Hello for those who have read the king phesphestus special character creation this is what that will be here i will attempt to create a sphinxe for the tomb kings army and if you like you can post criticsism or congratulations or ideads my first question however is this do you believe that the sphynx should be
a tomb king mount
b Liche priest mount or
C independant monster

I think it should be independant or liche priest please offer ideas

It should be independent as in Warmaster.

I would say it should be independent. Because the thought of a Tomb King on a sphinx. That adds up to 1 thing, total massacre!

It should probably be independant simply because it would look better without a rider if it will be as big as I think it will be.

I agree though, it would make a nice replacement to the lack of dragon entry, the fact the original warmaster model doesnt have a rider means i think it should be indpendant

Independant it is then i will post some stats and special rules in the next day or so
Between ow and then shall it have a breath weapon, im thinkind sand storm or something

Sand storm sounds cool. It could make an enemy unit not shoot for a turn, could trough enemies back a coouple of inches. If it is a breath weapon...... Oh I know! It could do strength 2 hits with no armour saves and will either slow the unit down or take away from there initiative because of the extra bulk of the sands. How does that sound?

Personally, I wouldn't make it a breath weapon as it doesn't fit the imagery of a sphinx. Give him either a bound spell, or a special ability, not a breath attack. Good luck on the sphinx, I really liked king Phesphestus!

How this sound

As a sphinx marches to war as the embodiment of the desert great sand storms follow. The Liche priest encased in the sphynx is usually one of the most powerful and even in his death sleep can bid the sands to do his bidding...

Death sleep is when the lich priest no longer respond to spells of awakening, encased is like the tomb scorpions, except maybe two..

Heres what i was thinking for the sand rules....

Choose one each turn each is cast like bound spell power level 3 goes after bound items in the heirachy cant be destroyed

Sand dune
focusing the sand a dune is raised anywhere within 18 inches, if placed on a water feature it turns that into quicksand, if a river use the templated to determine size of quicksand, 1-3 small template, 4-6 large template

Sand storm
one unit within 20 inches suffer 2d6 s3 hits, any casualties and they are at -1 ws for the next turn
and cant march

sand cloud
summoning the sand around itself or a friendly unit it impededs the attacks against them
all to hit, close combat are -1 to hit, shooting are -1. Cannons and similar if roll misfire rol twice for the sand clogging it and stuff

How do these sound they seem to me to maybe be a bit strong, but the idea of bound spells and them being more hindereing than damaging appeals to my sence of the tomb kings fluff. But if you feel they are over powered then plaese let me know :)

3d6 s3 hits is more then just 'hindering' Kingphesphestus, same for -2 for shooting.... These powers would make the sphinx hideously expesnice if you want him to be balanced.

Make it d6 s3 + the ability, and -1 to shooting and CC, and decice upon the size of the dune too. Maybe replace it by a mirage? Say you can choose of a mirage between a unit (preventing march moves and such, and only of skellies- no terror mirages!), of water (Ld test for one unit that can see it or must move towards it), and maybe a scorpion nest too, making a certain area impassable/difficult ground.

And reduce the bound power level to 3, that's the most common.

He'll be quite verastile already (a spellcasting monster-wow), so I wouldn't make the spells too powerful. After all, it's supposed to be a monster, not an additional liche priest...

I don't mean to offend you, but they are a bit overpowered you know... And since you asked to tell you...;)

please im pretty thick skinned feel three to critisise and as for the additional lich priest ive kinda going for that actually.
But i agree Bound power can be 3, the dunes are template size 1-3 small template 4-6 large template, and -1 to shooting is fair, but for cannons if misfire roll twice and choose the worst result.

Does this sound better, at the moment his one hero one rare choice

sounds a lot better; now people might even want to play it ;)

Seriously though, the changes make it nice and balanced, still powerfull but not too much, so it seems fine to me.

I was thinking since it was made out of stone and mud what if it took double wounds from the the Lore of Life. The spells that are the based on plants and water. And it should have initiative 0. It strikes last no matter what, kinda like zombies.

Its made the same as the other undead constructs. So no penaltys for certain lores,
Initiative 0 sounds fine to me. Ill start posting all the stuff up soon In an effort to move it along.
Thanks for the help so far.

here are some initial stats they are modeled on the zombie dragon.

m/7
ws/3
bs/1
s/6
t/6
w/6
i/1
a/5
ld/8

There are a few increase stats from the zombie dragon but the inability to fly i feel balances is.

A special rule ive been toying with is that once its down to half wounds it begins to crumble and as such all hand to hand combat is at -1 due to the falling sand getting in the attackers eyes.
One problem might be its power if used with the bound spell sand cloud exct

Here are some more special rules
Terror, magic resistance 1, large target, 4+ armour save, undead construct
If these seem fair ill will write it up with some fluff as well
Also with his spells if the battle is in the desert the power level will be 5. as the sands are there. does this seem ok if not disregard.

It seems abbout right. Have you come up with the range of points the thing will be when you are done? The increase of level in the bound spell is a really good idea. Goes with the little fluff that there is so far. Can't wait to see how this comes out. Are you going to make it or by the Warmaster piece?

I havent seen the warmaster piece yet i was going to go to my games workshop and try and check it out.
Tommorow il write up a compilation if everyone else thinks its ok

The piece is probably too small. They also have Bone giants, it would be cool if you made up rules for Bone Pygmies (super small Bone giants).

Like out of mummy returns do you mean?
a list of monsters units im considering are;
Rocs, like the ones out of sinbad
tomb alligators and
has anyone read the nocrons codex a tomb spyder converted to warhammer might be good but it would be a scarab beetle instead of spider

The rocs are giant birds in sinbad they are covered in diamonds i think?
and can lift bothe a rhinocerous and an elephant at the same time.
Crocodiles i get them mixed up sometimes with alligators but yeah killing blow and such but thats a whole other post

Here is what i have so far if it is liked i will clean it up and post its fluff and points cost next

Sphynx 0-1
1 hero 1 rare choice

m/8
ws/3
bs/1
s/6
t/6
w/6
i/1
a/5
ld/8

special rules;
Terror,Large target,undead construction, magic resistance (1), 4+armour save

Crumble: Once it has been reduced to half wounds -1 to hit in close combat.

Bound Spells
All of these are bound level 3 unless one of these conditions is met.
1, more than half the tablt is sand including beaches
2, you are playing the game in khemri or one of the other desserts.
3, The banner of shifting sands as been activated that turn
if one of these are met then the bound level goes to 5

Sand dune
focusing the sand a dune is raised anywhere within 18 inches, if placed on a water feature it turns that into quicksand, if a river use the templated to determine size of quicksand, 1-3 small template, 4-6 large template

Sand storm
one unit within 20 inches suffer 2d6 s3 hits, any casualties and they are at -1 ws for the next turn
and cant march

sand cloud
summoning the sand around itself or a friendly unit it impededs the attacks against them
all to hit, close combat are -1 to hit, shooting are -1. Cannons and similar if roll misfire rol twice for the sand clogging it and stuff


Thats it for now i just thought id put it all together so you can judge it as a whole rather than its seperate parts

It looks nice, but quite expensive; just a few thoughts though: if it crumbles, won't it have negative effect on the sphinx' abilities too? And should he have a 4+ save? I mean, the fact that it's made of stone is represented in the T6 (Highest in the game, it outclasses a giant!)

Anyway, it looks nice,with fluffy and balanced special rules. Nice one once again!

Has to have a save otherwise missle fire will kill it pretty quick.
Zombie dragons have t 6 too.
Ill post he points up soon and then the fluff
Thanks for the help

Points are factoring in at 350 pts i used the zombie dragon as a base 300pts
then deducted 50 since it can't be ridden 250 plus 150 extra abilities
-50 no fly how does this sound

Heres the fluff

A relatively new creation the sphynx were first awakened by sehenesmet of quatar to awkaen its guardian , a massive statue that was hybrid of lion and eagle.

Now many others have imitated him however not being as powerful as sehenestmet they need a liche priest in the death sleep to power it,
Now these mighty beasts march to war alongside the bone giants and tomb scorpions and all who look upon them at once fell awe and the pure essence of terror.

Sounds nice, playtest it a bit htough, I'm still not sure aboiut hte armour save, it'll make it VERY hard to kill, especially since I'm assuming you'll be able to restore wounds to it in some way...

Anwyayz, expand the fluff a bit too, but it's certainly working out rather well :D

Oh and maybe reduce the M to 6. 8 might be a bit much, especially when combined with those incantations...

ill make his armour save 5+ same as other constructs
as for fluff i dont know how to expand it more as its not a special character just a unit like a bone giant theres not usually alot of info on them

Ill make his move 7 as well

How do you think it sounds now
a little better if so ill post a whole post for it likwe i did for the completed special character

Yeah it balances it a bit more. At least now, the sphinx will not charge the first turn in standard battles thanks to an incantation...

all of this seems cool, but, it need playtesting if you want to make it viable. This is something i would like only to be siting on my countertop

A moving Sphinx is pretty money guys, but honestly this obsession with dragon sized creatures is ridiculous. I dont think Ive ever wanted to field a dragon, even in all the 20,ooo points games we played in the last edition of this game. Then again its not a dragon, its a sphinx, which is always nice =)

Undead riding monsters would be cool if it was like a gigantic scorpion construct... a sphinx is just too much like a building, or something like that I guess. It would be pretty slick to have a chariot pulled by carrion... like the old flying setra *cough*

I dont want a ridden monster i have my scorpion chariot for that

I was wondering since its all to do with sand what would you do if you werent on sand lol. (probably a stupid question but o well)

It may sound like I'm tooting my own horn here, but how about you use my MDR (Monster Design Rules)? They've been playtested to some extent (about 30 monsters in total have competed in Arenas of Death, and adjustments have been made accordingly), and sound like they'll help you assign a points value to your monster. Remember that it's been designed so that the points value is more than what it would be if GW had made the monster officially, but this will make it fairer (since you get WAY more flexibility from the MDR), as well as more acceptable to your opponent.


Ooops, forgot the url:
www.woodelves.0pi.com/MDR.htm

Well you are the swordmeistro in my book. I gotta say thats a pretty wicked website, especially for no deadly color pictures of some savage arena fighting. I dont know when you did it, but it looks pretty solid, the whole monster generator thing. Good luck with everything swordman.