a couple of questions:

Pyrokinetic powers: do they ALL set people on fire? If I hit someone with a fire bolt, does he also have to make an Agility Test to avoid catching fire? Or is this only valid for those powers that inflict damage during two or more rounds?

I ask because I read in the rules that you only cacth fire when: 1) you're attacked by a weapon with the "Flame" descriptor or 2) you suffer fire damage from the same source for two consecutive rounds.

Constrict: can a person affected by this power "hold his breath"? or is he considered to be immediately suffocating?

thx in advance

All flame powers that hit a target, initiates the agi-roll to avoid catching fire.

You cant hold your breath and avoid the power for X rounds cause you are holding your breath. Its like taking a hit to the gut and then not being allowed to breath afterwards

woah, our Pyro-psyker will be glad to hear that!

regarding Constrict, if you can't hold your breath, what does actually happen then? Do you lose 1 wound and gain 1 Fatigue level each round? or do you immediately fall unconscious?

Totally forgot about this thread
It seems that I was thinking about something else when I responded in regards to the "constrict" power.
You can indeed hold your breath. When you get affected by the "Constrict" power, you start to suffocate as per the rules on page 210 in the core rules.
You can hold your breath up to your toughness bonus in minutes. You test toughness each round to "break free" of the power. If you fail you take 1 fatigue level in damage. Success ends the power.
If you run out of minutes or fatigue, then you fall uncoucious and start to take 1d10 dmg each round (not reduced by armor or toughness) till you reach 0 wounds and die.

so, a psyker uses Constrict on me, and I can still hold my breath for 3-4 minutes… then I have to start making Toughness tests?

seems useless…

I think you hold your breath. During the 3-4 minutes, you can make a Toughness test in order to break the spell. If you fail, -1 fatigue point. If you do nothing, at the end of the 3-4 minutes, you fall unconscious. If you have 0 FAT, you fall unconscious.

For the flame, as it was said in another post, please be sure to play the surroundings. In a city, there are fuel or oil that can be set on fire. Outside, if not too wet, bushes can also burn (and do a lot of smoke). If an ennemy dies because of the fire, grenade and ammunition can explose (noise, damage, …). just make the prycher remember that playing with fire is dangerous

Would hardly say useless. After 3-4 rounds, most people will be out of fatigue. And then it starts to suck ass.
Also worth remembering, the fatigue dont just go away.. so even if they miss one roll, then gets it.. its still closer to being a problem if it gets tossed on them again And if you are holding your breath, then you can go attacking or anything. So you have effectively taken an opponent out in one way or another.

Ok, i checked again pg 210 of the core rules.

During combat, you can hold your breath for 2 rnds per Toughness bonus (so 6 to 8 rnds average). After this, you start taking 1 wound and 1 fatigue level per round.

But for those 6 to 8 initial rounds you have no penalty at all!

Not many fights in my games lasted that long…

Yes, but the constrict power also states that they must take a full action each round to test toughness. So he wont be doing anything else.
As I said, its basicly crowd control. And you can still fire/attack at them while they are choking. And a failure on the toughness grants a fatigue point, so it wont last more then 3-5 rounds in average before they are unconcious

Ok, so you're saying they have to start testing Toughness immediatelly, not after the 6-8 rnds that they're holding their breath? That would indeed make it very useful.

(aw, and Constrict has been errata, so you can test WP for free at the start of every round to choose if you want to test Toughness, or just act normally, but that's only partially related to the matter at hand)

I think it's not only because of lack of oxygen. Remenber that there are some important veins and arteries in your neck, Block these for 10 seconds and you end up unconscious. So meaby fatigue gain represents both this and suffocating.