If all Psykers were either useless or so risky that their powers would not be worth the risk, they would all simply be exterminated.

Psykers are risky. That's why the Imperium either kills them on the spot or brings them back to Terra for some Sanctioning action so they will be less risky and reasonably useful.

If all Psykers were either useless or so risky that their powers would not be worth the risk, they would all simply be exterminated.

Psykers are risky. That's why the Imperium either kills them on the spot or brings them back to Terra for some Sanctioning action so they will be less risky and reasonably useful.

Yes, they are risky. What they aren't is useless.

If they were less useful than a guy with a gun, the Imperium would just use said guy and said gun.

Yes, they are risky. What they aren't is useless.

To better say, they are high risk/high reward.

Anyway, the meeting of the gaming group had an abrupt ending last time (that's why my post was late and unfinished) but today we finished the preparations. The GM distributed +1100 starting xp so we buffed up our characters quite a lot. Nobody is below 30 characteristics-wise anymore and our Untouchable became quite scary. I'll share the details tomorrow when I get the character sheets from the GM.

On this note, we realized the mistake in the point-buy system: in fact it is supposed to be 10x 25 + 60 instead of 10x 20 + 60.

For adventure, the GM picked an Ordo Heresy case: a shadowy organization smuggles untrained psykers from several Imperial worlds to an unknown location, using a super-heavy freighter hulk as their base of operations. Our warband must gai naccess to the hulk and uncover the potentially catastrophic schemes. Sounds fun, the psykers will sure love our Untouchable ...

Second Run Part 2: The Touchable

First and foremost, I've got some detailed info on the new party. Here is the stats of three memebers:

Horst: Shrine World / Outcast / Warrior / Untouchable

WS 32+10 / BS 31 / S 29+5 / T 34 / Ag 30 / Int 32 / Per 31 / WP 35+5 / Fel 30 / Inf 38

Wounds 10 / Fate Points 3

Acrobatics +0, Athletics +0, Deceive +0, Dodge +0, Intimidate +0, Stealth +0

Weapon Training (Chain, SP), Iron Jaw, Resistance (Psychic Powers), Psychic Null 1, Null Field 1, Warp Disruption 1

Divination was useless. I think it was the mental disorder changing one.

Octavius: Highborn / Imperial Guard / Hierophant

WS 29 / BS 32 / S 36 / T 31 / Ag 36+5 / Int 33 / Per 32 / WP 29+5 / Fel 31+10 / Inf 31

Wounds 10 / Fate Points 4

Athletics +0, Awareness +0, Charm +0, Command +10, Common Lore (IG) 30, Deceive +0, Dodge +0, Inquiry +0, Interrogation +0, Medicae +0, Navigate +0, Operate (Surface) +0, Scrutiny +0

Weapon Training (Las, Low-Tech), Double Team

Gained the Dodge skill from Divination.

Titus: Highborn / Outcast / Sage

WS 40 / BS 30 / S 32 / T 33 / Ag 26 / Int 33+5 / Per 28 / WP 31 / Fel 38+5 / Inf 37

Awareness +0, Charm +10, Deceive +10, Dodge +0, Inquiry +10, Interrogation +10, Logic +0, Scrutiny +10, Sleight of Hand +0, Stealth +0, Tech-Use +0

Weapon training (Chain, SP), Clues from the Crowds

+3 Int/-3 WS Divination.

Note that these characters had a starting xp of 2000. It still felt a little bit too low. Though, at this point we like to blame the Aptitude system. Some of the home world/background/role combinations can produce quite crazy Aptitude pools. For example, we still can't make a character who has a number of cheap characteristics at least equal to the number of his expensive characteristics. The best we could have is X cheap characteristics, X+1 expensive characteristics and the rest is moderately costed. An eight (freely chosen if possible) Aptitude would help a lot.

Secondly, we also had some time to start the adventure and test our Untouchable. He was pitted against a rogue psyker and his bodyguard. The psyker used the profile of the Warp-Caller and the bodyguard was a Heavy. Gamma (the AAT Desperado) helped him in the fight with her hot-shot lasgun. Sadly, it turned out that being an Untouchable is not automatically an advantage against psykers because every point of xp spent on those shiny Talents is a point you could have spent to boost your direct combat potential. And the later can be used against stuff like non-psykers too. So Horst was beaten by the bodyguard (badly) but at least he tanked the psychic powers so Gamma could take out both of their enemies.

I mentioned this in the Untouchable topic too but I'll say it again: the issue with the Untouchable advancement is not its power level but rather the unreliable and fragile nature of its human platform. Unlike psykers, Untouchables can't gain supernatural defense against physical harm so if they began to take Untouchable talents then they will start with a handicap in every situation other than an encounter with a psykers-only opponent. If humans were better the Untouchable would be a much better choice as the handicap would make less impact on the character's overall power level. We can imagine two solutions to this problem:

- A note that an Untouchable should be a base-characteristics-25 character.

- Lower the cost of the Untouchable talents significantly, so the handicap won't be that noticeable.

In our opinion, the current Untouchable advancement is a fluff option that is only good for very specific adventures and a similarly specialized party. Otherwise, it is a dead weight.

Another problem is that the Untouchable has no role that would fit in a reasonable way. Combat roles are always in a serious need of xp, social roles are naturally out, investigative roles are also bad for the same reason, support roles are xp dependent too... The Untouchable simply can't really make himself useful for the party other than being an Untouchable. And even then, a few stars should align for the big opportunity to do something really worthwhile.

So as it now stands the Untouchable is a 4/10 for us. Not complete trash, just "mostly useless". The abilities are nice and cool (the problem is not with the effects of the Talents) but everything else is "bleh".

That's all. Next time (probably Sunday or Monday) we will go on to the Armory section, and, like, use everything that is there.