how much toughness he burns since it's not important whether he lives or dies.

I would like to make the following suggestion: make it 5 points of toughness that needs to be sacrificed for each extra 1d10 to the power roll, but make the damage temporary instead (which returns at a rate of one point per hour). Limit the ammount of toughness points spent per round to gain extra dices to 10, for 2d10. If you run a less action oriented adventure, maybe change it to 10 points per extra 1d10 and the allowed ammount spent per round to 20. If you think the recovery rate is too fast you could add the following restriction: you regain one characteristic point per hour as long as you do not use any psychic powers.

Considering the number of battles we usually have when we play, and the beatings we take, if I presented this to our group we'd probably use the 5 points per 1d10 version, but I don't know what your sessions are like. Thoughts, objections, inputs anyone?

I thought the toughness already comes back naturally? If not then I certainly would never use corpus conversion for my psycher. But to be honest I find the talent more of a last ditch effort. (not just for NPCs) That's the time when one might feel they'll need all the dice they can get, with risk to rolling more 9's and some hurt on your toughness. Kind of like an all or nothing gambit.

Of course I do like what you've done. Keeps it simple. But again Corpus conversion is not a talent I normally use often if ever. (Then again it does show just why psychers tend to be abnormally frail.)

No the errata states that you sacrifice one permament point of toughness for each dice you want to add. And as I said, that makes think this is a talent for the GM to use on NPC psykers. But I agree with you, it is a last resort talent, and that's a reson why I don't like it very much. I guess I prefer talents I get a little more use out of.

Sure it's a good reson why some psykers are frail, as you say, except, of course, for biomancer who, and I quote: "...are viewed with no small amount of jealousy, as they freely feast and drink, yet maintain a healthy, toned physique." (p. 196).

Thanks for the input.

I personally think that the errata made the talent much better. I think that the problem with losing things temporary is that the treshold to use the power gets so low that the psyker can use it almost all the time. Especially since before the errata you got an extra wp bonus' worth of points to the invocation roll. This way you could lower the amount of dice rolled and still get high scores when making the focus power action.

With the errata a you have an option to boost things up. It only costs you. So you have to think long and hard if you want to use it. Personally I think it's still very efficent talent.

I also don't like powers which heal wounds from other characters at all. It's ok if the psyker can heal himself but if he does it for the whole group It's one step closer for the "traditional ad&d cleric - cure serious wounds- vending machine."

tuomorinne said:

That's pretty much the point of the Biomancy discipline.

Letrii said:

Right, because healing other people is cool. Not, you know, hurling lightning from your fingertips, changing your shape, or regrowing lost limbs.

EDIT: So as not to derail the thread, I will include my thoughts on the original topic. I like the talent the way it is after the errata. Because this change limits its use, however, I incorporate the rest of T.S. Luikart's suggested change to the talent posted back on the old boards, the first place I saw the modified, permanent damage version. Instead of charging XP for it, just make it a trait all psykers have. It's there if they want it, but they don't have to spend XP for a very cool and flavorful, yet limiting, ability.

I don't think that changing it to 5 points, or making the damage temporary, is necessary. At the cost of 1 permenant point, you will find that most players will hesitate to use this talent. Yet, if they have it and are faced with certain doom if they do not get that extra 1D10... they might go for a use or two. I suppose it is are they willing to undo spent experience for that quick, situational boost. If anything, I like the idea of making it an innate ability of all psykers (just like rolling those oh-so-fun 9s).

It seems pretty useful to me as-is. If you use the powers as described, you're rolling one die at a time. Once you roll that last die and you're not quite there, spending that Toughness gets mighty tempting.

I had forgotten about this thread. It would seem that all of you are of a diffetent mind than me concerning this talent, as I said: I prefer talents I get more use out of. I think I would rather chance trying to manifest the power again the next turn than sacrificing a point of toughness for one more dice. It would really have to be an imminent life or death situation that could only be averted by just that power then and there for me to not have serious second thoughts about taking the permanent loss of toughness. Maybe this is because we routinely suffer serious beatings in our sessions, and our toughness bonus is one thing that can spell the difference between life and having to burn yet another fate point.

It's certainly not an easy decision to make, but firstly, every toughness point above x0 or x5 is fair game as it won't help you achieve a higher bonus. Secondly, at least the first five points of toughness will likely be easier to regain than the fate point you (and the rest of your cell) would have probably burned otherwise. Finally, in contrast to the burning of a fate point, CC is offensive - you get to kill the enemy instead of just surviving and surviving while failing a mission is often not regarded as positive in the ranks of the Imperium...