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Wrote some special rules a while ago for a new librarian special character. He could really be from any space marine chapter but seen as I do imperial fists thought he could be the cheif libarian for the imperial fists.

No idea what the points cost would be but would be open to suggestion.

Ernestar Chief Librarian of the Imperial Fists
Special Rules
And They Shall Know No Fear, Combat Tactics, Independent Character, Epistolary, Psychic Powers: All the psychic powers available to a space marine librarian, Search Minds

Search Minds
Earnestar is able to search the minds of those nearby, useful in finding treachery, heresy and assessing the field of battle to predict the future. At the start of your turn Earnestar may use this power to search the minds of enemies close by. Choose an unengaged enemy unit within 24”, on a successfully passed psychic test the opponent must tell you who that unit will be attacking in their next turn. In the next enemy turn the unit must then only shoot and/or assault that unit, subject to the usual shooting/assault limitations, if they are unable to do so then they cannot attack.

If the enemy unit is able to spit fire (due to special rules, physic powers etc) and/or assault multiple units then the chosen unit must be one of the units that are attacked.

If the enemy unit is subject to Rage or a similar rule that dictates how that unit attacks then Search Minds does not work.

Earnestar may not use this power if engaged in close combat.

Wargear
The Axe of the Unforgiving (Master Crafted Force Weapon), Terminator armour, Storm bolter, Psychic Hood
Bartof Ernestar:
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
5 4 4 4 2 4 2 10 2+

All the SML powers... no
2 powers selected normally and the special power maybe

As to the special power itself, just add that it can't affect vehicles

for all this.. lets see, Epistolary, MC force weapon etc. 200pts

The special power is ok, but sometimes, players don't decide who they're going to attack untill they actually attack. I could have a basic idea of what to do, but if something suddenly changes (due to the arrival of DS units etc) then that may shift my whole plan around.

I think it's a great character. Well done. I wish I had a point suggestion, but Im not sure how to price something as tactically valuable as search minds. I'd say no less than 200 though. Also, giving him the Epistolary rule is redundant. Not only is it un-fluffy, (Chief-Librarians are higher ranked than Epistolaries) it is also a rules contradiction, as Epitolaries know only three psychcic powers, and may use 2 a turn.

@Formosa: Whats wrong with knowing all the psychich powers? Tigurius knows all the Powers in His book, and Njal all the powers in his. I fail to see why it's a problem here.

@Valkyrie: Ahh, but that's the point, isn't it? The powers forces your opponent to commit a unit to a target well in advance. It deprives your opponent of flexibility, and gives you more to exploit.

Wow, I REALLY like Search Minds! A fine example of a thought-through support psychic power! Well done!

I really don't like search minds: first of all you are relying on your opponents integrity to tell you the truth and at a tournament or playing TFG that will fall apart faster that a paper submarine. Second it should be obvious what they are going to attack due to their positioning which leads onto the third point that there are better psychic powers available so I doubt you would ever use it once the novelty has worn off.

Read the whole thing, Ed. The truth has nothing to do with it. The power essentially forces your opponent to declare a target in advance.

I did read the whole thing and that is my point your opponent declares a target then uses another unit to engage it before the unit you have use the power on leaving that unit free to attack someone else. What I am trying to say is home brew characters are great they show imagination and are a great way to engage with your army but they work best when used in conjunction with existing rules. By creating this phsycic power I think you are going to come across quite a few problems. However good luck to you. My opinion is that it won't work.

Err... I thought your point was your opponent lying to you.

Regardless, the rule specifies that once it has declared what unit it will attack, it must do so. It goes on to say that if it can not, ( in this case, because the target no longer exists,) then it can not attack a different target. This again suggests to me that you did not read the rule in it's entirety.

Furthermore, were this not the case, and you could potentially choose a new target if the old one was destroyed, this would still work to my advantage. If you attack the previously selected unit with other units, purely so that the unit affected by Search Minds may target some thing else, I have successfully directed your firepower to my advantage.

Yes Ed_Bodger and Valkyrie I think if you read it all again maybe you will get a handle on the rule again. It is pretty simple truth be told, don't think there will be any confusion about this one really.

AlmightyWalrus & Commander Endova glad you like it, I will have to get around to making a model for him.

Thinking 220pts, he is very much a army "thought-through support" character.

Search Minds seems way to overpowered to me... or at the same time be completely useless.

I could easily just see you moving that unit to a place where the opponent couldn't then attack it, especially since Search Minds doesn't state which phase it is used in.

If it's used at the start of the movement phase, you'd know what your opponent was going to attack, you could move that unit away, and their unit would be completely useless.

On the other side of the spectrum, if this was used at some point in the shooting phase, the only way you'd be able to escape would be running or getting stuck in assault, and if you didn't do that, your unit would just stand still and shoot, basically making this power useless.

I admit that I assumed it was used at the beginning of the movement phase. After all, it makes sense fluff wise that a Librarian would use that power to get a tactically advantageous position.

I don't feel like this would be vastly over powered, either. Yes, you could move away, but of course, that could also result in another turn of getting shot at as you move back. there are some things you may not be able to get out of range of, anyway. If that Manticore wants to shoot one of your vehicles, then the best you can do is try to move it far enough away to prevent any other casualties.

I personally see the power as more of a damage mitigation tool. If I know exactly which squad of Marines his Executioner is going to go after, I might very well move and run that squad into cover.

To quote myself I do actually say:

ceorron wrote: At the start of your turn Earnestar may use this power to search the minds of enemies close by...

And yeah you could move models out of range and get a real bonus but as pointed out guns are often of long enough range for this to only be effective in certain situation. The run for cover thing could very well work. As well as the old switchign units. I.e. present a unit to your opponent that is powerful then move another unit in the way of firing (giving 4+ cover). Or other even more tricky to pull of tactics.

Really it is very much an aid to battle in many ways.