Hey All!

Dark Soul- weakest talent, or weakest talent? What a senseless waste of human life... Ehh, Exp. 

Instead of simply halving the penalty for malignancy, I propose a massive boost to the power of this talent: having it actually give a +30 bonus (canceling out the final malignancy penalty.) There's nothing really lamer, in my opinion, than the malignancies- a horrible and random penalty to stats! I think this makes the talent a lot more interesting for those ranks that have access to it and a lot more prone to encountering corruption points.

What do you guys think? 

I don't think malignancies are horrible. Our Psyker got one (just the one, grumble grumble) which gives him a hatred for the dregs of the lower classes.

This is great fun, because whenever they go "slumming" among the downtrodden (which happens a lot when you go inquiring into things related to crime, cultist activity and hidden underground facilities) he cannot keep himself from insulting the locals, sneering at whoever they are talking to, making sarcastic remarks about their usefulness etc etc etc.

Maybe not directly beneficial to their investigations, but it creates all sorts of interesting encounters that we as players around the table find very amusing :)

As for the Talent, I haven't really thought about it. Depending on your acquisition of CPs this may end up giving you helpful bonuses to many a test, tests which as you say have some permanent negative consequences. 

The threat of corruption and damnation is really the only thing that limits and holds back Psykers, and I really do not want to give'em any more chance to avoid the GM royally screwing them over.

anything that makes a useless talent useful, but not overpowered is good in my books.

I'd think maybe +10 or +20 instead. Otherwise it might be too much? 

Well, at the highest level it already gives as much bonus as 3 WP advances, so I wouldn't call it useless

Saldre said:

Dark Soul is simply an Insurance Policy for people (like me) who plan ahead.

I don't feel it's useless. It just may not be useful until you get a character into the range of 20 CPs.

The penalty of a d10 reduced to a d5 is not insignificant, unless it happens to hit one that you don't use. However, unlike 'other' rpgs out there, I feel that there is no 'sink' stat in DH. Everything come in handy sooner or later. This is just one of those talents that is good…if you like buying insurance that is. A psyker for example can buy it at obscurus level and get it for 200 xp. Buying back what you lose can usually cost a lot more than 200 exp, and if you are real unfortunate, you could have to buy back 2 levels. The first time that happens to you, you'll be like 'Why didn't I buy Dark soul when I had the chance?'

And besides the mechanical benefit, it sounds cool.  Dip your head and look out intensly from under your brow, raise your hand to eye level palm up as if clutching a skull ( in the classic hamlet fashion) and say in a deep gravelly voice  "Dark Soul!". 

Worth 100xp just for that.

Did I mention recently how much I love you, Interrogator Zakalwe?

Darth Smeg said:

I seek no reward beyond my master's satisfaction Lord Smeg.

Interrogator Z