Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Urian Poisonblade
M5 WS10 BS6 S4 T3 W3 I10 A6 Ld10 500 points
Equipped with: Light Armor, 2 hand weapons
Special Rules:
Witch King's Champion - Urian is Malekith's personal champion, effectively the de facto second in command of Naggaroth's armies. Urian must be the army's General unless Malekith is present. Urian must always issue a challenge if able.
Unparalleled speed - Urian is incredibly quick and agile, infamous for being able to wield his weapons faster than the eye can see. Urian has Always strikes first special rule, also he has a 3+ ward save in combat and a 4+ ward save when not in combat
Unparalleled skill - Urian's excels at exploiting his opponents' mistakes, ensuring that they pay for each slip-up immediately and painfully. For each point Urian's weapon skill is over his opponent's Urian gains 1 extra attack.
Poisonblade - Urian coats his twin blades in as many lethal toxins as he can find. He is not pass stealing or looting dead opponents for greater poisons to add to his collection. Urian's attacks are Poisoned. Also, for every unit champion, hero or lord Urian kills, roll a D6. On a 6, Urian's Poisoned rule increases by 1, ie on the 1st time he rolls a 6, his Poisoned attacks will wound on a 5+ rather than 6, etc. May not exceed a 3+. This is to represent Urian finding a new exotic toxin upon his opponent's corpse with which to coat his blades.
Unlimited Hatred - Urian personifies the wrath of his master, Malekith, and indeed, Dark Elf society as a whole. Urian always gets to reroll all failed to hits and to wounds in all rounds of combat.
Undying Wrath - Urian is prone to titanic bouts of rage when provoked, and will not rest until he has metted out incredible violence to the offender. As such, he is feared by all, and whole armies have surrendered rather than face him. Urian causes fear. Urian has the Stupidity special rule .(For when he is busy hurling insults and promises of blood at the offender)

From a rules stand point:
You need to cover what happens when he is in base to base with multiple foes with different weapons skills.

Other than that, looks alright to me; just over-priced.
He has some major weaknesses, and isn't as good as the 1+ armor reverse ward general AND level 4 with sac dagger (which is also 500 points for BOTH).

From a fluff standpoint:
I think he's too much better than shadowblade. I'd knock him down to WS9. For unparalleled skill, base it of the worst weapon skill he's touching outside of a challenge, and the best WS in a challenge (encouraged opponent to accept his challenge).
I'd drop his attacks to 5, but give him frenzy (you describe him with "rage"), and just make the poisoned blades magical, special poison effect as you describe it, and +1 attack for paired weapons. (this doesn't change is total number of attacks, just explains his huge number of attacks as magical). Also, it's odd that he could "find" poison on models that do not posses it. You could even do at the end of any round where he kills one or more models, roll 1 D6 and check for poison improvement.
Unlimited Hatred: ASF and Init 10 gives you re-rolls every round anyway. I'd make the re-roll to wound an enchanted item. Lots of models have a whole range of emotions; none of them let you re-roll to wound. Enchanted item that causes fear, re-roll to wound and gives you stupidity seems reasonable.


My suggested changes don't really change his performance, it just makes him more believable. I would price him in the 350; he's not all that awesome, as T3 with 3+ ward isn't impossible to deal with. Also, at 350, he has another draw back; he stops you from taking a wizard lord in smaller games. At 500 points, you couldn't take a naked level 4 (260 points) unless you were playing over 3,000 points. At 350, you could get him, and a level 4 with a max of 15 points of gear, in a 2,500 point game.

I might have to write up some fluff for my standard lord not fearing this guy at all (1+ armor, reverse ward, great weapon, black dragon egg).
On average, I take half a wound a round, while dealing just under one wound; nearly 3 wounds to you the round I eat the egg (and you do even less, as I'm T6 that round).

-Matt

Changing his WS to 9 is a good idea, from the fluff in the High Elves rulebook, Urian Poisonblade was an even match to Tyrion(who got WS 9), well until Tyrion killed him.
Also finding poison rule is rather silly, there are few armies out there that readily use poisons, that would be Dark Elves, Lizardmen and Skaven. It would be hard to see how he found a poison vial on a Brettonian Lord, High Elf Prince or a Dwarf Lord.
In the High Elf codex he is described wielding a single "glowing black blade", so if you want him to dualwield I'd suggest somekind of wristblades as the second one.

actually in I think the 6th or 7th Ed Dark Elves book he is described as being more skilled and faster than Tyrion, with Tyrion only winning because the Dragon Armor protected him
I mainly designed his stats as an immensely skilled, possibly the most skilled swordsman ever, who only got killed because he didn't have any exceptional equipment. Hence, his only equipment is 2 hand weapons and light armor. His benefits come from his special rules to represent that being his awesomeness, rather than awesomeness given to him by magic items


Automatically Appended Next Post:
new version of him:
Urian Poisonblade
M6 WS10 BS6 S4 T3 W3 I10 A6 Ld10 500 points
Equipped with: Light Armor, 2 hand weapons

Special Rules:

Witch King's Champion - Urian is Malekith's personal champion, effectively the de facto second in command of Naggaroth's armies. Urian must be the army's General unless Malekith is present. Urian must always issue a challenge if able.

Unparalleled speed - Urian is incredibly quick and agile, infamous for being able to wield his weapons faster than the eye can see. Urian has Always strikes first special rule, also he has a 3+ ward save in combat and a 4+ ward save when not in combat

Unparalleled skill - Urian's excels at exploiting his opponents' mistakes, ensuring that they pay for each slip-up immediately and painfully. For each point Urian's weapon skill is over his opponent's Urian gains 1 extra attack. If several different WS are present, use the highest available.

Blademaster- Urian trained with the best swordsmasters in the land, and slew them after he had learnt everything they knew. He knows sword styles that died out centuries ago, and his skill is such that he needs only a pair of common blades to defeat any challenger. His prowess with his chosen blades entirely justifies his selection as Malekith’s champion, and indeed his reputation as the deadliest warrior Naggaroth has ever produced. In combat, Urian always hits opponents on a 2+, regardless of their WS or special rules. Similarly, in combat Urian can only ever be hit on a 5+, regardless of opponents’ WS or special rules.

Poisonblade – As suggested by his name, Urian coats his trademark twin swords with a toxic mix of lethal poisons concocted by himself, said to be powerful enough to slay a hydra with one scratch. Urian's attacks are Poisoned, however they wound on a 4+ rather than a 6.

Unlimited Hatred - Urian personifies the wrath of his master, Malekith, and indeed, Dark Elf society as a whole. Urian always gets to reroll all failed to hits and to wounds in all rounds of combat. Urian grants Frenzy special rule to all Dark Elf units within 12 inches of him, including himself.

Undying Wrath - Urian is prone to titanic bouts of rage when provoked, and will not rest until he has metted out incredible violence to the offender. As such, he is feared by all, and whole armies have surrendered rather than face him. Urian causes fear. Urian has the Stupidity special rule .(For when he is busy hurling insults and promises of blood at the offender)
Mount- Urian may select any mount normally available to Dreadlords for the same costs.

Even for 500 points, this guy seems waaaay to over the top. Ws 10 that always hit on a 2+ with rerolls throwing on average 10 attacks (would be more but you can't go over 10). He may not be hitting the hardest, but having him do auto wounds on a 4+ with a reroll to wounds would just wreck pretty much any unit before they even get to go first would just piss people off. He then also gets frenzy and causes fear? He may have stupidity but with ld10, that most times won't be an issue. For this guy to be considered a viable character, he would have to be toned downed quite a bit. Also, with the bit if back story that you've given behind some of his rules, allowing him a mount doesn't really make sense. How can someone whose flailing with two hand weapons control a mount?