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Often into the care of the Ecclesiarchy fall those rogue Psykers who have come to see the error of their ways and seek redemption. While SOP is for cleansing-by-fire, often it is not convenient to effect this purification immediately, as the truly repentant require rituals of forgiveness before their fiery death.

Betimes, these penitent witches will be pressed into battle in the interim to prove their contrition by unleashing their powers against their former foes.

A Penitent Witch is an upgrade for an Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave.

Penitent Witch
WS 3 BS 3 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 3 A 1 Ld 8 Sv -

Up to 3 Arco-Flagellants may be upgraded to Penitent Witches for +15 points/model.

Unit Type: Infantry, Character

Wargear: Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon, Detonator Collar.

Special Rules: Psychic Interference

Options: A Penitent Witch may buy a Psychic Mastery Level for +25 points. A Penitent Witch may generate powers from the Sanctified, Telepathy, Telekinesis and Pyromancy disciplines.

Detonator Collar: A Penitent Witch who attempts to manifest a Divination or Malefic power, or incurs the Perils of the Warp, is immediately removed from play before rolling on the Perils table.

Psychic Interference: A Penitent Witch automatically generates an additional Warp Charge during the opponent's turn, independent of any Mastery Levels they may have.


PW-47
PW-47 is the result of an Adeptus Terra-grade cock up. She was supposed to be sent to the Fires of Purification, while P-47, a predator of children, was assigned to a Penitent Engine to pay for his sins. The Crusaders who were in charge of the prisoner transfers took the two penitents to the wrong holding cells, and the error was carried forward from there onwards.

Only the fact that PW-47 had truly seen the Light of the Emperor saved the world from annihilation, as a Beta-level psyker with access to a powerful walker could have potentially overcome the small Sororitas force present, and the local PDF and Crusader forces would have been powerless before her.

PW-47, of course, knows nothing of the mistake. As far as she is concerned, her status as the rider of a Penitent Engine and the suffering it entails is a just punishment for her sins.

[i]PW-47[i] - Heavy Support, 250 points

WS 3 BS 3 S 6 FA 11 SA 11 RA 10 I 3 A 4 HP 3

Unit Type: Walker

Unit Composition: 1 PW-47

Wargear: Two Dreadnought Close-Combat Weapons with built in Heavy Flamer

Special Rules: Psychic Pilot (Mastery Level 3), Rage, Psychic Shield, Unstoppable

Options: May be joined by up to two Penitent Engines for +80 points/model

Psychic Shield: Blessing, WC2. Range: Personal. The psyker gains a 3++ Invulnerable save until the end of her next Psychic Phase.

Psychic Pilot: PW-47 may generate powers from the Sanctified, Telepathy, Telekinesis and Pyromancy disciplines. She may cast Sanctified powers as though she were a Grey Knight.

My biggest complaint is the fluff of the character. An Alpha-level psyker is way, wayyyyy too high. Alpha level is like...Eldrad level and there's no way that an Alpha level psyker would just kinda be hanging out in a prison somewhere. People would know about that pretty quickly. I don't see any reason for this character to BE an alpha level, either. It feels like an artificial inflation of the power level.

Now as far as other rules-based thoughts:


Mastery levels - I'd cap their mastery level at 1 each. I see what you are going for, but it is a little too much. At that level and points, they become an irritating "I have to always have this no matter what" unit which I personally am not a fan of.

Detonator Collar - The manifesting thimg is an utterly useless 'debuff', as they cannot even choose spells from those two lists. Why would that even be a thing? The explode on perils is fine, but why do you mention two pyschic lores that they can't even use in your own rules?

To be technical on the character, as a vehicle she should be Psychic Pilot, not just Psyker.

Detonator Collar - Its in case there's some method of them gaining psychic powers from other disciplines I haven't thought of - there are ways to gain new powers mid-game, after all.

Mastery Levels - I thought the cost (80 points per model! For T3 W1 Sv-!) for making them level 2s would knock back the prevalence of them. But I can see what you mean - priests are taken anyway, so sticking a Battle Conclave of 3 lvl 2 psykers at the back of the board to generate warp charges wouldn't be too unreasonable. Level 1s it is.

Psychic Pilot, noted. On her case, I wanted ML3 and figured that was Alpha. Beta or Gamma, do you reckon then? The idea is that she repented - she's loyal to the Imperium, the Black Ships just missed her in their sweeps and she turned herself in.

But aren't those just new powers of what they can learn? I can't remember or think of anything that foists a certain lore on anyone.

Personally, my opinion of the fluff is the drop the level thing altogether. It isn't adding anything than a benchmark of power that is not really that important. It is a psyker that somehow wound up driving a Penitent Engine, that's all you really need. Tacking on "alpha/beta" level is just kinda fiddling where not a lot of fiddling is needed.

That said, I did some more thinking and I think ML3 is too high. After all, is this random psyker who is strapped into a Penitent Engine (which just floods a person with Emperor's hymnals and whatnot) an equal psyker to Tigirius? And stronger than the most powerful standard Libarians? All of whom have far more training and ability to focus? And it can cast daemonology, the most dangerous kind of psychic power, with the same level of skill as a Grey Knight? Right now, it is one of those "auto includes" because it does everything great with almost no downsides. After all, it can pop a 3++ fairly easily, and then have a VERY good chance to get Invisibility as well.

I understand the desire to give the Sisters some kind of psychic presence, but a crazy powerful psychic dreadnought is not going to handle it. Right now, PW-47 is right on the border of OTT because of it. It needs to be trimmed down considerably. I'd say MAYBE ML2, lose the 3++ spell and drop its access to lores.

Is Sanctified Daemonology really that dangerous? I thought it was just anti-daemon stuff. She can't cast Malefic / summoning powers.

Untrained psykers, in the lore, consistently have a higher power level than soulbound ones like Librarians. Rather than dropping the mastery level, how about something that makes her more likely to Perils?

PW-47
PW-47 is the result of an Adeptus Terra-grade cock up. She was supposed to be sent to the Fires of Purification, while P-47, a predator of children, was assigned to a Penitent Engine to pay for his sins. The Crusaders who were in charge of the prisoner transfers took the two penitents to the wrong holding cells, and the error was carried forward from there onwards.

Only the fact that PW-47 had truly seen the Light of the Emperor saved the world from annihilation, as a high level psyker with access to a powerful walker could have potentially overcome the small Sororitas force present, and the local PDF and Crusader forces would have been powerless before her.

PW-47, of course, knows nothing of the mistake. As far as she is concerned, her status as the rider of a Penitent Engine and the suffering it entails is a just punishment for her sins.

[i]PW-47[i] - Heavy Support, 250 points

WS 3 BS 3 S 6 FA 11 SA 11 RA 10 I 3 A 4 HP 3

Unit Type: Walker

Unit Composition: 1 PW-47

Wargear: Two Dreadnought Close-Combat Weapons with built in Heavy Flamer

Special Rules: Psychic Pilot (Mastery Level 3), Rage, Unstoppable, Unbound Psyker

Options: May be joined by up to two Penitent Engines for +80 points/model

Psychic Pilot: PW-47 may generate powers from the Sanctified(?), Telepathy, Telekinesis and Pyromancy disciplines. She may cast Sanctified powers as though she were a Grey Knight.

Unbound Psyker: PW-47 suffers a Perils of the Warp attack on a double 1 as well as a double 6.

Sanctic is basically GK powers afaik.

Hammerhand, Sanctuary, and so on.

Hm, yes, looking now I can see how that's a little unbalancing for PW-47.

Do, do we deny her those powers outright, or simply remove her casting protection?

I don't like the Idea of the Sisters of Battle having a unit mostly used to spam warp charges. They should get Inquisitors back which is their Librarian equivalent. I really Hate 7th being the Psyker Edition.

Fluff wise PW-47 doesn't sound all that good. Penitent Engines (and their pilots) are 1 use only. Not to mention she would have to go through sanctioning before being allowed to live Penitent Engine or not.
Psyker rating Delta is equivalent to Mastery Level 1, Gamma 2, and Beta 3. There are no sane human Alpha Level Psykers.


From The Inquisition

For a Sisters of Battle Psyker I'd look towards Ephrael Stern.

From Warhammer Warriors

I wrote up her stats in my Codex Sisters of Battle Linked in my Signature below. @Furyou The two above images hopefully are enough proof that she's a Psyker.

Yes, well, J3f, you and I completely disagree on the Sisters entirely, so kindly keep your Inquisition boot-licking to your own threads. :p