Chaos Daemons

By The_Glyphstone, in Deathwatch House Rules

Having pretty much scoured the internet looking for anyone else's attempts at homebrewing stats for Daemons of Chaos, I finally gave up and wrote some of my own. The Dark Heresy supplement Creatures Anathema was a helpful aid, particularly for the Greater Flamer of Tzeentch (the regular flamer was just too weak for Astartes), noted in a few of the entries. Thoughts/opinions/critiques?

Bloodletter of Khorne (Elite)

WS 60 | BS 20 | S (12) 60 | T 60 | Agi 45 | Int 45 | Per 55 | WP 55 | Fel 20

Movement: 4/8/12/24 Wounds: 20
Skills: Awareness (Per), Dodge (Agi) +10
Talents: Resistance (Psychic Powers)
Traits: Daemonic (TB 12), Dark Sight, Fear (2), From Beyond, Natural Armor (2), Undying, Unnatural Strength (x2), Warp Instability
Armor: Brass Armor of Khorne (Body 6)
Weapon: Hellblade(2d10+12, R, Pen 4, Special)

Hellblade: A Bloodletter’s massive two-handed hellblade can scythe its way through entire ranks of lesser enemies, or deal painful wounds to sturdier ones that gather too close. If a Bloodletter successfully damages an enemy with its hellblade, it may make a secondary attack against another opponent within two metres of the first one. The secondary attack deals 2d10+6 damage with a Penetration value of 4.

Blood For The Blood God: As per Flesh Hound of Khorne in Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema

Servant of Khorne: A Bloodletter of Khorne does not suffer extra damage from the Psy Rating of a wielder of a force weapon. In addition, any Psychic Powers used against the Bloodletter have a -10 penalty on their Focus Power test. The Bloodletter’s Daemonic trait is not ignored by force weapons unless the wielder succeeds on a Difficult (-10) Willpower test.

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Greater Flamer of Tzeentch (Elite)

WS 40 | BS 50 | S 43 | T 55 | Agi 44 | Int 20 | Per 45 | WP 55 | Fel 10

Move: 8/16/24/48 Wounds: 18
Skills: Awareness (Per), Psynisience (Per)
Traits: Daemonic (TB 8), Dark Sight, Flames of Change**, Fear 3, From Beyond, Hoverer, Innate Psychic, Natural Weapons (Teeth), Strange Physiology, Unnatural Speed, Warp InstabilityA

Armor: None
Weapons: Teeth (1d10+4, R, Primitive)

Psychic Powers (Psy Rating 3): Searing Breath**, Fires of Tzeentch, Storm of Change

Innate Psychic: A Greater Flamer of Tzeentch never invokes Psychic Phenomena when using a psychic power, but it may never attempt to Push.

Flames of Change: As per Flamer of Tzeentch from Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema.

Psychic Powers:

Searing Breath
Action – Half
Opposed – No
Range – Self
Sustained- Yes
Description: The Flamer’s jaws now churn with the unnatural fires that flicker across its body. While sustained, the Flamer’s Teeth attack now deals 2d10+8 Energy damage and no longer counts as Primitive.

Fires of Tzeentch
Action – Half
Opposed – No
Range – 20m x PR
Sustained – No
Description: Bolts of purple-pink fire shoot from the Flamer’s body, charring and melting the surfaces that they strike. Successfully using Fires of Tzeentch conjures one bolt that automatically strikes an enemy within range for 1d10xPR Energy damage, with Penetration equal to PR. For each degree of success obtained on the Focus Power test, an additional bolt may be fired at any target within range.

Storm of Change
Action – Full
Opposed – No
Range – Self
Sustained – No
Description: The Flamer unleashed a massive blast of warp-fire from its body that erupts outward in a ring. All creatures within 5m x PR of the Flamer other than Daemons of Tzeentch suffer 1d10xPR energy damage, with Penetration equal to PR. Against Storm of Change, the Willpower test for Flames of Change is considered Challenging (+0) instead of Ordinary (+10).

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Plaguebearer of Nurgle (Elite)

WS 50 | BS 30 | S (8) 45 | T (8) 45 | Agi 35 | Int 40 | Per 45 | WP 55 | Fel 15

Move: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 28
Skills: Awareness (Per)
Traits: Daemonic (TB 12), Dark Sight, Fear (2), From Beyond, Improved Natural Weapons (Claws), Miasma Cloud**, Natural Weapons (Claws), Regeneration (1), Stuff of Nightmares, Toxic, Unnatural Strength (x2), Unnatural Toughness (x2), Warp Instability
Armor: None
Weapons: Claws (1d10+8 R, Toxic)

Miasma Cloud: Any enemy within 5 meters of a Plaguebearer must pass a Difficult (-10) Toughness test or suffer a -10 penalty to WS, BS, Willpower, and Dodge tests for as long as he remains within the radius of the miasma. If he leaves the miasma and later enters again, he must re-test.

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Still trying to work out Daemonette stats.

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Daemonette of Slaanesh (Elite)

WS 55 | BS 20 | S 55 | T (8) 45 | Agi (12) 65 | Int 50 | Per 35 | WP 55 | Fel 45

Move: 12/24/36/72 Wounds: 22
Skills: Acrobatics (Agi) +10, Awareness (Per) +10, Charm (Fel) +20, Contortionist (Agi) +10, Dodge (Agi) +10
Talents: Lightning Reflexes, Step Aside, Swift Attack
Traits: Daemonic (TB 8), Dark Sight, Fear 3, From Beyond, Hypnotic Musk, Improved Natural Weapons, Multiple Arms, Natural Weapons (Claws), Undying, Unnatural Agility (x2), Unnatural Speed, Warp Instability
Hypnotic Musk: Daemonettes exude an aura of combined pheromones and psychic influence that leave their prey slack-jawed and enraptured. Each round, any enemy within 20 meters of the Daemonette must succeed on a Difficult (-10) Willpower test or be unable to take any actions that round except to stare at the Daemonette. If the target is currently within a sealed air environment, such as a suit of power armor with its helmet on, the test is Challenging (+0) instead.
Armor: None
Weapons: Daemonic Claws (1d10+7 R, Pen 4, Tearing)
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Some outside opinions on balance would really be helpful here, since these are the first DH/Deathwatch material I've ever tried to write.

There are daemons listed in Dark Heresy.

DH - Creatures Anathema , Slaanesh demon and a couple others.

Dark Heresy - Ascension : Herald of Korne, Lord of Change writeups

The stats for Bloodletters and Demonettes (along with the other lesser demons) are in the DH Rulebook.

Sigh. Well, that's two hours of work wasted...I hadn't thought to look in DH core book.

On the other hand, the base DH demons are fairly weak - Horde material for a Kill Team. How much should I do to them if I want to scale them up to individually be, say, Genestealer-level challenges?

The_Glyphstone said:

Sigh. Well, that's two hours of work wasted...I hadn't thought to look in DH core book.

On the other hand, the base DH demons are fairly weak - Horde material for a Kill Team. How much should I do to them if I want to scale them up to individually be, say, Genestealer-level challenges?

I think it depends on the encounter- I've run demonettes as a horde using their base statline, gave them an additional attack, and gave them a way to teleport into hand to hand- they did pretty well against the kill team and served their purpose (which was to scare the team, show them the danger of the warp, and inflict a couple of wounds) right before being cut to ribbons by chainswords and bolt pistols. Them attacking in a giant group with 5 to 1 odds felt right, and it worked out okay.

If you want them to be an elite, I would suggest looking at the samples they give from the book for inspiration. You'll need to bump the wounds in the 30-40 range, armor in the 8-12 range, some serious secondary abilities such as hide in plain sight or some unnatural toughness. Pick abilities that fit the flavor of the demon in question, and figure that given the right circumstances (though this need not be all of them) they shold be able to do real damage to a DW Marine

The problem with lesser demons against Space Marines is, they aren't a danger to ascended lvl PCs (what DW maries are). And their biggest power, their fear level of 3, is hardly of use against marines.

Demonettes aren't a problem for anyone, if they can resist their "charm". And Space Marines will, so they will rip them to shreds.

Dire Avangers suffer from the same problem. They are no match against DW chars. But then i remembered the ascension book. There a leaders for those normal enemies. Add the Dire Avanger Exarch and the Dire Avangers get really better. Still needs a bit tweaking, but the direction is right.

Theres the Herald of Khore, again, boosting Khorne demons and quite good himself. Just create some leader for the Demonettes.

miggel said:

The problem with lesser demons against Space Marines is, they aren't a danger to ascended lvl PCs (what DW maries are). And their biggest power, their fear level of 3, is hardly of use against marines.

Demonettes aren't a problem for anyone, if they can resist their "charm". And Space Marines will, so they will rip them to shreds.

Dire Avangers suffer from the same problem. They are no match against DW chars. But then i remembered the ascension book. There a leaders for those normal enemies. Add the Dire Avanger Exarch and the Dire Avangers get really better. Still needs a bit tweaking, but the direction is right.

Theres the Herald of Khore, again, boosting Khorne demons and quite good himself. Just create some leader for the Demonettes.

That's what I had noted about the original Flamer of Tzeentch, it just wasn't big enough to threaten a DW marine. The Herald of Khorne is fairly good for an Elite-level opponent on his own, maybe with some beefed Flesh Hounds to back him up, and I can see about using the demons I originally brewed up above as the Herald-equivalents for the other three factions.

One of the problem factors using hordes (at least for this scenario) is tht the game will be taking place in the cramped corridors of a space hulk, so Hordes of anything except Nurglings would feel quite out of place, or at least awkward. Thus, my attempts to, basically, make Herald-esque demons that can stand their own in small groups without needing hordes for backup.

The_Glyphstone said:

Sigh. Well, that's two hours of work wasted...I hadn't thought to look in DH core book.

On the other hand, the base DH demons are fairly weak - Horde material for a Kill Team. How much should I do to them if I want to scale them up to individually be, say, Genestealer-level challenges?

Who says all Daemonettes are the same? That's the point, no? For example Landsholm Genestealers in Final Sanction are different from DH Genestealers and The Emperor Protects I have heard are again different. If you like your work, don't consider it wasted but use it. Use the reference material to give your work another sanity check and then lift off.

Players should never be able to rely on NPC stats. Ah, Tyranid Warriors have a soak of 18, I can hurt them with my Bolt Pistol. Yeah right - what about Warriors who might happen to have an additional Unnatural Toughness level?

DW PCs are fairly tough beasts themselves - throw stuff at them and see how they handle it. happy.gif

Alex

Heh, I plan on doing exactly that, with a few groups of DH Genestealers who have slightly beefed health levels. Their damage output is drastically reduced from the Landsholme variant, but I'm counting on the..."they get how many attacks per round, and can dodge more than once? OH CRAP" reaction to mess with them.