One of the possible drawbacks to becoming Soul-bound is the permanent loss of sight. Can this be reversed by installing bionic eyes? If not, what are some ways to gain Unnatural Senses or other means to locate enemies without eyesight?

I don't believe this is something intended for PCs.

Astropaths are blind but have some kind of mystic eyesight so it doesn't actually affect them.

I don't believe this is something intended for PCs.

Astropaths are blind but have some kind of mystic eyesight so it doesn't actually affect them.

Yeah, it's not a standard option for player characters. I was thinking more about possible applications for NPCs.

Do you have some idea of how exactly an astropath's mystic eyesight works? What is the range of their senses?

The Astropath Transcendent has really good hearing...

RT rulebook also goes on to say that their 'abilities more than make up for this deficiency etc.', but doesn't get into specifics.

What about Sense Presence?

RT 72

See Without Eyes: An Astropath Transcendent is blind yet at the same time has a strange ability to perceive without using his physical senses. An Astropath Transcendent is functionally treated as if he can see normally (including seeing colours and being limited by walls, etc.). However, Astropaths Transcendent are not affected by effects that target their vision, such as blind grenades and cameleoline. They are, however, completely incapable of seeing Untouchables (see page 156).

.

I don't believe this is something intended for PCs.

Astropaths are blind but have some kind of mystic eyesight so it doesn't actually affect them.

Yeah, it's not a standard option for player characters. I was thinking more about possible applications for NPCs.

Do you have some idea of how exactly an astropath's mystic eyesight works? What is the range of their senses?

Rogue Trader states that they can see normally, but are not affected by things that affect sight such as blind grenades (and darkness?) and cannot see Untouchables at all.

Psychic Sight. That's the reason they cannot see Untouchables or similar kinds of things. This might also cause problems when faced with anti-psyker weaponry and gear.

Bionic eyes, eh? Well, this might be possible, but not I am certain. You see, said Astropaths gain this trait because of the Soul Binding Ritual, that literally binds them to the Emperor, protecting them from the warp, but also causing various side-effects, such as death, insanity, lost eyesight, and even smell, hearing or touch senses due to nerve damage. Nerves seems to literally burn out from the experience. So the question is the severity of this damage, which is for you to decide, since the moment is not clear. But take a note that the Sanctioned Psykers in DH might as well lose their eyes during the sanctioning and get them replaced with cybernetics.

Astropaths did not care too much, because of their gift.

Your psyker on the other hand might be troubled. From my point of view, such Psychic Sight trait must be developed and will take years to be perfected to astropaths level. While they do have their time in the training grounds, preparing and educating, your psyker might not.

Still, if you are so inclined to... Apart from Soul Bounding, the said entity(most likely Daemon or even one of the Four), that the psyker is connecting with, might grant him further abilities and traits, one of which might be Unnatural Senses. And, of course, this will further indebt the psyker.

And by the way, this might as well be an option for a player characters. With a certain price...

I don't think it's appropriate for the DH play level, unless you're higher ranks and someone asks to be an Inquisitor's Astropath.

I don't think it's appropriate for the DH play level, unless you're higher ranks and someone asks to be an Inquisitor's Astropath.

Agreed. At around 5k XPs though, I might let someone use the RT rules to create an Astropath.

I don't think it's appropriate for the DH play level, unless you're higher ranks and someone asks to be an Inquisitor's Astropath.

Why wouldn't it be? It's a terrible idea to pull a Rogue Trader Astropath Transcendent into Dark Heresy, but an Astropath in itself isn't overpowered for a DH play level.

Fresh Astropaths are even less powerful than Sanctioned Psykers in raw power, and the Soul-Binding process is a grueling, punishing process. If someone wants to play an Astropath, I say let them.

Because soul-binding gives a lot of benefits with marginal drawbacks.

Because soul-binding gives a lot of benefits with marginal drawbacks.

Are we talking about the Soul Binding trait on page 332 of DH core? If I recall all it does is let you rroll an additional dice for perils of the warp and choose the more favorable result. Doesn't quite seem good enough to be a higher tier ability.

on the topic of wytch sight, I was under the impression this ability wasn't just within the domain of the Astrotelepaths but most psykers in general (especially those with training from the Adeptus Astra Telepathica (who also provide the sanctioned psykers for the Imperial Gurad).

One thing I've always thought was Psyniscience, in a way, is a psykers raw, unfocused 'Wytch Sight'. This ability gets more refined after physically being blinded by the Imperial Soul Binding techniques (or alternatives).

Are we talking about the Soul Binding trait on page 332 of DH core? If I recall all it does is let you rroll an additional dice for perils of the warp and choose the more favorable result. Doesn't quite seem good enough to be a higher tier ability.

That's... a huge benefit! It's the only way in the game to modify a Perils result.

If sticking strictly to core, sure it's a cool boon Bogi.

But if you play with the extended rules from Ascension, any of the following lines, etc, psykers can just fetter their powers and never risk triggering Perils at all.

It's really not that snazzy as it used to be.

Whoa whoa whoa, the psychic powers from other lines are hugely unbalancing in DH*; the systems are incompatible (which is one reason Ascension is so disliked).

They're really different games.

*mainly because of minor psychic powers and the vastly larger number of powers.