Food for thought: Book of the Reviler

[MasterDeath]

This Relic is interesting. For 1 CP (Relic-buy) you give your non-Daemon character tpo random stat improvements. There are eleven different rolls you can make, two are rerolled until another result comes up (Spawndom and Daemonhood, each 1/36 chance, so these do not come up, improving the chances for the rest) and one lets you pick whatever you want with a 7/34 chance. Of all the improvements you can roll one is garbage (+6" range on guns, 2/34 chance) and one is highly questionable (+1 Wound, brings most characters into the 5-6 Wounds range, so two Hammerhits kill regardless, 2/34 Chance).

The rest are improvements that directly improve melee capability (+1 A, +1 S, together 9/34), improve the characters ability to reach melee (+3" move, 3/36) or improve his survivability in a meaningful manner (+1 T, -1 to hit for enemies in melee, +1 to saves, together 15/34).

 

Of course this all helps a Smashlord. If you look at this relic like a unit upgrade akin to Chapter Master, its not bad although probably to random for competetive play. Lets look at some probabilities.

 

Your chance to get the +1 to saves (the best boon in my opinion) for a 2+/3++ on a Lord is roughly 58% (this includes the chance for a free choice boon). The chance for +1 S (for S10 attacks) is the same.

 

+1 A and -1 to hit for enemies is more likely at 62%.

 

+1 T and +3" move sits at 48%.

 

Getting the one of the two bad results (+ Gunrange and +1 W, without free choice of course) is 9%, getting both 0.7%.

 

So the question if you get a good result or not depends what is a good result for you. If you want lets say +1 save and +1 S the chance is only 34% so rougly a 5+. If you only want one of the defensive buffs the chance goes up to 86%, so better than a 2+.

 

In the end I will try it on a character in my next game. Maybe on a "Dark Smashostle".

[Lord Asvaldir]

All fair points about the statistical probability of getting the result you want with Book of the Reviler. However, the main issue with the book for me remains we actually have some pretty solid relics. Maybe if we had 1 good relic, and a few mediocre ones I'd consider it, but even if I was going to throw down 3 cp on taking 3 relics there's still so many more better choices than the book.