Coterie of Eternal Rapture

Personally I have always been a huge fan of anything undead-related, and I am especially fond of necromancers
I love Mordheim, but I am somewhat disappointed with available undead warbands - I simply dont "feel" them (especially the vampire - I don't like the idea of a creature that would look at me as I look at a cheeseburger)

Anyway, recently I had an urge to do something creative - a new undead warband that would be properly "necromantic" and (hopefully) generally regarded as balanced

Some parts of this warband were inspired on, well, other warbands (restless dead included and I recall one relly interesting undead warband that was posted on this forum couple of moths ago), some parts relate to more general warhammer fluff. The general idea was to create a warband that would distinguish itself - most warbands tend to rely either on brute force or shooting, only "magical" warband that I recall are aforementioned Restless Dead (I heard something about "wizards warband", though never seen the rules). I tried to design my undead to be magically attuned warband, which main strengths are synergistic abilities and slightly unorthodox henchmen/heroes.

Over all I am quite proud of this work and I eagerly await opinions
Let the legions raise!


Coterie of Eternal Rapture

A coterie of eternal rapture warband must include a minimum of three models. You have 500 gold crowns which you can use to recruit your initial warband. The maximum number of warriors in the warband may never exceed 15.

A Master Necromancer starts with 20 experience.
An Apprentice starts with 10 experience.
Bodyguards start with 8 experience.
Igor starts with 0 experience.
Henchmen start with 0 experience.

Heroes:
1 Master Necromancer -70gc.
0 - 1 Apprentice -30gc.
0 - 2 Bodyguards -25gc.
0 - 1 Igor -20gc.

Henchmen:
0 - 3 Wights -45gc
0+ Zombies-15gc
0 - 5 Giant bats -20gc
0- 2 Ghosts -50gc

Skills:
Master Necromancer : Speed, Academic, Combat, Special
Apprentice: Speed, Academic, Special
Bodyguard: Strength, Combat, Shooting
Igor: Speed, Academic

Coterie of eternal rapture special rules:

Ashes to ashes – If both Master Necromancer and Apprentice are dead, the warband’s undead minions crumble to dust causing the warband to be removed from the campaign.

Mercenaries - Coterie may employ following mercenaries: ogre, pit fighter and warlock.


Coterie of Eternal Rapture equipment list:

Hand to hand combat weapons

•Dagger - 2gc.
•Sword - 10gc.
•Mace/hammer - 3gc.
•Axe - 5gc.
•Morning star - 15 gc.
•Spear - 10gc.
•Halberd - 10gc.
•Double handed weapon - 15.gc

Missile weapons
•Bow 10gc.
•Pistol* 15gc.
•Crossbow* 25 gc.
Armor:
•Light armor 20gc.
•Heavy armor 50gc.
•Shield 5gc.

Special equipment
•Wight blade - weapon cost + 25 gc./ rare 9 Wights only.
•Skull staff - 45 +2D6 gc./ rare 9 Master Necromancer only.
•Sacrificial dagger** – 10 +D6gc./ rare 7
•Soul gem - 50 + D6x10 gc./ rare 9 Master Necromancer only.
•Tome of forbidden lore** – 150 +D6x25 gc./ rare 11
•Scroll of reanimate dead** - 15 +D6gc./ rare 6

*Bodyguards only.
**Master Necromancer and Apprentice only.

Heroes:

1 Master Necromancer - 70 gc. to hire

Vampires are not only servants of Vlad von Carstein that prowl through the streets of Mordheim. Whether to serve their vampiric masters, or to further their own agenda, necromancers are determined to use every opportunity that the City of the Damned provides them.

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

Special rules:
•Leader
•Wizard – Master Necromancer has one magic spell, generated from lore of necromancy list.
•Experienced Necromancer – Sight of the undead can hardly affect the deranged mind of a necromancer anymore. Master necromancer is completely immune to fear caused by undead creatures.
•Insanity – Foul practice of necromancy slowly erodes the wizards body, mind and soul. Inevitably every practitioner of the dark arts will fall into the abyss of madness, it is just a matter of time. this skill is automatically attained by the master necromancer once he gains his third advancement. Insanity skill is received in addition to any skills/statistic increases gained through aforementioned advancement. Roll1D6 at the start of each turn. On a roll of 1, Master Necromancer must test for stupidity that turn. On a roll of 2-5 nothing happens and on the roll of a 6 he becomes subject to frenzy for that turn. Even if necromancer becomes immune to psychology (through becoming a lich, for example) he still suffers full effects of insanity. If an apprentice becomes new master necromancer, he will gain insanity on his third advancement after his “graduation”.

0-1 Apprentice - 30 gc. to hire

There are many reasons for a man to learn the art of a necromancy. Be it fear of death, or hunger for power, there are always people looking for a willing teacher of the dark arts. Problem is, that most necromancers don’t want to be found and anyone looking for such tutor risks drawing attention of feared witch hunters. Fortunately, Mordheim attracts all sorts of vile individuals and seems to be a perfect place for knowledge thirsty scholars.

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 2 2 3 3 1 3 1 7

Special rules:
•Wizard - Apprentice has one magic spell, generated from lesser magic list.
•Apprenticeship – Necromancers are not the most willing of teachers, and don’t share their hard earned knowledge easily. Nevertheless, an apprentice with at least basic understanding of magic is simply so much more useful. Apprentice has just enough necromantic knowledge to maintain control over warband undead members in case of Master Necromancers death.
•Graduation! – When necromancers quest for immortality ends in violent and (probably) permanent death, apprentice seizes opportunity to learn “real” necromancy. With zeal he studies all obscure tomes of knowledge his former master used to hold only for himself. Upon Master Necromancer’s death apprentice loses “apprentice” status and becomes warbands new Master Necromancer. He gains the Leader ability, plus he now has access to necromantic lore magic and all skill lists available to Master Necromancer. After graduation new Master Necromancer concentrates all his efforts on learning necromancy – he may no longer gain new spells from lesser magic list. As a result, warband may hire a new apprentice – someone has to do the more mundane tasks, right?

0-2 Bodyguard - 25 gc. to hire

Some mercenaries are unconscionable or desperate enough to offer their services even to the likes of a necromancer. Necromancer , on the other hand, gladly accepts such offers. After all, Mercenaries can be useful in situations where necromancers mindless minions would fail, or draw unwanted attention.

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7

0-1 Igor -20 gc. to hire

Igor is an embodiment of madman’s perfect manservant. Disfigured and repulsive he may be, but Igor will perform any task to please his master. How such creature, for a lack of a better word, finds its way into necromancers employ is difficult to conceive. It may be some kind of strange form of gravity that guides submissive servants straight to their domineering masters.

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

Special rules:
•Yes, Master! Always eager and fanatically loyal, Igor will do anything to please his Master. Igor will automatically pass all leadership tests while being within leader skill command radius (with the exception of stupidity tests – no amount of zeal can help if you are too busy drooling)
Igor will fix it! Igor has plenty of experience in helping his master with his “experiments”. Dead flesh holds no secrets from igor’s scrutinizing gaze, and his ability to put together body parts is second to none. If Igor is not put out of action during the battle, you may re-roll one injury dice roll for one of the warbands fallen undead members (henchmen or hero). Only rolls between 11 and 35 can be re rolled, second result stands, even if it’s worse. Following results: robbed, sold to the pits, bitter enmity, horrible scars and captured are considered to be “full recovery” instead. Note that incorporeal undead are beyond Igor’s ability to help (simply because there are no body parts to be “fixed”).
•Harmless – Being rather a pathetic sight to behold, Igor is hardly considered to be of a threat to anyone. Igor can be ignored for purposes of choosing target in the shooting phase, even If he is the closest target.


Henchmen

•0-3 Wights 45 gc. to hire

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 3 2 4 4 1 2 1 7

Special rules:
immune to psychology and poison, cause fear, no pain
Experience – Wights are not mindless automatons like many other undead creatures. Even being in necromancers control, they possess a will of their own an therefore are able to gain experience. Wights have a human profile for purposes of advancement rolls.

•0+ Zombies 15 gc. to hire

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

Special rules:
May not run, immune to psychology and poison, cause fear, no pain, no brain

•0-5 Giant bats – 20 gc. to hire

Giant bats are a common sight in Sylvania, where oft swarms of such creatures accompany deathless armies of powerful vampire lords. Many a necromancer was truly pleased to see them inhabiting desolated rooftops and towers of Mordheim.

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
6 4 - 3 3 1 4 1 7

Special rules:
Flying! –Giant bats automatically pass all climbing, falling, diving charge and jumping tests. Additionally Giant bats ignore all difficult terrain movement penalties.
Animal – Giant bats gain no experience and they cannot capture scenario objectives.

•0-2 Ghosts 50 gc. to hire

Many brave adventures die untimely trying to make a fortune in the city of Mordheim. With no one to perform proper burial rites their souls are doomed to wander aimlessly through the streets. Such spirits are easy pickings for a true master of the dark arts.

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

Special rules:
May not run, immune to psychology and poison, cause fear, no pain, no brain
Regeneration - ghosts are immaterial creatures and as such it is very difficult to wound them with mundane weapons. Ghost have a 5+ invulnerability save which allows them to ignore received wound. Exception to that rule are attacks made with magic or magical weapons, which wound as normal.
Incorporeal – Ghosts ignore terrain movement penalties and may move through solid obstacles, but they do not see through them – initiative roll to charge may be required (as with normal charge rules). Ghosts use standard climbing rules from the rulebook (let’s call it “floating up”) and may never end their movement within solid obstacle.
Chilling touch – ghosts do not use their strength to attack, for they have none. Instead their mere touch chills the very soul of a living being. Ghost attacks ignore armor and cannot be parried. In addition ghost wound any living creature on a roll of 4+ (as per “slayer” skill of dwarf treasure hunters). Against non living enemies ghosts attacks are resolved as with S value of 1.
No hands – ghosts have a difficult time interacting with material world and hence they cannot interact with scenario objectives (no picking up wyrdstone, rescuing merchants etc.)
Banishment – Due to their feeble grip on the material plane ghosts can be easily banished back into the realms of death. After being taken OOA in battle, ghosts are being permanently removed from warband rooster on a roll of 1-3.
.
Coterie of Eternal Rapture special equipment:

•Wight blade – weapon cost + 25 gc./ rare 9 Wights only.
Special rules:
Wight balde - wight blade is a magical weapon and attacks made with it cause critical hits on a roll of 5-6. Daggers cannot be wight weapons. Wight weapons are anathema to all life and no one may use the with the exception of wights themselves (even with weapons training skill)
•Sacrificial dagger – 10 +D6gc./ rare 7 Master Necromancer and Apprentice only.
Special rules:
+1 enemy armor save, Bloody sacrifice - Putting enemy OOA with sacrificial dagger gives caster +1 to cast modifier in his next shooting phase.
•Skull staff - 45 +2D6 gc/ rare 9, Master Necromancer only.
Parry, two-handed, poisoned attacks (black lotus), Magical attunement (Increases the range of all spells by 2”, note that this cannot increase the range of spells that are cast in base to base contact)
•Tome of forbidden lore – 150 +D6x25 gc./ rare 11 Master Necromancer and Apprentice only.
Special rules:
Spell book - this tome gives the wizard an extra spell. Generate one spell randomly from lore of necromancy list, re-roll if the caster already knows that spell. This spell is connected with the tome itself, and will be lost if the caster loses the Tome. Apprentice still can use the tome, even if he doesn’t have access to lore of necromancy spell list.
•Soul gem 50 + D6x10 gc./ rare 9 Master Necromancer only.
This peculiar gem radiates with palpable evil energy. Each facet is inscribed with runes of power, death and human sacrifice.
Special rules:
Vile energies - As long as the gem is in Masters Necromancers possession, incorporeal undead are removed from warband rooster (after being taken OOA in battle) on a roll of 1-2.
•Scroll of re-animate dead 15 +D6gc./ rare 6 Master Necromancer and Apprentice only.
Special rules:
Re-animation – works exactly like necromancy spell “re-animation”, spell is casted automatically. One time use.

Coterie of Eternal Rapture special skills:

•Undead warding – Hero has learned to efficiently disturb the winds of magic controlling undead minions. Such skill can be a matter of survival as necromancers do not refrain from sending their undying servants to “deal with” unwanted competition.
Hero causes fear in every undead henchmen or neutral undead creature (example: skeletons from random happenings). This skill does not affect undead heroes – those creatures are independent and it is beyond hero’s skill to bend their will.
•Blasphemous incantation – Hero has managed to acquire an excerpt from one of the dreadful tomes of Nagash. Even few pages from such vile tome can bestow untold power, and, more probably, untold horrors upon reader. Once per battle hero can modify his casting rolls by +2. Use of this skill has to be declared before attempting to cast a spell.
•Power, for a price – Necromancers body wither and degenerates as he sacrifices himself to the corrupting influence of raw magical power. Once per battle wizard can cast two magic spells in his shooting phase. This tremendous power comes for a price though. When this skill is taken, lower one random wizard statistic by 1, to a minimum of 1. Re roll if randomly determined statistic already has value of 1.
•Conscription – After each victorious battle Coterie may replenish their numbers with, ahem, fresh volunteers. This skill allows warband to gain one free zombie after each battle if these conditions are met: battle has to be ended with coterie’s victory and at least one living humanoid warrior (no “large targets” or animals) taking part in battle has died (was removed from warbands rooster due to injuries). Note that this includes coterie too – even Master Necromancer may return as a shambling zombie if the apprentice possesses this skill (oh, the irony).
•Lichedom –Master Necromancer only. Requires: Power, for a price and Blasphemous incantation skills. Master Necromancer manages to turn himself into a Liche, one of the undead. From this point on he gains all the benefits and disadvantages of being undead. Hence, he gains following rules: immune to psychology and poison, cause fear, no pain. Additionally, Master Necromancer can be resurrected after his death ( as with vampire). If so, Master Necromancer loses all his acquired skills and experience points (with the exception of Lichedom skill). After resurrection Master Necromancer retains the exact same spell he had at the moment the warband was created. Lichedom skill may prevent the apprentice from using Graduation! Special rule (Players choosing. After all, untrustworthy apprentice may decide not to revive his former “master”). In any case, there may only be one Master Necromancer.

Lore of Necromancy

•1 - Summon undead - Difficulty: Auto
This spell must be used before the game, and may only be used once. When cast, the spell summons D3 zombies, which are placed within 6" of the Master Necromancer. The Master Necromancer may cast this spell successfully only once per battle, and the zombies disappear after the battle. They do not count towards the maximum size of the warband.
•2 - Hand of dust - Difficulty 10, range: base to base contact.
Single enemy within btb with the Master Necromancer suffers D3 S5 hits, no armor saves allowed.
•3 – Unholy invigoration - Difficulty 6, range 4“
Single living model within 4" of the caster (including himself) may be healed. The warrior regains single wound, though this may not take his wounds above his original maximum level. In addition, if he is stunned or knocked down, he immediately comes to his senses, stands up, and continue fighting as normal.
•4 - Deathless resilience - Difficulty 8, range: self
Master Necromancer gains +1 T. Deathless resilience lasts until the beginning of Master Necromancers next shooting phase.
•5 - Curse of years – Difficulty 9, range 10“
Single enemy model receives -2 penalty to all his statistics (to a minimum of 1), model's number of wounds remains unaffected by this spell. Spell lasts until the beginning of Master Necromancers next shooting phase.
•6 - Danse macabre – Difficulty 7.
Zombies and ghosts within 8” of the hero at the beginning of players movement phase are able to run. The effects of this spell last until the caster is knocked down, stunned or put out of action.

Wonderful work. Novel concept, good execution, appears competitive yet balanced. The heroes have interesting rules. I like the special skills and items. I have some comments and caught some typos.

1) Under the starting experience section you refer to Bodyguards as Mercenaries.
2) Under the Insanity skill discussion of the leader you have "in addiction to...". I believe you mean addition. Funny typo though.
3) Curse of Years should specify that it reduces stats to a minimum of 1.
4) Danse macabre looks too strong compared to similar spells since it affects all with range AND doesn't need to be recast as often. Plus you already allow wights to run on their own. I would at least require this to be cast each turn.

I like many of the concepts especially the Wight Blade and Sacrificial Dagger.

Bats--I don't get the giant bats. What are they supposed to be aside from weaker dire wolves with higher WS? They are slow for Warhammer world fliers and awfully good for an animal that is just a flying rat.

At least one other experimental Undead warband features bats, but I remember them as faster and weaker. Possibly they were Undead as well. WS and L are too high. Move is too low (unless you allow them to run which is generally not allowed for fliers.)

Ghosts--Ghosts climb? Do they fall? A clumsy ghost is funny (I think Styro's Ghost Pirates can fall, too.) It is decidedly unghostlike. Ghosts should go 'bump' in the night, not 'thud'. There are several experimental versions of ethereal/Incorporeal in the Mordheim lexicon. All of them vary from each other.

Spells
Agree with above comment about Danse.
Hand of Dust--"No saves allowed." There are a few experimental warbands that have access to items which confer a save versus magical attacks such as Hand of Dust. There are also magical items that confer such saves. Perhaps 'no armor save allowed'?

Hired Swords
What is the criterion for these hired swords being included and why are other hired swords left off this list? There are lots of experimental hired swords and while I realize that it is a pain to sift through them, some were written specifically for Undead warbands--the Grave Digger from BTB,for example.

Thanks for comments!

Rhoaran wrote:

Wonderful work. Novel concept, good execution, appears competitive yet balanced. The heroes have interesting rules. I like the special skills and items. I have some comments and caught some typos.

1) Under the starting experience section you refer to Bodyguards as Mercenaries.
2) Under the Insanity skill discussion of the leader you have "in addiction to...". I believe you mean addition. Funny typo though.
3) Curse of Years should specify that it reduces stats to a minimum of 1.
4) Danse macabre looks too strong compared to similar spells since it affects all with range AND doesn't need to be recast as often. Plus you already allow wights to run on their own. I would at least require this to be cast each turn.

Typos will be moped up. About Danse macabre I too had some doubts. I guess I'll remove ghosts from it and and caster will have to do Ld tests to sustain the spell.

3) Curse of Years should specify that it reduces stats to a minimum of 1. - I also added: "model's number of wounds remains unaffected by this spell".

Von Kurst wrote:

At least one other experimental Undead warband features bats, but I remember them as faster and weaker. Possibly they were Undead as well. WS and L are too high. Move is too low (unless you allow them to run which is generally not allowed for fliers.)

Well, giant bats are generally weak for an animals - their main advantage was supposed to be mobility, diving charges and relatively low cost. Their stats are based on Witch Hunters warhounds, with lowered strength. Ws 4 is supposed to reflect the difficulty of defending oneself against such clawed fury falling from the skies. But over all Giant bats combat prowess is relatively low in comparison to other henchment types (especially dire wolves, those things are quite killy, IMO).

They are allowed to run. Well, ruling otherwise never occurred to me, actually. Hmm, giving them higher M would result in insane charge distances, which I would prefer to avoid. Unless their charge range would not be doubled, as per normal charge rules - hm, now it made me thinking.

Quote :

Ghosts--Ghosts climb? Do they fall? A clumsy ghost is funny (I think Styro's Ghost Pirates can fall, too.) It is decidedly unghostlike. Ghosts should go 'bump' in the night, not 'thud'. There are several experimental versions of ethereal/Incorporeal in the Mordheim lexicon. All of them vary from each other.

I agree, it is quite unghost like. Though with their current rules they seem to be balanced to me. To avoid climbing issues I would need to give them ability to automatically pass any climbing/falling tests, and diving charges probably too. That would make the ghost a bit too strong and would require either increasing their price (and they are not cheap already) or making them weaker in some other way. Maybe I'll make them immune to the damage caused by falling down - this way ghosts would still need to put some effort into climbing, and still could fail diving charge (but without putting their unlife to any risk).

Finally, mercenaries. My pick of mercenaries is a basic set of official mercs who are likely to work for anyone. I was considering Imperial assassin, but the guy is really good fighter, and is very versatile, having him might cause warband to be too strong. I figured that restricting list of mercs would be a warband balancing factor. Besides, "evil" warbands usually don't have a wide variety of mercs to chose from (at least officially)

I am not familiar with mentioned experimental mercenaries - In my group there is a tad bit of an issue with "unofficial" warbands and mercenaries, mainly due to the fact that sometimes people try to make something cool based on fluff, but they completely forget about game balance. As an example - Witch (she is unofficial, not experimental, from what I recall) with her spells and special rules she is nearly a goddes of magic-for-hire in comparison to good old warlock.

Anyway, Thanks for comments. I guess I'll give ghosts and bats some polishing.

like it over all a lot.

maybe lower the Giant Bats strength to a 2. This way they hit a lot and are harder to hit with there 4 WS but they are unlikelly to do damage as frequent.