Lizardmen in 8th edition: Heroes

Your selections in this area of the army will be heavily dependent on what decisions you came to about your Lords. You also need to decide if you want a stegadon or not as this will eat up the majority of your points.

Saurus Scar Veteran:
These guys serve the same basic basic purpose as Oldbloods. They can be equipped for a variety of purposes and are relatively cheap so you can take a bunch of them. They have the option to be the army BSB and serve this role very well. If you don't have the points to take a Slann as a BSB or are concerned about your general and your BSB being the same model, this is the guy you should go with.

One of my favorite ways to use these guys is to give them Light Armor, a Great Weapon, and some extra magical item kick (offensive or defensive). It's cheap so you don't have to worry about them dying too much and they can bring a little oomph to the offensive power of your saurus warrior or cavalry blocks.

Stegadons:
Before discussing the other two hero options, we need to think about stegadons. Do we want one in the army? The offensive power of stegadons grew a lot in 8th edition. Thunderstomp in these guys is no joke. If you get him into a combat, he is going to destroy a lot of things. However, they are EXPENSIVE and can quickly eat up your hero points. If you're taking a stegadon, there is a pretty good chance you will only be taking one or two other heroes. The other major downside is the new line of sight rules that make it extremely difficult to hide this guy. The new partial template hits and cannons against multi-part models rules can also devastate a stegadon if you aren't careful. If you are taking one and risking a critical hero on it, you need to make sure you have a plan for keeping this guy protected

Skink Priest:
Skink Priests are pretty cheap. You can get a level 2 wizard for only 100 points or a level 1 wizard for only 65. With all of the cool arcane items now available, it's worth considering spamming these guys on the cheap to take advantage of this and help ensure a good magic phase or to help disable your opponent's magic phase. If you took two slanns for your Lord choice, I would recommend investing few points in this area unless you want specific arcane items that you couldn't get on your slann.

Some items I would recommend considering: Cube of Darkness, Diadem of Power, Plaque of Tepok, Forbidden Rod, Dispel Scroll, and Feedback Scroll.

These guys can also take an Engine of the Gods but if you do take one, be prepared to face a lot of enemy fire. Make sure you always activate The Portent of Warding up until the point you're in combat or enemy warmachines and casters have been taken care of. If you're going to take this, you should also bring some warmachine hunting characters to assure yourself of a way to eliminate the threat. Luckily, you can get some warmachine protection through the use of the lore of heavens signature spell (Iceshard Blizzard). If facing a warmachine heavy army, you will want to use this. If you also have a slann with the lore of light, pha's protection provides additional protection from ranged attacks.

Skink Chief:
They are really cheap but you get what you pay for. That isn't to say they don't have a purpose but they have a difficult time fulfilling multiple roles. They aren't killy enough to be used for combat resolution purposes and they die pretty easily. They can however be used successfully as item carriers. Want to give a unit some MR? Toss a chief in with the MR item. It's the cheapest way to do it if you don't have the points to spare on your other characters. They can also make decent warmachine hunters. Give them cloak of feathers or a terradon to ride and they can be removing warmachines from battle in no time.

I really love the idea of putting one on a stegadon with the warspear as that combination will destroy units in close combat. However, without the engine's powers, or the skink priests to cast Iceshard Blizzard, this guy is a sitting duck against a lot of armies. If you're going to take him and you might face gunline armies, I'd consider the lore of light on a slann for pha's protection a necessity. I think this option is workable but it will require building a list to support it or playing an opponent that can't do anything about it.