8th Ed. Wandering Deliberations

Hi,

In all my games with the new book I've always played my Slann with Loremaster High magic. But I want to try new things and wanted to know everyones opinion about Wandering Deliberations on your Slann. What have your experience been with it or if you haven't yet used it do you think it's a good option for your Slann?

In my opinion i like to have alot of spells that are at a low casting value so that I can get off many spells per phase, so was thinking that maybe WD are something for my play style. However High magic also have alot of spells with low casting value and with the attribute that i can generate a signature spell that is effective against my opponent is really good.

So what is your opinion/experience about a WD Slann?

 

It's a little bit of everything, which is ok. Try it with engine of the gods to reduce one by 1 each turn to make it easier to get off wyssans or spirit leech or whatever.

 

I really like it. The only reason I favour high magic at the moment, is that the sig spells lack a viable daemon prince counter

 

Yeah that is true but do you reckon that it will matter much for the slann to lower the casting value of one spell and that it will affect the number of dice you only need to cast it? It's good to include but I would rather save the points on an engine for something else.

Luckily, I have no Daemon prince in my meta, but how do you counter them with High?

 

Except for burning gaze which is the best DP counter and what Highmasters switch to as soon as they can.

 

Eh? The above makes no sense.... Burning gaze is terrible against WoC DPs (ok, slightly better against DoC DP, but still not great...). And certainly not what i'd be switching for as Highmaster (though I love the term Highmaster - consider it stolen! )

 

I'll assume that you mean Searing Doom. Regardless, both of them are terrible counters, because every Daemon Prince worth his salt is running the Dragonbane Gem with a 2++ vs Flaming. If they aren't, then they aren't nearly as much a headache, and your Warrior player probably needs to take a long, hard look at what they are doing.

I envy you Fortunately, I don't have many cannons in my area so can get away with running lots of monsters, so I guess its swings and roundabouts (though I think I'd prefer to face heavy cannons rather than Daemon Princes...).

Back to your original question, why High Magic? Arcane Unforging. Not only does it hit just like Metal, so its great against high armour save characters (which Daemon Princes invariably are) by hitting easily and ignoring that equally high armour save to inflict a wound, but it also destroys one magic item. Its got a high casting value, but a long range and can be channeled through a Skink. Given the usual set up of Charmed Shield, Sword of Striking and Dragonbane Gem, and given that you'll have needed to burn the Shield by this point, you've got a 50% chance of destroying the Gem.*

At which point, you can then swap out Unforging at the end of your turn to Searing Doom (or Burning Gaze as above). Boom, headshot (its also equally as good at messing up those 3++ Third Eye characters, but as they can be broken through combat resolution I don't consider them nearly as much as a threat and deserving a direct counter).

Its not guaranteed, and invariably involves a lot of setting up to pull off, but that's all we've got as sadly GW decided not to give us any other cost-effective hard counter to something that's so OP. Arcane Unforging, Sharpened Horns Ancient Stegadons, and Amber Spear Skinks are probably the most viable options, but all of them involve a lot of work.

You could argue Spirit Leech is a good shout, but given that they've got equal leadership values, and it has a shorter range, I don't consider it to be nearly as effective.

*Someone please confirm if my thinking is correct here. I'm assuming that once you use the magical properties of Charmed Shield, that it becomes a mundane shield and so is ignored for item-destruction purposes.

 

Yep. The spell description specifically excludes 'used up' items.

 

Yeah, the entry for charmed shield specifically states "One use only", so it's safe to say the spell won't target that after you've triggered the charmed shield once already.

 

Please let me know what you think about it after trying it out!

Yeah, Arcane unforging is one of the reason i love high magic and as you're saying with the lore attribute i can just swap any spell that i don't need anymore for a sig spell. Arcane unforging is in my opinion a spell that is somewhat gamechanging and is a spell that your opponent almost always will try or want to dispell, wich a sig spell lacks imo.