Buffs/Debuffs and permanent daemon minions? (newby asking)

By Keeehla, in Black Crusade

Hey there,

i will be starting a Black Crusade campaign soon (my first one) and i was hoping to play a Psyker who specializes on buffing teammates and debuffing/cursing foes.

Unfortunately I didnt find any cool buffs except Mind Link and Inspire (again first try at BC, dunno how usefull these spells are). Is that all there is to buffs, or didnt I read carefull enough?
The debuffs I found werent what i was looking for, but i think i could make them work somehow.

Is there any way to heal damage in the battle except for medicae? Maybe some added spells in the supplements?

Or is there a way to somehow metigate damage on teammates (a psy-shield for example, if that is a thing)?

Regarding minions:

Is there a way to get a permanent daemonic minion? I understand they are unstable by nature, but is it possible to bind it onto a trinket or something like that?

Can daemonic minions only be obtained by chaos rituals with sacrifices and drawing sigils on the ground and all that stuff? Or is there a faster way? May i use the deaths on the battlefield as sacrifices?

I was thinking of simply dragging demons out of the Empyrean and hurling them at my foes (delusional i know :P ) Is it possible to use minions like that?

I hope some Psykers more powerful and wise than me are willing to share their knowledge. I may be completely on the wrong path, since i didnt understand much of the rulebook with english not being my mothers tounge...

You may want to check out some of the supplementary books. Tome of fate is your best bet. Harrier Imps (p45) can debuff enemies to some degree.The Biomancy abilities from P57 also have a touch powered poison removal and a touch healing power. You may also want to work with your GM to determine if any of the telekinetic abilities can be used defensively or to protect allies.

Meanwhile with minions, you can acquire as a talent the ability to have a greater minion (Core rulebook P 137). One such available talent is "Daemonic". How it happens and what the conditions or terms are is something for you and the GM to debate.

There are also summoning rituals in the book to allow you to summon them from the warp. They last for a few hours however in many an instance they are not likely to care who summoned them and likely want to knock seven bells out of anyone and everyone nearby, additionally even summoning one is risky. Use with caution.

You can acquire a minion with the daemonic trait - hence, a daemonic minion.

As to why (in story terms) it doesn't disappear; that's for you to figure out. Most likely it's bound to something or into something, or else it needs to fulfil the terms of its binding before you free it (" Serve and Protect Me for a Hundred Years and a Day !" or something similar).

In terms of an Ad-Hoc "I want a Daemon", then you need to do the rituals to call one up. The more accurately you follow the ritual, the easier and safer it is. You can, in theory, substitute the carnage of a major battle for the 'formal' sacrifices - it depends how good a daemonologist you are, the nature of the battle, and precisely how much death we're talking about. Knowingly throwing eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight blade wielding cultists on a suicidal charge towards the enemy lines may or may not help the battle in military terms, but is likely to cause significant wibbling in the immaterium and is the sort of thing which can trigger a major breakthrough of dozens or hundreds of daemons (temporarily).

Buffing others won't get you very far because of how the psychic power system works. Most, if not all, "buffs" need to be sustained (i.e. you maintain them) for them to function, and you can only sustain 1 power at any time without penalties (every power sustained beyond the first one decreases the PR of all powers by 1, making them less effective). While many "debuffs" (depending on what you'd classify as that, though I'd figure it's mostly stun effects) are non-sustains, there's also some that are. YMMV, in other words.

Do note when going through the powers that all powers with "Self" as target is usable on others with the "runes" path to power (in effect, you mark someone with runes in some way, and spend 6 rounds casting the spell), though it's still you who sustains it. For example, you'd be able to use the Warptime spell on your Khornate dual wielding slaughterer, giving plenty of extra DoS to WS tests. That's one of the better buffs obtainable, especially when used on multi-attackers (swift/lightning attack, full auto weapons). How happy a khornate would be having a psyker use magic on him/her is another matter entirely.

At the end of the day, it depends a little on what kind of alignment the psyker is, and what it actually wants to do. There's plenty of routes to go, especially if you're prepared to gimp yourself by doing something less than optimal as buffing/debuffing.

I get around this by using psyker Greater Minions for buffing. The XP investment into a greater minion is far less than the expenditure for extra levels of psy rating that would be necessary to sustain additional buffs, and then I can leave them behind while I go forth into battle, laden with the runes and sigils of power that sustain my righteous might...

This also means that your sniper, your slaaneshi duelist and your what-have-you can all get more-or-less permanent Warptime buffs, for a limited investment each.