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Hi Dakka,

I was thinking about trailing some Cult Psykers. I've been thinking that Chaos would be trying to recruit as many psykers as they could. So why not have some cultists running around throwing bolts of blue lightning out of their fingertips.

Something along the line of the Brotherhood of Psykers from the Guard codex.

Min no of 5 up to 10.

WS-3 BS-3 S-3 T-3 I-3 A-1 Ld-7 Sv-5+

Ld 7 at 5, increase to a max of 10

Must take a mark and all powers are randomly selected each turn from the CSM Codex from that mark.

I just don't know how many points it would be worth. Any ideas?

You might need to give us more then that. What wargear do they have? How much are Marks? What gives them the 5+ save? I assume they are just a copy and paste of the IG version so they have las pistols and flak armour.

Honestly, i think you could add a bit more flavor to them. Right now they are just that, a C+P if the IG psyker battle squad who can only access vastly inferior laws (face it, right now it's Divination or Nothing). I think you should give them some special rules that make them feel more Chaos-y, for example let them take a Sargent or Thrall Sorcerer which makes them level 2 but they suffer a perils on any doubles. There, you instantly made them different from the IG version.

Maybe have every perils you suffer roll a die, on a 5 or 6 you instantly get a Chaos Spawn. Maybe have it so you can sacrifice 1 model in the unit to get D3 re-rolls when casting powers of determining their effect ( Kill some one off to get 2 re-rolls, get Plague Wind but fail LDship test. Use re-roll, pass. Blast misses, use re-roll, hits.). I see Chaos Psykers are far less disciplined then Imperial ones but more powerful and more willing dam themselves for more. Then put them at around 8pts per model and 15pts for Thrall Sorcerer and your good to go.

If they are based on a port from the guard dex, flak armour, cc weapon and autopistol (basically a laspistol but cultist flavoured) is the way to go. Access to chaos powers instead of book powers makes sense - consider the inclusion of a champion with access to the boon table, the armoury and familiars perhaps?

I would prefer a Cultist Psyker to be an individual upgraded in the squad. Similar to a Shadowseer for Harlequins. Given its own Power, either buffing the cultists a little or providing a bit of destructive force.

Or providing destructive force upon the cultists. It's Chaos, you know.

Cultists psykers are a "gee, why don't they have that?!?" obvious omission from the codex now you've pointed it out. (Never thought of it before). Making them more powerful but less reliable than the Guard psykers -- to the point of Spawning or blowing up -- would be the awesome way to go.

 SisterSydney wrote:
Cultists psykers are a "gee, why don't they have that?!?" obvious omission from the codex now you've pointed it out. (Never thought of it before). Making them more powerful but less reliable than the Guard psykers -- to the point of Spawning or blowing up -- would be the awesome way to go.

or sacrificial. use cultists to power their spells.

Like the idea in general, especially sacrificing cultists to empower spells. However, any proposal that can force me onto the tzeench power table without fixing said table is a non-starter for me. Even pyromancy would be a godsend compared to that table.