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Got a new player in my area who doesnt like his new dex very much and has made/found a custom dex.

From reading it the dex seams very OP. best of 6th and best of 5th.

as this is not a tourny i do not want to discourage my friend but i need to know how to advise him and avoid blatant OPness.

what are some good ways to judge a custom DEX??

ANY!!! advice will be helpful as this is new territory for me.

Thanks Dakkanauts

What army is it if you dont mind my asking. But I would say the best way to judge one is on how fun it is to play against.

Well, explain to your friend in detail what the issues are and why they're problematic. Discuss mathhammer, use similar units from other codices, build sample army lists and play test them.

If you are having a hard time, you can always use the forum here to help you figure out where the problems are. The proposed rules section is pretty good at picking apart OP stuff.

Other that, can't really help without seeing the rules.

This new guy is already your friend?

Personally id say dont even bother with fandex as 9/10 it will be broken and very dumb.

But if he insists as above quickly learn math hammer, compare and contrast to things that are similar, play test to get a feel (A LOT OF PLAY TESTING) and prepare to not get many games in outside of friends.

Simple, say you will play with him as long as you play two games. In the first game you get to use his dex.

This should immediately show him what he has brought to the table and both you and he will have a better idea of what needs tweeking before the second game.

 thepowerfulwill wrote:
What army is it if you dont mind my asking. But I would say the best way to judge one is on how fun it is to play against.

Tyranids

Ahhh...NOW it makes sense.

Lots of nid players are mad the new codex can't pull of "lol tervigons crush everything" lists, where you just spam HQ tervigon, 3 temegaunt squads, 3 tervigon troops and go to town and it will work.

Nowdays you need minimal working brain to pull a good nid army, and you know what? they are still BRUTAL when applied properly, you just need to have some monsters to do the heavy lifting, and there are plenty of monsters to choose from.


Honestly, tell him that its a bad idea, and he should stick to the new codex. it works great, just a bit different.

If he needs to improve his playstyle, its not an excuse to upgrade his army rules. I've made enough custom units and HQs in the past, but never even asked to use one of them in a game, its just wrong.
The one who plays CANT be the one to write the rules.

I would avoid fan-made codecies.

I was hoping i was crazy but it seams you guys agree with me.

Thanks Dakkanauts

Can you perhaps put up what makes his Codex a custom one? I mean is it some tweaks to the way the Codex or individual units or has he gone about rewriting the entire thing?

As someone who has written 3 Fandexes (Fandices...?), I have to say that no Fandex is worth using if it hasn't been playtested. Each book I've written has gone through 5+ revisions just to figure out what's OP/under-powered, and even then I'll find glaring issues. Basically, if they want to use a Fandex, your gaming group is going to have to basically rewrite it to get that perfect balance.

Mali wrote:
Got a new player in my area who doesnt like his new dex very much and has made/found a custom dex.

From reading it the dex seams very OP. best of 6th and best of 5th.

as this is not a tourny i do not want to discourage my friend but i need to know how to advise him and avoid blatant OPness.

what are some good ways to judge a custom DEX??

ANY!!! advice will be helpful as this is new territory for me.

Thanks Dakkanauts

99.9% of fandexes are overpowered shlock because someone is angry that their book got the shaft in its latest update so that they take it into their own hands to make up the difference. Usually instead of just bringing things back on par with their previous codex, they have to go the extra step and just make everything better than it ever was. Since they are already changing things to one degree, why not go all the way and make their favorite dex "the right way". The "right way" usually means more powerful than everything else and including ALL the cool toys because, heck, they deserve them.

Just tell him to man up and use his own codex. If you let him play it once and he sees how powerful it is, he will likely want to continue using it, so you need to stop it early.

There are, on rare occasions, fandexs that just update an older book to be more compatible with the current game meta when they are lagging in an update, which help make the book more usable in an updated ruleset, but don't make them overpowered monster forces. Of course, if your friend's new fandex is already making your think OP it is not likely this kind of update, especially since you are saying it combines the best of both worlds from the 5th and 6th edition books.

Skriker

 Skriker wrote:

Mali wrote:
Got a new player in my area who doesnt like his new dex very much and has made/found a custom dex.

From reading it the dex seams very OP. best of 6th and best of 5th.

as this is not a tourny i do not want to discourage my friend but i need to know how to advise him and avoid blatant OPness.

what are some good ways to judge a custom DEX??

ANY!!! advice will be helpful as this is new territory for me.

Thanks Dakkanauts

99.9% of fandexes are overpowered shlock because someone is angry that their book got the shaft in its latest update so that they take it into their own hands to make up the difference. Usually instead of just bringing things back on par with their previous codex, they have to go the extra step and just make everything better than it ever was. Since they are already changing things to one degree, why not go all the way and make their favorite dex "the right way". The "right way" usually means more powerful than everything else and including ALL the cool toys because, heck, they deserve them.

Just tell him to man up and use his own codex. If you let him play it once and he sees how powerful it is, he will likely want to continue using it, so you need to stop it early.

There are, on rare occasions, fandexs that just update an older book to be more compatible with the current game meta when they are lagging in an update, which help make the book more usable in an updated ruleset, but don't make them overpowered monster forces. Of course, if your friend's new fandex is already making your think OP it is not likely this kind of update, especially since you are saying it combines the best of both worlds from the 5th and 6th edition books.

Skriker

Off topic, but I wonder if the orks have any good fandexes?