Special Characters

[bfmusashi]

I use Straken out of utility, Coteaz because he's Space Destro, and Yarrick because a man with a crab claw means business. Oh, and Bastonne as he's the Killer of Baneblades.

[Tokolosh]

I really like Dante, deepstriking with melta honour guard ;-)

[Loshkins]

Special characters bring a unique play style to the army. Before they just seemed like tacked on additions that were 'powerful or useless' dudes at best. Now they seem to represent more of a shift in list building. As in, you build the list around them, not build the list and then just throw them in.

[Ravenger]

Just with fluff in mind i like to field Ragnar Blackmane, he has a nice set of utility granting furious charge and after you have his warrior born (chainsaw effect) people tend to run away if that fist cant get the job done in time.

[Ork E Nuff]

Hands down: Mad Dok Grotsnik. Powerklaw, cybork body, 4+ invul save...what's not to like? Also, he confers the option of cybork bodies on units that don't normally have that option. Imagine the expression on your opponents face when he realizes that the 30 grots in front of him all have a 5+ invul save. Suddenly your grot shield now has a bit more grit than usual. Also, he's a complete nut; any unit he joins becomes fearless and must move with all due expediency towards the nearest enemy. Granted he can put a damper on your style of play, but he's great for your basic "Smash, Smash, and possibly Grad" game.

[Colonel Bindoff]

Marbo. The elite army of one with a penchant for demo charging himself in the face.

I think special characters have a place, but hate seeing them all the time. The Calgar example above: yes, he could be involved in a 1000 point battle as he's ambushed, or leads an elite strike team which desperately needs his dual fist awesomeness, but every time? No, doesn't do it for me. Creed, master of all Cadia and commander of the eighth. Yes, he'll sometimes be on the front line, but more usually in a Leviathan co-ordinating his vast armies. So fight some games with him, but normally leave Captain Jim Dacker of 3 company to run things.

That said, I see marine characters cropping up far more often than other races. Chapters are only 1000 or so strong, with maybe 20 officers to pick from. The Ultramarines have what, 4 current special characters so it seems less unreasonable to find one on the battlefield than always facing Commissar Yarrick, one of untold billions of generic guard.

[pathwinder14]

Special Characters were Army Killing Power Houses in 2nd edition. I would basically run Abbadon around the table killing everything and the rest of my army was just decoration. 3rd edition nerfed them because of the Uber power they had in 2nd. Now they are more balanced and useful for more than close combat or psychic powers.

I prefer Dante because he adds so much utility to the BA.

[Samules]

Asurmen may not be the most points efficient man but he is a hell of a lot of fun. To date only Draigo and his palladins have brought him down in CC. Though he and his three dire avengers killed off three of the kitted out pallys between bladestorm and CC. That particular game was a 2v1 2000pt game with me and a Tau vs a GK. At the end Draigo and a Terminator were left against half of our army left. (he still managed to contest both objectives though) That was an epic game.

[MatthewTiger56]

For me it has to be Varguard Oby and Nemesor Z. In the 'cron codex they're only taking up 1 HQ slot if you take them together and there are some amusing abilities for both characters.
Nemesor:"All your USR are belong to us!"