Warrior Priest of Sigmar
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"Stop! Hammer time."
- – MC Hammer
The Warrior Priests of Sigmar are an offshoot from the various churches and congregations of the Imperial State Church. Not an organized force in any sense of the word, they are lone individuals determined to preach the good word like Sigmar himself did - by bashing faces in, preferably of the Orcish and Chaotic variety, with a FUCKHUEG hammer (or, sometimes, two smaller hammers). They count among the most zealous fighters the Empire can muster at any given time, even more so than the Witch Hunters and basically serve as a sort-of Paladin standin in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. As such, all of them are skilled and powerful warriors who can knock their power level up a few inches by praying to Sigmar while fighting, which makes all sorts of crazy shit happen just because they believe it to be so (and their god of choosing actually giving a damn, if they're lucky). Their miracles and rhetorical talents often see them accompany the occasional Imperial Army out to do some crusading in the name of Sigmar, where they not only serve with their miracles and big muscles, but also because they are very inspirational to the troops themselves. As subordinates to the Church of Sigmar, they mostly wander the land, doing good things, but can occasionally be conscripted by a superior into an army or a mission the Church deems important. Their main difference to their colleagues over at the order of the Witch Hunters is that they are first and foremost Warriors instead of investigators. They will happily grind a heretic into a red pulp when they smell one, but are not too terribly concerned with how that heretic came to be, that's something for the Witch Hunters to find out. Has to be said though, that Witch Hunters and Warrior-Priests tend to get along very well in any given situation.
As a sidenote: Other gods can also have their own sects of Warrior-Priests, not just Sigmar, Sigmarites simply are the most common due to one of the core tenets of Sigmarism being the active eradication of Chaos from the world. Warrior-Priests of Ulric are known to exist in significant numbers in Middenland, as are Warrior-Priests of Morr, who simply took up arms to keep the damn dead where they belong during Geheimnisnacht or when foul magic is messing with their graves.
Warrior-Priests in WHFB[edit | edit source]
Warrior-Priests have been a Hero choice for the Empire since at least the 6th edition army book, and possibly earlier. An article of White Dwarf added the option to take an Arch-Lector, which is basically the Lord-tier equivalent, in 6e.
Your standard Warrior-Priest has Movement 4, Weapon Skill 4, Ballistic Skill 3, Strength 4, Toughness 4, Wounds 2, Initiative 4, Attacks 2, and Leadership 8. Using up a Hero slot, they cost 95 points and are outfitted with a hand weapon (a warhammer, specifically). They can take either a second hammer for +4 points, or switch to a two-handed hammer (great weapon) for +4 points, and can armor themselves with either light armor (+2pts), heavy armor +4pts) and/or a shield (+2 pts). They can ride a Warhorse (+10pts) which can also have Barding (+4pts), as well as take up to 50 points of Common or Empire magic items.
They have the following special rules in 6e:
- Blessing of Sigmar: A Warrior-Priest generates 1 Dispel dice during the Magic phase.
- Righteous Fury: A Warrior-Priest and any unit they have joined (but not charac ters attached to that unit) HATE all Chaos, Undead and Skaven units and characters.
- Prayers of Sigmar: Once per Empire Magic Phase, a Warrior-Priest can use one of the following prayers, which functions as a Bound Spell with a Power Level of 3 that can be cast on the Warrior-Priest, or on a character or unit champion within 12".
- Religious Oaths: A Warrior-Priest cannot join a unit that lacks faith in Sigmar, nor use its Prayers on such a character - Knights of the White Wolf or a White Wolf Grand Master for example.
The Prayers in 6e consist of:
- Hammer of Sigmar: Target can re-roll failed rolls to wound until either the prayer is dispelled or the Priest uses another prayer.
- Armor of Righteousness: Target gains a 5+ Ward Save until either the prayer is dispelled or the Priest uses another prayer.
- Healing Hand: Target is healed to full Wounds total.
- Soulfire: This prayer can only be cast on the Warrior-Priest. Place the large 5" template centered on the Priest; all Undead and Daemons in the template (work out as per Mortar) take a Strength 4 hit that ignores armor.
As the powered up version of a Warrior-Priest, an Arch-Lector of Sigmar has a higher stats array (Movement 4, Weapon Skill 5, Ballistic Skill 3, Strength 4, Toughness 4, Wounds 3, Initiative 5, Attacks 3, and Leadership 9) and base points cost - 145 points. They have all the same options as the Warrior-Priest, they just pay more for them (light armor +3pts, heavy armor +6pts, shield +3pts, second warhammer +6pts, two-handed warhammer +4pts, warhorse +15pts, barding +6pts) and also they get to play with 100 points of magic gear. They have the same special rules, except they generate 2 Dispel dice, their Prayers are Power Level 4, and they can use two Prayers per turn.
Warrior-Priests in WHRP[edit | edit source]
Warrior-Priests start off with a number of very convinient bonusses; in contrast to many other classes, they already start wearing heavy armour and being skilled in the use of all variety of melee weapons plus Miracles and Blessings down the line (being, along with the Cleric, one of only two classes capable of using those). As a tradeoff, they are not very easy to play and as such should be reserved to players and DMs at least somewhat versed in the lore or willing to dedicate some hours leaning about the various pitfalls playing a religious nutjob brings with it. You see, every Warrior-Priest of course dedicates himself to serving his god and his tenets and must obey them to the letter, or else risk divine punishment, which has its own, horrifyingly detailed set of rules and ranges from the Priest getting a slap on the wrist to turning into a living torch on the spot if you have accumulated enough sins. This generally isn't as group-breaking as, say, playing a Lawful Good Paladin in D&D might be (Warhammer Fantasy being as grey of a setting as it is gives a lot of leeway in how to interpret these tenets) but there are certain rules you must never break, or else the DM will have to punish you with giving you Sin Points, which are pretty hard to get rid of.
The upside is that you gain access to miracles and blessings, a (mostly) safe alternative to the notoriously fickle magic, that are also easier to aquire than new spells. Blessings can be cast from day one and usually are small buffs to one single character or NPC. Miracles are their own self-contained lores of Magic with a religious twist that buff your party or your character. Combined with the serious fighting prowess even a rank 2 Warrior-Priest can bring to the table this makes them insanely powerful when compared to many other classes. Another big advantage Warrior-Priests have over many other classes is that they wield considerable authority over everyone; any reasonable Imperial citizen will rather be caught dead than doubting the words of a priest, and being far less reliant on money, since you can always seek shelter and food in a church. Last but not least: Use your Miracles wisely when outside of combat. The gods are easily annoyed if you abuse your powers for petty things, even if it might serve their interests.