Two questions
 

1: If an assassin mind-controls his target via Charm or Hellbind Heart, does the target die or join your side? For conversation's sake, let's say you're beside an allied province.

2: Dragons. They seem like a pretty good deal, a decent SC with (albeit poor) spellcasting abilities for 50 points, and a powerful area 3 attack. The Dominion 1 admittedly hurts, but it still seems almost too good to be true. (Could have something to do with the fact I like to play VQs) Anything I'm missing?

Re: Two questions
 

1. IIRC the commander joins you and attack the province he is in
2. They have distinct lack of slots.

Re: Two questions
 

Dragons are a good choice if you are going for a single path bless and good scales. There are better pretenders for dual bless, rainbow, and for SCs as they have limited slots in their powerful form and opening a new path is expensive. Their biggest upside is they're cheap so you can get a high bless with good scales and keep it awake.

Re: Two questions
 

1. In most cases the target joins you, unless they die in the battle of course. Some creatures like Doom Horrors break free instantly after the battle.

2. Dragons can't really be effective SCs since they don't have enough slots for good magic items, but they can still do some killing with their breath attacks and good physical stats.

Re: Two questions
 

A charmed commander fights in the province he is in. But if he is the last commander they had, then you get to watch his one little person rout huge swarms of his old units since they have no leader.

Dragons are also supposed to be a "surprise" if done right. your apponent sees that you have a "druid" and figures his attack based on that. Quite a surprise to have it turn into a dragon.

Re: Two questions
 

One thing to remember is that you can also use Charm and the like in normal battles, it doesn't have to be an assassination.

Re: Two questions
 

Alright, thanks for the quick responses. I never thought of the lack of item slots, but wouldn't that render units like the Wyrm and Chimera non-SC-worthy as well?

And I knew you could use mind control in normal battles, I was just curious because of the 'fleeing from an assassination means death' thing.

Re: Two questions
 

The dragon is one of the best pretender picks currently in dom III so your assessment about it being a good deal is correct.

Re: Two questions
 

Not really. The water dragon is one of the few inexpensive pretenders with any water magic available to most nations so it gets picked a lot for the w9 bless. Outside that dragons aren't too great. I'll take a moloch over a red dragon almost any game. I don't think I've ever played a green dragon since there are lots of pretenders that feature some nature magic so there's usually something more suited to what I'm specifically trying to accomplish.

Re: Two questions
 

One of the problems with dragons over other limited slot pretenders is what happens to their items when they change form. I dont remember what it was or if it was fixed but I remember it being a problem. Its easy to forget and give him something he loses as a dragon.