Wee War Hired Sword: Gnoblar Botcher

When someone suggested adding a spellcaster to the Gnoblar band, I hesitated at first... but the idea of a HS gnoblar cast seemed the perfect mix of strong and flavorful. Please C&C!

GNOBLAR BOTCHER
Based on the Ogre Butcher By Azmodan

30gc to hire, 15gc upkeep

Ogre Butchers have forged for themselves a unique form of gastromancy, based on the consumption of strange ingredients. In a classic example of monkey-see/monkey-do, gnoblars with a magical touch have been known to copy the butchers. These shamans, commonly called “Botchers”, nibble on everything from wyrdstone to things they find in their navels, hoping to call upon a hidden power.

May be Hired: Any Ogre, Goblin, Hobgoblin, or Gnoblar warband without a spellcaster may hire a Gnoblar Botcher.
Rating: A Botcher increases the warband’s rating by +16 points plus 1 point for each Experience point he
has.


M WS BS S T W I A LD
4 2 3 2 3 1 3 1 6
Weapons & Armor: The Botcher has an axe. He is also armed with Sharp Stuff (see Gnoblar warband for details). We wears a Lucky Charm.

Special rules:
Difficulty in Focusing: In addition to the normal restrictions for casting spells, a Botcher can’t cast spells if he ran this turn, or if he is in hand to hand combat.

Gastromancy: The Botcher dabbles in Gastromancy, and knows all 6 spells. However, casting them is a bit more dangerous than casting normal spells, and involves the Botcher eating the strangest of items. You can cast one spell per turn in your shooting phase as long as you haven’t run out of ingredients (details below). One model can only receive one bonus from a spell at a time. If you cast another spell on such model, then the previous spell is immediately dispelled. The spells last until the effect ceases, the botcher decides to end it, gets Stunned or goes Out Of Action.

Casting a Gastromancy Spell: First, you choose the target; it may be the botcher himself. Then you roll 2D6 for Difficulty.

Misfiring: Each Gastronomy spell has two values, a Difficulty rating and a Misfire rating. Depending on the spell and the roll, consult the chart below for results:
• Equal or Under to Miscast Rating: The ingredient has churned the botcher’s stomach. The spell fails and the botcher suffers the Miscast effects. Also, the ingredients for this spell are exhausted, so he cannot attempt to cast it again this game.
• Greater than Misfire but Less than Difficulty: The botcher ate too little to have an effect. The spell is not cast, but he suffers no ill effects and still has some of the ingredient left over, so he may attempt to cast it in any future turn.
• Equal or Greater than the Difficulty: The spell is successfully cast. However, the ingredient is used up, and this spell may not be cast again this game.

Gastromancy Spells

Braingobbler Ingredient: Severed Head Miscast:3 Difficulty:7 An enemy model within 12" must pass a psychology test or flee 2D6" directly away from the botcher. Miscast: The botcher suffers from stupidity for the rest of the battle.

Bullgorger Ingredient: Bulls Heart MISCAST:4 DIFFICULTY:6 Any one model within 8" and line of sight of the botcher receives a +1S bonus. At the beginning of your turn roll a D6. On a roll of 1 the spell ceases to apply. Miscast: At the start of the next turn, treat the Botcher as if he used the Skaven skill “Black Hunger”.

Bonecrusher Ingredient: Dry Bones MISCAST:4 DIFFICULTY:7 Any one model within 12" and line of sight receives D6 S2 hits with no saves allowed. Miscast: The Botcher loses one wound. No saves.

Toothcracker: Ingredient: Bedrocks MISCAST:5 DIFFICULTY:7 Any one model within 8" and line of sight of the botcher receives a +1T bonus. At the beginning of your turn roll a D6. On a roll of 1 or 2 the spell ceases to apply. Miscast: The botcher receives a S6 hit. No saves.

Trollguts Ingredient: Troll guts MISCAST:5 DIFFICULTY:8 May be cast at any one model within 6". Target gets immunity to all spells and regenerates! This allows you to ignore a wound taken on an unmodified roll of 4+. You cannot combine this with the step aside skill, just take one 'ward' save. At the beginning of your turn roll a D6. On a roll of 1 or 2 the spell ceases to apply. Miscast: Not good! The botcher receives D3 S5 hits. No saves.

Maws blessing Ingredient: Wyrdstone MISCAST:Auto DIFFICULTY: Auto. May target a single model within 8" of the botcher. It gains +1S +1T, Frenzy and causes fear for the remainder of the battle. This spell can only be cancelled if the model, in a later turn, gets Knocked Down, Stunned or Out Of Action. Even the stunning or the death of the botcher doesn't stop it - such is the power of the blessing. At the beginning of each of your following turns, if the spell is still in play, the affected model must take a Toughness test: if passed, the model suffers a S4 hit. If failed, the model goes automatically Out Of Action: he misses next game, but does not roll on the Serious Injury table. Miscast: After the game, the Botcher must pass a Toughness test: if failed, he misses next game - you still have to pay his upkeep. If the Gnoblar casts the spell on himself and fails both Toughness tests (the in-game one, and the post game one), it is possible for him to miss the next TWO games. Note: If the player wishes to cast this spell, it will always be cast and miscast at the same time. This does NOT mean the spell is cancelled out, but that the user always suffers the side effect after using it, and that the spell may never be used twice.
Restock: At the start of each game, the Botcher will always have 1 Ingredient of each type (allowing him to cast or misfire each spell once.) These ingredients are never shared with anyone else, sold, stolen, or anything else.

Skills: The Botcher may learn Speed Skills. He may also learn the following Gnoblar Botcher Special Skills.

Gnoblar Botcher Special Skills

Iron Stomach: The first time the Botcher rolls a Misfire, he may ignore the negative results, as his stomach has been conditioned. The ingredient of that spell, however, is still depleted, so that spell cannot be cast again.

Magically Delicious: Before casting a spell, the Botcher may choose to eat his Lucky Charm (doesn’t matter if it has been used or not this game.) If so, the next time he rolls for Difficulty, you may roll 3D6 and choose which 2 dice you wish to keep. This may be only used once per game, and results in the Lucky Charm being discarded. You may purchase a replacement charm for the Botcher, although once given to him, it may not be taken back, traded or sold. A Botcher may only carry one Lucky Charm at a time.

Dine and Dash: The Shaman may now run and cast Gastromancy spells in the same turn, with no penalty. He may also attempt to cast spells while in combat, but all Difficulty dice rolls are deducted by -1 (i.e. a roll of 5 becomes a 4.)

Quote :

...but all Difficulty dice rolls are deducted by -1 (i.e. a roll of 5 becomes a 4.)

Wouldn't that make it easier to cast spell while in CC?

Nice idea, though, looks like a lot of fun

Magically Delicious... nice!

I like the feel of this HS most of all. It can be very useful while also being amusing. That is a winning combination for me!

My only question: Would he work for Snotlings?

Eliazar wrote:

Quote :

...but all Difficulty dice rolls are deducted by -1 (i.e. a roll of 5 becomes a 4.)

Wouldn't that make it easier to cast spell while in CC?

Maybe I'm phrasing it wrong.. the Difficulty level doesn't go down, the result on your 2D6 goes down 1.

Snotlings: I"m gonna go with no. (Not a snub against your snots... remember, I have a snotling warband too.) The two factors with "who would he work for" are connections and power. The connection had to make sense, and the more powerful he is, the fewer people should be able to access him. Snotlings have SOME connection to Gnoblars, but not enough to justify a shaman who starts off with 6 spells. (Although, I'd definitely think the Doom diver and Squig Hopper HSs I wrote would work with Snots.)

A genius addition, another awesome unit to Gnoblar kind huzzah!

Styro: That makes sense, thanks! I'm not up enough on Ogre and Gnoblar fluff. By the way, you are a big fat meanie for making so many fun new warbands to tempt me!

Ehum, I must ask... what is a Gnoblar? *cough*

Gnoblar are a greenskin slightly smaller and weedier than a goblin. They are common among the Ogre Kingdoms and the lands towards Cathay. BTB and the Ogre Kingdoms books have most of the lore on them I believe.

Here's a link... they're the newest addition to the greenskin family, as of a few years ago.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1010011&rootCatGameStyle=

I must appologize for my ignorance, but... I am a very, and I mean very very very conservative Warhammer Lore kind of person. So have generally ignored most of the utter shit that have been released every now and then the past 10 or 15 years or so. So many idiots have been hired by GW the past decade that it was almost unbearable to read some of the crap that was released at times. Not to mention the guy that destroyed WD... the "Fat Bloke". He will be hanged when the revolution comes, no trial, just hanged in the nearest lamp post.

However, I try (I say try :-P) to be more opend minded now, but its hard at times, since we guard our RP campaign like a... ehh... what ever guards stuff
We have some sort of democratic system when it comes to adopting stuff to our RP world, if most of us like it, and it can be fit in to the original story and lore, we will go with it. Otherwise, we simply ignore stuff. Modern Bretonnia is a good example. Its nothing like it used to be, it went from cool to some sort of lalala medieval fan fair.

I will try to read up on these little greenskins, so I dont feel so old :-P

They show up in the Ogre Kingdom book/fluff. Most versions of the gnoblars live outside of the Old World, but one type, the Boglars, are hinted to work with the Fimirs.

Bretonnia: Well, they started off happy and lalalala in the 5th edition... since then, they've stressed the brutal feudal system. If you're a serf, you're worked till you die and have no chance of improving yourself. Slightly more befitting the "grimdark" setting of the Warhammer World.

Earlier Bretonnia was a dark and grim place, dirty, gritty and filled with poverty, starvation and disease, and not to mention corrupt nobles, half of them worshipping slaanesh And of course suffering from this, they have become tecnologically retarded and stuck in a society that is not developing, but rather going stagnant and foul. This of course, is much more to my taste.