Doctor Stygius

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Doctor Stygius Mercenary, & Cryx Partisan, Cephalyx Solo - Warcaster Attachment

An apple a day might keep the doctor away in the real world, but in a post-apocalyptic Iron Kingdoms, it’ll take some seriously heavy firepower to avoid a visit from Dr. Stygius! Suffer a wound while he’s on your crew, and this sinister Cephalyx has a suite of tools to stitch, saw, or scrape away your ails and keep you in the action. But if you’re looting for the other team, don’t forget your tinfoil hat or you may find Stygius psychically scrambling your cerebellum into a savory sauce!”

Basic Info

Doctor Stygius
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 6 STR 6 MAT 6 RAT N/A M.A. 7 DEF 14 ARM 13 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA C UNIT SIZE N/A COST 4 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Riot Quest - Although this model has rules which allow it to be played in Warmachine and Hordes, it was primarily designed for the Riot Quest boardgame. RQ is set in an alternate and/or future timeline where the Infernals won the war. Some of the RQ models are slightly more goofy than their WMH equivalents.

Mercenary - This model will work for Cryx.

• Partisan [ Cryx ] - When included in a Cryx army, this model/unit is a Cryx model/unit instead of a Mercenary model/unit.

Selective - This model can be included in a Mercenary army only if the army is made using a Cephalyx theme force.

Attached - Before the start of the game, attach this model to a friendly Faction warcaster for the rest of the game. Each Faction warcaster can have only one model/unit attached to it.

Abilities

• Pathfinder
• Stealth
• Anatomical Precision - When this model's melee damage roll fails to exceed the ARM of the living model hit, that model suffers 1 damage point. A model disabled by a melee attack made by this model cannot make a Tough roll.
• Heal [5] (★ Action) - RNG B2B. Target friendly living Faction model. If the model is in range, remove 5 damage points from it.
• Magic Ability [ 7 ] - This model can cast spells. Normally this uses up the model's Combat Action and as such is limited to one spell per activation, but exceptions do exist.
• Sacrificial Pawn [ Drudge ] - When this model is directly hit by an enemy ranged attack, you can have one friendly, non-incorporeal Drudge model within 3" of it directly hit instead. That model is automatically hit and suffers all damage and effects. The Sacrificial Pawn special rule can only trigger once per attack roll.

Weapons

Prosthetic Manipulators (×2)
		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				2				8
Anaesthesia - A living model damaged by an attack from this weapon becomes stationary for one round.

Spells

	COST	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
Get the Juices Flowing	(★ Action)	-	(★)	-	-	No
Add 1 focus point to each friendly Monstrosity model currently within 5" of this model.
Spell Slave	(★ Action) or (★ Attack)	Stats vary every time
This model must be in its warcaster/warlock's control range to make the Spell Slave special action. When it does, it casts one of the spells on its warlock/warcaster's card with a COST of 3 or less. This model cannot cast upkeep spells or spells with a RNG of SELF or CTRL. When casting an offensive spell, Spell Slave is a magic attack. Use this model's Magic Ability score when making magic attack rolls.

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Operating Theater

• Cryx
  • As a Mercenary solo, Doctor Stygius can go in every Cryx theme but he uses your "Up to one Mercanry solo" slot (most of the time).
  • Black Industries. When taken in this theme, he doesn't use your Merc slot.
  • Dark Host
  • The Ghost Fleet
  • Scourge of the Broken Coast. When taken in this theme, he doesn't use your Merc slot.

Recent Changes

No changes since 2021.10

Thoughts on Doctor Stygius

Doctor Stygius in a nutshell

He's a support solo with the ever-useful Spell Slave ability and a situationally useful Heal. He can also be a surprise in combat, bringing two attacks with an anti-tough, auto-damage, auto-stationary effect vs living models.

Within Cryx this guy single-handedly makes the Skarlock Thrall redundant, except for the very rare case that you're playing in Dark Host and you want to spend your Mercenary solo slot on someone else.

Playing in the Operating Theater Mercenary theme force is where Stygius truly shines. Monstrosities don't get focus when powering up like 'jacks do, and since they keep focus between rounds being able to hand out free focus to multiple a turn is very powerful. Additionally, Operating Theater armies are basically always going to have drudges around for Stygius to Sac-Pawn onto since Thexus likes having a ton of them and Cyphon wants at least one unit of them nearby to burn for longer spell ranges.

Combos & Synergies - Cryx

• Skarre1 likes him as an upgrade to a Skarlock Thrall to do the same job - cast her Ritual Sacrifice spell each turn - plus Stygius also brings the Heal for her post-feat.
  • Stygius can cast Ritual Sacrifice on itself. So it plus three Scrap Thralls gets you 4 turns of the spell at a very low cost.
• Deneghra1 likes a Spell Slave to cast Ghost Walk, and (very occasionaly) Venom. Arguably she'd prefer the Withershadow Combine as her spell slave because they can also upkeep a spell, but then again her upkeep spells are so deadly that you often don't need to upkeep them.
• Scaverous likes a Spell Slave to cast an extra Telekinesis every turn. He definitely would prefer the Withershadow Combine (for various reasons) but they're only allowed in one theme, so Scaverous takes Stygius whenever the WSC are absent.

Combos & Synergies - Cephalyx

• Being able to heal a guaranteed 5 boxes in one activation is amazing for Monstrosities. Since you get to choose which boxes get healed, as long as a Monstrosity has a single unmarked damage box Stygius is guaranteed to be able to heal one damage box off each crippled system with two points of healing to spare. You tend to beat up your own Monstrosities as the game goes on, so having a consistent way to stitch them back up again in a pinch if you overdo it is very useful.

    Exulon Thexus    

Exulon Thexus appreciates having access to a Spell Slave, if only for the potential for a fifth cast of Telekinesis each turn. Sadly, many of the spells Thexus has access to are not able to be cast with Spell Slave. Deceleration and Psycho Surgery require the caster to have a control range and Rampager is too expensive. Thexus often runs only a few Monstrosities, but letting Stygius deal with loading them up early can leave him more free to toss out a bit more Telekinesis action to get the board set up just how he wants it. Alternatively, Thexus has no upkeeps to put out early on so on the top of turn one he can dump 5 focus across 3 Monstrosities, have Stygius juice them all up, and use his remaining 3 focus to cast Deceleration if the opponent has any ranged threats long enough to already be taking pot-shots at your army. Since Monstrosities don't lose focus between turns, you are now just one focus short of having all three fully-loaded and ready to go when the enemy gets closer without having to put any damage on them. If you run them next turn you can have Stygius juice them again to top them back off, and after that point you should be close enough to be running/charging for free due to Aggressive Reaction.

Of the spells Stygius can cast, Influence and Hex Blast are situationally useful while Telekinesis is the good stuff. Thexus already likes to handle your opponent's models nearly as much as they do and having the ability to turn yet another one of your opponent's models around is just that much more oppressive. Generally, if you can't find a use for Telekinesis in any given situation then you just aren't thinking creatively enough.

    Cognifex Cyphon    

Get the Juices Flowing is huge for Cognifex Cyphon. Cyphon is a FOCUS 7 battlegroup caster that wants to take at least 4-5 Monstrosities, but has no way to power them other than giving them his focus or having his Cephalyx models deal damage to them. Cyphon lacks the Psycho Surgery spell Thexus has and his feat deals 6 damage to each of his Monstrosities, so the chip damage of cutting them for focus can add up. With Stygius in the center of a group of five Monstrosities he is able to generate five free focus each turn, focus that you normally would have to either take from Cyphon or dedicate five Cephalyx models and a bunch of HP to get.

Cyphon also has the fantastic spells Empathic Overload, Gallows, and Breath Stealer that Stygius can Spell Slave for him.

• Empathic Overload automatically hitting friendly models means that Stygius not being able to boost his magic attack roll doesn't matter, letting you run a drudge forward to lock the AoE onto a group of slippery lower-armor infantry. With Cyphon also casting it on other drudges, this leads to potentially 3 auto-hitting POW 12 4" AoE templates being dropped in a single turn.
• Gallows being cast from another vector is very potent, especially given that Cyphon doesn't have the ability to channel spells like Thexus does. Stygius can get in position and Gallows a target out from behind an obstructing model to open them up for a 15" range Gallows or two from Cyphon. That's potentially 18" of forced movement, that can be followed up by a Subduer with SPD 8 on feat turn with a 6" range net gun that drags the target into base-to-base contact for a ridiculous (and definitely unrealistically best-case) ~32" threat range Subduer. Assuming average distance rolls and that the spells all hit, which they have a good chance of doing on a lower DEF target like a Heavy Warjack, that's still a silly ~16" of forced movement when including the Subduer's net-gun.
• Breath Stealer is pretty simple, Monstrosities aren't the most accurate beatsticks and Breath Stealer helps to alleviate this issue. Because Breath Stealer is a one-round debuff and not an upkeep it is still able to be cast with Spell Slave and can be put on multiple targets at once if Cyphon is also casting it. This is slightly less appealing to Spell Slave than other spells might be since you generally will want to put it on high-DEF targets, and despite being Magic Ability 7 Stygius still can't boost to hit so he won't be landing it as consistently as Cyphon could.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Neither his DEF or ARM is quite good enough to rely on (as is typical for Cephalyx). Instead he has Stealth and Sac Pawn ... but both of these can be worked around.
  • If you stand close enough to a Drudge to Sac-Pawn an attack (that ignores Stealth) to the Drudge, then you are close enough for something that targets the Drudge to bounce to you (stuff like Electro Leap, sprays, etc).
• Get the Juices Flowing does not have a very large range, and taking the most advantage of it will require you to bunch up your Monstrosities pretty close together.
  • With a few Monstrosities you can bunch up for focus efficiency but then you compromise on board presence.
  • With a lot of them (as in, you are playing Cognifex Cyphon) then trying to keep all those large bases near Stygius is going to really hamper your movement, plus you're still compromising board presence.
  • You may have to accept that a more spread out deployment can be more valuable than a few free focus over the course of the game.
• He is ok in melee vs living, but terrible vs non-living.

Tricks & Tips

• Anatomical Precision stacks with Anaesthesia, meaning he will always cause a living model to go stationary even if you roll snake eyes for damage. You still need to hit, though.
• Use your other Cephalyx with Anatomical Precision to poke the Monstrosities for focus on turn 1 only, and have Stygius Juice them on turn 1 and turn 2. When it comes time for the Monstrosities to activate on turn 2, they'll be at max 3 focus without you needing to allocate anything from your caster.
• Since he has two attacks, you can use him to put 2 focus on a single Monstrosity ... but you probably don't want to because that'll make the Monstrosity stationary. It is much better to use Juices and give a single focus to multiple Monstrosities.

The one exception is if you get first turn and you want to spread your Monstrorisites out further than Juices can cover. In this case, leave one Monstrosity within 7" of Stygius and have him hit it twice. The stationary effect will expire at the start of your next turn, and your opponent is unlikely to get many attacks into your stationary Monstrosity this early in the game.

Other

Trivia

• Released 2020.01

Other Faction models

Cryx Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Agathia - Aiakos2 - Asphyxious1 - Asphyxious2 - Asphyxious3 - Coven - Deathjack2 - Deneghra1 - Deneghra2 - Deneghra3 - Goreshade1 - Goreshade2 - Goreshade3 - Mortenebra1 - Mortenebra2 - Rahera - Scaverous - Skarre1 - Skarre2 - Skarre3 - Sturgis2 - Terminus - Venethrax
Warcaster attachments	The Withershadow Combine - Satyxis Blood Priestess - Skarlock Thrall - Doctor Stygius (Partisan) - Madelyn Corbeau (Mercenary)
Other Warjack Controllers	Jack Marshals: Iron Lich Overseer       "Junior Warcasters": Aiakos1 - Asphyxious4 - Deneghra0
Light	Cankerworm - Deathripper - Defiler - Helldiver - Nightwretch - Ripjaw - Scavenger - Shrike - Stalker
Heavy	Barathrum - Corruptor - Deathjack1 - Desecrator - Erebus - Harrower - Kharybdis - Inflictor - Leviathan - Malice - Nightmare - Reaper - Seether - Slayer
Colossal	Kraken - Sepulcher
Units, Solos, Battle Engines, & Structures
Units	Asphyxious4 - Bane Knights - Bane Riders - Bane Warriors - Bile Thralls - BO Boarding Party - BO Ironmongers - BO Smog Belchers - Blackbane's Ghost Raiders - Bloodgorgers - Marauders - Carrion Thralls - Cephalyx Drudges - Cephalyx Overlords - Mechanithralls - Necrosurgeon - Revenant Cannon - Revenant Crew - Satyxis Gunslingers - Satyxis Blood Witches - Satyxis Raiders - Scharde Dirge Seers - Scharde Pirates - Soulhunters - The Devil's Shadow Mutineers - The Withershadow Combine
Solos	Aiakos1 - Agrimony - Axiara - Bane Lord Tartarus - Bloat Thrall - BTO Mobius - Captain Rengrave - Darragh Wrathe - Doctor Stygius - Deneghra0 - Gerlak - Hellslinger - Iron Lich Overseer - Machine Wraith - Master Gurglepox - Misery Cage - Necrotech - Ol' Grim - Pistol Wraith - Satyxis Blood Priestess - Satyxis Raider Captain - Scrap Thrall - Skarlock Thrall - Severa Blacktide - Soul Trapper - Warwitch Siren
Battle Engines & Structures	Wraith Engine
Theme Forces
Black Industries - Dark Host - The Ghost Fleet - Scourge of the Broken Coast
Mercenaries
Refer to Who Works for Whom and/or Category: Cryx Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.11

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification:  : Partisan      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

Which Faction am I? Partisans are Mercenary (or Minion) models unless they're taken in their "Home" Faction. For example, a Mercenary model that is Partisan [Cygnar]: When used in most armies it is "friendly Faction" only to other Mercenary models. When used in a Cygnar army it is "friendly Faction" to Cygnar models ... and stops being "friendly Faction" to any other Mercenaries in that Cygnar army. In a multi-caster game, Partisans count as the main army's Faction and not as a Mercenary models (if playing a Faction other than Mercaneries). (Infernal Ruling) Attachments If a Partisan unit can get a special attachment from their Partisan Faction (for instance a Soulless Escort or Trollkin Sorcerer) then they can only get that attachment when they're in the Partisan Faction. They can't take it when working as a regular Mercenary. (Locked thread) When taken in their Partisan Faction, they can't have a Ranking Officer attached. Partisan warcasters If you have a Partisan caster, you must choose whether your army is a Mercenary force or a [Partisan Faction] force. What warjacks the caster can take are then limited by your choice. Partisan casters can be taken in [Partisan Faction] theme forces. Refer to the main rulebook. Partisan casters can be fielded in multiple-caster games. (Locked thread) See also the Category: Partisan for what happens if you mix and match Partisan casters and Merc casters in multi-caster games. Partisans & Theme Forces (Edit) Partisans are Mercenary/Minion models, so there are two ways you can add them to a theme force: Freely: If the Partisan is on the list of allowed models, then you can take as many as you want plus another Mercenary unit/solo. (Infernal Ruling) They can be explicitly allowed (for example Jaws of the Wolf allows "Kayazy models/units" so Partisan Kayayz can be used freely). They can be implicitly allowed (for example Scourge of the Broken Coast allows "living Cryx models/units" and Partisan Cephalyx fit that criteria, so they can be used freely). (Infernal Ruling) Limited: If the Partisan isn't on the list of allowed models, it does use up your "Up to one Mercenary/Minion" slot, so you can only have the one. Whether you used option 1 or 2 above, once they're in your theme force they count as a Faction model and so: They can be taken as a Requistion Option (if they fit the Requistion description). For example Lanyssa can be taken as a free solo in the Legion of Dawn theme. (Infernal Ruling) They will get any theme benefit that they fit the description for. For example Storm Division gives all Cygnar models Immunity Electricity, so Partisan Mercs in that theme get immunity too. For example Nemo4's Mechaniks get Reposition [3] in Heavy Metal. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Selective      (Edit) The Selective rule only restricts which Mercenary armies this model can be included in. It doesn't limit what other Factions this model can work for. Also, when taken outside of Mercenaries this model can go in a non-Cephalyx theme. When working outside of a Mercenary theme, Cephalyx warcasters can have non-Cephalyx attachments (eg Madelyn). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Attached      (Edit) Attached models are not (normally) part of the warcaster's/warlock's battlegroup. (Infernal Ruling) (You need the Companion rule to become part of the battlegroup). Thus, attachments are not affected by battlegroup-only effects such as Energizer (unless they're a Companion).

Rules Clarification : Pathfinder      (Edit) Pathfinder (Edit) - Pathfinder does not apply to involuntary movement (pushes & slams). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Stealth      (Edit) Stealth models are not invisible and you can target them - you'll just auto-miss most of the time. You can target them with a charge. You can target them with an AOE, have it auto-miss and scatter, luckily land on top of them anyway, and that will hit them.

Rules Clarification : Blight Storm and/or Anatomical Precision and/or Affliction     (Edit) With an AOE, only the model directly hit by the AOE will take auto-damage, other models in the AOE take normal damage. You don't get auto-damage on stuff which isn't an attack, like Electro Leap and Flak Field. If someone is immune to damage, you can't trigger the auto-damage vs them. Because you never got a damage roll in the first place. (Infernal Ruling) When this ability is triggered by a spell (ie Blight Storm or Affliction) then that does not change the source of the damage to the caster, nor change the damage type to magical. It merely changes the result of a damage roll. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Heal and/or First Aid     (Edit) This ability doesn't target, so you can use it on models behind you. When Heal is used as a magic ability, it bypasses anti-spell stuff that hinge on the word "target" (such as Spell Ward or Arcane Vortex).

Rules Clarification : Magic Ability      (Edit) Using a Magic Ability counts as a spell, for effects such as Spell Ward, Witch Hunter, etc. Combat Action Nearly all Magic Ability spells require the spellcaster to use their Combat Action to cast the spell. As such it is not an "at any time" ability (like it is when warcasters/warlocks cast spells). This means ... You must complete your movement before you use a MA. A model in a unit cannot use its Combat Action to cast a spell until all members of the unit have completed their movement. (Infernal Ruling) You cannot make initial ranged or initial melee attacks on the same turn you use a MA. You cannot buy additional melee/ranged attacks after using a MA special attack. Refer to the core rulebook, "Special attacks listed as a rule of the model itself are neither melee attacks nor ranged attacks. The rules for these special attacks indicate the nature of any additional attacks that can be made afterward, if any." You cannot use a MA on the same turn you charge. Because a charge must (almost always) be followed by a melee attack. Non-Combat Action There are a few models that can use a Magic Ability without using their Combat Action. These models get around all the restrictions listed above. Models with Geomancy or Necromancy can use a Magic Ability at "any time" just like a warcaster/warlock. Models with Battle Wizard or Necrophage can make melee attacks then get a bonus "free" spell. Models with Combat Caster can cast a spell before charging, then do a normal charge + melee attack. Note that Battle Wizards, Combat Casters, etc have the option to use their Combat Action to cast a spell. Their special rule is in addition to the normal spell casting, not instead of.

Rules Clarification:  : Sacrificial Pawn and/or Sucker! and/or Grim Salvation     (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

Differences Sacrificial Pawn is optional. Grim Salvation and Sucker are not optional. Grim Salvation only works vs basic attacks, not special attacks, power attacks, chain attacks. Spells are not basic attacks, because they are not "made with a weapon". (Infernal Ruling) CRA and CMA are basic attacks. (Infernal Ruling) If a Special Attack generates an additional attack (such as Multi-Fire), the second attack will be basic and as such can have Grim Salvation used vs it. (Infernal Ruling) Sacrificial Pawn & Sucker! don't work against melee attacks. None of them work vs magic attacks (spells). All of them work against Magical Ranged attacks, though. The model the attack is transferred to is always hit, even if they have an ability that makes them automatically get missed (such as Stealth). Automatically missing is determined earlier in the timing sequence than when the attack is moved. (Infernal Ruling) From here down, the terms Sacrificial Pawn, Grim Salvation, and Sucker! are interchangeable Using Sac Pawn moves all damage and effects onto the other model. Including stuff that triggers "on hit" (such as Blind) (even though the Pawn kinda wasn't "hit"). (Infernal Ruling) Because the other model counts as the one "hit", it can break a Chain Attack. (Infernal Ruling) The new model hit may use any abilities that trigger on being hit/damaged by an enemy attack (such as Vengeance and Shock Field). Sprays and AOEs With reference to the timing chart in Appendix A: placing a spray template down occurs at Step 3. Using Sacrificial Pawn occurs at step 6. Placing an AOE template down occurs at step 7. Therefore if you use Sac Pawn vs a spray, the placement of the spray template does not change. If you use Sac Pawn vs an AOE, the placement of the AOE template does change. A model indirectly hit by an AOE attack cannot use Sac Pawn vs it. Since a spray template doesn't move, it may cause the Pawn to be hit twice by the same spray. So you then resolve two damage rolls against it. When/if you shift an AOE template, the original target may be clipped by the edge of the AOE anyway (depending on how far apart the original target and Pawn are). Quick Draw vs Sacrificial Pawn (Edit) If enemy "Model A" shoots you, and then you use Quick Draw against "Model A", but they use Sac Pawn to move your Quick Draw attack to "Model B" then ... Quick Draw has no effect (or rather, it affects "Model B" who isn't currently shooting you so is irrelevant). Point is, "Model A" can continue shooting you. This won't happen with Shield Guard though (outside of a very low-probability scenario) because Shield Guard can only be triggered during an enemy turn.

Rules Clarification : Anaesthesia      (Edit) Remember Stationary only prevents what it says it does. Refer the page on Stationary for a refresher.

Rules Clarification : Get the Juices Flowing - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification:  : Spell Slave      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

Explanatory Note This Rules Clarification is very similar to the ones for Necromancy and Geomancy (since all 3 are very similar abilities). Where Spell Slave is unique, the text has been coloured blue. Who does the casting It is the model with Spell Slave that does the casting, not the warcaster. (Infernal Ruling) It's not anything simple like "the warcaster gets an extra spell" during the warcaster's activation. Nor is it the "Spell Slave acts like an arc node". (On that note, Spell Slaves can't use arc nodes). Any buffs/debuffs currently on your warcaster/warlock are completely irrelevant to the Spell Slave's casting. For stuff that interacts with spellcasters (such as Witch Hunter) it is the location of the Spell Slave that matters, not the location of the warcaster. If the Spell Slave is within an area of "models cannot cast spells within this area" effect, it cannot cast spells. Regardless of where your warcaster is. If the warcaster is within an area of "models cannot cast spells within this area" effect, that has no effect on what the Spell Slave can do. When/how does a Spell Slave cast Spell Slaves use their Magic Ability to perform either a (★ Attack) or (★ Action). Because you use your Combat Action to do (★ Attack) or (★ Action) you must complete your movement before casting a spell (unlike warcasters). Typically, you cannot cast a spell after charging, because instead you must use your Combat Action to make a melee attack. If you forfeit your action, or are affected by a enemy abilities that prevents you using your action, you will be unable to cast spells. After casting a spell, a Spell Slave's activation ends (unlike what happens when your warcaster casts spells) because it has now completed both its move and its action. Spell Slaves do not pay the full cost of a spell, so are unaffected by stuff which changes the COST of a spell; such as Lamentation. (Infernal Ruling) or Scaverous's feat (Infernal Ruling) What spells can they choose to cast A Spell Slave cannot cast spells with a range of SELF or CTRL or with a COST more than 3, or that are an UPKEEP. In addition to this, a Spell Slave is heavily limited by the definition of 'Spellcaster'. Specifically: Spell Slaves can't cast spells that use the phrase "Spellcaster's battlegroup" because (most) spell slaves aren't in the battlegroup. Exception: Companion Spell Slaves (such as Deryliss) are in the battlegroup, so can.(Infernal Ruling) Spell Slaves cannot benefit from anything that occurs in the 'Spellcaster's CTRL area' because they don't have one. (Infernal Ruling) For instance, a Spell Slave that casts Excarnate will not be able to summon a new grunt. Spell Slaves cannot benefit from spells that give the caster Focus. Such benefits are limited to models with the 'Focus Manipulation' rule, which only warcasters have. For instance, a Spell Slave that casts Siphon Bolt would still take focus from the enemy, but won't gain any focus itself. Sometimes a Spell Slave can cast a cast a spell, but they will miss out on some of the benefits of the spell (as described above) A Hordes Spell Slave cannot cast animi, because they're not "spells on the warlock's spell card". How can they boost the spell You can not use focus that is on the warcaster to boost spells that the Spell Slave casts. (refer rulebook section on using focus to boost: only the model with focus on it can spend it, and only during its own activation) Spell Slaves can only boost if they have a special rule allowing them do so - for instance, the Skarlock Thrall can spend soul tokens on spells via its 'Strength of Death' ability. Other The Spell Slave doesn't gain any buffs/abilities that are on your warlock/warcaster (such as True Sight). The Spell Slave cannot channel spells through arc nodes. You can only channel through nodes in your CTRL area, and none of the three models have a CTRL area. The Spell Slave can use spells like Annihilation to gain enemy souls. But generally they will be unable to use the soul tokens so they will stay on the Spell Slave for the rest of the game (doing nothing). (Infernal Ruling)