Piper

Race: Elf
Class: Supporter
Survivability: High
Damage Output: Medium
Threat Range: High (12" on the charge with Mystic Step & Enhance Self, or two magic attacks at a target 14" away when he starts his activation).

Profile: Piper has an elf stat line, low boxes high MOV, high AGI no RES as well as MEL 6 and MAG 6 and he has a fate ability "enhance self" which adds one to all of those (except RES). His movement is further increased by an innate ability allowing him to gain a 2" place at the start of his activation. Though he only has a 1" melee attack range he has a magical attack at range 6" which allows you to push a model like a melee attack (this is a lot more useful than it seems on face value).

What does he do?: Piper is one of the most versatile models in the game. His ability Duplicate Self allows him to ignore the first attack he would suffer, Enhance Self takes him to AGI 6, and at level 3 he gains Taunt which allows him to force an enemy aggressor to target him rather than a squishier target. Added together that makes him a good pseudo-defender.

On the other hand and again using Enhance Self (although he can do both these things without the ability just not quite as well) he becomes MEL 7, attacks a model already engaged to add another dice to the pool and uses Backstab to do 3|4|5 (glance|solid|crit) damage which makes him a decent pseudo-aggressor.

Lastly with his huge threat he can move models around in the back line and disrupt your opponents abilities and things that contest shrines as well as move models quite far away into monsters to cause your opponent difficulties. He also has a Soul Harvest of 4 which makes him a decent back up Soulgazer especially given his survivability.

Fate Appetite: High. He wants to cast Enhance Self every round if he can, you will always get some use from that ability. That said he can live without it, it will reduce his effectiveness but it won't cripple him.

Level Appetite: Med. Viper Venom (the ability to trigger enhance self of a melee attack) is incredibly useful and Taunt is a fantastic ability that can turn games. That said he can use the bulk of his toolkit without levelling up.

Magic Items: Glyph of Warding (Med). Makes him an even stronger pseudo-defender, the Boots of Agility also do this for one less cost but often your opponent will be looking to knock down Piper or apply automatic damage which makes it less effective (automatic damage will also often bypass the Glyph of Warding). If you are looking to get him an aggressive item to increase his output he gets more out of the Vorpal Blade or if you are up against a lot of models with RES the Armour shredder rather than the Ring of Power.

Combinations: Piper likes melee defenders, particularly Doenrakkar as they can help trigger his Back Stab rule and I quite like the Piper + Lvl2 Zaron combination as you only risk a skeleton and killing it generally does some damage to your opponent anyway. Generally though you take piper for his versatility. He can be a ghetto soul gazer, he can be a pseudo-defender or a psuedo-aggressor and he brings a long threat on his ranged attack that can move models around. He makes a good pick to round out a 5 or a 7 model roster to fill in for an important position that gets banned or in a warband where versatility is important. He also fits nicely into high AGI warbands which are useful for making it hard for your opponent to trigger their abilities.

Ban Targets: He doesn't like being knocked down and automatic damage, this means models like Thorgar, Xyvera and Styx are good ban targets. Thrommel also has the knockdown ability as well as his level 2 ability that prevents piper from pushing him but he really doesn't like duplicate self.

Judy's Judgement: