Eldar Farseer and the 5 powers

[JMichael]

Soooo. There are so many 6th ed Q threads (my god ppl, don't name your thread '6th edition question!). I have a Farseer specific Q and wanted confirmation.

Farseers are Mastery Level 1 according to the FAQ. But they can also still buy all 5 powers from the codex: Eldar. The FAQ then states for each power bought, you may generate a new power from the Disciplines.

So if you wanted to go crazy, it seems you could buy all 5 for 115 points and thus generate 5 new powers (perhaps to get the 'one' that you want).
Of course if you have Spirit Stones than you can use 2/turn.

Also It states that Eldrad is Mastery Level 3, though has 5 powers, and the FAQ states he can generate only 4 new powers.

[The AKH]

I believe Spirit Stones add +1 to Mastery, giving an effective Mastery 2 for a Farseer or Mastery 4 for Eldrad. This potentially allows Eldrad to use the four powers he can generate from the BRB lists.

[JMichael]

Eldrad can only use 3 powers (and only 2 if he's in CC). 1 as normal, +1 for Spirit Stones, and +1 for his Staff

So allowing him to generate 4 powers from the rulebook is already setting a precedent that they can have more powers than they could use.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

They KNOW more spells than they can physically cast, it's fairly common, especially in Fantasy. Also, you can only buy 4 out of 5 spells on a normal Farseer.

[Subexarch]

And some of the new spells use 2 Warp Charges to cast so even Eldrad may only be able to fire off 1-2 depending on the WC rating.

[Gloomfang]

The FAQ says that Eldrad gets 4 powers if he decides to trade in for BRB powers. Also for each bought power a Farseer can trade in for a roll on the BRB, but he must trade in all of them. The number of powers that are rolled are tied to the number he has not the Mastery lvl.

Works the same way with Nids.

[SaganGree]

So if Eldrad is Mastery 3... that means he can cast 3 powers a turn even if he is in CC and possibly 4 while not?

How exactly will his Wargear interact with his FAQ'd statline?

[Gloomfang]

Eldrad is Mastery 3 so he gets 3 Warp Charges per turn. Diffrent powers require diffrent Warp Charges.
He can use them whenever a normal Psyker can use them in all the normal ways psykers can use them. The FAQ just says Mastery Lvl 3.

[Archon Charybdis]

Unfortunately, the FAQ doesn't really address at all how his mastery level 3 interacts with his Staff of Ulthamar rule. Staff of Ulthamar says he can cast a third power with the caveat he can't be in combat. The FAQ just says Mastery Level 3, no restrictions. It also doesn't address if he may cast the same power more than once.

Also, Farseers can only purchase 4 of the 5 powers in the codex, so 4 is the max they can generate out of the BYB disciplines.

[JMichael]

I've never bought more than 2 powers, so I missed the limit on 4. my bad.

Has GW listed the Warp Charges of the codex powers?

[Archon Charybdis]

They have none, you follow the normal rules as written in your codex.

[The AKH]

I think the assumption is that all Codex powers are Warp Charge 1, as is activating a Force Weapon.

Also, I goofed earlier about Eldrad's Mastery Level. 3, not 4.

[DarkLink]

My question is, why did GW do such a terrible job of explaining who does and does not get to pick how many powers off the list?

[The AKH]

I would chalk this up to "well we're going to change it in the next Codex so here's a sort-of-stopgap-that-might-have-a-few-kinks-in-it"

[DarkLink]

But even then, they have like three incomprehensible paragraphs about 'some psykers generate their own powers, except if they don't then they conditionally get to select powers here, and blah, blah, blah'. The only clear part of the rule is how you actually roll for powers on the chart, but everything on who gets to roll is nonsensical. The FAQs aren't any better. Sometimes you get to exchange powers on a one for one basis. Sometimes it's based on your psychic mastery level. Sometimes you can't exchange all of your powers. Sometimes you have to pull out your magic 8 ball and use that to decide.

I would think they could figure out a better way that didn't even require an FAQ in the first place. And I would certainly think that the FAQs could explicitly spell out how it works, so there's none of this "does Eldrad get 3 or 4 powers from the chart?" nonsense.