Hey, all, it's been a while.

I've worked up some stats for some Eldar Harlequins. I've always been a fan of them specifically, more so than any other Eldar, and I've been wanting to do it ever since I found flip belts and holo-suits in Into The Storm.

I did a fair bit of research for this, checking out the Codex and whatever fluff I could find on the Harlequins, as well as looking at all the officially published Eldar stats so far with corresponding units in the tabletop (Ranger, Pathfinder, Dire Avenger, Warlock) to get a sense of any kind of correlations that existed. However, I had to do a good bit of guessing. I tried to be as unbiased as possible, but I'd love to get additional opinions.

Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vRThrER-pWrjEeE1_0dmBM17JTnHk2Z1VivdgY_RXYQ/edit?hl=en&authkey=CM6gpIcN

I had a reason for pretty much every decision, and I can explain my rationale for anything.There are, however, a couple things I am particularly interested in getting feedback on because either information was scarce/conflicting or making a decision was particularly difficult:

Willpower:

All Harlequins, as a part of their initiation, are possessed by and throw off a greater demon of Slaanesh. That should mean that they are all incredibly strong-willed. However, I also felt that, logically, they should not be as strong-willed as a Farseer. A Greater Demon (working from Marabas) has something in the range of 80 (x2) WP, while a Farseer has 59(x2).

Shrieker Cannon:

I was kinda torn on how to stat the signature weapon of the Death Jesters. It doesn't help that there seems to be very little correlation between the game and the tabletop in terms of stats here.

Again, any and all feedback and/or critique is welcomed. Particularly if you have thoughts in these two areas

I haven't the faintest concept of gamebalance or how to achieve it, so feel free to disregard what I'm proposing.

It seems to me that if you want to make the Harlequins strong of will, but not of as high willpower as a Farseer, you could invent some talents to make up for lower willpower. Like the Black Priests of Macabeus, your Harlequinns could have talents empower their resistance to the warp.

Off the top of my head...

Irreverent:

Talent

exp cost: 500

Detail: The Harlequinns of the Laughing God, as part of their initiation are possessed by a daemon of Slaanesh. To prove their worthiness they must shake off the possesing daemon. Succes means they get accepted into the Harlequinns, while failure means termination by the hand of their overseers.

Benefit: The Harlequinn has developed a mental wall of irreverence against the corrupting touch of the warp. The difficulty of tests to resist possession are reduced by 2 steps. In addition, if possessed, the Harlequinn may make another willpower test the following round, to throw off the daemon and cast it back into the warp. Failure means the Harlequinn is completely possessed and all the normal rules for possession apply.

You could also work fate-point mechanics into the talent. Still, this was literally made up in 2 minutes, so pay it no mind if it sucks

Hello, first of all, I love Harlequins and just unearthed my old death jester to finally paint him and maybe make a few others (it's always frustrating to see the 'eavy Metal ones and know that I will never be able to paint them like that. However...

First of all, concerning your question of Harlequin willpower. It should be pretty high. Harlequins are the Grey Knights of the Eldar. Additionally I would give them the "Exorcised" template from the Radical's Handbook, I'm not sure about its drawbacks since the Harlequins don't have a painful/damaging human third-party exorcism but do it themselves. Solitaires sound a lot like artificial Pariahs.

Now to you stats: They seem to be based on the new weaker Harlequins from the Codex Eldar. Before that there was an experimental (not tournament-legal) Codex Harlequins by Gav Thorpe in 2000 that reflects their power a bit better (yesterday I read the White Dwarf that came out when the new miniatures were released and they stated that they tried not to overshadow the aspect warriors with the awesomeness of the Harlequins ) . In the Codex Harlequins Great Harlequins had WS 7, Solitaires WS 8, Shadowseers, Death Jesters and troupe leaders/master mimes WS 6. Death Jesters had a wider range of weaponry to choose from and came automatically equipped with two power blades. Looking at how the Dark Eldar HQs got their WS increased in the latest codex I would even consider adding +1 to Great Harlequins and Solitaires. For the standard troupe you have made stats for I would add +10 weapon skill to troupe leader, Shadowseer and Death Jester and give the Death Jester two small power weapons.

The Harlequin Ritual involving daemonic possession is a fanon myth perpetrated by Lexicanum. It doesn't appear in any of the publication detailing Harlequins since their introduction in WD105 until Dark Eldar codex. In fact, this directly contradicts their other background, especially Solitaire's.

Also, I don't see any reason to make them weaker and less resilient than humans. Whoever intitially wrote them up for Creatures Anathema didn't do research. No source states that Eldar are less resilient than humans - to the contrary, Index Xenos - Swordwind says "Their fingers are long and dextrous and their overall appearance seems slight to the untrained eye, which is strangely at odds with their strength and resilience.", in addition there are many feats of strength performed by them even in the BL books - such as Athenys knocking down a CSM Seargant in a single kick to the chest.

Other than that, great work, though as suggested, Gav Thorpe's old codex has many more units and wargear not seen in their current incarnation - you might want to check it out.

In regards to Willpower:

Nearyn, I had that same idea, belatedly, shortly after I posted. I need to take a look at the exorcised template, but what you wrote up, coupled with all the other similarly themed talents I gave them, could work pretty well.

Alternatively, looking at it from a different perspective, throwing off a Greater Daemon is a BIG deal. Since they're not meant to be PC's, I could see it as a viable option to have them immune to possession entirely.

Solitaires sound a lot like Pariahs to me, too. If I were to write stats for them, I would probably make them an enhanced Troupe Master and give them the Untouchable trait.

In regards to WS, and the new vs. old ruleset:

I initially disregarded the old codex entirely, assuming that the rules were outdated and incorporating them would only create additional contradictions. I've read it now though, and despite the discrepancies, I think there's some stuff there worth lifting.

The main difference that I see between the old and new rules is the scale on which the Harlequins operate. The codex allows for large scale Harlequin operations and forces composed of dozens of individuals, while the newer rules assumes a much smaller organizational structure. I tend to prefer the latter interpretation of them, as the lack of large bodies, in my opinion, enhances their mystique.

Exactly what that means for the stats, I'm not sure. The Troupe Master, from the new rules, could represent a Troupe Leader or a Great Harlequin from the older rules, since in the smaller group there isn't room for both. In smaller groups, discrepancies in ability are more notable, so the change on the Shadowseers and Death Jesters, while minor in a group of 30 or more, is much more dramatic on a smaller scale. I may split the difference and end up giving them +5 or some such solution.

Opinions?

Idaan said:

It would appear that you are right, that's too bad. I really liked that bit. That makes reconciling their willpower a little bit easier, at least. I still think they should be, as previously stated, very resistant to the powers of chaos.

I don't think they should be weaker or less resilient than humans either, which is why I put those stats where I did. I think S and T in the 30's is about average for humans, (Not PC's, of course) given the starting values for acolytes and stats for many NPC's. Within the 30-35 range I put their strength higher, since they're so athletic, and their toughness lower, to embrace their role as a glass cannon.

While I am reluctant to change it, especially since that range of strength and toughness has been more or less consistent across three FFG books, I'd like to hear what other people think on the matter.

Idaan said:

KHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! **** it, so far I trusted Lexicanum, but after reading that the admin blocks the correction of such mistakes I will look for other sources. Still, concerning the ritual of the Harlequins, could it maybe be some kind of modified soul-binding to Cegorach?

The Boy Named Crow said:

Well, GW also mentioned that there still are Great Harlequins and Solitaires and that they maybe would one day make new rules for them. Additionally the text about the performance of The Fall says that multiple Death Jesters and Shadowseers work alongside each other, so I don't think that the small group size is intended for fluff purposes as a whole ensemble.

The Boy Named Crow said:

Personally I would treat the Master Mime as a troupe leader (+5 weapon skill would be okay for that). However I would remove the Shadowseer and the Death Jester from the team (not every team should have a Death Jester and Shadowseer and those that have a Death Jester will have him sitting somewhere in cover like a good sniper and laughing at his enemies). The new rules tried to force as much iconic miniatures into one squad as possible. That's why the heavy weapons guy has to run around with an assault weapon. They should be more rare but also more powerful, so I would give them +10 WS.

I don't really want to delve into Mimes, but I see your point. I've made a few changes to the stats based on what's been discussed so far:

-Upped the WS on Troupe Masters (Which are the same thing as Avatars, or Troupe Leaders) Shadowseers, and Death Jesters to 70

-Added a pair of Forearm Power Blades, from Into the Storm, to the Death Jester profile, and tweaked the stats on the Shrieker Cannon

-Added a Talent, THE RITUAL, to the Harlequin profiles, which I have yet to stat up, but will probably incorporate elements from the Soul-Bound Trait and the Exorcised Template

I love it. And I just put two power blades on my Death Jester, now I just have to find a way to give them a quarter-way decent paintjob.

Nice. I've got a Harlequin Troupe for my Eldar Army that I've been holding off on painting and putting together because, well... I'm lazy.

The Boy Named Crow said:

Hehe, I've given up on armies. If I paint them right I lose my motivation as soon as I reach the standards I can't choose names for. If I paint them quickly I'm unhappy with the results (even more than normally, because I can't paint). Additionally I have a bad taste in terms of army lists. Every time I choose one GW destroys it with a Codex update. First my Biel-Tan Eldar with their Scorpion and Dark Reaper standards were wrecked by 4th edition, then my ccw+bp infiltrating marine standards became illegal with 5th edtition. Now I exclusively paint miniatures of role-playing characters and small groups of adversaries/allies. I bought the death jester years ago and swore that I would buy more Harlequins (because the models are awesome) if I would manage to paint them half-way properly. After reading "Immortal Enemies" I dug him out and now I'm finally trying to paint him and hope I can make a Solitaire next.

Btw, right now I'm trying to make rules for Eldar pirate player characters. Tomorrow I'm going to post the rough draft of their origin path. I hope I can save a bit of work by converting the classes.