I’m back (from the Warp!) and today we’re looking at the Psychic Powers available to agents in Imperium Maledictum. For the uninitiated, Psychic Powers are an interesting facet of the Warhammer 40,000 universe as so much of the Imperium of Man relies on Psykers to keep the frail hope of humanity’s survival alive, and yet those who are capable of these powers are shunned.
As such, it’s not a stretch to imagine having various Patrons secretly fielding Psykers to serve their respective agendas.
Psychic Disciplines
Psychic powers in Warhammer range in scale and type, from Minor Powers to other categories. In Imperium Maledictum these are:
- Minor Powers – Available to all Psykers and easier to learn, these require less contact with the warp and are generally less risky to perform.
- Biomancy – Manipulation of living flesh, allowing Biomancers to heal wounds and cause horrible damage to living systems
- Divination – This discipline focuses on gleaning insights from extrasensory abilities and even seeing into the future
- Pyromancy – Creation and control of heat and flame, easily one of the more terrifying powers that Psykers can wield
- Telekinesis – The ability to manifest their will as physical force. This can be anything from levitating objects to putting up barriers or even ripping targets apart
- Telepathy – The ability to connect minds together through vast distances, this also affects thoughts and emotions and even control minds.
Mechanics
In Imperium Maledictum, manifesting a Psychic Power is doable as long as the character has the Psyker Talent. To use the power, the character chooses a power to Manifest and makes a Psychic Mastery Test against the Difficulty stated in the power.
If successful, the character gains Warp Charge equal to the Warp Rating of the power, failing on the other hand gets you 1 Warp Charge per negative SL of the test up to the power’s Warp Rating. The amount of Warp Charge you can store is defined by the Warp Threshold, which is equal to their Willpower Bonus. Going beyond your Warp Threshold is a Bad Idea ™, which we’ll go into more detail later.
Once a character makes a successful Test, they apply the effects of the power onto the target.
Psychic Powers can also be Sustained, which allows them to last longer than a single instance. This is done as a free action if the power can be Sustained, and does not require a Test. In addition, for truly desperate times, a Psyker can also choose to Push a Manifest Test, which grants them an Advantage to the roll at the cost of gaining 1d10 more Warp Charge.
Deny the Witch!
Psykers can attempt to Deny the Witch! as a maneuver whenever they feel another Psyker attempt to Manifest a power. Denying the power is their own Psychic Mastery Test, with each of their SL counting as a negative SL to the caster.
Warp Charge
As discussed above, Manifesting Psychic powers gains Warp Charge, which is a measure of Warp energy that the Psyker taps into when manifesting their powers. As long as the total amount of Warp Charge on them is less than their Warp Threshold, they’re still somewhat safe.
To help regulate this, Psykers may choose to discharge built-up Warp Charges through Purgation. This is done with a Discipline Test, which if successful, removes an amount of Warp Charge equal to the character’s Willpower Bonus +SL. Failing means that no Warp Charge is dispersed.
Successful Purgation isn’t just a matter of managing numbers on a character sheet. The Psyker actually triggers Psychic Phenomena when doing so. The game has a full table of such effects that range from entries like “Bloody Tears: Images such as pictures, icons and statues in the area appear to weep blood.” What’s more, if the zone already has the Psychic Phenomena existing when the same result is rolled, then the phenomena becomes permanent.
Little wonder then that people don’t trust Psykers.
Perils of the Warp
If at the end of the turn, the Psyker’s Warp Charge exceeds their Warp Threshold, bad things happen. They must make a Psychic Mastery Test to try to contain the Warp energy inside them. Failing this test results in the Warp energies manifesting in wildly unpredictable ways, resulting in dangerous phenomena and possibly even Corruption.
These phenomena range from things such as the inability to speak for 1d10 hours, to something more horrendous like Daemonic entities attempting to use you as a conduit to enter the material realm.
Impressions
Overall the Psychic Powers found in Imperium Maledictum continue the tradition of the high-risk, high-reward nature of powers in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Each of the powers in this chapter are interesting and quite cinematic, particularly with the Telekinesis Discipline. Playing a Psyker isn’t for everyone though, given the stigma associated with them, but is a fun roleplaying challenge for players who don’t mind the additional difficulty that such a role calls for.
The Mechanics are straightforward and well thought out. And I’m honestly amused that there’s no such thing as a “countering” a spell here a much as you Deny the Witch! (yes, the exclamation point is necessary here)
For those curious about Imperium Maledictum, it’s a great time to get started as Cubicle 7 has just released the Starter Set!
You can pick up the PDF of the corebook for $29.99 and the Starter Set for $19.99
You can also choose to grab these over at the Cubicle 7 Webstore
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