Warhammer/Tactics/Magic Items

WORK IN PROGRESS

With new armybooks no longer having rulebook-worth lists of magic items, big rulebook magic items became even more of a staple.

General Guidelines

This information is mostly covered in BRB, but it may be still worth repeating.

• 1) You can have only one magic item of each type per hero. Special characters are an exception to this rule.
• 2) You can have only one copy of each item in your army.
• 3) Most wizards cannot use magic armor, unless they can wear any sort of non-magical armor by default. Then they can buy any magic armor.
• 4) A hero, who can become a wizard (such as Shadowdancer, Warlock Engineer, etc.) cannot purhcase Arcane items until they gain at least 1 magic level.
• 5) Paired weapons are not "additional hand weapon" and can be used while mounted.
• 6) Magic weapons and magic shields, neither together, not separately, grant NO parry save.
• 7) Magic helm/shield does NOT replace mundane body armour. Magic shield replaces only mundane shield, magic helm replaces only mundane helm. (yes, I've seen people claim Dragonhelm replaces mundane heavy armour).

Item List

Magic Weapons

• Giant Blade: 60pts for +3 Stregth. Pretty straightforward. Better taken on lords with numerous attacks.
• Sword of Bloodshed: 60pts for +3 Attacks. Most characters with this will become better at one thing - killing chaff, so maybe not worth it for S4 lords. Vampire and Chaos Lords will make full use of it though.
• Obsidian Blade: 50pts for ignoring armor saves. While may seem good for fighting stuff like Chaos Knights, higher S would be more effective in any case.
• Ogre Blade: 40pts for +2 Strength. Very nice. Allows a lord to take both this and solid defenses. Can be taken by heroes; heroes like skaven Chieftain can take this to hand out lots of pain cheaply.
• Sword of Strife: 40pts for +2 Attacks. Even worse than +3 version, as those two attacks are not really felt. Still, may be good on sime high-strength hero. Not worth it for a lord.
• Fencer's Blade: 35pts for WS10 and is a paired weapon. May be good for low-WS combat lords/heroes, though prevents from using a shield. Really shines on mage characters, drastically improving their chance to survive in melee, and also allows them to occasionally kill something too, which is hilaious.
• Sword of Anti-Heroes: 30pts for +1S & +1A for each enemy character in base contact with the wearer. Few armies really stack characters in a single unit, and those that do - namely Ogres and Brettonia - have a ways to keep them in second row. Not worth it.
• Spellthieving Sword: 25pts and each time you wound a wizard, he forgets a random spell. This would be funny as a free special rule on some creature, but totally not worth it as an item - and weapon at that - for a multitude of reasons. Skip.
• Sword of Swift Slaying: 25pts for ASF. Useless for any Elves. Low-initiative chars should go for Gold Sigil Sword, they won't feel the difference. High-initiative chars will gain re-rolls to hit from this, but they normally have high WS already. Debatable worth.
• Sword of Battle: 20pts for +1A. Not great at all.
• Sword of Might: 20pts for +1S. Nice, I guess, if you want to give your hero (why would you use this on your lord?) some defenses and hitting power, but it's hardly noticeable. You're better giving that hero even more defenses, or giving him a proper Ogre Blade.
• Berserker Sword: 20pts for Frenzy which cannot be lost. +1A is not that great and downsides of berserker rage are not really worth the ItP (if the char has good Ld, he doesn't care for ItP that much, if the char has bad Ld, he will suffer from frenzy badly). Skip.
• Gold Sigil Sword: 15pts for I10. Maaaay be useful for low-I heroes (no lord would bother with it), though not great at all. Skip.
• Sword of Striking: 15pts for +1 to hit. Actually, very nice. Due to how WS works (WS10 and WS3 hit WS2 on same roll), independent "to hit" modifiers are very nice.
• Biting Blade: 10pts for Armor Penetration. If you really want that 1ArP, just scoop 10pts more and get Sword of Might. Skip.
• Relic Sword: 10pts for wounding anything on 5+, unless you need less. Could be neat for hunting Sphynxes, I guess, but I doubt it. Still, it's dirt-cheap, so may be worth taking on some cheap-cheap low-strength hero (say, a non-mage Warlock Engineer) to kill some monsters.
• Shrieking Blade: 10pts for causing Fear. Given how fear works in current edition, this is useless. Especially in a weapon slot. Pass.
• Tormentor Sword: 5pts for granting Stupidity to a character/monster wounded by this. Once again, would be neat as special rule, useless as an item.
• Warrior Bane: 5pts. A monster of character who takes wounds from this weapon loses 1A per wound taken. Last item in the trio of "would be a nice special rule but is a shitty item" weapons. It doesn't affect attacks from, say Sword of Strife ('cos those are granted and not a character's own stat).

Magic Armour

Unless stated overwise, helms grant +1 armor save, stacking with armor and shield.

• Armour of Destiny: 50pts for heavy armor with 4+ ward save. A nice second way to get 4+ Ward save. No, it is NOT worth it for Lords not capable of taking mundane heavy armour, as it prevents Enchanted Shield, which totally compensates for it. Giving it to a cheap hero can turn him into a hilarious unkillable midget.
• Trickster's Helm: 50pts for helm, which causes the enemy to re-roll successful to wound rolls. Take it on high-T lords to troll the living hell out of low-S enemies. Rerolling that occasional 6 needed to wound is priceless.
• Armour of Silvered Steel: 45pts for 2+ armor save which cannot be improved by any means. Apparently, silvering somehow makes regular steel armor twice as good. Anyway, this is a nice item for a hero on foot with no shield. Consider combining this with Talisman of Preservation to become unkillable. Just keep in mind, 2+ is not top armor save, so you are 1-point more vulnerable to ArP or S4+ attacks than an average 1+ chaos guy. Also, anything that ignores armor saves makes this item completely useless.
• Armour of Fortune: 35pts for heavy armor with 5+ ward. Sees little use due to being 4th way to get decent ward save and few armies have so many generic characters.
• Helm of Discod: 30pts for a helm which makes a single character in a unit in base contact with wearer's unit to check Ld each turn. If a character fails his Ld test, he cannot attack and is hit (not wounded) automatically that turn. Not reliable, not cheap, but can be funny in friendly games.
• Glittering Scales: 25pts for light armor which grant -1 to hit to enemies hitting the wearer. Dues to reasons explained above, this is awesome, expecially if you don't have to replace your heavy armor for it (or can compensate for it somehow).
• Shield of Ptolos: 25pts for a shield, which grants 1+ armor save against shooting. Clearly designed for a lonely character, but isn't too cheap and that character should have decent armor save already (up to the same 1+). Keep in mind, this shield grants 1+ armor save - it doesn't improve an existing one (so no armor saves agains S10 shooting).
• Spellshield: 20pts for a shield with Magic Resistance (1). Not really good. If you want a cheap MR caddy in your general's bunker, talismans are much better at this role, and MR caddy hardly needs a magic shield, he shouldn't get into the harm's way anyway.
• Gambler's Armor: 20pts for heavy armor with 6+ ward. Really cheap, grants a tiny bit of protection. Could be nice if you need 3rd char with 6++ save.
• Dragonhelm: 10pts. Beauty and the beast rolled into one. Relish the beauty of 10pts item granting +1 armor save stacking with shield and armor, combined with 2+ ward save against flaming attacks - making Lore of Metal wizards cry tears of molten lead (as well as Lore of Fire and Lore of Hashut wizards). But if you have a proper regeneration save, this becomes a real beast, as regen's only weakness - flaming attacks - becomes non-existent. Always, always take eithe this or Dragonbane Gem on a lone character, or you die horribly. Also, take either one and get into combat with any newfangled K'daai. Priceless!
• Enchanted Shield: 5pts for a shield which grants +1 to armor save. Very, very, very nice. Really useful in absolutely any situation - on your General, on a cheap side hero, on Waystalker with no protection. Never leave your home without this somewhere in your roster.
• Charmed Shield: 5pts for a shield which allows you to ignore the first hit suffered on a roll of 2+. Note, it ignores a hit only, and you have no contol over what hit you ignore. So, it can prevent a hit from slave and then allow you to eat a killing blow in the face. Still, really cheap, better than regular shield and keep in mind that "automatic hits" are hits as well, so they can be ignored.

Talismans

• Talisman of Preservation: 45pts for a 4+ ward save. Your general must wear this, or you die horribly! Unless he is a Slann or Annointed of Asuryan or something.
• Obsidian Lodestone: 45pts for Magic Resistance(3). Consider keeping a cheap-cheap hero with this in your general's bunker.
• Talisman of Endurance: 30pts for a 5+ ward save. Third way (after ToP and AoD) to get decent ward save.
• Obsidian Amulet: 30pts for Magic Resistance (2). Nice for secondary (wizard's) bunker or for general, if MR(3) is too expensive for you.
• Dawnstone: 25pts for re-rolling failed armor saves. If you already have decent ward save from armor, this is very nice. If your ward save is inbuilt, take this and Armour of Silvered Steel and become completely invulnerable.
• Opal Amulet: 15pts for 4+ ward save against the first wound suffered. Meh.
• Obsidian Trinket: 15pts for Magic Resistance (1). Tied with Lichebone pennant for providing minimal MR to a bunker. IMHO, Lichebone Pennant wins, as it is a best banner for a bunker, while there are better talismans for a hero (or you may just want to skip buying another the hero altogether)
• Talisman of Protection: 15pts for 6+ ward save. This item makes Gambler's Armor look bad. ToP + Enchanted Shield costs less than GA + mundane shield, and grants better protection if the character had at least light armor by default. Still, not the best option, because of...
• Seed of Rebirth: 10pts for 6+ Regen save. Unless enemy has Flaming Attacks, this grants same 6+ ward, but 5pts cheaper.
• Dragonbane Gem: 5pts for 2+ ward save against flaming attacks. See comments for Dragonhelm.
• Pidgeon Plucker Pendant: 5pts for 5+ ward save against wounds caused by fliers in CC. Funny item, but useless.
• Luckstone: 5pts for rerolling a single failed armor save. Yeah. Unless you have nothing else to spend points on.

Magic Standards

• Rampager's Standard: 55pts for rerolling failed charge distance. Not bad, but due to its cost can only be taken by BSB, so not really worth it in most cases.
• Wailing Banner: 50pts for Terror. With how Terror works, the pricetag and scarcity of banners, not worth it. Skip.
• Ranger's Standard: 50pts for ignoring all difficult terrain. Too expensive, pass.
• Razor Standard: 45pts for Armor Penetration. Not really bad. Take on S4 unit to ignore heavy armor or light armor+shields.
• War Banner: 35pts for +1 Combat Resolution. Very nice if you need more static CR.
• Banner of Swiftness: 15pts for +1M. It's cheap and many units would love increase to M.
• Lichebone Pennant: 15pts for Magic Resistance (1). Cheap, nice.
• Standard of Discipline: 15pts for 1+ Ld, but the unit cannot use General's bubble. Very situational, but can be nice to make some Elves or smth, with Ld8-9 across board completely idependent from General, allowing said General more movement freedom.
• Banner of Eternal Flame: 10pts for Flaming Attacks. Very cheap and nice to screw up Regenerating units. Be wary though, a single chump with Dragonhelm/Dragonbane Gem can tarpit your entire unit in place.
• Gleaming Pennant: 5pts for allowing you to re-roll a single failed Ld test. Nothing spectacular, but veeery cheap, and can find its use in armies with no BSB (like Wood Elves).
• Scarecrow Banner: 5pts for causing Fear in fliers. I won't even comment on that.

Arcane Items

• Dispel Scroll: 25pts for automatic dispel. You know it, you love it. Always, always take it when playing agains any Elves, WoC, DoC, Skaven (yeah, if you have a chance to dispel the Dreaded 13th, you must use it), etc. If you don't, you will be burned, cursed, hit by lightning, burned agains, frozen, lacerated, infected, scared, weakened, confused, transformed, impaled, disintegrated, raped by demonic or fey entities and dragged screaming into abyss.