Abaddon Ascendant, homebrew lord of war

[Sception]

Here's the first crack draft at a homebrew lord of war version of Abaddon.  My desire would be to have something in a similar points/stats/ability range to the FW 30k primarchs, but since I don't actually have those rules this is a complete stab in the dark.  I'm not even going to bother putting a points cost on it, as I'm not a great judge.  Any sort of feedback, particularly from posters with access to the 30k primarch rules, would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Abaddon Ascendant:   ???(?) points

Lord of War choice for the Black Legion supplement

 

Ws 8, Bs 6, S 6, T 7, W 6, I 7, A 6, Ld 10, Sv 2+/4++

base size: 40mm

 

Infantry, Character. (note: not an independent character)

 

Special Rules: Fearless, Veterans of the Long War, Champion of Chaos, Mark of Chaos Ascendant, Planetkiller, Archenemy, Dark Blessings, Bringers of Despair, Icon of Infinite Vengeance, Spear Tip Assault, very bulky, unique

 

Wargear: talon of horus, drach'nyen, Abaddon's terminator armor

 

Champion of Chaos: see codex: CSM.  In addition, Abaddon always rerolls boon table results of spawndom and dark ascension, and continues to reroll such results until a result that isn't spawndom or dark ascension is rolled.

 

Mark of Chaos Incarnate: Abaddon has all four marks of chaos.  Note that the bonuses conferred by the marks of Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch are already reflected in his profile.

 

Abaddon's terminator armor: Counts as terminator armor.  In addition, it grants Abaddon Eternal Warrior, and provides the benefits of a single void shield (see stronghold assault) - what's the usual radius of effect on these?  If it's much more than 12" it might need to be reduced... or maybe not -

 

Talon of Horus (with sorcerous bolts from Ahriman): a weapon with both melee and ranged stat lines:

Melee: Sx2, AP3, master crafted, specialist weapon, shred, rending

Ranged: 24", twin linked, S6, AP3, Blast, Soulblaze

 

Drach'nyen: melee weapon, master crafted, Strength D, specialist weapon, dolorous blow

- Dolorous Blow: Abaddon may not make normal melee attacks with Drach'nyen (although its specialist weapon rule does grant Abaddon +1 attack with the talon of horus).  Instead, Abaddon may make a single melee attack with Drach'nyen at initiative 1 in addition to his normal attacks made with the Talon of Horus each round.  If abaddon attacks with Drach'nyen and misses, he must take a leadership test, and if he fails he suffers a single Strength D hit.

 

Planetkiller: As long as Abaddon is alive (even if he is still in reserve), you may fire an orbital bombardment from the planetkiller each turn.  - I'm not sure what rules or stats to give this, yet, but something escalation/apocalypse tier -

 

Archenemy: All enemy loyalist space marine units have hatred and stubborn while Abaddon is on the table.  Despite not being an HQ choice, Abaddon Ascendant is always the warlord & supreme commander of any army that includes him.  His warlord trait grants preferred enemy (space marines) to all Black Legion units with the Veterans of the Long War special rule.  Abaddon grants an additional victory points for lost wounds as would a gargantuan creature, and an additional victory point if destroyed during the battle.  If playing against an imperial army, the opponent gains 3 additional victory points for destroying Abaddon instead of one.  This is in addition to the usual victory point for slay the warlord.

 

Dark Blessings: from Tzeentch Abaddon becomes a psycher with mastery level 2 and access to the divination lore.  From Khorne Abaddon gains rampage.  From Nurgle Abaddon gains It Will Not Die.  From Slaanesh Abaddon gains preternatural reflexes, allowing him (and the Bringers of Despair, if he has joined them) to overrun units attempting to flee from combat despite wearing terminator armor.

 

Bringers of Despair: Abaddon Ascendant may join the Bringers of Despair (see the Black Legion supplement) as though he were an independent character.  The Bringers of Despair benefit from the rules for Abaddon's Mark of Chaos Ascendant while he is attached to them.

 

Icon of Infinite Vengeance: If the Bringers of Despair carry the Icon of Vengeance, then as long as Abaddon is part of the unit, that Icon grants the benefits of all five chaos space marine icons.

 

Spear tip Assault: Friendly units and characters wearing terminator armor (including Abaddon himself and the Bringers of Despair) scatter d6 inches instead of the usual 2d6 inches when deploying via deep strike.  You may re-roll the reserve dice when determining whether such units arrive each turn.

 

Unique: Abaddon Ascendant is unique.  In addition, an army may not include both Abaddon Ascendant and Abaddon the Despoiler

[Xenith]

Like the idea. Youre probably looking at over 500pts.

 

I'd also maybe not make him a psyker (doesnt fit with the fluff) and say his Mark of Tzeentch grants a +2to inv saves instead of the usual +1.

[the jeske]

I would make planet killer something dangerous to use . Like you pick if you want to activate it or not , but in your opponent turn he blasts you with a template too. then you get 2 templates and he gets 2 , third turn means 3 , etc

[Sception]

I meant it to be a regular bombardment from the planet killer, not the planet killer actually, you know, planet killing while Abaddon was on planet, which would probably be best represented by the exterminatus condition track thing in the APO rules.

 

Making it dangerous to use somehow still fits, but I don't want it to be anything likely to accidentally kill himself or his unit. I've had enough of suicidal abaddon from just trying to deep strike the regular version, and elite dudes & units are bad enough already in escalation / APO without offing themselves.

 

As for psychic powers, the blessings are supposed to be a new things rather than abilities he already has in the fluff, in that particular case representing visions of his victory as a blessing from the god of fate. That said, if it seems inapropriate to people it could be changed. Or just dropped, the void shield could be a protective blessing from tzeentch instead of a property from his armor, for instance.

 

Cost-wise I was thinking around 650 for the above but as mentioned, I'm not the best judge. I'd like him to be similar in cost and power to Horus in 30k, if not slightly above, but I don't haveaccess to the 30k rules, so I have no idea if I'm anywhere in the right ballpark, here.

[FENRISÚLFUR]

My thoughts are in blue under your original ideas. Overall I think you did a great job with creating what Abaddon should have been like. Something terrifying when he takes the battlefield.

 

 

 

 

Here's the first crack draft at a
homebrew lord of war version of Abaddon. My desire would be to have something
in a similar points/stats/ability range to the FW 30k primarchs, but since I
don't actually have those rules this is a complete stab in the dark. I'm not
even going to bother putting a points cost on it, as I'm not a great judge. Any
sort of feedback, particularly from posters with access to the 30k primarch
rules, would be greatly appreciated.

 

Abaddon Ascendant: ???(?) points

 

Lord of War choice for the Black
Legion supplement

 

Ws 8, Bs 6, S 6, T 7, W 6, I 7, A
6, Ld 10, Sv 2+/4++

 

base size: 40mm

 

Infantry, Character. (note: not
an independent character)

 

Special Rules: Fearless, Veterans
of the Long War, Champion of Chaos, Mark of Chaos Ascendant, Planetkiller,
Archenemy, Dark Blessings, Bringers of Despair, Icon of Infinite Vengeance,
Spear Tip Assault, very bulky, unique

 

Wargear: talon of horus,
drach'nyen, Abaddon's terminator armor

 

Champion of Chaos: see codex:
CSM. In addition, Abaddon always rerolls boon table results of spawndom and
dark ascension, and continues to reroll such results until a result that isn't
spawndom or dark ascension is rolled.

 

 

 

Mark of Chaos Incarnate: Abaddon
has all four marks of chaos. Note that the bonuses conferred by the marks of
Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch are already reflected in his profile.

 

Abaddon's terminator armor:
Counts as terminator armor. In addition, it grants Abaddon Eternal Warrior, and
provides the benefits of a single void shield (see stronghold assault) -
what's the usual radius of effect on these? If it's much more than 12" it
might need to be reduced... or maybe not –

 

Instead of using the rules for Void shields, would a good alternative be to allow him a
roll to ignore the first hit from shooting on a 4+? Just an idea, as giving him
armor 12 seems a little complex to me and would mean that he is impervious to
any shooting with strength 5 of less.

 

Talon of Horus
(with sorcerous bolts from Ahriman): a weapon with both melee and ranged stat
lines:

 

Melee: Sx2, AP3, master crafted,
specialist weapon, shred, rending

 

Ranged: 24", twin linked,
S6, AP3, Blast, Soulblaze

 

Drach'nyen: melee weapon, master
crafted, Strength D, specialist weapon, dolorous blow

 

- Dolorous Blow: Abaddon may not
make normal melee attacks with Drach'nyen (although its specialist weapon rule
does grant Abaddon +1 attack with the talon of horus). Instead, Abaddon may
make a single melee attack with Drach'nyen at initiative 1 in addition to his
normal attacks made with the Talon of Horus each round. If abaddon attacks with
Drach'nyen and misses, he must take a leadership test, and if he fails he
suffers a single Strength D hit.

 

Love the name, and the effect fits perfectly if  he could choose to this instead of attacking
normally. Allowing for both 7-8 strength 10 attacks at initiative and a
strength D at initiative 1 seems just a bit over the top to me. Instead the
Dolorous Blow could be an attack that hits all models in base contact with
Abaddon Ascendant (friend and foe alike, for the chaos gods care not from where
blood flows ).

 

Planetkiller: As long as Abaddon
is alive (even if he is still in reserve), you may fire an orbital bombardment
from the planetkiller each turn. - I'm not sure what rules or stats to give
this, yet, but something escalation/apocalypse tier –

 

I really like this idea, what about using the apocalyptic blast template? I think a
fitting profile of str10/6/4 AP 1/3/5/. I also think that this should be
limited to once per game, similar to the chapter masters orbital bombardment. I
also would add that this is in place of his shooting attack, even Abaddon needs
a moment to call in a bombardment from the upper atmosphere.

 

Archenemy: All enemy loyalist
space marine units have hatred and stubborn while Abaddon is on the table.
Despite not being an HQ choice, Abaddon Ascendant is always the warlord &
supreme commander of any army that includes him. His warlord trait grants
preferred enemy (space marines) to all Black Legion units with the Veterans of
the Long War special rule. Abaddon grants an additional victory points for lost
wounds as would a gargantuan creature, and an additional victory point if
destroyed during the battle. If playing against an imperial army, the opponent
gains 3 additional victory points for destroying Abaddon instead of one. This
is in addition to the usual victory point for slay the warlord.

 

Keep this just the way it is.

 

Dark Blessings: from Tzeentch
Abaddon becomes a psycher with mastery level 2 and access to the divination
lore. From Khorne Abaddon gains rampage. From Nurgle Abaddon gains It Will Not
Die. From Slaanesh Abaddon gains preternatural reflexes, allowing him (and the
Bringers of Despair, if he has joined them) to overrun units attempting to flee
from combat despite wearing terminator armor.

 

I agree with what the others have
said about giving him psychic abilities, it just doesn’t quite fit. An
alternative is the increased invulnerable save, which is good except for that
he is already getting that from the MoT. What about a single reroll per game?
This would have the effect of the fates looking out for him or giving him
insight to what is about to happen.

 

Bringers of Despair: Abaddon
Ascendant may join the Bringers of Despair (see the Black Legion supplement) as
though he were an independent character. The Bringers of Despair benefit from
the rules for Abaddon's Mark of Chaos Ascendant while he is attached to them.

 

Icon of Infinite Vengeance: If
the Bringers of Despair carry the Icon of Vengeance, then as long as Abaddon is
part of the unit, that Icon grants the benefits of all five chaos space marine
icons.

 

Spear tip Assault: Friendly units
and characters wearing terminator armor (including Abaddon himself and the
Bringers of Despair) scatter d6 inches instead of the usual 2d6 inches when
deploying via deep strike. You may re-roll the reserve dice when determining
whether such units arrive each turn.

 

Yay for deepstrike buffs!
Something that definitely should have been in codex from the beginning

 

Unique: Abaddon Ascendant is
unique. In addition, an army may not include both Abaddon Ascendant and Abaddon
the Despoiler

 

[the jeske]

It does not have to be a D weapon and in apo games stuff dies anyway . 1 void shield is nothing , to survive and infantry dude needs 2 things . Be Makari or have a special rule that makes him immune to instant ID removal.

[Iron_Within]

For the Planet Killer how about D3 Orbital Bombardments shots (ala Space Marines; S10, AP1 Large Blast, full scatter) every turn? Devastating but potentially dangerous due to the scatter. EDIT: I mean that these shots would be independent of each other for it's not like the manticore but three shots and differing targets independent of any other shooting.