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The psychic powers are extremely difficult to determine how to use accurately because of the sentence:

"Unless specified otherwise, psychic powers follow the normal shooting rules."

With Fear of the Darkness, a lot of marine players claim it doesn't need line of sight because it says every unit within 12" of the librarian takes a morale test.

I believe it does require line of sight because it has the exact same wording as the monolith gauss flux, which states that every unit within 12" of the monolith takes D6 hits. Last I checked, the monolith needs line of sight to use that weapon.

So since the wording is identical, then the psychic power does not 'specify otherwise' when it comes to line of sight, and Fear of the Darkness needs it.

This clears up whether units in transports are affected, as they are not within line of sight, so they're not.

- Oaka

So now prove it.

Would that be something like this?

Premise 1: "Unless specified otherwise, psychic powers follow the normal shooting rules."

Premise 2: FotD can target every enemy unit within 12" and force them to make a Morale check.  It does not specify otherwise in regards to being immune to any of the normal shooting rules.

Conclusion: FotD cannont target units that are within 12", but out of LoS.

Wow, my very first 2P/C post.  I feel tingly.

The monolith rules state "... will fire D6 shots at every enemy unit with a model within 12" ... " This is still bound by the shooting rules as the monolith "TAKES SHOTS" So I believe you still need to use the BS to determine if it hits.

Edit: Because you need to roll to hit you require LOS as this does follow all shooting rules with the exception of shooting at a single target.

Thank you come again.

Bookwrack proves my point rather well. 

Line of sight and taking shots have nothing to do with each other.  There are many things in the game that still require line of sight and don't roll to hit.

LOS is only required, though, for those of you who think Tiggy doubles FotD to 24".  That would imply he targets units.  I don't think he does that, I think he targets himself, in that case he doesn't need LOS to any unit and they are all affected.  Whatever you would choose to play by is reasonable, I'm just tired of players trying to get the best of both worlds.

- Oaka

And they all specify that LOS is required. FoD does not specify it, nor does it follow any of the shooting rules that pertain to targeting. FoD also does not Target a unit it effects a unit within 12" and out of combat. it does not say out of combat and within LOS like many of the abilities you are refering to do.

Follow-up question:
Does FotD effect -
a) every unit with a model within 12" or
b) every unit entirely within 12" or
c) every unit with a majority of models within 12"

It's not the usual wording but I suspect it's B

In response to bookwrack:

Premise 1: "Unless specified otherwise, psychic powers follow the normal shooting rules."

Premise 2: FotD can target every enemy unit within 12" and force them to make a Morale check.  It does not specify otherwise in regards to being immune to any of the normal shooting rules.

FotD doesn't "target" anything. And you seem to have two premise in there (the second one should be separate)

Conclusion: FotD cannont target units that are within 12", but out of LoS.

The conclusion uses the term "target", which the FotD rules do not.

It's going to be awefully hard to get around the "every enemy unit within 12" not locked in assault" part of the FotD rule.

Just keep this in mind. If you are arguing that fear follows every single shooting rule in addition to it's special rules, you're arguing that eldar have to roll to hit with fortune. (just food for thought).

 

I think it's an important thing to see the FAQ. Vortex of Doom doesn't specify whether you need line of sight either, but does override the shooting rules by default with the nature of its rule (despite failing to come out and say "You do not have to roll to hit"). It seems that it's contradictory to say that you have to see with FOD/VOD but you don't have to roll to hit (I believe neither is required).

Reviewing the psychic powers: NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM SPECIFIES IT DOES NOT REQUIRE LINE OF SIGHT OR A TO HIT ROLL.

They all do it 'by understanding.' e.g. Veil of Time is a self-buffing power so it shouldn't require a roll to hit. But it doesn't say it doesn't.

So maybe it does? Feh. That whole 'shooting unless otherwise specified' is kind of dumb since there is only one of the powers that follows the shooting rules precisely and the rest contradict at least one if not two of the shooting rules.

I think the trick here is that the meaning of 'otherwise specified' is unclear.

It could easily mean one of two things - that, unless a psychic power specifically states that it does not follow the shooting rules, it follows the shooting rules, or that, unless a different (from the shooting rules) method of use is specified, the power follows the shooting rules. I think that the second makes much more sense in context.

If the first were correct, things would be really screwy. Let's take Mind War as an example. It doesn't specify that we don't roll to hit, so we have to do that. In order to do that, we have to know how many to-hit dice to roll. Unfortunately, Mind War is not listed as a Rapid Fire, Assault, Pistol, or Heavy weapon, though I guess we can rule out Pistol, given its range. So, do we throw up our hands here, should we just stop, or should we randomly determine which it is? If it comes out as Assault or Heavy, do we then have to randomize a number of shots for it, as this too is unspecified? Then we roll to-wound, but the Strength is unspecified. Then the enemy takes applicable saves, though I don't think that the Mind War rules say that the normal shooting wounds it causes are unsaveable, so we need to know an AP value. Now what?

The second makes things much easier. Does Mind War roll to-hit? No, because it specifies another method of use - you pick a target and have a dice-off.

Both definitions seem plausible, but one breaks the game. I'm for using the other.

how'd we get from needing "line of sight", to "needing LoS and rolling to hit"?