I'm looking for a good end-game mount for my sword and shield fighter His end-game self will likely be in mithral full plate of speed and wielding a mithral frost longsword and mithral quickdraw shield, and I want a style-appropriate mount. I was originally thinking about getting a silver dragon with the Leadership feat, but my fighter would have to be really high level to get it (and we may cap out around 16), and I'm not sure if that's exactly what I want yet. Right now I'm looking at making a neutral or good variation of the frost drake, preferably with a level of fighter so I can give it medium mithral armor. What kinds of changes might make its cohort level more on par with, say, a griffon? I'm thinking less intelligence and possibly no speaking ability might make it feel more like a mount (albeit still a sentient one) and less like an NPC.
Alternately, I'm open to other mount suggestions from the bestiaries or mythologies.
Did you consider Dragon Horse from Bestiary 2, the 8-legged horse (Sleipnir ?) or the Dragonne or the Kirin from Bestiary 3 ?
Dragon Horse is NG, fly at 120 ft, has a versatile breath weapon and has a limited plane shift.
I have indeed checked out Dragon Horse. They're really awesome, though probably too powerful. I've considered a toned-down version. I don't have Bestiary 3, so I haven't been able to check those out yet.
The Dragonne is from the bonus bestiary, released before the bestiary was even released. I'm not sure if it's updated, but the BB is a free download here.
Oh yeah, I remember that pdf. I'll check it out.
Checked out Dragonne. Totally sweet and definitely in the running, though there's some mumbo jumbo about a required druid level to have it as a cohort? Maybe I'm reading that wrong, but we'd probably handwave that away anyway.
Look at the Book of Drakes.
I believe that originally, it was meant to be an animal companion.
This changed between when it was released, and when the CRB was released. I'll check the B3 thing.
Despite their deadliness, dragonnes
form strong bonds with those they consider
members of their pride, sometimes even
adopting creatures of other races. A character
with the Leadership feat can take a dragonne as a
cohort. Such characters must have an effective leadership
level of 10th. Most dragonne cohorts gain levels in
barbarian, fighter, or ranger.
Well there you go.
Thanks again, Cheapy. That definitely makes one a viable choice for my fighter later on. I'm leaning heavily toward a drake as well, since they're pretty lithe-looking. I just need to homebrew a neutral or good one.
Here's my first stab at a homebrew drake:
Mountian Drake
N Large Dragon
Init +8; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +11
Defense
AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+4 Dex, +6 natural, -1 size)
hp 50 (5d10+25)
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +4
Offense
Speed 20 ft., fly 80 ft. (average)
Melee bite +10 (1d8+5), tail slap +5 (1d8+2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Statistics
Str 20, Dex 18, Con 21, Int 5, Wis 11, Cha 12
Base Atk +5; CMB +10; CMD 19
Feats Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Climb +13, Fly +10, Intimidate +9, Perception +11, Stealth +8
Languages Draconic (cannot speak)
It's abilities are generally higher (more on par with my current heavy horse), though it has no real special abilities. It's not as bright as other drakes, though it is faster. What would the CR/Cohort Level be on something like this? Or how could this be a better rounded mount?