Let's Revisit Codex BA Psychic powers.

[knife&fork]

With 6th well under way I think it's time to take look at our ol 'dex and see if we can dig out something useful.

Sure, everyone likes a divination lib but let's keep an open mind

Blood Boil

It might only be a single wound but no to hit roll, no save, no stat test and the possibility of sniping makes it worth a look. At least as a secondary power. To me the latest FAQs have made this power interesting. Since the reach of BB is now effectively limited to 12" it makes you able to put that wound on a key model with some positioning, without having to roll 5 or below. Not quite 100% on how LoS! would work with this....

Fear of the Darkness

While we no longer are able to force units off the board by proximity I still think this power is more useful now than it was in 5th. We've seen a slight decrease in units that are immune to its effect. In 5th I tried a FotD spam list with two librarians and three lib dreads. I think it would do better now unless you run into a hard counter.

Might of Heroes

Compared to the other CC buffs we can get it's difficult to justify taking this. Librarians that aren't buffed by biomancy generally want to stay out of CC anyways. It does have the advantage of being used in the assault phase which I guess could be useful for a psyker arriving by reserves. Could be useful for a librarian dread which suffers from being a CC with few attacks.

Shackle Soul

Not bad for a disruptive role, perhaps good for a librarian accompanying DC in a pod? A key enemy unit that you can't cripple or destroy quickly seem like a good target.

Shield of Sanguinius

This one doesn't really need an introduction. Made slightly less useful for infantry thanks to heldrakes, but at the same time more useful since cover is now at a model basis.

Smite

bleh

The Blood Lance

Here's another power that was made more interesting by 6th ed. Better now thanks to casualty removal rules, AP 1 boost as well as general cover going from 4+ to 5+. Not as über as 'jaws' but better than ever. Also the only way to give a Lib dread anti AV fire. This power when taken on a mobile psyker should also greatly discourage castling of vehicles.

The Sanguine Sword

Nothing wrong with a S10 force weapon except for the fact that anything requiring the attention of such are units that your Librarian should probably stay away from.

Unleash Rage

Fairly straight forward power. Don't forget to reroll ones in overwatch.

Wings of Sanguinius

Good for Mephiston and Lib dreads who should consider taking this even if deploying by pod or raven. Navigating around terrain can be invaluable for CC walker. Very limited use though for a normal librarian. You don't want to get grounded just because of a failed psychic test if joined to a unit. And running off on your own is inadvisable.

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Did I miss anything? What do you want to add?

Hope this will help people think about codex powers again!

[BAHERSH]

I'm pretty sure Blood Boil still works the same, since the codex reads "the victim of blood boil is chosen by your opponent..." 

 

I still like shield of sang and either the sanguine sword, or unleash rage. Shield is great and makes an epistolary unnecessary. Sanguine sword is really great for punching vehicles in the face, which is really nice when your AM's miss horribly with their melta guns. 

 

Would someone clarify if the force sword/ psychic hood counts for the 1 per turn psychic power? I assume not, but that would be great.

[tomjoad]

Activating a force weapon takes a force charge, so it does count. Using a psychic hood does not use a force charge, but, of course, psychic hoods are borderline useless, so who cares?

 

In my razorback list I've been using a Shield libby exclusively. All my tanks can often get a 5+ that way, since the 6" is measured from the hull if your libby is embarked. I have no ability to actually roll a 5 or 6, though, so maybe BAs is just the wrong choice for me, haha.

 

When I use a librarian to drop with an assault squad, though, it's a much harder choice. Having Shield + something else good would help me survive a turn if there are plasma cannons or something to shoot at the unit, but missing out on Prescience for the meltas in that squad is a big trade-off.

[Zynk Kaladin]

You know I'm quite surprised smite still isn't very useful considering how 6th made 2+ saves a bit more prevalent. 

[knife&fork]

You know I'm quite surprised smite still isn't very useful considering how 6th made 2+ saves a bit more prevalent. 

 

It's the amount of steps you have to take. First take a psychic test, then the target gets a 'deny the witch', then you roll to hit ,then you roll to wound and then any invul or cover saves....   So it's like a weak 'gets hot' gun that gives the opponent an extra save.

 

 

I'm pretty sure Blood Boil still works the same, since the codex reads "the victim of blood boil is chosen by your opponent..." 

 

As per the latest FAQ wounds can only be allocated within range. Blood boil is a shooting attack with a 12" range. Careful positioning will give your opponent little choice in which model takes the wound. 

[Skraal]

Blood Boil is okay and you can snipe specific models using the range of the power but as the unit that he's with have to shoot at the same unit then this could work badly for example;

 

   Librarian is with a squad with weapons that have a range of 12" or less and snipes off the model as it's the only one within range of the power leaving the rest of the squad with no target as they are out of range for shooting and assault.

 

I like Might of Heroes for no other reason than he's usually in an assault squad and so hangs back and let's the sergeant do the  challenge while he knocks the  enemy unit about. But I do tend towards taking Prescience and then chancing it again on Divinaion for either Forewarning (for the approach) or Misfortune.

[John_f]

The biggest issue I think is that the BA libby is overpriced. I could buy a libby exclusivly for Shield but it should cost more like 65p as for the DA libby..

[tomjoad]

It doesn't make much sense to compare our librarian to a Dark Angel, unfortunately. Unless you are considering just switching to DAs and abandoning Blood Angels until we get a new book, our libby's price should only be compared to our other HQ options. In that light, a libby is the only reasonable option for a competitive army (I am not considering Mephiston in this comparison, as there are a dozen other threads to discuss him in).

 

Also, BA librarians still have one significant advantage over DAs: while we have the CHOICE to go with Divination, we never NEED to go with randomness. Because we can choose our powers sans rolls, we effectively gain the Epistolary upgrade for free (Shield on enemy's turn, other power on our own). The option to know exactly what powers you'll have before the game even begins allows us the chance to more accurately make a battle plan around our HQ, while a Dark Angel player will know they have Prescience if they want it, but has to guess what other options they might have until battle is joined.