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With regard to bespoke psychic powers, it seems rather off from a verisimilitude perspective that e.g. if a Farseer mounts a Jetbike then they must immediately forget Guide and instead learn Misfortune before going into battle.

Why?

It's not as if either of these powers is in some way specific to being on foot or mounted, so what's the point?

The theory would be not that the forgot the foot psychic power, but they they chose to study and learn a power that capitalized on high mobility because they knew they liked jetbikes.

Like maybe the foot faseer's path went Guardian> Warlock> Farseer

Where the mounted farseers path was
Windrider> Mounted Warlock> Mounted Farseer.

I'm still not sure I like it better than choices, but I get it.

Maybe you select a defensive/utility power and an attack power for the psyker before the game.

Or maybe, it's more important that the "play against other person" part matches the fluff than the "sit at home alone and write an army" part.

When two units can more or less do the same thing, at some point you will figure out who does it best. At that point, it's no longer a strategic decision and goes to the shelf unless you make up flavorful excuses to run them anyways.

@Jake, I have read your post but am too tired to write a response today. Will respond eventually.

PenitentJake wrote:The theory would be not that the forgot the foot psychic power, but they they chose to study and learn a power that capitalized on high mobility because they knew they liked jetbikes.

Like maybe the foot faseer's path went Guardian> Warlock> Farseer

Where the mounted farseers path was
Windrider> Mounted Warlock> Mounted Farseer.

I'm still not sure I like it better than choices, but I get it.

Fluff nitpick: technically they're supposed to have an aspect warrior in there somewhere. Have to be a former aspect to become a warlock. I think there's even fluff suggesting that all farseers were former warlocks implying that they were all former aspects, but that particular bit of fluff doesn't sit well with me.

More on-topic, the concept of a psyker "studying" and "learning" a power feels off to me. Like, it seems wrong that a pair of farseers would be setting around comparing their stat sheets and discussing the merits of Guide vs Misfortune. Even back when we could pay for multiple powers or generate our choice of power at the start of each battle, it felt a bit strange. If I were to redesign psykers with fluff in mind, I think I'd probably give each faction one or more power lists (sort of like disciplines from past editions but with like, 3 powers instead of 6+) and then give psykers access to the relevant power list. And then let psykers be flexible swiss army knives that can choose how they contribute each turn. Price accordingly. One farseer already Doomed the main thing your army plans on shooting at? Go ahead and toss out a Fortune onto a unit that needs it. Or opt to let him shoot an Eldritch Storm this turn instead. First farseer died? Your army isn't suddenly without Doom; the second farseer can step into that role.

Even if you don't want to implement a complicated subsystem for building up stress by casting too much or whatever, simply lettin psykers choose one of several effects each turn both gives the impression that they have access to a wide variety of psychic effects and have to focus on one of them at a time to pull them off. Optionally: include a core strat that lets you use a second power.

Jidmah wrote:Or maybe, it's more important that the "play against other person" part matches the fluff than the "sit at home alone and write an army" part.

When two units can more or less do the same thing, at some point you will figure out who does it best. At that point, it's no longer a strategic decision and goes to the shelf unless you make up flavorful excuses to run them anyways.

@Jake, I have read your post but am too tired to write a response today. Will respond eventually.

I feel like it's worth noting that *some* (not all) of this efficiency contest is an artificial result of datasheets being broken up based on wargear. So back in the day, a bikeseer and a footseer weren't necessarily competing directly with eachother. A bikeseer was just a farseer that paid a few extra points for some extra mobility, durability, and the ability to keep up with a bike squad. He had access to the same powers as a footseet because they were the same "datasheet." Sure, maybe the totally-not-a-meltagun psychic power made more sense on a terminator librarian than on a foot librarian, but ultimately you were just customizing your librarian(s) rather than framing it in terms of termie librarisn competiting with foot librarians and so forth.

Also, outside of highly optimized play, things like taking a footseer even if a bikeseer is considered more optimal usually isn't a huge deal. Outside of competitive play, you're generally just looking for options to be "good enough" to be viable rather than looking for each option to be perfectly even with other options.