Race: Elf
Class: Defender
Survivability: High
Damage Output: Low
Threat Range: High
Profile: Skye has possibly the best defensive stat line in the game. Though he has no RES he has AGI 6 as well as MOV 5 and 15 boxes. Though 15 boxes is low for a defender it is average overall and would be high for an AGI 5 model, let alone an AGI 6 model. To make him even more survivable if you knock him down he only loses 2 AGI instead of 3 ans stands back up for free. He has MEL 6 with a 2" melee range, 2|3|4 damage and a Soul Harvest of 4. He also has pathfinder.
His incredibly high AGI makes him psuedo-immune from a lot of conditions in the game - Rakkir isn't going to try and put poison on him rolling 3 dice, Istariel's 1 dice Burning Arrow attacks are not very effective she needs the Ring of Power to have a minuscule theoretical chance of causing fire. etc.
What does he do?: I'm going to insert in this section Tort's guide to using Skye. First thing when it comes to warband selections - Skye is extremely fate hungry, don't take him with heroes that are going to burn up your fate. Next when it comes to positioning him - in 3s Skye is very difficult to damage - his high AGI means your opponent simply will not be able to roll enough dice to kill him - they will need to wear him down over multiple turns which gives you the opportunity to retreat or heal or otherwise collect souls with the rest of your largely unmolested warband. In 5s he is less survivable - your opponent can conceivably throw more at him, there are more models to add ganging up bonuses and more activations before he can go again. You will actually need to think about positioning and how important his safety is.
Now on to why you are taking Skye in your warbane - Heroic Stand. For the cost of an action and a fate Skye gains the ability to teleport to a friendly model in the process of being attacked, give the model 4 health and if it is a melee attack remove a die from the dice pool (by engaging the model, he is moved before the dice pool for the attack is calculated). It also allows Skye to be extremely mobile he can move more than 5" as he can be placed anywhere b2b with the model being attacked and since he moves before the attack you can't avoid triggering the ability with pushes or other combat maneuvers.
Getting the best out of this ability can be tricky - for best results you need 2 fate. There are many models in judgement that gain from applying crits or applying combat manoeuvres, these models will often charge in order to be able to apply these effects as these effects are rare to trigger unless you roll large numbers of dice.
In order to prevent your opponent from being able to trigger those effects you are able to trigger Heroic Stand and then also use Stand your Ground. This will cost a second fate but will remove both dice from the charge and likely an additional dice from subsequent attacks. Rakkir for example charging with 6 dice would have a 64% chance of triggering poison and then using his toxin ability, by removing two dice you reduce the chance to 38%. In this hypothetical situation where Rakkir would be expecting to do 13-17 damage with attacks and toxins he is instead unlikely to trigger toxin, and will do less damage with attacks, taking into account the extra 4 life the model gains Rakkir is only likely to do 2-4 damage. That is a huge difference. This also works on Brok needing Crits, Thorgar with his throw, and other non-aggressor models who may have struggled to trigger effects as is.
If you don't have to worry about triggering abilities you can still use Heroic Stand to add health to a model in danger of death and remove dice, if your opponent is using ranged attacks you may be able to use Heroic Stand to block LOS - the original attack will still happen but your opponent will not be able to make subsequent ranged attacks against the original model (note: you will need terrain or other models in order to block a 50mm base from another 50mm base).
His other defender ability is diversion - it allows you to allocate damage to any models within 2" when another model within 2" is hit - crucially you can allocate damage to a defender although you can't use the ability when another defender is the target of the attack. This will trigger along with other defender abilities so for example Thrommels Bodyguard ability will add two RES to the original target and then you can transfer damage to Thrommel effectively negating 4 damage through RES.
At level 2 he gains the ability to stun a model (2S + damage - the combat manoeuvre also heals Skye) and at level 3 he gains an excellent ability - Globe of Invulnerability which grants a RES to models within 4". This ability dovetails with Heroic Stand as when you teleport to a model the 4" bubble moves with you so in addition to giving a model 5 health and reducing your opponents dice pool you can also add a RES to the model being attacked and position Skye to affect other models as well. Globe of Invulnerability costs an action and a fate.
Fate Appetite: High. If Skye isn't using Heroic Stand every turn he isn't doing his job.
Level Appetite: Low. It's hard to use both Heroic Stand and Globe of Invulnerability, getting him to level 2 is a good improvement, he gains the ability to use Heroic Stand, charge and stun a model to make it lose an action (or a fate to shake) but it's not essential to him.
Magic Items: Minotaur Essence (Med), Gift of the Gods (Med). The Boots of Agility are overkill with him. He only goes down to 4 AGI even when knocked down so your opponent will almost never be rolling good dice against him. Taking him to 7 AGI instead of 6 won't effect models unless the attack stat they are using is 8 or higher, there is generally another model in your warband that will benefit more from the boots. Don't bother with an offensive item since he will not make a lot of attacks (usually 1-2 a turn). I like the Minotaur Essence with him as he tends to be quite hard to hurt but in the way a lot. It stops you killing him over turns with chip damage. Gift of the Gods is also good on him especially in combination with Heroic Stand but eats up even more fate.
Combinations: I like Skye with minotaurs as he can share the damage out and then have it regenerated - Doenrakkar is a great partner for him as he can hold space in the centre while Skye teleports around behind or to the side. He likes both ranged and melee warbands, he works particularly well with Brok - Heroic Stand + Heroic Destiny makes him surprising survivable and Brok can draw in targets, gain the health and protection from Skye then activate with an extra die from Skye engaging the model that attacked him.
Ban Targets: Zhonyja actually rolls enough dice to hurt him, Loribella and Styx can do damage without rolling dice - look out for models that can pull him out of position - now that the distance is reduced to 5" on heroic stand he can actually be out of position.
Judy's Judgement:
