8th Ed. Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences etc

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

Yeah I played my first game w the new book last night and was really underwhelmed with the slanns abilities. Like others have said, the 3d channel on 5+ should net you at least one channel every turn, but I channeled a total of 4 dice on my slann the entire game! I think its a gimmick and is unreliable at best, and as Pinktaco pointed out, even when you roll well on the winds a bad roll of the dice can sweep that away. I just dont dig the ficklness of magic in 8th and when you are investing so many points in a character that may or may not perform, those pointe may be better spent elswhere...

 

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

Game is hard.

Anytime I field a toad, I ended up the battle without doing all the kamehameha!!! I would wanted to do. BUT the frog gives me the balance I needed for winning. Near unbreakable TG with Oldblood with Regeneration and healing wounds back. LD9 Rerollable test.

Its seems that our disciplines of getting 8 spells (whatever) just fool me as I wanted to use some of them in a single magic phase, then I drag my Power Dice in hopes to roll average that succeed the spell and... failed a 10+ spell with 2d6+4 !!. At least my Slann didnt go on holidays to Chaos Realm's Pleasure Trip yet.

One game I only channeled a dice with a Skink in an arcane ruis that allow to channel with +4d6 and my slann with the 3d6 channeling on 5's and another skink,THE ONE CHANNELING PRIEST.

I think magic in this edition of warhammer is about drag all your power dice and roll it to get a IF (& miscast ofc) and try to win the battle with one spell.
(Well i did it with Walk Between Worlds or buble Savage Beast of Horros)

So yes, naked slann are best. I field a tooled Oldblood & Slann even in 2K points.

 

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

Even with shoddy rolling though, it isn't bad. 4 extra dice is worth ~40 points (2 dice is 20 points with power stone). Given that you should average 12 dice a game, sooner or later it will pay off.

 

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

Yeah I'm def going to give it more than one game to make a real assessment, but was disappointed I wasnt generating dice left and right...thats the way it worked in my head!

 

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

I find it either produces many dice or no dice it is how shall we say inconsistent. But ts okay the Slann has strill got this.

 

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

Magic is always going to be that way in 8th ed. Why not take a basic slann with wandering deliberations and soul of stone or becalming? Also, cast with enough dice to have a good chance of using all your dice; don't squanter the magic phase by trying to cast spells with a good chance of failing and losing concentration unless you have multiple casters. Wandering deliiberations gives you 8 great base spells, some that can be scaled up and down as needed, and they have reasonable casting costs for a slann and work well with a skink priest used for the direct damage and magic missiles cast by the Slann.

Harmonic convergence with channeling staff more than pays for itself most of the time but it will be hit or miss. Notice that the Slann gets 3 channeling attempts in every magic phase and +1 to channel, channeling on 5+ instead of 6+. In five full turns, that is an average of +5 PD and +5 DD. whereas without harmonic and the chaneling staff the Slann only channels an average of just under one DD and one PD over the entire game (5/6 PD and 5/6 DD). On average, that means that the Slann will channel one extra PD and one extra DD in each respective magic phase, which is really quite significant. Sometimes the extra DD prove to be useless, especially against dwarves but also when the opposing mage miscasts and eats PD or loses concentration on a failed casting attempt, but the PD are almost always useful (unless you roll double 6's on winds of magic) in the friendly magic phase if managed correctly and if you have a skink priest as well (which makes sense as a scroll caddy and for predatory fighter control). However, while it will average 1 extra power dice or 1 extra dispel dice each magic phase, almost 30% the time it will generate no additional dice in any given phase and sometimes it will generate 2 dice (22.2%) or 3 dice (3.7%). Only 44.4% of the time will you general a single PD or DD in a given magic phase. With a Slann with 8 spells with one of the two disciplines, that is a huge boost when it comes, especially if you are using cheaper spells a lot, but it is not consistent.

If you don't like the Slann, try two skink priests with heavens and beasts or both beasts with one having the cube and the other a scroll or one having sceptre of stability.

 

Re: Naked/almost naked Slann viable? - opinions, experiences

And magic item points. The Oldblood can get a 1+ with re-rolls and a 4+ ward, so he is significantly more efficient than a Scar vet in the long run. He is one of the few characters that can go toe to toe with a Daemon Prince, or the old pendant lord.