topic of the week - Psykers

By GauntZero, in Game Mechanics

How about a skill/talent for each discipline? Discipline Mastery sound good?

I'm not entirely sure what this is going to do or what problem its solving.

I think the suggestion was meant to be that instead of buying powers individually from each tree you would merely buy a talent which would grant you access to the entire discipline.

No sorry I was trying to suggest that a new talent called (Discipline) Mastery be added that replaces the stat bonus and maybe gives +10 per level to manifest as it would mean you could improve any discipline at the same cost when rushing to get ready for a RT game.

It was something I was working on as part of my attempt to make some house rules and it didn't cross my mind that other people aren't aware of it.

Pushing makes it harder to use a power. That is really nonsensical. 90% perils chance to increase your fail rate. For me to want to do this the damage would need to be astronomically higher.

A 'risk' should come with a 'reward' not a 'penalty'.

I've been saying that for a while, for sure. Somehow many strongly disagreed with my view on the matter though.

Fettered: -1 to phenomena roll per PR used below your actual Psy Rating. Nice and relatively safe.

Push: +1 to phenomena roll per PR used above your actual Psy Rating [in addition to that from the modified rating obviously]. +10% to focus test per point above.

I also believe the chance of perils is too **** high right now for pushing. It's all but guaranteed, which is bad, as it's another reason not to risk it "you know you're screwed slightly more" is a very different beast from "well, It'll probably be alright, what are the odds?".

For power stats, I would recommend a hybrid:

Single Stat adds to one of the factors [say, 1d10+PL, Pen WPb] but differs by discipline. Say, Perception, Toughness, Intelligence.

So, say, Pyromancy and divination might be Perception. That's what you use instead of will on the focus test, but a power might be 20m * [2[Perception bonus]], while Inferno's PL+PRb Blast rating, or whatever. You get the idea. In many cases this is just added to powers because so many were rather lackluster anyways.

I say two disciplines per stat because you don't want too much multi-attribute dependancy.

I'm happy with the increased chance of causing Perils that Pushing currently has. As it stands, it's still better than how things worked in everything from RT to OW. Sure, there's no Phenomena table but I think the Perils tables aren't too deadly.

A 'risk' should come with a 'reward' not a 'penalty'.

Exactly. There is almost no reason to Push, as it is currently more difficult and more dangerous to do so. Simply removing the focus test penalty will make Pushing more viable.

I could go with that too. Remove the penalty for pushing and make higher PR worthwhile and it will be fine.

I agree that the penalty to the FPT when pushing really discourages its use and should probably go. I think that even so GauntZero is right, pushing needs to be made worthwhile, probably through better PL scaling or something along those lines, or people still won't feel tempted.

The Psyker in my current campaign has pushed once. The same player's DH1 psyker used to push all the time. It is a risk now, but it is one that is mostly never worth it. I like the new perils tables, but I really only roll on them because of NPCs.

PCs have almost no reason to be tempted to push, the penalties are many and the rewards paltry.