In addition to being highly trained in hand to hand combat, the Howling Banshee Exarch is equipped with a Banshee Mask that amplifies the Banshees' warcry, overwhelming their enemy's central nervous system with psychic energy, causing a temporary paralysis that enables the Howling Banshee to always strike first.

Howling Banshee Exarchs can have the following warrior powers, "War Shout" and "Acrobatic"

"War Shout" forces a leadership test on the enemy squad that the Exarch is attacking. If the attacked squad fails their leadership test, the squad has to fight with –1 to their weapons skill. To my mind the War Shout is too expensive (20 points) and too risky to be considered. Great when it works but a real waste of points when it doesn’t.

"Acrobatic" allows the Exarch to engage any model in the enemy unit that she is fighting. At 8 points, "Acrobatic is very good value.

Howling Banshee Exarchs may also be given the following wargear, Executioner and Power Blades.

Power Blades have the same properties as other power weapons, except that it endows the Exarch with another attack on top of the extra attack gained by having two close combat weapons.

The Executioner adds +2 to the banshee’s strength and also ignores normal aromor saves. The Executioner is a very handy weapon as it allows the Exarch to strike at Strength 5. Very handy against Space Marines. The only negative to the executioner is that it can’t be used with one hand, so that means that the Exarch can’t get an additional attack for having another close combat weapon.

A Howling Banshee Exarch with Acrobatic and the Executioner is an excellent character killer. An Exarch with this combination is about the only thing that even has a hope of killing (or at least inflicting a wound of two on) a Dark Eldar Archon under the influence of combat drugs, in hand to hand.