Dark elf executioner

Hi there,

long time lurker, I have introduced myself in the Newbie section of the forum (so feel free to get some background on our campaign and welcome me there).

Our druchii player has requested the possibility to hire a Dark Elf executioner in his ranks. As I don't want to tinker with the "official" warband (he is using the druchii.net one), I told him that the executioner would come as a HS rather than a henchman as he was hoping. Fluffwise, I believe it makes more sense as well.

However, I am at a loss now to try to value his upfront cost and upkeep, so I would like your assistance to estimate those.

Dark Elf Executioner:

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
5 6 2 4 3 1 4 1 8

Equipment
- 2H Darksteel sword
- Heavy armour

Skills:
- Fear (and immune to fear)
- Mortal Strike: +1 to hit
- Strongman
- Strike to injure

Too many special rules IMO.

But 40gc to hire/ 20gc upkeep / +15 to rating seems reasonable

I'd drop the last two skills myself. The WS6 might be a touch high too, IMO. He can pick up skills and boosts with experience later on. As for price, perhaps 30gp / 15gp upkeep?

Thanks for the quick answers. I have retooled the executioner as per your advice:

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><tr><td colSpan=2>Dark Elf Executioner: M WS BS S T W I A Ld 5 5 2 4 3 1 4 1 8 Equipment - 2H Darksteel sword - Heavy armour Skills: - Mortal Strike: +1 to hit - Strike to injure</TD></TR></TABLE>

Cost: 40/15, rating 15 skills: strength, combat, speed Would everyone think this is balanced enough?

I like it. Just give it a go, and see how it plays.

Let us know.

this is certainly balanced, perhaps even a weee underpowered

Thanks for the heads up.

I may bump Initiative up to 5 if you believe this is underpowered...

As written, it appears he almost always has a 2+ to hit and 2+ to wound, but he always strikes last with 1W and low toughness.

I would imagine he'd roughly on par with the pitfighter in utility, so I'd price him similarly (which has been suggested). If he levels up and gets strongman, he'll be quite an adversary.

To be honest, I am not sold on the +1 to hit (as he already has a very high WS to start with). I'd rather give him lightning reflexes...

What do you guys believe ( I don't really know how the executioner works in WHBF).

Duredhel wrote:

To be honest, I am not sold on the +1 to hit (as he already has a very high WS to start with). I'd rather give him lightning reflexes...

Yeah, the 2+ to hit is pretty ridiculous, but what would be the point of lightning reflexes when he always strikes last?

To me, he appears to be a real killer. With a WS 5 Strength 6 attack it's not too hard to wound, +1 to hit increasing this even more (that's a 2 to hit wound against models with lower WS than 5, ie. most, and a 2 to wound against models with T3, isn't it?), and then stunned on a roll of 1-2 and OoA on 3-6 (+1 for darksteel, +1 for strike to injure).

Yeah, he strikes last, but after 2XP, he's got a chance of getting strongman, and then he won't.

So, perhaps he should be a little more expensive? As a skill, I like the idea of causing fear. And I'd give him BS 3, as he isn't going to use it anyway and he's a Dark Elf and not a Youngblood

I agree that he would be a killer and was a bit surprised with the costs proposed. I have thus retooled him as per below.

M WS BS S T W I A Ld 5 5 2 4 3 1 4 1 8 Equipment - 2H Darksteel sword - Heavy armour Skills: - Fear - Strike to injure</TD></TR></TABLE>

Cost: 40/20, rating 15 skills: strength, combat, speed

Regarding his low BS, I actually like it that there may be elves that lose some of their intrinsic skills as they don't practice them at all (the guy practiced 2H fight in heavy armour throughout his life, trying to become the ultimate weapon).

For lightning reflexes, I assumed that the character would strike first when charged, even though the weapon carries a strike last penalty, and with his high initiative, he would take precedence over the charging character. I understand now the uselessness of having lightning reflexes prior to strongman.

As for Darksteel§strike to injure, the executioner would actually make injury rolls as follows: 1 to 3 stun, 4 to 6 OOA, I believe (which is still quite deadly)

This version looks pretty good to me Now, playtest him and report how he's performing!

He is not as powerful as the pit fighter, so I don't think he should cost more.

For fluff reason he might, because he is a dark elf, but for balance, I'd find him fine at 35/15.

He only gets really nasty if he gets +1A and Strongman, therefore he will only get really dangerous at about 10 experience. Also note that if a pit fighter gets a skill and an attack he becomes quite an awesome killing machine.

For those reasons 35/15 seems about right.

Hi guys,

I'm the one playing the dark elves, and I come to give you the feedback after the first game with the executioner.
he's quite a great henchman, I had a few miss (well more than a few in fact, I sucked my rolls) and he's always the last to strike but when he does, he does it well thanks to the injury rolls 1 to 3 to stun and 4 to 6 to OOA.
I'm just a bit disapointed not to get the mortal strike (+1 to hit) but basicaly I enjoyed.
now I focus on a few wounds, strenght and strongman.
40/20 for the cost ain't cheap but that's still less than the 80/30 that costed me the ogre.

thanks for your advices, was helpfull.