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I was reading the Necron codex and its fluff and made me sad that they arguably made the Flayed Ones the worst unit in the codex. So I took a little fluff and a cool character idea and tried to make an IC that would help them be useful. Any constructive feedback and any help to make it not overpowered but not useless would be very appreciated.

Valgul, the Fallen Lord (225)

WS: 5
BS: 1
Str: 5
T: 5
W: 3
I: 2
A: 3
LD: 10
Sv: +2

Composition: 1 (Unique)
Unit Type: Infantry (Character)

Wargear:Sempiternal Weave, Mace of Disruption

-Mace of Disruption: The energy within the Mace of Disruption swirls around waiting for release, this allows the energy to be released on impact with objects.
The Mace of Disruption is a power weapon and when a model equipped with the Mace of Disruption charges into close combat, roll a D6. On a roll of 2+ put the small blast template over Valgul, any enemy models under the blast template strike at I1. (Need help, should it be till end of players turn or just till cc is done with?)

Special Rules:
-Ever-living
-Independent Character
-Reanimation Protocols
-Fallen Lord: He makes Flayed ones a troop choice.When put into a unit of Flayed Ones he gives the unit fearless.
-Shadow Stalked: When a Flayed One unit deploys, choose a non-vehicle enemy on the battlefield (even a unit in a transport) to be their prey- places a counter next to the chosen unit to serve as a reminder. Any Flayed One unit that attacks the chosen unit hits on a (3 or 4+)???. Help needed on rule
-Precision Strike: Flayed Ones stalk their prey till they are at there weakest. That is when they strike. When any Flayed Ones units Deepstrike they are able to assault that same turn if they are 6-? inches from an enemy unit.
-Time of Bounty: Once per game, during the movement phase, Vagul may activate his time of bounty. For the rest of the player's turn, all Flayed One units which started the game on the board gain the Furious Charge USR and for charges roll 3D6 and choose the two highest for your charge distance.
-Deep Strike
-Infiltrate

-Can only join a unit of Flayed Ones.

He's looks ok at first glance, but I have a couple of suggestions

1. Completely rework his weapon. Something like a Warscythe would probably just be better. Maybe something like this.

Blade of the Fallen: In addition to being a warscythe (S+2 AP1 Armourbane), when a model equipped with the blade of the fallen charges into close combat, roll a D6. That many enemy models in that combat, starting with the model closest to the eqiupped model, strikes at I1 until the end of the game turn.

2.. I'm assuming that for Dark Cover, when it says infiltrate, you mean Deep Strikes. However, I would maybe change this to give the flayed ones more precise deep striking (perhaps only scattering 1D6 if they deep strike within X inches from an enemy unit) or allowing them to assault out of deep strike.

3. I like the idea behind time of bounty, but I would maybe reword it to make the effects a bit clearer. "Once per game, during the movement phase, Vagul may activate his time of bounty (similar to how Orks can declare a WAAGH). For the rest of the game turn, all Flayed One units which started the game on the board gain the Furious Charge USR and add's 6 to it's charge distance roll.

Thank you for your quick reply

Conserning the weapon, i was going to just stick a warscythe on him because warscythe are the best cc weapon for the necrons IMO, but i wanted something different and i was thinking of a mace but if you don't mind I like the eff of your weapon a little better so I will exchange the eff to the mace to make the weapon a little better.

Concerning Dark Cover, for some reason I thought they could deep strike on an opponent's turn and that would leave them sitting ducks for a turn which i thought to remedy, but since i have just found out that is not true I will be chaging it to make it a more perfect deep striking rule.

Thank you for the rewording on Time of Bounty i feel it fits better too.

While I can't give you much advice I'll have to say you've avoided making him OP. Good job so far!

If he's a Flayed One type guy, he should have knife hands, not a big mace. On the subject of the mace, nothing should be defined as having a duration based on "game turns". That makes rules fluctuate wildly based only on who went first.

Precision Strike: Exactly 8 inches?

Time of Bounty: nothing should add distance to charge rolls.

Shadow Stalked is grossly overpowered.

I actually agree with the game turn. I was thinking player turn and had no idea why I typed game turn.

Also, in the lore, Vagul is immune to the Flayed One Virus, which means he wouldn't develop Necrodermis claws like the other flayed ones. Apart from the fact that most or all of his subjects are Flayed Ones (which is unique, especially considering that Flayed One are ostrisized from Necron society to the point that only Vagul and to a lesser extent Imotehk have been documented actively using Flayed One packs. Any other time flayed ones show up in combat it is seen by the overlords as a coincidence of varying convenience, and after battle as many flayed ones as possible are culled to prevent the infection from spreading) Vagul is a perfectly normal Overlord, and has access to wargear similar to that of any other Phaeron.

8 Inches is also an odd requirement. I'd make it unconditional. Remember this guy is 245 points (more expensive than any other necron special character) and while he does make flayed ones better, they are still aren't the greatest assault troops in the world, being I2 and all, so it's probably fair to keep him at this cost and give him some upgrades.

Or you could just not try and make super characters. Picking 6 (or more, thanks to some Necrocombos) units that your entire army gets to hit on a 2+ when there's only one single character in the entire game that hits anything on a 2+ will never be balanced.

1. Why only 2 attacks?
2. 8 is an odd number
Other than that hes looking good so far

DarknessEternal to your first question as RegalPhantom said he is the only not affected by the flayer virus so i wanted him not to look like a Flayed One and more like an Overlord but i wanted a unique weapon to him to identify him and I thought of a mace to smack around Flayed Ones when they aren't obeying. Second I didn't think too much when I was typing and i understand it would make better sense to make it player turn. Thanks for catching that. Also when I was writing Precision Strike I didn't know what a good distance was to be so I wanted sometihngmore than just the regular 6 but not like 12 so thats why I'm posting here to also get ideas as to what the general comunity thinks would be better so help would be great on that.

Time of Bounty: nothing should add distance to charge rolls.

To your question to Time of Bounty why not add to the charge roll they aren't the best unit and they need some help but if its too op then I will change it but I felt they needed some help.
I also thought of Hunters from Hyperspace when I thought of Shadow Stalked except that Flayed Ones stalk their prey till they are weak and then strike so I took that as they would more likey be able to hit but may not wound that much so they hit on 2+.

Hammer18
I put 2 attacks only becasue I felt 3 attacks was too much when the Mace of Disruptionhad another effect so i will change that. Thank you for seeing that.

1. Welcome.

2. Did you do the artwork on your avatar? It's insane!

3. I'm not giving a suggestion, i'll just end up breaking your char.

1.Thanks for the welcome post DemetriDominov

2. Sadly no I did not do the artwork i found it some where online and i love it alot. Its the Santa of my childhood, dreams, and perfect world.

Chaos Santa wrote:The Mace of Disruption is a power weapon and when a model equipped with the Mace of Disruption charges into close combat, roll a D6. That many enemy models in that combat, starting with the model closest to the eqiupped model, strikes at I1 until the end of the game turn.

This is an awkward mechanic. How about instead, simply centering the small blast template over Valgul and enemy models under the blast strike at I1? Seems easier to implement and keep track of.

Chaos Santa wrote:-Fallen Lord: He makes Flayed ones a troop choice.When put into a unit of Flayed Ones he gives the unit fearless.

Yes! Flayed Ones SHOULD be troop choices anyway.

Chaos Santa wrote:-Shadow Stalked: When a Flayed One unit deploys, choose a non-vehicle enemy on the battlefield (even a unit in a transport) to be their prey- places a counter next to the chosen unit to serve as a reminder. Any Flayed One unit that attacks the chosen unit hits on a 2+.

I think this is probably too much. Think about it: a unit of 20 Flayed Ones get 4 attacks each on the charge. That's 80 attacks base. With this special rule, that's something like 66 hits. Since you can also grant them Furious Charge, they're wounding most enemies on 3+ for one turn, for a total of about 44 wounds inflicted - which is INSANE. No, they're not power weapons, but that will still kill an average of 7-8 TEQs on the charge. And you're marking 6 different units. I honestly think this rule needs to be removed/entirely reworked.

Chaos Santa wrote:-Precision Strike: Flayed Ones stalk their prey till they are at there weakest. That is when they strike. When any Flayed Ones units Deepstrike they are able to assault that same turn if they are 6-? inches from an enemy unit.

Looks fine to me. Has some nice synergy with Imotekh's Bloodswarm Nanoscarabs.

Chaos Santa wrote:-Time of Bounty: Once per game, during the movement phase, Vagul may activate his time of bounty. For the rest of the player's turn, all Flayed One units which started the game on the board gain the Furious Charge USR and add's 6 to it's charge distance roll

So you're potentially getting an 18" charge range? I think it would be better to simply roll 3D6 and pick the two highest. Furious Charge is fine.

Overall I'd say it's got potential, but it needs some work to be playable. I think if you take the changes I've suggested you could even drop his cost by about 20-40 points.

Chaos Santa wrote:
2. Sadly no I did not do the artwork i found it some where online and i love it alot. Its the Santa of my childhood, dreams, and perfect world.

I think I died a little on the inside.

PrinceOfMadness about the Mace of Disruption it could be a blast template what ever works better mechanic wise thats why I posted this idea here for the lovely people of this forum to help shape it into a IC that would make people want to actaully put Flayed Ones in there army maybe with Imotekh and make some great combos.

Also Prince about what you sadi for Shadow Strike I'm okay chaging it a bit but i wanted it like the Hunters from Hyperspace but more for the Flayed Ones stalking and this seemed okay but when the math is done i can see where it goes horribly OP. Might i ask how you feel i should change it so its more fair and possibly taps into fluff for that helps a rule along in peoples minds. And I like your idea better for the addition to the charge thank you for that idea.

I honestly think it would be best just to remove the Shadow Stalked rule entirely. As it is, he's got 4 of his own special rules - most Special Characters I've seen cap out at 3. Not to mention, Flayed Ones really don't need any help putting out volume of attacks - what they lack is survivability and ability to hurt hard targets. I think what I would do is get rid of Shadow Stalked and replace it either with a resurrection orb or else confer Rending on Valgul's unit - but not both. This would put him in line with Imotekh (the most expensive Necron HQ) while not making him TOO useful.

PrinceOfMadness wrote:
I honestly think it would be best just to remove the Shadow Stalked rule entirely. As it is, he's got 4 of his own special rules - most Special Characters I've seen cap out at 3. Not to mention, Flayed Ones really don't need any help putting out volume of attacks - what they lack is survivability and ability to hurt hard targets. I think what I would do is get rid of Shadow Stalked and replace it either with a resurrection orb or else confer Rending on Valgul's unit - but not both. This would put him in line with Imotekh (the most expensive Necron HQ) while not making him TOO useful.

I agree but i think you should sort of rework him so he is like a master of tech possibly increasing the
flayed ones Armour save to 3+ or making them toughness 5.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Or strength and toughness 4.

I like the idea of making Flayed Ones troop choices and RegalPhantom's proposed Blade of the Fallen, and he should have 4 to represent him not succumbing to the Flayer Virus, but enhanced by it. My suggestions is that he can upgrade one unit of flayed ones to be Toughness 5 to represent the stronger members of the flayed ones. And concerning His shadow stalking, make it so him and any unit he is apart of shrouded even in open terrain. Your original time of bounty special rule stands fine with allowing 3D6 and choosing the two highest for assault purposes. The Percison Strike rule makes Flayed Ones in my eyes OP in terms of being a deepstrike/assault army with this guy, and I would just drop this. And for points I'd base him close to 175, due to all his special rules.