I'm thinking on branching into my second discipline and becoming a Telepath, but I need to understand a few things when it involves the Closer Than Flesh rules. Does CTF rule apply to all telepathic powers or to powers like Compel, Dominate, Mind Scan, Seed Mind because these powers are making a connection between two minds? But powers like Inspire, Psychic Shriek, and Telepathy I feel you shouldn't have to because your broadcasting or sending a message out and not really connecting your mind with another. With See Me Not, Terrify, and Soul Killer I'm not 100% sure though with these powers.

So what am I doing wrong here and how to understand it better?

The side-bar says all telepathy powers, without making any distinction.

Having went back to read the descriptions of these powers, only "Psychic Shriek" [and projection] doesn't state that you're entering the target's mind to perform a change or implant something- all of the others make it quite clear that the Psyker is, for all intents and purposes, meddling with the target's mind as if he had his hands in there either adding or altering thoughts to bring about a certain reaction or other.

By Raw the Side-bar says, and means, all. I would agree with this as I believe that all Telepathy involves at least a brief glimpse into the other person's mind, whether your bringing down the doors with a massive blast or subtly sneaking in to move the furniture.

I disagree, mainly because using 'broadcasting' version of 'telepathy' could instantly tun you into crazy heretic. As I see it, with most powers you are just a transmitter, while your targets are receivers, like with the radio. With strong enough signal you can 'hijack' and overwrite normal transmission. So for me it would work only with mind scan (obviously).
But that's only me and others may view it quite diffrently.

Keep in mind that the core condition to "Closer than flesh" has to have the targets with more CP/IP than the Psyker. Most humans will turn completely insane well before they reach 30 on either scale- the rules for Insanity and Corruption are mostly reserved for notable NPCs, monsters- maybe mutants (but at that point, they count as monsters as in they corrupted by chaos and born mutants).

A regular psyker could easily broadcast in a busy hive street and not really gain anything- on the other hand, he could glimpse something horrible inside one particular mind and know that its the target they are looking for is nearby.

Now, if you're using these powers in a cultist convention, that's something else. Even regular cultists should not be reaching the 100 Insanity and Corruption points- those should be reserved to the Leader, Big Bad or such. At the maximum, they would be able to handle 50 points while remaining functional.

Granted, the closest to this in the rules would do be the side bar Chaos and Common Citizen which leaves in a GMs hands how much an individual can handle chaos before they blow, while reminding us that most citizens simply can't handle it.

@ShadowRay: I would have to disagree with your thought on the broadcasting aspect of Telepathy, do to your sending out a thought and not actually doing anything of crossing your mind with a targets mind. If for instants telepathy allowed you to communicate back and forth with your target I would have to agree because that would need you to connect to the minds to do that, but as you said if you picked it up for being in the area of the broadcast then your mind isn't a target of the power he just happened to be there to listen with his mind. Now with Compel, Zone of Complusion, Dominate, Inspire, Mind Scan, Projection, See Me Not, Terrify, Seed Mind.

@Saldre: I don't read anywhere that the effects of Insanity and corruption points are resevered for PCs, I would think a citizen is the same as a PCs when it comes to IP and CPs. And you don't really glimse into someones mind with broadcasting of telepathy, you may as RAW have to roll for the Closer Then Flesh rule and notice that a person isn't right but you can't really look into their mind unless you use Mind Scan power.

I guess you'd have to be careful with Telepathy then, otherwise you will collect IP and CPs pretty fast intill you reach about 50+ in both IP and CP. It just doesn't seem like a discipline you can really abuse in till you reach the 50+ threshold in both IP and CPs. And I don't want to have 50+ in either I'm currently at 29 IP and 0 CP at the moment and I had to do a special roll to get my CP down, I had the choice to lose 1d10 CPs in exchange of also losing 1d5 Toughness points as well and I took it.

Check page 238 of the Core-book: you're right that Insanity likely affects everyone the same, but its made very clear that Corruption is reserved for PCs and Special NPCs- with the vast majority of citizens not being to handle the touch of Chaos.

As for a glimpse, I meant it in a narrative sense- a glimpse is momentary, fleeting… Uninformative. Likely enough to force you to roll to gain corruption without really knowing why, only that there's something bad happening… (That's where the other power comes in, if you want more details.) Which I think is exactly what you just said. Which, by raw, is true.

And yes, you have to be extra-careful with Telepathy: Exploring a heretic's mind can be as dangerous as exploring a Death World

See me Not is also you reaching into the minds of your chosen targets (the power does not affect you, or the way you actually look), and making them unable to register you. As with most Telepathy powers, it is you reaching into and messing with their minds.

Closer than flesh, indeed.

See I wish they had a foci for each displine like they have the divination foci from the Radical's Handbook on page 48, were it gives you a +10%/+20% to your test when using divination powers. If I do pick up Telepathy I feel that I will be testing a lot because of having no CPs, and the only time I would be using the powers is on suspects to begin with or people I'm in combat with.

Now I have a new question which is better to have a displine mastery in Divination or Telepathy?

I think it's a super flavorful rule and IP/CP are a lot of fun. In an RT game where I'm a player I run an astropath who is a Transubstantial Initiate who considers it her ultimate goal to command respect for psykers. She has NO problem morally using her powers and really tries to push the envelope. We're just starting, but I am really looking forward to this as a roleplaying consequence of her behavior when she starts to notice that plunging into people's minds starts to eat away at her personality over time. She is deeply religious (part of the background) in her own way, and I intend to have her meditate more and more as she notices these things, and we'll see where the insanity takes us but becoming a flagellant or something is not out of the question.

Should it prevent you taking telepathy? Heck no! They're some of the best powers for a DH game, hands down. Probing people's minds is the best way to get info from them, but of course there are consequences…

Phi6891 said:

That really depends on your playing style? Personally I prefer Bio-mancy.

Are you possibly referring to Discipline Focus? Mastery require a minimum of 10 (in some campaigns I have seen 8) Disciplines to know to attain Mastery, so if just really would depend on which you like to use. Of the two choices you gave, I would go with Telepathy, as powers such as Dominate really benefit from having a much lower PT to make.

As far as Discipline Focus, if you are actively employing your Psyker abilities heavily, I would suggest getting it for both Disciplines as soon as possible.

Denmar1701 said:

Yes I straight up mean Discipline Mastery, I mean to pick up 10 powers in one fell swoop, and yeah I guess I'll buy Discipline focus too. I already have discipline mastery over Telekinetics. I was going to get my discipline mastery over Biomancy but I feel like I'll have a bunch more powers I won't be using at all though. So I have Seal Wounds, Regenerate, Shape Flesh, and Toxic Siphon for Biomancy and might pick up Flesh like Iron from Disciplines of the Dark Gods. Bio-Lightning, Blood Boil, Constrict Hammerhand suck for offensive psyker powers. Enhanced Senses and Cellular Control are decent but only worth using the Psychic Power Talent on and not using Psy Rating 5 and 6 on though.

Compel from Telepathy is like Command from D&D, I don’t like it in that system and I don’t like it in this system. Dominate is all well and good but if the range wasn’t so short. I like Inspire, I love Mind Scan and it would be the only reason to do Telepathy, Projection is great too when you have to send a message to your higher ups, Psychic Shriek is pretty good as well when you need to take out multiply targets without harm, See Me Not is a great on one too, Having Telepathy is great as well, Terrify is another nice one to work with, Seed Mind is another good one too. Hands down Soul Killer has to be one of the most powerful psyker powers next to Holocaust, seeing as Holocaust takes on multiple enemies and Soul Kill targets one without the burning alive part. But the closer then flesh is the draw back, and I’ll be honest I have 29 IP and 0 CP and I don’t want to gain any more, I’m trying to be a pure but crazy psyker, I know it sounds impossible but I’m giving it a shot.

But looking at Divination I’m seeing as it can help me a lot more out of combat for locating items/personnel, knowing past events, future events, etc.. I mean with Telekinetics I have my offensive powers of Force Barrage and Psychic Blade, so I’m not that hard up for attacking powers. And after reading the powers for Divination they seem great for out of combat situations.