This topic could probably go in several different forums, but this one seems slightly more appropriate….

I have a couple of miscellaneous questions. I'm not new to 40k, but certainly wouldn't call myself an expert. I've read the Eisenhorn and Ravenor novels, and used to play 40k TT many years ago (with the original Rogue Trader, and later 2nd ed. rules), but a lot of that is now long-since out-of-date.

Firstly, are there any rules or information about tech-psykers in the FF books (or just psykers who have lots of cybernetics)? Does "techno-magic" even exist in the 40k universe?

Secondly, do half-eldar exist or are they genetic impossibilities?

grotz said:

I can answer this one at least. It's come up more than once, and there's precedent for it. In White Dwarf #97 there is a half-eldar IlIiyan Nastase. Plenty of people have hypothesized that while normal methods of breeding might not work, genetic engineering is theoretically possible.

Edit: I should clarify

1) Early White Dwarf stuff is widely considered campy or sketchy. Still, it IS precedent.

2) It probably wouldn't be the Imperium doing the genetic engineering. Maybe Dark Eldar, Eldar Corsairs, or maybe some kind of Eldar outcast society?

3) Unlikely to happen, but I wouldn't rule it as impossible. If it works for your campaign then go for it. Just be careful about alienating your group members.

1. No, I've read in several places that the process of becoming a tech priest eliminates any psychic capabilities. Certainly in the game tech priests are prohibited from having a psy rating. There are no rules I know of that prohibit psykers from getting cybernetics though. I wouldn't imagine many would want cybernetics, especially biomancers. Technology is kinda considered semi sorcery, but as to techno magic like in steampunk or whatever, no.

2. Entity know more than I do, I've never heard of any half anythings in any Warhammer product, 40,000 or fantasy. I think the idea of halfbreeds is kinda campy just by definition. Then when you consider the biology of combining DNA from two different species, that gets messy. But I guess genetic engineering is possible. I agree that humans, believing themselves to be the only pure and holy form, made in the image of the Emperor, would not sully their genetic legacy with the inferior xenos filth. Any halfbreed found by the Inquisition or Ecclisarchy would be summerily executed.

Thanks. For both options I was thinking of antagonists or plot devices, not PC options.

Oh, and I didn't mean a tech-priest psyker exactly. I wouldn't want to mix those concepts… though I always assumed the incompatability was more of an ideological barrier. (Btw, what happens to people with psi potential born on forge worlds? Do they get sent to the Black Ships as in the rest of the Imperium?) Anyway, I was imagining a heavily augmented psyker whose cybernetics interact somehow with the warp and/or his psychic abilities. I don't recall its name or where its from, but in one of the RT books there's a staff that the wearer plugs into his spine to temporarily boost his psyker level.

grotz said:

From what I understand: Black ships have no political boundaries and cannot be denied on any world within Imperial control. If they were denied access the Adeptus Arbites would immediately seize control and institute martial law, appointing a new person or faction to control the Emperor's World. It works on the same concept of Imperial Tithing. The Arbites are there to make sure it happens.

Psyker's can get any of the cybernetics that another player could, as far as I recall. The only restrictions would be getting any cybernetic system that is dependent on Tech-Priest only modifications (Potentia coils, etc) So they won't be toting around Mechadendrites. I don't know about any system that would give them a bonus to Psy-Rating, but there are instances in books where Psykers use all forms of body modification to compensate for what the Binding or Sanctioning does to them. One in particular I remember was paralyzed from the hips down, and after his legs had atrophied his Psykana organization replaced the legs with a tripedal cybernetic modification.

If you're looking to enhance the abilities of Psykers through cybernetics I'd avoid anything that touched power rating. Psyker's are plenty powerful without it. Instead if you'd like something see if it can help with a skill. Perhaps a sensory override system that when activated allows psykers to take a -10 to perception tests with the exception of Psyniscience which would get a +10. (Removing corporeal distractions in an attempt to attune)

grotz said:

I think forgeworld-born psykers get the same rides as others do. I suppose a tech-priest could become a psyker through the "wyrdling" -mutation (gain Psy-rating 1), though.

What you describe can be found in RT: Hostile Acquisitions (pg. 68), by the name of Æetheric wave-spars:

"When a character with this implant Pushes a psychic power, he may add a +1 bonus to his total Psy Rating. Poor quality ætheric wave-spars also add a further +10 to all rolls on the Psychic Phenomena table. Good-craftsmanship ætheric wave-spars instead reduce all rolls on the Psychic Phenomena table by –10, calculated after all other modifiers."

Availability: Very Rare.

Of course, I'd wager, that some xenos, like the Yu'vath or some heretics dabbling in warpcraft would have something similar, but more powerful available. Perhaps like the psionic amplifier in Judge Dredd. These, of course would be corrupting, dangerous, and extremely forbidden.

So a radical Inquisitor attempting to use one would feel quite fitting.

Scourge the Heretic SPOILER

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In the novel Scourge the Heretic, which is sort of the novel released for the DH game, a (renegade) Tech-Priest with psychic powers is featured if I remember correctly.

Normally, psychic apitude arises in childhood or adolescence and those are most probably given to the Black Ships and not made Tech-Adepts/-Priests in the first place. I think nothing hinders an adult Tech-Priest more than anybody else to become a nascent psyker in adulthood (pure chance that is), though the more unemotional behaviour of Tech-Priest seem to make it even less probable to happen, as psychic talent (as well as psychcic phenomena) seem to be sort of linked to more strong emotions than those of an average Tech-Priest.

grotz said:

Oh, and I didn't mean a tech-priest psyker exactly. I wouldn't want to mix those concepts… though I always assumed the incompatability was more of an ideological barrier. (Btw, what happens to people with psi potential born on forge worlds? Do they get sent to the Black Ships as in the rest of the Imperium?) Anyway, I was imagining a heavily augmented psyker whose cybernetics interact somehow with the warp and/or his psychic abilities. I don't recall its name or where its from, but in one of the RT books there's a staff that the wearer plugs into his spine to temporarily boost his psyker level.

From what I understand: Black ships have no political boundaries and cannot be denied on any world within Imperial control. If they were denied access the Adeptus Arbites would immediately seize control and institute martial law, appointing a new person or faction to control the Emperor's World. It works on the same concept of Imperial Tithing. The Arbites are there to make sure it happens.

Tell this to the Diviso Immoralis that tried to sniff around on the Divine Light of Sollex.

Though the Adeptus Mechanicus is part of the Imperium, it enjoys a considerable degree of independence. The Adeptus Mechanicus is more like an allied empire than an organisation within the Imperium. The Arbites has about no authority over the Adeptus Mechanicus, well even the Inquistion often has difficulties in this regard. The Adeptus Mechanicus simply has to much power in the way that the Arbites would have no ships to reach a Forge World and maybe not even working Combat Shotguns for that matter…

I doubt the Adeptus Arbites would (or could) seize control over a Forge World without the backing of the (sub)-sector or even segmentum level Adeptus Mechanicus (i.e. renegade Forge World). Neither could the Arbites decide on a faction to control an Imperial world (beyond martial law on non-Forge Worlds) afterwards.