This is the original thread (edited a modest amount) that I used to get Najo and Sun King to work on the official 8ed handbook.
This covers peripheral add-ons. The BRB magical items and the Forbidden Lores.
Red is dead. This is a choice that's so bad, it actively detracts from your army synergy and makes your list a worse one overall.
Yellow is conditional. It may shine in certain match up or when used in certain ways, but in general it's a subpar choice.
Green is the average. Not necessarily a great choice, but it's rarely one you'll end up regretting.
Blue is an above-average or exceptional choice. These options frequently increase army synergy and overall list strength.
Purple is the highest rating in this handbook, and it's reserved for choices that should be staples in virtually all competitive lists. Don't leave home without 'em.
Forbidden Magic Lores
:skull:Najo Edit: In collaboration with @Scalenex, The Sun King and I have elaborated this section and incorporated it into the Vampire Count's Handbook.:skull:
BRB Magic Items
Magic Weapons
Giant Blade - It’s a nice weapon, but it’s debatable whether it’s truly worth 20 points more than Ogre Blade.
Sword of Bloodshed - If you have a Red Fury lord and know you are facing mostly T3 troops, this isn’t terrible. Usually I’d rather have boosted Strength though.
Obsidian Blade – For ten fewer points you can take the Ogre Blade, wound more often, and eliminate most armor saves anyway.
Ogre Blade – Strength 7 is usually just the right amount. Ogre Blade is probably the best blade to give a Red Fury blender lord.
Sword of Strife – Nearly as potent as the Sword of Bloodshed, but it doesn’t cut into your points as much so your Lord has more points to spend on other items.
Fencer’s Blades – Vampires have such high WS that they don’t need this item, especially for the price. The nice thing about this item is that it is defensive as well as offensive, so it might be worth giving to a Master Necromancer if you plan to run him without a vampire or Wight in his unit.
Sword of Anti-Heroes – This is moderately handy against most armies. It’s a godsend against armies that really load up their front ranks with characters such as well…Vampire Counts.
Spellthieving Sword – If your Vampire or Wight King is directing attacks at an enemy wizard, you want to KILL the wizard, not merely dock his spells.
Sword of Swift Slaying– In most cases a Lord is better off paying slightly more for Quickblood since you can still take a magic weapon with Quickblood but this lets a hero-level vampire with Red Fury enjoy always striking first.
Sword of Battle – An Extra attack is always nice, and this won’t eat your points away too much.
Berserker Sword - This is an inferior form of the Sword of Battle. For a living character this is like a Sword of Battle with a small chance of unwanted charges that bestows Immune to Psychology. Since undead don’t ever need to visit their shrinks, this sword is a minor liability for us.
Sword of Might – If you are tight on points, this is a good weapon to give your blender Lord. If you want a secondary fighting character this is a good weapon to give him.
Gold Sigil Sword – With their relative high Initiative score and easy access to getting Always Strikes First, this is a candy purchase.
Sword of Striking – You hit more often and it’s fairly cheap. What’s not to like?
Biting Blade – A Strength boost is better but this weapon is very cheap. Not bad as an afterthought for a character without a magic weapon if you have the points left and don’t feel like padding your giant units with one or two more models.
Shrieking Blade – Fear Causing soldiers? What a great idea! Oh wait we already have that in spades (in fact many of the Fear causing soldiers were dug up with spades).
Relic Blade – Yuck! Against nearly all enemies, vampires and wights should be wounding on 5+ or better anyway.
Tormentor Sword – Good when ANY magical weapon will do since it’s so cheap. The actual effect is pretty small and is liable to be forgotten in a game.
Warrior Bane – Like the Tormentor Sword, it’s good because it’s a cheap magic weapon. The special ability is also more likely to come into play. The power is actually useful when fighting defensively built monsters allowing even a mediocre fighter to effectively neuter them.
Magic Armors
Armor of Destiny – For only five more points than the Talisman of Preservation, you get the awesome Ward Save and heavy armor.
Trickster’s Helm – It’s a bit expensive, but vampires and wights are hard to wound for most things, so this helmet can come in handy. This will make a tough character nigh-invulnerable against most regular troops.
Armor of Silvered Steel – If your fighting character must be foot, this can get you a decent armor save and lets you pack a great weapon or additional hand weapon. If you aren’t on foot, don’t take this.
Armor of Fortune – Like the Armor of Destiny this gives you heavy armor and a useful Ward Save. While a 5+ Save isn’t super impressive, but this frees up points for a hero level fighter letting him take another minor magic item or two.
Helm of Discord – For its cost, you really need a guaranteed matchup with a low leadership army to make this item worth it. This can theoretically work if you are building your whole army around things that hex enemy leadership (viable with Vampire Counts)
Glittering Scales – Sometimes it’s better to not get in hit in the first place which may or may not make up for the foregone point in armor save of your opponents. Given that Vampire Lords have such high WS this means you will be hit very rarely with this on. If you are likely to be facing high WS armies, pair this with the Dread Knight power for added security.
Shield of Ptolos – In theory, if you have a lone flying vampire and are playing versus Wood Elves or some other non-artillery based gun line this has some value. The problem is it’s too expensive for this very narrow niche.
Spellshield – Not terrible, but I’d rather get my MR from the slightly cheaper Obsidian Trinket and not burn up my only Magic Armor slot on this.
Gambler’s Armor – This is the bargain bin version of Armor of Destiny. For only five more points than the Talisman of Protection, you get the Ward Save and the heavy armor.
Dragonhelm – An inexpensive way to get another point of armor save when you want to conserve points and are planning on equipping your character with a two-handed weapon. The bonus Ward Save versus fire is almost an afterthought but nice to have when it comes up.
Enchanted Shield – If you aren’t giving your characters two-handed weapons, this is the best armor for a general on a budget. +2 to Armor Saves barely costing more than a vanilla shield.
Charmed Shield – It may be one-use only for the power, but the shield itself stays all game and it barely costs more than a regular shield. I’d consider this standard issue to any vampire character on a flying mount, so at least the rider can (probably) ignore the first cannonball.
Magic Talismans
Talisman of Preservation – A 4+ Ward save for a reasonable price. Good if you want to protect a master Necromancer or if you want to give your fighting Lord magic armor that doesn’t have a built in Ward save. A bit wasteful on Hero level characters though.
Obsidian Lodestone – If you are building your army around a Deathstar or bus, this isn’t a bad idea since the MR works on the whole unit making your killer unit hard to nuke. If you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket, leave this item at home, it's too price for a combined unit under 500 points.
Talisman of Endurance - If you already spending this many points on a Talisman, why not go 15 more and at least get at least a 50% of shrugging off wounds?
Obsidian Amulet – Like the Lodestone, it works on a whole unit. It’s less expensive so it’s not a bad item to include on any decent unit if your leading character has points allowance left in magical items.
Dawnstone – If you can bring your vampire to a 1+ or 2+ armor save this is a good investment. Keep in mind though that most things that can threaten your badass characters have pretty high strength. A re-rollable 2+ save is great, but a rerollable 5+ or 6+ save after modifiers is underwhelming. I prefer Ward saves, but I see the value of this.
Opal Amulet – Sometimes one save is all you need and this is fairly cheap. Unless you have weighted dice, a two wound character will benefit more from a one use 4+ save than a multi-use 6+ save. This is a good choice for support characters, but I’d generally want to give Lords something stronger than this
Obsidian Trinket – The poor man’s Obsidian item may not do much but it can cover a large number of models if the character is in the right unit (and we often field VERY large units).
Talisman of Protection – Not useless, but the price is a little steep for a magical item that will fail you most of the time.
Seed of Rebirth– In most cases, this will give you the same protection as the Talisman of Protection for less cost. Note an opponent making an anti-Vampire Counts list will probably stock up on flaming attacks though. It works very well with characters in Mortis Engine based lists.
Dragonbane Gem –This is so cheap it might be worth packing just in case of flaming attacks. Practically standard issue for Strigoi Ghoul Kings.
Pigeon Plucker Amulet – It will rarely come into play, but at 5 points you aren’t out much if it doesn’t work. If I had a support character on a flying mount, I might try this to make myself a dogfighter for fun.
Luckstone – One of the better dirt cheap magical items. Sometimes one save is the difference between life and death. If your armored character still has a few points left in his magic item allowance, you can do worse than them give this.
Magic Standards
Rampager’s Standard – This is BSB only and in the event you decide you want a BSB, it should generally be packing a non-magical standard. To make this even remotely useable you need to have a large Black Knight bus and have mounted BSB be standing next to a very killy Vampire Lord. Otherwise your BSB is just a points sink carrying this.
Wailing Banner – There are far easier ways for the undead to cause Terror than this overpriced banner.
Ranger's Standard – Don’t bother giving this to units on foot. It’s expensive but it only needs to save one Blood Knight or 2.15 Black Knights per game on average to pay for itself and you just might surprise someone who is trying to screen himself from your bus with rough terrain.
Razor Standard – A decent upgrade for Black Knights, Blood Knights, and especially Grave Guard since these units are expected to do the bulk of your killing and every boost helps.
War Banner – It’s a bit expensive but it will make you more likely to break your enemies and save you a casualty when you are on the losing side.
Banner of Swiftness - I can't think of a ton of situations where I'd like to get one more inch of movement, but this is a cheap item.
Lichbone Pennant – A magical standard for the same price as the identically functioning Obsidian Trinket. Why not? It doesn’t matter what form MR comes in. Probably a better option for Skeleton blocks since they tend to be big enough to be able to benefit from a mere MR 1 and the Pennant comes out your Core tax.
Standard of Discipline – Undead don’t take many leadership tests, but this banner is cheap and not at all bad to give to a unit bunkering a character with Spirit Leech.
Banner of Eternal Flame – You never know when you will need to assault a building or fight something with Regeneration. It’s cheap enough that if you don’t run across one of these situations you aren’t out many points. Watch out for High Elf Dragon Knights, characters with the Dragonbane Gem, and most of the Chaos Dwarf army.
Gleaming Pennant – Undead don’t take many leadership tests, but this banner cost next to nothing. If you lose your general item will pay for itself by helping you resist crumbles. If you have a backup lore of Vampires wielder handy, one retest is all you need.
Scarecrow Banner – It may be cheap but it does literally nothing since everything already causes Fear.
Arcane Items
The real limiting factor is that we can only take one arcane item per wizard. That’s generally a bigger limiting factor than the, actual points cost.
Book of Ashur – Useful but it costs a lot for what it does. Never give this to casters below level 4.
Feedback Scroll – You need to have a foe fond of casting ueberspells from wizards without Ward Saves for this item to work.
Scroll of Leeching – A lot of points for something that can’t actually stop or mitigate a spell in any way. To get maximum mileage out of this spell you need to play this when a player throws five or six dice at a spell. That means your opponent probably won’t have any dice left so your new extra dispel dice aren’t that useful, especially if a Miscast burns the rest of their power dice away. In a Storm of Magic game (or End Times magic games), this Scroll becomes Green because there is actually call for mountains of dispel dice mid-phase.
Sivejir’s Hex Scroll – It’s fun to turn people into frogs but this scroll only has a 50% chance of nerfing an enemy wizard Lord and it might only last for a single turn. That’s a lot left up to chance for an item that will eat a Necromancer’s entire magic points allowance.
Power Scroll – I can see a case for this being on a level one or level two Necromancer. They are expendable enough that you can justify courting irresistible force, but this is a bad item for Lords of any type.
Wand of Jet – A little weak, but it is a rarity in that you can decide to use it AFTER making your casting attempt rather than before which can save you from whiffing a magic phase. In Storm of Magic it becomes Green because it can help you roll more dice to get big Cataclysm spells off.
Forbidden Rod – Undead can always use more power dice but the risk of losing a character bites. I recommend a Master Necromancer with the Opal Amulet. His odds of dying are only in six and he can heal back lost wounds with the Lore of Vampires attribute. In my opinion the risk is worth it because you will usually roll at least one subpar Winds of Magic roll. Alternatively a level one Necromancer with the Opal Amulet has a 50% chance of surviving but costs you less if he does die.
Trickster’s Shard – You have to announce this at the beginning of the magic phase so you can’t pull this as an effective surprise. With only a 1 in three chance of wounding an enemy wizard per spell you lose, this is NOT worth taking up a precious Arcane Item slot.
Earthing Rod – It’s expensive for a magic item that might fail you, but I’d consider taking this if I were say taking a level four vampire lord with lots of vampire powers just because I’d want to protect my investment.
Dispel Scroll – Knocks out an enemy spell, no questions asked. This item is pretty much standard issue for all armies, not just Vampire Counts.
Power Stone – Not bad for a character expected to be dropping nuke spells. Nearly standard issue for Storm of Magic since you can fuel Cataclysm spells with it.
Sceptre of Stability – If you already have a Dispel Scroll and are desperate for more magic defense this isn’t terrible. The problem is throwaway items like this are usually given to level one caddies and you really need a level four caster to get maximum mileage out of this.
Channeling Staff – If the bearer of this item can stay alive the whole game, this will yield you on average one power die and one dispel die per game. More with arcane ruins. If you have points left in the magic item allowance of your blender lord you can do worse than this.
Scroll of Shielding– This is a good poor man’s dispel scroll because you can still mitigate a nuke spell even if cast with Irresistible Force (or an End Times spell). It’s also fairly cheap. It can cushion the blow of a nuke spell, if it's a Remains in Play spell you get the ward saves versus it every round. It can also save the ethereal bacon of an ethereal unit on the wrong end of a magic missile.
Enchanted items
Wizarding Hat – Vampire Counts have no characters that can legally take this, not that they’d want to.
Fozzrik’s Folding Fortress – This item is crazy expensive. Some armies can try gimmicky tricks with the Folding Fortress but the Vampire Counts is not one of them. Building assaults ONLY use casualties for combat resolution so your troops will lose a buffer against Crumble. If you tried to mitigate this by occupying your fortess with a Blender Lord and some Grave Guard, your opponent will just smirk and bypass your magic building altogether.
Arabyan Carpet – A flying mount is cheaper. So is the Flying Horror power.
Crown of Command - Undead don’t roll break tests.
Healing Potion – Too expensive for what little healing it provides. We should be able to get all character healing we need with the Vampire Lore attribute and the Hunger.
Featherfoe Torc – Even if you are facing a lot of flyers, it just seems too expensive to be worth it.
Ruby Ring of Ruin – It doesn’t take an arcane item slot and can be given to just about any character. To get your points worth out of this, give it to a support character likely to be hanging back from combat. If your character is just going to charge at the enemy you won’t get more than one or two chances to use this.
Terrifying Mask of EEE! – If you really want Terror take Supernatural Horror for the same cost and don’t eat into your magic item allowance. Better yet, spring for a Cairn Wraith and get a nasty support character.
Potion of Strength – This item is intended to give mediocre fighters one round of awesome. In most cases, you want your fighting characters to have staying power, but I can see some call for this with a flying character.
Potion of Toughness – For this points cost you can get a more reliable defensive talisman that is always active.
Other Trickster’s Shard – This is situational because you have to be facing enemies with Ward Saves you want to be ignoring and not be in base to base contact with a friendly character with a Ward save.
Iron Curse Icon This item is so cheap, it only needs to save one model every other game to pay for itself. Whatever your MVP unit is, someone should probably be carrying this item in it.
Potion of Foolhardiness – For hardly any points your Blender can get an extra attack on the charge (and one more chance for Red Fury). A very good deal if you haven’t used your Enchanted Item slot for something else.
Potion of Speed – Undead fighting characters have good initiative already. Still this item is really cheap and it might help you against the rare opponent with better Initiative.
This covers peripheral add-ons. The BRB magical items and the Forbidden Lores.
Red is dead. This is a choice that's so bad, it actively detracts from your army synergy and makes your list a worse one overall.
Yellow is conditional. It may shine in certain match up or when used in certain ways, but in general it's a subpar choice.
Green is the average. Not necessarily a great choice, but it's rarely one you'll end up regretting.
Blue is an above-average or exceptional choice. These options frequently increase army synergy and overall list strength.
Purple is the highest rating in this handbook, and it's reserved for choices that should be staples in virtually all competitive lists. Don't leave home without 'em.
Forbidden Magic Lores
:skull:Najo Edit: In collaboration with @Scalenex, The Sun King and I have elaborated this section and incorporated it into the Vampire Count's Handbook.:skull:
BRB Magic Items
Magic Weapons
Giant Blade - It’s a nice weapon, but it’s debatable whether it’s truly worth 20 points more than Ogre Blade.
Sword of Bloodshed - If you have a Red Fury lord and know you are facing mostly T3 troops, this isn’t terrible. Usually I’d rather have boosted Strength though.
Obsidian Blade – For ten fewer points you can take the Ogre Blade, wound more often, and eliminate most armor saves anyway.
Ogre Blade – Strength 7 is usually just the right amount. Ogre Blade is probably the best blade to give a Red Fury blender lord.
Sword of Strife – Nearly as potent as the Sword of Bloodshed, but it doesn’t cut into your points as much so your Lord has more points to spend on other items.
Fencer’s Blades – Vampires have such high WS that they don’t need this item, especially for the price. The nice thing about this item is that it is defensive as well as offensive, so it might be worth giving to a Master Necromancer if you plan to run him without a vampire or Wight in his unit.
Sword of Anti-Heroes – This is moderately handy against most armies. It’s a godsend against armies that really load up their front ranks with characters such as well…Vampire Counts.
Spellthieving Sword – If your Vampire or Wight King is directing attacks at an enemy wizard, you want to KILL the wizard, not merely dock his spells.
Sword of Swift Slaying– In most cases a Lord is better off paying slightly more for Quickblood since you can still take a magic weapon with Quickblood but this lets a hero-level vampire with Red Fury enjoy always striking first.
Sword of Battle – An Extra attack is always nice, and this won’t eat your points away too much.
Berserker Sword - This is an inferior form of the Sword of Battle. For a living character this is like a Sword of Battle with a small chance of unwanted charges that bestows Immune to Psychology. Since undead don’t ever need to visit their shrinks, this sword is a minor liability for us.
Sword of Might – If you are tight on points, this is a good weapon to give your blender Lord. If you want a secondary fighting character this is a good weapon to give him.
Gold Sigil Sword – With their relative high Initiative score and easy access to getting Always Strikes First, this is a candy purchase.
Sword of Striking – You hit more often and it’s fairly cheap. What’s not to like?
Biting Blade – A Strength boost is better but this weapon is very cheap. Not bad as an afterthought for a character without a magic weapon if you have the points left and don’t feel like padding your giant units with one or two more models.
Shrieking Blade – Fear Causing soldiers? What a great idea! Oh wait we already have that in spades (in fact many of the Fear causing soldiers were dug up with spades).
Relic Blade – Yuck! Against nearly all enemies, vampires and wights should be wounding on 5+ or better anyway.
Tormentor Sword – Good when ANY magical weapon will do since it’s so cheap. The actual effect is pretty small and is liable to be forgotten in a game.
Warrior Bane – Like the Tormentor Sword, it’s good because it’s a cheap magic weapon. The special ability is also more likely to come into play. The power is actually useful when fighting defensively built monsters allowing even a mediocre fighter to effectively neuter them.
Magic Armors
Armor of Destiny – For only five more points than the Talisman of Preservation, you get the awesome Ward Save and heavy armor.
Trickster’s Helm – It’s a bit expensive, but vampires and wights are hard to wound for most things, so this helmet can come in handy. This will make a tough character nigh-invulnerable against most regular troops.
Armor of Silvered Steel – If your fighting character must be foot, this can get you a decent armor save and lets you pack a great weapon or additional hand weapon. If you aren’t on foot, don’t take this.
Armor of Fortune – Like the Armor of Destiny this gives you heavy armor and a useful Ward Save. While a 5+ Save isn’t super impressive, but this frees up points for a hero level fighter letting him take another minor magic item or two.
Helm of Discord – For its cost, you really need a guaranteed matchup with a low leadership army to make this item worth it. This can theoretically work if you are building your whole army around things that hex enemy leadership (viable with Vampire Counts)
Glittering Scales – Sometimes it’s better to not get in hit in the first place which may or may not make up for the foregone point in armor save of your opponents. Given that Vampire Lords have such high WS this means you will be hit very rarely with this on. If you are likely to be facing high WS armies, pair this with the Dread Knight power for added security.
Shield of Ptolos – In theory, if you have a lone flying vampire and are playing versus Wood Elves or some other non-artillery based gun line this has some value. The problem is it’s too expensive for this very narrow niche.
Spellshield – Not terrible, but I’d rather get my MR from the slightly cheaper Obsidian Trinket and not burn up my only Magic Armor slot on this.
Gambler’s Armor – This is the bargain bin version of Armor of Destiny. For only five more points than the Talisman of Protection, you get the Ward Save and the heavy armor.
Dragonhelm – An inexpensive way to get another point of armor save when you want to conserve points and are planning on equipping your character with a two-handed weapon. The bonus Ward Save versus fire is almost an afterthought but nice to have when it comes up.
Enchanted Shield – If you aren’t giving your characters two-handed weapons, this is the best armor for a general on a budget. +2 to Armor Saves barely costing more than a vanilla shield.
Charmed Shield – It may be one-use only for the power, but the shield itself stays all game and it barely costs more than a regular shield. I’d consider this standard issue to any vampire character on a flying mount, so at least the rider can (probably) ignore the first cannonball.
Magic Talismans
Talisman of Preservation – A 4+ Ward save for a reasonable price. Good if you want to protect a master Necromancer or if you want to give your fighting Lord magic armor that doesn’t have a built in Ward save. A bit wasteful on Hero level characters though.
Obsidian Lodestone – If you are building your army around a Deathstar or bus, this isn’t a bad idea since the MR works on the whole unit making your killer unit hard to nuke. If you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket, leave this item at home, it's too price for a combined unit under 500 points.
Talisman of Endurance - If you already spending this many points on a Talisman, why not go 15 more and at least get at least a 50% of shrugging off wounds?
Obsidian Amulet – Like the Lodestone, it works on a whole unit. It’s less expensive so it’s not a bad item to include on any decent unit if your leading character has points allowance left in magical items.
Dawnstone – If you can bring your vampire to a 1+ or 2+ armor save this is a good investment. Keep in mind though that most things that can threaten your badass characters have pretty high strength. A re-rollable 2+ save is great, but a rerollable 5+ or 6+ save after modifiers is underwhelming. I prefer Ward saves, but I see the value of this.
Opal Amulet – Sometimes one save is all you need and this is fairly cheap. Unless you have weighted dice, a two wound character will benefit more from a one use 4+ save than a multi-use 6+ save. This is a good choice for support characters, but I’d generally want to give Lords something stronger than this
Obsidian Trinket – The poor man’s Obsidian item may not do much but it can cover a large number of models if the character is in the right unit (and we often field VERY large units).
Talisman of Protection – Not useless, but the price is a little steep for a magical item that will fail you most of the time.
Seed of Rebirth– In most cases, this will give you the same protection as the Talisman of Protection for less cost. Note an opponent making an anti-Vampire Counts list will probably stock up on flaming attacks though. It works very well with characters in Mortis Engine based lists.
Dragonbane Gem –This is so cheap it might be worth packing just in case of flaming attacks. Practically standard issue for Strigoi Ghoul Kings.
Pigeon Plucker Amulet – It will rarely come into play, but at 5 points you aren’t out much if it doesn’t work. If I had a support character on a flying mount, I might try this to make myself a dogfighter for fun.
Luckstone – One of the better dirt cheap magical items. Sometimes one save is the difference between life and death. If your armored character still has a few points left in his magic item allowance, you can do worse than them give this.
Magic Standards
Rampager’s Standard – This is BSB only and in the event you decide you want a BSB, it should generally be packing a non-magical standard. To make this even remotely useable you need to have a large Black Knight bus and have mounted BSB be standing next to a very killy Vampire Lord. Otherwise your BSB is just a points sink carrying this.
Wailing Banner – There are far easier ways for the undead to cause Terror than this overpriced banner.
Ranger's Standard – Don’t bother giving this to units on foot. It’s expensive but it only needs to save one Blood Knight or 2.15 Black Knights per game on average to pay for itself and you just might surprise someone who is trying to screen himself from your bus with rough terrain.
Razor Standard – A decent upgrade for Black Knights, Blood Knights, and especially Grave Guard since these units are expected to do the bulk of your killing and every boost helps.
War Banner – It’s a bit expensive but it will make you more likely to break your enemies and save you a casualty when you are on the losing side.
Banner of Swiftness - I can't think of a ton of situations where I'd like to get one more inch of movement, but this is a cheap item.
Lichbone Pennant – A magical standard for the same price as the identically functioning Obsidian Trinket. Why not? It doesn’t matter what form MR comes in. Probably a better option for Skeleton blocks since they tend to be big enough to be able to benefit from a mere MR 1 and the Pennant comes out your Core tax.
Standard of Discipline – Undead don’t take many leadership tests, but this banner is cheap and not at all bad to give to a unit bunkering a character with Spirit Leech.
Banner of Eternal Flame – You never know when you will need to assault a building or fight something with Regeneration. It’s cheap enough that if you don’t run across one of these situations you aren’t out many points. Watch out for High Elf Dragon Knights, characters with the Dragonbane Gem, and most of the Chaos Dwarf army.
Gleaming Pennant – Undead don’t take many leadership tests, but this banner cost next to nothing. If you lose your general item will pay for itself by helping you resist crumbles. If you have a backup lore of Vampires wielder handy, one retest is all you need.
Scarecrow Banner – It may be cheap but it does literally nothing since everything already causes Fear.
Arcane Items
The real limiting factor is that we can only take one arcane item per wizard. That’s generally a bigger limiting factor than the, actual points cost.
Book of Ashur – Useful but it costs a lot for what it does. Never give this to casters below level 4.
Feedback Scroll – You need to have a foe fond of casting ueberspells from wizards without Ward Saves for this item to work.
Scroll of Leeching – A lot of points for something that can’t actually stop or mitigate a spell in any way. To get maximum mileage out of this spell you need to play this when a player throws five or six dice at a spell. That means your opponent probably won’t have any dice left so your new extra dispel dice aren’t that useful, especially if a Miscast burns the rest of their power dice away. In a Storm of Magic game (or End Times magic games), this Scroll becomes Green because there is actually call for mountains of dispel dice mid-phase.
Sivejir’s Hex Scroll – It’s fun to turn people into frogs but this scroll only has a 50% chance of nerfing an enemy wizard Lord and it might only last for a single turn. That’s a lot left up to chance for an item that will eat a Necromancer’s entire magic points allowance.
Power Scroll – I can see a case for this being on a level one or level two Necromancer. They are expendable enough that you can justify courting irresistible force, but this is a bad item for Lords of any type.
Wand of Jet – A little weak, but it is a rarity in that you can decide to use it AFTER making your casting attempt rather than before which can save you from whiffing a magic phase. In Storm of Magic it becomes Green because it can help you roll more dice to get big Cataclysm spells off.
Forbidden Rod – Undead can always use more power dice but the risk of losing a character bites. I recommend a Master Necromancer with the Opal Amulet. His odds of dying are only in six and he can heal back lost wounds with the Lore of Vampires attribute. In my opinion the risk is worth it because you will usually roll at least one subpar Winds of Magic roll. Alternatively a level one Necromancer with the Opal Amulet has a 50% chance of surviving but costs you less if he does die.
Trickster’s Shard – You have to announce this at the beginning of the magic phase so you can’t pull this as an effective surprise. With only a 1 in three chance of wounding an enemy wizard per spell you lose, this is NOT worth taking up a precious Arcane Item slot.
Earthing Rod – It’s expensive for a magic item that might fail you, but I’d consider taking this if I were say taking a level four vampire lord with lots of vampire powers just because I’d want to protect my investment.
Dispel Scroll – Knocks out an enemy spell, no questions asked. This item is pretty much standard issue for all armies, not just Vampire Counts.
Power Stone – Not bad for a character expected to be dropping nuke spells. Nearly standard issue for Storm of Magic since you can fuel Cataclysm spells with it.
Sceptre of Stability – If you already have a Dispel Scroll and are desperate for more magic defense this isn’t terrible. The problem is throwaway items like this are usually given to level one caddies and you really need a level four caster to get maximum mileage out of this.
Channeling Staff – If the bearer of this item can stay alive the whole game, this will yield you on average one power die and one dispel die per game. More with arcane ruins. If you have points left in the magic item allowance of your blender lord you can do worse than this.
Scroll of Shielding– This is a good poor man’s dispel scroll because you can still mitigate a nuke spell even if cast with Irresistible Force (or an End Times spell). It’s also fairly cheap. It can cushion the blow of a nuke spell, if it's a Remains in Play spell you get the ward saves versus it every round. It can also save the ethereal bacon of an ethereal unit on the wrong end of a magic missile.
Enchanted items
Wizarding Hat – Vampire Counts have no characters that can legally take this, not that they’d want to.
Fozzrik’s Folding Fortress – This item is crazy expensive. Some armies can try gimmicky tricks with the Folding Fortress but the Vampire Counts is not one of them. Building assaults ONLY use casualties for combat resolution so your troops will lose a buffer against Crumble. If you tried to mitigate this by occupying your fortess with a Blender Lord and some Grave Guard, your opponent will just smirk and bypass your magic building altogether.
Arabyan Carpet – A flying mount is cheaper. So is the Flying Horror power.
Crown of Command - Undead don’t roll break tests.
Healing Potion – Too expensive for what little healing it provides. We should be able to get all character healing we need with the Vampire Lore attribute and the Hunger.
Featherfoe Torc – Even if you are facing a lot of flyers, it just seems too expensive to be worth it.
Ruby Ring of Ruin – It doesn’t take an arcane item slot and can be given to just about any character. To get your points worth out of this, give it to a support character likely to be hanging back from combat. If your character is just going to charge at the enemy you won’t get more than one or two chances to use this.
Terrifying Mask of EEE! – If you really want Terror take Supernatural Horror for the same cost and don’t eat into your magic item allowance. Better yet, spring for a Cairn Wraith and get a nasty support character.
Potion of Strength – This item is intended to give mediocre fighters one round of awesome. In most cases, you want your fighting characters to have staying power, but I can see some call for this with a flying character.
Potion of Toughness – For this points cost you can get a more reliable defensive talisman that is always active.
Other Trickster’s Shard – This is situational because you have to be facing enemies with Ward Saves you want to be ignoring and not be in base to base contact with a friendly character with a Ward save.
Iron Curse Icon This item is so cheap, it only needs to save one model every other game to pay for itself. Whatever your MVP unit is, someone should probably be carrying this item in it.
Potion of Foolhardiness – For hardly any points your Blender can get an extra attack on the charge (and one more chance for Red Fury). A very good deal if you haven’t used your Enchanted Item slot for something else.
Potion of Speed – Undead fighting characters have good initiative already. Still this item is really cheap and it might help you against the rare opponent with better Initiative.
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