Editing Warhammer Army Project/Skaven (section)

====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth. Among Skaven, this is doubly true, since one of the main advantages of Skaven characters is how cheap they are.

* '''[[Thanquol|Thanquol and Boneripper]]:''' 320/480pts. Do you want your army led by a drugged up failure with his mechanical bodyguard? Okay, so that's kinda mean, but he's not bad. He comes with some amusing special rules (his Ward Save deflecting onto a nearby model is funny, as is his kinda janky wound regeneration) and Boneripper can be nasty but like Skrolk, he costs way too much to be properly competitive (60 more than a vanilla Seer on a Bell when you take Boneripper classic). So he's non-competitive, but if you wanna take him for fluff reasons, he's an amusing addition. Keep him out of Tournament lists.
**'''Boneripper Mark II:''' If you spend 105 more points, you can upgrade your Boneripper into his End Times iteration, complete with Thanquol riding on top. This adds +1 to S, W, and A and also turns that one Warpfire Thrower into FOUR (Okay, it's really two with re-rolls to wound). These can also be replaced with Warpfire Braziers, huge fists that act like plague censers. While this makes Thanquol much more of a threat, he becomes an equally bigger target as Boneripper is now a Monster and still suffers from 1 Initiative.

* '''[[Skreech Verminking|Lord Skreech Verminking]]:''' 470pts. The greatest Vermin Lord and the avatar of the Horned Rat. Quite powerful in combat, being able to switch between ASF dagger and Multiple Wounds Doomglaive every turn, but that's not why you take this beauty. Being the biggest dick in a race of dicks, Skreech can take from the Lore of Ruin, Plague, and Stealth and always knows Curse of the Horned Rat (aka the Diet Dreaded Thirteenth) and CAN. REROLL. DICE. WHEN. CASTING. IT.  That said he has his downsides, it's very hard to cast and you're running the risk of cascading your 470 point monster in regular magic.  Like every other vermin lord, he is expensive, has no armour and only a 5+ ward, slow(8") with no flying, and unable to skitter leap himself. Still, he can be incredibly fun (and frustrating - for enemies) in casual games, and face it, you didn't pick up Skaven for boring reliability.

* '''[[Queek Head-Taker]]:''' 225pts. He's a reliable combat character, and unlike many Skaven heroes/lords, he can punch out other lords in a Challenge. He can be truly brutal against high armour save guys, which is always nice. If you're tailoring a list to take on Dwarves, definitely give this guy a look. Compared to 7th/8th he lost an attack & a point in armour for a 5+ ward and the ability to play nicely with Grey Seers & screaming bells. Fortunately, his Red Guard is only 2pts extra a model and just has +1S. 

*'''[[Spinetail]], Warlord of [[Clan Klaw]]:''' 160pts. comes out of [[Island of Blood]]. Fare Cheaper than Queek, Spinetail is a melee lord Practically Duelweading two Blade of Corruptions. He will roll off against an enemy character to see if they get strangled by his tail, and most importantly, rerolls wound roll of 1 for his unit. He can easily fit in small games and makes any Stormvermin or Clanrats with spears he leads dangerous.

*'''[[Nurglitch]]:''' 425pts. The true lord of Clan Pestilens rides atop a rat with a censer-flailing caddy. He's also a serious benefit for a Pestilens army since he not only renders his unit immune to Skaven and Nurgle spells but also renders them immune to their own plague censers. His unit also becomes permanently frenzied and gains hatred, while he himself grants an aura of -1 WS to non-Pestilens units and an immediate armor-negating S4 hit to anyone in b2b, which is separate from his staff's bound spell that can instantly wound someone on a 6, making it epic on mobs. 

* '''[[Lord Skrolk]]:''' Sadly no longer makes Plague Monks core. Seriously, that's the ONLY thing that justifies his inhumanly high entry cost of 385pts (165 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer). He comes with some fun abilities and magic items, but even they can probably be outdone for less cost (Liber Bubonicus would be more fun if it weren't for the current rules on Bound Spells and it's 1 in 6 chance of going dud when cast). Ultimately he's too pricey. If you're planning on taking a lot of Plague Monks, he can justify his points, but otherwise? Skip him.

*'''[[Morbus Sanguis]]:''' 230pts. Creator of the Yellow Death. He is not well-liked by his unit as his fear and -1 to hit penalties also affect his own unit, and he has a great weapon version of a Plague Censer. His more useful trick is upgrading a Plague Rats unit to Ws4 and S2. Now those swarms hit most units on 4s and wound Common T3 on +3s. Now getting fairly dangerous.

* '''[[Throt the Unclean]]:''' 175pts. Throt could be useful if you're planning on massing Rat Ogres and Giant Rats, in which case he acts as a general even when he isn't. But he's expensive (185 points), and while he can be nasty in close combat, especially against big things, but he's more than a little likely to eat an entire model from your own unit (including killing that Rat Ogre you really wanted to make one last round of attacks before going down). 

* '''[[Ikit Claw]]:''' 310pts. [[Warhammer 40,000|Wore power armor]] before it was [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|cool]] . Like Skrolk and Thanquol, Ikit is too expensive. Unlike them, I can say without reservation that you're not getting anywhere near enough for his cost. He seems like an odd attempt to combine a caster and a combat lord, and even more than other armies, that's a job you want to split. He also costs about as much as a fully upgraded Storm Daemon, and he doesn't do anything magic-wise that a Grey Seer couldn't do, nor anything in combat a tricked-out Warlord couldn't do (outside potentially dishing an absurd amount of S5 hits and having a Strength of 8 despite being an Lv 4 wizard). As far as melee goes, no, he won't go 10 rounds with Archaon, but he wasn't meant to. His combat aspects just mean that, unlike virtually every other wizard in the game, he won't get his ass kicked the moment some skirmishers pop out of nowhere. Still very expensive.
** '''Alternate Opinion:''' Uh, yes, he will get his ass kicked by Skirmishers. He's got high Strength but only 2 Attacks at Initiative 3, so unless you're up against REALLY weak Skirmishers/Fast Cavalries like Ungor Raiders or Mounted Yeomen, he's probably fucked (never mind if he winds up against good close combat Skirmishers: Try him against Great Weapon armed Shades, lemme know how that works). Statistically, he's only going to get 1 wound in per round so he can't fight off attackers very efficiently. He's so expensive (again: <s>395</s> now 310 points so still evaluating) that he makes a 'No duh' target, so every skirmisher and their <s>dog</s> Sabertusk is gonna be gunning for him. This means you have to keep him in a unit to keep him alive, but then the unit is a no-duh target because it's probably gonna cost upwards of 500 points, and he can't join a unit that can reliably fight off Mournfangs and the like and...are you starting to see the problem? Yeah, don't take Ikit.

*'''[[Klawmunkast]], Warlock Master:''' 260pts. A more supportive role for a named Master Warlock than the melee-oriented Ikit Claw. Let you reroll on the misfire table for Clan Skryre units, Turn Skavenslaves into Warpstone Mutants to be a cheap hoard of 2 S4 attacks (becomes S5 if considering giving them Polearms a total of 5ppm), has an Eye that shots a bound Warp Lighting which is extra easy to cast being a PL4 and holding Warp-Blades. His percentage in a Skryre will least make all your crazy killing machines less prone to go up in a warpstone cloud. 

* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]:''' 280pts. At first Deathmaster Snikch looks like a perfect Assassin until you read him, you guessed it, points cost. 150 points more than a basic Assassin, and all you're getting for that is some Weeping Blades (30 points), a Tail Weapon, and a Cloak that doesn't do jack if he's in combat (where you want him) or with a unit (where you want him). Aside from that, he has higher WS, BS, I, A, and LD, but not enough to make up for the over 250 points required to take him. He will almost never see enough action to justify that cost. Don't bother.

* '''[[Veskit]], High Executioner of Clan Eshin:''' 165pts. Cyborg Rat Ninja that stalks the ruins of [[Mordheim]]. He is a sniper that Comes with a pair of Warplock Pistols. 

* '''[[Tretch Craventail]]:''' 110pts. Tretch is, put simply, hilarious. He has the exact same stats as a Chieftain, for 100 points more, but he has some amusing abilities. He's got a 4+ ward (nothing to sneer at), a total of 5 attacks, a single reroll per game (do not forget it), and most amusingly, the ability to bamf out of a unit in combat and into another Clanrat/Slaves unit within 3D6. He also grants ambushers and rerolls to hit to his unit of Clanrats or Stormvermin if they're attacking on the flank or rear, but in practice, that's not as useful as you might think. Obviously, he's best in tightly packed battle lines, as if he fails to reach a viable unit with his leaving combat ability, he auto-dies. He can be fun to help countercharge (draw a unit in, leave combat, charge that unit on the flank next round) but that's not as reliable as you might think. Ultimately, he's a fun but non-competitive character. He can be funny in a casual game, but don't take him in a tournament.

* '''[[Skweel Gnawtooth]]:''' 85pts. Everyone's favorite Clan Moulder monster-wrangler, mostly because he's the closest thing any of the named Skaven come to being actually cost-effective (100 points, more affordable than some generic heroes.) Skweel is an apex support-unit, and you'll never be remiss with adding his special ability (whether that be natural Poison, an extra Attack, or even Regeneration) to an attached pack of Giant Rats. This is an unfortunate nerf when compared to before, as this limits the viability of all his abilities, and he's now counting as a Mixed Unit rather than an ordinary Character. Simply put, he needs that pack to live in order to be useful. That said, he can usually be counted on to do enough damage to justify his initial extra down payment and is surprisingly capable when it comes to self-defense, especially since he has that massive mob attached to him.

* '''[[Ghoritch|Ghoritch, Castellan of Hell Pit]]:''' 180pts. Khorn Marauder turned into the world's smartest Rat Ogre. A hulking and Frenzied Cyborg Beastmaster that will shred any physical armour.