home

Author Topic: Build your own Special Character.  (Read 4549 times)

Offline osterknact

  • Members
  • Posts: 74
  • For Wolfram and the Domovoy
Build your own Special Character.
« on: October 22, 2010, 04:52:18 AM »
No one is better suited to a build your own Special Character than the Empire. Specifically, the General and Captains of the Empire.
But as an example the GotE:
Base Profile: WS   BS   S   T   W   I   A   Ld
                    5      5    4   4    3   5   3   9


who is supposed to be able to be 'Elector Count' 10 of the most powerful heroes of the empire. marius leitdorf has a runefang +add. hand weapon... Why should we at this stage not be able to field this? And then in 8th only be able to field Averlands now deceased crazy elector count?

A GotE builder would allow maybe a 1point differential from the base profile either way +/- and have both special bonuses which are good and bad.
For example, Stupidity on a 4+ is -25 maybe -50points.? Obviously, there would have to be a min/max point cost. But i think it has potential.

Also our huntsmen/woodsman captain should be called a Ranger.
Capt has 4 upgrades: Seneschal, Ranger, Witch Hunter & Veteran?
« Last Edit: October 22, 2010, 05:51:23 AM by osterknact »

Offline Warlord

  • Global Moderator
  • Members
  • Posts: 10563
  • Sydney, Australia
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2010, 06:50:52 AM »
CAPTAIN
The Captain may be ‘upgraded’ in one of the following ways:
-  Hunt Master
-  Witch Hunter
-  Seneschal

HUNT MASTER
A Hunt Master is an expert woodsman of the Empire whom has gained reputation for his skills in tracking and killing the nastiest of beasts, as well as leading parties of scouts and huntsmen into the deepest of forests.

A Captain may be upgraded to a Hunt Master for 20 points
Equipment: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Hunters Cape.
May not be equipped with any additonal mundane or magical armour
May be equipped with a Hochland Long Rifle for 20 points
May not ride a Warhorse or Pegasus
May not carry the army’s Battle Standard

Special Rules:
HUNTER - a Hunter can scout. He can only join units of Archers, Huntsmen or Free Company. A Hunter can never be the Army General.

HUNTERS CAPE - a hunter carries a cape which he often uses to conceal his presence while hunting his prey. A Hunters cape confers a -1 to hit penalty on the hunter for missile (magic and mundane) attacks, and also adds an additional +1 to his Armour Save against missile attacks.

HUNT MASTER - Any unit of Huntsmen he joins may upgrade their bows to Longbows for +1 points, or to Handguns for +2 points.

WITCH HUNTER
With the taint of Chaos spreading across the Empire, Witch Hunters are finding more and more work driving out insidious cults and burning heretics, all in the name of Sigmar. For better or worse, they are becoming accepted in society, and their stirring speeches are know to place both fear and hope in the hearts of people across the Empire.

A Captain may be upgraded to a Witch Hunter for 30 points
Equipment: Hand Weapon and Pistol
May not be equipped with a shield
May not ride a Pegasus
May not carry the army’s Battle Standard

Special Rules:
BLESSED WEAPONS
The weapons of the Witch Hunter have been specially prepared to battle the forces of evil.
All Witch Hunter attacks (close combat and missile) count as magical. Furthermore, the Witch Hunter also benefits from killing blow in challenges against any champions or characters from 'Evil' Armies (Hordes and Beasts of Chaos, Skaven, Undead and Chaos Dwarves).

UNQUENCHABLE ZEAL
The Witch Hunter and any unit he joins may re-roll any failed fear or terror tests as well as a reroll for any break tests that require insane courage to hold.

WE HAVE FOUND A WITCH. SHOULD WE BURN HER?
If you choose a Witch Hunter, the number of wizards you take may not exceed the number of Witch Hunters in your army. Furthermore, if you take a Witch Hunter, a Wizard Lord can never be your General.

SENESCHAL
Grand Masters are not always available to lead all contingents of knights from their order, as knights may be campaigning across multiple fronts. In these situations, a Seneschal may be sent in place of the Grand Master to lead the order to victory.

A Captain may be upgraded to a Seneschal for 20 points
Equipment: Hand Weapon and Full Plate Armour
May not be equipped with any mundane or magic missile weapons
May not ride a Pegasus
If riding a Warhorse, must equip it with barding.

Special Rules:
KNIGHTLY VIRTUE
A Seneschal may never join a unit of Archers, Huntsmen, Crossbowmen or Handgunners.

KNIGHTLY ORDER
A Seneschal is immune to panic, as is any unit he joins.

SECOND IN COMMAND
A Seneschal follows orders only from other members of his Order. If a Grandmaster is present in the army, the Seneschal and any unit he accompanies will treat the Grandmaster as the General for the purpose of leadership tests, instead of the designated General. If a Grandmaster is not present, a Seneschal shall use his own leadership.

I like your suggestion to use the term 'Ranger' rather than Hunt Master.

Veteran I don't really like - thats essentially to my mind what a Captain is.
« Last Edit: October 22, 2010, 06:54:54 AM by Warlord »
Quote from: Gneisenau
I hate people who don't paint their armies, hate them with all my guts. Beats me how they value other things over painting, like eating or brushing teeth.

Offline osterknact

  • Members
  • Posts: 74
  • For Wolfram and the Domovoy
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2010, 06:18:18 PM »
thanks warlord i really like the captain system. but it isnt exactly what i was shooting for the GotE - Special Character Builder. Basically i would to start with the General is either basic OR can be upgraded for ...pts to an Elector Count who is equipped with a runefang and ...pts of magic item allowance.

Both profiles/stats are the same as shown above; And as well as a host of add. special rules that both are postive & negative, and which respectively cost +/- points values.

At the same time - 1 to 3 - base statistics (except wounds and...?) would be changeable by 1 in either direction. eg. and Elector Count could have at a COST a WS of 6. and a T of 3. which would be +/- 5pts each?

MOST IMPORTANTLY, elector counts could be outfitted like other special characters. - Marius Leitdorf could dual-weild. Von Raukov could use the dragon bow and a runefang. This could be restricted obviously it would be unfair for an elector count to dual-weild certain magic weapons together - Sword of Bloodshed anyone?
These are all easily fixed balancing issues.
« Last Edit: October 22, 2010, 06:23:14 PM by osterknact »

Offline der Hurenwiebel

  • Members
  • Posts: 1078
  • Adversus Malum Pugnamus
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2010, 08:09:29 PM »
I like where you are going with this.  I'm not certain where I would take it,(probably farther than anyone else but that's me) but I do like the ability of an elector or for that matter his champion, to extend the concept of Kurt helborg to other provinces than Reikland.  If elector Counts have each a court why wouldn't they all have a champion, executioner, high court wizard, arch bishop/ ecclessiarch or dean of engineers etc. each of whom is a lord class character in his own right and able to be made into a special character by a fluff minded player.  More to that why would these special characters exclusively be in the court of an elector they could be rivals to the positions held by their more politically savvy/ or ruthless counterparts. 

Didn't we discuss this same sort of thing in another thread coming up with some sort of consensus about following the dwarf/vampirecount model 50/100 points of magic item plus 50/100 points special ability. from a set menu.  We could add a seperate menu of negative points magic items/skills that a player may take to add character or squeeze an extra magic item in with.  these could be anything from bombastic knightly vows that end up biting you in the ass to a penchant for taking your teddy bear onto the field of battle.  Maybe a cursed family banner, or a silly hat of foolishness.

negative points could affect everything from command range, spotty leadership skills, stupidity, cowardice, suicidal bravery against all other sense (and no one will follow him) or any other gameable traits.

 
"DEfighter wrote:
Hey, trolls stay the hell out, this is a serious thread. Empire are cheese. 2 steam tanks, a war altar and 4 cannons is so obviously overpowered. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly hasn't had their dragon shot down on turn 1 yet."

oh really now.  LOL ROFLMAO oh the irony.

Offline osterknact

  • Members
  • Posts: 74
  • For Wolfram and the Domovoy
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2010, 08:24:32 PM »
thanks der Hurewiebel really like some of the other stuff youve done on this forum especially that bella schollator thread. where is this vamp. power thread i remember i vaguely... and think i built on top of it my own called - The Imperial Art of War - (prob.Art of War by itself sounds better) would really be interested in working with a bunch of people to build up some of these ideas.

Offline der Hurenwiebel

  • Members
  • Posts: 1078
  • Adversus Malum Pugnamus
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2010, 03:03:14 AM »
Schola Bellator means literally the "school of war"' or "war academy" put slightly differently.  As an adjunct to the engineering college it would be a little like the Imperium's version of West Point or Sandhurst.  Afterall both started out as engineering universities IIRC, and still require their officer candidates to take several engineering courses to graduate. 

I get the feeling ppl here and elsewhere are loking at warhammer as more of a ber and piza roll some dice and have a good time game rather than as a table top battlefield simulator.  Which means things like an ability to buy slit trenches for your hand gunners or earthworks and gabions for your cannons are too complicated.  I didn't get a whole lot of supporting comentary about specifics or too many other ideas about other things engineers might do for an Imperial army, besides show up with a nifty new gun, so I lost interest in that particular thread.

"DEfighter wrote:
Hey, trolls stay the hell out, this is a serious thread. Empire are cheese. 2 steam tanks, a war altar and 4 cannons is so obviously overpowered. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly hasn't had their dragon shot down on turn 1 yet."

oh really now.  LOL ROFLMAO oh the irony.

Offline osterknact

  • Members
  • Posts: 74
  • For Wolfram and the Domovoy
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2010, 08:29:20 PM »
well it really sparked my imagination. special rules and the like if they are simple can work to make this a better game. and really help to differentiate armies. customization is king i think. anyway... any suggestions?

Offline uscsmurf

  • Members
  • Posts: 79
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2011, 03:50:10 PM »
 I didn't get a whole lot of supporting comentary about specifics or too many other ideas about other things engineers might do for an Imperial army, besides show up with a nifty new gun, so I lost interest in that particular thread.
[/quote]

What about hiding guns under a canopy to protect from LOS and magic? I would think an engineer would want to help hide/disguise the heavy weps from wizards and others, and wouldn't that fall under an engineers purview? I also like the idea of slit trenches, protection for gun batteries, staves/wooden spikes in front foot troops and the like as defensive engineering at its best.  I always thought the idea of war was to make it that much harder for your enemy to find and reach your troops and engineers lead that category.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.

Offline der Hurenwiebel

  • Members
  • Posts: 1078
  • Adversus Malum Pugnamus
Re: Build your own Special Character.
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2011, 10:50:22 PM »
absolutely it's their job, the GW designers however seem to think an engineer is supposed to be something more akin to leonardo da vinci crossed with a particularly antisocial gnome.  No practical application on an actual battlefield, better to keep them in the ballistics lab. 

I get the feeling that my version of an engineering type Empire army would bear very little resemblance to the official GW one, work a lot better, be considerably more elite if the player chose it to be so, and also very very fluffy for the steam punk meets the rennaissance concepts of gritty dark fantasy. 

It may also be a fair bit more complex for army generation but also simpler to play once you've created your army list, crippled with the indecision of choice.   
"DEfighter wrote:
Hey, trolls stay the hell out, this is a serious thread. Empire are cheese. 2 steam tanks, a war altar and 4 cannons is so obviously overpowered. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly hasn't had their dragon shot down on turn 1 yet."

oh really now.  LOL ROFLMAO oh the irony.