I may be reading the chart wrong, but it seems that if you are a bound psyker (e.g. a Sanctioned Psyker), then there is no reason, if one is already pushing, to not push for the maximum amount possible. The other types of psykers seem to increase their mishap rolls by more if they push for more, but a bound psyker seems to only increase their roll by a flat +10.

Is this correct, is there another downside to going all out that I am not seeing? Or if I am pushing, should I always go for +3 psy rating?

Well if you are pusing you always get Phenomena. Furthermore you have a 35% chance of getting perils and at leats one of those Perils reflects the "spell" back on yourself (though the chance of that occuring is 2.8%). In (most) other cases pushing for +3 seems like the best choice.

I get that pushing might cause perils and all, I was just wondering if there was any reason to push for +1 or +2. It seems that you are not further penalized for pushing harder, which seems odd. Why even bother having pushing for less be an option?

waltermandias said:

Well, sometimes you might want to get only a certain amount of ooomph! out of your powers. Like for example the squad needs to escape through the Gate of Infinity you are warp dabbling out but you want it to be only such size that your squad can get through but not the enemy tank that is trying to ram you.

Or then you just might want your Vortex of Doom to kill everyone in sight, but not absolutely everyone on the planet

Speaking of which, or is it that with the way it currently works, is casting a more powerful psyker power easier than a weaker one?

If you mean manifesting a power X it is indeed easier to manifest a stronger version of X as opposed to a weaker version of X. That's pretty much the thing with physic powers, they are hard to control, it's easy to pour a lot of power into them and let let loose but that comes at a price. Trying to get a more controlled power is more difficult.

There's not often a big loss for a Bound psyker to push to +3 over +1 or +2: Their pushing is efficient and just a +10 no matter which. You might need it just to be certain it goes off, or has the range you need, as to my knowledge even the Bolt/Barrage/Storm powers have a set range, not rangebands with penalties like weapons.

[i would be very, very happy to be proven dead wrong about that last part]

For Unbound, it would be a different story [the available archetypes for OW don't offer this, but most chaos psykers you face are going to be this type]: +1 is just +5 to the phenomena roll, so less risky, +2 is equal to bound 1-3 in risk… They can go to +5 but people should remember that that DOUBLES [from 25% to 50%] the odds of having Perils.