I am going to run a Starfinder campaign for my little brother and his friends and of course one of them wants to be a dragonrider. I contemplated making an archetype for this, but I thought a soldier fighting style would be more powerful and streamlined. I have not decided on actual numbers, but I do have some ideas on how this would work.
Essentially, the entire fighting style will focus on the dragon and the dragon getting more powerful. I am going to end up borrowing some ideas from the cavalier mount feature for this.
Advantages:
A friggen dragon - I am thinking giving the dragon VP = soldier base + the soldiers primary stat bonus and HP = 2 x soldier base + the soldiers primary stat bonus. +2 or +3 natural armor. Decent saves all around. High strength and con, decent other stats. 1d8 + str bite attack. All these will get better as the soldier levels and the dragon will get flight and a breath weapon at later levels. The soldier will always have a bonus for superior positioning when fighting from melee (if the back of a dragon is not a superior position, I don't know what is).
Disadvantages:
No Resolve - Dragons will not have a resolve pool, but the soldier can spend resolve on behalf of the dragon.
"Human" Shield - A soldier can spend a resolve to take damage on behalf of the dragon to prevent the dragon's death, but all this damage goes directly to his HP rather then hitting VP first.
Size - The dragon will grow in size as it levels, and as such the soldier will have to use larger and larger weapons to fight in melee from it's back. Eventually, special weapons will have to be bought or crafted to be able to fight in melee from his mount. This would also impact the creature's effectiveness in cramped quarters.
Dragon Death - The soldier would loose all bonuses for having a dragon until he gets another one and spends a month training and bonding with it.
Any thoughts?
