Initiate Tristan Durant

Initiate Tristan Durant Protectorate Character Solo - "Junior Warcaster"

Unlimited Only This model can only be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can see the other models with / without mk4 rules on this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

Initiate Tristan Durant is quite young and far from mastery, his face still bare of the mask of authority worn by full priests and his warcaster armor an unfamiliar burden. Yet Tristan stands ready to lead his battlegroup in defense against any who threaten the faithful of Menoth. He is gifted with the ability to see beyond the physical and intends to relentlessly pursue those deemed heretics or blasphemers. Once this warrior of the creator locates his quarry, he will not hesitate to cleanse the battlefield of them with the might of his blessed warjacks and holy fire.

Basic Info

Durant1
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 5 STR 5 MAT 5 RAT N/A M.A. N/A DEF 14 ARM 15 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS 4 FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA C UNIT SIZE N/A COST 2 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Battlegroup Controller - (1) This model is not a warcaster but has the following warcaster special rules: Battlegroup Commander, Focus Manipulation, Power Field, and Spellcaster. (2) This model must have at least one warjack in its battlegroup at the start of the game.
• True Sight - This model ignores cloud effects when determining LOS. This model also ignores Stealth.

Weapons

• Battle Staff - 2" reach, P+S 11 melee weapon.
  • Damage Type: Magical
  • Blessed

Spells

	COST	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
Fortify	2	6	-	-	Upkeep	No
Target warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup gains +2 ARM. The affected model and any friendly model B2B with it cannot be knocked down, be pushed, or be moved by a slam.
Immolation	2	8	-	12 (Fire)	-	Yes
Immolation causes fire damage. On a critical hit, the model hit suffers the Fire continuous effect.

Theme Forces

• Protectorate
  • The Creator's Might. He gains Reposition [3] in this theme. He can also begin the game with Fortify in play (but still needs to pay its cost turn 1)
  • The Faithful Masses

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Feora is leading the army.

Thoughts on Durant1

Durant1 in a nutshell

Initiate Tristan Durant is basically a 2 point upgrade to any one jack you want him to run. You give up Battlegroup bonuses for +2 ARM and less focus strain on your caster, so he will want often want to run a heavy, potentially one with a gun that needs a focus investment.

In the late game throwing him in to use his spear (especially if his Jack is dead) is probably the best use for him, his zap isn't much to write home about.

Combos & Synergies

Durant runs one to two jacks, always supported by the Choir of Menoth.

• Vigilant - Because no one likes facing this guy with an ARM-buff.
• Crusader - Cheap heavy to load with Focus.
• Redeemer - Durant can afford to give it the focus it wants.
• Templar - Durant and a Templar under Fortify can happily sit on a zone at ARM 23 and Immovable forcing your opponent to deal with them directly.
• Indictor - With its native Sacred Ward, you don't need the Choir to put Shielding on it, and it becomes more difficult to remove Fortify from it.
• Devout - armour on a shield guard is handy, as is spell immunity if you plan to stay in base contact anyway.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Big target with little defensive tech. And if you lose him, his warjacks go inert.
• With the changes in mk3 making it much easier for warcasters to run large battlegroups, models that take warjacks outside of the caster's battlegroup need to bring something really nifty (to offset the points cost, the loss of battlegroup buff spells from the main warcaster, and the risk of the controller dying and leaving jacks autonomonous/inert). Tristan does not have anything particularly nifty.
• His offensive spell is really poor value for the amount you spend when you need dice +4 to hit anything.

Tricks & Tips

• It can be tempting to B2B your fortified warjack for the ARM bonus, but be careful that doesn't lead you to being splattered by AOEs and or Electro-Leaps that target the warjack.

Other

Trivia

Kickstarter Exclusive sculpt

• Durant is one of the journeyman warcasters released as part of the WARMACHINE: Tactics videogame Kickstarter (2014)
• His rules were published in Warmachine: Vengeance expansion (2014)
• He has some backstory in the ebook anthology Rites of Passage, 2014.04, alongside the other Journeymen released in the Tactics game.
• There was a limited edition sculpt available for Kickstarter backers. There is now a non-limited sculpt for general purchase.
• He is of Llaelese origin.

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification:  : Magical Damage      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

* The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling) All spells have "Damage Type: Magical" (refer errata). This is inherited by "immediate" secondary damage (such as Eruption of Spines). (Infernal Ruling) and might be inherited by "lingering" secondary damage (see below). If a spell leaves a template in play that does damage to models that walk around in it, then: if it is not described as a hazard it will do magical damage to models that walk around in it. (Example: Razor Wall) if it is a hazard then it will not do magical damage to models that walk around in it. Instead, it does whatever damage type is specified by the spell description. (Example: Breath of Corruption). (Infernal Ruling) If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it will still damage Incorporeal models. Incorporeal models are not affected by the rule "if an attack does multiple types of damage and a model is immune to at least one it is immune to the entire attack." The phrase "immune to non-magical damage" should be interpreted as "immune to damage that doesn't include Damage Type: Magical" (not interpreted as "has immunity to Corrosion and Electricity and Cold and etc.")

Rules Clarification : Blessed and/or Creator's Wrath     (Edit) Blessed ignores spell buffs even if they're not directly on the target. (For example, Haley3's Temporal Distortion spell is cast on Haley and gives a DEF buff to everyone within 5". Blessed ignores it on everyone, not just on Haley.) (Locked thread) You only ignore the DEF/ARM buff if the spell directly adds to the stat (for example Arcane Shield gives +3 ARM). Whereas a spell which grants an ability, and the ability gives a DEF/ARM buff, would not be ignored by Blessed (for example Cloak of Ash gives a model concealment, and concealment gives +2 DEF). (Infernal Ruling) If a spell buffs DEF/ARM and [something else] then you ignore the buff but not the [something else]. (For example, the spell Death Ward grants +2 ARM and the defender chooses which column suffers damage. You would ignore the ARM bonus, but the defender still picks the column.) This ability only ignores buffs from spells, not buffs from feats (such as Stryker1's Invincibility +5 ARM) or abilities (such as Protective Aura's +2 ARM).

Rules Clarification : Battlegroup Controller      (Edit) This model has a completely separate battlegroup to your main warcaster. Your main warcaster cannot allocate focus to warjacks under this model's control (and vice versa). Any spells/effects that apply to your main warcaster's battlegroup (such as Energizer) do not apply to warjacks under this model's control (and vice versa). This model is not a warcaster It is affected by stuff which specifies "non-warcaster models" (such as Seduction). It is not affected by stuff which specifies "warcasters" (such as Black Arts). Even if it has "Warcaster" in its name (such as the Journeyman Warcaster or Trencher Warcaster Lieutenant) it is still not a warcaster, and won't benefit from warcaster-only stuff (like free upkeeps in Sons of the Tempest). (Infernal Ruling) Warjacks this solo controls can still benefit from Power Up exactly as if it were a warcaster. (Closed thread) When this model dies, any warjacks they are controlling go inert exactly as if it was a warcaster. (Infernal Ruling) See this article for the Inert warjack rules and how to re-activate them. Inert warjacks Abilities that say they cannot be used if the model is stationary (such as Shield Guard) cannot be used while a warjack is inert, either. Refer "Warcaster Destruction", page 59 of the core rulebook.

Rules Clarification : True Sight      (Edit) You only ignore clouds for LOS. Models can still get the concealment bonus, trigger Prowl, etc from clouds. (Infernal Ruling) A model that ignores Stealth must ignore both aspects: both (1) the auto-missing, and (2) the 'not counting as an intervening model' parts. This can have some strange interactions with casters & channelers, if one has True Sight and one does not. There are examples on the Category:Channeler page.

Rules Clarification : Fortify and/or Bracer     (Edit) If an attack causes a push/throw/etc, it may still target a Fortified model. All damage and effects will still occur as normal, except the movement. Place effects (such as Telekinesis) can still move Fortified models.

Rules Clarification : Immolation      (Edit) Rules Clarification : Fire      (Edit) If you deploy in fire hazard terrain (Burning Earth), then you get set on fire before the game starts. Deploying a model in a hazard counts as being "put into play" in the hazard. Being put into play counts as "entering". When you enter a hazard, you trigger the hazard. Moving into "Shallow water" standard terrain does not cause continuous fire to expire. It's magic fire. You can always use non-standard terrain if you agree with your opponent before the game starts, however. A weapon can inflict continuous fire without itself being a fire damage weapon (for example, the Helios's fists). In this case, the attack can hurt models with Immunity:Fire it just won't apply the continuous effect. In terms of which player's clock is running down during the Maintenance Phase: The active player will roll for expiration of all the continuous effects. Then the inactive player will roll for all the damages of the continuous effects. (Judge Ruling)