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.

Sneaking out of its own accord, as they are prone to do, our hand has been forced to covering our noses and hide our brie as we lift the crusty veil of the Skaven Plague Priest.

Plague Priest

A plague-ridden worshipper of the Great Corruptor, summoner of plagues and diseases to blight and corrupt the Mortal Realms.

Plague Priests are the most ferocious and frothing servants of the Great Corruptor, and rule the Churches of Contagion with a fevered grip. As true believers in the Corruptor’s commandments, the Plague Priests serve as zealous preachers who rapturously unleash horrific illness and plague upon all outside the faith. Though zealously consumed by their faith, Plague Priests must also contend with the tumult of Skaven society. All of the typical means of Skaven social manoeuvring - blackmail, backstabbing, and betrayal - are commonplace among Clans Pestilens, as each Priest strives to undo their rivals and achieve supremacy.

Mark of Chaos - Skaven/The Great Horned Rat

Having only recently ascended fully to the pantheon of Chaos, the Great Horned Rat is now fully placed upon the mantle of Chaos alongside the other four gods. Spoken as the god of famine, anarchy, treachery, paranoia and desolation and rightfully so. Skaven are renowned for their ability to sow ruin and havoc amidst their victims, whilst also displaying a grotesquely underhanded thirst for power and superiority. The higher in the rank a Skaven is, the more likely they are to slice out at their enemies in front, whilst also to take a knife in their back from their fellow ratmen.

Core Skill and Talent

Skill - Medicine - That’s right, the stinkiest available rat is here to heal your wounds and make you feel better through its prayers to the Great Horned Rat. This archetype can act as the butcherous medic for your party to help them stay fighting.

Talent - Disciple of the Great Corrupter - You are a disciple of the Great Corrupter, and as such can pray to the Great Horned Rat for blessings in the form of Prayers of Contagion — select 1 Prayer of Contagion. After this, each new Prayer of Contagion costs 2 XP to learn.

Allowing the Skaven Plague Priest immediate access to the Prayers of Contagion upon character creation feels very much par for the course. Some of the prayers themselves are particularly horrible, such as “Vermintide” where the Plague Priest summons a swarm of plague rats to restrain and damage an enemy target. Furthering their ability to heal “Befoul-befoul!” is a prayer that allows the Plague Priest to heal 2 Toughness on an ally within medium range.

Available Skills and Talents

Skills - Arcana, Channelling, Cults, Fortitude, Lore, Medicine, Nature, Stealth, Survival, Weapon Skill, Worship

Seeing Medicine, Worship and Stealth in here would work wonderfully for your party’s feral but fragile healer. Your real benefit here would be to spend XP to learn new spells or prayers to lean further into the supporting factor of the Plague Priest. This, coupled with some gnarly mutations attained by spending Favour (built through Worship) can have you make a particularly harrowing healer - don’t expect to have your Plague Priest daudling nonchalantly through any Cities of Order anytime soon without it getting attacked on sight, if not only due to the odor.

Talents - Butcher Surgeon, Chosen, Crushing Blow, Lead From the Rear, Night Vision, Scholar, True Believer, Witch-Sight

Butcher Surgeon allows a player character, rather than Rest with the rest of the party, to spend that length of time healing the wounds of party members. However, there’s some risk here as it requires a test based on the severity of the wound. If you succeed, the wound is reduced by two steps. However, if you fail then nothing is healed and neither of you (the Plague Priest and the victim patient) get the benefits of the Rest period. With the True Believer Talent your Plague Priest has a chance to increase their Mettle, which is handy for action-hungry characters.

A suitably Skaven Talent above would be “Lead from the Rear”.

If you are not last in the Initiative order, you can take the Seize the Initiative Action to act last in the current round. When you do, your Defence and Melee increases by one step until the end of your next turn.

As such, you should ensure your Plague Priest is out of harms way where possible to maximise healing potential but also help survivability!

Recommended Role

Plague Priests should never be at the forefront of your party, unless they’re using their Skaven scuttling to scout ahead or be observant for traps. Bar that, these representatives of Clan Pestilens need protecting and defending, despite their propensity to stab those around them in the back. Their focus on Medicine and Prayers of Contagion mean that these guys aren’t here to do major damage but to buff their allies and speed-bump their enemies. This support/healer class can prove crucial to your parties, providing you can trust them.

Thus, the Plague Priest should always be at the back, far from harm and dishing out supporting healing prayers to allies, or chipping damage and conditions at enemies from a safe distance.

Miniatures

Join us tomorrow where we look into another player archetype available in Champions of Chaos. The abnormally loud whispers tell me it’ll be something a little less oppressive on our nostrils, but maybe more taxing on the eyes…

Soulbound: Champions of Chaos - Plague Priest Archetype Focus