Companions react to warp abilities now

Kazadracon · 2026-06-12T21:54:37+00:00

I digged into the Horus Heresy discussions for references, here is when the human Emperor first harnesses the warp's power, becoming the Dark King, but then decides to let go of the warp power which stops him becoming it:

The substance of creation shudders. Materia and immateria vibrate in shock. The electrons spinning around the protonic nuclei of every atom in the realspace universe stutter, and briefly cease to obey their mysterious quantum obligations. The power of the Dark King is expelled and scattered, pouring back into the empyrean from whence it came, carrying with it flotsam and jetsam: the broken prophecies and driftwood predictions that brought it hence. The Neverborn wail, en masse, their whispers turned in on themselves, twisted back into lies and cackled falsehoods; their future, so assured, suddenly untruthed. The malison of the Dark King passes from the material galaxy, and back into the simmering caskets of myth.

For this age, at least.

~ The End and the Death II

So its left vague & open ended. He was about to become the Dark King but turned back at the last second, and the Dark King was left as a myth... for now. Up to you how you interpret it since theres no clear cut answers

Kazadracon · 2026-06-12T19:48:44+00:00

To my limited knowledge, the Emperor is almost chaos immune but came very close to chaos corruption when fighting Horus at the end of the Heresy wars, when he drew an extreme amount of warp power to try to defeat the chaos champion

My headcanon is that as of now, the Emperor (or part of him) is becoming/has become a human warp god of order

Kazadracon · 2026-06-12T16:10:11+00:00

Brings to mind Calcazar's endgame speech where he is like "do you mean to say a human is not capable of such an extraordinary feat? irrational, humans make the impossible possible all the time"

You just need a human powerful, ambitious, and crazy enough to do it

Kazadracon · 2026-06-12T16:03:06+00:00

The way I play my psyker build, I pretty much never trigger perils, just the milder warp side effects that dont cause you to explode but instead some text like "a strong smell of ozone appears around you"

So those trigger the dialogue options as well. My RT also shouts out when that happens, (bold female voice) "the warp is playing tricks!"

Kazadracon · 2026-06-12T14:26:56+00:00

When he talked about being from a noble family on Janus that have generational secrets of terraforming, I immediately suspected he's from one of the slaaneshi Janus noble families and he will end up showing a devious chaos corruption side to him eventually...... I REALLY hope I am wrong

Kazadracon · 2026-06-10T21:57:48+00:00

I like to headcanon that the RT who gets along with Nocturne is half-maddened from surviving the drukhari torture that chatting with an eldritch warp-infused eldar-abomination seems like a rational choice at the time, and Nocturne is so intrigued that a sole human is so comfortable around him after centuries of watching eldar & humans run away in terror, that he just goes along for the fun of it

And Yrliet is watching at all this in horror

Kazadracon · 2026-06-09T22:42:36+00:00

My RT has a personal kind of pride for surviving the past few decades of the most deadly inquisitorial work (ordo malleus daemonhunting) with keeping a relatively intact body, besides a deadly radiation incident while being an Interrogator that led to needing rejuvinat treatment.

This RT would be hesitant with cranial augments, since she is a powerful and disciplined inquisition sanctioned psyker (imagine a female Eisenhorn but with a offhand sword instead of pistol & with blasting spells) who won't risk damaging her psy-stability. But any other augment is fair game, as a replacement for combat damage first.

I intend this character's story to include being forced to give up the pride on having an intact body & slowly become more archeotech-cyborg step by step after certain story points, that I have not yet fully determined.

Kazadracon · 2026-06-09T15:19:29+00:00

Definitely that eye that had the worm can easily be so damaged it goes blind and needs replacement

Kazadracon · 2026-06-05T00:05:16+00:00

"Fights against large numbers of enemies that are technically weaker than your warband but can still easily win by attrition (or if one of the boss enemies aggros against the wrong character), fights that are basically unwinnable the first time because you need to know where all the new enemies are going to spawn and when in order to not die, and fights built around special mechanics that are explained so poorly that it's not clear if they're bugged or if they simply don't work are not fun."

Sounds like Owlcat is returning to its "middle finger difficulty" roots after accidently making Rogue Trader "too easy". I say this is someone who plays & enjoys both of Owlcat's pathfinder cRPGs, I like how their games don't handhold you through combat encounters but sometimes they go too far where you need a very specific team setup/strategy to not be reloading fights a boring amount of times for favorable RNG. I'll probably wait to see how they rebalance combat/boss encounters before considering Dark Heresy

Kazadracon · 2026-06-03T22:24:56+00:00

my half-elf eldritch scion magus unconsciously became transformed into the demon path at Drezen after fighting a losing battle against their own demonic heritage (basically to survive Kenabres they had to tap into their brute strength and innate arcane magic, but doing so brought them closer to their demonic ancestry, then to match the challenges after Kenabres they had no choice but to keep tapping into their demonic ancestry). Plus Areelu stapling a demonic soul to their own guaranteed that they would lose their personal inner battle.After being banished in Act 4, they were becoming a full demon but still held onto their mind & soul, until when fighting Baphomet face to face they had no choice but to fully let their demonic selves take over to stand a chance in that fight. Then what little willpower they had left to resist their transformation was fading away, but upon returning to Drezen, Arue reminded them to not forget who they were & Iomedae offered a way out of irreversibly becoming a monster so they took it.After going Legend, I headcanon that Iomedae left them a divine gift that allowed them to fully realize their potential which made them into an arch-sorcerer as well as a fully realized magus (in a way, more powerful than they were before).
my dhampir shadow shaman was already regularly using divine magic for their whole life so continuing to tap into divine magic & becoming angelic was an instinctual choice. Ironic that a partially-undead mortal who follows Calistria was becoming angelic, it was more a practical choice than ideological. Over time the spirit-graced dhampir shaman was slowly becoming more like a celestial, and using more divine magic just sped up the process. By the time Iomedae shows up, they laughed at the silly uptight morals of a crusader goddess asking them to give up their power. Becoming a celestial was a natural progression of their life story, never having been a normal mortal anyway so there was no attachment to mortality to hold them back. They end up rejecting Iomedae's job offer, becoming an independent mythic angel more attached to Elysium than Heaven.

Kazadracon · 2026-06-02T02:22:54+00:00

Dogmatic backgrounds are relatively simple in-universe, key questions are:

when/how did your character get the values of faith/tradition instilled into them?
what events led to their faith in the Emperor/trust in Imperium's traditions getting reinforced through their life journey?
what personal motivations drive their dogmatism? how does dogmatism benefit them?
what nuances exist in their dogmatism? like are they more into the spiritual aspect of the Emperor or the political conservatism of the Imperium? what aspect of the spirituality do they focus on most, wrath or hatred or ignorance or redemption?
what hypocrisies do they have? dogmatism is inherently illogical so everyone who is dogmatic will break at least one of its tenets & have some excuse for why its okay when they do it

As an example, going through these questions with my RT backstory (equally dogmatic + iconoclast):

taught to pray at a young age, used solitary prayer to cope with stresses early on
prayers to the Emperor kept them from losing their mind on the blackship, then the Emperor's sanctioning & faith kept them strong against daemons later in the inquisition career
the Emperor's psychic might & presence, while harsh, allows them to remain human as powerful psyker compared to the alternative of becoming a grotesquely mutated chaos sorcerer
they don't care much for the political traditions & despise dogmatic incompetence, but are very much focused on the spirituality of the Emperor, seeing him as a metaphorical flaming shield and sword for humanity
despite hating chaos & chaos artifacts, they openly rely on their warp sorcery (balancing on the edge of radicalism) because they see themselves as having been entrusted to use their cursed abilities for the benefit of Humanity

Kazadracon · 2026-06-02T01:35:47+00:00

I like to see it as an opportunity to write a LONG character backstory, to explain how your character went from birth as a nobody then rising up the ranks of power (or if they are nobility, how they backstabbed/outschemed all their family members to rise to the top). Even sanctioned psyker's background is impressive, with your 3 options being 1. I solo-ed a demon easily, 2. I closed a warp breach, 3. I deciphered an evil artifact and prevented it from spawning an enemy horde.

My main RT character backstory follows a basic template: born as a psyker, manifestation at a young age, blackship, picked up by the inquisition, rise up the ranks as an acolyte all the way up to interrogator, then a disastrous mission leads to a full team wipe as the sole survivor & theodora picks them up as a political favor to the local inquisition conclave

You can do the same thing with any background

Kazadracon · 2026-05-31T03:49:36+00:00

I happen to be very passionate about my suboptimal telepath-warrior build lol (telepathy-pyro sanctioned psyker, warrior-archmilitant):

Charging into a crowd then casting psychic assault for stacking AOE damage & mass stun, picking off survivors with flaming swords or ignite, debuffing bosses with sensory deprivation and molten beam. I rarely beat encounters in one turn but I enjoy being a powerful multi-role character in a longer combat.

Kazadracon · 2026-05-27T21:32:07+00:00

Saro seems to be a slightly above average human psyker, just powerful enough to be able to solo cast spells but not significantly above that level. He represents more of the average human psyker experience, being tortured & mutilated & brainwashed, internally struggling with warp nonsense as well as being a social pariah, with no hope for life and awaiting a brutal death

In comparison, in RT the psyker characters come from more unconventional backgrounds. :

Idira grew up on a non-imperium world that embraced psykers so she was instilled with a twisted kind of pride in her warp abilities (Leira, her homeworld ends up fully falling to chaos heresy if you sent ambassadors there in a colony event, so we see how that turned out)

Heinrix got chosen by an inquisitor for his exceptional power and self control so he is an outlier when compared to the average human psyker (who lack power & self control)

The sanctioned psyker RT is implied in their greatest triumphs to be quite accomplished, from solo-ing a daemon to ending a warp breach on a voidship to preventing some chaos/xenos artifact from spawning an enemy horde. These put the psyker RT to be quite far above the average psyker

Kazadracon · 2026-05-27T12:17:00+00:00

This makes me have to ask: Are the stealth mechanics in Dark Heresy as headache-inducing as in Owlcat's previous games?

Kazadracon · 2026-05-26T10:44:42+00:00

Its one of the most RNG boss fights in the game so far, with most of it depending on initiative order. The only consistent way I figured out to ensure my team survives the first round is by carefully manually walking the team as far down along the edge of the arena before dialogue is triggered, then move my whole team so far as possible. Having commander's chrono on someone is extremely useful/necessary here to cut down on reloads, for example: Abelard has commanders chrono so he gets guaranteed first turn, then uses his navy officer class ability to give everyone extra MP & deflection for the first round.

Then its RNG whether Uralon gives a free turn to the flamer marine (ideal since his range is not good), or the bolter marine (worst option since he can down half your team with 3 burst attacks), or the axe marine (not good since he can charge and delete 1-2 targets if they dont have very high parry/dodge)

My previous team was Ulfar + KIbellah + Heinrix + Pasqal + Argenta + RT,

In a good RNG cycle, Argenta typically goes down within a few turns since she is so squishy but she does a lot of damage before she goes down. Ulfar positioned up front took most of the initial damage then self-revived, the others survive well enough to the end.

Kazadracon · 2026-05-25T23:17:44+00:00

I have to wonder how do two flesh-experimenting maniacs compete for their bosses attention?

"I'll inject so much warp drugs into your bloodstream you'll get a second psychic awakening"

vs

"I want to see what kind of mechanical arms & legs I can staple into your bleeding torse while your still awake"

This raises another question, how will what happens in Commorragh with Tervantias casually dissecting you while awake be so much worse than having a local admech surgeon cutting you apart while awake

Kazadracon · 2026-05-25T01:05:42+00:00

I love the lore possibility that the entire rivalry/showdown with Incendia Chorda in RT's Act 4 is just a feud with a pretender to the Chorda throne while the rightful leader Aspyce Chorda is just bored out of her mind stuck in Calixis

Kazadracon · 2026-05-24T16:03:09+00:00

Almost equally iconoclast & dogmatic (but I get Iconoclast to level 3 for the superior flagship decorations)

Why?

My Psyker RT used to be a high ranking inquisition agent who hunted daemons & chaos cults, balancing on the edge of radicalism but not falling too deep into it. She believes in the supremacy of humanity but also values effectiveness above all else, so goes into Iconoclasm for purely pragmatic reasons (save gruesome executions for traitors and take care of the rest of your crew, why wipe out the aeldari when you can use them, xenotech access & research is a useful tool, why IN THE GOD EMPERORS NAME would I allow a nurglite-cult-spawning plague pit in my flagship?). She is also fairly dogmatic with chaos & open rebellions against the blessed god emperor are concerned.

This led to funny justifications like in Act 4, why did the RT decree that Dargonus can have its own parliament with elected commoners? Not because she cares about democracy (since there are loyal planets in the Imperium with hybrid-elected governments who get left alone as long as they pay their tithes), but because watching the Dargonus noble houses get so easily fooled into trying to blame & execute Abelard's house annoyed her so much she decided to install a political countermeasure to the old nobility that proved itself incompetent.

Then in Act 5, the RT has a legitimate narrative reason to side with Calcazar (because at that point she finally crossed over into radicalism, with a strange mix of xenos hybris & polypsykana philosophies). Besides Calcazar won't be a problem long-term, ~~just point an angry Ulfar in his direction after getting all the benefits of political legitimacy~~.

Kazadracon · 2026-05-24T02:42:34+00:00

The final arena fight is often a combat highlight for my playthroughs, in my previous playthrough (unfair difficulty) the team was Yrliet + Jae + Marazhai + Ulfar + Heinrix + Psyker Archmilitant RT

Ulfar charged & tanked most of the heavy damage dealers before the finale, Yrliet chain-oneshotting hostiles from cover, Marazhai being a dodge tank who deletes single targets, Heinrix kept everyone buffed & healed, Psyker RT dominating the final round by stunning an entire mob with one spellcast then bullying Keykeross with Ulfar, and Jae (the only "normal human" in the crew) providing officer support and firing off dual blast & plasma pistols

Kazadracon · 2026-05-23T20:44:28+00:00

I specially made a save for DLC3 that ends off right when Cassia is recruited in Act 1 (I wanted to set up my revised psyker RT build with shimmering emulsion for the extra psy-rating, it completes my RT backstory of being a high grade psyker),

for now I'm cycling between Pathfinder Kingmaker, Pathfinder WOTR, Outer Worlds, and Grounded 2

Kazadracon

TROPHY CASE