Experimental Rules for my Archon.

Hi all,

With my background for my Archon coming along nicely I have also drawn up some experimental rules for him. I will be playtesting them with a few friends in the coming weeks and hopefully will be using him regularly in our gaming group, with their blessing of course.

I would like to know if you guys think my points value is ok and any help refining his rules will be much appreciated.

Here goes:

Dradeel Linvail - Archon of the Broken One Kabal.

WS BS S T I W A Ld Sv
6 6 3 4 6 3 4 10 5+

Wargear:
Kabalite Armour
Shadowfield
The Broken One
Plasma Grenades
Crystal Helm
Combat Drugs

Special Rules:
Night Vision
Power from Pain
Fleet
Tortured Past

The Broken One:
Forged from the very blade used to Torture Dradeel in his youth, The Broken One is deadly in the hands of its owner. However the blade still bears the stains of Dradeel's mothers blood and her very essence is bound to the weapon, still yearning to spill the blood of her son. The Broken One is a poisoned (2+) power weapon but any rolls to hit of 1 are resolved against Dradeel.

Crystal Helm:
Found deep in the Webway The Crystal Helm is a very ancient and powerful form of Soul Tech. Instead of enpowering the bearer the souls energy is projected outwards in a wave of sheer torment. The Crystal Helm acts as a Soul Trap but instead of increasing Dradeel's strength he gains a shooting attack with the following profile:

Range: Template S:4 AP:3 Assault 2 (One Use per soul trapped)

Tortured Past:
Bein tortured daily for over a century by his own mother and thousands of regenerations and surgical enhancements at the hands of the Heamonculi have made Dradeel impervious to all but the most horrific wounds. He therfore has a Toughness of 4 and starts the game with a pain token.

Points: 185

The crystal helm seems pretty fine, nice idea (though, I think that if it should gain one shot per soul trapped, it should start on assault 1 - also, template weapons are preferably not at more than one shots, so maybe it should change in some way).

What I don't understand however is why he has WS, BS and I 6 (one point lower than the usual archon) and T 4 (hardly any Dark Eldar have a T better than 3). Oh, and I suppose that his Altered Physique is the same as the Haemies (starts with a pain token)?

Overall, I think the point cost is (as he is now) ok, but as mentioned, some rules aren't very fitting, IMO.

Its in the background i am writing i just havent gotten around to posting it all yet. He is T4 and 6's on WS, BS, and I because as a child he was tortured daily and sent to the heamonculi for regeneration and surgical enhancements to prolong the torture inflicted so in effect he has been experimented and tortured on so much that he hardly feels anything physically (hence the T4 and Altered Physique). i thought 7's on the others would make him a bit too expensive i would be looking at at least 200+ if he was 7 7 3 4 7 3 4 10 as other Archons are. Have revised the Specail rules to reflect the T4 and PT. Also amended wordin on the Crystal Helm its one USE per soul not one SHOT hence why it was assault 2

If I was a tyranid player, I would strongly oppose this character. He seems built specifically for the purpose of killing monstrous creatures and then turning those twin template attacks on large hordes.

Having a 2+ poisoned power weapon defended by a 2++ to avoid those wounds he scores on himself stack the deck pretty highly in his favor. His Altered Physique also allows you to skip over wasting a transport slot with a hammy to begin with that tasty FnP we all love so much.

Even dropping his WS and I a point isn't really enough compensation to offset the increase in T, so with his current abilities his price should be around 200. He definitely isn't the monster that Vect is in combat, but he is certainly more effective than Hesperax.

My 2 cents

So it now seems that having a T4 Dark Eldar is Sacreligious!!!
IMO any character that has an ability he may not get to use and a good chance of killing himself should never cost 200+ pts that would just be silly!!

The only thing i can think of to balance it more is making him hit himself on a 1 or 2 and that will be quite a lot so the T4 should be offset by that if not overly so

I never insinuated that having T4 is a problem, hammies and Drazhar have it. However, it takes more than a 1 point drop in WS and I to balance out a +1T.

I also would not consider doing a wound to himself on a roll of a one in assault with a 2++ to immediately save that wound as a "good chance of killing himself". A model that simply has a chance of killing itself isn't a direct cap on points.

POwell0 wrote:

Its in the background i am writing i just havent gotten around to posting it all yet. He is T4 and 6's on WS, BS, and I because as a child he was tortured daily and sent to the heamonculi for regeneration and surgical enhancements to prolong the torture inflicted so in effect he has been experimented and tortured on so much that he hardly feels anything physically (hence the T4 and Altered Physique).

That's fair enough, I suppose (I guess you knew that already, but explaining the special rules usually makes them more acceptable - and as I see now, you've just done that).

Considering the broken one, what Archeonlotet sais is true. A power weapon wounding on 2+ (comparing to Vect's Sceptre, which wounds on 3+, though that is not poisoned) is pretty tasty - and those wounds he might cause on himself is quite easily avoided with the shadow field of his.

Still, overall, with the now heightened cost (At least, I think it is?) I think he looks fairly fine. Might wait for other opinions before changing it more.

should rolls to hit of a 1 really be subject to the shadow field save if it's the essence bound in the blade that's causing it? Seems to me that any wound from that would be coming through the hilt of the blade, within the protection of the shadow field. I realise it makes him much more vulnerable to it but seems to make more sense to me based on the description you've written. You could always says rolls of a 1 result in a S4 hit subject to his normal armour save (presume he's wearing gauntlets) but ignoring the shadow field? .Plus with FnP you've got a 50/50 chance of ignoring it anyway?

Only my opinion though, and I've never written my own rules for anything before.

Perhaps a breakdown of his points may help to understand where i got his points from:

Archon - see codex
-1 WS, BS and I and +1 T - 10pts
Shadowfield - see codex
Combat Drugs - see codex
The Broken One - 50pts
Crystal Helm - 20pts
Tortured Past - 5pts (pain token only)

Total 185pts

Personally i think that a 2+ poison power weapon that wounds the user is worth around 50pts maybe 55pts at a push but no more than that and +1T is definitely no more than 10pts IMHO especially with a reduction in other characteristics

Posting excessive points cost is prohibited, certain numbers has been deleted - mod

I think 50 points on the weapon is good. You are paying more points than a Venom Blade and Power Weapon combined. Also it can hurt him. Anyways its would be one more attack that could break the Shadow Field so its would be alittle worrying with that. If you want to see the point cost of the Pain Token and +1 Toughness what does a normal Haeimes cost over a Warrior and then remember that he has a worse WS, BS, and I than a standard Archon.

Like the Crystal Helm isn't overpowered because you have to kill a MC or IC to be able to even use it once.

The points breakdown is helpful in where you are putting the value and I agree with most of them. The only one I think is out of whack is the cost you place on the pain token. If they put in the option to upgrade units or characters with pain tokens, I assume they would be more than +5 points. People spend 50 points as it is (for the hammy unit upgrade) for the purpose of starting with FnP. Since DE get to share that pain, it is essentially giving FnP to an entire unit. I don't have access to every army codex, but I'm pretty sure most armies pay at least 25 points for just FnP, nevermind the stacking properties of pain tokens. As such, I would place a pricetag on the pain token at 25 points which would put the character at 200 points even.

I agree with the statements you made about the point cost of the weapon and the increase in T. I was under the impression you were just considering the reduction of some stats equal to the increase in T and was therefore a wash, especially since a drop in BS on this particular character is like putting a 3 charisma on a 2nd edition DnD fighter. Since he has no weapon that uses BS, you could put it at 10 or 0 and the effect of that would be negligible.

I do have my first game with the rules and points as stands on saturday so i will see how he performs and i may boost his points if he is a bit overpowered and/or change the ruling of 'Tortured Past'

Good luck! Let us know how it goes