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This was inspired by a bit of conversation in the '40k Background' subforum, discussing how other fictional universes would fare compared to 40k-level threats. Someone brought up the Dresden Files and I, having far too much free time on my hands, decided to take that as a challenge.
Those of you who have read the books, does this seem fluffy and fitting?
Those of you who haven't read the books, does this seem balanced? (I'm not sure how many points to charge. Most of the abilities lean towards 'Fluffy, with a bit of utility', but it does mean I'm having a hard time gauging his power level.)
Those of you who are currently reading the books - As above, but minor spoiler warnings, since this is the version of Harry Dresden from book 14, and certain abilities might give away bits of character development.
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden
Spoiler:
115 points?
Ws 3
Bs 3
S 4
T 3
W 3
A 3
I 4
Ld 10
Sv 3+
Unit Composition:
1 (Unique)
Unit Type:
Infantry (Character)
Wargear:
Autopistol
Wizard's Staff
Force Rings
Enchanted Duster
Special Rules:
Psyker (Mastery Level 2)
Fleet of Foot
Stubborn
Admantium Will
Winter's Mantle
Dedicated Arsonist
Soulfire
Harry Dresden generates one power each from Pyromancy and Telekinesis, and knows Flame Breath and Telekine Dome automatically. (Note that as a result he will never get a power for Psychic Focus.)
Force Rings:
These rings contain a buildup of stored kinetic energy, which can be unleashed to incredible result. Once per game, instead of attacking in the assault phase, Harry Dresden may make a single attack with the following profile:
Range (melee) S6 AP3 Concussive, Blast of Force
Blast of Force: This attack always hits on 2+, regardless of the target's weapon skill
Enchanted Duster:
This provides a 3+ armor save
Winter's Mantle:
The power of Winter flows through Harry's veins, giving him strength and power not known to mortal men. The effects have already been reflected in his characteristics. Additionally, he gains Feel No Pain 4+, and once per game may give himself Rage, Furious Charge, and Rending for the duration of a phase, but afterwards must pass a Leadership check or suffer a wound with no saves or Feel no Pain of any kind allowed. He also ignores the effects of the Hellfrost special rule. However, he counts as a Winter Faerie for the purposes of any rules which interact with that (such as Preferred Enemy).
Dedicated Arsonist:
When targeting a building with a Pyromancy psychic power, Harry may re-roll armor penetration results and to-wound results for models hit by the 'No escape!' special rule.
Soulfire:
At the start of the game, set aside three dice or markers. During any Psychic Phase, Harry may use any number of those dice to attempt to manifest a Psychic Power, as well as using Warp Charges normally. Once those dice are used, remove them from the pool - Each can only be used once per game.
For 30 points, Harry may hire the services of the Za Lord's Guard. If he does so, he gains Preferred Enemy (characters) and can re-roll the dice to seize the initiative. Additionally, place D3 tokens on the board before deployment - No enemy unit can infiltrate or scout within 12" of these tokens.
White Court Vampires:
Spoiler:
White Vampire (Special Rule):
Vampires of the White Court possess extreme physical strength, speed, and abilities beyond that of mortal men. All White Vampires gain Fleet of Foot, It Will Not Die, Feel No Pain, and a 5+ Invulnerable save.
Vampires of House Malvora gain the "Fear" special rule, and gain Preferred Enemy for one turn against any enemy unit who fails a Fear check.
Vampires of House Skavis reduce the leadership of enemy models within 6" by 2, and may re-roll charge distances against units who have gone to ground or are fleeing.
Vampires of House Raith force all enemy models in Base-to-Base contact to take a leadership check at the start of any fight sub-phase. If they fail, they are reduced to WS 1 until the end of the phase, and may only make a single attack. This leadership check must still be taken by models with the Fearless or And They Shall Know No Fear special rule, but is ignored by models with the Daemon, Instinctive Behavior, Synapse, or Reanimation Protocols special rule. Models with 'Admantium Will' may re-roll this Leadership Check.
White Court Vampires
Ws 4
Bs 4
S 5
T 3
W 2
A 3
I 5
Ld 9
Sv 4+
Unit Composition:
3 White Court Vampires
Unit Type:
Infantry
Wargear:
Two Power Swords
Special Rules:
White Vampire
Options:
Any White Court Vampire may choose to trade both of its Power Swords for a pair of Power Mauls or Power Axes.
They may also trade one or both of their power weapons for Bolt Pistols.
The whole unit must belong to either House Raith, House Malvora, or House Skavis.
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2016/12/08 23:22:59
Seems legit to me. Compared to SM Librarian, he's 30 points more expensive, but gains a few nifty rules. Might even be a tad overpriced, especially given his powers kinda suck.
Clocks for the clockmaker! Cogs for the cog throne!
JNAProductions wrote: Seems legit to me. Compared to SM Librarian, he's 30 points more expensive, but gains a few nifty rules. Might even be a tad overpriced, especially given his powers kinda suck.
He's 30 points more expensive, but gains +1 wound (Counteracted by T3, though,) loses 1 WS (But he sucks in Melee anyways,) and the aforementioned special rules. I wanted to add a bunch more special rules to represent various stuff from the books and a ton of gear to represent all of his huge, huge list of available tools, but I didn't want his list of rules to get too long. (Fortunately, 'Stubborn' and 'Fleet' were already represented by USRs.)
Would 'Admantium Will' be a good addition?
I might do some more of these for the other characters from the books, depending on whether or not I feel like it.
Colonel17 wrote: I assume Wizard's Staff is a Force Staff? Adamantium Will would be a good fit.
Next you should give him an upgrade option- The Za Lord's Guard!
Yes! This needs to happen!
Some ideas:
It gives him Acute Senses and Outflank.
It gives him Defensive Grenades and +1 Attack (or +d3 attacks at S3 AP- and I6.)
I don't know if it would actually make him stronger in combat. Yeah, there are a few instances of the Za Lord's Guard fighting for him, but outside of rare cases Harry mostly seems to use them for intel, information, distractions, and harassment - Nobody wants the guard getting hurt, after all. Lemme see what I can cook up.
EDIT: Okay, gave him Admantium Will, and added rules for the Za Lord's Guard. 30 points, gives you PE, re-rollable Seize, and a bit of infiltrate/scout denial. Also added an adendum on Harry saying that he's vulnerable to any rules that effect Faeries (Such as 'Preferred Enemy') in case I make up more rules.
Who should I do next?
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/12/07 19:19:54
I'd drop his BS to 3 and lose fleet. BS4 is the sort of BS you get for being a a centuries-old space marine or a space elf warrior monk. Harry isn't a bad shot, but he isn't a superhumanly good one either. I'm guessing the Fleet is there to represent the fact that he jogs a lot, but that doesn't even really put him on the same footing as a dedicated soldier or athlete, let alone a space marine (who also doesn't have fleet).
Other than that, this seems like a fluffy, balanced adaptation. ^_^
ATTENTION. Psychic tests are unfluffy. Your longing for AV is understandable but misguided. Your chapter doesn't need a separate codex. Doctrines should go away. Being a "troop" means nothing. This has been a cranky service announcement. You may now resume your regularly scheduled arguing.
Soul Gaze When a character that is neither Chaos nor a Monstrous Creature challenges or is challenged by a model with this special rule, the character always attacks at Initiative 1 for the first round of close combat.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/12/08 07:20:20
Wyldhunt wrote:I'd drop his BS to 3 and lose fleet. BS4 is the sort of BS you get for being a a centuries-old space marine or a space elf warrior monk. Harry isn't a bad shot, but he isn't a superhumanly good one either. I'm guessing the Fleet is there to represent the fact that he jogs a lot, but that doesn't even really put him on the same footing as a dedicated soldier or athlete, let alone a space marine (who also doesn't have fleet).
Other than that, this seems like a fluffy, balanced adaptation. ^_^
I'll drop the BS4 (That's a good point), but I think Fleet is a fair comparison after reading the events of Skin Game. SPOILERS!
Spoiler:
By this point in the story, he doesn't just jog a lot, he's got the Winter Mantle flowing through him and has spent a year doing little except preparing magical tools, learning about Demonreach, and exercising - Mostly by doing extensive running and parkour. He's able to run through a massive, icey grindmill invented by Hades, twice, and the second time he was not prepared and had a giant monster chasing him the whole way.
Charistoph wrote:Is Dresden actually considered a good shot with a gun, though? Can he even match a beat cop, for example?
If he can match a beat cop, then he can be BS 3, if not, BS 2. If he can match a SWAT team member, then he can be BS 4.
If it is a concern over his accuracy with spells, add it in as a rule that he is BS 4 when casting Witchfires.
I enjoyed the tv series (sadly short), but I have not had occasion to read the books as yet.
He's not a particular expert (There's been multiple occasions of people teasing him about it,) but usually his marksmanship only looks bad because it's being compared to superhumans and lifelong experts. He's probably something in Beat Cop range. I'll drop it down to 3.
mr. peasant wrote:Perhaps you could add Soul Gaze?
Soul Gaze When a character that is neither Chaos nor a Monstrous Creature challenges or is challenged by a model with this special rule, the character always attacks at Initiative 1 for the first round of close combat.
Harry generally avoids using his Soul Gaze at all costs, especially in combat. As far as I'm aware, he only uses it in fights when the only other option is 'Get shot in about a quarter second because I've already lost'.
Why does he have Strength 4? That should really be reserved for the equivalent of Strongest Man in the World type folks or extremely enhanced humans - even basic Orks and Kroot don't have Strength 4.
Unusual Suspect wrote: Why does he have Strength 4? That should really be reserved for the equivalent of Strongest Man in the World type folks or extremely enhanced humans - even basic Orks and Kroot don't have Strength 4.
Unusual Suspect wrote: Why does he have Strength 4? That should really be reserved for the equivalent of Strongest Man in the World type folks or extremely enhanced humans - even basic Orks and Kroot don't have Strength 4.
Because of Winter's Mantle.
Pretty much. During a stint of Physical Therapy, he was bench pressing around 350kg as part of regular exercise. I thought about bumping him up to T4 as well, but decided that FNP was a better representation - the book actually describes him as dangerously unaware when he gets injured.
Harry Dresden seems like he would need a transport or better mobility to be good, as he's fairly squishy and ring of force isn't actually that good. I guess if he can get decent ablative shielding he isn't bad. Maybe buff the ring to S7.
The vampires have 2 wounds but only T3, which in a game with so much S6+ attacks means they'll be getting ID'd by most special weapons. In kill team they'd be interesting enemies to fight, because most troops can't get more than a few S6+ attacks per unit and they are very high-damage melee units, but in normal 40k they're pretty terrible unless they have some ranged or can use a decent transport.
40k drinking game: take a shot everytime a book references Skitarii using transports.
gnome_idea_what wrote: Harry Dresden seems like he would need a transport or better mobility to be good, as he's fairly squishy and ring of force isn't actually that good. I guess if he can get decent ablative shielding he isn't bad. Maybe buff the ring to S7.
The vampires have 2 wounds but only T3, which in a game with so much S6+ attacks means they'll be getting ID'd by most special weapons. In kill team they'd be interesting enemies to fight, because most troops can't get more than a few S6+ attacks per unit and they are very high-damage melee units, but in normal 40k they're pretty terrible unless they have some ranged or can use a decent transport.
Those were both intentional choices. In the "fluff", Vampires are incredibly quick and can soak up damage that would kill any human, but they still have pretty much human bodies - You hit them with overwhelming power, they're going to die before their healing factor kicks in.
Maybe they should get Outflank? Or, heck, they commonly drop in from Helicopters in the books - Maybe a small price bump to get Deep Strike?
