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Warning, this is a pretty long post.
So I’m helping to run a 40K campaign at my FLGS soon and we’re planning to allow players to create a custom character to use during the campaign. The following are the rules we’re planning to use and I’m looking for opinions from the Dakka community on usability, fairness, etc. Please take a look, and thank you if you do.

Campaign Warlord/Hero Creation Rules

All players are encouraged to create a campaign character to represent them on the battlefield. This may be either a Campaign Hero or a Campaign Warlord. Over the course of the campaign, this character is the one that a particular army’s narrative is forged around. The character may be a commander or just a mighty warrior, but in any case, the fate of his army is somehow tied to the campaign character. The purpose of these rules is to allow players to develop and play a new special character of their own design and to advance the campaign story with that character. With this in mind, the following rules are intended to mimic existing special character features.

Step 1 - Selection
Choose any non-Named, non-unique unit from your codex HQ selections. Alternately, an infantry model that is normally purchased as part of a squad may be selected at its “additional models” point cost. The model gains the “independent character” type in addition to its normal type. A Campaign Warlord also changes its battlefield role to HQ (Campaign Heroes retain their original battlefield role). Also note the Non-Standard Character special ability if you’d like to choose a non-infantry model. The campaign character costs an additional 20% points (rounded up) to account for his/her special abilities as listed below. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, Campaign Characters may not also be Lords of War or super heavies.

Example
Peter Parker would like to make a Tau Stealth Suit his Campaign Hero. Instead of purchasing a squad, he pays the “additional Stealth Suits” point cost and makes the suit an independent character for 1 point. Because the Stealth Suit is to be a Campaign Hero, it retains its battlefield role type as an elite.

Step 2 – Statistic bonus/Base Changes
Each Campaign Special Character may add +1 to Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Strength or initiative.

All Campaign Warlords have the Supreme Warlord special rule (not Campaign Heroes).
Supreme Warlord: If this character is included in your army, they MUST be the warlord.

Step 3 – Special Abilities
A Campaign Warlord or Campaign Hero can add up to four (4) points of special rules from the following specialist abilities. Only one special ability may be selected from any given category EXCEPT the “Other” category (based heavily on Kill Team rules). Characters may select more than one ability from “Other”.

Example: Skippy makes his space marine captain his warlord… Captain Skippy. He elects to take Ignores Cover as one of his special rules. He would not then be allowed to also take Sniper, because they are both in the “Weapon Specialist” category.

Most special abilities cost one point each. If a particular ability is followed by a number, please refer to the notes below. No ability may be selected more than once.

Notes:
1. See the special ability descriptions in this document.
2. This special ability is only available to Campaign Warlords.
3. Nominate one ranged weapon to gain this special ability (1 point). If the weapon has 3 or more shots or is blast this ability costs 2 points. If the weapon has 6 or more shots, multiple blasts, or large blast, this ability costs 3 points.
4. Nominate one ranged weapon to gain this special ability (1 point). If the weapon has 6 or more shots, multiple blasts, or large blast, this ability costs 2 points.

Combat Specialist
Counter Attack
Furious Charge
Hammer of Wrath
Hatred
Instant Death – CC attacks only
Rage
Rampage

Weapon Specialist
Haywire – Close combat attacks only
Ignores Cover3
Master Crafted – Nominate 1 weapon
Pinning
Rending4
Sniper
Split Fire
Tank Hunter – Shooting attacks only

Dirty Fighter Specialist
Blind – Close combat attacks only
Concussive – Close combat attacks only
Fear
Fleshbane – Close combat attacks only
Monster Hunter
Poisoned (4+) – Shooting attacks only
Rending – Close combat attacks only
Shred – Close combat attacks only
Soul Blaze – Nominate 1 weapon

Indomitable Specialist
Adamantium Will
Crusader
Eternal Warrior
Fearless
Feel No Pain (2 Points)
Relentless
Strikedown – Close combat attacks only

Guerilla Specialist
Fleet
Hit & Run
Infiltrate
Move Through Cover
Night Vision
Preferred Enemy
Scout
Skilled Rider
Stealth

Other
Better AP 1
Chariot (3 points)1,2
Coordinated Attack Master1,2
Escape Hatch 1
Extra Wound or Hull Point 1
Increased Mastery Level 1
Increased Range 1
Invulnerable Save 1
Non-standard character 1
Signature Equipment 1

Special Ability Descriptions:

Better AP – Select one of the character’s close combat weapons. This weapon’s AP is improved by one.

Chariot – The character may select one open-topped vehicle model from its codex. The cost of this vehicle is added to the character’s cost and becomes a chariot. The character and vehicle follow all of the normal rules for chariots. Any statistic increases or special rules gained through the Campaign Character rules only apply to the character, not the chariot. This special ability costs 3 points.
Example
Cindy Loo-Hoo hates that Vect was removed from the Dark Eldar codex. She decides to create Vect’s kid brother Beloque Vect. She selects an archon as her campaign warlord and gives him the Chariot special ability. She then pays 125 points to add a ravager with 3 darklances as his chariot.

Coordinated attack master – The Campaign Warlord may add or subtract one (1) from all reserves rolls made by his army.

Escape Hatch – If the selected character is a vehicle, a single, non-bulky, infantry model will be placed on the battlefield when the vehicle is destroyed exactly the same as if the vehicle was a transport with a capacity of 1. This is the only time that the Campaign Character may leave her vehicle. This infantry model’s cost is added to the Campaign Character’s total cost. Until the Campaign Character infantry model is on the table, he/she/it is treated as not being part of the game (does not confer scout, does not give the vehicle an invulnerable save, cannot use psychic powers, etc.). Special abilities gained through these campaign character rules do apply to both the vehicle and the infantry model if applicable. Single infantry models from a squad entry may also be elected at their individual point cost. The escape hatch option is included for flavor, not to break the game, and should be approved by the campaign organizers.
Example
Mickey selects his Astra Militarum tank commander as his Campaign Warlord but thinks of him as a commissar (Commissar Fluffy). He purchases a commissar and adds the cost to tank commander. Should Commissar Fluffy’s tank get destroyed during the game, the commissar model gets out as disembarking from a destroyed vehicle. He is thereafter treated as an independent character.

Extra Wound or Hull Point– The campaign character adds one to its wounds or hull points statistic. This ability may only be taken by a model with 1 or 2 base wounds.
Example
Snow White makes a space marine Master of the Forge her campaign character takes this special ability. A Master of the forge normally has two wounds and is increased to three wounds.

Increased Mastery Level – The character’s psychic mastery level is increased by one. Note: the warlord must already have a mastery level of 1 or more to select this ability.

Increased Range – One ranged weapon possessed by the character has its range increased by 6”. This weapon should be modeled with a longer barrel or something to indicate the longer range.

Invulnerable Save – The character may select a 5+ invulnerable save for 1 point or a 4+ invulnerable save for 2 points. Alternately, if the character already has an invulnerable save, this may be improved by one to a maximum of 4+ for 1 point.

Non-Standard Character – The Campaign Character may be selected from any codex entry, provided that the selection is a single model with 3 or less wounds or hull points. A model with 2 wounds/hull points costs one point and a model with three wounds/hull points costs 2 points. The model also gains the “character” type in addition to its normal type (not “independent character”). A Campaign Warlord also changes its battlefield role to an HQ selection (Campaign Heroes retain their original battlefield role).
Example 1
Billy-Bob Smith would like a Dark Eldar Pain Engine to be his Campaign Warlord. He selects this ability for two points because the Pain Engine has 3 wounds. The Pain Engine changes its type to Monstrous Creature, Character. Because the Pain Engine is to become his Campaign Warlord, it also changes its battlefield role to HQ.

Example 2
Fonz wants to make an Astra Militarum Sentinel his Campaign Hero. He selects this ability for one point because the Sentinel has 2 hull points. The Sentinel changes its type to Vehicle, Walker, Character. Because the Sentinel is to become his Campaign Hero, it maintains its battlefield role as a Fast Attack.

Signature Equipment – Often, a special character will have a piece or two of equipment that is not included anywhere else in a codex. The character may purchase up to two non-“one per army” items (20 points max each) from one other codex’s wargear list or HQ character upgrades and/or equipment from a category not generally allowed from their own codex. When a wargear description notes that a model may “replace item with X”, the model must have an appropriate/equivalent wargear item to replace. Most equipment of the same basic type is considered “equivalent”. A shuriken pistol is considered equivalent to a bolt pistol (both pistols) and a splinter rifle is considered equivalent to a boltgun (both rapid fire). Similarly, if a piece of equipment has a model type requirement (models in terminator armor for example), this requirement must also be adhered to. If you have a question as to whether or not your selection will be allowed, please ask. Note: the + 20% point increase for campaign characters also applies to this equipment. Consider some trades with your favorite opponents for bits.

Example 1
Boris always felt that gretchin get a bad rap. There’s got to be at least ONE hero out there. He selects a common gretchin as his Campaign Hero (NOT warlord). He gives the gretchin Signature Equipment (remember that one time he shot down a Dark Angels biker? … well he kept the bike… and the meltabombs). Boris spends his other points on an Extra Wound, Eternal Warrior, and tank hunter. “Shrimpy” the gretchin may or may not win this campaign, but gretchin everywhere look up to him and his actions will not be forgotten.

Example 2
Don Juan wants to give his eldar autarch a conversion beamer from the space marine Master of the Forge upgrade. Since the conversion beamer requires trading in a servo harness, this is NOT allowed. The autarch does not have an appropriate/equivalent item to replace to take the conversion beamer. If he had instead wanted to trade with a Dark Angels Techmarine with servo harness, this would be allowed because he’d have the correct item to trade in.

Example 3
Sergei wants to give his dark eldar haemonculus a plasma pistol from the Dark Angels codex. He could replace his splinter pistol (instead of bolt pistol) with the plasma pistol because these are considered equivalent.

Step 4 – Supreme Warlord Trait
Each Campaign Warlord may choose (not roll) a Warlord Trait from those in the WH40K rulebook or from among those in their Codex as their Warlord Trait. This Trait is fixed and never changes throughout the campaign. Campaign Heroes do not gain this ability.

Closing Notes
These rules are intended to allow people to make interesting characters to use throughout the campaign, not break the game (make the character cool/powerful/fun/whatever, but please don’t try to break the game). While significant effort went into balancing things out, we’re certain that plenty of options for abuse are hidden in here. Please do not be a douche… or… else.
On the other hand, if there is some awesome idea that you have and would like to include, let us know. We couldn’t have thought of everything and cool non-game-breaking ideas are likely to be allowed.

So lets see.

Kaevel, Master Farseer of Saim-Hann (Campaign Warlord) - 245 pts.

WS 5, BS 5, S 3, T 3, W 3, I 6, Ld 10, Sv 4++
Asturrian: AV 11, 11, 10

Wargear (Kaevel)
Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol, Singing Spear, Ghosthelm
Wargear (Asturrian)
Pulse Laser, Scatter Laser, Holo-field, Spirit Stones, Vector Engines, Star Engines

Warlord Trait: Fate's Messenger

Special Rules (Kaevel)
Ancient Doom, Battle Focus, Fleet, Psyker (Mastery Level 4)
Special Rules (Asturrian): Acute Senses, Scout, Skimmer Assault

Psyker: Kaevel generates his powers from the Runes of Battle, Runes of Fate and Pyromancy.

So, 100 pts for Farseer - bumped to 120 pts.
+1 I, Chariot, Increased Mastery Level.
+ 70 pts for Hornet, +55 points for upgrades
Due to being from Sain-hann, I figured he'd be a bit more...offensive with psychic powers, and as such loses Daemonology, Divination and Telepathy, but gains Runes of Battle and Pyromancy in their place.


The idea for this stems from ol' Nuadhu Fireheart, basically an Autarch who rode on the back of a Vyper. With the new chariot rules, i'm kind of hoping that GW will release new rules for him.

Hmm. The intent is that the 20% tax goes on at the end, so that character would end up at 270 pts.
Looks like I'll need to revise some wording to be more clear.
Anyways, yes, that is kinda the gist. The question is whether or not characters built using these rules are likely to be in about the right price range/easily abused. I'm sure it can be abused, but easily.

Also whether or not this is the kind of thing you'd be interested in being in a campaign using.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look.

They call me Griff wrote:
Hmm. The intent is that the 20% tax goes on at the end, so that character would end up at 270 pts.
Looks like I'll need to revise some wording to be more clear.

Part of the problem is the formatting. You mention the increase in points at the choose a model part. It's not necessarily worded bad, per se, but the formatting (IMO) could use some work.

Anyways, yes, that is kinda the gist. The question is whether or not characters built using these rules are likely to be in about the right price range/easily abused. I'm sure it can be abused, but easily.

My example gives you a Farseer who is more likely to use offensive powers, riding around in a relatively fragile transport that can put out a bit of pain towards MCs. As a non-competitive player (I prefer to play to tell a story, so I'm all about campaigns), I'd have some trouble making a completely broken character. Others would probably be able to do it with ease. As to the abuse factor, it really depends on your group. Since you are running the campaign, there should be no issues of you looking at a character and saying "No, this is really broken and needs to be fixed". If you are playing with a group that is interested in telling a story, most, if not all, of the home-brewed characters will be relatively tame.

Also whether or not this is the kind of thing you'd be interested in being in a campaign using.

Me personally, I like it. It requires the right group of course, but gives the players a chance to really customize their army.

This would be much easier if this were re formatted. I don't know exactly what it is, but the instructions are hard to follow.

Anyway, here's mine: Tell me if I did this right.

I don't have a cool name yet, so I'll name him Marty for now.

Marty: WS 5, BS 5, S 4, T 4, W 2, I 4, Ld 8, Sv 3+; Jump Infantry (Character)

He's a chaos Raptor Hero with Mok. That costs 19 points.

Non- Standard Character, rampage, infiltrate, Fearless, and +1W (in Profile). I understand each of these costs are 1 point each, by there being no explicit costs next to any of them.

So, now he costs 24 points, + the 20% tax ~29 points.

My intent was to make a dude that runs around on his own, and just swings, so I tried to optimize him for anti- horde killing. He would probably perform rather badly, but I'm spending 30 points ( I think), so I get what I pay for, I guess.

In all. I think these are a great idea and if my LGS would pull the stick out of their collective asses and be a little more open to new house rules, I would adopt this in a heartbeat! Good job, OP!

Super cool idea man. I do feel it's probably gonna end up a little broken though due mostly to access to other dexes gear, super cheap eternal warrior/ID/ignores cover/etc and stackable force multiplying usr's. Maybe consider a pts cap for starters and remove access to other dexes.

Edit- there's more busted stuff out there but that's not what I'm shooting for. This is something I'd consider really good but not ott:
Grand master- ml 2, eternal warrior, preferred enemy, rending psilencer, nemesis daemonhammer, cuirass. I would love to throw down with this dude. He's basically an uber version of an arena of death character I have.

First off, thank you for the comments and the insight as to where things could go wrong. Overall, I'd say that the group is semi-competitive, but I don't really think we have a TFG, and there was support for a campaign (as opposed to just a league), so I'm hoping things are cool, but not too crazy.

HappyJew and Powerfisting
Any particular suggestions on the formatting? The actual document is in Word, so had to change minor formatting things here, but it's close. If there are things that would make this much more clear, I'll try to do that.

Powerfisting
I think that the character you have listed is correct for the most part. The intent is that Jump Infantry would not need to take Non-Standard Character because he's a type of infantry, but I agree that you ran it as written. I'll have to clarify that one as well. Otherwise yes, correct. This does point out something that I'd not considered though, which would be people going for super cheap characters. The way the campaign is written, I don't think it would be a problem, but I should make sure that Campaign Heroes can't be used to skirt around a minimum troop requirement.

Dominuschao
I can see what you mean for eternal warrior and ID. Perhaps those should be 2 point abilities. I thought that we had ignores cover reigned in ok with the multiple points depending on shots. Ditto for access to other codex wargear. Any thoughts on items that would break the game? We ended up putting the 20 point cap on other codex equipment to rule out things like webway portals and shadowfields. I was having a hard time finding other items that would really break the game.
What type of point cap would you suggest? We thought the straight 20% would be a good tax because it would apply the same to everyone. I can see where it wouldn't work on a very low point character...

Overall, helpful direction on things that could be added or cleaned up. Thank you. Please feel free to suggest any other broken combos that I may need to address.

Off my phone and back on my PC now. I love the concept btw and I'll probably be borrowing it so thanks brother. We tend to run in cycles around here ranging from semi competitive to cutthroat, but all in good fun. Anyway I tend to look at things a little more from the efficiency side (not waac but performance is its own fluff man) so gimme a baseline. Is my character OTT or what you would picture as the norm?

In the meantime here's some things I see:

Signature systems
I suggest keeping these in codex only. Otherwise your probably gonna see people loading up on pirated/looted tau weaponry like dual fusion blasters/drones or orks packing grav etc. Not that it would be overpowered IMO but it just doesn't seem to jive with the concept, more like detract from it IMO. Accessing the full wargear section without restriction is pretty damn cool as is.

Relics
Can you clarify if you can upgrade relics? This seems to be the intent but I think this could result in some exponentially powerful combinations. Maybe you've already considered this though.

Force multipliers
As you touched on above, I think some of the better combos might actually be from dirty cheap independent character heros costing 25-50 pts ish to bring a full package of say.. [hit & run/preferred enemy/split fire/tank hunter] to a unit of your choice. Or stealth/skilled rider/hit & run/reserve manip. Awesome and eat your heart out nemmy but its probably not whats intended. Maybe limit force multiplying abilities (conferred to unit and counting reserve manip) to one only, i.e. not combined with another conferrable. This would allow people to take those hero's but not just for their unit buffing cababilities.

The better stuff
Besides the force multipliers above I was thinking mostly of eternal warrior and instant death, and here I'm torn.
Personally I would never leave home without eternal warrior because its that good. I can't properly forge a narrative if my personal incarnation gets ghosted by the first stray las shot or power fist to come his way, or even a power maul hit if you happen to be an archon (see my thread on ID). I think EW opens the door of viability for foot slogging characters or essentially non bike/twc/mon/mc/etc. I like its inclusion because its a field leveler and a defensive buff. Just be aware it will probably be a must take, but thats not necessarily a bad thing.
ID I'm of similar mind. The difference is this is accessible via plain wargear pretty easily already but its one of those exponential factors that is harder to get a bead on because its an offensive buff. Morkai's Claws for example are great already and one of my favs for building a wolverine counts as along with the stormwrack iwnd armour and fellclaws teeth.. but add ID and +1 init to them and the gak gets real, more so if you lower ap to 2. (again I wouldn't consider this guy OTT but 6-8 init 6 ap2 instant death shred attacks is pushing it a bit). In short I would consider leaving ID out or at least making it 2-3 pts. Otherwise it will probably be on any model who already has access via wargear to mobility and decent protection. Hmmm maybe change this to murderous strike ala paragon blade.. i.e. to wound rolls of 6 are ID.
Actually lets add psyker ml 1 to this list too, but here why not unrestrict it so anyone can be a psyker if they like?

Statistic bonus'
These I feel aren't necessary for full ICs unless they wanna pay one of their pts for them. Consider limiting the 'free' bonus stat increase to hero level characters to make them more appealing. Otherwise you'll have every IC with a better statline than draigo, lysander etc. At least make ICs pay for this privilege.

Supreme warlord
Similar to the force multipliers this just feels ripe for abuse and combined with them its probably gonna get unfun, even by accident. But maybe I'm just under estimating your group idk. I would personally limit this to the characters own codex or else remove it.


Thats what I got for now man.

Personally, I wouldn't see that character as over the top. I can't say that I know what "ndh" is though.

That said, I think that bumping eternal warrior to 2 points seems like a shoe-in.

Glad to hear that you'd consider borrowing the rules... at least lets me know that we're on the right track.

On your other items...
Signature Equipment
I can see what you mean here. I agree that it isn't likely to be overpowered, but it could detract from the story concept if people are attempting to break it instead of making a narrative character. Some things would be really cool in my opinion (commissar with a jump pack for example), and others probably would not.
Relics - no upgrading relics. Sig. Equip. cannot be "one per army" items, and as far as I know, all relics are one per army.

Force multipliers
Good call on this one. Since these were ability categories were taken from Kill Team, they would have a different effect when applied to whole squads. At the same time, the fact that they are split up into groups because of Kill Team helps somewhat. For example, right now a character could not take stealth/skilled rider/hit & run as they are only allowed to take one ability from that category. Ditto with split fire/tank hunter. Preferred enemy/tank hunter would be allowed though, and that would be pretty powerful.

The Better Stuff
If something is an auto-take, I'd think that it is too good. EW at one point probably is auto take, but possibly not at 2 points. Ditto with the ID and shred combo for CC characters may be too much... and it is the ID part that throws it over the top. Seems like another 2 point ability.
I really liked the idea of allowing anyone to be a psyker if they wanted, but I couldn't think of a good way to define which powers they'd have access to. I suppose that saying a character could take ML1 and then select one category probably wouldn't be broken, since the real issues seem to happen at higher level psykers. Are you thinking that add +1 to ML should be worth 2 points as well?

Statistic bonus and Supreme Warlord
The reasoning on the supreme warlord is that it matches so many other special characters. I can see what you mean about limiting to the character's own codex. That seems legit (and I think every codex has access to a warlord trait table now). I also like the idea of giving the free stat bonus only to hero level characters... would kind of balance out the benefit of the supreme warlord traits.

So a little something else if you do consider using these rules or something similar. Each of our campaign games will include a "Secret Objective" that only the campaign character knows about and only they can achieve. These will vary and are random... players will not know their opponent's objective and VV. The thinking on that being that players will gain an additional benefit from making more of a TAC campaign character and not just a character that is tooled out to kill stuff.

The campaign character is intended to forge a narrative around, so giving them a story objective each mission seemed like the thing to do.

So a little something else if you do consider using these rules or something similar. Each of our campaign games will include a "Secret Objective" that only the campaign character knows about and only they can achieve. These will vary and are random... players will not know their opponent's objective and VV. The thinking on that being that players will gain an additional benefit from making more of a TAC campaign character and not just a character that is tooled out to kill stuff.

The campaign character is intended to forge a narrative around, so giving them a story objective each mission seemed like the thing to do.

This sounds really cool I'd like to hear more on it. If anything these could be the main influence on character builds.

NDH = nemesis daemonhammer btw.

The relic upgrade thing I did see was limited in 'signature equipment' but I could not find any language preventing a character from upgrading relics that were not purchased out of signature equipment or i.e. were simply purchased from their own allowable relics section, if that makes sense. For example, the grey knight grand master from above could take the soul glaive (S5 ap3 force weapon- rerolls force tests and when active rerolls all hits and wounds/armour pens) and then make it ap2 for one point.

Signature equipment I see your point with the commissar and its a great mental picture. A commissar with dual twin linked devourers with brainleech worms (15 pts) not so much. I guess thats where your gate keeping ability comes in. That said it just seems more of an orkish thing than something everyone would buy into. It blurs the lines of factions who are largely defined by their fighting style and unique weaponry. A tyranid prime with eldar reaper launcher would be kinda weird although maybe they could write some fluff for the weapons equivalent or something. Anyway its your gig and I like the idea just depends on how far its carried out.

ML 1 I was thinking would allow access to the same lore as their race/chapter permits. However your alternative of simply picking a lore to stick with works too and probably better since it allows for a more unique character (nids with biomancy again huzzah!) and hardly OP'd.
I think keeping the cost to 1 is fine although a stipulation of greater than ml 3 costs 2 points might not be a bad idea. Ml 3 barely brings you to a decent chance of powers you want but still a crap shoot due to randumb tables. Ml 4 otoh is where you start to get near to actual selection territory.

Eternal warrior I agree should probably be 2 upgrade points (can you call them that vs 'points' for clarification?). That said it wouldn't hurt much to keep it at 1 IMO (or maybe I'm just greedy for my own planned character haha). Thing is bikes, TWC, daemonic steeds, mark of nurgle, inherent T5+ all mimic EW anyway and with additional bennies. I feel EW just brings foot characters back to equal ground. T5+ guys don't really need it but foot guys do, especially T3 characters.

On ID I agree 2 points makes it much less of an auto include, especially when competing with access to AP reduction for only 1 point.

One last idea, Soul Blaze stood out as one of those bad USRs but very thematic. Why not open it up to 'all weaponry'. Gives a great picture of a chariot of fire or similar but doesn't usually do much in-game.


Cheers

Thank you again for the insights. Some additional info and rules tweaks.

More info on the secret objectives as requested… from our campaign rules document below. And a little background, the campaign will be an escalation style where, as the weeks progress (6 weeks), the point values go up the and the story objectives have greater and greater effect on the outcome. The campaign will end with an all-day mega-battle where it really will still be anyone’s game. BUT, winning games and completing campaign character objectives will give that force some type of bonus in the final game.

Each player will be given a random card with a strategic objective that only his/her campaign character knows (contributing to the overall story). Armies which do not include a Campaign Character will not receive a Secret Objective. Achieving these objectives will give some type of boon to the campaign character either in a future game or in the final mega-battle. Like Endgame Objectives, these will increase in value as the campaign escalates. They will have no effect on the current game. If a Secret Objective requires that it be achieved by the Campaign Character and the character is part of a squad, the objective will be considered complete if achieved by the squad. Unless noted on the secret objective card, the Campaign Character must survive the battle to complete the objective.

A couple of possible secret objectives are below. I’m not writing out the full crunchiness of the rules for them, just the gist. Each week will have 3-4 different secret objectives so that there is a good chance opposing players will have different missions.
Week 1: Scouting Mission
To complete: Select a piece of terrain wholly within the opponent’s half of the board after sides are determined but before deployment starts (write on card). Complete the objective if the campaign character controls this piece of terrain at the end of the game.
Benefit: Lay of the Land (one use only) If the Secret Objective is completed, character gets a +1 bonus to seize the initiative in a future campaign game.

Week 6: Big Damn Hero
To complete: The campaign character must personally complete 3 tactical objectives during the game.
Benefit: Level Up! – For the final mega battle, the campaign character gains +1 wound/hull point

Relics… I see your point on the relic upgrade now. We revised the “Better AP” ability to non-relic items. Relics are unique enough already.

Signature Equipment – we’ll just have to police people taking things that don’t make any sense. On the other hand, if there’s a good story and/or good conversion of a “counts as”, probably let it slide. Agreed that this is where the gate keeping comes in.

Mastery level increase… changed it to two points if upgrades a ML 3 psyker and added in the option to take ML 1 with a character that doesn’t have a ML. We did keep the stipulation that the discipline must be one that at least one character in the codex has access to though. Otherwise, we could have psykers showing up in Tau and Dark Eldar… which just feels wrong.

Eternal Warrior – after a bit of discussion, we agreed that it is probably worth 2 points, but we’re going to keep it only one… basically to keep T3 and T4 footsloggers a viable option. The campaign characters should be reasonably survivable if they are supposed to be the ones pushing the story along.

Changed ID to two points. Otherwise, it really is just too good when you combine it with something like shred/fleshbane and improved AP. That combo is still an option, but it takes up all of a character’s bonuses.

I like soul blaze and I agree that it is really thematic. As an ability though, it really doesn’t hold a candle to other abilities in the “Dirty Fighter” category. Opened it back up to all weaponry.

Lastly, we revised the hero battlefield role slightly. If the selected model for the campaign hero is a "Troop" unit, he's change to an elite... seems appropriate and removes the option of someone using the campaign character to fulfill a troop tax. Not too likely to happen, but trying to close the hole.