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Plague priest is unarmored, can't be given armor and is exposed to the attacks of 5 front rank and 5 more support rank attacks due to furnace base.

Is he a sacrifice just to get the furnace on the table?

Am I wrong in thinking a 4+ ward save for him is senseless? Paying 45pts to protect a 100pt model feels dumb.

Anyone with a good way to keep this guy around a little longer without paying through the nose for it?

Well, you're paying 45% of his cost to give him a 50% increase in resilience, but even that probably wouldn't help too much. There are cheaper options, but you're not really going to get away with increased survivability without laying out close to that 50 point max - maybe try a Potion of Toughness? It should help keep him up long enough for the Furnace to do it's damage, and is only 20 points.

You could also look into the Fencer's Blades at 35 points, since WS10 means most models are hitting you on 5's and you might get an extra kill from them here and there.

The toughness potion is a good call. I usually give him the 3+ ws vs the first wound suffered.

Really he is just bait up there. with the number of models in base to base he will take so many hits that he has a small chance of surviving anything past two rounds of combat, one if the enemies have good str.

There are better places for the 4+ ward save item.

I personally feel that the plague priest is just a bonus. you're really paying for the plague furnace. I don't outfit mine with anything except a flail. If he dies, so what, the furnace is what you need to keep alive. at 100 pts, he can pull of several wounds in the first round of combat with his flail, but other than that, meh. The furnace is the more important piece of the points cost.

My two coppers...

I gave mine the censor, and go wide with the unbreakable monks. I also make mine survivable, and challenge every round. The challenge not only keeps the priest alive, but it also cuts down on the guys whacking on my furnace.

So don't look at the 45 points saving a 100 point character, look at it as 45 points helping save the furnace.
Maybe pick up a potion of speed with the last 5 points.

Also, I don't know why anyone would go for the plague priest, instead of just killing the furnace, that makes the whole unit unbreakable.

-Matt

What Matt said, if the enemy is going for the priest then the furnace is getting less attention so making him absorb more damage is deffinately worth it.

Fencer's Blades is probably your best bet as he will be harder to hit and already 'relatively' hard to wound. Spend the extra 15 points on whatever ward save you can squeek out.

The priest gets a +1 to his armor for being mounted, right? Or is there a weird rule around that?

Wehrkind wrote:The priest gets a +1 to his armor for being mounted, right? Or is there a weird rule around that?

The plague furnace is considered a monster I believe and monster do not confer the +1 sv. Unless I am mistaken.

Pael wrote:Unless I am mistaken.

You are.
Also it isn't a monster it's unique.

Monsters didnt used to confer the +1AS bonus, this is a change in 8th ed....

Skalm? Heals him back up. Or the Potion of Healing (not sure on the relative points costs comparisson, don't have my Skaven book to hand!)

Skalm is great for only 30pts, but it's better suited to Lord characters i.e. ones with 3 wounds. You have to be alive to use it after all!

Any Healing type potion are best used in combination with something that really cuts down on the amount of wounds incurred such as a decent armour/ward save or a high toughness. This means that the character is unlikley to lose all their wounds in one combat round and can then top up with the skalm/potion. With only 50pts to spend on magic items and bugger all armour, this is difficult to achieve for Plague Priests.