Slaaneshi Homebrew

[CeleFAZE]

To avoid cluttering the main thread with non-canon rules, this thread will be a place we can discuss ideas for fan-made rules that better represent our forces on the tabletop. I'm in the process of creating my own fan-tome, but I encourage others who'd like to discuss mechanics and themes with rule-making to use this as a sounding board for input and critique.

I'll start off with a couple of warscrolls I've created to represent the "boobsnake" lords and sorcerors from WHFB:

[CeleFAZE]

WIP rules for combat elixirs:

Allegiance ability:

Combat Elixirs: All Mortal Slaanesh units in a Hedonites of Slaanesh army begin the game with a draught of combat elixir. In the hero phase any units may imbibe this elixir to gain one of the following 6 bonuses until the beginning of your next hero phase: battleshock immunity, +1 attack to all weapons, +1 to hit, reroll charges, +1 save, or +1 to casting and unbinding rolls. After using this ability roll a dice, on a 3+ additional doses of combat elixir remain and the ability may be used again in subsequent hero phases, otherwise the draught is empty and cannot be used again during the battle. A unit may instead choose two of these bonuses, if they do so the draught is not emptied on a 5+, and if this roll is a 1 the unit takes D3 mortal wounds and receives no bonuses from using the draught.

Drink Deep and Descend into Depravity: In your hero phase, instead of summoning a unit using the Feast of Depravities allegiance ability, you may instead spend 3 depravity points to refill one unit's empty draught, and allow that unit to once again use the Combat Elixir ability. You may refill up to 3 draughts in each hero phase, spending 3 depravity points for each.

Edited September 17, 2021 by CeleFAZE

[CeleFAZE]

Revised Locus (to be in line with how other Locus abilities work):

Locus of Precision: Increase the rend of melee attacks made by Slaanesh Daemon units by -1 while they are within 6" of a Slaanesh Daemon Hero, or within 12" of a Slaanesh Greater Daemon Hero.

[CeleFAZE]

Beguiling Dances: During your hero phase, each Viceleader may perform one dance from the list below. Such is her skill at the art that the Masque may instead choose two of the dances below to perform simulanteously. These dances remain in effect for these models until the beginning of your next hero phase:

Waltz of Sloth: Enemy units within 12" of a model performing this dance halve (rounding up) all normal moves, retreats, runs, and charges if they are within range when the movement is started.

Tango of Vainglory: Friendly Slaanesh units wholly within 12" of a model performing this dance add 1 to all wound rolls in the combat phase.

Ballet of Lust: Enemy units within 12" of a unit performing this dance must roll a dice when they are chosen to pile-in, on a 4+ they may not make a pile-in move, but may still attack as normal.

Edited September 17, 2021 by CeleFAZE

[Lucentia]

Having a rule for combat elixirs/drugs on mortals is a good idea, and has obvious parallels to Aetherquartz/Aethergold and similar mechanics.  I feel like your version is perhaps a little too broad though, if I were to write my own it might be something like this:

At the start of the shooting or combat phase pick one mortal hedonites unit.  That unit gains +1 to hit and wound rolls until the end of the phase.  At the end of the phase that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.  A unit cannot benefit from this ability more than once per battle.

This has a more potent effect than similar abilities in other factions, but also a more deleterious cost (whilst also innately tying into the depravity mechanic).  I feel that allegiance rules like this are best served being simple and easy to remember.  I do like the idea of being able to refill the elixirs, but perhaps that's something best left to a subfaction, command ability, or potion-brewing hero?  It doesn't make thematic sense to me to use depravity points for that role.

[CeleFAZE]

1 minute ago, Lucentia said:

Having a rule for combat elixirs/drugs on mortals is a good idea, and has obvious parallels to Aetherquartz/Aethergold and similar mechanics.  I feel like your version is perhaps a little too broad though, if I were to write my own it might be something like this:

At the start of the shooting or combat phase pick one mortal hedonites unit.  That unit gains +1 to hit and wound rolls until the end of the phase.  At the end of the phase that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.  A unit cannot benefit from this ability more than once per battle.

This has a more potent effect than similar abilities in other factions, but also a more deleterious cost (whilst also innately tying into the depravity mechanic).  I feel that allegiance rules like this are best served being simple and easy to remember.  I do like the idea of being able to refill the elixirs, but perhaps that's something best left to a subfaction, command ability, or potion-brewing hero?  It doesn't make thematic sense to me to use depravity points for that role.

I agree that the list should be pared down, if not made into a single bonus, though I'm hesitant to go with the latter. I was inspired by the old combat drug rules from the 3rd edition dark eldar codex for the mechanic, and I'd like to keep some semblance of doubling down at a significant risk. Perhaps one dose is +1 to hit, two is +1 to hit and attacks, but carries the risk of mortals and no bonus? I'd like to keep away from +1 to wound to allow for good synergy with the Beguiling Dances ability above, though I could definitely change the dance to +1 attack instead to shuffle around the bonuses.

Using depravity to refill the elixirs has both a thematic and mechanical reason. On the mechanical, I want to give mortal-focused armies something to do with their depravity in lieu of summoning, to allow that choice of list to be able to stand on its own. Thematically, it would be a special property of the draught bottles, able to distill the pure essence of depravity into something that can be tasted at one's leisure.

[LeonBox]

1 hour ago, CeleFAZE said:

Allegiance ability:

Combat Elixirs: All Mortal Slaanesh units in a Hedonites of Slaanesh army begin the game with a draught of combat elixir. In the hero phase any units may imbibe this elixir to gain one of the following 6 bonuses until the beginning of your next hero phase: battleshock immunity, +1 attack to all weapons, +1 to hit, reroll charges, +1 save, or +1 to casting and unbinding rolls. After using this ability roll a dice, on a 3+ additional doses of combat elixir remain and the ability may be used again in subsequent hero phases, otherwise the draught is empty and cannot be used again during the battle. A unit may instead choose two of these bonuses, if they do so the draught is not emptied on a 5+, and if this roll is a 1 the unit takes D3 mortal wounds and receives no bonuses from using the draught.

Drink Deep and Descend into Depravity: In your hero phase, instead of summoning a unit using the Feast of Depravities allegiance ability, you may instead spend 3 depravity points to refill one unit's empty draught, and allow that unit to once again use the Combat Elixir ability. You may refill up to 3 draughts in each hero phase, spending 3 depravity points for each.

I love the idea of these and it reminds me of the Drukhari combat drug ability. I would simplify these somewhat, however, as right now they're a little too close to Aetherquartz (e.g. far too versatile). Similarly to the Drukhari combat drug, perhaps there could be 6 different elixirs, each one of which can be used a single time. After using one, roll a die and on an unmodified 1 take D3 mortal wounds due to overdosing. 
 

48 minutes ago, CeleFAZE said:

Locus of Precision: Increase the rend of melee attacks made by Slaanesh Daemon units by -1 while they are within 6" of a Slaanesh Daemon Hero, or within 12" of a Slaanesh Greater Daemon Hero.

Love it. Rend is something we really struggle with, with only a handful of special characters having better than -1, and it eliminates our locus being reliant on a dice roll. 

30 minutes ago, CeleFAZE said:

Beguiling Dances: During your hero phase, each Viceleader may perform one dance from the list below. Such is her skill at the art that the Masque may instead choose two of the dances below to perform simulanteously. These dances remain in effect for these models until the beginning of your next hero phase:

Waltz of Sloth: Enemy units within 12" of a model performing this dance halve (rounding up) all normal moves, retreats, runs, and charges if they are within range when the movement is started.

Tango of Vainglory: Friendly Slaanesh units wholly within 12" of a model performing this dance add 1 to all wound rolls in the combat phase.

Ballet of Lust: Enemy units within 12" of a unit performing this dance must roll a dice when they are chosen to pile-in, on a 4+ they may not make a pile-in move, but may still attack as normal.

These are fantastic and really feed into Slaanesh's decadent/artistic theme. However, the Waltz of Sloth is waaaaaayyyyy too powerful. High-CV spells revolve around messing with movement, and so to give a 12"  bubble of half movement in a game that often lives and dies on movement is far too overpowered. I'd modify it to this: 

Waltz of Sloth: at the start of the hero phase, pick an enemy unit within 12" of this hero. That unit must roll 2D6, adding 2 to the result if this hero is THE MASQUE. If the modified result is greater than the bravery characteristic of that unit, it must halve all normal moves, retreats, runs and charges until the start of your next hero phase. 

I'd also make the Ballet of Lust only affect one unit, too. I think the Tango of Vainglory is within line of similar abilities of other factions, as I believe Nurgle has that Bilepiper with a bubbled buff. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by LeonBox

[CeleFAZE]

43 minutes ago, LeonBox said:

These are fantastic and really feed into Slaanesh's decadent/artistic theme. However, the Waltz of Sloth is waaaaaayyyyy too powerful. High-CV spells revolve around messing with movement, and so to give a 12"  bubble of half movement in a game that often lives and dies on movement is far too overpowered. I'd modify it to this: 

Waltz of Sloth: at the start of the hero phase, pick an enemy unit within 12" of this hero. That unit must roll 2D6, adding 2 to the result if this hero is a GREATER DAEMON. If the modified result is greater than the bravery characteristic of that unit, it must halve all normal moves, retreats, runs and charges until the start of your next hero phase. 

I'd also make the Ballet of Lust only affect one unit, too. I think the Tango of Vainglory is within line of similar abilities of other factions, as I believe Nurgle has that Bilepiper with a bubbled buff. 

My thought is that the dances will be restricted only to the Viceleader and the Masque, to give the former a clearly defined role. I took inspiration from the sloppity bilepiper, flipping the balance of effects from 2 buffs and 1 debuff to 2 debuffs and one buff. I agree it's a bit oppressive as it currently stands, I'll likely change it to halving run and charge rolls, as my initial premise was for a defensive debuff that increases our chances of getting the charge, but I could definitely see it becoming heavily abused with multiple viceleaders in a list creating large zones of reduced movement. On consideration I also feel that Ballet of Lust's radius may be too large, so I've reduced it to keep it largely contained to combats the dancer is very close to. I'm liking the direction of all the dances doing something to movement, so instead of Waltz of Sloth affecting retreat distance, Tango of Vainglory will also keep enemy units from retreating, which I feel is thematic for that style of dance. Here's the first revision:

Beguiling Dances: During your hero phase, each Viceleader may perform one dance from the list below. Such is her skill at the art that the Masque may instead choose two different dances to perform simulanteously. These dances remain in effect for these models until the beginning of your next hero phase:

• Waltz of Sloth: Enemy units within 12" of a model performing this dance halve (rounding up) all run and charge rolls if they are within range when the movement is started.
• Tango of Vainglory: Friendly Slaanesh units wholly within 12" of a model performing this dance add +1 attack to all weapons in the combat phase. Enemy units may not retreat while in combat with a unit benefitting from this dance.
• Ballet of Lust: Enemy units within 6" of a unit performing this dance must roll a dice when they are chosen to pile-in, on a 4+ they may not make a pile-in move, but may still attack as normal.

Envious Primadonnas: No two friendly models may choose to perform the same dance in the same turn.

Edited September 17, 2021 by CeleFAZE

[CeleFAZE]

1 hour ago, CeleFAZE said:

Combat Elixirs: All Mortal Slaanesh units in a Hedonites of Slaanesh army begin the game with a draught of combat elixir. In the hero phase any units may imbibe this elixir to gain one of the following 6 bonuses until the beginning of your next hero phase: battleshock immunity, +1 attack to all weapons, +1 to hit, reroll charges, +1 save, or +1 to casting and unbinding rolls. After using this ability roll a dice, on a 3+ additional doses of combat elixir remain and the ability may be used again in subsequent hero phases, otherwise the draught is empty and cannot be used again during the battle. A unit may instead choose two of these bonuses, if they do so the draught is not emptied on a 5+, and if this roll is a 1 the unit takes D3 mortal wounds and receives no bonuses from using the draught.

Drink Deep and Descend into Depravity: In your hero phase, instead of summoning a unit using the Feast of Depravities allegiance ability, you may instead spend 3 depravity points to refill one unit's empty draught, and allow that unit to once again use the Combat Elixir ability. You may refill up to 3 draughts in each hero phase, spending 3 depravity points for each.

Combat Elixirs: All Mortal Slaanesh units in a Hedonites of Slaanesh army begin the game with a draught of combat elixir. In the hero phase any units may imbibe this elixir to add 1 to hit rolls for their attacks. After using this ability roll a dice, on a 3+ additional doses of combat elixir remain and the ability may be used again in subsequent hero phases, otherwise the draught is empty and cannot be used again during the battle. A unit may instead add 1 to hit and wound rolls for all attacks, if they do so the draught is not emptied on a 5+, and if this roll is a 1 the unit takes D3 mortal wounds and instead receives no bonuses from using the draught.

Sweet Sorrows: In your hero phase, instead of summoning a unit using the Feast of Depravities allegiance ability, you may spend 3 depravity points to refill one unit's empty draught, and allow that unit to once again use the Combat Elixir ability. You may refill up to 3 draughts in each hero phase, spending 3 depravity points for each.

[CeleFAZE]

To change up the hosts, as I feel the current ones don't really work as well in a post discovery-of-Slaanesh's-prison era, I'd like to explore an idea for a sort of "custom allegiance" in a similar vein to flesheater courts.

Allegiance Ability:

Excessive Obsessions: A Hedonites of Slaanesh army not belonging to a named host may choose up to 2 obsessions from the list below. If two obsessions are chosen, one vice from the proceeding list must be selected as well.

• Speed: Add +1 to run and charge rolls for friendly Slaanesh units.
• Deception: Friendly Slaanesh units may retreat and charge in the same turn.
• Pain: Friendly Slaanesh units gain a 6+ ward.
• Delicacy: Friendly Slaanesh units gain +1 to the roll to determine if a combat elixir draught is empty.
• Arcane: Friendly Slaanesh Wizards gain +1 to casting, unbinding, and dispelling rolls.
• Revelry: Friendly Slaanesh units gain +1 bravery.

Vices:

• Craven: Friendly Slaanesh units suffer -1 to their bravery score.
• Avarice: Friendly Slaanesh units may not retreat if they are within 3" of a model bearing an Artifact of Power or a unique character.
• Recklessness: Friendly Slaanesh units must declare a charge if otherwise allowed if there are any enemy units within 12" at the beginning of the charge phase.

[CeleFAZE]

Hm. I'm wondering what the best choice would be for Euphoric Killers. I know I want it to work with ranged attacks, but I'm stuck at whether or not to open it up to all chaos slaanesh units or keep it hedonite only. I think it might be a good solution to include a host option that opens up EK to all Slaanesh units, so that the whole book doesn't become the Marauders & Friends situation that we were in with the first tome, but still allows for those who had a primarily S2D or BoC Slaanesh army to play something close to what they had before.

[Lucentia]

Personally I'd say open it up to ranged units, but keep it to Hedonites, but I'm not generally a fan of mixed armies in the first place so I'm kinda biased, but keeping things to a single book just makes balancing things out easier.

Whilst we're homebrewing I took a stab at designing a scroll for Shalaxi Helbane with the intent of making the unique, named Keeper actually useful:

I took a few liberties in making assumptions as to how a general Keeper scroll might be written under the 3.0 ruleset, namely with a tighter damage table.  I also tried to make the weapon options compare more favourably against the Sinistrous Hand, though possibly too much so.  It always felt weird to me that the Cloak of Constriction was a self buff and not a debuff on the enemy it's supposedly constricting, so I swapped that for a plain -1 to hit in melee.  Delicate Precision stays as it is, it's a fine, fluffy ability.  Irresistible Challenge has been replaced with a new ability, I do like the old challenge ability, but it's kinda clunky and rarely ever meaningfully impactful.  I debated giving them some sort of teleport ability to let them constantly chase down their prey, but hopefully a 14" move with run/retreat and charge access will get that flavour across well enough. The major change was to the Soulpiercer, I wanted to keep the theming of a single, artful kill, but make it actually dangerous, so I pretty much just ripped a couple of abilities from the new Kruleboyz stuff, allowing Shalaxi to potentially instantly kill smaller heroes or sweep chunks of wounds off of larger monsters, but still keeping them fairly ineffective against massed/multi-model units.  The spell I mostly just changed for changes sake, it could have potentially stayed the same, though the +1 to hit isn't that meaningful with all attacks now hitting on 2s, and the +1 to save would be a potentially frustrating combo with new Shining Aegis, so I replaced it with a fairly low-impact spell that is still situationally valuable.

Hmm, I don't know why that image has gone so small, I'll try and fix it later.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Lucentia

[Carnith]

16 hours ago, LeonBox said:

I love the idea of these and it reminds me of the Drukhari combat drug ability. I would simplify these somewhat, however, as right now they're a little too close to Aetherquartz (e.g. far too versatile). Similarly to the Drukhari combat drug, perhaps there could be 6 different elixirs, each one of which can be used a single time. After using one, roll a die and on an unmodified 1 take D3 mortal wounds due to overdosing. 
 

Love it. Rend is something we really struggle with, with only a handful of special characters having better than -1, and it eliminates our locus being reliant on a dice roll. 

These are fantastic and really feed into Slaanesh's decadent/artistic theme. However, the Waltz of Sloth is waaaaaayyyyy too powerful. High-CV spells revolve around messing with movement, and so to give a 12"  bubble of half movement in a game that often lives and dies on movement is far too overpowered. I'd modify it to this: 

Waltz of Sloth: at the start of the hero phase, pick an enemy unit within 12" of this hero. That unit must roll 2D6, adding 2 to the result if this hero is THE MASQUE. If the modified result is greater than the bravery characteristic of that unit, it must halve all normal moves, retreats, runs and charges until the start of your next hero phase. 

I'd also make the Ballet of Lust only affect one unit, too. I think the Tango of Vainglory is within line of similar abilities of other factions, as I believe Nurgle has that Bilepiper with a bubbled buff. 

Please no “roll against bravery” checks. They are awful and outside of fighting destruction it does nothing. Make them go off on a 4+ and a 2+ for the masque. 

[LeonBox]

1 hour ago, Carnith said:

Please no “roll against bravery” checks. They are awful and outside of fighting destruction it does nothing. Make them go off on a 4+ and a 2+ for the masque. 

Well, for me Bravery ought to work as Leadership did in Oldhammer, and the fact that it does nothing is an issue with the core mechanic of bravery. The fact is that it's too easily ignored but we as Slaanesh have access to a bunch of bravery debuffs that we can't really effectively utilize because, as you pointed out, bravery doesn't really do anything. If, though, these dances were keyed to bravery, then Phantasmagoria immediately gains utility that it's never had before. If it's a simple 4+/2+ then it's another random dice roll that we can't manipulate and we can't play the odds on using our inbuilt ability to mess with bravery. 

[Carnith]

Not many of our units actually do anything with bravery. We have like 1 spell that reduces it by a little bit, we have our endless spell that can reduce it. I'm struggling to find much else debuffing, and even then a good chunk of armies have bravery 7-10, we end up jumping through hoops to do d3 mortal wounds. We end up having to essentially double cast some of our spells for meager effects. Make the spells actually spicy, which should include caster bonuses or something. 

Something I'd maybe try with the keeper's spell. It's boring, and it's awful. It's been bad forever. Maybe we can try to do something to spice it up. 

Cacophonic Choir: Cv 6. Roll 2d6 against each enemy unit within 9", adding 4 if the casting roll was a 9+ (Or perhaps +4 to the roll if the unit is within 3" as the keeper is scary to behold). If you meet or exceed their bravery, that unit takes d3 mortal wounds, and 1 more mortal wound for each point you beat it by. 

 

[LeonBox]

So this is a bit of a lengthy one, but at the request of @Sorrow I revamped Lurid Haze into its own subfaction. I also made a warscroll for a unit I'd like to see, a cheap throwaway screen of mortals that we don't really care about too much: 

 

The Lurid Haze

Perfumed hordes of the Dark Prince

Glassy-eyed maniacs and frenzied killers all, the hordes of the Lurid Haze sweep across Ulguan battlefields in a dervish of swishing silks and cruel scimitars, their orgy of bloodletting fuelled by the heady incense that pervades all Lurid Haze hosts.  

Hedonists above all else, the Lurid Haze care nothing for their own lives nor even, ultimately, of victory in the Dark Prince’s name; the only guiding light of the Lurid Haze masses is sensation taken to excess. Pain, pleasure, exhilaration, sadism, masochism – it is one and the same to the wide-eyed lunatics who fall upon the enemy lines, caring little if the enemy spills their blood or vice versa.

Following on the heels of the maniacal Sybarite Cultists are their Blissbarb brethren, those who have not yet earnt the exhilaration of steel on skin, who must instead content themselves with delivering agonising death to the foe on the tip of a drugged arrow. Those Blissbarbs who have earnt the affections of an Exalted Seeker charge about the battlefield, firing volleys of Seeker-envenomed arrows into the ranks of the enemy with uncanny accuracy.

Should the foe survive the torrent of poisoned arrows and frenetic assault of the Sybarite Cultists, they have yet to endure the unthinking ferocity of the Slaangor Fiendbloods, wit-addled beastmen driven into a hysterical bloodgreed and unleashed upon the scattered enemy lines to finish them once and for all…

Battle Traits – the Stupefying Veil

Billowing Mists

[As per the original Lurid Haze ability – if it ain’t broke etc. etc. with the exception of the addition below]

Bestupored Hordes

When the Lurid Haze marches, innumerable masses of drug-addled Sybarites gather to join the Carnival of Excess.

SYBARITE CULTISTS are battleline units in a Lurid Haze army list.

 

Bestial Bacchanalia

The Slaangor Fiendbloods of the Lurid Haze are fed exotic cocktails of stimulants prior to being released, and little is beyond the reach of their frenzied advance.

Friendly Slaangor Fiendbloods in a LURID HAZE host may re-roll charges.

Orgy of Reflected Agony

To the frenzied masses of the Lurid Haze, it matters not whether enemy or friendly blood has spilled – only that it has spilled.

At the end of the battleshock phase, you receive D3 depravity points if at least one friendly and one enemy unit received any wounds or mortal wounds that were not negated.

 

Command Traits – The Ever-Thirsting Bacchanal

1 Feverish Anticipation

Lurid Haze cultists cannot wait to glut themselves on the sensation of battle.

You may re-roll run rolls for friendly LURID HAZE HOST units that are wholly within 12” of this general when the run roll is made.

2 Unreasoning Ecstasy

Once battle is joined there is no rational thought amidst the masses of the Lurid Haze, just the orgiastic glee that comes with wholesale bloodshed.

Do not take battleshock tests for friendly LURID HAZE HOST units that are wholly within 12” of this general.

3 Clarity of Stupefaction

Though most have their senses dulled by constant exposure to the cloying fumes of the Lurid Haze, this general has been exposed to such a degree that it lends them a base, drug-fuelled cunning.

When using the Billowing Mists ability, this general may remove D6 units instead of D3.

4 Deadened Nerves

This general has glutted themselves upon such a cornucopia of forbidden salves, powders and herbs that they are inured to all but the most extreme of sensations.

This general ignores the first wound or mortal wound allocated to them each phase.

5 Alluring Demagogue

None command the attention of their troops better than this general, and they will push themselves all the harder to achieve a measure of their favour.

Once per turn, this general may issue a command to a friendly LURID HAZE host without spending a command point.

6 Blacken the Sky

This general puts particular stock in their Blissbarb followers, urging them on to ever more numerous salvos of poisoned arrows before the lines clash.

Once per shooting phase, this general may nominate a unit of BLISSBARB ARCHERS or BLISSBARB SEEKERS. Add 1 to the attacks characteristic of that unit’s missile weapons.

 

 

 

Artefacts of Power – Prizes of the Sybarite Carnival

 

1 Cloak of the Betrayer  

This cloak, soaked in the blood of a traitor who betrayed his people in the name of Slaanesh, hides the approach of the wearer until it’s too late for their prey…

If the bearer of this item is picked to be removed from the table as part of the Billowing Mists ability, he and any other units benefitting from that ability may be placed more than 6” from enemy units.

2 Flute of Torturous Revelry   

Once played by the Keeper of Secrets whose name is Anacrucia, this flute can be played to rouse the Dark Prince’s followers to inhuman feats of strength.

Once per battle, during your combat phase, the bearer of this item can use it. Until the start of your next hero phase, all friendly LURID HAZE units wholly within 12” of the bearer may add 1 to wound rolls for all melee weapons.

3 Censer of Stultifying Incense   

The incense that billows from this champion’s censers does not only invigorate their own warriors, but also saps the resolve of nearby enemies.

Whenever an enemy unit within 12” of this unit makes a charge roll, subtract D3” from the result.

4 Unguent of the Thrice-Slain Princeling

Steeped in the skin of an arrogant noble who had the temerity to insult the Dark Prince, this forbidden ointment dulls the skin and renders it insensate to all but the mightiest of blows.

Subtract 1 from wound rolls made with melee weapons that target this general.

5 The Shroud of Matta Hu’uri

This diaphanous veil was worn by the most talented dancer ever to grace Glutos Orscollion’s legendary banquets. So impressed was the Lord of Gluttony by her agility, he had her feet made into a succulent broth.

The bearer of this item can run and still charge later in the turn. In addition, when charging, the bearer may ignoring intervening terrain as if they could FLY.

6 Mirror of Minds

Wielded by the sadistic Shardspeaker Lyrolla Visq, this Twisted Mirror forces the viewer to confront the depths of their own unvarnished arrogance. The more ambitious the victim, the farther they have to fall into the crystalline depths of the mirror…

Once per battle, in your hero phase, the bearer of this item may use it. If they do so, pick one enemy HERO within 12” of this general and roll a number of dice equal to that HERO’s bravery characteristic.  For each 3+, that HERO suffers 1 mortal wound.

I created a new unit that's a sort of Slaaneshi skink/clanrat, which will factor into this subfaction particularly as a disposable screen: 

Their attacks are meh and they melt to a stiff breeze, but they'd be cheap, min unit size 20, and their rally on a 5+ would make it easy to make them last a bit longer. I'm also going to rewrite Slaangors with an ability borrowed from the SCE Annihilators, which I think makes Slaangors way better: 

After this unit makes a charge, you may choose one enemy unit within 1” of that unit. Roll a number of dice equal to the charge roll. For each 4+,  that enemy unit suffers one mortal wound. 

sybarite-cultists (1).pdf

[Sorrow]

@LeonBox

Perfection!

 

[Lucentia]

I noticed in the new 3.0 battletomes for SCE and Orruks the subfactions have been condensed into a much simpler form, mostly providing just a single bonus rule and sometimes freeing up certain battleline options, whilst no longer locking in specific artifacts or command traits.  I don't know whether that's going to be the way for all factions going forwards (given there are plenty of different styles of subfaction across the 2.0 books) but I find it a kind of interesting way to try and avoid the issue of printing a bunch of artifacts and especially command traits that no one is ever going to use, and in theory it allows for an easier parity between the subfactions so there's no clear 'good' choice, except, y'know, we've already seen a couple of clear winners in the two 3.0 books so far...

In any case, I figured I'd have a go at drafting up some 3.0 style subfactions for Hedonites, naturally there are 6 of them, it's only appropriate, based around the 6 circles of Slaanesh's domain as described in the battletome:

Host of Avidity - Add 1 to charge rolls for friendly units from this host.  SEEKERS, SLICKBLADE SEEKERS, and BLISSBARB SEEKERS are battleline in this host.  (Just Godseekers again, it's a good, simple bonus that works well here.)

Host of Gluttony - Do not take battleshock tests for friendly MORTAL HEDONITE units in this host whilst they are within 3" of an enemy unit.  If GLUTOS ORSCOLLION, LORD OF GLUTTONY is in this host then he counts as your general in addition to your chosen general.  (This one was the trickiest to think up something valuable and interesting, I'm still not sure I like it.  Some sort of post-combat healing could also work.)

Host of Carnality - Subtract 1 from attacks made by melee weapons which target friendly DAEMONETTE units in this host.  SEEKER CHARIOTS, HELLFLAYERS, and EXALTED CHARIOTS are battleline in this host.  (Stupid, sexy Daemonettes.  This is to represent their alluring glamour which doesn't really show up on the tabletop generally.)

Host of Paramountcy - Once per turn your general may issue a command ability without a command point being spent.  SYMBARESH TWINSOULS are battleline in this host. (An alternate option for this Host could be to just use the old Pretenders double command trait instead.)

Host of Vainglory - Every friendly HEDONITE HERO in this host counts as a General, and each may take a command trait.  The same command trait cannot be chosen more than once in the same list.  You must still select a single HERO as the true general as relates to battle tactics/grand strategies/etc.  MYRMIDESH PAINBRINGERS are battleline in this host. (Basically just nu-Invaders.)

Host of Indolency - Friendly HEDONITE MORTAL HEROES in this host count as HEDONITE DAEMON HEROES for the purposes of the Locus of Diversion battle trait.  In addition, once per turn you may re-roll a failed Locus of Diversion test.  If DEXCESSA, THE TALON OF SLAANESH, or SYNESSA, THE VOICE OF SLAANESH are in this host then they counts as your general in addition to your chosen general. (This is assuming the Locus stays the same as it works currently, of course.)

Obviously these are less impactful then the current hosts, notably losing out on the bonus depravity generation and Lurid Haze outflank, but at the moment at least that seems to be the style for 3.0 battletomes.  It is quite fun trying to get the flavour of a subfaction across within a single rule, hopefully I've managed to make all of these attractive options.  I might try and do some artifacts/command traits to go along with them later.

Also I did a quick rewrite for the Slaangor warscroll, attempting to keep to the spirit of their current scroll whilst giving them more of a defined role:

The profile is much the same, but with an extra wound and 3+ to hit to make them more akin to an ogor-type monstrous infantry piece, plus a pip of rend on the charge.  I've combined the weapon profiles whilst making the sword a 1 in 3 option rather than being solely for the unit, so a 3 model unit can kick out a solid 13 D2 attacks (16 on the charge), and a 2" reach let's them operate easily in a 6 model unit if you're so inclined.  You could rewrite Obsessive Violence to make it an actually useful mortal wound option for the army, but in this case I opted to replace it with a more techy ability to shut down command abilities (though I'm iffy on the timing, it might be more reasonable to just have it last into the battleshock phase to block Inspiring Presence.)

[Lucentia]

On 9/19/2021 at 9:21 PM, Lucentia said:

 I might try and do some artefacts/command traits to go along with them later.

As a person who sometimes can't get a thought out of their head I've had ideas for artefacts and command traits popping up unbidden for days since I wrote this.  The 3.0 Stormcast book has 9 artifacts, the Warclans book has 12 but they're split between the various subfaction hero types, I figured I'd aim for around 9 artefacts with the assumption that the SCE book will be more typical of 3.0 battletome design.  Interestingly the SCE book also has a reduced number of command traits, down to 4, presumably they realised that no one ever actually rolled for a random one, but I've come up with 6 anyway cos, y'know, Slaanesh and all.

Artefacts are a little tricky because not only do they all have to be equally enticing as choices in some way, but they also have to be enticing compared to the ubiquitous Amulet of Destiny from the core rules.  I feel like I could pick any one of these 9 and have good cause to, depending on the list.

Artefacts of Power

Tools of Agony

Sliverslash - Pick 1 of the bearer's melee weapons. Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of that weapon, add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of that weapon instead if the bearer made a charge in the same turn. (I contemplated just putting this back up to its old +2 attacks effect, but this way seems more fun.)

Lash of Submission - Enemy units within 3" of the bearer may not retreat.  If you would receive a depravity point from any enemy unit within 3" of the bearer, receive 2 depravity points instead. (This might be a little much on a single artefact, and it's not really a weapon upgrade in the usual sense, I originally had it increasing the range of one weapon to 3", plus the no retreat effect, which might be more reasonable.)

Rapier of Ecstatic Conquest - Pick 1 of the bearer's melee weapons.  Once per combat phase, in step 4 of the attack sequence, you can add 1 to the damage inflicted by 1 successful attack made by that weapon.  In addition, the bearer counts as 3 times the normal number of models for the purpose of contesting objectives. (You're mainly taking this for the objective scoring, it is the rapier of conquest, after all, the extra damage is just to tie it to a weapon for flavour.)

Raiments of The Dark Prince

Girdle of the Realm-racer - In your hero phase the bearer may don the Girdle of the Realm-Racer, if they do so they immediately suffer 1 mortal wound and may add 1 to their Movement characteristic, Run, and Charge rolls, and can Fly, until your next hero phase. (Changing this to a deliberate choice to take damage makes it tie in better with the depravity mechanic)

Coronet of Majesty - Once per battle, in the combat phase, the bearer may activate the Coronet of Majesty, if they do so they gain a ward of 3+ until the end of the phase. (I'm not generally a fan of one-use artefacts, but given how the Fane works it makes sense to have some available, and it just makes sense for me to once per battle items to have powerful effects to counteract their limited utility.)

Cuirass of Revelations - At the beginning of each battle round roll a D6, subtract the value from the Bravery characteristic of all enemy units within 12" of the bearer.  At the end of your movement phase you may chose to release the energies of the armour, each enemy unit within 12" of the bearer suffers D3 mortal wounds, but the armour no longer has any effect on the Bravery characteristic of enemy units for the rest of the battle. (Another kind of one-use artefact for the fane, but maybe a D6 bravery reduction will actually make bravery bomb lists usable?  Probably not.)

Esoterica and Exotica

Rod of Misrule - As is in the current battletome. (This is already a great, fun artefact, the only reason to change or replace it would be that I don't know how newer battletomes are going to deal with CP generating effects under the new CP rules.)

Scroll of Whispers - Add 1 to casting, unbinding, and dispelling rolls for the bearer.  If the bearer attempts to unbind a spell and the unmodified unbinding roll is a 6 then the spell is automatically unbound regardless of its casting value. (Not sure that I like having an unmodified roll effect attached to an artefact which modifies that same roll, but I feel that every army with wizards should have access to a +1 to cast option at the very least.)

Icon of Infinite Excess - Once per battle, in your hero phase, the bearer may lift the Icon of Infinite Excess.  If they do so add 1 to Hit rolls for Hedonite units wholly within 18" of the bearer, and Hedonite units wholly within 18" of the bearer do not suffer battleshock tests. (Again, I think 1 use artefacts should be noticeably potent, so I boosted the range and effect of this one.)

Command Traits

Quicksilver Dodge - This general cannot be targeted by missile attacks, spells, or abilities unless the attacking model is within 12" of this general. (Should provide some valuable shooting protection, the SCE book has an artefact which does basically the same thing.)

Speed-Chaser - This general can charge even if they ran or retreated in the same turn. (Don't think this one needs much explaining, it's just a solid ability that fits Slaanesh well.)

Bewitching Vapors - Subtract 1 from Wound rolls for attacks made by enemy units within 12" of this general. (The value of this is obvious, several armies have a similar effect and it's always powerful, thematically it ties into the Fiend ability, and general befuddling incense/musk/fog that Slaanesh is known for.)

God-hunt Master - Just reprint the Lurid Haze outflank ability here, it's a powerful tool and a good list option to have even if those sub-sub-factions end up vanishing.

Skin-Taker - Add 2 to this general's Wounds characteristic.  At the end of the combat phase heal D3 wounds from this general if any enemy models were slain by attacks or abilities made by this general in that phase. (Combined two old command traits into this one, still feels like it might be the weakest of the bunch and could use some pizazz though.)

The Faultless Blade - Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made by this general which target enemy MONSTERS and HEROES.  Subtract 1 from hit rolls for attacks made by enemy MONSTERS and HEROES which target this general.

That's what came to my mind at least, there are obviously some of the current options that I would have liked to squeeze in there or improve, but looking through the lists in the book and seeing so many artefacts and command traits which are just totally useless does make me think that having smaller lists with more carefully considered and balanced options is probably a good thing.

 

[JackOfBlades]

One thing that stands out to me about Slaanesh is it's the only chaos god whose battle traits dont work with STD heroes. You cant bring the mark of Slaanesh over, but they dont have the HEDONITE keyword either, so theyre stuck in a no man's land. I think the simplest way to change this is just to get rid of the HEDONITE keyword and change it to SLAANESH like it already is for the other gods, but maybe that breaks something im not aware of.

Or you could do what you did in the OP and just make new units, i think that's better anyway.

Edited November 3, 2021 by JackOfBlades

[JackOfBlades]

On 9/17/2021 at 4:42 PM, CeleFAZE said:

Hm. I'm wondering what the best choice would be for Euphoric Killers. I know I want it to work with ranged attacks, but I'm stuck at whether or not to open it up to all chaos slaanesh units or keep it hedonite only. I think it might be a good solution to include a host option that opens up EK to all Slaanesh units, so that the whole book doesn't become the Marauders & Friends situation that we were in with the first tome, but still allows for those who had a primarily S2D or BoC Slaanesh army to play something close to what they had before.

Indeed, i think creating a specific subfaction/host for mixed armies like this is the best idea, like the Big WAAAAAAGH!