Anything you cast on your troops to improve their performance, short of movement spells. I will reserve movement spells for the last section. As always, assumptions are Slann in TG and at least one skink assistant. In order from worst to best. Flaming Sword of Rhuin - 5+ - Self Cast only, remains in play - A +1, always hit on 2+, str +3 The Self Cast thing is what makes this worthless to Lizardmen, as otherwise you could throw this on a str4 skink chief with the Cloak of Feathers and turn him into a str 7 monster who has flying charges. Even if this were possible though, the whole remains in play aspect would cut back the effectiveness. Basically if your Slann is in close combat, things are going extremely badly and this spell won't save you. But it might be fun to cast, for that story about the time your Slann killed some chaos knights. Synergies - Warrior mages, of which LM have none. Pha's Illumination - 5+ - US1 character within 12", remains in play - A=3 Str=5, magic weapons count as normal weapons when used against target The attack boost isn't anything to write home about, and it in fact weakens the profile of a Scar-Vet. The one thing it might help against is very powerful magic weapons wielded by enemy characters, but even then it will probably only be worth casting once a game. Extremely situational, but at least it's cheap to cast. Synergies - Enemy army has a weapon of doom. Guardian Light - 8+ - All friendly units within 12", remains in play - Immediately rallies and makes those in range immune to psych Another spell that might be useful to some other army, but Lizardmen really don't struggle with psychology problems like other armies. You might have some cause to cast this at some point when your Slann takes the lore of Light, but it is not all that essential. Even skink support units can have a kroxigor in them to prevent auto-break and failed charges due to fear. Synergies - Bretonnians, Empire, other armies that have Ld issues. Armies with units that are stubborn, but not immune to psychology. The Bear's Anger - 4+ - US1 character, self or within 12", remains in play - A +3, Str +2, T +1, can't use weapon Well now, here's something that would be highly amusing to cast on a flying skink chief.. He goes to a decent level of strength and a great number of attacks to become a nasty killing machine. Speaking of which, saurus scar vets become juggernauts of doom at 7 attacks str 7 T 6. Impressive. Downside is of course the remains in play aspect, meaning you will be saving this for the end of your magic phase. This means you will need to cast this spell into combat to really give it a chance to be used.. Or you can cast it on the Jag Charm Scar-Vet before his flying charge goes off. Overall though, Scar Vets are already deadly enough and skink heroes (except maybe the chief) are still not combat ready after the spell. Synergies - Portent of Far, as you'll be seeing mostly 2+'s to wound. Celestial Shield - 7+ - Friendly Unit 24", LOS, remains in play - 4+ ward to all missiles You may find this one useful if you find yourself having to expose a key unit to fire for one turn. Say you had to land your terradons in a key location that is exposed to fire for a turn to get LOS on a warmachine, this spell will halve all damage against them. Also nice to throw onto a unit that your enemy is hell-bent on destroying to force them to shift targets. Your Stegadon might be in sight of 2 cannons waiting to engage next turn, and you might feel that a 4+ ward is the way to go. For the most part, you will have decent skink screening and such, so this may be the spell you drop for Portent of Far. Synergies - Units vulnerable to shooting, needing to be in an exposed position. Second Sign of Amul - 5+ - no target - Adds D3 rerolls to hit, wound, armor save, or ward saves that turn. Not bad at all, it may not be as great as portent of far, but it is a bit more flexible. It is good for times when you have a "key roll" to make. Say your Oldblood with the Blade of Realities misses with a 2 or 3, or your giant bow fails to wound a juicy target. It's not totally essential, but it's still really good. And not remains in play. Synergies - "Big rolls", like BoR, Giant Bow, etc. Shades of Death, Walking Death - 9+ - Friendly unit within 12", remains in play - Unit gains fear, fear causers promoted to terror causers One is in the Shadow book, one in Death. These are pretty interesting spells, and can have potentially game winning effects... or be totally useless. A lot depends on your army composition and the enemy's. If you are making a big killer block of troops (TG for example), this spell gives them that nifty ability to auto-break enemy units. Don't forget, cast this on that little support unit of skinks with kroxigor, and suddenly that unit can cause some terror checks. Cast it on your cavalry who just charged some fear causing enemy cav, and you can suddenly auto-break them if you win by even a little. This one rewards creativity, and that gives it a solid standing in my mind. Of course it won't get top honors, since some armies totally scoff at psychology altogether. Synergies - Skrox units, hunting packs, and other units who can gain a "surprise terror check" out of the spell. Big combat res blocks of LM fighting stubborn enemy troops who aren't immune to psych. The Howler Wind - 7+ - Self, remains in play - No unit within 12" of caster may be targeted with shooting str4 and below. The anti-gunline spell, within the anti-gunline Lore. You'd be surprised how many units can huddle into within 12" of your Slann. You just have to be sure you get this spell to go off. Not much in the way of standard shooting is above strength 4. Even skaven ratling guns don't get to pound your advancing troops. It also allows for more landing places for your terradons to land, and makes a forward unit of skink skirmishers less necessary, so that your unscreened line can quickly get to range on the shooting lines. Synergies - Any sort of gunline with lots of lines of shooting troops. Portent of Far - 5+ - Friendly unit within 12" - Reroll 1's to hit and to wound until end of turn Well you may have guessed I love this spell, since I've referenced it in nearly every other spell entry in the book. One reason is, as a LM player you are always able to grab this spell on at least one of your priests. Simply put, this spell has an insane level of usefulness throughout the army. On a Slann, his spells are more likely to hit home. Oh and it effects his whole unit, so his Temple Guard and any characters joined will do a good chunk of extra damage with all of those rerolls. On a unit of spearmen with 24 attacks, you are looking at great damage potential. Heck, cast it on a salamander about to get off a great shot with his template and watch the damage rack up. Or a unit of 3 razordons. Endless usefulness, I recommend taking this on every skink priest. It's also not a remains in play spell, which means your casters won't be inconvenienced. Synergies - Everything. Ten more done, putting us at 34/48. Next will be debuffs!
Nice, these spells didn't really interest me as much as the last few lots. I am much more of a damage caster when I use magic rather than support, as you seem to mention (esp. fear/terror) they are often quite situational and one game, may break the game open, while another you will wish you had a different spell. Bear's Anger.. I think its limited range mostly restricts it from helping the flying skink, if you are in range he didn't need to fly there and if you are out of range... Well, it won't help him. Looks cool to combine with the jag charm, but you would need to be dominating in magic pretty heavily to want to rely on two spells going off successfully without either being stopped, especially when one is a bound. The opponent will know what is happening.
That's why I love Focus of Mystery on the Slann... a lot of spells have that one moment where they are perfect to cast, but the rest of the time you wish you weren't stuck with it. Mystery lets you have your pick, so it becomes necessary to know what each spell does and when it is actually useful to cast it. The one situation I can see it happening is a single character charging something that the Temple Guard are engaged with. Maybe you are stuck against a massive unit of Daemons or Undead with your Temple Guard, and you really want to make sure you wipe them out. The character charges in during the movement phase and then they get this spell cast on them. Those couple extra kills could mean wiping out the unit once all is said and done with the rest of the combat. Though you'd need to be a bit desperate to try this with a skink priest. Oh, thought of one more. I plan to have a Scar Vet with burning blade of chotec in the TG unit, to help bust rank and file. This spell will be nice in the event of chariots, so I won't have to worry about them running off. Or against high toughness targets... or characters in general.
I'd rather just put a great weapon on the scar vet to deal with chariots... If one is charging in (most likely) they will have plenty of opportunity to either dispel bear's anger or choose a different target with the chariot. If you are charging it, well its screwed whether you have s7 or not. A Scar vet makes that TG and Slann unit that much more expensive again too.
The strength stays the same, but you gain 3 attacks, toughness 6, and you get to use a shield if you have one. The spell only prohibits you from wielding a weapon while under its effects. A Scar Vet with enchanted shield and light armor sits at 2+ armor, and with this spell he'll dish out 7 attacks at str 7 and have a toughness of 6 while keeping his armor. That's one tough scar-vet, I'd put good odds on him winning some character duels in that mode. Of course it would only be very infrequently used, so I might reserve it as a surprise cast as the last spell of the magic phase. EDIT: My bad, characters under effects of Bear's Anger can't use shields.
I'm not 100% sure that portent of far works for spells cast by the slann. It would be incredible if it did. It says that it rerolls 1's to hit or to wound by that unit. The slann has joined that unit, does he count as being intrinsically part of the unit? I really can't decide what I think.
A character on his own is a unit. A character joined to another unit becomes one unit. Think of a unit as any group of models that moves cohesively in the movement phase.
But if the character casts the spell does the unit cast the spell? I do think you are probably right, but I'd have a tough time arguing it if my opponent disagreed.
Effects cast on a 'unit' can always include the characters in it... Think of it this way, if you had 10 guys and a character in a unit, and someone threw a fiery blast scoring an amazing 12 wounds and wounding with all of them, are you going to say the character isn't 'part' of the unit so he is uneffected while all the others die?
That's an unlucky example mate. I'm fairly certain that hits don't get randomised onto characters if there are at least 5 rank and file models left in the unit. So even if your opponent managed to wound with all 12 hits then the character would still be standing. I don't have my rulebook on me at the moment, I'd give you a reference otherwise...
I have been wondering what happens in a case like that, but I can't find it anywhere in the rulebook. But you are absolutely right that no randomization occurs when more than 5 rank and file are present. This came up when I rolled a spectacular '10' on my organ gun against a unit of 5 Silver Helms that was joined by a character. I argued that they each took a hit and the rest were randomized, but my opponent furiously argued that any excess wounds were applied to the character. It turns out this was probably the worse solution for him, as the rank and file were wiped out and one wound placed on his mage (who was subsequently gunned down by Thunderers). Now I know the excess wound thing applies specifically to unit champions, but I've never seen it applied to characters in any GW text. After looking it up, the best I can figure is you can wipe out the rank and file, with any excess wounds going to waste. The character is totally safe from any given "volley" of shots so long as there are 5 rank and file to protect him. Bullet shields maybe? This would make sense as sort of an extension of "Look out sir!"
I've always played it that sure no randomization occurs if there are more than 5 rnf, but if there are enough wounds to kill the whole unit then the other ones aren't going to magically disappear, they're going to hit the last guy standing. I too cannot get a rules reference at this point, but it makes sense to me. The opponent isn't going to stop shooting when there is just a character left because 'oh well he had plenty of guys there to start with' in game terms that shots that have already wounded the unit (the character is afterall part of the unit) aren't going to vanish when just the character is left.
The problem with that is, though, that the character will tend to have different toughness, armor save, etc.