Tk Special Characters Viable?

There is a 2500 point tournament coming up in my area soon which is actually allowing special characters(never usually allowed in tournaments around here). So my question is this are any of our special characters viable in a low comp environment?
Obviously Ramhotep is good with a big block of knights and khailda and a million archers in one block works but are there any other options?

Keep in mind i'd rather show up with a strong list that won't be subjected to instant cries of cheese.

Both Khatep and Arkhan are solid wizard characters (Khatep for the obvious loremaster and spell re-roll staff, just remember to keep him behind something tough since your opponent will know he has no defensive items if he's read up on TK).

Arkhan is for more straight offensive oriented armies I'd say due to his Death Magic, if you're up against anything with a low initiative (such as dwarves, lizardmen or ogres) he can completely devastate them (course only real way to get a purple sun off against dwarves is by IF, so be careful with that). The best part of Arkhan is the fact that taking him means you don't have to take two High Priests to get a high level death mage, admittedly he costs pretty much as much as two naked level 3's, but overall I'd say he's worth it in the right list. I'm sure there's someone else here who could recommend a suitable playstyle for him.

Settra while very powerful is also very expensive for a 2.5k game, if you wanted to run a low-magic list I could definitely see him as being a capable choice however (though i'd still take a level 1/2 so as not to make the general also the hierophant), center everything around him and you've got a WS7 army. (Chariots, NecroKnights, Colossi... Fun stuff!)

As you mentioned Ramhotep is a solid choice if you've got a big unit of NecroKnights, though for his buff he's only really worth taking if you've ONLY brought NecroKnights (as far as construct units go), however if you've got a big ol' horde of Tomb Guard then he can be worth taking "just" for his frenzy special rule, as he makes that little star unit an even bigger threat. Just be careful not to be baited, frenzy is a double-edged sword.

Khalida as you said works best in a huge unit of archers. Bare minimum I'd say is 40, and unless you bring a ton of archers you will NEED smiting for her to truly shine so be prepared to spend a good deal of points in magic. After that, you need units to keep your queen out of combat, so sphinxes and other nasty stuff to keep things occupied while you shoot the rest of the army into oblivion.

Not very familiar with Nekaph or Aphopas, but used right I can definitely see them working even if Aphopas might be a bit overcosted for what he brings to the table (But as long as he's not your ONLY EBTS unit I think he could work out)

Those are my 2 cents, hope it helps even if it was mostly just me rambling.

Arkhan is very strong, I think. You have to build your list around death, though, but both the catapults and the casket love doom and darkness. Soulblight is an excellent debuff. He's also versatile: not that expensive on foot, but can also be mounted on a chariot. Don't be fooled and think he can fight, but he's less susceptible to dwellers and can put a wound or two on ethereals

Khatep is not forceful, but reliable. Using his staff, you can avoid most unwanted miscasts and failures to cast, as long as they're unlikely, and loremaster gives you the full deck of spells.

Apophas is a gamble, Nekaph probably too easy to dispatch.

Settra is also quite strong: decent fighter on a tough chariot that can provide colossus with Ws 7. He demands that the army is built around him, though.

I think our special characters are cool bunch: most of them bring something special to the army without being overpowered or over-costed. The only rule design I don't like is Khalida, since she gives perverse incentives to put her in an enormous unit of archers.

Design the army so not only P Sun is the danger and dwarves are going to have let everything through just to stop P Sun. Arkhan effectively has +3PD versus dwarves, so with a casket you'll be at +4-6PD. A roll of 3+3 would give you about 11 PD. At worst, dwarves will have +5 DD + 1 PD stolen: you'd still be 10-9 with +5 to cast, with dwarves dispelling at +3. That would cost the dwarf more than it cost you, and you'd still have a magic phase.

For your points level I think Arkhan and Khatep are solid choices. None of our special characters should elicit cries of fromage, except maybe Settra but he's too expensive for the tournament you're talking about anyway.

Ramhotep is also good for certain lists, I can't add anything to what's already been said about him.

Khalida really demands that you play an exclusively shooty list with a massive archer unit, so unless that's your thing I'd stay away.

Apophas is, in my opinion, not worth it unless you are doing an entombed theme, and even then probably not. His poor rules design means that he fails as a character assassin (which is what he is obviously supposed to be) unless your opponent makes serious mistakes. He's a decent warmachine hunter but you don't need a special character to do that - Stalkers do it better without using up your hero points.

Nekaph is meh. He could make a decent character assassin but your opponent has to walk into the trap. I wouldn't bother.

We have seen from battle reports on this forum that some of the most succesful tournament results for Tomb Kings have come from a general using a special character, specifically Khalida and Ramohotep lists have won all of their tournament games, and a list with Arkhan recently won 3 out of 4 games.

I've used arkhan in a few tourneys, and everytime i was winning, until the last game, where he sucks himself into the warp in the first half of the game on a stupidly low amount of power dice (my luck).

He's super powerful, but there's a lack of healing. I would personally, go with him and a lvl 2 of nehek with a scroll for minor healing. You want to aim for trying to get dessication or smiting, but a default to wind isnt bad for healing. if you get smiting, that with soulblight is nasty, and combo-ing soulblight and dessication can be effin devastating. That and you'll want a scroll.

The way death synergizes with our army, dbl catapults and a casket are a must. You can then decide whether you want to add a hierotitan to taste for pure magic pwnage, but thats up to the user, and that fills the rares.

For the special, i would go constructs. Dbl warcat works nicely, maybe some Great/bowshabti and or stalkers to round it out. core will probably be mostly archers (i like 3x 20) with a 4 unit of flaming chariots to dispach your hydras/hpa's.

these units either a) shouldnt really be taking wounds or dont really have a healing capacity. you can also add knights but other than tanking something, they never wound crap for me. (always wiff city)

Thanks for all the great responses, I think I'm going to try and give Arkhan the Black a go as his backstory is cool but mainly because with him the casket and the kanopi(remains in play spells give back PD) I should have the magic phase that never ends .

Assuming 12 dice (average is 11PD!) I can 2 dice two spells say soulblight and dessacation which combined make our vortex terrifying so with 8PD i cast ours with 4 dice and purple fun with 3 dice which leaves me with one dice to cast the kanopi and go again . I doubt anyone can stop more than two spells going off as with +5-8 to cast with both wizards they will probably need to throw at least 5 dice to even have a shot at stopping a vortex.

Risky? Ofc but sounds like fun! Only downside is there is a blanket no double rares/ triple specials so only one catapult .