Hod's LO Competition Special Character (Durgin Durginsson Battle Standard Guard)

[Hod]

Prince Morakai Firebeard, son of King Thangrim Firebeard of Karag Dum


*To be painted in 2nd Stage of the Competition

Description:

Karag Dum lies on the Boundary of the Chaos Wastes and has long made many weapons to fight these demonic legions but few of the weapons they posses are stronger than those carrier by Prince Morakai Firebeard, Heir to the Kingship of Karag Dum and Leader of the Lions of Morgrim. He is the bearer of the Armor of Morgrim and wielder of the twin Axes of Valek also known as the Daemon’s Bane and Ancestor’s Doom. Prince Morakai is large even from Dwarf standards, it being said his mother with recovery for many months after his birth and that his first meal was black beard and Bugman’s best. Slayer of the Plauge Lord of Nordth’Dorin at the age of 50 years and before his 100th year, Morgrim had slew the tainted Dragon of Karag Thagi, erasing many Grudges in the Dammaz Kron of Karag Dum.

Points: 340 Pts

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
3 7 4 5 5 4 4 4(7)10

Morakai Firebeard is a Dwarf Lord.

Weapons: Dual Runic Hand Weapons, The Axes of Valek (Daemon’s Bane & Ancestor’s Doom)
Daemon’s Bane: Master Rune of Swiftness and the Rune of Might and Valek’s Rune
Ancestor’s Doom: Master Rune of Flight, Master Rune of Swiftness and Rune of Might

Armor: Runic Gromril Armor of Morgrim with Master Rune of Steal, Rune of Stone and Rune of Preservation

Talisman: The Lion Helmet of Morgrim with Rune of Furnace and the Master Rune of Spite

Special Rules: Dawi Prince, Keeper of the Runes


Valek’s Rune 15pts
A rune created by the High Runesmith of Karag Dum, Valek studied for many years the lost runes of Morgrim before created this new rune. The rune is designed to banish a Daemon Prince of Khrone known as the Terror’s and any other daemon that may threaten the Dawi.
When fighting against a Daemon Character, Morakai’s Strength is always equal to the Toughness of his target, unless it would normally be higher. As well as no armour saves are allowed (This includes dispel dice up to 2).


Dawi Prince
As a Dwarf Prince and Leader of the Lions of Morgrim, Morakai is trained to be the toughest of the Keep’s warriors. Having slain a dragon and a daemon lord before his beard had passed this knees, he is known through the northern lands as fearsome foe.
Morakai has the Killing Blow ability and eternal hatred.

Keeper of the Runes
Karag Dum is famous for it's rune weapons, with both the Hammer of Fate and the Axe of the Runesmith resting in it’s halls.
As a result when Morakai is included in an Throng, any unit champions may choose to take a runic weapon which gives there existing weapon +1 WS +1 Int & + Flaming attacks, at the cost of 15pts per model.


This character may be used by others.

[Raganok]

I really like this idea, it's very interesting, but I think a couple things could new improved upon.

Equipment - What you have there is a little too much. If the hammer is magical, then he will never use any other weapon. Unless you have a special rules (like slayers) that lets you swap weapons, the two knives are redundant. And I've never seen a dwarf with a spear.
A good gear list could be heavy armour, hammer,shield. You could have a low costing rune on the hammer or RoStone on his armour.

Special ability - I think that this guy giving the unit stubborn better fits your fluff.

And the ability to give and accept challenges would be cool.

[saltrock36]

Call me a pessimist but i just dont like this character. No offence, but its not even a character, its barely a unit champion.

All i see is another speedbump to the the BSB. In a challenge situation, it means you get the unit champion, followed by Durgin, then the BSB.

He doesnt even cost as much as a unit champion. For some reason he has an elf weapon (drop the spear!).

What you need to do is change the idea from someone who deffends the deffender of the Army Standard to the actual bsb. Trust me, in dwarf flufl there is no Thane who is going to apreciate another dwarf protecting him, the best he can hope for is the unit around him, not another dwarf shoved in there.

So...

Make him the BSB Thane,
Give him Runic armour (with 1-2 runic abilities),
Give him a Runic weapon (with 1-2 runic abilities),
Give him a Runic Standard which i would possibly look at inventing your own MR for which would fit with some fluf,
And then give him 1-2 personal abilities to give him a nice bit of flulf.

[Hod]

@Saltrock : I agree that my character wasn't much of an actual character. So I've altered the BSG a little and moved on to an actual Character within my army.

Morakia's armor and weapons are based on a Priesthood of Morgrim that I've been working on that was the predecessor to the Slayer Cult.

I know Morakai is overpriced on runes (160pts) but I don't know if that is against this competition's rules.

Let me know what you guys think.

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

Not bad, but you might want to look at the rules for Gotrek's axe. Being as they're one in the same, having these ones do more than the slayer version might not make any sense. I just think that at the 'Daemon Bane' rule is moment a little too powerful. He shouldn't be able to slay a Bloodthirster outright with one blow. The axes never really had the flight ability, that was always the Hammer of Fate. And as to his last rule, perhaps rather than "all Longbeard and Hammerer champions can take an extra weapon rune" it could be "Allows champions from XX units to spend up to XXpts on weapon runes". Being as Dwarfs don't have the unit champion options yet this would open the way a little bit.

The champion is a little bit... and I don't want to be rude, but pointless. He doesn't seemingly add anything to the unit. An extra champion just allows someone to rack up some points by slaughtering him with a powerful character. Perhaps if he allowed the unit some bonus, that would work, but at the moment I don't really see the use of him.


Kuffy

[Hod]

Thanks for the advice Ulrik. I do agree with the Daemon's Bane rule, it might be too powerful, maybe I could take away the Killing Blow option. What do you think?

I definitely like the idea of altering the Keeper of the Runes special rule to make it more specific.

In terms of Morakai's two axes, neither of them are actually the Axe of the Runesmith. My Throng takes place before the siege of Karag Dum and at this point, only Valek wielded the Axe of the Runesmith. It isn't until after the siege of Karag Dum by the Terror and Valek is slain that Morakai takes the Axe of the Runesmith into the Wastes. I will take a look at the rules for Gortek's axe though because in my lore they are created in the same manner. Although the Axe of the Runesmith does have Grimnir's soul in it (why he's not in the Hall of the Ancestors) which would make the Axe of the Runesmith much more powerful.

In terms of the Battle Standard Guard, he is kind of weak. That is why I have dropped him in favor of Morakai. I do still like the idea of him though because my Throng does have a Warrior unit that is divided between two rival clans (with the standard bearing both of their flags) and it does seem like both clans would want their own champion protecting the their flag. So any suggestions to make him better would be much appreciated.

I will give all this some thought and re-post my special character info soon. Thank you again for all the help.

[saltrock36]

I would be careful about rewriting fluff for a race. I may have just missed it but Grimnir not being in tha hall of ancestors im not familier with, and binding his soul in an axe is not what runes are about. That would effectively make it a daemon weapon like having a bound deamon in a weapon. Dwarfs would not do that.

AS for the rival clans, why not just have him as someone with parents from both clans or somthing. I think maybe your character is relying to heavily on trying to fit your fluff rather than working the fluff to a good idea.

[Hod]

@saltrock36 : From Grudgelore a GW supplement:

"While other ancestor gods of the dwarfs are believed to be waiting in the afterlife. Grimnir is not present, having vanished long ago when legend purports he ventured northward to close the gate of Chaos..."

As for the Runes, the art of crafting the Runes used to make the Axe of the Runesmith in GW lore were lost long ago. Meaning, it's up to speculation as to how they were made, but it is known that they are stronger than any being made with current rune knowledge so there is a possibility of different techniques being used.

[saltrock36]

I bow to you on Grimnir not being in halls.

Question on the duel axes, can they both be thrown at the same time? Would be an idea to mention it if you can cos i think people may argue you could only throw one axe.

I would consider changing Daemon Bane to; has heroic KB, and KBs effect anything with the daemoinc speacial rule on a 5+. I would even risk adding eternal hatred and leave the rule as that.

Theres an issue with LB and Hammerers taking runic weapon, in that they often, especialy Hammerers, take great weapons, which means you need to spend ##pts on MRo Kragg the Grim so they stay as great weapons. You should change it too; If Morakai is in your army, any unit champions may choose to take a runic weapon which gives there exsisting weapon (insert ability here), at the cost of ??pts per model.

If you leave it for people to make up thier own runic weapons then things will get expensive, and you also would need to put a point limit on the cost etc etc. If you give them an option of a ready made weapon it makes the idea alot more apealing and easy to manage. Personaly i would set the cost at 15pts, and give them something like +1WS +1Int + Flaming attacks.

On his magic armour i would swap out Ro Shielding for Ro Stone.
On his helm i would stick with if you want it for fluff, but realisticaly its not much help as he should be in a unit to take the brunt of a hit, i Would strongly recoment you Give him MRo Spite for a 4+ ward save though. At the minute he has only a 4+ armour save (3+ if you take my sugestion) that can only be reduced to a 6+ (5+). If you dont take a ward you will find in some circumstances people are just going to pumle him if they ignor armour.

And please get rid of the extra unit champion thing, its got nothing to do with special characters, it is just personlised rules to allow people to take extra unit champions, and the thing is, when points are short, the first thing in a unit to go is always the unit champion, so people wont be looking to buy a second one anyway.

[Hod]

SaltRock I definitely agree with your suggestions and have made the appropriate changes.

I also took a look at Gotrek's Axe rule and added something like it. My only fear is that The Valek's Axes rule and the Daemon's Bane might be doing the same thing, let me know what you think.

If that is the case I could turn Daemon's Bane to this:

Daemon's Bane (Alternative): Against any Daemon characters, Morakai gets to Re-roll all failed to hits. Additionally all Daemon characters must re-roll all successful rolls to hit when attacking Morakai.

Or the Axes of Valek into this:

The Axes of Valek (Alternative): For each of Morakai’s initial Attacks that hit, he gains one extra Attack. Roll to hit with his first Attacks and then allocate and roll to hit for any bonus Attacks he gains. In addition, any opponent with Toughness 5 or more who suffers a wound (after saves, etc) loses 2 Wounds. No armour saves are allowed against the Axes of Valek.

Thanks for all the help.