The Spirit Sword

[WizzyWarlock]

I've been puzzling over this for a little while now and not entirely sure how things work when it comes to The Spirit Sword. For those that don't know, the Spirit Sword hits a target and automatically wounds. If a save is unsuccessful then both sides roll a D6 and add LD value, with the difference causing additional wounds. For example, Spirit Sword carrier is LD10, hits a LD4 monster, both roll D6 - Spirit Sword rolls 3 (total 13), Monster rolls 6 (total 10), causing the Monster 3 additional wounds.

What confuses me are units with multiple leadership values. Let's take, for example, a character with The Spirit Sword attacking a Hydra and Handlers. The Spirit Sword goes first and connects with the Hydra - now, do you use the LD6 of the Hydra or the LD8 of the Handlers? It's neither a characteristic test nor a leadership test, I can't find any rules that state the Hydra would have a straight LD8 from the handlers being in the unit. He'd have a LD8 for leadership tests, sure, but this is directly attacking a Leadership value. The same goes for a character in a unit with multiple wounds - do they use their base leadership value for the attack or the leadership value of the character? Where does it state as much, as I can't find it.

The only thing I'm certain of is the Generals area effect, as it states under there that models use his Leadership instead of their own, but I suppose even that is arguable.

[theunwantedbeing]

Add whatever leadership they would use for leadership tests.

Truth be told this is one of the worst items in the entire game and you'de be better off just not using it.

[WizzyWarlock]

Add whatever leadership they would use for leadership tests.

Let's say it's classed a characteristic test. According to the FAQ on characteristic tests:

Q. For characteristic tests, is the best value in the unit always
used? (p10)
A. If the unit is required to take a characteristic test, the best
value in the unit is used. If every model in a unit is required to
take a characteristic test, then each model uses its own best
value instead.

The attack is targeting a single model, so wouldn't they use their own characteristic as described there?

[theunwantedbeing]

The attack is targeting a single model, so wouldn't they use their own characteristic as described there?

In the case of a monster & handler, the handlers are part of the model so their leadershio would be best.
You can't attack the handlers anyway.

In the case of a character on a monster, they're still one model and you use the character's leadership.

Ideally this should be have been FAQ'ed years ago.(along with about a million other things)