OK, I was taking a look at some classes for NPCs and it suddenly occured to me that I haven't seen a method for a Paladin to gain a gryphon or pegasus as a divine bond (mount). Am I missing something here or he can simply not get such creatures?
Any answers would be welcome.
Master Arminas
The empyrial knight paladin gets a flying mount (eventually) but other than that, no i don't think that a paladin can have a gryphon or pegasus as a mount via the divine bond class feature.
The paladin's divine bond class ability specifically states that "paladins generally have heavy horses as their mounts, but other exotic mounts are also suitable."
Simply talk to your GM about what he would allow.
Yep,Ask your gm.
Well, I am the DM, Ravingdork. lol I was originally thinking about allowing it, but at -3 to the Paladin's effective druid level. Should it be more? Or less? Too much less and the mount begins to lose a lot of Hit Die and combat effectiveness--too little and the ability to fly becomes far too common.
What would you suggest?
Master Arminas
What would you suggest?
pg 204 of the 3.5 DMG had some suggestions, but those might need some tweeks depending how much pathfinder changed the paladin mount.
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The problem is primarily that all the animal companion abilities stress the ANIMAL part of animal companion. If you want a flying mount, dire bat and roc are pretty good choices. However, to my knowledge pegasi and griffons are magical beasts and thus any animal companion stats for them would have to be strictly homebrew.
The most legal way to do this would be for the Paladin to take the Leadership feat and gain such a mount as a cohort, as both the ones featured here are sentient creatures.
Or simply a homebrewed feat that allows it?
In our games we simply houseruled that the paladin gets the same divine bond as the anti-paladin just replace evil with good in the descriptor portion... Way cooler ability in my opinion.
The most legal way to do this would be for the Paladin to take the Leadership feat and gain such a mount as a cohort, as both the ones featured here are sentient creatures.Or simply a homebrewed feat that allows it?
Why bother designing a homebrew feat for it when there is already a feat (Leadership) which allows for it?
As someone stated above you could give the paladin the same ability as the anti-paladin (except ya know not evil).
Except neither the Gryphon or the Pegasus are on the Summon Monster lists: the Gryphon is on the list of Summon Nature's Ally IV, though.
Master Arminas
If this helps...
Here is what I did recently in a campaign I was running. This isn't RAW by any stretch but it worked without causing an imbalance in the party.
The party found a baby griffon at lst level that became attached to the party ranger due to some work on his part.
I reasoned to myself that since a lot of animals grow to full size rather rapidly I could have the griffon grow as the party leveled rather then by the strict passing of time.
Essentially what I was doing was applying the juvenile template multiple times to the base creature. (once for adolescent, once for juvenile, and once more to make a baby) I figured on the griffon reaching full size and stats by 9th level. So each 3 levels I would remove an application of the template.
When they found him at 1st level he looked something like this.
Movement: 30' Fly 80'
Feats:Iron Will, Skill Focus(Perception), Weapon Focus(Bite)
Baby (size of a large bird, Tiny)
AC 20 Nat +0, Dex +8, Sz +2
HD 5d10-15 Hp-22
S:4 D:27 C:4 I:5 W:13 CH:8
F:+1 R:+14 W+4
Bite +4 1d3-3
Talons (x2) +3 1d2-3
Rake (x2) +3 1 pt
Skills
Acrobatics +16
Fly +15
Perception +12
As the ranger leveled he could take the Griffon as his pet without unbalancing the party and still have a cool creature. I don't see why something like this couldn't work for a paladin that wanted a Pegasus or Griffon as a mount. The size of the creature at the lower levels keeps it from carrying a rider if giving flight is a concern.
There is the downside that such a mount does not get the benefits of the divine bond though.Why bother designing a homebrew feat for it when there is already a feat (Leadership) which allows for it?The most legal way to do this would be for the Paladin to take the Leadership feat and gain such a mount as a cohort, as both the ones featured here are sentient creatures.Or simply a homebrewed feat that allows it?
That.
I think a custom feat or a couple penalty levels are both appropriate. For inspiration on the stat block look at the Sable Company Marine archetype for rangers it gives a hippogriff.
I want to say there was a book that came out during the beta test phase of pathfinder that had alternate paladin mounts, but I look at alot of third party stuff so maybe I am mistaken.
In our games we simply houseruled that the paladin gets the same divine bond as the anti-paladin just replace evil with good in the descriptor portion... Way cooler ability in my opinion.
Thank you veryy mutch, that will help me get my Swan-riding Halfling paladin build solved. (Now I just Hhave to stat a proper flying, running & swimming medium bird but I've got some of that cover)
Wow, I never even noticed how different the antipaladin's fiendish boon was from divine bond...
I think there should be rules to gain a unicorn. That would be awesome.
Be carefull with that one. The acess to cures, neutralize poison, greater teleport and magic circle against evil make it a "super-buff beast" and I beleive that's why it was taken out of the summon lists.