Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So since the Psychic Powers are technically suppose to be balanced against their warp charge cost rather than points, and the Warlord Traits are all suppose to be equally viable, how many of you are willing to allow you and your opponent to pick your warlord trait and psychic powers?

It seems kinda silly that the general that's suppose to represent YOU on the field doesn't know what his speciality is until he actually gets on the field, or the psyker that's suppose to use immense discipline only knows what he will know at literally the last second.

I'm fine with picking, because nothing sucks more than rolling a useless, pointless trait in a game where it's unbalanced enough already.

If it's going to be unbalanced, at least being marginally happier about how it's unbalanced makes it less painful

Picking warlord traits should be fine, but psychic powers can vary so much in usefulness that I feel part of what balances them is the chance of not generating them.

If I could pick my powers, I would get really bored of some powers and will forget how others function. Some are hands down better options, and honestly that's the reason I would say I actually enjoy that they are random access.

You can tell there's a problem when psykers with innate knowledge of a power are the ones constantly chosen to run with death stars. Make any psyker able to choose, and it will just be the cheapest one that chooses from telepathy.

Although, if you asked me if I thought the rules for powers could be structured in a way that makes choosing them a strategic choice rather than an obvious one, I would say yes, and that I think it would make psychic powers a more engaging and interesting part of the game as a whole.

yes to the warlord traits but no to pyschic powers unless invisibility is changed some how. Otherwise everyone and their mother will pick that every time and death stars get another uneeded boost.

HoundsofDemos wrote:
yes to the warlord traits but no to pyschic powers unless invisibility is changed some how. Otherwise everyone and their mother will pick that every time and death stars get another uneeded boost.

That's the problem. Some psychic powers are complete gak while others, like invis, are so good they're almost broken. It's like allowing C'tan to choose their powers. Pretty much everyone would choose the Str D one and one other power.

Maybe if GW gave half a gak about rules, this wouldn't be a problem because each power would have the same usefullness or potency, but no. So choosing powers is the best we can do.

some choices will always be better than others, but for me that one stands out so hard.

Biomancy's Iron Arm also stands out, cuz whenever I hear people talk about Biomancy, it's always about Iron Arm.

I agree that random Traits on Powers are stupid, but specially psi powers are balanced against the random table so choosing them freely would be a problem.
Picking from only one Discipline and remove (or change) some Powers would help to solve this.

PS:
completely reworked Psychic Powers and Warlord Traits
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ij2JJZMDzbo_Jwm70_NRyxvPA91388hiyAnCluDDlUw/edit?usp=sharing

Well, that's the point of choosing. If both players have psykers, it's even better because the players can just choose what's best. If only one player has psykers... it's still not an issue because you should plan for them having the "best" powers anyway.

There is no plan for invisibility as RAW, it's a power that ignores large chucks of the rules.