[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Scytale

I don't think I'd be ok with any movement, and I don't really like "through Dragon Rider" (nor think it's necessary). I suggest "after moving her Companion normally."

I'd be concerned about letting her work with Greenscales. They're already quite good, and I'd prefer for her to encourage different builds than just them, so I feel like it's necessary to require Order Markers on either her or her dragon.

Originally Posted by Scytale

And why should you want to take a turn with her over a dragon? It's a friggin' dragon! The value here is that she gets a free deployment to the front lines. No order markers needed for positioning. An otherwise solo low-cost hero would only be used for cleanup, blocking, or glyph-grabbing anyways. Making her a viable attacker is unnecessary ornamentation that feels a little like a lack of restraint.

I don't think it's something that'll come up every turn, but I like the idea of her being able to take advantage of an opportunity if it presents itself. Eltris is pretty heavily inspired by books like Eragon, where Dragon Riders can still hold their own sometimes. They're not as powerful as the dragon, but there are times when they're better suited for a job. Putting her at 4 attack is right at the lowest end of the dragons, so she'll still never outclass any of them, but she will sometimes have a use beyond being carried around.

My original implementation of her was essentially your suggested route. It wasn't quite working as well as I'd expected, though, and I realized that I would either need to drop the points to 40-45 (which makes tacking her on to an army much more doable in almost any situation) or make her more deserving of a solid investment. The feedback on the Discord server indicated that the latter would be a more interesting direction to take, which I agree with.

I would agree that having a usable attack in some situations is extra ornamentation, but this design is unique from other "cheerleaders." It not only sports a much lower defense, but it's also carried into the frontlines with the only unit that it can support. I don't think that adding some more decision-making beyond just where to place her is necessarily a bad thing, especially since she's somewhat costly.

Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape

I absolutely agree. Eltris’ main value is coming along for the ride and potentially blocking off enemy units to the Dragon. She also becomes an immediate threat because an opponent has to decide to waste attacks on her to remove the stat boost to the dragon or attack the dragon and accept the stronger defense/attack from Eltris’ ability. She’s not designed to be an attacker as I see it, she’s there to be a protector of the dragon and strengthen it. And even when the dragon is dead, you’ll likely “leave her to the wolves” because it’s likely youve got other more important units to follow up with.

As I said in previous posts, the "just here for the ride" direction was one that I've already tried. Beyond the unaddressed concerns that I've already listed for going back down that route, I still look at the mini and find it hard to see her as being a passive defense boost. She's not Kyntela Gwyn; she's clearly a warrior and it would feel odd for her concept to have an attack of 3 or lower unless she goes down into filler territory, which I think is dangerous for this design.

Originally Posted by Leaf_It

Looking at the design, I don't see any reason I wouldn't want to take her with Greenscales. She makes the dragon better, and the Greenscales are the screen for the dragon. She's essentially just a cheerleader for your dragon, that you get to move for free, so she will benefit any army you would normally fit a dragon in to. Pricing is the only factor limiting this.

This is why I feel like it's necessary to keep the Order Marker restriction and to not let her price drop too low. Either one of those things makes taking the two together much more workable.