Had a gander at the old 6th ed Sacred Hosts, and really think GW missed a trick when they didnt bring the spawnings back. I think it could have created some seriously cool themes and made things a little more interesting - especially in core. This got me wondering what the spawnings would look like in 8th? I came up with some ideas related to the different old ones and thought Id share. My thoughts were to give bonuses that dont hamper units, but give interesting bonuses that arent gamebreaking. No points values are included ('cause i didnt get that far ) Chotec The Sun God. Skink Priests of this spawning must use the Lore of Fire. All models with this upgrade recieve +2 initiative. Flaming attacks is the no-brainer, but ii took direction from the Solar Engine. gives a nice boost (especially to saurian units) and would synergise well with the Engine from the Bastiladon Tlazcotl Symbolises the impassivity of the Lizardmen. Skink Priests must use the Lore of Metal. All units with this spawning are stubborn I thought about making this basically the Mark of Slaanesh, but wanted something a little different. This would be a little broken on certain units (Skirmishers!?), and so would need to be cpsted appropriately. Making them ITP would remove a fundamental Lizardmen tactic, and I like the idea that they refuse to run away once theyre fighting rather than just standing there taking charges. Quetzl God of Protection. Skink Priests must take the Lore of Light. All units with this spawning recieve +1 Scaly Skin [ Itzl Lord of Cold-Blooded Beasts. Skink Priests must use the Lore of Beasts. All Monsters, War Beasts, Swarms, Monstrous Beasts and Mounts suffer -1 to hit models with this spawning. Tzunki The Water God. Priests must use the Lore of Life. All models with this spawning recieve +1 regen save (usually a 6+) Umm'd and Ahh'd about this. finally decided on exemplifying the healing aspects of water, and thought Lore of Life would synergise well with the regen save Sotek the Serpent God, associated with aggression. Skink Priests mus take the Lore of Death. All models with this spawning recieve +1 attack in the first round of each combat. In addition, they may not test to restrain pursuit, and only overrun d6" Thought this exemplified aggression - having to pursue and overrunning a short distance as they make sure their enemies are dead Tepok Associated with magic and "otherworldliness". Priests must use Lore of Heavens. All models gain MR2 and Magical Attacks. Huanchi the Jaguar God, god of hunting and predation. Priests must use Lore of Shadows. All models with this spawning add 1 to their dice scores to hit for the purposes of predatory fighter only. This applies to the first round of combat only. this was originally goign to be Swiftstride, with this ability going to Sotek. Thinkl this would make troglodons way better, as for one turn saurus warriors would get extra attacks with EVERY hit in the front rank Ive tried to match one of the 8 lores to each spawning, but its not easy :/ All comments and suggestions welcome, and I'd be expecially interested in any ideas for points costs.
Cho Tla Quet Itzl Tzuki Sotek Tepok Huanchi Saurus 20 35 35 20 30 30 30 30 Skink 15 30 35 15 25 15 20 25 Kroxigor 5 30 35 20 25 25 25 30 I really love your suggestions. They give character to a unit without changing things to massively. I would change Huanchi to swiftstride (the points I gave asume this). I would say skink skirmishers cannot take spawnings mostly because it simplifies things. Also Skrox units would use the point value listed for skinks and the kroxigors would have the spawning in the same way as the skinks. (keep in mind Sotek and chotec would add basically no benefit to the kroxigors in a skrox unit). I will try to playtest these a bit! Great stuff!
Yeah swift stride works. But maybe reword it so it adds a dice and discards the lowest? So cav get 4 dice and discard the 2 lowest? Maybe give the predatory fighter rule to sotek. Goes well with the two-tailed oracles on the trololololodon?
FYI, here is an old thread with some spawning ideas for the 7th Ed.: http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/blessed-spawnings-of-the-old-ones.9726/ Mostly based off the 6th Ed. book and the Sacred Hosts rules GW had provided in an article years ago.
I like chefdads list, since it isn't just a generic +1 STAT sort of thing. But at the same time I don't agree with them all. But hey, the fluffier and more situation-specific you make the rules, the more random and less rewarding they are. Just off the cuff something like this. Sotek: Skinks only, get Frenzy Chotec: +2 I when near a Fire wizard, -1 to hit at range Quetzl: -1 to hit in first round of combat Itzl: All monsters etc gain Predatory Fighter Tzunki: Player can place a body of water terrain feature that grants a 5+ ward save Huanchi: Vanguard on some Skink Skirmishers maybe?
Absolutely love your chotec idea. Your quetzl idea was one I toyed with, but felt it was too similar to Mark of Nurgle. That's fine I guess, but I wanted to mix it up a bit. Tzunki is cool, but think it would work best for a sacred host? So in addition to the regen, you get to place the water feature? With that in mind, any ideas for additional army wide abilities for sacred hosts? Sotek - hate skaven/immune to poison Chotec - 4+ ward to flaming Quetzl - ? Tepok - wizards channel of 5+ (bit broken? One turn only?) Itzl - your predatory fighter idea? Or something similar? Huanchi - 6" vanguard? Might be really bent? Tlazcotl - immune to fear, terror and panic?