Hey, everyone!

I've been looking at Black Crusade a lot as an open toolkit for other 40k RPG topics.

While not my favorite race, I noticed the Eldar had very little support. With help from N01_HER3's "Children of Isha" supplement and /tg/'s (in)famous Shas'O Rmyr, I was able to throw together these tentative rules for playing Eldar using Black Crusade's ruleset. Enjoy and critique!

(Use the Black Crusade rules, but ignore Alignment. Every Alignment counts as Allied for cost. GM’s discretion of psychic powers.)

Race: Eldar

2d10+

WS 25
BS 25
S 25
Int 25
Fel 25
Per 30
Ag 30
WP 30
T 25

Starting Skills: Acrobatics (Ag), Athletics (S), Awareness (Per), Common Lore (Int) (any two), Dodge (Ag), Forbidden Lore (Int) (Xenos), Linguistics (Int) (Eldar), Psyniscience (Per), Trade (any one)
Starting Talents: Catfall, Cold Hearted, Leap Up, Lightning Reflexes, Resistance (Psychic powers), Weapon Training (Shuriken, Primary)
Starting Traits: Ambidextrous, Heightened Senses (Sight, Sound), Psyker (1), Unnatural Agility (+3), Unnatural Willpower (+2)
Starting Gear: good-craftsmanship Shuriken Pistol, 3 magazines of Shuriken ammunition, best-craftsmanship mono-knife, soulstone

Craftworlds:

Altaioc: Harshly regimented way of lives drives many to crave freedom. +5 WP or Per
Biel-tan: Militaristic world makes excellent warriors. +5 WS or BS
Iyanden: A world of survivors almost wiped out by endless war. +5 T or WP
Saim-Hann: Hot-blooded raiders with a strange code of honor. +5 S or Ag
Ulthwe: Guardians of the galaxy from fell forces. +5 WP or Int

Archetype: Aspect Warrior

Starting Skills: Acrobatics +10, Athletics +10, Awareness +10, Command or Intimidate, Dodge +10, Navigation (Surface), Operate (Ground), Parry, Tracking
Starting Talents: Combat Sense, Jaded, Quick Draw
Characteristic Bonuses: +5 BS or +5 WS
Starting Gear: good-craftsmanship Aspect Armor, varies
Path of the Warrior: The Aspect Warrior follows one of the ancient aspects of Khaine, the Bloody-Handed. Choose one of the paths below and make the appropriate modifications to your character.

Dire Avenger
Skills: Command +10 or Tracking +10
Talents: Air of Authority, Rapid Reload
Gear: best-craftsmanship Avenger Shuriken Catapult, 2 magazines of Shuriken ammunition

Howling Banshee
Skills: Intimidate +10 or Parry +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Power), Berserk Charge
Gear: good-craftsmanship Power Sword, Banshee Mask

Striking Scorpion
Skills: Stealth +10 or Tracking +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Chain), Flesh Render
Gear: best-craftsmanship Scorpion Chainsword, Mandiblasters

Dark Reaper
Skills: Intimidate +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Reaper Missile Launcher), Storm of Iron
Gear: Reaper Launcher, ten Reaper missiles

Fire Dragon
Skills: Survival +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Melta, Flame), Rapid Rapid Reaction
Gear: Fusion Gun, 2 reloads for the Fusion Gun

Swooping Hawk
Skills: Operate (Aeronautica) +10
Talents: Marksman
Gear: Swooping Hawk wings, Lasblaster, 2 charge packs

Warp Spider
Skills: Psyniscience +10 or Forbidden Lore (Warp)
Talents: Weapon Training (Deathspinner), Hip Shooting
Gear: Warp Spider Jump Generator, Deathspinner

Archetype: Warlock

Starting Skills: Awareness +10, Command, Forbidden Lore (Warp, Chaos) +10, Inquiry, Intimidate, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Logic, Navigate (Warp), Psyniscience +10, Scrutiny
Starting Talents: Weapon Training (Force), Warp Sense, 500xp worth of Psychic power from Unaligned, Divination, Telepathy, or Telekinesis disciplines
Starting Traits: Psychic Rating (3)
Characteristic Bonus: +5 WP, +5 Int
Starting Gear: Mesh-woven Robes (Arms 3, Body 3, Legs 3), Ghosthelm (Head 5), Rune Armour (Rune Armour is a Force Field with a protection rating equal to the wearer’s Willpower rating,) Witchblade
Path of the Seer: The Warlock has Psy Rating (3), and counts as Bound.

Archetype: Corsair Prince

Starting Skills: Acrobatics +10, Awareness +10, Charm or Intimidate, Common Lore (any two), Deceive, Dodge +10, Inquiry, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Logic or Medicae, Navigate (Surface) or Navigate (Stellar), Operate (Aeronautica) or Operate (Voidship), Parry, Scholastic Lore (any one), Scrutiny or Sleight of Hand or Stealth, Tech-Use or Tracking
Starting Talents: Blind Fighting, Combat Sense, Deadeye Shot or Sure Strike, Excessive Wealth or Radiant Presence or Lesser Minion
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Per, +5 Ag or BS
Starting Gear: Mesh armour, good-craftsmanship Ranger Long Rifle or best-craftsmanship Shuriken Catapult, best-craftsmanship monosword
Darkfire Skyburst: As a Full Action, the Corsair Prince may blot out the sun, so his warriors fight in the shade. Until the beginning of the Corsair Prince's next turn, the battlefield counts as being under Darkness.

Armor:

Aspect Armour: 6 all, 10 Ag
Mesh-Woven Robes: 3 arms, body, legs
Ghosthelm: 5 head
Rune Armour: Force Field of WP
Xeno Mesh Armour: 4 all, +10 Ag

Gear:

Soulstone: Holds an Eldar’s soul upon death.

Banshee Mask: When the wearer makes a Charge, the target must make a Hard (-20) Willpower Test to avoid being Stunned for one round.

Warp Spider Jump Pack: The wearer may move 4d10 feet as a Movement Action, but if three of the four dice come up the same, he disappears for 1d5 rounds, then returns, Stunned for one round and with 1 Corruption point.

Swooping Hawk Wings: Make an Operate (Aeronautica) check to move double your speed in any direction, ending on solid group.

Melee

Monosword (1d10+4 R; Pen 2; Balanced)

Power Sword (1d10+8 E; Pen 8; Balanced, Power Field, extra +10 to Parry)

Scorpion Chainsword (1d10+10 R; Pen 3; Balanced, Razor-Sharp, Tearing)

Witchblade (1d10+14 E; Pen 10; Balanced, Power Field)

Ranged

Shuriken Pistol (20m; S/3/5; 1d10+2 R; Pen 4; Clip 40; Reload 2 Full; Reliable)

Shuriken Catapult (60m; S/3/10; 1d10+4 R; Pen 6; Clip 100; Rld 2 Full; Reliable)

Shuriken Cannon (110m; –/–/10; 2d10+6 R; Pen 6; Clip 150; Rld 3 Full; Razor-Sharp,

Reliable, Tearing)

Scatter Laser (180m; –/–/6; 3d10+10 E; Pen 2; Clip 400; Rld 3 Full; Reliable, Storm)

Starcannon (180m; –/–/5; 3d10+10 E; Pen 10; Clip 100; Rld 4 Full; Volatile)

Bright Lance (200m; S/–/–; 4d10+15 E; Pen 20; Clip 100; Rld 3 Full; Accurate)

Avenger Shuriken Catapult (80m; S/3/10; 1d10+6 R; Pen 6; Clip 100; Rld 2 Full;
Reliable, Tearing)

Reaper Launcher (250m; S/3/5; 2d10+12 X; Pen 10; Clip 60; Rld 2 Full; Reliable, Tearing)

Fusion Gun (40m; S/–/–; 3d10+8 E; Pen 13; Clip 12; Rld 3 Full; Reliable, Felling (1), +2 Pen per Degree of Success on attack roll)

Lasblaster (120m; S/3/6; 1d10+6 E; Pen 4; Clip 90; Rld Full; Reliable)

Deathspinner (40m; S/-/-; 4d10+5 R; pen 2; Clip 30; Rld 2 Full; Reliable, Blast (2), Tearing)

Ranger Long Rifle (200m; S/2/-; 1d10+6; pen 4; Clip 40; Rld Full; Accurate, Reliable, +10 BS)

Dragon’s Breath Flamer: (30m; S/-/-; 2d10+2 E; pen 3; clip 20; Rld Full; Flame)

Hello, and thanks for directing me to this.

I think this is a great start. I haven't gone through it in exhaustive detail, but after reading through once it seems a very good start.

One thing might be to increase base Ag. by 5 and decrease base T. by 5 - I get the impression that Eldar are a bit squishier than humans (so giving a slightly lower toughness would perhaps be fair), whilst a base ag of 30 is only a tiny bit above humans (I know there is the unnatural characteristic thing). Just a thought…

I don't know how much detail you would like to go in to with these, but it certainly shows great promise. Thanks for sharing - I'll try and go through your list more exhaustively when I get the chance.

All best,

David.

Thank you for taking a look!

I'm not sure about Eldar being squishy, but I do like making the Agility 2d10+35. If you can get a game run with this, I would be thrilled to hear how it goes. Consider throwing 500xp at them to start.

All I can say is this:

FINALLY, a balanced Eldar homebrew. Not OPed, just really good.

Now, if only I can get my GM to put it in his RT game.

Raiu said:

Why, thank you! Shas'O'Rmyr helped a lot. I'd love to hear how well these operate in reality!

REVISED

Starting Skills: Acrobatics (Ag), Athletics (S), Awareness (Per), Common Lore (Int) (any two), Dodge (Ag), Forbidden Lore (Int) (Xenos), Linguistics (Int) (Eldar), Psyniscience (Per), Trade (any one)
Starting Talents: Catfall, Cold Hearted, Leap Up, Lightning Reflexes, Resistance (Psychic powers), Weapon Training (Shuriken, Primary)
Starting Traits: Ambidextrous, Heightened Senses (Sight, Sound), Psyker (1), Unnatural Agility (+3), Unnatural Willpower (+2)
Starting Gear: Good-craftsmanship mono-knife, soulstone

Archetype: Aspect Warrior

Starting Skills: Acrobatics +10, Athletics +10, Awareness +10, Command or Intimidate, Dodge +10, Navigation (Surface), Operate (Ground), Parry, Tracking
Starting Talents: Combat Sense, Jaded, Quick Draw
Characteristic Bonuses: +5 BS or +5 WS
Starting Gear: Common-craftsmanship Aspect Armor, varies
Path of the Warrior: The Aspect Warrior follows one of the ancient aspects of Khaine, the Bloody-Handed. Choose one of the paths below and make the appropriate modifications to your character.

Dire Avenger
Skills: Command +10 or Tracking +10
Talents: Air of Authority, Rapid Reload
Gear: Good-craftsmanship Avenger Shuriken Catapult and 2 magazines of Shuriken ammunition, Common-craftsmanship Shuriken Pistol and 2 magazines of ammunition

Howling Banshee
Skills: Intimidate +10 or Parry +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Power), Berserk Charge
Gear: Common-craftsmanship Power Sword, Banshee Mask

Striking Scorpion
Skills: Stealth +10 or Tracking +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Chain), Flesh Render
Gear: Good-craftsmanship Scorpion Chainsword, Common-craftsmanship Shuriken Pistol and 2 magazines of ammunition, Mandiblasters (functions as a Good-craftsmanship Laspistol mounted in the helmet of his Aspect Armor)

Dark Reaper
Skills: Intimidate +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Reaper Missile Launcher), Storm of Iron
Gear: Common-craftsmanship Reaper Launcher and ten Reaper missiles, Common-craftsmanship Shuriken Pistol and 2 magazines of ammunition

Fire Dragon
Skills: Survival +10
Talents: Weapon Training (Melta, Flame), Rapid Rapid Reaction
Gear: Fusion Gun and 2 reloads for the Fusion Gun or dragon’s breath Flamer with 2 clips of ammunition, Common-craftsmanship Shuriken Pistol and 2 magazines of ammunition

Swooping Hawk
Skills: Operate (Aeronautica) +10
Talents: Marksman
Gear: Swooping Hawk wings, Common-craftsmanship Lasblaster and 2 charge packs

Warp Spider
Skills: Psyniscience +10 or Forbidden Lore (Warp)
Talents: Weapon Training (Deathspinner), Hip Shooting
Gear: Warp Spider Jump Generator, Common-craftsmanship Deathspinner

Archetype: Warlock

Starting Skills: Awareness +10, Command, Forbidden Lore (Warp, Chaos) +10, Inquiry, Intimidate, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Logic, Navigate (Warp), Psyniscience +10, Scrutiny
Starting Talents: Weapon Training (Force), Warp Sense, 500xp worth of Psychic power from Unaligned, Divination, Telepathy, or Telekinesis disciplines
Starting Traits: Psychic Rating (3)
Characteristic Bonus: +5 WP, +5 Int
Starting Gear: Mesh-woven Robes (Arms 3, Body 3, Legs 3), Ghosthelm (Head 5), Rune Armour (Rune Armour is a Force Field with a protection rating equal to the wearer’s Willpower rating,) Common-craftsmanship Witchblade
Path of the Seer: The Warlock has Psy Rating (3), and counts as Bound.

Archetype: Corsair Prince

Starting Skills: Acrobatics +10, Awareness +10, Charm or Intimidate, Common Lore (any two), Deceive, Dodge +10, Inquiry, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Logic or Medicae, Navigate (Surface) or Navigate (Stellar), Operate (Aeronautica) or Operate (Voidship), Parry, Scholastic Lore (any one), Scrutiny or Sleight of Hand or Stealth, Tech-Use or Tracking
Starting Talents: Blind Fighting, Combat Sense, Deadeye Shot or Sure Strike, Excessive Wealth or Radiant Presence or Lesser Minion
Characteristic Bonus: +5 Per, +5 Ag or BS
Starting Gear: Mesh armour, Common-craftsmanship Ranger Long Rifle or Good-craftsmanship Shuriken Catapult, Good-craftsmanship monosword
Darkfire Skyburst: As a Full Action, the Corsair Prince may blot out the sun, so his warriors fight in the shade. Until the beginning of the Corsair Prince's next turn, the battlefield counts as being under Darkness.

David B said:

From my understanding, they're actually about as tough as an average human, since they have very similar body types (at least in the context of other 40k races).

So the Witchblade that a Warlock starts with is 1d10+14 damage with 10 Pen? Isn't that way too good?

I think the Witchblade should have something to it about only working for psykers or having an increased effect when wielded by a psyker, though I'm basing this only on knowledge from various RT books about the eldar.

Also could you provide a google doc or some other form of this homebrew? Since you seem to be quite heavily involved in homebrewing it would be great to have some central repository for all your work and having it scattered all over the forum (and then once more scattered over the thread as you post updates) is really annoying.

Yes, I definitely think that the Witchblade having that high base damage and not the Force weapon quality should be looked into. I don't think they should have the power field quality also, seeing how the Force already protects them from being destroyed by PF.

Other than that, good work.

Raiu said:

While these might be balanced for Black Crusade, they are very strong for RT unless you allow every RT character an extra 3,000-5,000 xp to compensate.

Behold, a google docs folder for all homebrew! I updated the Witchblade, if you look.

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B517sKRcjGNrcVdlWVp6V19ZeEU/edit