In the Chaos Marine army lists from
Slaves to Darkness and
The Lost and the Damned, a Bloodthirster costs 1250 points, a Great Unclean one costs 1100, a Lord of Change is 1400, and a Keeper of Secrets a mere 900. Daemon Princes, meanwhile, cost 810 points. Individual Daemon Princes could have wildly varying stats, but they were typically below Greater Daemons in power level.
In second edition, the Daemon Princes were revised: all were unique special characters, and all were phenomenally powerful. One of them, incidentally,
was a Greater Daemon: M'Kachen is a particularly wily and powerful Lord of Change. But these super-powerful Daemon Princes were something of an aberration: the editions both before and after have presented them as being typically less powerful than Greater Daemons.
To be honest, I think that both the super-powered DPs of 2nd ed. and the less powerful beings of 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th can coexist in the setting. In several versions of the rules (including the RoC ones), Daemon Princes have been very varied in their powers and abilities, with the first edition particularly emphasising that each DP was a unique individual with his own powers, peculiarities and history. The idea that a select few could be as awesomely powerful as those in the 2nd. ed. Chaos codex is not at all unreasonable. But both the earliest, the latest, and the majority of versions of 40k over the years have portrayed the
typical Daemon Prince (insofar as there is such a thing) as being less powerful than a greater Daemon.
Quote: (tneva82 @ 14 Jul. 2009, 20:54)
3rd isn't even that old.
It isn't that new, either: eleven years.
The only issue you may have is in a comp - but it's unlikely many people would complain here in Oz. Plus he'd be a massive target which is a bit of a negative in game terms IMO.