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Comparing with all other Bestiary animal companion entries, the Bonus Bestiary Dragonne appears to be a special case with its own minisubset of rules. Can someone please clarify the official way this is supposed to work?
So far I have it down to the following:
1) It is a monster cohort like those described at the end of the Bestiary (pixie, satyr, unicorn, etc.) that a 10th level druid or 13th level ranger (or any other creature with an effective druid level 10 for the purposes of Animal Companions, such as a 10th level paladin) can have by taking the Leadership feat.
2) If requirements in para 1) are met, using a 10th level druid as an example, the druid uses the starting stats shown under the Dragonne entry (natural +7, STR 19, DEX 15) and modifies them with the 6th level entry of Table 3–8: Animal Companion Base Statistics (PRPG p.52). Because the Dragonne is a magical beast, the stats are built with d10 instead of d8. As per 6th level row, it also gains +4 natural armor and +2 STR/DEX (AC +11 natural, STR 21, DEX 17 thus far). Also as per Table 1-4 of the Bestiary, Magical Beasts use Fast BAB instead of the Animal's Medium BAB. So 6th level entry corresponds to 6HD Dragonne corresponds to BAB +6.
3) When the druid gains 4 more levels (effective druid 14, so we now use the 10th level entry of Table 3–8: Animal Companion Base Statistics (PRPG p.52). 9d10, BAB +9, AC +13 natural, STR 22, DEX 18 (and let's not forget share spells, evasion, two ability score increases so STR can be 24, and multiattack as per the Special column of Table 3-8). The Dragonne Bonus Bestiary entry also lets us know that at the 10th level advancement mark, we add +2 STR (STR 26), +2 CON (CON 19), and we add the Roar ability (DC 18 because it is Constitution based, and we just bumped the CON to 19...)
Do I have this right so far? this is for a cohort and NOT an animal companion right? because at druid level 14, if this was an animal companion, this animal companion would be a 9HD magical beast (CR 7) instead of the regular 12HD animal (CR 8) for a 14th level druid... and the druid normally gets the 12HD animal (CR 8) without the use of a feat...
This is leading me to think that this Dragonne is really a cohort with special advancement rules, and that a druid could also get an animal companion above and beyond that.
Let's see: at druid level 14, the maximum cohort effective level that can be gained is 12... fighter 12, wizard 12, etc. (12th level adventurers are CR 11) which is a long shot from our CR 7 dragonne, but superior to the Babau Demon (CR 6) listed in the Bestiary's Appendix 6: Monster Cohorts as a level 11 equivalent cohort (although the Dragonne maybe has a +4 Level Adjustment, for the lack of a better term). So the dragonne as a cohort is on par with a babau ftr1 cohort (both can roughly be taken at character level 14). It's just weird that the dragonne cohort is just for druids, rangers and paladins (i.e. because of the added requirement "must have a druid level equivalent of 10 to take" which is above and beyond the leadership feat). My CR 7 is not conservative though: the CR is probably CR 8 or 9 due to the Evasion, free Multiattack, higher Natural Armor, so overall a pretty good deal if this whole thing is describing a cohort (i.e. if the druid can have a separate, regular animal companion on top of that).
If the intent was to COMBINE a cohort AND an animal companion though, the results appear to be severely underpowered.
Thoughts?
I may be wrong here, but I was under the impression that this guy didn't make the cut and that they were still trying to work out the mechanic. I mean, this was available during beta (if I recall correctly), which means it's been worked on since.
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The dragonne is in the Bonus Bestiary, but that printing was before we locked down all those rules.
It's not an animal, in any event. It's certainly a great nominee for a monster cohort though!
Can you give us an effective level, as per the Monster Cohorts table in the Bestiary's appendix? :)
Although I wish that more mounts would have been given that treatment (I'm thinking the dragonne rules are exactly what is needed for a paladin to figure out how to handle/progress their special mount without the leadership feat...)
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The dragonne is in the Bonus Bestiary, but that printing was before we locked down all those rules.
It's not an animal, in any event. It's certainly a great nominee for a monster cohort though!
Sorry to drag this thread out from the ashes - I posted my question in the main Bestiary II thread but then saw THIS thread and figured it might actually go here as well ...
I guess the question is mainly to James and co.: can you tell us if the Dragonne will be in the Bestiary II? I would think a final, official version of the Dragonne, now that those rules ARE locked down, would be a shoo in for volume II!
Thanks!!!