3/5 stars. The rules are average.
Background.
Near the beginning of the Heresy, the Word Bearers were already dabbling in things that maybe they should have left well alone. The diabolists were a symptom of the dabbling; creating powers never seen before and tearing at the frayed edges of real space.
Strengths.
The diabolism discipline comes with 2 powers and fear. The first power is hellfire which is a nice short range shooting attack with deflagrate and breaching (but a bit random since you get 1d3 shots). The second is dark channeling which boosts your friends by giving them aflame (reducing your enemies leadership by a pip) and feel no pain. This is useful and calls for a close combat style play - which no doubt you were already using.
They also come with damned which translates as malefic if you want it to which is an odd choice mechanically.
This is all rounded off by a force weapon and a pistol upgrade if you wanted one.
Weaknesses.
Overall, they feel like a limited librarian without any word bearer summonings like you'd otherwise want to have. I honestly feel the ability to summon daemons would be a better option if you are headed down this route and the diabolist will often be overlooked for better psychic command characters. I'd really only play one if I had the room on the roster and wanted that Leadership modifier against the enemy from aflame along with feel no pain. Potentially great for jump pack equipped space marines I suspect. Even so, I'm yet to see a diabolist played on the table top. Maybe you have?
Builds.
Diabolist with jump pack (135 points).
The jump pack is to help get stuck into combat quicker and to run with similarly equipped men.
Diabolist in Cataphractii Armour (135 points).
Take a combi-weapon of your choice to taste.
Diabolist on Scimitar Jet Bike with Multi-Melta (175 points).
A touch expensive here to be honest, but it is still functional.
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