Warhammer 40K: Psykers Don’t Feel Right – Here’s How to Fix Them
Goatboy here, Lately I just don’t think the Psykers of the 40k universe feel right. Here’s what GW needs to tweak to get them on track for 11th Edition.
Right now in 10th edition, Psykers just don’t feel nearly as interesting as you would want them to be. Is this just because of a lack of choice in how you build them out? Is it a lack of power or any need to take them beyond a cheap character to activate a detachment power? The powerful psykers feel powerful but just not that exciting?
Psykers of Today and Yesteryear
Right now Psykers fit into a few simple categories. They are either slight offensive, slight defensive, or sometimes add a unique bonus to the unit. All of these things fit the old Psyker rules in how they interact but they just don’t feel that cool. It is something that I have wondered in that the only way I ended up taking a Psyker is if it happens to be the main character of the army and they happen to have that keyword. There isn’t a desire to take one to somehow activate some hidden combo or other ability. It feels more like an afterthought for a unit type that used to be so powerful in past editions.
I won’t say we need to go back to the old ways. There were armies that didn’t have psykers and suffered for it. There was a time when you took a specific assassin in all your armies (good guys and bad guys) to help turn things off even if your army didn’t get along with it. We should not have a game defined by either rolling a power or having access to it. I do think we could make them more interesting in some way.
Cool Psyker Solutions for 11th Edition?
Universal Psychic Buffs
What if we had some kind of rule that allowed psykers to empower their units – kind of in the mold of Aeldari psykers. They could forgo their psychic shooting attack and pick an empowering option out of a list of them. This would be universal and really look towards things that match up to common stratagems. This would be an interesting way to try and fit in a Psyker without feeling like you lost something by not picking a different leader for the unit?
We could have just as simple as an Armor of Contempt like empowering option. It would specifically say you can’t stack it with any other effect like that but it would be a cool little ability that isn’t just give a unit a 4+ invulnerable save. They would empower them armor to work better or give some kind of psychic protection.
Universal Psychic Attacks
There is also a cool thought of a set of powers to increase the ability for the unit to dole out some damage. A simple add on to the AP value of weapons – you pick either shooting or melee – would be cool too. It could just be as simple as that or maybe increase the strength to help them out. They would channel the Warp into making things stronger and just let a Librarian leading a unit of jerks cool.
Universal Psychic Movement
Heck I could even say something as simple as a movement enhancing powers would be neat as heck. You could do things like either add movement to the unit they are attached too, an advance/charge/fallback/charge, or some kind of reroll to help that out. I love the idea of push some of the abilities outside of the Stratagem range and let units create better interactions beyond just getting a stratagem discounted or free.
Let’s Make Psykers (safely) Interesting Again
There is a lot of room in building this game up and creating unique interactions. I think the rules have a ton of space left to create cool little unit boosters that go beyond just punching things super good. Having a set of choices would be fun and let players figure out in game what is the best option for them at the time. It would also set you combo some stuff up and feel uniquely powerful with a unit that just kind of feels meh and pointless most of the time right now.
Would this be too powerful? Would this be cool enough? Could it make the keyword Psyker cool enough to take in more armies?
