Dark Heresy problems

Hey guys, I just started a Dark Heresy campaign today, and I have a little problem. It's the psyker. He's really good, without even needing to powergame.

The big problem is that he has a vast assortment of psychic abilities (about five), while everyone else's contributions are pretty much just sit back and shoot every round. He just has a lot more options, and most of the time his psychic abilities are better than what other, less versatile, characters can do.

Now, not being one to nerf one player's fun to make the others happy, is there any way to add a bit more variety into the non-psyker classes, such as the cleric or assassin? Any houserules anyone's come up with, or fixes they've seen?

All help would be appreciated.

Has your psyker been lucky on his psychic phenomena rolls? My experience of psykers is they cause a lot of perils of the warp in play.

One interpretation of the rules my group uses that may help you is a psyker must use at least one dice on a power roll.

Now our psykers tend to use powers less liberally.

He's lost Threshold a few times, but he's never rolled a 9 on a test. But still, it's more like the other classes feel they don't really have much variety in what actions they can take.

Have you read the rules on elite advances (p229)? It lets characters take skills/talents outside of career paths.
Also have you posted on the Dark reign forums you'll probably find more help their.

Ah, thank you.

Your Psyker's going to meet an abrupt and possibly bloody end.

In my experiences, Psyker powers are really only supposed to be last resort things, as opposed to "OH LOOK A PROBLEM I WILL MIND BULLETS IT!"

hehe i have found psykers new to the game often get over confident with the feeling of power and generaly only learn ther leason the first time things go very wrong and it ends up in a very messy death.

A trusty shot gun may not be as flashy as a fire ball from thin air but if things go to hell the worst you can expect from her is a brusied sholder and maybe at worst a little shrapnel damage if the thing some how manages to blow up or backfire!!

Even the most basic of psyker powers can end up in your head explodeing.

AS KKL said most of your old and experianced psykers are the ones who used there power's only when they absolutly had to.

It all depends on your campaign style. If it's a combat-heavy campaign with a lot of hack & slash; You're probably right. It has the same flaw as D&D, 'mundane' characters basically, draw their weapon and shoot/charge. While the psykers have the most options. Same with wizards.

Even if he never rolls a nine on his Warp tests. Land some RP on him. If his solution to ever problem is to 'Mind Bullet' it, that has problems; The GRIMDARK doesn't like pyskers. Make the next encounter an Assassin sent to specifically kill that character. Throw some Nulls (people who psychic powers don't affect...Should also have a constant Terrify effect that only works on psykers) at the group.

Throw some of your own psykers at the group. The GM can do whatever the players can do. Except better, because the GM can gear to specifically disable anything that the players have.

Why are your action scenes so static and dull that shooting is the only viable action? Why aren't the PCs finding interesting ways to use their surroundings to gain a tactical advantage? In a lethal game, every fight should be so well-thought-out that it's actually interesting.

I started a game recently and i have a psycher in my group as well. So far i don't see him casting a shadow on anyone but i see how it could get out of hand. The player in my game has been pretty reserved in using his psychic abilities though so far. Mainly because he rolled a detect psychic power thing in an Imperial Guard camp and rolled a 9. His backlash manifested as a banshee scream that deafened almost everyone within a mile. So everyone at the camp has been utterly terrified of him since.

As said above try to use some story or RP elements to reign it in on your player. Of course you don't want him to feel like you are picking on him either but i'm sure you can find a balance.:smallsmile:

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Originally Posted by KKL

Your Psyker's going to meet an abrupt and possibly bloody end.

In my experiences, Psyker powers are really only supposed to be last resort things, as opposed to "OH LOOK A PROBLEM I WILL MIND BULLETS IT!"

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Mind if I quote that last line in my sig?


Back to the main issue: throw in a situation where using psychic powers is the exact WRONG thing to do. Have a daemon nearby that notices him, superstitious townspeople, a hostile inquisitor, or some nulls. Nulls are always fun.

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Originally Posted by infinitypanda

Hey guys, I just started a Dark Heresy campaign today, and I have a little problem. It's the psyker. He's really good, without even needing to powergame.

The big problem is that he has a vast assortment of psychic abilities (about five), while everyone else's contributions are pretty much just sit back and shoot every round. He just has a lot more options, and most of the time his psychic abilities are better than what other, less versatile, characters can do.

Now, not being one to nerf one player's fun to make the others happy, is there any way to add a bit more variety into the non-psyker classes, such as the cleric or assassin? Any houserules anyone's come up with, or fixes they've seen?

All help would be appreciated.

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He should be losing his mind and getting backfire adn stuff. Check to make sure he's rolling phenomenon rolls.

If he is a low level psyker, he shouldn't have access to the Discipline psychic powers until he has access to Psy Rating 3. And if i remember, the Minor psychic powers are rather minor. As for your other members, why can't they get into hand to hand, why don't they have some grenades, why aren't they using suppresive fire to make the enemy suck at shooting back? If your party is high enough level to have a psyker with Discipline powers, some of them should probably have flamers, or chainswords.

Another fun solution my group has run across is that areas of chaos and psychic power can affect the psyker, potentially making him roll more or less dice than he chose.

Let me know if i'm wrong but maybe i don't understand how psychic powers are supposed to work mechanically for this. You roll your Psy Rating in d10s plus your willpower right?

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Originally Posted by edcalaban

Mind if I quote that last line in my sig?

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Not at all my good sir go right ahead.

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Originally Posted by Hypertext

Let me know if i'm wrong but maybe i don't understand how psychic powers are supposed to work mechanically for this. You roll your Psy Rating in d10s plus your willpower right?

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That's right.
Additionally you can take an invocation test as a full action to add your WP bonus again.

Perhaps you can give the PC's something to do that does not involve combat?

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Originally Posted by edcalaban

Nulls are always fun.

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Nulls my ASCII, go-go Cullexus Assassins!

To use a D&D example, fighters are a lot more scary when lying prone behind cover and shooting at you with crossbows. Try encouraging crazy stuff with the warriors.

Does this problem go away at higher levels?

Sometimes you need to encourage your players to make it interesting. In the campaign I played, I made a melee Amazon assassin and had tons of fun playing her as a true fanatic for the Emperor (killed "deserters" (IG/miners that had run from a mine teeming with Chaos cultists/beasts) left and right liberally; any NPC that talked bad about the Emperor was instantly killed; ripped out the front teeth of any foe felled by her). We also had fun taking grenades and strapping two vials of prometheum (highly explosive) to them with duct tape. The GM house-ruled that it doubled both the explosive damage and radius; our group found out the hard way that using not one, but two of those in tight quarters makes for some fun times. :smallbiggrin:

I've also made a psyker in that same campaign (the DM wanted to take our chars and make them into Sisters of Battle and I disliked the talents/skills layout of that class that I simply asked if my char could retire for a new one). It can be truly nasty if your DM let's you take everything you want for the char (the best Sanctioning option, the "best" prophecy option for a psyker) and roll a 20 for your WP stat. After all was said and done, my psyker had a Willpower of 70. :smallcool: Even then, he had more issues with fear checks (my dice were hating me) than others in the party. :smallbiggrin:

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Originally Posted by KKL

Your Psyker's going to meet an abrupt and possibly bloody end.

In my experiences, Psyker powers are really only supposed to be last resort things, as opposed to "OH LOOK A PROBLEM I WILL MIND BULLETS IT!"

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Not in the supposed "essential, inspirational reading material" it isn't. Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Patience Kys and others routinely use psionics without exploding. And it isn't all mind-bullets, either.

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Originally Posted by Kiero

Not in the supposed "essential, inspirational reading material" it isn't. Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Patience Kys and others routinely use psionics without exploding. And it isn't all mind-bullets, either.

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The Mind Bullets were an example, and the reason they're perfectly fine is that they're not rolling dice to see if daemons are going to ingest their brainmeats.

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Originally Posted by Kristoss

That's right.
Additionally you can take an invocation test as a full action to add your WP bonus again.

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Thanks for making that clear =)

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Originally Posted by Kiero

Not in the supposed "essential, inspirational reading material" it isn't. Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Patience Kys and others routinely use psionics without exploding. And it isn't all mind-bullets, either.

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Didn't Ravenor have a ghost helm built into his chair, or something. Eisenhorn did wind up with Chaerbal. When/if he was ever appropriately marked is never really discussed.