Special Characters

The other problem with characters is that if they're combat specialists your opponent should have put a sergeant or equivalent in whatever squad the IC has joined. They'll accept with that one if you challenge, or challenge you with that one, whilst Abaddon annihilates the rest of your squad. Close combat is exactly where him and other characters like Ghazghkull want to be, never give them the opportunity!

On the subject of Drazhar, I wouldn't say he was bad, far from it - in the right situation he can be devastating. But he's only really viable at higher points levels due to the investment of him, some Incubi to put him with, a transport and some way of giving them grenades. He can't deal with either of those two aforementioned combat monsters though, unless he gets incredibly lucky. He could really do with being about 35-50 points cheaper too.

The old Draz was 115 points. The new one is basically twice that.
What did he gain for a doubling of his cost?

+1 WS
+3 BS (because...y'know, *this* matters)
+1 T
+1 I
+1 LD (also Fearless...so...kinda random)
2+ save as opposed to 3+ save
Eternal Warrior (a legit nice upgrade)
And Riposte and the Klaivex powers.

Pretty weaksauce in my opinion, and Draz was considered an expensive and questionable option *then*. Yes, they 'improved' him, but they also price pointed out a character who is basically inferior to his next closest competition (ruddy Vect) in literally every way possible except that he has Eternal Warrior and Vect doesn't...though Vect has a 2++ save, so...

Draz is one of the biggest fails in the Dex for me, because I love Draz, and they made him really not that good. I'll agree they actually did worse to Lelith, but two crimes do not make a right.

Lelith is the biggest fail of the book. She went from being so cheap no one ever took an Archite to "lulz... you took Lelith"

Yeah, that might be the biggest quality slip.

And, sadly, her model was an inverse shift, being one of the nicest models GW has ever made while being paired with shockingly lackluster rules.

If only she was S4...

I'm not sure that would really do it for her as a lot of her problems would remain.

Now, if she had a special rule that she always wounded on 3+ because she so perfectly aims her weapon strikes, that would possibly do it for me. because then she *could* go and solo a Carnifex or something, and still be good fighting hordes of mooks, and solid at entering duels with opposing ICs.

Plus, even though that would make her, to my mind, fieldable, she would *still* not be a 'must include' unit option, and therefore it is probably a smartly balanced solution for both fluff and rules.

At least that's what I would want.
I'd take +1 Str if GW offered it though - friggin' anything, please!