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Following from an off topic post I couldn't resist in another thread, I thought it might be a funny/cool idea to make a tier list of all characters in terms of their plot armour. We're not talking about anything measurable in-universe here, take it to the sensible threads! Here we're talking about those characters that cannot and will not die because GW will not let them. It doesn't matter how dire the situation, they will live, always. We're also talking about those poor characters that are guaranteed to lose every fight they engage in where they are up against another character, and everything in between! Feel free to add your own rankings to the mix and where you think characters exist. I will periodically update the OP with our findings. This is, by definition, subjective, so best arguments for/against something wins I'm afraid.

Without further ado, my current tier list;

God Tier (unkillable under any circumstances, the universe would break before he did)
Cato Sicarius
Makari?
Sly Marbo

Demi-God Tier (virtually unkillable under any circumstances)
The Emperor of Mankind
Guilliman
Caldor Draigo
Mephiston
Dante
Bjorn
Ragnar
Maugan Ra
Cawl
Eldrad
Cypher

Heroic Tier (very unlikely but possible they could lose a battle)
Tigurius
Vect
The new loyalist Primaris Characters
Azazel
A named canoness that isn't Celestine
Farsight
Kharn
Yarrick
Huron Blackheart

Middling Tier (lose as often as they win)
Shadowsun
Any other Aeldari character
Mortarion
Magnus
Calgar

Oops, I did it again Tier (lose fairly often)
Abaddon
Ghazgkhull
Any other named Tau character excluding the dead guy
CREEEED
Generic, named IG character

I need a hero! Tier (need help, generally we know they aren't a real threat)
Any other named Ork warlord
Any named Chaos warlord

Somebody saaaavvveee meeee! Tier (oh dear)
Celestine
Named Chaos Daemons
The Avatar of Khaine(?)

A danger only unto themselves Tier (pity the weak)
Skarbrand
Swarmlord

Have at it! Feel free to criticise my decisions, add characters I've missed etc

I would say Marbo would also be in God Tier, just for the memes.

Yarrick I would put in Heroic tier, given that he did get beat by Ghazzy a few times.

Maugan Ra under Demi-God tier since he literally face tanked a whole tendril of a Hive Fleet by himself.

Cawl is probably in Demi-God tier purely because he has literal back-ups of himself and as the one who helped bring primaris sales a reality for GW he is basically their in-fluff CFO.

 Grimskul wrote:
I would say Marbo would also be in God Tier, just for the memes.

Yarrick I would put in Heroic tier, given that he did get beat by Ghazzy a few times.

Maugan Ra under Demi-God tier since he literally face tanked a whole tendril of a Hive Fleet by himself.

Cawl is probably in Demi-God tier purely because he has literal back-ups of himself and as the one who helped bring primaris sales a reality for GW he is basically their in-fluff CFO.

Great shouts these.

Tell me more about this Maugan Ra business?!

Where does Calgarr fit in? Dude gets mauled all the time but never. Fething. Dies. Seriously how many original parts does he have left at this point?

Gadzilla666 wrote:
Where does Calgarr fit in? Dude gets mauled all the time but never. Fething. Dies. Seriously how many original parts does he have left at this point?

He is definitely above Swarmlord but not great. He did draw with Abaddon though I suppose?

This is hilarious. Also, it's basically an inverse-listing of their supposed power level! Characters like named greater daemons, celestine, Avatar of Khaine etc. are literally immortal manifestations of ultimate power, Ragnar Blackbane is just a guy who isn't even like strategically gifted or anything.

Immortal characters exist so that they can be killed over an over again.

Maybe Angron, Celestine, the Avatar, Skarbrand, and the Swarmlord can get together for group therapy.



The IG characters almost never fight other characters, or even have significant fluff in general. Only Creed does, he's probably middle tier or Oops! tier, since he does win but always needs rescuing from the Space Marines to do so.
Generic Named IG Characters show up only so that the Space Marines can save them [or the Tau can kill them], and so probably fall into the Oops! tier at best. They usually give it a good fight, so Oops! or I Need a Hero! is probably where they fall.

The DKoK and Elysian Drop Troops aren't characters, but they do have some serious plot armor or plot vulnerability:
The Death Korps of Krieg are Heroic Tier. Sometimes, they save the day when even the Space Marines need help. The literally stupidest guardsmen who are aggressively suicidal win after the others with a theoretically more coherent strategy have failed.
The Elysians are in the Threat Only To Themselves Tier [Have the Elysians every won or even achieved anything? They lost without achieving any effect other than dying in Tauros, Anphelion, and Kastorel-Novem. I don't know if they appear in Orphelia, and I think that makes all of their appearances.] The Elysians are to the Guard as the Guard is to the Space Marines.

 An Actual Englishman wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:
I would say Marbo would also be in God Tier, just for the memes.

Yarrick I would put in Heroic tier, given that he did get beat by Ghazzy a few times.

Maugan Ra under Demi-God tier since he literally face tanked a whole tendril of a Hive Fleet by himself.

Cawl is probably in Demi-God tier purely because he has literal back-ups of himself and as the one who helped bring primaris sales a reality for GW he is basically their in-fluff CFO.

Great shouts these.

Tell me more about this Maugan Ra business?!

Maugan Ra is the Dark Reaper Phoenix Lord and what I mentioned is basically a fluff blurb where he defends a planet called Stormvald from a swarm from Hive Fleet Leviathan. No hard numbers so it's not clear how much he killed but doing it singlehandedly is pretty bad-ass. Also, respect for him being one of the only Aspect shrines that emphasize killing from range.

Huron blackheart, aka the Chaos terminator, not only does he get gak done, he has a legion sized warband,that is actually organized, he is in controll of the blackstone fortres because abbadab had to bribe/ buy him with one, he has an unkown benefactor (hamadrya ? Where did it come from) .

He has survived point blank melta, and gives about double as he takes.

I'd Rate the Chaos Space Pirate terminator at about heroic to demigod tier.

Also huron for warmaster 2020 , replace failbaddon with someone that get's gak done.

Not Online!!! wrote:
Huron blackheart, aka the Chaos terminator, not only does he get gak done, he has a legion sized warband,that is actually organized, he is in controll of the blackstone fortres because abbadab had to bribe/ buy him with one, he has an unkown benefactor (hamadrya ? Where did it come from) .

He has survived point blank melta, and gives about double as he takes.

I'd Rate the Chaos Space Pirate terminator at about heroic to demigod tier.

Also huron for warmaster 2020 , replace failbaddon with someone that get's gak done.

He does have trouble holding onto his ships when ornery Night Lords are around however.

All the Tyranid named chars are kill em and grill em stock for others hero on.

Id argue removing the AOK from the list.

Its not a named character anymore. Vitrualy any crafftworld can make an AOK by sacrificing one of their lads to draw on the khaines fragment in the infffinity circuit who gets consumed and transformed into supersayian lve 3 for a limited time before goin back to being a statue and dying.
Supposedly there could be any number of far flung craftworlds or exodite worlds with iniffinity circuits that could make an AOK.

Named greater deamons have a name and can boast feats and events like Kairos being dipped head first into the the well of knowledge by tzeench and surviving, Skarbrand being cats out by khorne etc, but the AOK is just a generic greater deamon.

I would put Eldrad as demi god/god tier as he actually did get killed but his plot armour was sooo strong he got retconned back to life init.

Gadzilla666 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:
Huron blackheart, aka the Chaos terminator, not only does he get gak done, he has a legion sized warband,that is actually organized, he is in controll of the blackstone fortres because abbadab had to bribe/ buy him with one, he has an unkown benefactor (hamadrya ? Where did it come from) .

He has survived point blank melta, and gives about double as he takes.

I'd Rate the Chaos Space Pirate terminator at about heroic to demigod tier.

Also huron for warmaster 2020 , replace failbaddon with someone that get's gak done.

He does have trouble holding onto his ships when ornery Night Lords are around however.

Tbf i assume he just baits them instead,Like the Space corgis and then turns the table whilest everyone else laughes at that one warband too stupid to realize he will .

Not Online!!! wrote:

Gadzilla666 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:
Huron blackheart, aka the Chaos terminator, not only does he get gak done, he has a legion sized warband,that is actually organized, he is in controll of the blackstone fortres because abbadab had to bribe/ buy him with one, he has an unkown benefactor (hamadrya ? Where did it come from) .

He has survived point blank melta, and gives about double as he takes.

I'd Rate the Chaos Space Pirate terminator at about heroic to demigod tier.

Also huron for warmaster 2020 , replace failbaddon with someone that get's gak done.

He does have trouble holding onto his ships when ornery Night Lords are around however.

Tbf i assume he just baits them instead,Like the Space corgis and then turns the table whilest everyone else laughes at that one warband too stupid to realize he will .

Right. So what's he doing with the Echo of Damnation now?

Updated peeps

Cypher is completely and utterly uncatchable and constantly evades death while making a fool of everyone.

Demi god Tier.

 ImperialArmy wrote:
All the Tyranid named chars are kill em and grill em stock for others hero on.

I dunno. Old one eye and red terror have been around since about 3rd and they still aint dead
Not sure what the current tyrranid fluff is but back in the day they were the biggest badest legends in the galaxy when it comes to nids... The old metal old one eye was sooo heavy and his big metal claws always came off. But hi legend persists it seems.

Id put those two in heroic tier for sure simply that they've been around since at least 3rd ed. (or wherever the cool metal hive tyrant straight up rip of alien queen from aliens was)

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
This is hilarious. Also, it's basically an inverse-listing of their supposed power level! Characters like named greater daemons, celestine, Avatar of Khaine etc. are literally immortal manifestations of ultimate power, Ragnar Blackbane is just a guy who isn't even like strategically gifted or anything.

Immortal characters exist so that they can be killed over an over again.

Maybe Angron, Celestine, the Avatar, Skarbrand, and the Swarmlord can get together for group therapy.

It's the paradox caused by serial fiction needing a character to kill, and having characters that can be killed with no long lasting harm. Because there end up two options:
1. Introduce new character, establishing their powers and identity. Then have the character killed. Were enough details put in to the disposable character to clearly establish power levels?
2. Kill the existing regenerating character, then start character's regeneration clock.

I think I've seen it called the Wolverine Effect, to contrast against the Warf Effect (strong character who gets repeatedly defeated because the authors use that character to demonstrate how strong the new character is). And in 40k, sometimes that doubles up.

So are we only doing 40k? Because if 30k is allowed I nominate Gendor Skraivok for "a danger only to himself, an embarrassment to the legion, and deserved everything he fething got".

 solkan wrote:

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
This is hilarious. Also, it's basically an inverse-listing of their supposed power level! Characters like named greater daemons, celestine, Avatar of Khaine etc. are literally immortal manifestations of ultimate power, Ragnar Blackbane is just a guy who isn't even like strategically gifted or anything.

Immortal characters exist so that they can be killed over an over again.

Maybe Angron, Celestine, the Avatar, Skarbrand, and the Swarmlord can get together for group therapy.

It's the paradox caused by serial fiction needing a character to kill, and having characters that can be killed with no long lasting harm. Because there end up two options:
1. Introduce new character, establishing their powers and identity. Then have the character killed. Were enough details put in to the disposable character to clearly establish power levels?
2. Kill the existing regenerating character, then start character's regeneration clock.

I think I've seen it called the Wolverine Effect, to contrast against the Warf Effect (strong character who gets repeatedly defeated because the authors use that character to demonstrate how strong the new character is). And in 40k, sometimes that doubles up.

Yeah the double effect is particularly bad with the eldar because of their resurrecting badasses. The avatar and Phoenix lords


Marines are getting a bit of that taste with Vulkan now being regularly killable in fiction and even guilliman's armour bringing him back.

Well it says plot amour in the title, bit not much lovey dovey stuff in here...

torblind wrote:
Well it says plot amour in the title, bit not much lovey dovey stuff in here...

For that, you need to go back to the Rouge Trader days, where the characters put a little more effort in their appearance. Which was done in different degrees by both the Blood and Dark Angles.

 Argive wrote:

 ImperialArmy wrote:
All the Tyranid named chars are kill em and grill em stock for others hero on.

I dunno. Old one eye and red terror have been around since about 3rd and they still aint dead
Not sure what the current tyrranid fluff is but back in the day they were the biggest badest legends in the galaxy when it comes to nids... The old metal old one eye was sooo heavy and his big metal claws always came off. But hi legend persists it seems.

Id put those two in heroic tier for sure simply that they've been around since at least 3rd ed. (or wherever the cool metal hive tyrant straight up rip of alien queen from aliens was)

Tyranid characters die ALL THE TIME. It’s just that the Hive Mind can grow them again and again. They are more like a hyper specific genus than a character. So yeah, if they appear in a story against someone that’s existed in the stories for more than 1 page, you can guarantee that the Nid goes down.

Sisters/Ecclesiarchy characters frequently die in their unit fluff.

Of the five named characters in the original sisters of battle book, two were killed off in their unit entry.
Praxedes - eaten by tyranids.
Jacobus - killed by a lung virus

At some point Kyrinov was also quietly taken out back and shot. His unique weapon briefly available as a relic.

Sabbat - blown up
Ephrael - killed twice and then told she was out of extra lives.

Creed should be higher up on the list. Same with shadowsun as her defeats are always minor or she always avenges herself somehow

123ply wrote:
Creed should be higher up on the list. Same with shadowsun as her defeats are always minor or she always avenges herself somehow

I would say only sort of. Creed, and basically every other Guard commander, only wins in short blurbs offscreen as "informed competence". If they appear onscreen, it always goes along the lines of "the Guard fought valiantly, but the day was lost... until the Space Marines arrived!", which I think counts towards the SM's plot armor and against the IG plot armor [and then after the space marines save them, they go off to get killed offscreen in their next battle]. Wherever you think that should be.

Shadowsun though definitely. I think the only time Shadowsun needs saving is during the Agrellan Counterattack, otherwise she always wins handily.

torblind wrote:
Well it says plot amour in the title, bit not much lovey dovey stuff in here...

Corrected! Thanks for the spot!

I see you forgot about Necrons.

Don't worry, so have GW .

Torquar wrote:
I see you forgot about Necrons.

Don't worry, so have GW .

Yea but I don't want to be as bad as GW!

Give me some Necron characters and their rankings, I'll add them. I assumed they were low on the tier list on account of them not staying dead.

To be fair, named Necron characters actually don't get caught up in personal duels that much in the fluff. I can only remember Imotehk basically winning his 1v1 versus BT High Marshal Helbrecht the first time around since he used his living metal to win a war of attrition by regening faster than Helbrecht could chop him up. Even when Helbrecht was able to best him, Imotekh abandoned ship rather than be forced to teleport back to a tomb world. Then we have Obyron, which makes sense given his role as a bodyguard, but the only duel I remember him being is against Kor'sarro Khan and Illic Nightspear, and he won.

So I'd probably put Imotekh in Heroic Tier.

I think given that Trazyn the Infinite is literally all about you killing his body doubles and not himself, he's probably under Demi-God tier. Also, got to give him props for capturing Creed in a master-ball.

On that same vein, I would say that Urien Rakarth and Fabius Bile are both Demi-God Tier given that they can either regenerate or have back-up clones to survive any mishaps. Vect as well simply because he had himself killed so he could draw out conspirators and reintroduce himself as a Dark Muse to contest against Ynnari influence. He's a 4D chess master as much as Tzzentch LoC are.