Rakkir

Race: Orc
Class: Aggressor
Survivability: Med
Damage Output: Med (up to Very High with Toxin his fate ability)
Threat Range: Med (to Very High with Shadow Orbs)

Profile: He is MOV 4, AGI 4, MEL 7 and 15 boxes. Pretty much average across the board except for his aggressor MEL of 7. He has the Cloak of Darkness giving him extra AGI against ranged and magic attacks. His melee range is only 1" which can be a problem.

What does he do?: Rakkir is one of the more specialist aggressors, his base damage output is low for a melee aggressor, his 1" melee range is constricting and can make him vulnerable to models like Doenrakkar and his base threat range on a charge is only 8" (including his 1" melee range). That said his abilities are incredibly strong. Toxin his fate ability does not require an action and is allows him to do an extra 2d6 damage ignoring RES which is extremely strong. From level 1 his able to teleport to and from shadow orbs makes him extremely mobile and adds to his survivability, also he has Invisibility (at level 3) and Cloak of Darkness to add to his hit and run style and make him difficult to kill from range.

What Rakkir wants to do is generally charge in, use the extra dice to apply poison to a target, use his toxin ability then place a shadow orb and teleport out (either using his base ability or by getting to level 2 and triggering Escape from an attack). In the early turns of the game you want to make sure there are shadow orbs allowing you to target important areas of the board, look to see if you can teleport near soul spawning pits to target soulgazers, near shrines to push out or kill contesting models (Rakkir's Toxin ability ignores RES which means he can often finish off wounded defenders) or get charge range to your opponents effigy.

Fate Appetite: High. If Rakkir can't use his Toxin ability then his damage output is much lower than the other aggressors.

Level Appetite: Med. Rakkir really needs to pull back after charging in if he wants to live, he can do that without levelling up by dropping a shadow orb and using an action to teleport away but it is advantageous to be able to do that with an attack. Invisibility his level 3 ability is extremely strong combined with his ability to teleport back after attacking.

Magic Items: Vorpal Blade (High). Rakkir really wants the vorpal blade. I'm going to do something I haven't done previously and put up some dice math.

This is the chance of getting at least a glancing hit and two manoeuvre symbols. The chances are probably lower than most people would guess they are. The odds are broadly similar to what you would have to roll for a crit. What this means in game terms is that if Rakkir charges an elf with no assistance you only have a 38% chance of getting poison off and being able to use Toxin and with your second attack the chance goes down to a very low 8%. You are not generally going to get poison off on an elf without assistance, even against a human or an orc the odds only go up to 50-50. Taking a Vorpal Blade takes those odds up to 64% (closer to 2/3) and sending in a defender to engage the model first and you are up to 73% (closer to 3/4). Rakkir needs dice fixing if you want to use his kit and the Vorpal Blade is often an important part of that. 

Combinations: Zaffen and Kvarto are both able to apply poison to a target independently of Rakkir so can be very useful, Kvarto is also able to use his telekinesis ability to have Ashtooth or Vujasha apply poison. The knockdown defenders (Marcus, Thrommel and to a lesser extent Skoll) are able to knock down targets before Rakkir charges then use their defender abilities to make it hard to get to Rakkir. Bastian is a great source of extra dice to make the poison ability stick and Thorgar is a useful aggressor partner because he doesn't need the Vorpal Blade as badly as Rakkir as well as also having access to knockdowns.

Ban Targets: Ban Saiyin. She can prevent you from using toxin on one target. Kvarto at level 2 is also immune to poison. Skye is also someone who is a high priority on the ban list. After we just finished looking at how important each die is for Rakkir having someone who can both add 5 health to the model you are going after as well as reduce the dice pool is not what Rakkir wants to see.

Judy's Judgement: