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Since everyone is making their own dude... Today, I will attempt the exercise of creating a character who is not overpowered. You, the reader will tell me if I succeeded on my first try. I've tried to balance "fun" without being overpowered.

Rexor, Master of the Forge, Captain of the 3rd Company, Sons of Cronus

WS4 BS6 S4 T4 W3 I4 A2 Ld10 Sv2+ First off, I've taken the liberty to give him modest stats. He is only a super Master of the Forge - so I've given him an extra pip of BS and an extra wound

Wargear Basic equipment, but I've swapped his Conversion beamer to a Graviton Gun instead.
Servo Arm
Servo Harness
Graviton Gun
Frag and Krak Grenades

Standard Rules Basic Master of the Forge abilities
And They Shall Know no Fear
Independent Character
Blessing of the Omnissiah
Bolster Defenses

Special Rules
Ghost in the Machine: Servitors included in an army with Rexor never suffer from mindlock and are scoring units as long as they are accompanied by a techmarine.
Servitor Affinity: Servitors gain 1WS and 1BS when Rexor is attached to the squad.
Directed Fire: Any friendly Space Marine model(s) making shooting attacks while in base to base with Rexor may reroll misses or reduce scatter on templates by 1D6.
Graviton Gun: 36" Range, 5" template, Heavy 1 - The Graviton Gun emits a gravitational pulse at its target. Squads hit by the template must roll under their initiative value on a D6. If they do, they regain their footing and count as being in difficult terrain the next turn. If they roll equal to, or above their initiative value, they are pinned instead. Vehicles hit are automatically stunned for one turn. This weapon ignores cover.

Cost: 185

-Rationale- His directed fire ability is potentially very powerful. He can stand behind a tank and let it reroll all its shots while pinning or immobilizing a vehicle with his graviton gun. He can attach to a devestator squad for some ridiculously accurate plasmacannon shots. - My first instinct was to make all templates scatter only 1D6, but this is clearly too powerful. I've also limited his ability to only affect Space Marine vehicles, as having Rexor direct a baneblade would be ridiculous.

He is also deceptively durable, as he will never be at the front of battle, usually standing in cover instead. His ability to alow cheap 60 point scoring squads (Techmarine + 1 Servitor) is very flexible as well.

On the other hand, outside of upgrading servitors and helping BTB models shoot, he doesn't do much else for the army. His graviton gun can't actually kill anything. It just disrupts enemy movement and shooting. In HTH, he is decidedly lacklustre, with only 2 attacks and WS4. Even though he has a servo-harness and servo arm, he WILL die easily against a dedicated assault unit, or a squad armed with a powerweapon or powerfist. His directed fire ability also clusters up infantry if he helps them aim - so it must be used carefully.

So. How did I do?

Looks pretty good, except for the G-gun, too messy, I'd go for something simpler:

range: 36''
Heavy 1
Str 5
5'' blast.
Pinning
Any unit which is hit by the gravity gun moves as if in difficult terrain on their next turn.

I'd also probably have had 'Directed Fire' work like Telion's ability to grant a model in his unit his BS instead of shooting. Its a cleaner and more balanced choice.

Presumably he also grants the ability to purchase a unit of servitors (or perhaps multiple units like Marneus with Honour Guard)?

Not too shabby in any case.

Jack

I like it, nice return for the graviton gun, which was one of my fav's from RT and 2nd ed.

Well balanced and specialized, but not overly. I might play the directed fire rule to allow rerolls for direct fire and add +2 WS for blast scatter rolls instead of 1d, though.

I'd play him!

I think you definitely succeeded on a not-overpowered but still interesting character.

My only thought is his graviton gun. Firstly, I think it could have the potential to kill a model or two. Maybe if they roll a 1 on their d6 they take a S4 hit?
Secondly, why have the range and the template, when you could do the hellhound-style ranged template? That choice just seems better IMHO.

May I assume this thread is open for other such non-cheesy character ideas?

Why not make it within 1 inch of Rexor rather than base to base contanct. I think this would work better imho. Nice work.

I say leave as is. It looks purdy and killable at the same time.

Well, as a creative type of guy, I made it an early mission of mine once I got into 40k to come up with flavorful, hopefully not overpowered characters for every army. I viewed this as a test, that by making said characters I was getting a grasp on at least the fluff of all the armies. So I have a wide range of characters I'd be willing to share. Here's one that I think Orks could definitely use, while not being a game breaker.

Boss Firegob. I wanted to continue in the vein of Snikrot, Kaptin Badrukk, and Zagstruk. So I made a Burna Boy Boss

WS:4 BS:3 S:4 T:5 W:2 I:3 A:3 Ld:9 Sv:5+ Statwise, he's more accurate and tougher than a nob, with better leadship. But his low save helps keep him killable.

Wargear: Part of the Ork character mystique is their unique weaponry. So I gave him two unique "Weapons".
Choppa
Mega-Melta: Developed by Firegob's explorations into Tau Fusion tech, and his own orky faculties, he has built this fearsome but unstable epitome of burny deff.
Range: 18" S:8 AP:1 Assault d3, Melta, Gets Hot!
Ork weapons trade strength for unpredictability. So while this gun is one the the best things orks could take against armor, it has the possibility of torching Firegob.
Da Firegob: This uniquely crafted iron gob, built by Firegob himself, is the origin of his Tau nickname "The Green Dragon". In the assault phase, before charging, Firegob may once a game activate the built in burna, allowing him to immediately fire a S:4, AP:5 Template at the unit he intends to charge. However, this shot has Gets Hot. Any wounds caused are not factored into combat resolution. Furthermore, if Firegob did not burn himself, his unit is considered to have frag grenades for this assault, as the fire distracts defenders.
I gave him this ability because it fits the ork character, and furthermore, as written, Firegob is actually worse in CC than his unit. This allows him to still contribute when not firing his mega-melta.

Special Rules:
Furious Charge, Mob Rule, Waaagh! All Standard ork rules
Been Burned Before: After years of playing with plasma, Fusion guns, and flamers of all sorts, Firegob is slowly becoming flame-retardant. As such, he has a 4+ invulnearable save against flamers, heavy flamers, and melta weapons. (He may take this save against any Gets Hot wound he receives.)
A small rule, that makes it less likely that he will kill himself, as well as adding mechanical flavor.

I see Firegob as costing around 90 points to upgrade a Burna Squad to be led by him.


What do you all think?

AllWillFall2Me wrote:Well, as a creative type of guy, I made it an early mission of mine once I got into 40k to come up with flavorful, hopefully not overpowered characters for every army. I viewed this as a test, that by making said characters I was getting a grasp on at least the fluff of all the armies. So I have a wide range of characters I'd be willing to share. Here's one that I think Orks could definitely use, while not being a game breaker.

Boss Firegob.

What do you all think?

I think he'd be better like this:

Boss Firegob. +85 points. I wanted to continue in the vein of Snikrot, Kaptin Badrukk, and Zagstruk. So I made a Burna Boy Boss

WS:4 BS:3 S:4 T:5 W:2 I:3 A:3 Ld:8 Sv:6+ I gave him the typical save and leadership of a Nob, but also added a bosspole.

Wargear: Part of the Ork character mystique is their unique weaponry. So I gave him two unique "Weapons".
Choppa
Bosspole
Mega-Melta: Developed by Firegob's explorations into Tau Fusion tech, and his own orky faculties, he has built this fearsome but unstable epitome of burny deff.
Range: 18" S:8 AP:1 Assault d3, Melta, Gets Hot!
Ork weapons trade strength for unpredictability. So while this gun is one the the best things orks could take against armor, it has the possibility of torching Firegob.
Da Firegob: This uniquely crafted iron gob, built by Firegob himself, is the origin of his Tau nickname "The Green Dragon", unleashing gouts of vicious flame in their midst. Firegob and his unit are considered to have frag grenades for this assault, as the fire distracts defenders. Furthermore, Firegob counts as being armed with a power weapon on the turn he charges.
This is clearer than the previous rules, I think. Rather than having an additional weapon fired in the shooting phase, he just counts as being armed with a power weapon. It is limited in that, like Zagstrukk, he loses his special weapon in subsequent rounds of close-combat.

Special Rules:
Furious Charge, Mob Rule, Waaagh! All Standard ork rules
Been Burned Before: After years of playing with plasma, Fusion guns, and flamers of all sorts, Firegob is slowly becoming flame-retardant. Firegob is considered to have the Feel no Pain special rule.
Feel no Pain works more cleanly than a 4+ Invulnerable save. It also makes up for his reduced save.

@ Minmax: The only part I would disagree with is I'd say let's compromise on leadership 8. All the ork characters have leadership 8 or higher, whether or not they have a boss pole. Other than that, he is a lot 'cleaner' now.