zombocom wrote:
A few other ideas:
Patriarch loses Supreme Commander, Magus gains it - At the moment I struggle to see reasons to take the Magus, and the more I read, the more it seems like it's the Magus who's the strategic commander, with the Patriarch as more of a revered figurehead.
For gameplay this might make more sense. It runs contrary to the original fluff, but is definitely in line with more recent work.
Per the original work done by Murphy, Ansell, & Stillman, the Patriarch is the Commander and gains knowledge of the host race through infected thralls. He constantly directs the actions of the Magus (the senior 4th gen hybrid) through brood telepathy. Chambers supported this view when Tyranids were introduced, but it was changed in 40K 2nd ed. so that
either Patriarch or Magus could be the Commander and the Magus was basically directing The Cult's operations.
Hucklebery really elevated the role of the Magus and put most of the weight of The Cult's survival on his shoulders.
Some other bits that may be crafted to serve a purpose in Epic are the Cult Icon Bearers, Cult Roughriders, & Cult Relic. Given the psychic power of the Patriarch/Magus, maybe some sort of arcane psychic weapon would even fit in.