I'm running the Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign with three players, an inquisitor of Abadar, an investigator rogue that mostly works with Diplomacy and networking than combat skill, and a half-orc, half Varisian cleric of Desna. They have recently ended the second part of the book and the rogue has taken Leadership and wants to add Majenko, a pseudodragon they encountered in the beginning of the first part, as a cohort.
Now I do not know what is the best level to gain a pseudodragon cohort, and from which level to add class levels to the creature. Anyone got some advice.
I have given it 2 rogue levels to start with. The rogue is now lvl 7
I would base it either off its CR or its HD. I'd probably err on the cautious side and use its number of HD as its base character level (Dragon HD are pretty good, after all). So, starting point of level 2, then add class levels to match the Cohort level.
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I'm running the Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign with three players, an inquisitor of Abadar, an investigator rogue that mostly works with Diplomacy and networking than combat skill, and a half-orc, half Varisian cleric of Desna. They have recently ended the second part of the book and the rogue has taken Leadership and wants to add Majenko, a pseudodragon they encountered in the beginning of the first part, as a cohort.
Now I do not know what is the best level to gain a pseudodragon cohort, and from which level to add class levels to the creature. Anyone got some advice.
I have given it 2 rogue levels to start with. The rogue is now lvl 7
I am playing CotCT (solo player, two PCs) and Majenko joined our party as another character. They are now level 6 and Majenko is a level 5 rogue.
He does not seem unbalanced and has been a pleasure to play.
Per the 3.5 Draconomicon, the pseudodragon is effectively a Level 4 Cohort before any class levels are added.
I'd treat the pseudodragon as a level 4 cohort, and add class levels from there. I'd also let the class levels stack with his Dragon levels to determine the strength of his abilities, otherwise they're gonna become irrelevent quickly.
As for classes, I'd say that Sorcerer (Draconic) is a compelling option, but you'd end up with the problem that the party now has a sorcerer 6 levels behind. Yuck. My personal suggestions would be Bard (Sandman), Ranger (natural weapons), or Rogue. I'd go with Bard, really.
The Draconomicon also has a feat called Dragon Cohort, which reduces the ECL by 3.
Not sure if you are using non-PF materials or not.
I'd treat the pseudodragon as a level 4 cohort, and add class levels from there. I'd also let the class levels stack with his Dragon levels to determine the strength of his abilities, otherwise they're gonna become irrelevent quickly.
As for classes, I'd say that Sorcerer (Draconic) is a compelling option, but you'd end up with the problem that the party now has a sorcerer 6 levels behind. Yuck. My personal suggestions would be Bard (Sandman), Ranger (natural weapons), or Rogue. I'd go with Bard, really.
A not quite intuitive, but very effective, class choice is Cleric. Especially if they are short on healing (sounds like they might be, based on their group makeup). I did this for a player, it worked out very well.
A not quite intuitive, but very effective, class choice is Cleric. Especially if they are short on healing (sounds like they might be, based on their group makeup). I did this for a player, it worked out very well.
I really like the idea of this, but I'd probably go with oracle while ditching the oracle curse entirely, and omit any weapon/armor proficiencies. Heavens, Life, or Nature seem like the best choices for a Pseudodragon.
Hello mdt!!! ;) not here for arguing! promise! ;)
Q: did you use the stats/abilities scores of Bestiary or let your player "create" his cohorte (with expert stats for ex. 15,14,13,12,10,8 and adjustements of pseudo)?
LOL
No worries.
What I did was make the cohort myself (I usually do NPCs and Cohorts and Followers myself).
I took the bestiary stats, determined the modifiers per the Monsters as PCs rules, and then rolled stats for the cohort (using the same rules as for PCs in my game, 4d6 drop lowest, put the stats where you want). I usually let the PCs roll 3 sets and pick which set they want, this tends to end up with something close to the '20 point' buy. I don't like buy because I always end up with some munchkins (same 2 players every time) who make 18/18/16/7/7/7 gimped characters if I let them do that. The fact those gimped characters get killed much easier and don't RP as well as the more rounded ones doesn't keep people who didn't self gimp from feeling like they are getting gypped in combat. So rolling is better for me.
I've had issues with people gimping their cohorts too (making the pro from dover for example), so I usually do the cohorts myself. The player picks what they want for a cohort, and I create it so I can be sure it's a rounded character and not a two dimensional cannon or enchanter engine.
A not quite intuitive, but very effective, class choice is Cleric. Especially if they are short on healing (sounds like they might be, based on their group makeup). I did this for a player, it worked out very well.I really like the idea of this, but I'd probably go with oracle while ditching the oracle curse entirely, and omit any weapon/armor proficiencies. Heavens, Life, or Nature seem like the best choices for a Pseudodragon.
Actually, if you go oracle, I'd leave the curse in, as well as the weapon/armor proficiencies. I agree on the choices for Oracle though, those three work well.
I think the tongues or blind curse would work very well for a pseudodragon (although tongues would really be a non-existent curse with the telepathy).
Thanks all for the advice, I gave him rogue levels, so he and his master can flank and sneak attack away...
I actually did not let the DC of the sleep poison increase, because it is a very powerful ability and I do not want to overshadow the PCs abilities. I did however, let the SR increase, to increase survivability.
As for now, he is a level 4 rogue, which is right on schedule for a cohort level 8.
Thanks again all.
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Per the 3.5 Draconomicon, the pseudodragon is effectively a Level 4 Cohort before any class levels are added.
I think I remember seeing somewhere a note regarding conversion of 3.5 monsters to Pathfinder, suggesting that their CR should be dropped by 1 due to the tweaking of player characters in Pathfinder. I don't know if that would lower a pseudodragon's Cohort ECL to 3 or not. But as you also mentioned, the Dragon Cohort feat would lower that anyway, if the DM is allowing non-PF materials.
