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I once tried to figure this out by going through the BGB in detail, but only ended up more confused. What is the difference between a morale and a leadership test and when does one use each one ?

Thanks

A Leadership Test is any test that uses the Leadership stat.

A Morale test is a specific type of Leadership test, that is taken at times when your models need to decide whether or not to run away.

And only Morale tests are subject to modifiers ?

Modifiers apply to any test that says that it has modifiers that apply to it. Off the top of my head, all the modifiers I can think of apply to Morale tests, but that doesn't mean that other types of Leadership tests can't have modifiers as well.


Edit: It's really just a case of checking the rule in question. If it says 'Make a Morale test' then it is a Morale test. If it just refers instead to Leadership, then it's just a standard Leadership test.

Insaniak is right. A Leadership test is the general type. Morale tests and Pinning tests are both sub-types of Leadership tests. So you have to look carefully at each rule to see which types of tests are affected by which modifiers.

Examples

The Mark of Chaos Undivided specifies that it allows you to reroll failed morale tests. So it does not allow you to reroll failed pinning tests, since they are different things.

The Eldar warlock power Embolden specifies that it allows you to reroll failed Leadership tests, so that includes both Morale tests and Pinning tests, since they are both types of leadership tests.

Also note that a psychic test is not a type of leadership test (even though it uses the leadership characteristic). A psychic test is a completely independent type of test. So being fearless or automatically passing leadership tests or the Embolden power don't affect psychic tests.

To give a specific example

A standard Space Marine veteran sgt. has a Leadership value of 9, if his 5man squad comes under fire and suffers casulties of 25% or more, he is called up to take a MORALE test, 2x D6 etc etc.

If lets say that the 5man squad only has 2models left (the sgt and another model) after being shot in the example above then he would do a MORALE test with -1 modifier. therfore he would need a roll of an 8 or less on 2x D6 dice roll to pass.

Assualts can give even bigger modifiers if outnumbered 2:1 etc.

A Space marine Librarian however is a pysker. In the shooting phase he can opt to use one of his abilities instead of shooting a weapon. To do this he must pass a LEADERSHIP test not a MORALE test, which is the same as above except that the modifiers don't apply so he would use he leadership value of 9 to make the test, even if shot at by the enemy to below 50% starting strength.

However, he would still have to take the MORALE test if the Librarians squad suffered 25% casulties

As Insaniak said, there are always exceptions to the rule but this is the standard used unless a charactor or weapon has a special ability that alters it.(though I don't know of any either)

Hope its helpful.

Posted By Flavius Infernus on 11/20/2006 2:04 PM
Also note that a psychic test is not a type of leadership test (even though it uses the leadership characteristic).

Rulebook, page 52: "Perils of the Warp"
"...if a Psyker rolls a 2 or 12 when taking the Leadership test to use a psychic power..."

Posted By Flavius Infernus on 11/20/2006 2:04 PM
So being fearless or automatically passing leadership tests or the Embolden power don't affect psychic tests.

Fearless only affects Morale tests and Pinning, not other Leadership tests.

For the rest, since they refer to the Psychic test as a Leadership test, automatically passing or re-rolling Leadership tests would apply.  

I always assumed Flavius' stance to be true as well since it would mean that shaeffer's psykers would never be subject to Perils any other way. Wouldn't be the first time the rules screwed us though.

Target priority is a Ld test that must still be taken even with the auto-pass Ld test ability. This really doesn't prove anything other than the fact that either GW missed something when they were talking about psychic tests, or they REALLY want us to know that auto-pass Ld means auto-pass psychic tests since they already mentioned one instance where Ld tests still must be taken.

That's the same reasoning that leads to the belief that certain mounted units cannot ever use two weapons in close combat. This must be true since they actually mention that rough riders CAN use two weapons in CC since "horses steer themselves." If they wanted other units to benefit from this then surely they would have mentioned it for them too.

Posted By insaniak on 11/20/2006 1:23 PM
Modifiers apply to any test that says that it has modifiers that apply to it. Off the top of my head, all the modifiers I can think of apply to Morale tests, but that doesn't mean that other types of Leadership tests can't have modifiers as well.


Edit: It's really just a case of checking the rule in question. If it says 'Make a Morale test' then it is a Morale test. If it just refers instead to Leadership, then it's just a standard Leadership test.

Exactly.  I believe Ordnance Pinning weapons still give a -1 to the Pin test.

Posted By insaniak on 11/20/2006 2:35 PM

For the rest, since they refer to the Psychic test as a Leadership test, automatically passing or re-rolling Leadership tests would apply.  

Now thats crazy. I never thought of it that way. I definatly missed that line of rationale.

So, an Epistolary Librarian can use veil of time to reroll a failed psychic test on a second psychic power used??

My opponents would throttle me for doing that.

Not unless the Epistolary has had a secret Eldar Spirit Stone enema, or has Eldrad h imself hiding under his skirts.

Last time I checked, SMurf psykers were limiited to one psychic power per turn.

Per player turn. I believe you can cast a psychic ability in your turn, yet still be allowed to use a Force Weapon in your opponent's turn as well.

Whoops, I missed that reference to leadership tests in the perils section.

Okay, yep, I agree that RAW says psychic tests are leadership tests.

It would be really nice to play it that way with my Eldar army plus Embolden--especially in this era of instakilling perils attacks--but I'm not sure if I'd actually try it.

Posted By Flavius Infernus on 11/21/2006 4:44 AM
Whoops, I missed that reference to leadership tests in the perils section.

Okay, yep, I agree that RAW says psychic tests are leadership tests.

It would be really nice to play it that way with my Eldar army plus Embolden--especially in this era of instakilling perils attacks--but I'm not sure if I'd actually try it.

I don't think you should feel bad about it at all.

They specifically changed the wording of Embolden from "Morale checks and Pinning tests" in the last codex to all Leadership tests in the new version.

While it could have been done just for Target Priority tests, I'd guess that it was also an intentional change to make taking a Warlock Retinue for your Farseer something psychically useful.

Actually when I first saw that the Eldar codex had changed from "morale and pinning" on Embolden to "Leadership," I thought it was part of an overall pattern of increased thoughtfulness in the wording of this codex compared with earlier codecies.

"Leadership" is so much more elegant than "morale and pinning" from a technical standpoint and I mean, after all, the rules are all there already, so why not just use them? Using more general rules allows for a smoother integration of later changes too. I think the Eldar codex has the best balance we've yet seen of specificity where needed along with generalities when possible. If it breaks here and there because of something that IMO was probably an oversight like calling a psychic test a Leadership test in another book, then I guess that's the price you pay for a more elegant document.

As for playing psychic tests this way, I'll probably wait a bit to see how it plays out in the community in general. It's a big balance change that would make PotW pretty much a non-issue for farseers, which would then allow the reintroduction of runes of witnessing, making failures a non-issue again, so it's not a small thing.