I'm a new player working on my first list, and I'm feeling a little in over my head. I'm definitely more into the summoning and the starborne side of things, and I'm trying to build a 1000 point list to play with my brother (he runs nighthaunt, but I'm not specifically building to counter him). Anyway, with the new battletome it looks like Slann Starmasters, Lord Kroak, AND the Skink Starseer can all be used as a Warlord with The Starborne battle trait in summoning lists to generate CCP (along with Astrolith Bearers, etc). On pg 56 it says you can give your Starborne army the Dracothion's Tail keyword, and can use the extra abilities for that constellation. Where I run into trouble, is in the description of Dracothion's Tail on page 64 when talking about the Appear on Command ability, it says models must be placed within 18" of friendly Dracothion's Tail SLANN. Does that mean if I run with the Skink Starseer instead of a frog (mostly to save points in a 1000 pt list), I lock myself out of deepstriking? Or am I hopelessly confused and can't run it that way anyway?
You are correct. No Slann, no Appear on Command. You can still take the trait though. You should look into a Slann.
Welcome to Lustria. Glad you are starting down the path to building your first list. And yes, sadly only Kroak or Slann Starmaster can take advantage of the Dracothion's Tail off board deployments.