Psychic Powers

Psykers channel the Warp — the roiling, malevolent dimension underlying reality — and shape it into effects the material universe was not built to accommodate. It is the most powerful thing a character can do and the most likely to end badly.

If your character doesn't have the PSYKER Keyword, you can skip this chapter.

Casting a power

1. Declare the power, how you're using it, and at what Power Level.

2. Build the pool. Psychic powers roll Psychic Mastery + Willpower, plus any bonus dice.

3. Note the Wrath Dice. This is the one place the usual rule bends. Casting above the base Power Level adds extra Wrath Dice to the pool — the only situation in the game where Wrath Dice number more than one.

4. Roll against the power's DN. Meet or beat it and the power manifests.

5. Resolve the Wrath Dice, which behave differently here than anywhere else.

The Wrath Die, in the Warp

A 6 counts as an Exalted Icon for Icons and can be Shifted to enhance the power's Potency — but it does not trigger a Critical Hit and does not award Glory. The Warp doesn't hand out heroism.

A 1 triggers Perils of the Warp, whether you succeeded or failed. Reality objects to what you just did. The GM rolls on the Perils table and applies the result immediately — it might be atmospheric, it might inflict Mortal Wounds on everyone nearby, and it might make every subsequent psychic Test in the scene more dangerous.

Rolling a 1 on more than one Wrath Die makes the result worse — @Missing file is the table it comes from, and it runs well past what a single die could produce. Casting at a higher Power Level is genuinely a gamble, not just a cost.

Corruption

The Warp leaves marks. Corruption accumulates from Perils, from Chaotic Glory, and from choices your character makes under pressure, tracking up through Pure, Tarnished, Contaminated, Tainted and Defiled.

At the end of that road the character becomes a Chaos Spawn and stops being yours to play. That is a real ending, and it arrives one small compromise at a time.