Psychic Powers (Psykers)
Psychic Powers come about from mutant Psykers tapping into their abnormal awareness of the other-realm known as the Warp and channeling its energies to alter reality at their whim. Feared and distrusted, they are bound as virtual slaves to the Imperium and taught Rotes to focus their minds on achieving a particular outcome such as blasts of devastating energy, reading the possibilities of the future, altering minds or reknitting flesh. The fear they are treated with, however, is justified for their powers come with the dangers of mutation, madness and worse.
Warp Phenomena
The infinite power offered from the Warp is not without consequence even Psykers, with their innate ability to manipulate it, are vulnerable to the fickle nature of its energies which can demand a horrendous price from their minds and bodies to channel its eldritch power.
This risk is represented by the Warp Phenomena Deck. This deck consists of 25% cards that represent a complication-free use of power, 50% of cards are Phenomena that represent a successful use of a power but with unusual side effects, and 25% of cards are Perils of the Warp that represent a horrendous and devastating consequence for tapping into these chaotic energies.
- Minor powers are small and inconsequential draws upon the warp and as such there is no reason to draw from a deck, unless the player of the psyker feels it is necessary or a GM says otherwise due to conditions in the warp.
- Major powers are notable shifts of reality and perception, they require a far more intense draw of energies from the warp and expose the psyker to the extreme risks and generally thin the barrier of reality.
After a Psyker uses Major Powers during a scene, at the end of that scene they draw as many cards from the deck as the times they used a Major power - they may expend Will to redraw a card, they can do this as many times as they want, but as their willpower drains they become less and less able to control their powers. After they have finished redrawing cards they must select two effects they feel are appropriate, Perils of the Warp must take precedent in this selection.
Biomancers using major powers that rely on the Biomantic Healing deck do not draw, as the risk for those powers is built into those decks.
Vulnerable Minds are Doorways
When a psyker runs out of Will there are far more consequences then for a standard human being, as conduits of warp energies psykers are taught the importance of strong willpower to protect them from predation by the predatory creatures that lurk within the warp, and rely heavily on their strength of will to protect them and shape their abilities.
To this end there are two consequences that occur when a psyker runs out of willpower;
- They must inform a member of the Game Team, there may be severe consequences depending on the situation.
- They can no longer safely call upon the warp, they must draw when they use Minor Powers and when they use Major powers they must remove all but the Perils of the Warp from the deck and draw directly from those.
Witchbane
Null weaponry was originally created as a lethal method to disrupt the abilities of renegade Witches - while to normal humans these slugs are no more lethal than standard munitions, but to a Psyker, these weapons unleash disruptive bound anti-psyker energies. The result on a psyker is excruciating full-body spasms resulting in multiple blood vessels rupturing.
The call Null cannot be defended against by any psychic defence, and cause Psykers endurance to immediately drop to zero and enter the Bloodied condition.
Psychic Powers
Because of differing aptitudes Psykers learn a system of Rotes categorised into various Disciplines. Psykers know only one of the major Disciplines:
Characters with the Astropath Trait can, in addition to their other disciplines, utilise powers from the Astropathy discipline.