Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Psychic 101

This page indexes how the Psychic Phase works in the Horus Heresy wargame.

How It Works

Generating Psychic Powers

Like in editions past, psychic powers are generated BEFORE the game starts. A given psyker has access to a certain number of psychic powers and disciplines but will always know the Aetheric Lightning power on top of whatever they choose.

• Notes:
  • A psyker may not know multiple copies of the same power; should you roll the same power multiple times for the same psyker while generating powers, you'll simply reroll the 'extra' copies in the same discipline until you end up with different powers. It is, however, entirely possible for multiple different psykers to know the same power.
  • Psykers with a Mark of Chaos or psykers that are Daemons of a particular Chaos God instead automatically know the primaris power of their chosen deity, regardless of the other powers they might generate.
  • A psyker who has a force weapon of any description automatically also has the Force psychic power to actually activate the weapon. This does NOT count as one of his mastery level picks, nor does it prevent him from getting Psychic Focus.
  • A psyker who has fixed powers of no discipline (Ezekiel's Mind Worm / Ahazra Redth's Mirage) does not count these towards psychic focus so long as he generates any remaining powers from a single discipline. This stops them from losing out on Psychic Focus just by having a pre-set power.
  • Some psykers - like most Grey Knight units, Eldar Hemlocks and so on - know only predetermined set of psychic powers. Unless otherwise mentioned, these are the ONLY powers they know, they do NOT generate additional ones, and are NOT eligible for Psychic Focus.
  • Unlike in previous editions, a psyker's potential power selection is NOT limited by his mastery level. That is, a Mastery Level 1 psyker knows generally speaking one power, but that power may well be Warp Charge 2 or 3 - though a low-level psyker with high-charge powers will have to rely even more on luck of the dice and other psykers in his army to produce enough dice for casting.

Casting Powers

They Psychic phase as you know it is gone. We're back to the old days of powers going off during the turn.

The player actively casting powers (you, in this exercise) chooses one of his psykers and one of the powers that psyker knows. You then roll 2d6, trying to roll under the psyker's Leadership.

Notes:

• Some psychic powers have the ability to be automatically cast instead of needing to make a Psychic test to cast. Of course, doing so gives you a weaker version of the power, forcing you to measure the pros and cons of actually chancing that test.
• Any one psyker can only attempt to manifest a given power once in a psychic phase, regardless of if it failed or succeeded. Two psykers knowing the same power can of course each (attempt to) cast it, at different or same targets.
• A single unit can only be affected by one copy of a given blessing at any one time - so Hammerhand, for example, no longer stacks. Two DIFFERENT blessings on the same unit are A-OK, though.
• Since psychic powers are used in the Psychic phase, you cannot use a witchfire power to shoot Overwatch if you get assaulted.
• Perils of the Warp as we knew it have been done away with, replaced with the more generic d3 save-ignoring wounds. Of course, any invulns can still be taken.

Deny the Witch

While one player's psykers cast powers, the other player's psykers try to counter them. Denying the Witch is how you can (try to) keep the other player's powers from activating.

When your opponent successfully casts a psychic power that affects one or more of your units, you choose one of them to make a Deny the Witch roll. Basically you choose the unit, pick a number of dice from your own pool of psychic dice, roll them and add modifiers:

• +1 if the unit has one or more models (attached or otherwise) with the Psyker, Psychic Pilot, or Brotherhood of Psykers/Sorcerers special rules.
• +1 if the unit has one or more models with a Mastery level higher than the casting psyker's Mastery level.
• +1 if the unit has one or more models with the Adamantium Will special rule.

Every roll of 6 or more on a Deny the Witch dice negates one successful warp charge from your opponent's casting attempt. To successfully Deny a psychic power, you must negate -all- successful warp charges used in casting that power. If you failed to get enough successes on the Deny roll, the dice are simply wasted and the enemy power still activates.

If none of your units were targeted by the psychic power (the power was a blessing or summoning power, for example, that doesn't directly effect your units) you can still try Deny the power; instead of choosing a unit to Deny the power with, you simply choose how many dice to use in your Deny attempt. Each roll of a straight 6 on a dice negates one warp charge.

Notes:

• To successfully Deny a power, you must counter ALL the successful warp charges used in casting the power. If your opponent uses four dice to cast a 2-charge power and gets three successes, you must counter all three. Two will NOT be enough.
• You decide whether or not to attempt to Deny a power (and how many dice you use, if any) AFTER your opponent rolls his psychic test for casting the power. You can't be suckered into Denying powers that wouldn't activate anyways, and you can opt to not try Denying powers that you don't have a chance to succeed in countering anyways (powers with four successes when all you have is three dice, and so on).
• Obviously rolling multiple sixes on a Deny roll will NOT trigger a Perils of the Warp attack.
• If a psychic power targets multiple units, only one of those units gets to do a Deny attempt. If a psychic blast power scatters and hits two of your units, you pick one to do a Deny with, not try to Deny twice.
• Psychic Hoods have changed - now a unit within 12" of a friendly unit targeted with a psychic power can roll the Deny attempt as if it was targeted for the power instead of the actual target. Generally this means getting to benefit from the psyker and his mastery level in the Deny attempt. If the Deny roll fails, the power still affects the original target, not the bearer of the Hood.
  • Note that the rule specifically says friendly unit. You cannot, therefore, use a psychic hood to Deny a power targeted at an Ally of Convenience unit or use the hood to boost your odds of denying a blessing. Only units from an army that is Battle Brothers with the hood-bearer can benefit.
• Successfully denying a power that succeeded, but triggered Perils of the Warp, means the power does not activate but the casting psyker still ends up suffering the results of the Perils attack.
• Like with casting powers, any dice not used in Deny attempts are lost and wasted at the end of a given psychic phase.

Resolve Power

Unless otherwise stated, psychic powers with a duration last until the start of the Psyker’s next Psychic phase. The ongoing effects of any one particular power do not stack on the same unit, but benefits from different powers are cumulative. Unless otherwise stated, powers cannot modify characteristics above 10 or below 1 (or below 2, in the case of Leadership). For Psychic Weapons, this would be the point where you start rolling to hit and all that like the weapon it's supposed to be.

When a power summons a unit, it Deep Strikes within the power's maximum range; the new unit is under your control and is treated as having arrived from Reserves for all rules purposes. If the new unit suffers a Deep Strike mishap and ends up in Ongoing Reserves, it can Deep Strike anywhere on the board when it enters play. Summoned psykers cannot use summoning on the same turn they're summoned. Unless otherwise stated, summoned units have no upgrades and generate all random attributes (such as psyker powers) as soon as the power resolves. Summoned Chaos Daemons can take an Icon and/or Instrument of Chaos, and/or upgrade to a character, if their codex entry says they can (and they do it for free).

Psychic Tactics

So that's how you mind bullet, but what do you do with them?

Well the problem with tactics is the fact that not all armies get the same favor with psykery. While the Legiones Astartes do have Librarians, their power levels are pretty heavily limited due to the Edict of Nikea...unless, of course, you take those assholes from Prospero. Similarly, certain loadouts for Ruinstorm Daemons might see you have plenty of psykers to throw around.

Step one is to therefore consider how you and your opponent's mind bullets stack up to each other. If you have a clear lead in mental fire power you can afford to spread your charges thinner as your opponent won't be able to deny you as easily. If on the other hand the playing field is roughly even you need to play more carefully, while if you're completely outclassed pick one or two powers you really need to go off and spend all your charges on them, so that even with twice as many or more warp charges they can't completely deny you, although your psykers are likely to implode before the game is half over if you do it every turn, so pick your moments.

When casting powers, first budget what powers you need most to go off, (example: invisibility) then cast all your other powers in least to most importance before it. This way your opponent is forced to save his deny dice for either the big very important one or basically give you free reign in the phase. While that works if you're in the lead, and very useful if you're evenly matched in terms of warp charges since he might think he can spare the charges, it's much less effective if you're completely out classed since your opponent may have the charges to deny your final important power, and you won't have the power to force it though because you spent the charges on 'deny fodder' first.

That all said, the mere presence of a big power alters the flow of the phase a lot. Your opponent (or you, this goes both ways) now has to choose between saving his charges for the big one, or attempt to spend his charges denying all the little powers.

General Psychic Tips

• As a rule, Psychic Powers are innately unreliable, and require a lot of investment for them to pay off. While lucky rolls can give you a super-happy Psychic Deathstar of Doom, they generally support an army rather than define it.
• Some armies will take units simply to serve as secondary "batteries" for other casters, though they will weigh the costs of this accordingly. For example, if you want a unit of Terminators for your army, a unit of Grey Knight Terminators is more cost-effective than similar Terminator units, but their one WC point can only go towards buffing themselves in melee, and so it effectively gets farmed off to other Psykers with more dramatic powers. This is if you're running Terminators anyway/running Grey Knights anyway.
• Generally speaking, the three most popular core disciplines are Divination, Malefic Daemonology, and Telepathy. They don't have any real "dud" powers and most will find use in nearly any game (rather than being conditionally awesome every other game), but most importantly, they have really good Primaris Powers.
  • Psychic Shriek is a power with a wide potential for effects. On "average", it may inflict two wounds on an enemy unit, but when the dice are hot, it has the potential to one-shot a unit of Terminators, or a Monstrous Creature. It doesn't need to make a "To-Hit" roll, so you can occasionally use it to smack monsters out of the sky as well.
  • Prescience is a no-frills power. Being able to reroll to-hit is very useful on nearly any unit.
  • Summoning lets you bring more units into the game, though if your Psyker is not a Daemon you'll Peril like a motherfucker.
  • You don't have to limit yourself to these disciplines, but they tend to be the safest starting off. Biomancy can be nice if you bank on rolling Iron Arm, and most armies have at least one good army-specific Discipline to work with (except Tyranids, alas), but you now run the risk of rolling an underwhelming power, and having to settle for a situationally usable Primaris ("I can penalize the Invulnerable Saves of Daemons..." "I'm playing Necrons." "Right...curses.")
• Biker Psykers are more than just a cute rhyme. They can give you a unique threat vector, due to the ability to move, cast powers, then turbo-boost to another position. The same can be said for Jump Packs and Flying Monstrous Creatures.
• Conjuration Powers are interesting. When 7th first came out, people theoryhammered about being able to Summon Horrors, who could summon more Horrors, but such armies never really materialized (ha!) as a threat. That said, Summoned units make good "bait"/threats that must be dealt with. Because you are dealing with Deep Strike, the units can end up away from your intended point of entry. Thus, it's ideal to summon "fast" units like Daemonettes/Flesh Hounds/Screamers, to correct any deviations.
• Feel No Pain is your best friend. It's the only "save" you're allowed against Perils and can really help a charge-heavy caster, especially a malefic summoner.

Rules Interactions to Watch Out For

• Because a specific model can only Deny the Witch when it or a nearby model friendly to it (in the case of a Librarian's Hood, for example) is affected by a power, Blessings are inherently more powerful than Maledictions in that they are harder to Deny, as no model will get to use its special rules on it.
• Chariots are the only vehicle that allows full casting from an embarked Psyker. All other vehicles, including buildings, only allow Witchfires, which means e.g. you can't cast a Blessing while embarked (unless embarked on a Chariot).
• Look Out, Sir works on Psychic powers just fine, including Profileless Witchfires, but it is triggered by allocating Wounds, so it can only be used if the Power inflicts wounds - for example, Jaws of the World Wolf Removes From Play without Wounding, so Look Out, Sir does not apply.
  • Similar reasoning applies to Feel No Pain.

Psychic Disciplines

One thing you'll notice as a massive departure from last edition is the inclusion of Psychic Weapons. See, instead of using types like Witchfires and Novas, your psykers just gain special weapons. Aside from Aetheric Lightning, all of these weapons have the Psychic Focus rule, which requires you to make a psychic check before you can attack with them. Because of this, it's a bad idea to rely on any of these to use in overwatch.

As a matter of fact, psychic types as a whole have been abolished, as even Blessings and Maledictions are just lumped under Psychic Powers. Not that this changes much on them, as the list of psychic powers has drastically shrunk.

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, 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.

Force

Name	Description
Force	Any attacks made by a Force weapon count their Strength as doubled.

Aetheric Lightning

Overview

The default power known to all 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.

Aetheric Lightning Range Type S AP Special Rules 18 Assault 4 3 4 Force

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; Daemons in particular can get some excellent mileage from Biomancy, as (barring Blue Scribes), every character they have with access to it is at least Strength and Toughness 5.

Biomancy Powers

Name	Description
Biomancer's Rage	Biomancer's Rage Range Type S AP Special Rules - Melee 10 4 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.

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.

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.
Diviner's Dart	Diviner's Dart Range Type S AP Special Rules 18" Assault 1 6 2 Sniper, Guided Focus, 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. Orks, Guardsmen, Tyranids, Daemons maybe. 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.

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	Pyromantic Desolation Range Type S AP Special Rules - Melee 6 3 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.

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	Telekine's Focus Range Type S AP Special Rules 24 Heavy 1 8 4 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 generally powerful support discipline. Both of them rob the opponent of the ability to take reactions, one of the big features of the game, with one even going so far as pinning foes.

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	Telepathic Hallucinations Range Type S AP Special Rules 36 Assault 6 - - Hallucinations, Psychic Focus Anyone hit by this must take a Pinning test with a penalty equal to the number of hits you scored. 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.

Thaumaturgy

Overview

A brand-new Discipline, this makes your psykers into Clerics, with the ability to heal and burn daemons in the days before the Sanctic discipline.

Thaumaturgy Powers

Name	Description
Thaumaturge's Cleansing	Thaumaturge's Cleansing Range Type S AP Special Rules Template Assault 1 4 3 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+, giving you an actual healing power for veterans and termies.

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.

Anathemata Powers

Name	Description
Breach the Veil(Traitors Only)	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	Void Darts Range Type S AP Special Rules 18 Assault 12 5 4 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(Loyalists Only)	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.

Unique Disciplines

Warhammer 30,000 Tactics Articles
General Tactics	General (7E) Movement (7E) Psychic (7E) Fortifications (7E)
Imperium	Legiones Astartes (7E)
	Legio Custodes (7E) Sisters of Silence (7E) Mechanicum (Legio Mechanicum • Taghmata Omnissiah)
	Questoris Knights (7E) Solar Auxilia (7E) Imperialis Militia (7E)
Chaos	Ruinstorm Daemons (7E • 7E Codex) Warp Cults(7E)