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Hi!

So, i have this idea a while ago, and no i decided to put it into a codex. Its about a very unique xeno race called Morfiends. They are effectively intelligent and civilized Shoggoths - big, terrifying monsters full with eyes, fangs, claws and all kinds of limbs. They are kind of like an infection of the galaxy: they feed on the bio-force of other beings, so they only inhabit planets that already has some sort of intelligent population. The Morfiends live deep beneath the settlements of their "nourishment" race, only going up to gather slaves/minions and stuff like that. I was thinking a lot about their background and stuff, but aside the dark and sinister Lovecraftian theme i have nothing solid.

Game wise, this codex will be centered around the "Shoggoth race" idea, and for me, that means one funny thing: randomly determined characteristics! Yep, thats right, your models don't have fix values on their WS, BS, S, T, I or A (their W and Ld are fixed) and they don't have a fixed armour save either. You must determine these attributes before each battle by randomly rolling them out with D6 (or D3). There are some special rules that give some bonus to certain characteristics (HQ-s have +1 WS,BS,I and A, MC-s have +1 S,T and A and so on), so it isn't that scary... But hell yeah, it is scary when your guys could be nearly anything !

Currently, the exact rules are the following:

Advanced Biomorphs: (most of the "elite" units have this)
After determining the Biomorphing rolls, choose a freshly determined characteristic: that characteristic is improved by one on all models in your army with this special rule for the rest of the battle.

Biomorphs:
Models with this special rule have randomly determined characteristics. Before deployment, you must roll for each characteristic separately, and apply the results on all models in your army with this special rule. The models will use the determined characteristics for the rest of the battle. To determine a characteristic, perform the steps of the following table:

Characteristic Method to determine
Weapon Skill Roll a D6: 1: WS 2; 2-3: WS 3; 4-5. WS 4; 6: WS 5.
Ballistic Skill Roll a D6: 1: BS 2; 2-3: BS 3; 4-5. BS 4; 6: BS 5.
Strength Roll a D3 and add 2 to the result.
Toughness Roll a D3 and add 2 to the result.
Initiative Roll a D6 and add 1 to the result.
Attacks Roll a D3.
Armour Save Roll a D6. On a roll of 1, the unit has no armour save.

Example: You roll for your army before deployment. First, you must roll for Weapon Skill – you roll a 4, so all models in your army with the Biomorphs special rule will have a Weapon Skill of 4. Next, you roll for Ballistic Skill – it’s a 6, so all Biomorph models in your army will have a Ballistic Skill of 5. Strength an Toughness are next and the rolls are 2 and 3 with a D3. It means that your models will have a Strength of 4 (2+2) and a Toughness of 5 (2+3). The rolls for Initiative and the number of Attacks are 2 and 1, so your Biomorphs will have an Initiative of 3 and 1 base Attack. Finally, determine the armour save of your models – the roll comes at a 3 – It means an armour save of 3+. Ultimately, the Biomorphs iny your army will have the following characteristics: WS 4, BS 5, S 4, T 5, I 2, A 1 and Sv 3+.
Note that all models in the army have a fixed value on their Wounds and Leadership characteristics. These characteristics are not affected by the Biomorphs special rule.

Biomorph Monstrosity (X): (most MCs and a few normal units have this)
A model with this special rule increases its Strength, Toughness and Attacks characteristics with the number in the special ability’s name.

Evolving Biomorph: (a few special units have this, but anyone can buy an equipment that confers this special rrule)
Before deployment, roll a D3 and consult the following table. All units in your army that have the Evolving Biomorph special rule will benefit from the effect listed for the entire game.
D3 Effect
1 All units with this special rule in your army gain the Furious Charge and the Counter-Attack universal special rules.
2 All models with this special rule in your army gain a 5+ invulnerable save.
3 All units with this special rule in your army gain the Fearless and the Scouts universal special rules.

Perfect Biomorph: (all HQ units have this)
A model with this special rule increases its Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Initiative and Attacks characteristics by 1.

To counterbalance the "random factor" the army will be cheap points wise (basic guy with a single CCW and the Biomorphs, MTC and Acute senses sepcial rules costs 13 points per model) and it will have powerful wargears for both shooting and close-combat. Oh, and all sorts of nasty special abilities too.

Stay tuned if interested because next up: units and wargear (basic ideas for both)!

Very unique...they're just like the works of HP Lovecraft. How...inventive of you.

Sardonicism aside, the random characteristics rule could be renamed (currently in 40k 'biomorph' refers to 'Nid upgrades), and I wouldn't recommend having one roll apply to every unit in the army (one bad roll screws you over for the entire game or one good roll ensures victory, as it is written). Say you roll for each unit individually, which would mean that you could also have different tables written up for every unit type to give them some distinguishing value; cutting the range back to d3 plus something for any characteristic roll would keep the theme there while making the army predictable enough to play.

I wouldn't bring this in to your FLGS, but it might make for an amusing casual game or two.

AnomanderRake wrote:Very unique...they're just like the works of HP Lovecraft. How...inventive of you.

haha, with uniqueness, i meant "a codex where your models have randomly determined characteristics". The theme is "meh", i know, but it matches the army idea perfectly so i don't care .

Aaaaand... Let's continue with the 'dex:

Wargears:

Shooting Weapons:

Weapon Range Strength AP Type
Demolition Charge 6” 8 2 Assault 1, Large Blast, One Use Only
Flame Gun Template 5 4 Assault 1*
Heavy Flame Gun Template 6 3 Assault 1*
Meson Blaster 18” 4 3 Assault 1, Blast
Meson Cannon 36” 6 2 Assault 1, Blast
Needle Barrage 24” 3 6 Assault 20, Poisoned (4+)
Needle Fusillade 18” 3 6 Assault 14, Poisoned (4+)
Needle Volley 12” 3 6 Assault 8, Poisoned (4+)
Neutralizator Blaster 48” 8 5 Assault 2
Neutralizator Cannon 72” 10 4 Heavy 2
Neutralizator Gun 30” 5 6 Assault 1
Neutralizator Pistol 18” 5 6 Pistol
Neutralizator Mortar 12”-120” 9 3 Ordnance 1, Barrage, Large Blast
Spectrum Cannon 24” 7 4 Assault 4, Arc
Spectrum Rifle 24” 6 5 Assault 2, Arc
Thermal Cannon 24” 8 1 Assault 1, Melta
Thermal Lance 12” 6 1 Assault 1, Melta, Lance
Visceroid Cannon 48” 5 4 Assault 6, Rending
Visceroid Gun 18” 4 5 Rapid Fire, Rending
Visceroid Launcher 36” 5 4 Assault 3, Rending
Visceroid Pistol 12” 4 5 Pistol, Rending

*Flame guns and heavy flame guns work like the inferno cannon, so they have a 12" "template placement" range.

Close-combat weapons:

Note that all close-combat weapons listed below are special close-combat weapons, so they confer the +1 bonus attack for using two close-combat weapons only if they are used with a basic close-combat weapon or with an identical special close-combat weapon.

Envenomed Maw:
The envenomed maw is a close-combat weapon that has the Poisoned (2+) special rule.

Gripping Tentacle:
The gripping tentacle is a close-combat weapon. All enemy models in base contact with a model using a gripping tentacle reduce their number of close-combat attacks by 1 to a minimum of 1. The effects of multiple gripping tentacles don’t stack.

Implosion Feeder:
The implosion feeder is a close-combat weapon. A model using an implosion feeder rolls an additional D6 for armour penetration, and receives a +1 modifier on the Vehicle Damage chart. Wounds from the implosion feeder also cause Instant Death regardless of the victim’s Toughness.

Mutilator Stalk:
The mutilator stalk is a close-combat weapon. All enemy models in base contact with a model using a mutilator stalk reduce their Toughness characteristics by 1. Note that this reduction decreases the given models’ Instant Death threshold. The effects of multiple mutilator stalks don’t stack.

Psychic Impaler:
The psychic impaler counts as a force weapon.

Ripper Arm:
The ripper arm counts as a power weapon.

Swallowing Jaw:
A model with a swallowing jaw may make a special close-combat attack instead of its normal attacks. When you use this special attack, target one enemy model in base contact with the model with the swallowing jaw. Make a single close-combat attack against this specific model, but if you hit, don’t roll to-wound. Instead, both models must roll a D6 and add their Initiative to their score. If the model with the swallowing jaw scored higher, then the targeted enemy model is removed from play without any saves allowed. If the targeted model’s score is equal or higher, then the attack is wasted without effect. This attack cannot be used against Vehicles. If the model successfully used its swallowing jaw attack against a Monstrous Creature then immediately increase the number of Wounds the model has by +D3 (to a maximum of 10 Wounds).

Visecroid Blade:
The visceroid blade is a close-combat weapon that has the Rending special rule.

Visceroid Broadsword:
The visceroid broadsword is a two handed close-combat weapon that has the Rending special rule. A model equipped with a visceroid broadsword receives +2 bonus Attacks on charge instead of the normal +1.

Visceroid Glaive:
The visceroid glaive is a two handed close-combat weapon that has the Rending special rule. A model equipped with a visceroid glaive increase its Initiative characteristic by 2 in close-combat.

Whip Talons:
The whip talons are a close-combat weapon. A model using whip talons receive an additional +3 close-combat attacks above that he normally has. The bonuses of multiple whip talons are cumulative.

Other Equipment:

Evolving Injector:
A model with an evolving injector gains the Evolving Biomoprh special rule.

Swarm Field:
A model equipped with swarm field counts as being equipped with assault, defensive and krak grenades.

Huh, there will be more wargear, but currently i have only these.

Hmmm. . . .

From looking at your wargear list, I can tell you one thing; if you're trying to make a codex full of cheap units, these options will not give you that. You can't 'counter-balance' random stats by giving out uniformly deadly equipment and rules; just as often as you roll poorly (and thus end up with overall average troops for the cost) you'll roll high and end up being ludicrously overpowered, with both high stats AND massively powerful wargear.

The Needle weapons are absolutely deadly MC killers and also will massacre hordes post-haste. The Flame weapons are super-flamers. The Meson cannon is essentially a plasma cannon that you can fire on the move; there's a reason Terminators don't get plasma cannon, and that's it. The Neutralizer Cannon is possibly better than any other AT weapon in the game (it doesn't get +1 on the damage table like Railguns, but it gets two shots instead), and the Visceroid Cannon is an Assault Cannon on steroids, with twice the range to boot.

The close-combat weapons Look pretty good, though they will have to have quite high cost in some cases (Swallowing Jaw, Implosion Feeder, Mutilator Stalk; I'm lookin' at you).

In short, you're going to have to make most of this equipment quite expensive, if you want to end up with a balanced codex. That's not a bad thing - I mean, I'm also busy writing up a set of extremely powerful rules at the moment - but it does mean that you won't be able to have a huge horde of models on the table, if any number of them are armed with these weapons.

I do have another suggestion; Make statlines semi-random, rather than entirely random, and then roll for them on a per-unit basis. Check out Fabius Bile in the 3.5 ed. CSM Codex to see a great example of what I mean; rather than applying one randomly-determined statline army wide, write up 2 or 3 alternative (but balanced) statlines for each unit, and then assign them values on a d6. You roll before the battle, either for every individual unit or once for all units from one entry, and then apply the result. That will actually make the army seem MORE random, since you won't have the same base statline for every single unit, and it will also give you, as the Codex writer, more control over which units can do what, as well as letting you determine the odds of any given outcome. That will then allow you to assign points-costs to the units better, since you'll have a better idea of how often they'll be effective to what degree in any given role.

^ Most of those super-strong weapons will be rather rare (mostly limited for some MC-s). And i don't want different characteristics for diferent units because that could be ver confusing when you have 8 units all with different stat lines. One stat line and a few boosting special rules are much simpler. And i personally don't like when the fate of my unit hangs on a single dice roll.

And as a bonus, i present the basic Troops choice, the Warfiend Pack:


WARFIEND PACK 12 POINTS PER MODEL
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
Clawfiend * * * * 2 * * 9 *
Warfiend * * * * 1 * * 8 *

Composition:
• 4-24 Warfiends

Unit Type:
• Infantry

Wargear:
• Close-combat weapon

Special Rules:
• Biomorphs
• Move Through Cover
• Acute Senses

OPTIONS:
• One Warfiend in the pack may be upgraded to a Clawfiend 10 points
• The Clawfiend may exchange his close-combat weapon for:
- Visceroid blade or envenomed paw 5 points
- Gripping tentacle, mutilator stalk or whip talons 10 points
- Ripper arm or implosion feeder 15 points
• Any models in the pack may take:
- Neutralizator gun or neutralizator pistol 1 points per model
- Visceroid gun or visceroid pistol 2 points per model
• For every three models in the pack, one Warfiend may replace his close-combat weapon with:
- Visceroid blade or envenomed paw 5 points per model
- Gripping tentacle, mutilator stalk or whip talons 10 points per model
- Ripper arm or implosion feeder 15 points per model
• For every five models in the pack, one Warfiend may take:
- Meson blaster or spectrum rifle 5 points per model
- Neutralizator blaster or visceroid launcher 10 points per model
- Needle volley or thermal lance 15 points per model
- Flame gun 30 points per model
• The whole pack may take:
- Swarm fields 2 points per model
- Evolving injectors 2 points per model