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Link to Google Doc.

Can I get a sanity check on these rules?

Also, the reason he's got move like he does is that I'm gonna be basing on top of Defiler legs, as a way to show his mobile alchemy lab.

So he's a Great Unclean One with...

+5" Movement

+1 Ballistic Skill

+1 Toughness

+4 Wounds

He's got the generic GUO abilities, but seems to be missing the Daemonic Ritual ability. In terms of gear, he has a normal Doomsday Bell, but no Bilesword, Bileblade, or Plague Flail, which locks him in at AP-1, Damage D3 tops. This means that he's notably worse against monsters, vehicles, and even marines than a regular GUO or Rotigus, both of whom have access to AP-3 weapons with higher Damage.

His Tentacles seem to emphasize this, as they're an anti-horde melee option... but they also seem notably worse than the baseline Plague Flail. Both are 7" Assault weapons, but on average a Plague Flail will fire 3 shots at Strength 7, AP-3, D2, and the Tentacles will fire 6 shots at Strength 7, AP-1, D1. Except that the Plague Flail's damage spreads throughout the whole enemy unit, so you can effectively double its shots anyway – it's the same average shots as the tentacles, but AP-3.

This gets worse when you add the fact that the Plague Flail can be fired within 1" of an enemy unit; the Tentacles have an alternative, "melee" attack option, but these occupy Ku'Gath's attacks. So at most, faced with a teeming horde, Ku'Gath can turn out 10 attacks at Strength 7, AP-1, D1. A regular Great Unclean One with a Plague Flail and the same Doomsday Bell can make 5 attacks at Strength 8, AP-1, Dd3, and 3 attacks at Strength 7, AP-3, D2 (damage spreads across models). The only time Ku'Gath has the advantage is if he charges, because then he can "fire" his tentacles and also choose to attack with them in close combat.

On the other hand, his Nurgling attendants are buffed to always wound on a 4+, have AP-1, and go from D6 (3.5) to 3D3 (6) attacks. So they're about six times more effective against marines (0.19 wounds to 1.25 wounds), which is certainly something.

His last piece of gear is Plague Bombardment – a "template" Heavy weapon without a random number of shots, that always wounds on a 2+, spreads damage throughout an enemy unit, and reduces the Toughness of anything it hits for the rest of the game (which, ironically, it can't take advantage of). What's the reasoning behind the "always wounds on X+" rules in use, here? That's almost exclusive to Drukhari splinter weapons, as far as I'm aware – Nurgle plague weapons normally get re-roll Xs to wound.

Finally, he gets a unique psychic power, which is basically Smite that trades 2/3 of its range for hitting every enemy unit within range instead of just one. This is kind of insane, especially on a model with 12" move and a Greater Daemon-sized base. It's not technically a problem in itself, because he's a unique character – it's just an ability he has rather than something that can damage the overall balance of the army – but it's still incredibly strong.

And after all that, he comes out to 400 points – about one-and-a-half times the cost of a regular Great Unclean One.

My feedback boils down to four points:

He feels a bit indulgent? You've justified his extra Movement, but most special characters in this edition share the "generic" HQ statline and are differentiated by gear or abilities. Ku'Gath has a bunch of wholesale upgrades. This would also help you tone down the points cost a bit...

His gear seems overcomplicated. His Tentacles are basically a worse Plague Flail, and his Plague Bombardment is basically a Plague Flail with a boosted range and Heavy – I'd suggest replacing all three statlines with a "Foul Experiments" combi-weapon that fires like a Plague Flail at close range or can fire out to 24" as a Heavy weapon.

His rules don't, at the moment, really express "Ku'Gath" to me? My memories of the character are admittedly limited, but I recall him being a sort of morose scientist GUO, who sought captives to experiment on with new plagues. With that in mind, I'd have expected someone more like Fabius Bile or the Biophagus, or someone capable of throwing random debuffs at people. This is a GUO sat on top of a Plagueburst Crawler, which doesn't quite feel the same.

Ku’Gath’s Malfeasance, holy hell.

Removed his unique psychic power.

Since this a narrative campaign, Daemonic Ritual wouldn't make sense-he's already on the planet.

The tentacles are there because I'm gonna use the tentacle arm from Rotigus. The Plague Bombardment is something I'm kinda happy with at the moment-he did, in editions past, have quite the range on his ranged attack.

I'm not a fan of randomness (which is why the random ones are 3d3 instead of 2d6 or 1d6) and he's already got a potent debuff in the form of Plague Bombardment. And I don't recall him CAPTURING people. I think he was field-testing his experiments in battle.

But thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time to give feedback! It's appreciated!

 JNAProductions wrote:
Since this a narrative campaign, Daemonic Ritual wouldn't make sense-he's already on the planet.

Ah, that's fair.

 JNAProductions wrote:
The tentacles are there because I'm gonna use the tentacle arm from Rotigus. The Plague Bombardment is something I'm kinda happy with at the moment-he did, in editions past, have quite the range on his ranged attack.

Okay, but... Rotigus himself doesn't have a "tentacle" attack? It just seems like the Plagueflail already does what you're after, in concept.

 JNAProductions wrote:
I'm not a fan of randomness (which is why the random ones are 3d3 instead of 2d6 or 1d6) and he's already got a potent debuff in the form of Plague Bombardment.

I absolutely agree! What I mean is more like...

Foul Experiments: When attacking with this weapon, choose one of the profiles below.

–Hasty Concoction: Range: 7", Type Assault 2D3, Strength User, AP -3, Damage 2, Abilities: This weapon can be fired within 1" of an enemy unit, and can target enemy units within 1" of friendly units. You can re-roll failed wound rolls for this weapon. Excess damage from this weapon is not lost; instead, keep allocating damage to another model in the target unit until either all the damage has been allocated or the unit has been destroyed.

–Prototype Pandemic: Range 42", Type Heavy 2D3, Strength User, AP-3, Damage 2, Abilities: You can re-roll failed wound rolls for this weapon. Excess damage from this weapon is not lost; instead, keep allocating damage to another model in the target unit until either all the damage has been allocated or the unit has been destroyed.

Field Tests
Each time an enemy unit suffers damage from Ku'Gath's Prototype Pandemic attack, roll a D3 and consult the table below:

1 – Brittlebone: Until the start of your next turn, add 1 to wound rolls against the damaged unit.

2 – Pusweep: Until the start of your next turn, subtract 1 from hit rolls made by the damaged unit.

3 – Rustmoss: Until the start of your next turn, subtract 1 from armour saving throws made by the damaged unit.

See, that's exactly the randomness I want to AVOID.

 JNAProductions wrote:
See, that's exactly the randomness I want to AVOID.

Fair enough. I'm not a fan of how random "blast" weapons are this edition, either, but random shots is how they're meant to work now, and 2D3 is at most a +/-2 outside 4 shots... Eh, it's your write-up.

As for the plague effect; it doesn't need to be random, but I really would recommend some kind of variation in the effects available to Ku'Gath, in order to communicate the fact that he's experimenting with new plagues. Otherwise he just comes across as a dude throwing Nurglings. Even if it's just a "firing mode" thing for his blast weapon.

That’s fair. It’s late here, but I’ll work and tune it tomorrow, or tonight if I can’t sleep.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Added the following rule:

Field Testing-Whenever Ku’Gath successfully damages an enemy unit with his Plague Bombardment or Attendant’s Laboratory Tools, you may select one of the following maluses to apply to that unit for the remainder of the game. No unit can be affected by the same malus twice.
-Brittlebone-Decrease the enemy unit’s Toughness by 1.
-Pusweep-The affected unit must reroll hit rolls of 6.
-Atrophic Canker-Decrease the enemy unit’s Strength by 1.
-Rustmoss-The unit worsens their armor save by 1. (From a 3+ to a 4+, for example.)
-Petrifying Plague-Decrease the affected unit’s Movement by 2”, and halve the distance added to their move when Advancing.

Thanks for the naming and mechanical suggestions!

I don’t think those effects should last all game. I can’t think of any unit abilities that permanently degrade stats. Essentially you get to short change your opponent points because now they can’t use the stats they already paid for. I’d say just have it last till your next turn but you can select the same one each turn.

 evil_kiwi_60 wrote:
I don’t think those effects should last all game. I can’t think of any unit abilities that permanently degrade stats. Essentially you get to short change your opponent points because now they can’t use the stats they already paid for. I’d say just have it last till your next turn but you can select the same one each turn.

Bear in mind, this guy is 400 points. The G-Man costs similarly and lets you reroll ALL failed hits and wounds.

That’s a bit of a disingenuous comparison. Guilliman gives those rerolls to units within 6” and with the “ultramarines” key word. They also only last for that turn. You would have a point of being within 6” gave you full rerolls for the rest of the game. This guy can essentially hobble just about any unit with those abilities. He also has no restrictions to his target.

Also it doesn’t help that there’s almost no way for your opponent to counter that debuff. There’s almost no way to hide form 48” range with a 12” movement. He hits most units on 2’s and anything larger on 4’s. At AP-3, anything without at least a 3+ incur needs very good luck to avoid being debugged. What’s the way to counter play that?