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Hey folks,

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, and if it isn't then I apologize. Does anyone know if there is anywhere online with any generally balanced(ish) rules for custom character creation?

I do a lot of posting in this section, but I honestly just don't know how to get the points values close to right and would love to see what some other people use as a general guideline for point costing custom characters.

Thanks in advance!

Generally, at least for Marines and their plethora of rules, you look for HQs with similar equipment and then special characters with possibly similar abilities.

Custom units for Warhammer generally start out by taking existing units and tweaking them. There isn't a standardized character generator, but you can go do some brainstorming and then come back and post here and we'll give you feedback on how we think it'll work.

I usually just eyeball it and compare against existing units. Even if you don't have an official character with similar abilities to compare against, you probably have units with similar roles.

So if the custom unit is really killy, compare its average damage output against various targets (guardsmen, marines, and rhinos are my usual go-to's), and see how that stacks up against a unit with similar offense. If your opponent at a tournament would always take the custom unit before taking the existing unit, you might need to up the points or nerf the abilities a bit.

Ditto defense, support abilities, etc. What does the custom unit do? Does it do it better or worse than the most similar unit with the same job, and what do their points costs look like? What can the unit do in a pinch even though it's not his main job? Is he accidentally competing with units whose job that actually is?

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Yeah, I'm currently writing new fluff for my latest project (themed largely around 30k models and old-old-old marines I have lying around) and I wanted to maybe model a few custom characters that aren't perfectly in the rules. Honestly, since it's largely scrap pieces I'm kitbashing I'm not super worried if I never get to really run it, but it would be cool to have the option.

I will try to find some comparisons to existing units and do some mathhammer ect.

Just out of curiosity, anyone have any quick links to some custom units/characters that are largely considered reasonably priced/not-overpowered?

leerm02 wrote:

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Yeah, I'm currently writing new fluff for my latest project (themed largely around 30k models and old-old-old marines I have lying around) and I wanted to maybe model a few custom characters that aren't perfectly in the rules. Honestly, since it's largely scrap pieces I'm kitbashing I'm not super worried if I never get to really run it, but it would be cool to have the option.

I will try to find some comparisons to existing units and do some mathhammer ect.

Just out of curiosity, anyone have any quick links to some custom units/characters that are largely considered reasonably priced/not-overpowered?

Ultimately, what we say doesn't matter. It's your playgroup that does.

So, you'd be best off talking to them-not to say we can't help you point out ways to make rules more clear, or more appropriate costs, or whatever, but in the end, we aren't playing you.