Runes of Battle, casting and confusion.
The prevailing assumption for matched play seems to be that when casting a power from the Runes of Battle (we will use Protect/Jinx in this post as the example) you selected which version of the power to cast at step 1 of the psychic phase process and should you fail could still cast the alternate version of that power. While having a conversation with player in a Facebook group it became clear that stepping out the process would be good for all players concerned. All of the references for this post will be at the end of the assertion itself.
Firstly, we are told in the eldar codex that each rune of battle has 2 names and 2 effects which each effect counting as a different psychic power. Thus protect and jinx are essentially 2 different powers even though the warlock or similar selects a single combined power when choosing his spells. The fact that you essentially get 2 different names is highly important to this scenario.
Were the power name protect/jinx as a singular, the warlock casting would be subject to the psychic focus rule from chapter approved that would then prohibit future castings of the alternate effects unless the initial cast was successful (since we are also told that a warlock conclave that manifested a power may attempt to manifest the alt version of the same power in the same turn).
What’s interesting is the descriptor in the actual powers themselves which seems to the source of confusion – …. If manifested, choose one of the following…
With the prior information in place, we hit a scenario where you are not selecting which effect to use until after a successful psychic test is passed in step 2 of the process for psychic powers. This works fine for open or narrative play where psychic focus isn’t factor since you can attempt the same power multiple times in these formats.
With psychic focus in play the fact that runes of battle have 2 names with different effects is vital. It means that at step 1, you select your psyker and which of the 2 names you will be using BEFORE rolling to manifest which for matched play essentially moves the caveat of selecting the effect after manifesting to before manifesting.
If this didn’t happen, you could end up in a scenario where you attempt to cast protect, fail and then cannot attempt jinx as the power had already been attempted.
Essentially – runes of battle provide you with 2 distinct powers for matched play for each selection on the chart (since they are listed as a single power in general but defined as 2 powers for use). You must declare which is being used before rolling.
Psychic Focus (page 60 CA19)
With the exception of Smite, each psychic power can be attempted only once per turn, rather than once per psyker per turn. In addition, unless the psyker attempting to manifest Smite has either the Brotherhood of Psykers (see Codex: Grey Knights) or the Brotherhood of Sorcerers ability (see Codex: Thousand Sons), you must add 1 to the warp charge value of Smite for each attempt (whether successful or not) that has been made to manifest Smite during that Psychic phase, to a maximum warp charge value of 11.
RUNES OF BATTLE (page 124 CWE codex)
Note that the Runes of Battle psychic powers have two names, and two effects. Each effect counts as a different psychic power, so in matched play games a Warlock Conclave that manifests Conceal could also attempt to manifest Reveal.
Example – “Protect/Jinx has a warp charge value of 7. If manifested, choose one of the following:”
PSYCHIC PHASE (page 178 BRB)
PSYCHIC SEQUENCE
- Choose psyker and power
- Make Psychic test
- Enemy takes Deny the Witch test
- Resolve psychic power
2. Make Psychic Test
A psyker can attempt to manifest a psychic power they know by taking a Psychic test. To do so, roll 2D6. If the total is equal to or greater than that power’s warp charge value, the power is successfully manifested. A psyker cannot attempt to manifest the same psychic power more than once in a turn.