This is probably more of a fluff than a hard rule question, but are Astropaths and Sanctioned Psykers supposed to keep their powers hidden from regular public and use them as scarcely as possible? Is there somewhere along their training/sanctioning the reinforced rule of not manifesting powers around ordinary folk?

As an Astropath, pretty much all I got going for me (at least at lower levels) is trying to Compel enemies or Deprive them of their senses for better crowd control. Since I start with Telepathy, I don't have any buffs or other "support" techniques. My Stub Auto is good in a pinch but can't reach Lasgun enemies and I have no melee skills whatsoever. Considering an encounter takes more than 3 rounds:

- Would it be acceptable for the psyker to try his best in the fight and use one useful action (aka: power) per Round? Is that perfectly normal for an Astropath trying to serve his Rogue Trader in the best way he can, or is it considered abusive from a psyker training point of view?

- Should the presence of "innocent" imperial citizens make a difference in power use in the case of an already started fight?

- Would using Fettered versus Unfettered/Pushed make any difference on any of the above? If yes, how can the Astropath determine when a situation is dire enough that a Pushed Power is needed, regardless of the bystanders?

- Would such frequency of using powers (i.e: one per round for 3-4-5 rounds) demand periodic auto-corruption tests (representing the Psyker is becoming power-maddened)? Or maybe it's nothing out of the ordinary for a hardened Astropath (we often have tons of years of practice before joining a Rogue Trader crew)?

I'm sincerely just trying to be useful to my RT, but I also don't want to be power-playing the character, so any opinions or suggestions on these would be greatly appreciated.

Games Workshop portrays Astropaths as walking mobile phones. But I've always felt that that was wrong. They are psykers with strong Telepathic powers at least. Telekinesis and Divination seem appropriate too.

Try to keep true to an Astropath's purpose: that of telepathic communicator. But give him/her a few tricks for when they need to fight.

To the average person, Sanctioned Psykers don't exist and witches need to be killed for your own safety. Astropaths are portrayed as walking mobile phones, but I think most people who know about Astropaths probably think of them as walking mobile phones: they do something involving long-distance communication, and that's necessary for the Imperium so long as they stay away then they can exist I guess.

The Astropath in my campaign and I did have this problem at the beginning, and ultimately I went against his interpretation and feel that they would not be accepted or viewed as a "safe" alternative to Psychic powers, because the average citizen doesn't recognise the difference between Psykers. Other Rogue Traders and higher personnel probably would understand the difference, but they would be suspicious of Astropaths because one in the employ of a Rogue Trader would probably be viewed with a lot of suspicion, because of the implication that they're being brought along to read people's minds to steal their secrets - which my Astropath tries to do a lot.

Anyway Roy is right, this is a character who viewed the God-Emperor personally (maybe kinda?) and has been conditioned to fight off daemonic influence. They're also people who might temporarily rip open a portal to the Warp, and summon daemons that will swallow everyone's soul. I don't know if there's any actual training or outright rule against it, but I came down on the side of all Warhammer fluff being "Don't be a Psychic around other people unless there's no choice".

Erathia makes a good point.

I can imagine Astropaths being used in negotiations. Reading the minds of those nearby and perhaps telepathically informing his employer of truth, lies, motivations etc etc etc. Then there's the: " we're not the one's you're looking for " tricks.

Using telepathy to detect threats to the ship by searching space for any minds is another good trick. Goes something like this:

I get where you're coming from. But now imagine Deanna turning into a fearful demonic figure for a few seconds, because she had to Push her power in order to get to the enemy ship. See my conundrum? In the same manner, an Astropath would be useless during Negotiations if he couldn't use his powers continuously (having to test on Fettered only would probably turn a <50 chance of success (Mind Probe without the target's knowledge is at -20), so several tests would be necessary for just one person). And we're getting back to my question: are continuous uses of his powers (even at Fettered testing) considered dangerous or even forbidden? How could he be useful without them?

As a side note, I can't fully relate to the 'regular' Astropaths in the Imperium's lore. Having episodic interventions as a glorified comm-device sounds like the perfect job for an NPC and less like a daring member of a Rogue Trader's retinue. It makes me wonder what's the point for a PC Astropath.

I get where you're coming from. But now imagine Deanna turning into a fearful demonic figure for a few seconds, because she had to Push her power in order to get to the enemy ship. See my conundrum? In the same manner, an Astropath would be useless during Negotiations if he couldn't use his powers continuously (having to test on Fettered only would probably turn a <50 chance of success (Mind Probe without the target's knowledge is at -20), so several tests would be necessary for just one person). And we're getting back to my question: are continuous uses of his powers (even at Fettered testing) considered dangerous or even forbidden? How could he be useful without them?

As a side note, I can't fully relate to the 'regular' Astropaths in the Imperium's lore. Having episodic interventions as a glorified comm-device sounds like the perfect job for an NPC and less like a daring member of a Rogue Trader's retinue. It makes me wonder what's the point for a PC Astropath.

Never ask me to use my imagination. I'm evil.

I think Rogue Trader Astropaths are meant to be a little more unorthodox than the regular "mobile phones" of the Imperium. Hence why the characters have plenty of psychic power options. It's been a long time since I've taken my Rogue Trader books off the shelf but I seem to remember that Astropaths had lots to offer. Into the Storm even had rules for an Astropath Transcendent who had some useful anti-daemon abilities. Their time before the Golden Throne having had a very spiritual effect on them.

Personally, I planned on having four Astropaths. All have their interstellar communication Telepathic powers, but then each one has their own extra powers from Divination, Telekinesis and Transcendent, with one going for as much Telepathy as possible.

But that's just me.

I get where you're coming from. But now imagine Deanna turning into a fearful demonic figure for a few seconds, because she had to Push her power in order to get to the enemy ship. See my conundrum? In the same manner, an Astropath would be useless during Negotiations if he couldn't use his powers continuously (having to test on Fettered only would probably turn a <50 chance of success (Mind Probe without the target's knowledge is at -20), so several tests would be necessary for just one person). And we're getting back to my question: are continuous uses of his powers (even at Fettered testing) considered dangerous or even forbidden? How could he be useful without them?

As a side note, I can't fully relate to the 'regular' Astropaths in the Imperium's lore. Having episodic interventions as a glorified comm-device sounds like the perfect job for an NPC and less like a daring member of a Rogue Trader's retinue. It makes me wonder what's the point for a PC Astropath.

Fettering Astropaths are safe, and not a danger to people around them - barring Xenos or other conditions that make Fettering impossible. However I don't think the average person's perception of an Astropath should be of a "safe" Psyker because they fear and hate witches. Really experienced Rogue Traders, Governors and other high-level personal would know that Astropaths actually can control their powers, but would also hate them because of the paranoia regarding mind reading. However the only way to ensure that you're not having your mind read constantly is to have a Psyker around, which means you'll need... an Astropath.

An Astropath can pull off some nasty tricks in ship combat (my Astropath demands a 100-square-foot section of ship emptied and sealed off during ship combat so he can push without restriction), and their job as written is basically to be the person who "knows" what's going on with the Warp. It's a bit of a problem with the class because at the beginning it's not very powerful because up until this point they should have been focused on sending messages. Once you acquire a new Psychic Discipline and some new powers - Telekinesis being the obvious option - you can become a beast in combat.

You can also just be a weird, creepy seer who seems to know what's going on, or a deeply spiritual person or someone who leverage their meeting with the God-Emperor into social advanacement. Look at the alternate ranks proposed in Into The Storm or Navis Primer, as they can really flesh out an Astropath.

Also remember, if you get a pair of bionic eyes people and stop dressing like an Astropath, people might not be aware that you're an Astropath. I don't know if the bionic eyes would work for you (I would rule they wouldn't), but a good pair of weird scanny eyes and you could convince people you're a Seneschal who's just always one step ahead.

I've been playing RT for the past couple of months, and this is how I've played (and seen it played):

- From what I've read most psychic powers doesn't obviously emanate from the psyker (with some exceptions). Hence the use of the Psyniscience skill. You could use Delude and Dominate for instance and on-lookers will have no idea it's you. You don't have to wave your arms about, or put your hand to your head, or do anything else that would indicate you're using a power.

- That can sometimes make it hard to figure out who is using a power, since Psyniscience is by default a Full action. Makes it slightly more difficult to find out who the renegade psyker in your command crew is (which took my character a little while to do).

- I play a fairly "puritan" psyker, so my character has *always* used his powers at Fettered strength.

- My character also uses powers almost every turn in combat, typically something like "Sensory Deprivation", "Dominate", "Know Thy Place", "Chorus of the Righteous" (which my fellow command crew love), etc...

- There's never been a suggestion that I should gain auto-corruption points for using psychic powers every turn.

- My character did acquire (just recently) Best-Quality Bionic Eyes. They don't do anything for him, but they look like the real thing except under close scrutiny. Makes it easier for him to fit into polite society better.

The auto-gain of Corruption is something I've toyed around with, because my Astropath took the Hexicar Alternate Rank at career start, and then immediately formulated a plan to just have expendable redshirts follow him everywhere so that he could sacrifice them to Perils of the Warp instead of suffering them himself. Also using your Psychic Powers to just Coerce random people into doing what you want instead of using diplomacy is something that's allowed under the rules, but is not something that's a very reasonable thing to do.

The guidelines in the book do allow the GM to assign corruption if someone constitutes a moral threat to reality. I just told my Astropath that playing with the Warp like this was going to invoke Corruption points for being a liberal warp user, even if he was doing everything at Fettered.

The guidelines in the book do allow the GM to assign corruption if someone constitutes a moral threat to reality. I just told my Astropath that playing with the Warp like this was going to invoke Corruption points for being a liberal warp user, even if he was doing everything at Fettered.

I feel like this is a mindset that is ripe for fiat abuse. Do you also want to punish the Arch-Militant for buying a storm bolter?

Well as far as Imperial Worlds the Astropath is never going to be socially accepted outside of his mandated role, and even still nearly everyone is likely tom look down on him or be fearful of him. HOWEVER this guy is a SANCTIONED psyker and he has actually seen the godamn Emperor first hand. So there's gonna be some reverance there.

So really it's a similar situation to the Navigator at the end of the day, you're dealing with a rare necessary and respected/feared outsider. So people aren't going to treat him like he's some sort of toilet cleaning minimum wage lowlife but they're not going to want him sitting next to them in the bar or ******* their daughter either even though he's probably sterile from the binding anyway.

So anyway as for keeping their powers hidden, no not typically on an Imperial world. It'd be too hard anyway, you're talking about someone with mealy white skin, melted eyeballs and a big black robe that announces his role in life.

What Amazing Larry said.

Also don't forget we're talking about Astropath Transcendent here.

Its description on p. 48 mainbook clearly states it's not just some random psyker who get this job with help of his uncle.

From all psykers who survive voyage to Terra, from all who survive tête-à-tête with big E, some are chosen to became Astropaths. And from this quite elite group some are considered to be strong and clever enough to not just play their part in astropathic choir #131233 but sing solo or as a choir-leaders, and from those very few guys, selected bunch is good enough to serve on board of RT vessel. That's you rank 1 character.

I say big no to auto-corruption because of every round powers usage. As to social status they are branded as members of Adeptus (Astra Telepathica), so imo avarange Joe The Citizen would admitedly fear and/or hate, but obey them.

Also take note they got peer and good relations with IG and Navy - that suppose to mean something.

The guidelines in the book do allow the GM to assign corruption if someone constitutes a moral threat to reality. I just told my Astropath that playing with the Warp like this was going to invoke Corruption points for being a liberal warp user, even if he was doing everything at Fettered.

I missed the page reference for this.

I feel like this is a mindset that is ripe for fiat abuse. Do you also want to punish the Arch-Militant for buying a storm bolter?

And yes I do....... With more minions to shoot at Or is that a reward?