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So i've just been messing around in my head with some special rules for the Soul Drinkers characters for my Soul Drinkers army I'm painting, and i'll post them here starting with the Chapter Master himself.

Note: i'm using the vanilla space marine codex for the basis of his special abilities.

Sarpedon, Chapter Master of the Soul Drinkers -275 points
WS:5 BS:5 S:5 T:4 W:3 I:5 A:5 LD:10 Save: 3+ Invuln: 5+

Wargear: Psychic Hood, Power Armor, Force Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Krak and Frag grenades
Special rules: Eternal warrior

Special abilities:

"The Hell" - The Hell is a psychic power that can be used at the start of the players turn and lasts until his/her next player turn wherein he/she has the option to continue or negate it until the turn he wishes to activate it again.
Effect: All enemy models within 24 Inches of Sarpedon are at -1 Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Iniative and Leadership and MUST reroll all succesfuL morale and leadership tests.

"Chapter Master and Chief Librarian" - Sarpedon can use two psychic powers a turn and Knows the Psychic powers "The Hell", Quickening, and Null Zone.

"Cold and Fast Soul Drinkers!" - Any unit Sarpedon is apart of gets the Furious Charge special rule.

So what do you all think? I know Relentless is a bit too awesome for the entire army, but I was having trouble finding a rule that portrayed their mid to close range tactics, and advancing while laying down heavy fire seemed like the best idea, I think he's priced accordingly for his rules.

After we get Sarpedon nailed down, next is Iktinos!

Hes way to overpowered. Giving everyone Relentless is so broken I don't know were to start.


If you want a sarpedon just copy najal stormcaller, he is almost spot on.

I thought about doing just that, but something about him i'm not all that comfortable with, perhaps if I switched Relentless out with something like Stubborn it would be better.

I also like the Vanilla marines codex.

OK. This need some serious tweaking if it's gonna be balanced.

First things first (and this is just mechanical stuff). "Chapter Master and Chief Librarian" needs to specify how many psychic powers he can use in his turn, because "having" psychic powers doesn't cover that.

Second, "The Hell" is very, VERY powerful. If I were you, here's what I would do. First, make it a psychic power (I think it's supposed to be, but you don't specify or give him the ability to use psychic powers anyway). 24 inches is a huge radius. I think that to keep it on par with all the other SM psychic powers, you're going to need to make him recast it every turn, and bring the radius down to 6". This gets a decent radius of coverage, and basically makes you pretty close to automatically win combats once Sarpedon gets in close.

Third, I'm not sure he really needs every single power, since the most he's ever going to use in a battle is seven if the game goes on a long time and he uses one every turn. Tigurius is the most talented psyker in recent memory, which is why he has all of them. My advice is just to keep it to 2 or 3, plus The Hell. This way, his role on the battlefield is clearly defined by his selection of powers. It's not that big of a penalty to only have four powers, especially since if you use him right he should rarely need more than that.

Fourth, Space Marines don't Waaagh! Remove this.

Fifth, No army should be all relentless. If this army is a "mid to close range tactics, and advancing while laying down heavy fire" army, then maybe S&P makes sense, but relentless is just too good. Instead, consider a Psychic Power that lets him give one unit's weapons pinning for a turn, or increased ballistic skill. Or maybe gives one unit Relentless, for that shooting phase. Trust me, though, your gut is right here. Relentless for the entire army is just too good.

All that said, he looks interesting. Post some fluff about him and the Soul Drinkers for the people that haven't read whatever book he's from, and maybe we can find a set of abilities that is better keyed to the specific playstyle you have in mind.

He need more attacks and strength - he's got eight massive, arachnoid/bionic legs which he uses to fight. I'd say give him S6 and A5 (one for each front leg).

Relentless is a bit much - I'd say add it to the squad he's in.

The Hell is nice - as is the possibility of him over-reaching himself and taking a wound.

Here's a photo of the model I made for Sarpedon - and a couple of Soul Drinkers. The chalice is pure greenstuff, the legs are Scything Talons and the bionic limb is a Tau antenna and some greenstuff.

Ben Counter approves of him - he said Sarp is 'exactly as I imagined.' Though the git does keep blowing legs off, so I'll have to work on some more bionics...

As far as his fluff goes this is quoted from Lexcanum and is spoiler considering there is a book series about him and the Soul Drinkers, read at your own peril.





And alright lets get rid of "Cold and Fast" and the Relentless part of "Chapter Master and Chief Librarian". And we'll change "The Hell to a psychic power and have him be able to do two a turn, him knowing The Hell, Quickening, and Null Zone. We'll also take away the negative part of "The Hells" text since it's now a negatable psychic power.

Why dont we just keep chapter Tactics and I'll have "Cold and Fast, Soul Drinkers!" give any unit Sarpedon is in Furious charge.

Any other suggestions? I'm going to edit my Original post now that ive said all this.

Thanks to MiracleFish for the advice, I bumped his attacks up to 5 but I dont think he should be any stronger or tougher than a space marine, though the legs will give him more attacks.

Ravvage, the reason I thought he should go up is not just legs - but he has immense psykic power - and there's a recent trend for Marine Librarian characters to have monster-like stats.

Mephiston, for example (taking information freely available on www.games-workshop.com) is S6 and T6 with W5.

Sarpedon, while not as powerful, is Chaos-tainted and has strength far beyond that of normal Marines.

Point made, i'll bump in up to S:5 , I was thinking he might be overpriced at 275 points anyway


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also here is the rest of the fluff for the Soul Drinkers, all of what is described happens in a series of books, so is spoiler. You have been warned.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Soul_Drinkers

For a rule to represent Cold and Fast, what about something whereby Boltguns may be fired as if the shooter hasn't moved? Gives the bonus of Relentless without allowing them to assault after.

Interesting idea but I think the way i have Cold and Fast right now is pretty good, Furious charge is a great way to symbolize Cold(+1 S) and Fast (+1 I)

Cold and fast isn't a close combat boost- not at all. There are other Chapters who specialise in that

C&F represents the Soul Drinkers' way of war: hard-hitting constantly moving fronts, prioritising targets and eliminating them without the feral rage of the Space Wolves or sanguine lust of the Blood Angels.

They remain calm, organised and never give in to the rage which Astartes hold within.

....Apart from Tellos.

in the first book sarpedon out speeds a gene stealer so he may be i6/7
in all facts he would probably s/t5
the hell would probably (in my mind) make all open ground into difficult terrain, all difficult into dangerous (though sarpedon would ignore this him self)