The best thing is, that even if the subject succeeds on his -20 Psyniscience test, the Psyker can just use Deceive/Influence to say "I haven't used any psychic powers." and problem solved . It is not like neon signs suddenly pop up behind the psyker just because his victim succeeded on an (untrained) Psyniscience skill test.

Also ,as a side note, if the people of the Warhammer 40k universe shouted "Witchcraft!" for every weird and completely-out-of-ordinary thing they encounter then they would never fall silent. That's why they say ignorance is a bliss one should treasure.

Sadly, Imperial citizens don't possess the Psyniscience skill, so they won't even notice the Space Magic.

This is certainly not the only way for people to notice they've been influenced by witchery, as the power implies-- they may notice memory discrepancies, suffer deleterious effects, or even be tainted by the warp.

It also doesn't have to be the target noticing at all. A local witch hunter, astropath, or even astute observer could notice something out of the ordinary. And if that astute observer happens to be a Warp Entity, even more badness could happen.

There should almost certainly be more guidelines on "why you shouldn't do this all the time forever", but a GM familiar in the lore might have your victims possessed, or a monodominant witch hunter stalking you if you use it on literally everyone.

The best thing is, that even if the subject succeeds on his -20 Psyniscience test, the Psyker can just use Deceive/Influence to say "I haven't used any psychic powers." and problem solved .

Not if I get my quick draw and called shot in first. We abhor the wych for a reason!

Not if I get my quick draw and called shot in first. We abhor the wych for a reason!

Speaking of: They may wish to include a passage in the power description indicating that onlookers witnessing the perhaps ostensible 'jedi mind trick' would almost certainly grow suspicious.

Don't think this needs fixing.

So you have good social skill ?

The Psyker tattoo on your face would alert most citizens

Don't think this needs fixing.

So you have good social skill ?

The Psyker tattoo on your face would alert most citizens

By that logic though, why have the power in the first place if it's never going to work.

I'd be pretty annoyed if as a player I bought the power, rolled well only to have the GM say, "Nope, the target sees your brand, it doesn't work". (Plus you could just argue that you've just made the target love psykers (especially scary, hollow eyed tattoo'd ones)).

Or the player just has the brand on their arm and a long shirt.....

Most art of Psykers doesn't even have their brand on their face, so I'm not sure this is even worth discussing.

By that logic though, why have the power in the first place if it's never going to work.

I'd be pretty annoyed if as a player I bought the power, rolled well only to have the GM say, "Nope, the target sees your brand, it doesn't work". (Plus you could just argue that you've just made the target love psykers (especially scary, hollow eyed tattoo'd ones)).

Or the player just has the brand on their arm and a long shirt.....

Awareness that the acolyte is a psyker may confer a penalty to social skills in general, if the target hates psykers-- but to put together that he's feeling especially agreeable because the acolyte is witching him, I might require an intelligence test for.

It would probably only be a penalty to the test anyway, rather than a complete nullification, but it would likely depend on circumstances.

The main drawback to this power is probably observers :

Since the psyker isn't actually that charismatic: Observers will see him going "YOU WANT TO HELP US" and the other person agreeing in a near-drugged stupor.

Even if that doesn't trigger an "Abhor the Witch" reaction, there may be some backlash for the psyker.

By that logic though, why have the power in the first place if it's never going to work.

I'd be pretty annoyed if as a player I bought the power, rolled well only to have the GM say, "Nope, the target sees your brand, it doesn't work". (Plus you could just argue that you've just made the target love psykers (especially scary, hollow eyed tattoo'd ones)).

Or the player just has the brand on their arm and a long shirt.....

Awareness that the acolyte is a psyker may confer a penalty to social skills in general, if the target hates psykers-- but to put together that he's feeling especially agreeable because the acolyte is witching him, I might require an intelligence test for.

It would probably only be a penalty to the test anyway, rather than a complete nullification, but it would likely depend on circumstances.

The main drawback to this power is probably observers :

Since the psyker isn't actually that charismatic: Observers will see him going "YOU WANT TO HELP US" and the other person agreeing in a near-drugged stupor.

Even if that doesn't trigger an "Abhor the Witch" reaction, there may be some backlash for the psyker.

This I think highlights a lot of the problem. Apart from the mechanical power of influence, how to handle seeing the psyker doing their thing is really open to interpretation (as seen by the range of responses here).

In one game Influence could be next to useless as the GM rules that the target and others are highly likely to find out something is up, in another broken because the psyker can just use the power without any danger.

Given that influence is the first on the biomancy tree (which is odd in itself), it sounds like it should just be something simplier (like +10 to the next social challenge of the target or something).

I think it should be +5 per DoS (and -5 per DoF) on the next roll rather than replacing it completely.

That how invisible works for stealth right?

EDIT: To further explain, I personally view 'Influence' as a way of subtly changing someone's opinion of you by altering pheromones.

If I want to tell someone what to think that's a Telepathy power, not Biomancy.

Making multiple rolls for the single skill would slow down the game so I am not fun of that. However I do agree that Influance should not allow psyker to make his FEL score obsolete.

My suggestion, instead of focus WP test to activate/use this power make it focus FEL test. This way FEL is still used and Psyker still getting his PRx5 bonus from this power. WIth regular psyker FEL being most likely lower then a dedicated social character this would be balanced. Or psyker can divert his resources to high FEL score which would make a lot of sense for psyker who is into soical manipulation aspect.

Now that I think about it diversifying psyker power use from just one attribute might be a good idea and help make psyker characters being unique based on the field of their expertiese.

In one game Influence could be next to useless as the GM rules that the target and others are highly likely to find out something is up, in another broken because the psyker can just use the power without any danger

Well no, because both of those would perhaps simply be the GM treating the power poorly. The GM can make anything in the book worthless or OP if he doesn't use it well.

I'd likely run it with the lore interpretation of witchery: Useful but dangerous.

It would be an excellent power to use one on one with people not that self-aware. But try to witch someone with a crowd of observers or on a space marine? Probably won't go well.

So my recommendation to FFG would probably be to clarify that with an example-- although it's probably not a huge priority as gaming groups may tend to be able to work something reasonable out for the perhaps 'jedi mind trick'.

I'd likely run it with the lore interpretation of witchery: Useful but dangerous.

It would be an excellent power to use one on one with people not that self-aware. But try to witch someone with a crowd of observers or on a space marine? Probably won't go well.

LOL, I like you sarcasm !