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As the title. I was just wondering about Dakka's view on the matter, as I created a catser because i was bored (spoilered).

Im just wondering, as my main opponant seems to be a little bit apprehensive about the idea.

Thanks in advance, for opinions and feedback on the catser

I stopped reading once I hit Focus 8 and Warjack Points 9. I would never play against that.

You're way overpowered already and I haven't even gotten to the abilities.

Creating a balanced caster is an art form. This doesn't mean you should give up, just that it needs more work.

editing...

Although, I couldve sworn I put down WP:5, Focus 7

Any better now?

Make that feat either or. Having both in one is too powerful.

Shadow Play - Why not just make it Occultation?


Also note, custom casters are not something you should expect people to allow you to play at a store. If you have a regular opponent that will let you do it, more power to you, but this game is balanced around the current stable of casters.

"Shadow Play" should either be swapped for Occultation or have the cost raised to 4, 3 IF there's good reasoning(not being able to be cast by DJ or the Skarlock or channeled isn't a good reason). Occultation is Cost 2 with a range of 6, there's no way a range Control version(in this case, 14") would be the same cost.

I'd say swapping for Occultation is the best option since there's also an ability named Shadow Play already.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mattman154 wrote:
Make that feat either or. Having both in one is too powerful.

Tell that to Mr. "Gain an extra attack AND all attacks auto-hit in my Control" eKreoss. Some Feats are just like that. However, for a homebrew, I agree as you want to err on being underpowered vs overpowered.

I had no idea what occultation was, Ill change that.

And, My meta is home to a player who uses Butcher (we all know what he does), and that 'Engine of War' Menoth caster. Ill wait and see about any other opinions before i decide on the feat change.

itll most likely be a 'you can choose', or is that still OTT?

I think the feat needs to be one turn only. The way it is now, you can get two full turns out of it. All other feats (that i know of) are one turn/round only. Also Influence is usually one non-warcaster/warlock infantry model, not any model.

As for custom casters as a whole, I wouldn't play against them. I think the idea of custom models is just crazy and too OP. You can create a model just to fit into a list where as normally you have to find one to fit. Just my two cents.

It would be very unlikely for me to play against a custom something. A balanced game where anybody can win is one of the main reasons I play.

But as for your caster, your feat is kinda interesting. It doesn't really increase threat ranges of the jacks too much over what is currently available. But having that feat plus pursuit is too much extra movement potential.

You've also missed a few words from the Cull Soul that allows souls to turn into focus the next turn. This would also remove the need for Soul-Driver.

Love the idea for Constriction though.

 yastobaal wrote:
This would also remove the need for Soul-Driver..

The need? Yes. But what Soul Driver allows is to use Souls the turn that you get them instead of waiting until you replenish Focus. It's actually an interesting concept for a Cryx Jack Caster as it allows you to use your Focus on some and then gain souls for the rest of the Jacks. Requires you to be up in the fighting, though, and you can't guarantee that you'll get any.

Also, as an unwritten rule: Warcasters tend to have as many spells as they have Focus(ie. a 7 Focus Caster tends to have access to 7 spells).

She'll still way OP, IMO.

 IHateNids wrote:
As the title. I was just wondering about Dakka's view on the matter, as I
Shadow Weaver Mikaela, Cryx Warcaster

SPD:7 STR:6 MAT:6 RAT:4 DEF:16 ARM:15 CMD:9
FOCUS:7
WARJACK POINTS:5

I think the Def/ARM is too high on this. Most Warnouns are in the 28-30 range for the sum of these. 7 focus is sick on this caster. She probably should also be 3 points. Why is below.

Feat: Unholy Vigour: When this is activated, all models in this model's battlegroup can charge twice its SPD, as opposed to its SPD+3, until this models next activation. In addition, the first two attacks made by any of these models are boosted instead of just the first. Note this Charge still requires a FOCUS point spent to activate it.

Soul-Driver:
Any Soul Tokens on this Model may be allocated to a Warjack within control range as if it was a FOCUS point.

You can turn any jack into the Deathjack with this.

Constriction: Cost: 3, Range: 10, Pow: 12, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
A model that takes 1 or more boxes of damage from this spell subtracts the number of damage boxes taken from its DEF, until this models next activation.

So you are going to arc this out to 24" and then have a helljack with potentially 5 focus threat 16-18" on the feat turn after she's hit DEF 17 on average dice. Nightmare can't wait to get on the table with this chick. Deneghra who?

I'll address the main issues one at a time.

Base Stat Review.
Your character has roughly the same stats as Deneghra, same focus points, same WJ points. Same speed, Reach, stealth, immunity to freestrikes, cull soul

Improvements over Deneghra
Trades shadow bind for weaponmaster.
ARM increased by one.
I am uncertain if Deneghra has MAT5 (she might, not that it matters).
Soul drive

Feat: Your wording is weak on the feat. Does it boost to hit? Boost to damage? Does it boost shooting attacks? What about multi-shot shooting attacks?

Spell List Review.
Occultation - OK
Influence - OK
Pursuit - EHHH...
Constriction - EHHH...
Shard of Darkness - POW14...

Thoughts on Gameplay
IMHO your caster is overpowered. Here's the reason.

1. With arcnodes and stealth, you can hang in the backfield.
2. With weaponmaster, and a POW14 spell you can finish the job yourself. With arcnodes and stealth, POW14 fully boosted leaves you at 1 focus and no danger.
3. The feat has no limitation on effective area, so you can run that Seether right out your control area with threat range of 12.5. A reaper threatens up to 14 away and gets a second boosted attack? damage? off the feat.
4. Your CASTER benefits from his own feat as he's a battlegroup member, threatening up to 16" with two 4D6 damage rolls. Ignoring free strikes.
5. Pursuit + Arcnodes means that arcnodes can easily reach (and are essentially untargettable) in their backfield getting +7 free movement. Combined with the threat of POW14 spell, this is crazy.
6. Your caster can use pursuit to retreat up to 7" as well.
7. Constriction is on average removing 5DEF from ARM18, boosted. Hitting up to DEF18 boosting isn't hard for your caster either.

Short of hiding behind a Colossal, all you need to do is can-opener a line to their caster and charge in from 16" away. With Shard of Darkness, you can threaten up to 26" away, as you can cast it after you do your ridiculous 14" charge. You took one of Cryx's best casters as baseline, gave out a bunch of freebie abilities (powerful ones too), and on top of that tacked on a very effective feat and spell list. I think some more thought needs to be given regarding the interactions with the abilities that you took. Your character can pretty much do anything (short of effectively killing infantry - but that's not a problem that Cryx has).

12thRonin wrote:
She'll still way OP, IMO.

 IHateNids wrote:
Shadow Weaver Mikaela, Cryx Warcaster

SPD:7 STR:6 MAT:6 RAT:4 DEF:16 ARM:15 CMD:9
FOCUS:7
WARJACK POINTS:5

I think the Def/ARM is too high on this.

Ok, ill drop ARM by a couple

Feat: Unholy Vigour: When this is activated, all models in this model's battlegroup can charge twice its SPD, as opposed to its SPD+3, until this models next activation. In addition, the first two attacks made by any of these models are boosted instead of just the first. Note this Charge still requires a FOCUS point spent to activate it.

Soul-Driver:
Any Soul Tokens on this Model may be allocated to a Warjack within control range as if it was a FOCUS point.

You can turn any jack into the Deathjack with this.

How?

Constriction: Cost: 3, Range: 10, Pow: 12, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
A model that takes 1 or more boxes of damage from this spell subtracts the number of damage boxes taken from its DEF, until this models next activation.

So you are going to arc this out to 24" and then have a helljack with potentially 5 focus threat 16-18" on the feat turn after she's hit DEF 17 on average dice. Nightmare can't wait to get on the table with this chick. Deneghra who?

 Platuan4th wrote:

 yastobaal wrote:
This would also remove the need for Soul-Driver..

The need? Yes. But what Soul Driver allows is to use Souls the turn that you get them instead of waiting until you replenish Focus. It's actually an interesting concept for a Cryx Jack Caster as it allows you to use your Focus on some and then gain souls for the rest of the Jacks. Requires you to be up in the fighting, though, and you can't guarantee that you'll get any.

In which case it needs the wording that the souls can be allocated at any time rather than at the normal allocation time.

 keezus wrote:
I'll address the main issues one at a time.

Base Stat Review.
Your character has roughly the same stats as Deneghra, same focus points, same WJ points. Same speed, Reach, stealth, immunity to freestrikes, cull soul

Improvements over Deneghra
Trades shadow bind for weaponmaster.
ARM increased by one.
I am uncertain if Deneghra has MAT5 (she might, not that it matters). She does
Soul drive

Feat: Your wording is weak on the feat. Does it boost to hit? Boost to damage? Does it boost shooting attacks? What about multi-shot shooting attacks? Damage rolls, still need to hit though

Spell List Review.
Occultation - OK
Influence - OK
Pursuit - EHHH... wanted a hit-and-run mobile force
Constriction - EHHH... just liked the concept
Shard of Darkness - POW14... ill drop the POW to 12

Thoughts on Gameplay
IMHO your caster is overpowered. Here's the reason.

1. With arcnodes and stealth, you can hang in the backfield.
2. With weaponmaster, and a POW14 spell you can finish the job yourself. With arcnodes and stealth, POW14 fully boosted leaves you at 1 focus and no danger.
3. The feat has no limitation on effective area, so you can run that Seether right out your control area with threat range of 12.5. A reaper threatens up to 14 away and gets a second boosted attack? damage? off the feat.
4. Your CASTER benefits from his own feat as he's a battlegroup member, threatening up to 16" with two 4D6 damage rolls. Ignoring free strikes.
5. Pursuit + Arcnodes means that arcnodes can easily reach (and are essentially untargettable) in their backfield getting +7 free movement. Combined with the threat of POW14 spell, this is crazy.
6. Your caster can use pursuit to retreat up to 7" as well.
7. Constriction is on average removing 5DEF from ARM18, boosted. Hitting up to DEF18 boosting isn't hard for your caster either.

Short of hiding behind a Colossal, all you need to do is can-opener a line to their caster and charge in from 16" away. With Shard of Darkness, you can threaten up to 26" away, as you can cast it after you do your ridiculous 14" charge. You took one of Cryx's best casters as baseline, gave out a bunch of freebie abilities (powerful ones too), and on top of that tacked on a very effective feat and spell list. I think some more thought needs to be given regarding the interactions with the abilities that you took. Your character can pretty much do anything (short of effectively killing infantry - but that's not a problem that Cryx has).I see your argument here. i think however you are sort of mising that most factions have ridiculous combos if you look. Notice the bit i bolded. The other day, i had an undamaged jack get charged by Butcher on his feat turn. Wiped it with focus to spare. Is that regarded as OP? i think there is easy ways around this caster, you just need to look.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Shadow Weaver Mikaela, Cryx Warcaster

SPD:7 STR:6 MAT:5 RAT:4 DEF:16 ARM:14 CMD:9
FOCUS:7
WARJACK POINTS:5

Feat: Unholy Vigour: When this is activated, all models in this model's battlegroup can charge twice its SPD, as opposed to its SPD+3, until the start of this models controlling player's new game turn. Note this Charge still requires a FOCUS point spent to activate it.

Weapons:
Shadow Scythe: P:6 P+S:12
Magical Weapon
Reach
Weapon Master

Model Rules:
Stealth
Undead

Cull Soul:
For every living model killed within 2" of this model, place a soul token on it.

Soul-Driver:
Any Soul Tokens on this Model may be allocated to a Warjack within control range as if it was a FOCUS point, at any point in this models activation.

Parry:
This Model cannot be targetted by free strikes.

Spells
Occultation: Cost: 2, range: 6", Pow:-, Off:No, Up: Yes, AOE:-
SIngle Friendly Faction Unit/Jack gains Stealth

Influence: Cost: 1, Range: 10", POW: -, AOE: -, UP: no, OFF: yes
Take control of enemy non-caster/warlock, immediately make a single, unboostable melee attack. Then influence expires.

Pursuit: Cost: 2, Range 8, POW -, AOE -, UP: Yes OFF: Yes
If the target of this spell moves during its activation, a model in this models battlegroup can immediately make a full advance.

Constriction: Cost: 3, Range: 10, Pow: 8, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
A model that takes 1 or more boxes of damage from this spell subtracts the number of damage boxes taken from its DEF, until this models next activation.

Shard of Darkness: Cost: 4, Range: 12, POW: 10, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
Target hit is stationery for a round

Any more balanced?

@Ihatenids: I've had Butcher smash two undamaged menite heavies to scrap without his feat. That's what the Butcher is designed to do, at MAT9 P+S16.

Butcher is SPD5 on a medium base. Max threat of 10". Your dude will alphastrike him from way outside his threat range and pile up to 5 attacks worth of heavy warjack fist into his face (2 free boosts), complete with combo-starting DEF debuff. Now he might survive on full overcharge, but he might not.

He can't be screened by small based warriors. He can't arc spells. He can't ignore free strikes. He doesn't increase the speed of his army. He's FOC6 for crying out loud. His spell list is situational, even if Full Throttle looks like win. Iron Flesh is great, but if he casts it on himself to castle up, he can't charge.

As for your last comment - uh... like what? You realize that a reaper can easily waltz in from a mile away and pull out that juicy bit to get smashed in the face by a soul driven whatever. The key here is that you just need to remove a handfull of models for the combo to go off. Between pistol wraiths, bile thralls, bloat thralls and misc. template shooting, doing this is trivial, unless your opponent's caster is hiding behind a colossal. Even so, you'll probably still outflank him with your bonejacks.

Don't underestimate how powerful a guy that can threat up to 16" is. You can stand at the FRONT of your army, out of charge range, and your enemy CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, because you have stealth. And you can give another combo-piece stealth.

If you built in hard counters, feel free to share, because I'm not seeing it. Even difficult terrain only drops you to normal speed under the feat.

if I may, what do you find is the main problem, and ill work that one out first

Also, i started this thread to discuss the idea of homebrews, not just get feedback on my own XD, although the feedback is appreciated

 yastobaal wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 yastobaal wrote:
This would also remove the need for Soul-Driver..

The need? Yes. But what Soul Driver allows is to use Souls the turn that you get them instead of waiting until you replenish Focus. It's actually an interesting concept for a Cryx Jack Caster as it allows you to use your Focus on some and then gain souls for the rest of the Jacks. Requires you to be up in the fighting, though, and you can't guarantee that you'll get any.

In which case it needs the wording that the souls can be allocated at any time rather than at the normal allocation time.

Whoops, confused it with Soul Matrix from the ILO.

Main problem? This is a cryxian warcaster. The amount of stuff cryx can do without warcaster support is amazing. Satyxis Raiders can kill casters via warjacks and knock things down, all the while being immune to Knockdown and blast damage. Bane knights ignore terrain, and bane thralls knock anybody's ARM down by 2 just for being within .5". Mechanithralls keep coming back and when they can hit they hit like trucks.

This is the major problem with homebrews, the amount of interactions that can happen. Even pp get it wrong. The wrastler's animus was friendly when spoiled in No Quarter. That gave extreme threat range to Molik karn, Gaspy2, etc. When actually released it was friendly faction instead.

Oh and for the feat, just have a statement at the end saying that it lasts one round/turn. (I would say turn as not much charging will happen for you during your enemy's turn.)

Ill start with,

Most players wont come close to being able to Balance a "Homebrew Warcaster"

Your openion will be bias, its for your army, you want him good, and not be junk.

It takes alot of people playtesting and tweaking rules for new casters, Why would somone want to play against a homebrew caster without one of their own ?


Balance is an art, leave it for the game designers.

See here
http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-8/23/2010

and here

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-7-18-2012

I just looked at Deneghra's spell list and influence specifically says "Take control of target non-warcaster, non-warlock warrior model."

You should change your spell description to reflect that.

I has a homebrew! Mk1, though.

Probably should be FOC 6.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/User:malfred#Warmachine-esque

The thing is, I'm really not getting why you would want to do this. WM/Hordes isn't a GW game where stuff is just thrown together, it's a rule set that's trying as hard as any to be balanced.

Playing a homebrew... kinda defeats the whole reason to play WM/H. No offense, I mean you're probably a fine guy, but I wouldn't play against a home brew. As has been mentioned above, there is loads of effort that goes into playtesting and getting 'casters into something like balance.

Considering how many options there are, I'm really not seeing a reason for it either.

As an aside, I'm somewhat mystified that you seem to be putting the Butcher forward as an example of a broken caster.

I would love it if PP made an official sheet that allowed you to create a custom Warlock/Warcaster. A list of abilities and stat alterations that you could plug into a formula to make your own caster.

That said, it will be very difficult to make up your own and have it be balanced. Its difficult to do for a model that doesn't have its own point value and in fact reduces the point value of other units.

 Grey Templar wrote:
I would love it if PP made an official sheet that allowed you to create a custom Warlock/Warcaster. A list of abilities and stat alterations that you could plug into a formula to make your own caster.

That said, it will be very difficult to make up your own and have it be balanced. Its difficult to do for a model that doesn't have its own point value and in fact reduces the point value of other units.

No thanks.

You could do this on your own for friendly games if you like. I just have
no interest in it. For me this is like playing against the Pan Fo.

 IHateNids wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Shadow Weaver Mikaela, Cryx Warcaster

SPD:7 STR:6 MAT:5 RAT:4 DEF:16 ARM:14 CMD:9
FOCUS:7
WARJACK POINTS:5

Feat: Unholy Vigour: When this is activated, all models in this model's battlegroup can charge twice its SPD, as opposed to its SPD+3, until the start of this models controlling player's new game turn. Note this Charge still requires a FOCUS point spent to activate it.

Weapons:
Shadow Scythe: P:6 P+S:12
Magical Weapon
Reach
Weapon Master

Model Rules:
Stealth
Undead

Cull Soul:
For every living model killed within 2" of this model, place a soul token on it.

Soul-Driver:
Any Soul Tokens on this Model may be allocated to a Warjack within control range as if it was a FOCUS point, at any point in this models activation.

Parry:
This Model cannot be targetted by free strikes.

Spells
Occultation: Cost: 2, range: 6", Pow:-, Off:No, Up: Yes, AOE:-
SIngle Friendly Faction Unit/Jack gains Stealth

Influence: Cost: 1, Range: 10", POW: -, AOE: -, UP: no, OFF: yes
Take control of enemy non-caster/warlock, immediately make a single, unboostable melee attack. Then influence expires.

Pursuit: Cost: 2, Range 8, POW -, AOE -, UP: Yes OFF: Yes
If the target of this spell moves during its activation, a model in this models battlegroup can immediately make a full advance.

Constriction: Cost: 3, Range: 10, Pow: 8, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
A model that takes 1 or more boxes of damage from this spell subtracts the number of damage boxes taken from its DEF, until this models next activation.

Shard of Darkness: Cost: 4, Range: 12, POW: 10, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
Target hit is stationery for a round

Any more balanced?

My problem with this it's still a good supporting caster and a good assassin caster. It's gotta give something up. WM on this guy is making it effectively a 15.5 PS hit with it's main weapon. Potentially higher, potentially lower, but average 15.5 which is solid for many casters out there. Defensive stats are geared towards assassins with high speed, high defense, low armor. Starkly low MAT throws off internal balance on the caster though with high risk high reward, but has the focus to boost, or can use shard of darkness or a warjack can just knockdown the target for the caster and the huge threat range can take care of the rest. These factors mitigate the low MAT. Stealth and parry really augment the defensive aspect of this caster as well as being able to sit on focus to have 16/21 defensive stats.

Support wise, 7 focus and some nice upkeep spells and decent feat make this caster very good at this aspect as well. Soul driver is icing on the cake that turns the caster from assassin, to support on a dime. Charge in, wipe out some grunts and toss the soul tokens to your warjacks and cast spells as needed. 5 WJ points is a lot for the current line up still.

You need to decide what kind of warcaster this is first off, then you can start figuring out where to trim.

 Surtur wrote:

 IHateNids wrote:

Spoiler:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Shadow Weaver Mikaela, Cryx Warcaster

SPD:7 STR:6 MAT:5 RAT:4 DEF:16 ARM:14 CMD:9
FOCUS:7
WARJACK POINTS:5

Feat: Unholy Vigour: When this is activated, all models in this model's battlegroup can charge twice its SPD, as opposed to its SPD+3, until the start of this models controlling player's new game turn. Note this Charge still requires a FOCUS point spent to activate it.

Weapons:
Shadow Scythe: P:6 P+S:12
Magical Weapon
Reach
Weapon Master

Model Rules:
Stealth
Undead

Cull Soul:
For every living model killed within 2" of this model, place a soul token on it.

Soul-Driver:
Any Soul Tokens on this Model may be allocated to a Warjack within control range as if it was a FOCUS point, at any point in this models activation.

Parry:
This Model cannot be targetted by free strikes.

Spells
Occultation: Cost: 2, range: 6", Pow:-, Off:No, Up: Yes, AOE:-
SIngle Friendly Faction Unit/Jack gains Stealth

Influence: Cost: 1, Range: 10", POW: -, AOE: -, UP: no, OFF: yes
Take control of enemy non-caster/warlock, immediately make a single, unboostable melee attack. Then influence expires.

Pursuit: Cost: 2, Range 8, POW -, AOE -, UP: Yes OFF: Yes
If the target of this spell moves during its activation, a model in this models battlegroup can immediately make a full advance.

Constriction: Cost: 3, Range: 10, Pow: 8, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
A model that takes 1 or more boxes of damage from this spell subtracts the number of damage boxes taken from its DEF, until this models next activation.

Shard of Darkness: Cost: 4, Range: 12, POW: 10, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
Target hit is stationery for a round

Any more balanced?

My problem with this it's still a good supporting caster and a good assassin caster. It's gotta give something up. WM on this guy is making it effectively a 15.5 PS hit with it's main weapon. Potentially higher, potentially lower, but average 15.5 which is solid for many casters out there. Defensive stats are geared towards assassins with high speed, high defense, low armor. Starkly low MAT throws off internal balance on the caster though with high risk high reward, but has the focus to boost, or can use shard of darkness or a warjack can just knockdown the target for the caster and the huge threat range can take care of the rest. These factors mitigate the low MAT. Stealth and parry really augment the defensive aspect of this caster as well as being able to sit on focus to have 16/21 defensive stats.

Support wise, 7 focus and some nice upkeep spells and decent feat make this caster very good at this aspect as well. Soul driver is icing on the cake that turns the caster from assassin, to support on a dime. Charge in, wipe out some grunts and toss the soul tokens to your warjacks and cast spells as needed. 5 WJ points is a lot for the current line up still.

You need to decide what kind of warcaster this is first off, then you can start figuring out where to trim.

Thanks for pointing that out. I think i want the caster to be more of a supporting caster, but with an assassination spell. Now that the highlighted "Arc node Shard of Darkness" fills that role, i will work on removing the others that work against the desired role

 IHateNids wrote:

 Surtur wrote:

 IHateNids wrote:

Spoiler:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Shadow Weaver Mikaela, Cryx Warcaster

SPD:7 STR:6 MAT:5 RAT:4 DEF:16 ARM:14 CMD:9
FOCUS:7
WARJACK POINTS:5

Feat: Unholy Vigour: When this is activated, all models in this model's battlegroup can charge twice its SPD, as opposed to its SPD+3, until the start of this models controlling player's new game turn. Note this Charge still requires a FOCUS point spent to activate it.

Weapons:
Shadow Scythe: P:6 P+S:12
Magical Weapon
Reach
Weapon Master

Model Rules:
Stealth
Undead

Cull Soul:
For every living model killed within 2" of this model, place a soul token on it.

Soul-Driver:
Any Soul Tokens on this Model may be allocated to a Warjack within control range as if it was a FOCUS point, at any point in this models activation.

Parry:
This Model cannot be targetted by free strikes.

Spells
Occultation: Cost: 2, range: 6", Pow:-, Off:No, Up: Yes, AOE:-
SIngle Friendly Faction Unit/Jack gains Stealth

Influence: Cost: 1, Range: 10", POW: -, AOE: -, UP: no, OFF: yes
Take control of enemy non-caster/warlock, immediately make a single, unboostable melee attack. Then influence expires.

Pursuit: Cost: 2, Range 8, POW -, AOE -, UP: Yes OFF: Yes
If the target of this spell moves during its activation, a model in this models battlegroup can immediately make a full advance.

Constriction: Cost: 3, Range: 10, Pow: 8, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
A model that takes 1 or more boxes of damage from this spell subtracts the number of damage boxes taken from its DEF, until this models next activation.

Shard of Darkness: Cost: 4, Range: 12, POW: 10, AOE: -, Up: No, Off: yes
Target hit is stationery for a round

Any more balanced?

My problem with this it's still a good supporting caster and a good assassin caster. It's gotta give something up. WM on this guy is making it effectively a 15.5 PS hit with it's main weapon. Potentially higher, potentially lower, but average 15.5 which is solid for many casters out there. Defensive stats are geared towards assassins with high speed, high defense, low armor. Starkly low MAT throws off internal balance on the caster though with high risk high reward, but has the focus to boost, or can use shard of darkness or a warjack can just knockdown the target for the caster and the huge threat range can take care of the rest. These factors mitigate the low MAT. Stealth and parry really augment the defensive aspect of this caster as well as being able to sit on focus to have 16/21 defensive stats.

Support wise, 7 focus and some nice upkeep spells and decent feat make this caster very good at this aspect as well. Soul driver is icing on the cake that turns the caster from assassin, to support on a dime. Charge in, wipe out some grunts and toss the soul tokens to your warjacks and cast spells as needed. 5 WJ points is a lot for the current line up still.

You need to decide what kind of warcaster this is first off, then you can start figuring out where to trim.

Thanks for pointing that out. I think i want the caster to be more of a supporting caster, but with an assassination spell. Now that the highlighted "Arc node Shard of Darkness" fills that role, i will work on removing the others that work against the desired role

Ah, good! In that case, I would suggest:

-drop parry and stealth right off the bat.
-drop WM make the PS 13 or 14, good enough to kill infantry, but not threaten higher stuff.
- Spd 6, unless you can think of a good reason to give a support caster mobility
-Knock a point off of defense. Most support casters total their defensive stats under 30.
-Constriction: change the variable defense and just make it static upon receiving damage. Easier to remember and faster to play. Prolly around -2 DEF, similar the Khador spell (can't remember name). So basically should read like: Enemy model damage by this spell receives -2 DEF
-Spell list doesn't give you a whole lot of punch. You may want to consider swapping constriction or shard or adding another spell with some damage behind it.
-Feat needs a bit more punch behind it with the other changes, maybe include slam and let jacks charge or slam for free? Or boost the first to hit roll as well as the damage roll for charging?

As a mental exercise I think this is a fun thing.

As to playing it in a game.... I gotta pass. Knowing opposing casters, how the work (even in general) is a pretty important part of the game, Add in a dash of synergy and affinities for Jacks/Beasts and you open a whole new can of worms.

 Surtur wrote:

Ah, good! In that case, I would suggest:

-drop parry and stealth right off the bat.
-drop WM make the PS 13 or 14, good enough to kill infantry, but not threaten higher stuff.
- Spd 6, unless you can think of a good reason to give a support caster mobility
-Knock a point off of defense. Most support casters total their defensive stats under 30.
-Constriction: change the variable defense and just make it static upon receiving damage. Easier to remember and faster to play. Prolly around -2 DEF, similar the Khador spell (can't remember name). So basically should read like: Enemy model damage by this spell receives -2 DEF
-Spell list doesn't give you a whole lot of punch. You may want to consider swapping constriction or shard or adding another spell with some damage behind it.
-Feat needs a bit more punch behind it with the other changes, maybe include slam and let jacks charge or slam for free? Or boost the first to hit roll as well as the damage roll for charging?

Surtur: I agree with pretty much all your changes.

Does anyone else have a soul drive type ability? CTRL seems to be an overly large radius. What about CMD. Usually soul token interactions are 6".

IMHO, the feat is good in principle, with all of Cryx' high speed models, especially with the shenanegins that pursuit offers. I'm glad the damage boost is gone as I found it ambiguously worded. For extra punch, I have the following suggestions: (This is an "or" proposition, I don't propose all these at once.)

1. Any battlegroup models beginning their activation within this warcaster's CTRL gain 360 degree vision and may charge without spending focus.
2. While within this warcaster's CTRL, all warjack models in the battlegroup gain cull soul this turn, and can hold up to a maximum of three souls. Souls gained in this fashion becomes focus on the following turn. Each enemy living warrior model destroyed can only generate one soul, and souls must be allocated to the closest model.
3. While within this warcaster's CTRL, enemy models boxed this turn are removed from play.

I'd swap Constriction with uh... Icy Grip? I feel that the shard spell is redundant as it falls into the same line as Icy Grip. Probably better served with some other Cryx staples... Breath of Corruption is a good candidate.

 keezus wrote:

Does anyone else have a soul drive type ability? CTRL seems to be an overly large radius. What about CMD. Usually soul token interactions are 6".

Aren't souls usually converted to focus prior to allocation? If so, then that would likely be a no.

I'd be against Icy Grip since that's a function of cold based sorcerers in Khador.

To the OP's question, no I wouldn't play against a homebrew either with the exception of if were were playing IKRPG casters.