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I'd like to appologize if this has already been covered but after some searching I haven't found it so i'm going to ask again.

When reading my space marine codex, I was looking at the librarians and it says you can, for 50 pts., upgrade him to epistolary. So I searched through the codex, and the 40k rulebook, and I can't find what exactly upgrading him to epistolary does for him. So if anyone can tell me where in the codex it explains this i would be very thankful.

It allows him to use two different powers in the same turn (only one shooting power allowed per turn). It's on the same page of the codex as the powers, in the 1st paragraph.

Oh wow I feel kinda dumb.. I've honestly read the Librarian page 4 times to see if I've missed anything... didn't bother looking on the powers page.
Thanks

... Actually while this thread is still open, does anyone find value in this upgrade? Is it worth the points?

Well, the upgrade allows you to use a psychic power and your Force Weapon all in one turn, that's worth it alone if you're up against a pretty hard target. But being able to use more than one power if you're not even using your FW is pretty good. Blood Angel Epistolaries, for example, can use Shield of Sang. to provide KFF-style protection, and then use Blood Lance to cause a few casualties on an enemy unit.

Well, I regularly play a Librarian in my vanilla or BA armies. But I never upgraded him to become an Epistolary.
You cannot count on psychic powers as there are ways out there in the 40k universe to shut them down (psychic hood, runes of warding, shadow in the warp, ... ).

Hmm I might have to give it a try, i'm not sure what unit I should field him with though (I have one in terminator armour).

The Epistolary upgrade should be taken in cases where you cannot access a second Librarian (points restrictions, a chaplain, etc...) or if you already have two librarians and wanna use more psychic powers per turn. A second Librarian in most cases is better than a single Epistolary, since you now have access to a potential 4 Psychic Powers that can be used, rather than 2 psychic powers that can be used simultaniously. Epistolary Librarians should choose at least one buff psychic power, or two buff psychic powers in lieu of shooting.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:The Epistolary upgrade should be taken in cases where you cannot access a second Librarian (points restrictions, a chaplain, etc...) or if you already have two librarians and wanna use more psychic powers per turn. A second Librarian in most cases is better than a single Epistolary, since you now have access to a potential 4 Psychic Powers that can be used, rather than 2 psychic powers that can be used simultaniously. Epistolary Librarians should choose at least one buff psychic power, or two buff psychic powers in lieu of shooting.

Expanding on this.

Never take 2 shooting powers and upgrade to epistolary; while it does still allow you to Shoot(using 1 of 2 powers), assault and use the FW, you cannot use both shooting powers(Infantry can only ever fire 1 "weapon", and that includes PSA power usage).

Okay awesome, thanks you guys for the tips.