We need him as a hero imo. and just because I am bored I will share how I think he should work. no great weapon instead he fights with just his hands, but they are magical attacks, otherwise nothing special stat line should be a bit better then a normal kroxigor oh and would still have great reach any unit he joins should get strider(he's considered a dang forest spirit by the skinks)...in fact make that a rule he counts as a forest spirit like dryads do lol now his actuall special special rule should be this. During the magic phase roll a D6, Nakai and the D6 corresponds to a chart of augment spells from the lore of beasts and life, it counts as cast at base power(so 8 if it is normally cast on an 8+) and even if it says otherwise it effects both Nakai and the unit he is with. that is all I could come up with lol.
If you take the great weapon away, he won't have the +2 strenght. That makes him less attractive too me if he would be presented like that
Actualy there are 2 different versions of him that GW made. one is prety strong and the other one is crazy strong. Heres a link to one of them. http://sgabetto.free.fr/Telechargements/nakai.pdf yep 6 ST8 attacks
Had to use time travel to find the other one. http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20...izardmen/gaming/campaign/characters/nakai.htm
Looking at the older one, you could use that for a hero version and the latest one for the Lord version. Seems like a reasonable price for each level. On that note, do any armies have a character that can be taken either as a Hero or a Lord?
Valten for Empire has both options I believe (he has 3 different power levels) and Mannfred for Vamps has a lvl2 and lvl4 caster version of himself from what I remember.
Still a mystery as to why they left him out in the 7th ed book with the influx of so many special characters being a trend set then, even more so now actually. Shoe in for our 8th ed book? I think so! Least hope so
IMO Nakai would be more like a lord level character, and a powerful one at that, since he is THE FIRST kroxigor. Plus, fluff-wise, he single-handedly held a daemonic legion at bay until reinforcements arrived. And while I know rules don't always accurately reflect fluff, I can't see how he'd be just a hero.