Soulbound: Champions of Chaos - Deathbringer Archetype Focus
To celebrate the release of the new Champions of Chaos book for the Age of Sigmar RPG Soulbound we’ll be releasing a handful of articles going into details on a number of playable archetypes (or classes) available in the book. You can see our review of the Champions of Chaos book here.
Today, we’ll be looking at a servant of Khorne the Blood God…
Deathbringer
You are a bloody champion of Khorne, bellowing prayers in the midst of battle to empower your allies.
A warhorde’s Deathbringers are counted amongst its mightiest warriors. They have attained that rarest of things: recognition — whether it be fear or respect — for their talent at dealing death amongst a society whose entire existence revolves around battle and bloodshed. There is an irony in the title of Aspiring Deathbringer, for of all their savage skills, bringing a brutal end to their enemies is surely their greatest strength. They therefore seek out the strongest of foes, for only the skulls of such opponents will see them make further progress along the crimson path they tread.
Mark of Chaos - Khorne
Khorne is the Blood God, the Lord of Rage, the Red Ruin. Those who seek glory in fighting the mightest enemies or having the blood of your enemies flow like rivers would revere Khorne as his demands for skulls and lust for blood can never be sated. This makes the Deathbringer a coveted worried to have in your party, but be wary - Khorne cares not from where the blood flows, so long as it flows.
Core Skill and Talent
Skill - Weapon Skill - No surprise here, the Deathbringer excels at close combat, going toe-to-toe with any and all enemies with the aim of inflicting as much damage as possible and cleaving skulls from necks as frequently as possible.
Talent - Blood for the Blood God - On your turn, if you make a melee Attack and deal Damage, your Melee increases one step for your next Attack. Your Melee continues to increase for each subsequent Attack, as long as you continue to deal Damage. Your Melee returns to normal at the end of your turn. This Talent has no effect when attacking Undead or creatures that do not bleed.
The above Talent has your Deathbringer turn into a snowball of violence and gore, so long as you fight an enemy that bleeds. This Talent rewards players who dive into an enemy or enemies that are able to stay in combat with for a longer period of time and, in doing so, have a higher chance to deal more damage. The constraint at the end where this has no impact on the undead or bloodless enemies is a nice touch as Khorne worshippers would have little interest in fighting anything from which crimson doesn’t flow.
Available Skills and Talents
Skills - Athletics, Determination, Fortitude, Intimidation, Might, Survival, Weapon Skill, Worship.
The listed skills all fuel the prospect of the ultimate bloodythirsty fighter very suitably. These skills allow Deathbringers to get into combat quickly and either stay there or finish it quickly. These characters are all muscle. They’re “slice first and ask questions later”. The only thing above that doesn’t fall into initiating or staying in combat is “Worship”, but even that isn’t strictly the case as the spilling of blood and taking of skulls is the ultimate form of worship to the mighty Khorne.
Talents - Ambidextrous, Battle Rage, Bulwark, Intimidating Manner, Relentless Assault, Sever, Skulls for the Skull Throne!
No major surprises in the above. Deathbringers are scary murder-dealers who revel in fighting and shedding blood. The “Skulls for the Skull Throne!” talent is the really flavourful and metal inclusion here:
The Blood God demands tribute, and there’s no better offering than the skulls of your enemies. After you slay a creature that has a skull, you can spend 1 Mettle. If you do, you tear their skull from their body and strip the flesh, healing 3 Toughness.
Oooft - gnarly.
Recommended Role
Deathbringers are fairly one-dimensional characters and you’ll not be surprised with what would be recommended. These guys can have two priorities, one being firmly first and the other being undoubtedly second. Your first priority as a Deahtbringer is to, well, bring death. Get stuck in and start chopping, slicing and crushing anything in your path. You excel in laying waste to enemy hordes as well as dealing major damage to larger, more worthy foes. Your second priority is to stay alive, to be able to take damage in the fight so that you can then continue to keep fighting and dish out more death. The Skulls for the Skull Throne! Talent will reward you for killing enemies by healing you, keeping you in the fight.
Thus, your Deathbringer should be charging headlong into your enemies to rip our their spines as quickly as they can. A Deathbringer could also act as a tank-esque character with the Bulwark Talent and Body attribute of 4, but let’s be real - you exist to kill.
Miniatures
Join us tomorrow where we look into another player archetype available in Champions of Chaos. This time it’ll be something a little more mysterious and scheming. Hold on to your scepter/arcane focus…