Undead... recently it seems everytime I've had a discussion about future expansions or new patch content, someone says they want playable undead. But in WAR is it actually possible to add Undead as playable race?I'm not so sure you can, because the warhammer lore just doesn't support it. Undead in Warhammer are not like Warcraft's "we're not really evil, undead have feelings too" horde thing.
With only a few exceptions, Undead in Warhammer are mindless creatures with no free will. They are animated by a Necromancer or Vampire magic. A skeleton in Warhammer is not something that goes to Inevitable City to socialise.
So what about those Vampires and Necromancers then?
Necromancers? They summon whole armies of undead, clearly that's no good, you can't have 1 player soloing Altdorf :P So it would have to be a fairly weak Necromancer.. Hmm obviously a pet class, but summoning multiple pets? Bad, bad idea, we've got enough lag problems as is. Summoning 1 pet? Based on warhammer lore, woah that's a reaaally lame Necromancer, you'd be laughed at, well if the other undead were sentient enough to laugh.
Vampires... Absolutely no sodding way without ruining the background. Vampires in Warhammer are rare and ridiculously powerfull. You do not get armies of Vampires, if you did it would be game over for EVERYONE. As much as it's always cool to play vampires in games, to make a warhammer vampire playable, you'd have to water them down soooo much, it'd suck. Plus there's a big, bright, warm problem. Sunlight... Imagine the chat spam ;)
Welcome to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Sunlight crits you for 100,000,000
You have been killed
WTF?
Sunlight crits you for 100,000,000
You have been killed
WTF????
You have been killed
WTF????
Sunlight crits you for 100,000,000
You have been killed
AGHHH!
You have been killed
AGHHH!
So what's left?
Ghouls? If you like grave robbing feral cannibals with no opportunity for character development. Level 1 for ever!
Banshee? They're ghosts, nuff said.
Wraiths? Basically ghosts of necromancers tied to mortal world.
Wights? Not sentient, has no free will.
Skeletons? Again, not sentient, has no free will.
Zombies? Guess what? Yup...
And that's the problem, none of those could make a playable class in this game. You've not got equipment to upgrade, you can't talk to each other and you cant even control your own character for most of them. Which all boils down to the only vaguely viable option is Necromancers, albeit shite ones. No thanks... I'd rather keep the quality warhammer background intact and have something that actually could work. Like Skaven...
been meaning to do a post on this fully myself but have never got around to it. But anyways your missing out 2 things which make vampires if not a A+ choice then certainly something which can be considered.
ReplyDelete1. Not all vampires a all powerfull lords, Thralls are a low level vampire with allot less of OTT power that the lords have. The idea of a lord sending out his thralls to fight in a war which serves his intrest fits with established lore.
2.There are 5 types of vampire in lore. which would fit very well into the established architypes.
Blood Dragon: Tank
Necrarch: Ranged DPS or Healers
Strigori: Meele Brawler
Von Carlstien: Pet meele dps, Giant Wolves.
Lahmia: Doesn't really fit any particular one, i suppose you could go with something similar to a WE.
anyways i don't think they are a good choice but i dont think they are as readily discountable as people think
Good points mate. I had considered the vampire bloodlines, but with the other vampire issues I'd not thought to mention it.
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten about thralls, so if if you used Thralls based on the Bloodlines it's a bit more viable, you could perhaps use Lahmia as a melee healing class I guess.
Still can't get round the sunlight problem though ;)
Lot of daylight in war :-) might be a harsh game for a vampire. I would say more chaos or ratmen instead.
ReplyDeleteI thought in WAR lore some Vampires though they are weaker in sunlight do not get destroyed.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a third faction though, an Undead Army would be purely awesome though your right lore wise might not be feasible, but wait maybe a spaceship of space goatmen err I mean vampires crash??? Eh? No good?
I would like to see Vampires in game simply because I fear that the next Destruction class could be skaven. As someone pointed out on one of my recent posts (could it have been you? I just don't remember who it was), it is very unlikely that Skaven will have female careers. That would mean two entire Destruction races that are male only. That sort of thing might be a dealbreaker for me. I love Destro, but two male-only races could mean...rerolling Order!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't me, but that would correct yeah. Female Skaven are little more than breeding machines. I'm guessing you're counting Orcs as all male? TBH they're not really male or female, they're fungus ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's strange that their's no female chosen, that's perfectly viable in the background.