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Hey there, I noticed on the Grey Knight Terminator models they have curved plates around their heads, which look somewhat similar to psychic hoods, but only the Librarians (which don't have a model) have psychic hoods as per the rules. Are those curved plates psychic hoods or not?

It's probably some fancy form of grey knight psychic hood that is considered to be a part of their existing rules.

 ph34r wrote:
It's probably some fancy form of grey knight psychic hood that is considered to be a part of their existing rules.

But Grey Knight librarians have psychic hoods...

It's sort of a psychic hood.

No idea about the current codex, but in previous editions they had the Aegis special rule, which game them a defense against psychic attacks that targeted them. This was to represent the anti-psychic defenses built into the armour, of which that hood is a part.

 insaniak wrote:
It's sort of a psychic hood.

No idea about the current codex, but in previous editions they had the Aegis special rule, which game them a defense against psychic attacks that targeted them. This was to represent the anti-psychic defenses built into the armour, of which that hood is a part.

Good to know. Did GK Librarians have psychic hoods on top of that?

EDIT: Just looked it up, looks like Aegis was always something separate from Psychic Hoods, and only Librarians had Psychic Hoods.

Yeah, the hood styling dates back to RT, when all GKs and Librarians were modeled with them (presumably so you would recognise them as psykers) regardless of whether or not they took the psychic hood wargear.

 insaniak wrote:
Yeah, the hood styling dates back to RT, when all GKs and Librarians were modeled with them (presumably so you would recognise them as psykers) regardless of whether or not they took the psychic hood wargear.

Seems more likely it represents the Aegis system.

The aegis suit was also originally optional.

As I mentioned above, in the current rules, yes, the general thinking is that the hood represents part of the aegis suit. Stylistically, though, it's just a psychic hood, regardless of what rules it follows.

picked up my copy of deamonhunter 3.5ed codex to have a look. Every grey knight character and squad leader had the option of taking a psychic hood. Due to how rules worked back then it was basicly the same as every unit having the option. All grey knights got the aegis for free. They could use eiher the aegis or the psychic hood to attempt to nullify a psychic power, but not both. So yes every grey knight had a psychic hood available to them.

I'm pretty sure this is the oldest rules for the grey knights. Don't now what the 5th ed Matt Ward codex says on the matter.

Hecaton wrote:
Seems more likely it represents the Aegis system.

No, aegis is very specifically the engraving of mystical stuff and writing on armour in fluff. It might be also present on 'hood' part but it's not the primary purpose of it.

To OP, you're slightly confused - Librarians do have a model. Voldus is chief librarian of the GK, and he has the same 'hood' bit as every other GK character or squad leader. So, yeah, it's likely they all technically are supposed to have it. Why they don't have them? Possibly balance issue, bad rules writing, or attempt to differentiate them from SM/GK Librarian mini that only got it thanks to very pronounced SM hood other GK don't have...

I suspect that the models are sculpted with psychic hoods, and there is a disconnect from the lore/rules.

AFAIK models/sculpts tend to come first then rules and lore are made to fit the sculpt. I suspect when they were originally sculpting Grey Knights they had a look at what were the defining features of a Space Marine Psyker and one of those instantly recognisable features was the Psychic Hood, so GKs we’re sculpted with Psychic Hoods.

 Irbis wrote:

Hecaton wrote:
Seems more likely it represents the Aegis system.

No, aegis is very specifically the engraving of mystical stuff and writing on armour in fluff. It might be also present on 'hood' part but it's not the primary purpose of it.

To OP, you're slightly confused - Librarians do have a model. Voldus is chief librarian of the GK, and he has the same 'hood' bit as every other GK character or squad leader. So, yeah, it's likely they all technically are supposed to have it. Why they don't have them? Possibly balance issue, bad rules writing, or attempt to differentiate them from SM/GK Librarian mini that only got it thanks to very pronounced SM hood other GK don't have...

No, he's very specifically got some extra stuff stuck on there. Good catch, though, I didn't realize that he was basically the GK equivalent of Chief Librarian.

 Nerak wrote:

I'm pretty sure this is the oldest rules for the grey knights. Don't now what the 5th ed Matt Ward codex says on the matter.

It's not. As I mentioned, there were 2nd rules. The models date back to RT, but I'm not sure if they actually had rules then.

They did. The 40k compilation has the following to say about the matter in RT times.

So at that time Aegis referred to the librarian armour, and all grey knights had psychic hoods.

 insaniak wrote:

 Nerak wrote:

I'm pretty sure this is the oldest rules for the grey knights. Don't now what the 5th ed Matt Ward codex says on the matter.

It's not. As I mentioned, there were 2nd rules. The models date back to RT, but I'm not sure if they actually had rules then.

My bad. I guess Flinty solved the matter neatly.

 Flinty wrote:
They did. The 40k compilation has the following to say about the matter in RT times.

So at that time Aegis referred to the librarian armour, and all grey knights had psychic hoods.

That's the 40k compilation? The furthest back I went looking was Dark Millennium.

Definitely a Rogue Trader era book - the references to WP (WillPower) give it away.

For the newest book I think they just took the psychic good idea and replaced it with the brotherhood of psykers rule it’s still a +1 to rolls for psychic and deny the witch tests to boost the idea that they are all psykers even if weaker ones than the legit HQ choices now.