Editing Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Psychic 101 (section)

==Rulebook Psychic Disciplines==
This section lists the psychic disciplines outlined in the general rulebook; they can be used by psykers from multiple Age of Darkness armies.

===Force===
:;Overview
::Force counts as a Psychic power, but it does not actually belong to ''any'' discipline nor does it count against how many powers you know. Remember, you need to make a psychic test in order activate it so you'll need to pick out the prime opportunity. Additionally, Force no longer inflicts Instant Death (except against units with the Daemon or Corrupted unit types), instead just doubling your Strength. This might still be enough to trigger ID just by the effective strength being double the enemy's Toughness, but this won't matter against Dreads and Castellaxi.

{| class="wikitable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Force
! Name !! Description
|-
! Force
| Any attacks made by a Force weapon count their Strength as doubled upon a successful psychic test.
|}

===Aetheric Lightning===
:;Overview
::The default power known to most psykers. Just as modern 40K gives Smite to every psyker, this acts as your Smite. It's pretty flimsy on the outset by virtue of only being S3 AP4, but it also has Force, meaning that if you pass a Psychic check, you can bump this up enough to cut through a couple marines with some support from an attached squad.
Some psykers like Curze and Sevetar do not get Aetheric Lightning - check each Psyker's unit entry in the appropriate Liber book before you try and cast bolts of lightning from a hero whose psychic potential is limited to foresight and headaches!
{| style="text-align:center; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Aetheric Lightning|range=18|strength=3|ap=4|type=Assault|rof=4|rules=Force}}
|}
{{clear}}

===Biomancy===
:;Overview
::Biomancy is taken for two main reasons: You want to make your Psyker a fighter, or you're gonna make someone else one. For the former, it's usually better to attempt to buff a character that's already an acceptable fighter, rather than trying to make a weak unit suddenly awesome. +1 to strength on a tactical squad is a nice bonus but not likely to swing things. Upping a veteran squad with power swords so they're wounding on 3s, or with power lances wounding on 2s, though?

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Biomancy Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Biomancer's Rage
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Biomancer's Rage|strength=10|ap=4|type=Melee|rules=Rending(4+), Psychic Focus}} With Smite now an automatic add-on, your next-best buff (Iron Arm, in case you were wondering) has become a special weapon of its own, a smash attack capable of turning marines to paste and potentially making a dent on a tank.
|-
! Biomantic Augmentation
| Instead of shooting, you can cast this on a friendly unit within 6" and give them +1 Strength. If you pass a Psychic test, you can boost this to also add +1 to Toughness as well. Regardless of whether or not you opt for that boost, you're still giving a decent boost to someone, if hamstrung by the very limited range.

This can get theoretically disgusting when coupled with Rad Grenades - a tricky combo to pull off for most armies, as you'll need to buff a charging group of Destroyers or charge them/a Moritat into the same squad as your murder squad, but consider this: a unit of Veterans/Terminators/Bikers armed with power lances, buffed by this power and with the boost from Rad Grenades are hitting before any non-characters and inflicting AP3 instant death on astartes. If you have a character like Farith Redloss, or happen to be the Death Guard under the Reaping Rite of War, you can make this relatively trivial. Just don't expect to get many games with a list like this.
|}

===Divination===
:;Overview
::While you no longer have any ability to guarantee that you get a good roll, you do have one power that can cash out on a good hit and another that can snake through many of the defenses that would otherwise foil psychic weapons.

{| class="wikitable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Divination Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Divinatory Aegis
| Instead of shooting, you can give a friendly unit within 6" Precision Shots (6+) and Precision Strikes (6+). If you pass a Psychic test, you can up these to proc on a 5+ in the event that you're really banking on them. It's like a different flavour of Cognis-Signum.
|-
! Diviner's Dart
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Diviner's Dart|range=18"|strength=6|ap=2|type=Assault|rof=1|rules=Sniper, Guided Fire, Psychic Focus}} Psychic sniping. This is powerful enough to cut through most defenses that a particular target might have, though the range is a bit limited to throw in a gunline of bolters.
|}

===Pyromancy===
:;Overview
::Pyromancy is good for only one thing: melting light infantry hordes so it's one to consider when facing Militia and Daemons. This is the only discipline that focuses on AoE effects, giving you the ability to blast whatever you see, but it leads to limited effect against vehicles of any sort since you lack something like Molten Beam.

{| class="wikitable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Pyromancy Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Pyromantic Combustion
| Drop 1/3 large blasts (depending on whether or not you take a psychic test) anywhere within 18" of the psyker and scatter d6". These pieplates will remain on the field until next turn, with any model who starts within them or walks into them taking an S6 AP4 hit. While the scatter is a little sucky, you've got a pretty hefty means of area denial that might cut off routes for the enemy.
|-
! Pyromantic Desolation
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Pyromantic Desolation|strength=6|ap=3|type=Melee|rules=Unwieldy, Pyromantic Desolation, Psychic Focus}} More a nova power than a melee power, but this is still powerful enough to reasonably cook through most enemies. The issue is that this is a small pieplate and it can deal friendly fire if attached to a unit. Even worse, the wounds you deal here don't count towards combat resolution, spoiling the ability to use this and rout the opposition.
|}

===Telekinesis===
:;Overview
::A generally combat-focused set of powers, with one giving a defensive boost and another being a psychic weapon to smash crowds and nearby terrain with.

{| class="wikitable sortable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Telekinesis Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Telekine Dome
| Instead of moving, you can cast this, giving any models within 8" a 5++ Invuln against anything from beyond 8". This power is unique that this can persist indefinitely, but your psyker will be a sitting duck for the entire time, unable to fight back or even get behind cover without breaking focus on the power. Fortunately, you can spend any turn yo make a psychic test to chance boosting that save to a 4++.
|-
! Telekine's Focus
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Telekine's Focus|range=24|strength=8|ap=4|type=Heavy|rof=1|rules=Blast 3", Sunder, Psychic Focus}} Your psyker's a small artillery platform made more to hit anyone hiding behind cover or emerging from a transport than mob smashing due to this being a small blast.
|-
|}

===Telepathy===
:;Overview
::Telepathy is a great support discipline, perhaps even the most powerful due to (presumably) oversight of the rules writers. Both powers of them rob the opponent of the ability to take reactions, one of the big features of the game, with  Telepathic Hallucinations even going so far as pinning foes with such debuffs to Ld test it can be an "I win" button.

{| class="wikitable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Telepathy Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Telepathic Fugue
| During any phase, you can cast this on any enemy unit within 24" to rob them of their reaction. Considering the limited number of reactions you can use in a given turn, this can prove to be devastating for the enemy, especially ones that give the opponent extra firepower. 
|-
! Telepathic Hallucinations
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Telepathic Hallucinations|range=36|strength=-|ap=-|type=Assault|rof=6|rules=Hallucinations, Psychic Focus}} Anyone hit by this must take a Pinning test "adding one to the result of the roll for each Hit scored by this attack before the result is decided" (so an average of 5). The wording means Stubborn or similar rules don't work, because the Leadership of the target unit isn't affected. This is even more crippling that the other power simply because this doesn't just rob reactions. This also robs movement as well, opening them up to any charging where they can't escape. And the best part - one can use it for Reactions. Somebody Deep Strikes or Outflanks in 36" radius? Now they're Pinned. Shooting at the squad with the Psyker? Pinned. Trying to charge that squad? That's right, Pinned. It is unbelievably frustrating to play against in smaller games.
|-
|}

===Thaumaturgy===
:;Overview
::A brand-new Discipline, this makes your psykers into [[Cleric]]s, with the ability to heal and burn daemons in the days before the Sanctic discipline.

{| class="wikitable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Thaumaturgy Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Thaumaturge's Cleansing
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Thaumaturge's Cleansing|range=Template|strength=4|ap=3|type=Assault|rof=1|rules=Sanctic, Psychic Focus}} You've got yourself a psychic flamer specially keyed to destroy daemons since it wounds them on a 2+ and forces them to roll their invulns. While this won't mean much against anyone else, including Corrupted Word Bearers, you do have AP3 to get through anything short of terminator plate.
|-
! Thamuaturgic Succour
| Instead of shooting, pick a unit with at least one model within 12". Each non-vehicle model in that unit can restore a wound on a 5+. This sounds good on paper, but wound allocation requires already wounded models to continue taking wounds unless they are characters; making this only really useful for all character units like Suzerains. Granted, said all character units are really good, so this is still worth considering..
|-
|}

===Anathemata===
:;Overview
::The discipline of the Esoterist Consul, this is more like the Daemonology discipline of old. Depending on your allegiance, this gives you the ability to either summon Ruinstorm Daemons (which you have to purchase and then throw into reserves only to summon in this fashion) or a debuff and unblockable attack against daemons and daemon-adjacent units like the Corrupted Word Bearers.

{| class="wikitable"  style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Anathemata Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Breach the Veil<sup>(Traitors Only)</sup>
| Instead of shooting, drop a small blast within 12" of the psyker and at least 3" from any enemies and impassible terrain. If you don't make a Psychic test or fail it, this blast will scatter. At this point, you can now deploy a daemon on the edge of this blast. While this leaves them exposed to the Interceptor reaction, your daemons can charge after arriving.
|-
! Void Darts
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Void Darts|range=18|strength=5|ap=4|type=Assault|rof=12|rules=Deflagrate, Sanctic, Psychic Focus}} Extreme rapid-fire daemon disintegration between Deflagrate and Sanctic wounding daemons on a 2+ and forcing them to re-roll their invulns. Even against marines, this has the ability to harm with S5 and Deflagrate and you have more than enough shots to make even a small dent on a squad.
|-
! Seal the Veil<sup>(Loyalists Only)</sup>
| Instead of shooting, you can target an enemy daemon or corrupted unit within 18" and deal a -1 to Strength and Toughness. You can then take a Psychic test to inflict Perils against the enemy, though failing the test will also make the psyker suffer perils as well. Seeing that denying has gotten removed from the list, you pretty much have an unblockable means to cripple a daemonic unit.
|-
|}

===Aetherbane===
:;Overview
::The discipline of the Primus Nullificator Consul, which means that it's stuck in the Legacies document. Where Anathemata was given quite a bit between its allegiance-based power, this was pretty clearly more of an afterthought. While it doesn't need to roll to cast, its effectiveness is only worth anything against daemons.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ Aetherbane Powers
! Name !! Description
|-
! Aetherblast
| {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Aetherblast|range=18|strength=4|ap=3|type=Assault|rof=1|rules=Blast (3") Cruel Exgesis, Sanctic}} Small blast weapon, but its effectiveness is...not good. S4 against marines means that you'll need to roll at least a 4+ to wound and it lacks Force to make it any better against anything except daemons, where this power always wounds on a 2+. It's not very friendly either, as Cruel Exegesis means that if you roll the same number on each scatter die it instead lands on top of the psyker, which is a wasted opportunity.
|-
|}