The problem with Crypteks

[Lord_Ikka]

Hey all. After picking up an AoS Cairn Wraith at my local store just for fun, I've decided to convert it to a Psychomancer- grabbed an old Illuminator Szeras as well so I've got bits to make the Psychomancer and probably a kitbashed Plasmancer as well. Since I've not had these units, I decided to look at their rules real quick to familiarize myself with them in case I want to throw them on the table. Painfully bad rules, particularly on the Psychomancer (Plasmancer is ok, but not great), and now I know why I've never seen them at all. The question is, how can we make them better and/or is there any issues that crypteks in general need to have looked at? I see a couple of issues- 

 

A ) Cryptek Arcana is extremely overpriced. It is priced as if you were getting the benefits of SM's Chapter Command guys, while having very little/negligible effects in reality. The only ones I've ever seen consistently played are the Fail-Safe Overcharger on a Technomancer who sits with Spyders/Scarabs, and rarely the Prismatic Obfuscatron on buffing Technos/Chronos. 

 

B ) All Crypteks should have an invuln save and move faster (or at least all have an option to pay for both)- they are not able to keep up with the faster units of the Necrons, thus are stuck supporting Warriors/Immortals and then die very quickly if their supporting unit is taken out.

 

C ) Plasmancer is alright, but lacks proper damage output for its mortals- they should at least deal out its mortals on 3+ rather than 4+. Make it something that should really damage an enemy.

 

D ) Psychomancer is horrible- needs to be within 12" to possibly afflict an enemy with a despair condition, within 6" to give out a negative Ld, and all of this happens at the Morale phase, meaning that you may not have a target at all by that point. Something needs to happen, but I'm not sure what outside of giving the despair condition just an aura (in Command phase choose one affliction to work). This unit really needs to be faster if they want it to be some sort of sneaky denial/condition unit, having a 5" move makes it worthless.

 

Any really thoughts on this? I happen to like the crypteks in lore/general idea, having them be the Necron psyker/techpriest-equivalents is really interesting, but only two of the four are actually really useful.

[Tyriks]

I think Plasmancers should have a second means of dealing mortal wounds. All they can do is deal damage so they should deal some real damage. Two ways to go about that would be when they hit certain thresholds of damage dealt they get a bigger/more controlled attack (something with some range where you're picking the target) - they're reducing enemies to raw plasma and when they have enough they drop a plasma bomb on someone. Another option would be when it dies it blasts whatever unit killed it, releasing their last reserves to take vengeance. I think either one of those would be more fun than the current setup.

 

I think Psychomancer should interfere with casting. Either it just forces perils or it has a chance to deny. The warp is dangerous and fear/doubt at the right time can be catastrophic. Plus we still need more anti psyker rules, I think.

 

I think we should get one cryptic arcana free, or make them a two for one stratagem like Aspect Shrine relics for Eldar.

 

I think each cryptek should give an aura that doesn't do anything natively besides give units in the aura a keyword that unlocks specific stratagem. Things like Chronomancers letting one unit fight twice because it speeds up their time stream, or Plasmancer can give any unit the plasmacyte buff for their shooting by supercharging their guns.

 

Really overall I think gw just needs to think outside the box more with them. They just don't do much because GW was overly conservative with Necron rules design.

[Lord_Ikka]

Really overall I think gw just needs to think outside the box more with them. They just don't do much because GW was overly conservative with Necron rules design.

Mainly because Necrons were designed as a late-game 8th edition codex, rather than a true 9th edition one, which is clearly evident when you see the SM codex that came out a month after them and was clearly designed for the 9th edition (even if they are struggling now due to codex creep).

 

I like the cryptek aura idea for strats (or maybe just have a set of 4 strats that proxy off of specific crypteks/nearby units), that would be really interesting to have and play around with. 

[Ahzek451]

I'd prefer plasmancers to have one mortal wound dishing ability and then a secondary ability that improves weapon ranged damage.