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Warhammer Arcane Items
July 15, 2010 by johnlyons
Warren and Darrell have a look over some of their favourite Arcane Items. This is part of their series of videos for Warhammer week where they discuss all the different types of unique items that can be found in the main Warhammer Fantasy Rulebook
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I roll double sixes constantly – only on leaderships tests though 🙁
I also see plenty of doble sixes… For my opponents armour saves 😐
Enjoy your forbidden rods guys!
When do we get a chance to buy some of those Beasts of war T-shirts ?! hope their will be a hoody to.
I’m never getting my forbidden rod out while Darrels Noblar champion “Crotch Biter” is around!
Us VC’s have a better staff for less pionts.
and the forbidden rod lol!
well if you have a good ward save the forbidden rod could be useful
if the wizard do turn into the bigdaddy dragon with irresistible force, do the transformation take place before or after you would roll on the misscast chart? Sad if the wizard actually dies before he transforms! =)
Don’t touch me rod! It’s forbidden!
My favourite arcane item is the hex scroll as it can completely remove a wizard especially a low level one from doing anything for the entire game if the dice go your way. Granted lvl 4 probably not that good (though I have done it hehehe mighty slann became a tiny toad) but target something like say Darrell’s ogres who might a butcher. On the first turn he casts a spell I let it go off and use the scroll good chance it will become a toad as thats 3+ I have to roll and they could remain like never doing anything for the rest of the game and thats 130pts at least no longer doing anything and a wizard removed and having a statline of 1 bar wounds it’s dead easy to kill if I feel like it. Granted 50pts but for what it does I think it’s worth it.
Gotta love that Forbidden Rod!!
I will difinetly take the Forbidden Rod in my Lizardmen army as it would boost the already significant power of the Slann magic phase.
The Slann is perfect for the Forbidden rod, rolling in with 5 wounds makes him capable of surviving even the full 3 wounds penalty, but starting with a 4+ ward save and the option of buying a regeneration save (don’t know the size of it with the new rules), gives it a good chance of not to suffer any ill effects at all.
Plus if you upgrade him to have an entire lore he have something to use all those power dice for, it would not be unlikely for him to be able to attempt to cast every single spell in the chosen lore, especially if you buy the “+1 free power dice per spell” for him.
Unless of course that, the rods dice still count towards the maximum 12, but then it would still give a boost to a round with bad channelling rolls where d6 extra power dice on a turn where the opponent have very little dispel dice would hurt badly.
The aracnite Items are pretty lame even the normal +1 casting is around 50 points and +1 depsell is 60 points and now both is like 70 points thats just stupid <_<. please gw rethink the aracnin items better they were not that greatly done
Yeah the +1 stuff feels a bit off now in 8th ed.
I would consider the Channelling Staff, but I think it would be more appropriate if it affected ALL friendly wizards (even all wizards, regardless of side). However, with a maximum of 12 power dice, I don’t think I’m fussed all that much.
Dispel scroll: I NEVER bothered with scroll caddies or even the scroll itself. My theory is that you should play prepared for magic, not play prepared for a round or two of magic. Bolster permanent magic defences, instead of getting one use only anti-magic stuff. 50 points of scrolls could get you Magic Resistance (3) (with some spare stuff) or the Staff of Sorcery or a multitude of other stuff (Note: these are all comments from 7th edition). In 8th, I probably still won’t bother because it’s only one spell that you’re safe from and you’ll always want to use it later or hold back when you should’ve used it and I’d rather use the points elsewhere. (Something else to note: Dwarfs can’t use Arcane Items, but they can have a near unlimited number of Dispel Scroll style runes. if you like Dispel Scroll-esque items, Dwarfs are your best bet as they can use FAR more than ANY other army now.)
Power Scroll: It sounds useful, but it only affects one spell (and you’d need to roll 7 dice to ensure that it works) and you then have a miscast. I’d rather it was something like “ignores a miscast” or “causes spell to automatically go off” or gost 20-30 points and be “any spell cast this turn (by the wizard/by any wizard) with a double is cast with Irresistible Force”. That’s just me 😀
With the Book of Asur, I think it’s prudent to point out that a level 3 wizard over a level 2 wizard (without any other changes, such as stats) is 50 points. In that, you gain an extra “pip” to each casting attempt, each dispel attempt AND get another spell. If it was 50 points, it would be worth it (purely to give to rank 4 wizards) or if it was +2 to each, it would be worth it (although it might be too powerful with a rank 4 and since only lords can take it, it’s likely to be level 4: who takes a level 1 or 2 anyway 😀 ).
It seems that when you said “It’s difficult to find 5 out of the arcane items” that you weren’t joking. I think you only spoke of 4, lol 😀
Nope, you added one in at the end 😀 I read the comments and saw everybody commenting on the Forbidden Rod.
Forbidden Rod: Take magic resistance and you get a ward save, you can use regeneration as well. For 35pts, add in some basic Magic Resistance/Ward Saves/Regeneration and you may as well take it. If you lack all of that,t hen there’s not so much point. The no armour saves only really affects those with Scaly Skin, Chaos Sorcerers and mounted wizards anyway.