I am starting my first ever DH PC and chose Void Born Imperial Psyker.

With a WP 50, I am able to start with 3 minor psychic powers. As of right now I took Lucky, Unnatural Aim, and Inspiring Aura. My thinking here is that my character enjoys using his auto pistol so Unnatural Aim could come in handy.

Lucky, I really just picked for no good reason.

And Inspiring Aura I thought would be good to help boost up the team when the **** hits the fan.

My question is, in your experience what minor powers have come in handy time and again and what are a complete waste of time/"Oh God why did you pick that? It is Warp bait, stupid!"

Thanks!

Personally, I've found Inflict Pain and Precognition to be incredibly useful.

Inflict Pain I've found tons of fun uses for, including torture, distractions, the "standard" combative uses for it, and in one memorable occasion, snapping another Acolyte free of a Witch's mind control, breaking her spell through pain.

Precognition I've also found extremely helpful, given a Psyker's normally low Agility and Weapon Skill. It's an excellent fallback power, for when you're not sure what else can help.

I switched out Lucky with precognition. Both seem close to the same thing, but I think precognition could be a little more useful from an RP perspective - especially if this game lasts a while and my character can build off of that.

I still like being the ace in the hole with Inspiring Aura for the team.

How the hell did you get to start with WP50? That's a set-up for a monster munchkin, and Psykers are already super powerful. I'd advice both you and your GM to reconsider this. Some powers scale their effects with WPB, and you could potentially reach 70 during your career. Psychic Blade would then do a whooping 1d10+14 damage, with 14 Pen. That's... obscene.

But as to your question, there are a lot of useful minor powers in other books. And the Errata changes a few quite a bit (Distort Vision, etc).

Wall Walk, Float and Space Slip let you go where others can. Healer is always useful. Suggestion is great (think Jedi Mind Trick), Chameleon and Distort Vision will let you survive battles, and Sense Presence is a fantastic "life sign scanner". You also want Resist Possession at some point

How the hell did you get to start with WP50? That's a set-up for a monster munchkin, and Psykers are already super powerful. I'd advice both you and your GM to reconsider this. Some powers scale their effects with WPB, and you could potentially reach 70 during your career. Psychic Blade would then do a whooping 1d10+14 damage, with 14 Pen. That's... obscene.

I rolled well and then I bought the 100xp simple WP advance as well as a background package that boosted all characteristic scores +3 as well as being Void Born like I mentioned. Not really a stretch of the imagination - just how things went down. Obscenity will be had.

I have been warned by my GM to the contrary that while Psykers are super powerful later on, at low levels they are basically **** that more or less gets the entire team killed. Since it is a PbP, I am not looking to be super powerful for some time.

Input is noted.

Well, the 100xp advance you buy with your starting XP isn't going to retroactively increase the number of powers you get with your initial Psy Rating talent. Remember, the Psy-rating and starting powers is something you start with (and resolve/choose) BEFORE you start spending XP on advances. So your starting WP will be 45, which is still impressive, but not quite as obscene as I was led to believe

A starting psyker isn't very powerful, but he can be incredibly useful! Until you get Favoured by the Warp I'd be careful in spamming your powers, as the odds aren't in your favour (1 in 10 power-uses will lead to phenomena, 25% of those will be Perils which are usually bad and grant you 1 Corruption at minimum). Therefore, the powers that can be sustained are good for maximum usefulness-to-risk ratio

Remember, the Psy-rating and starting powers is something you start with (and resolve/choose) BEFORE you start spending XP on advances.

I don't know that I agree with that as the book explicitly states that the starting XP is representative of what you have been through BEFORE the game ever starts. Therefore whatever you spend it on would reflect past experiences (including characteristic increases) that occurred before the first dialogue of the game ever takes place.

But again, agree to disagree I suppose. I appreciate the input.

The sequence of things still apply: Stage 3 of character creation is choosing your path. At this point you write down the starting skills and talents and choose any options at that time. This includes choosing your starting powers.

Then you proceed to Stage 4, when you spend Starting XP.

I cannot see that the book explicitly states what you claim, only that " All characters begin play with 400 xp which they may use to increase Characteristics, acquire or improve Skills, acquire new Talents, and so on. " The book says nothing of special rules about this.

In fact, there have been explicit clarifications on very similar issues in Rogue Trader where your starting wounds are determined by your starting Toughness, and the ruling was explicit that raising your Toughness with starting XP did NOT retroactively increase your starting wounds.

Consider also that as per the "It's a Hard Life" sidebar on p 29, you can start the game with more XP at the GM's option, for a more advanced start. I've played in games where we start with 3000XP. By your logic, I could increase my "starting" WP by 20 with this XP and have this new value of 60+ apply to Psy Rating 1.

But if you really want to min/max your already pretty impressive starting point, consider the Darkholder / Living Nightmare combination. Sure, you will be a twisted, evil and partly insane half-witch, but you'll have some very impressive stats

And on a not really related topic, but still as advice for things to discuss with your GM, I advice you to change the Errata for Corpus Conversion. As written in the book, it is too powerful. But as written in the Errata it is entirely useless.

For my games, we use several house rules, and we handle CC as follows:

The Errata for this talent (Errata, p7) is replaced by the following addition:

“Corpus Conversion can be used after the powerroll is made. The damage taken to fuel your powers this way cannot be treated with psychic or ordinary healing, nor will cybernetics or other infusions speed the slow and natural healing of these wounds.”

This, and all my other house rules, can be seen in the document linked to in my sig.

Pg. 13 Under the Sub-heading "Stage Four": "All players begin play with an amount of Experience Points (xp) to reflect their lives PRIOR to serving an Inquisitor. You may spend your starting experience to purchase etc. etc."

This was a really simple question posed for the purposes of my character and was never meant to be a forum for people to circle jerk over rules interpretations. We disagree on this. I promise we will both get through it. Lol.

There are plenty ambiguity in the DH rules, and many easy to make mistakes that new players are prone to make. You say your making your first ever DH PC, and ask for assistance. Pointing out errors you've made is hardly stroking my rules-ego.

The text is correct, you spend the XP before you start serving in the Inquisition, but even that life happens sequentially and not all at once. If you really want to break the rules for your pleasure, that is fine (well, as long as your GM agrees). It's your game, and it's all good. We change plenty of rules ourselves, as we've come to see many limitations in the ruleset over the years of play.

This is not a personal attack, nor an ego trip. Take these clarifications and suggestions as helpful input, or ignore it, as you please.

How the hell did you get to start with WP50? That's a set-up for a monster munchkin, and Psykers are already super powerful. I'd advice both you and your GM to reconsider this.

No, that's Willpower 60.

How could you possibly start with WP 60? I am genuinely intrigued

Let's see - it's been a while since I tried this, so I might be wrong but..

Max roll, your choice of home world (Void Born, Mind Cleansed or what have you) get's us to 45.

Living Nightmare (IH, p. 35) adds +5, as does 100 XPs. (total 400 XPs spent)

This puts us at 55.

Hypno-doctrination from Sanctioning (Core, p. 26) adds +3 and so does "In the darkness, follow the light of Terra" Divination, Core, p. 34.

Total WP: 61

QED

EDIT: Editted for spelling.

I asked a very specific question. I felt that your responses strayed from the topic. While I do appreciate help, I made it clear that I did not agree with your interpretation of that rule. And that is OK.

Like your said yourself, " There are plenty ambiguity in the DH rules..."

And while I may be new to DH, I am not new to RPGs or the 40k universe and lore. I need to actually start playing the game before I know what is broken or not. Now, people can tell me what is and what isn't all day long, but until I experience that myself, I won't know for sure.

So, yes, I do really appreciate people responding to the question originally posed. I would not like to stray from that just yet, though. I need to make some mistakes before I can learn from them.

If you really want to break the rules for your pleasure, that is fine (well, as long as your GM agrees). It's your game, and it's all good.

This just feels childish at this point. But alas, I am one for rhetoric and argumentation. I am playing the rules by my interpretation of them as is my GM who has a lot of background and experience in DH. I am in no way trying to "break the rules" to benefit myself. I am following them as closely to I can interpret as correct. I understand you feel that YOUR way of playing is the "correct" interpretation of the game. Cool, bro. I don't. Leave it be.

This is not a personal attack, nor an ego trip. Take these clarifications and suggestions as helpful input, or ignore it, as you please.

Excellent advice. Really, really excellent.

Let's - it's been a while since I tired this, so I might be wrong but..

Max roll, your choice of home world (Void Born, Mind Cleansed or what have you) get's us to 45.

Living Nightmare (IH, p. 35) adds +5, as does 100 XPs. (total 400 XPs spent)

This puts us at 55.

Hypno-doctrination from Sanctioning (Core, p. 26) adds +3 and so does "In the darkness, follow the light of Terra" Divination, Core, p. 34.

Total WP: 61

QED

What minor powers would you recommend or advise against having for early levels? basically, what have you had success with?

Speaking of good psyker minor powers, the best one by far.....is Weapon Jinx. Since the erratta it doesn't just mass "reboot/shutdown" tech nearby (which was OP/inconvienient), but what it does do is FAR better.

Jamming weapons

It takes a full action BS test to clear the jam.

With a BS of 30-35, they have that much in % chance of getting their weapon unjammed.

Essentially taking an enemy out of the fight for a while (somewhat mitigated if they have a sidearm or nades, but you still reduced their damage and on the second, I'll get to that).

Now, where it really shines is grenades. Because when a grenade jams, it has a chance to explode, become inert or work as normal. With one power you can almost work as if you were throwing nades at enemies all around you.

You can jam their heavy weapons!

With this power, a Psyker PC of mine defused an attack on our "base" by a hive gang. We still got hit, damaged and hurt. But we survived and took them all out with that power.

That sounds freaking amazing.

This just feels childish at this point. But alas, I am one for rhetoric and argumentation.

As am I

The only important thing is to have fun, and make sure all around the table are on the same page.

As for minor powers, there are additional ones in some of the supplement books. I mentioned some from the Disciples of the Dark Gods in my first post here, and there are more in The Radicals Handbook. The ones in RH are mostly for covert operations, but you might find Haywire useful in any case, as it lets you "stun" electronic devices of all kinds.

Cymbels suggestion of Weapon Jinx is great, and I'd never considered using it on grenades. Very creative! Just make sure the tech-priest isn't looking while you use it

Let's - it's been a while since I tired this, so I might be wrong but..

Max roll, your choice of home world (Void Born, Mind Cleansed or what have you) get's us to 45.

Living Nightmare (IH, p. 35) adds +5, as does 100 XPs. (total 400 XPs spent)

This puts us at 55.

Hypno-doctrination from Sanctioning (Core, p. 26) adds +3 and so does "In the darkness, follow the light of Terra" Divination, Core, p. 34.

Total WP: 61

QED

laugh, if u add in a Darkholder you could get it too 66, as that as +5 to WP too

Another neat thing about the power is it fits the buff/de-buff control casting of a magic user in D&D/Pathfinder, where they work to supplement and enhance the party. Instead of the pure "Blaster" who just hurls crowd killing magic and takes all the glory.

(Though with the nades it does do a bit "blasting" :B as it were, but still better to have possibly inert nades landing on you then 100% functional).

Ideally a psyker shouldn't make the other players feel useless, but instead multiply their efforts. From memory though, here are some more great helpful minor powers.

[Core]

Weapon Jinx: See above (also, forgot about plasma weapons)

Spasm: Not as good as jinx, but weapon jinx needs ranged weapons

Resist Possession: Reaction, may never need it, but beats using your psykana knife to kill your PC

Spectral Hands: Not fine tuned, but useful, can cause a distraction

Healer: After a botched or minimal first aid test, it can bring them up further. Some GMs allow it to be used before First Aid to bring them into a higher healing bracket.

There are other useful (and fun) powers, but these are pretty useful for any build.

[Radical's Handbook]

Truth Seeker: The target has to pass a +0 WP test or be unable to lie (overbleed increases the penalty), though they can shut up

Familiar Bond: Have an animal act as a psy focus for you. It acts of its own accord on your turn. It dying is traumatic (temp debuff). This is more a fluff power, but I have seen great RP moments with it.

Haywire: A limited version of stunning a machine (or possibly a servitor or techie, though they can test to resist) for one round, situational, but allows creative uses.

Trusting Aura: +10 (or +20 with overbleed) to interaction tests, best if the team doesn't have a social aspect/a high fel for you.

There are other fun ones (like twitch), but none I can reccomend early on

[Radical's Handbook]

Suggestion: Limited but useful, does what it says on the tin

The other stuff seems OP/crazy for minor powers

[Final Thoughts]

Another thing is, pick minor powers that fit your discipline. Biomancy psykers grab every minor healing and recovery power (Such as Healer, Dull Pain, Staunch Bleeding), this helps show a progression towards your discipline. And it works with pretty much all of them (Pyromancy is a bit harder, but Endure Flames and the Torch powers work).

Most of all, have fun, work to boost the team and RP out the knowledge that they most likely won't live to reach an old age, but will instead die earlier. I have seen some psykers get a bit materalistic, enjoying finer clothing and food, trying to live each day as best they can because they may die tomorrow.

Psychic Blade would then do a whooping 1d10+14 damage, with 14 Pen. That's... obscene.

Small note: that's chump change compared to Force Barrage.

What minor powers would you recommend or advise against having for early levels? basically, what have you had success with?

Weapon Jam is awesome, as mentioned.

Beyond that, it depends a lot on your (group's) play style.

Resist Possession and Sense Presence have both save lives.

I've seen Spasm abused horribly (by an NPC).

Stay away from Weaken Veil though, unless you're a crazy cultist

laugh, if u add in a Darkholder you could get it too 66, as that as +5 to WP too

Why yes, you're abolutely right!

Now, back when Iast did that calculation was back before Radical's Handbook came out, which should give you an indication why I mentioned it having been a while.

But that means you can get +10 purely from homeworld, meaning that starting out with 50 is... just a single good roll.

Now, who can find me the last +4 to start out at WP 70?

What minor powers would you recommend or advise against having for early levels? basically, what have you had success with?

Stay away from Weaken Veil though, unless you're a crazy cultist

Yeah. I read that and I was like... "..why in the balls.."

I nixed Unnatural Aim and went with Weapon Jinx.

Time to jinx some grenades.