Space Marine Apocalypse Datasheet - Librarius Conclave (Combined Psychic Powers)

[chrispcarter]

Librarius Conclave

POINTS 150 + MODELS

In times of great need, such as when a high profile enemy of the Chapter is their target, or when their Chapter's Fortress Monastery is under threat, the members of a Chapter's Librarius may join forces into a single unit, a gathering of psychic might which can bewitch or annihilate the hardiest of foes using their combined powers.
The Librarians will be joined in battle by the Acolytae; Librarians-in-waiting who have manifested psychic powers and been taught in their use, but not yet refined them to levels where they can use them as safely or actively as their tutors. They can still use their more basic powers to good effect; perhaps to heal wounds, sunder their enemies' armour or conjure an inspiring aura.

FORMATION:

3-10 Space Marine Librarians (this may include characters such as Varro Tigurius, Sevrin Loth or other Librarians)
1 Command Squad (The Acolytae)

SPECIAL RULES:

Conclave: All models in the formation form a combined unit. All of the Librarians in the formation lose their Independent Character rule.

Lend Me Your Strength: One or more Librarians may combine their power to cast one of the following Enhanced Psychic Powers.

You must pick one Librarian in the squad as the caster of the power; he is used to measure range and check line of sight.

Only one psychic test is made, using the Ld of the caster; however if the test is failed all models contributing to the power are affected by the Perils of the Warp.

Any models involved will count as using one psychic power each, and the squad may cast enhanced or normal powers as they wish until all Librarians in the squad have either used or contributed to a psychic power. Models which can use multiple powers in a turn can still do this, though they may only contribute to a casting of an enhanced power once each time it is cast.

The list below shows the enhanced powers which can be used and how many Librarians must combine their powers to use it. The powers below only show the changes to the power from the normal version; all other rules remain the same. The models using a Greater Psychic Power do not have to have the normal version of the power; their combined might allows them to perform feats that would normally be beyond their control.

Enhanced Psychic Powers

2 Librarians:
Greater Smite: Range 24" S5 AP2 Assault 6.
Greater Machine Curse: Causes D3+1 glancing hits.
Greater Null Zone: Causes an additional -1 modifier to invulnerable saves re-rolled by affected units.

3 Librarians:
Greater Force Dome: Invulnerable Save granted is 4+.
Mass Quickening: The entire Librarius Conclave is affected rather than just the casting Librarian.

4 Librarians:
Mass Might of the Ancients: Affects all Librarians (including the Chief Librarian) in the unit.
Mass Gate of Infinity: The Conclave and any 3 friendly infantry units within 6" of the caster chosen by the owning player may deep strike within 48", the Conclave first and the other units within 6" of them.

5 Librarians:
Greater Avenger: Range changed to Hellstorm Template
Greater Vortex of Doom: Range increased to 24" and blast increased to 5"

"I can pulp your flesh and snap your bones in less then a second, and without so much as lifting a finger. What is the power of technology compared to that?" -Chief Librarian Vel´cona of the Salamanders

[chrispcarter]

I'm going to reply to this one straight away.

I'm fairly happy with how the combined power rules work on this one, unless there is something silly I've missed!

The main thing I want feedback on is the powers. I just kind of threw them in there, and I don't really know if some of them should require more/less Librarians to cast, be more or less powerful, or if there are some other powers I should include.

So please, give some feedback on what you think I should change, and what I should change it to. I can't guarantee I will agree with you, but I will consider any feedback given carefully!

Some of my initial thoughts were:

CHANGE Greater Vortex of Doom- make it a "proper" vortex, like the strategic asset. Very powerful, but perils of the warp would result is somewhere upwards of 600 pts down the pan for the owning player. Or leave it as it is, but maybe require less librarians to cast it?

ADD Greater Fear of the Darkness - since this used to be in the old Marine Codex, I don't really think of it as a Blood Angels power. Could make it either greater range or add a bigger modifier.

ADD Greater Salamander - Old Marine Psychic power involving a straight line hitting all units along it's path. Has been ripped off by JotWW and Blood Lance. Rules would have to be written to make it work.

What do you think of the above (as well as the rest of the rules obviously)? Please give me some feedback!

[realitycheque]

Interesting! How do you determine the Chief Librarian? Does one of those chosen have access to all of the powers too? Also, do you need to have the power in order to contribute to it, or do you just add psychic force?

[chrispcarter]

The "Chief Librarian" wording was just something I missed when editing the sheet; you don't really need one to be honest! I'll rewrite to make that make a bit more sense...

Individual Librarians would still have to select their powers as normal, and can only use their own powers if casting normally. The Greater Powers are available to the entire squad (for simplicity's sake), and can be contributed to by any of the squad (as you say, they are lending psychic might to the power rather than using the power themselves.

[jy2]

Here are my thoughts:

1) Greater Null Zone is too powerful. Having to re-roll invuln's is bad enough, but now you have a -1 on top of that? It would really screw up some armies royally. I would say minimum of 3 librarians to cast this.

2) I would make it a requirement that at least 1 librarian in the formation must have a lesser power in order for the group to cast the greater power. For example, if you have 5 libbies and none of them has the Force Dome power, how can the group then cast the Greater Force Dome power? Basically, the librarian with the power would act as the focus for the power, though anyone in the group may combine to cast it.

3) Mass Gate of Infinity - what if doubles are rolled on the scatter? Does the warp claim 1 from every unit or just the libbie's?

4) I would like to see Vortex in 3 phases:

Greater Vortex - 3 librarians, Range increased to 24" and blast increased to 5"

Mega Vortex - 6 librarians, Range:24", S: Destroyer, AP:1, 7" blast

Ultra Vortex - 10 libarians, act as Vortex Grenade

Yeah, I know, the names are corny, but it would be really cool to have a layered effect for Vortex depending on how many librarians contribute to it (and if not 3, then 2 would be good).

5) I'd probably leave out Greater Fear of Darkness and Greater Salamander. There's already enough "new" powers for the users to remember. Too much abilities/rules and it's going get too complicated.

6) Any enhancements to psychic hoods? Maybe for every 3 librarians still alive, +6" to it's range? Just a thought.

[chrispcarter]

Cheers for the feedback dude; I'll post my responses for each point:

1) Greater Null Zone is too powerful. Having to re-roll invuln's is bad enough, but now you have a -1 on top of that? It would really screw up some armies royally. I would say minimum of 3 librarians to cast this.

I can see what you are saying, though by comparison you could use two seperate Librarians to Null Zone a much larger area, which would have a more detrimental effect on an army which relied on invulnerable saves than the -1 to re-rolls would over the smaller area. I'd be interested in another way to approach it though - perhaps an increased area of effect instead?

2) I would make it a requirement that at least 1 librarian in the formation must have a lesser power in order for the group to cast the greater power. For example, if you have 5 libbies and none of them has the Force Dome power, how can the group then cast the Greater Force Dome power? Basically, the librarian with the power would act as the focus for the power, though anyone in the group may combine to cast it.

I kind of left this out because it would make the mechanics of the power more fiddly, and require frequent checking of army lists to see who has what powever every time you move. If you want a good fluff explanation, every Librarian in a Chapter will be at least aware of the powers his Brothers can marshal, and whilst he may lack the finesse or mindset to use these powers normally, when they act as a unit the added support and knowledge of their brothers allows them to stretch their powers beyond their normal limits.

Of course if I did stipulate it like the above it would be easy enough to get around by taking Tigurius

3) Mass Gate of Infinity - what if doubles are rolled on the scatter? Does the warp claim 1 from every unit or just the libbie's?

Good point, I forgot about that. I'll clean it up a bit so that is included.

4) I would like to see Vortex in 3 phases:

Greater Vortex - 3 librarians, Range increased to 24" and blast increased to 5"
Mega Vortex - 6 librarians, Range:24", S: Destroyer, AP:1, 7" blast
Ultra Vortex - 10 libarians, act as Vortex Grenade

Yeah, I know, the names are corny, but it would be really cool to have a layered effect for Vortex depending on how many librarians contribute to it (and if not 3, then 2 would be good).

I don't think I'd want to do that many to be honest, I'd rather keep it to one power, and just make it a bit more powerful. Destroyer hit is a good idea as an alternative though. Might have to have a think on it.

5) I'd probably leave out Greater Fear of Darkness and Greater Salamander. There's already enough "new" powers for the users to remember. Too much abilities/rules and it's going get too complicated.

Well having the sheet always helps I'll leave them off at least for now, until I am happy with the other powers. I just think of this as being the ultimate you are ever going to get in SM psychic powers, so having a good range of powers is essential!

6) Any enhancements to psychic hoods? Maybe for every 3 librarians still alive, +6" to it's range? Just a thought.

Another good point. I'll think on that too.

[chrispcarter]

I've now updated Greater Gate of Infinity in order to properly explain how the deep strike occurs and what happens if a double is rolled.

[chrispcarter]

Possible enchanced Psychic Hood mechanics

1: Aegis: The range of all Psychic Hoods in the Conclave unit is increased by 6" for every Librarian above 1. So in a unit of four Librarians, all four Psychic Hoods would have a range of 42".

OR

2: Aegis: The Space Marine player may re-roll the dice to determine if he nullifies an opponent's psychic power whenever using a psychic hood from a model in the Librarius Conclave.

OR

3: Aegis: For each Librarian remaining in the Conclave, the Space Marine player adds +1 to the roll to determine if he nullifies an opponent's psychic power whenever using a psychic hood from a model in the unit.

Which one do you folks think is best?