Word Bearers: Diabolist clarification

[Tarm]

Greetings Bearers of the Word,

 

 

Does the Diabolist gain preferred enemy on shooting attacks?

 

The text in Horus Heresy book 5 states "The Diabolist gains the daemon special rule and preferred enemy added to all their close combat attacks (in addition to any other weapon effects)." 

 

Does the text in the brackets mean he also gains preferred enemy on shooting attacks? - or solely during combat?

[Gattopardo]

No. It means he gets preferred enemy in combat, plus any other bonuses or effects given by his combat weapons. I'm not sure the clarificatory text was really needed, but it seems quite clear to me? I presume it was added to emphasise that he gets preferred enemy in combat in addition to whatever weapon traits he has, rather than instead of them. Edited April 17, 2021 by Gattopardo

[Dhar'Neth]

Diabolist would be so much better if he granted preferred enemy to the unit he joins...

[Lautrec the Embraced]

Diabolist would be so much better if he granted preferred enemy to the unit he joins...

Sure but that would seem not entirely fluffy as suddenly he would be babysitting heavy support squads and such... Besides that would make him quite useless in his dedicated Rite, the Dark Brethren where every IC gets full Preferred Enemy and this RoW is already far from being top tier.

 

Honestly, Id say Diabolist is already pretty good rulewise. For 35 pts you get Fear (5pts), 5++ (10 pts) and a melee buff similar to Chaplain: if you are hitting and wounding on 4+, it's around 10% worse output than Hatred BUT it's better if you are hitting or wounding on 3s or better and unlike Chap's aura it works every single turn.

 

I'd wager that he'd be more popular if we could take him as 'Charismatic Leadership' HQ instead of Centurion or Chaplain.

 

edit: Wait a second, does he not confer it to his unit at all, even in close combat? sorry, I got confused

Edited April 18, 2021 by Lautrec the Embraced

[SkimaskMohawk]

He doesn't, because he doesn't have the rule with a restriction to melee; his melee attacks count as having the rule instead.

[Lautrec the Embraced]

Well ain’t that a kick in the head... Most of my games are against Word Bearers and my friend has always applied preferred enemy to whole unit when in CC so I took it for granted… Ah well, he’s gonna be plenty confused when I bring this up next game.

 

Poor diabolist though, I get what you meant. Maybe WB get some reworks one day.