Mild Class Merging - Looking for Suggestions

[afkhalis 0]

In my group, I have a guy playing an Assassin from a feral planet.  He rolled for his superstition and got Dirt Ward.  As time went on, the player tended to keep quiet during sessions and let others lead him around.  To try to get him a bit more active, I suggested that maybe he uses the Dirt Ward as a way to suppress his psyker abilities.

 

Since that suggestion, his demeanor in the game has completely changed and he's a much more active player. 

 

Now, I'm giving him a bit of low end control of very basic psyker abilities.  I've already gotten his character wet and had him cast random spells (I chose a list of spells and he would roll 1d20 to determine which of the spells he would cast) and he absolutely loved it.

 

I'm wanting to give him Willpower as a primary stat, decreasing the cost of upgrading down to the 100/250/500/750 exp rather than the more expensive lesser stat costs.  Now I'm thinking of giving him 1 or 2 minor spells, but he's currently eyeballing the spell Unnatural Aim ("You draw upon the power of the warp to guide your aim.  Before the end of your next turn, any ranged attacks you make count as being made at Point Blank Range (+30 to hit)").  --I actually changed my point blank to +20 to hit instead, but still good.

 

I hope that this isn't going to make him overpowered, as he's already talking about casting, aiming, then shooting or worse, casting and full auto shooting.  I think I'm especially concerned because he already has 48 ballistics and with all the modifiers, he could get as high as 88.

 

Anyway, does anyone see any other way to give him minor psyker abilities and not make him overpowered?  I'm still unsure and just looking for some other suggestions.  

 

One other thought I had was instead of outright giving him the ability, still make him roll on the random table, but he gets some choice as to what's on the table.  I don't want him to be able to be in full control, so that might be an idea worth exploring. 

[Adeptus-B 926]

Have you considered the 'Latent Psyker' Alternate Rank (I think it's in The Radical's Handbook)?

[SgtOddity 4]

Sounds like this guy is quite the sharpshooter!

 

Correct me if I am wrong but bonuses to skill tests only stack up to +30. Anything more than that is not taken into account so the highest he could possibly get his BS + 30, in this case 78. If you feel this is still quite high then start making the game harder. Make the enemies use suppressing fire, choose harder settings and add elements that will create penalties for PCs with ballistic skills (fog, smoke, cover).

 

As for the Phsker part, being a psyker is not all bonuses in fact, there are allot more negatives when positives and its up to the GM to make sure that the PCs get punished for their dabbling with the warp.

Edited October 5, 2013 by SgtOddity

[SgtOddity 4]

As I thought in the previous post, bonuses and penalties only stack to a maximum of +/- 30.

 

This rule can be found on page 197 in the black box titled "Combining difficulties":

 

"If the situation would apply two or more bonuses, add the modifiers together to a maximum of +30 or easy."

[Jargal 200]

It was changed to +/- 60 in the Ascension, AFAIR.

[SgtOddity 4]

Doesn't that seem like way to much? If you rolled decently for your characters stats then after a few sessions (with the right choice of upgrades) you could become a perfect sharp shooter.

 

Wheres the fun in that? As you build your character you don't want to the game to get too easy. When shooting a gun its not fun if there is no risk of missing. 

[Askil 123]

The latent psyker rules are awful.

 

That said, the idea of wild psykers is cool and you are the GM. You control this world.

 

If you want him to be afraid of his uncontrollable abilities don`t let him pick them, slap a negative modifier on using them due to lack of training and make their use as dangerous as practicable to the character with penomena, insanity and corruption.

 

If itš gne too far to do this without seeming a complete d-bag remember it`s one thing to realise you are a warp-touched witch but it`s quite another if other people start realising it too.

[afkhalis 0]

One thing that I started it with was having him roll a 1d20 and whatever number he rolled would refer to a chart that I made up.  That chart had a bunch of decent low rank psyker skills and 3 negative effect table rolls (normally would be 10% if he were a psyker, I made it 15%).  The table actually worked out great and he really enjoyed it.  Everyone really enjoyed the randomness and the chaos it created in the normally standard combat.  

 

I think giving him some chance to choose his own skills in that might be cool, but put limits on it.  

 

Also, thanks for the clarification on the rules for +skill modifiers.  I must have skimmed over that part and didn't notice.