HOMEBREW: Karkadox, Skorne Heavy Warbeast

[Discoduck]

Hello all. First homebrew post.

I always thought Skorne could use a proper Rhinoceros. I also drew a picture for him.

Upon thinking up rules for it, I figured it would cost less than a Titan and not be quite as durable, but be more aggressive (somehow), and have a different application than the other beaters, other than beating face of course. I decided to make him focus more on one-shot charges with a big, powerful weapon, as the two other 7pt heavies in the faction focus more on killing infantry or assassination/ maneuverability.

Since average skorne warbeasts generally have trouble hitting high defense models, I thought perhaps the Karkadox could help them hit better, but only on a charge. I am still not sure how to balance the animus, but I'll see if my friends don't mind me playtesting him for funzzies.



KARKADOX
Skorne Heavy Warbeast

ANIMUS - Stampede
COST - 1
RNG - 6
AOE - --
POW - --
UP - NO
OFF - NO
Target friendly warbeast rolls an additional die on its next charge attack roll. Stampede lasts for one round.

SPD - 4
STR - 11
MAT - 5
RAT - 3
DEF - 11
ARM - 17
CMD - 6

HORN (H)
POW - 6
P+S - 17

MIND - 5
BODY - 14
SPIRIT - 14

FURY - 4
THR - 7
FIELD ALLOWANCE - U
POINT COST - 7
LARGE BASE

KARKADOX
Relentless - When this model is damaged by an enemy attack, it gains +2 SPD for one round.

HORN
Critical Brutal Damage - On a critical hit, gain an additional die on this weapon's damage roll against the model directly hit.

[PG_kerensky]

I think its brilliant and your art fanastic. If I had a recommendation I'd say give it rapid strike/back swing for an additional melee attack, maybe something special like thick skinned (gains +2 ARM while undamaged) and bump him to 8 points. Traditionally heavies wothout a ranged attack have 2 melee weapons and using an ability to gran dual horn attacks seems more fitting then adding another weapon.
But I like it dude.

[Discoduck]

Thanks for the compliment. I did think that it was perhaps a bit limited as far as number of attacks go. I wanted it to cost less than the Gladiator so that it wouldn't compete too much with it. Would Back Swing bump it to eight, or would Cleave be more reasonable? It would give the thing some limited use when charging in against infantry clumps, rather than hard targets.

[PG_kerensky]

I'd go with Rapid Strike over back swing or Cleave. I think it fits the theme better, Rhino swinging its horned head around wildly to cause mayhem. If you bump the fury down to 3 max instead of 4 you could keep it at 7p. Being a somewhat stupid creature (5 mind points lean it that way) it could suffer a low capacity for riling and this would shave its attack capacity down a little to make up for the 2nd initial attack.
Would be a damn fun beast to try running, an interesting combo with some other Skorne beasts.
Keep it up

[patisarat]

Fantastic artwork, Discoduck! This is a really impressive picture. Are you some kind of pro artist, maybe?

I'm not usually a fan of homebrews, but these rules seem fairly balanced. However, as written, it can give itself 4 dice on charge attacks without being externally buffed at all, with a good likelihood of 4 dice for damage too. Seems a bit 'complete package' to me for a 7-pt beast.

The Archidon probably likes it a bit too much too: Stampede lets it roll 4 attack dice to go for that sweet critical pitch. But maybe that's ok.

[Vertabreaker]

Cool picture.

[Lord Tyrant peers]

Make it speed 5 lower its p+s to 14 or 15 and just give it crit brutal damage vs jacks and beasts

[PG_possiblyarowbot]

The animus feels too much like a warmachine spell. Additionally, we have Amuck which helps with slams. However, I could see his animus giving Powerful Charge....

[ExiledinElysium]

I love your enthusiasm, and you've done some great work here, but I've got a bit of a chop-busting question for you: what distinguishes this guy thematically from a Titan? Skorne already has big thick-skinned pachyderm beasts which charge and slam with big horns.