Okay, so here's the scoop. My wife really wants to play a magus with a baby dragon. At first I was just going to play it as a psuedodragon familiar, but she has expressed that she really wants it to be a legitimate fighting companion. I'd like to come up with a "roughly" balanced method to treat it like an animal companion. Allow it to start as smaller, then grow to small or medium size.
I'd really like to figure out a way to make this work, without totally overbalancing her character. I'm already planning on requiring her first feat, and probably her fer Magus Arcana.
Any other suggestions?
I'd honestly say that's probably enough. The Sylvan/Fey sorcerer bloodline grants an animal companion in exchange for the bloodline arcana and the first bloodline ability, so I'd call that on par with what you're having your wife give up. You might even require her to give up her first bonus feat (at 5th level), too.
After eyeballing the normal animal companions and the wyrmling dragons in the bestiary, I might go with the following stats:
Starting statistics: Size Small; Speed 40', Fly 40' (average); AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 10; Special Attacks breath weapon (20' cone or 40' line, 2d4 or 2d6 damage); Special Qualities darkvision 60', low-light vision, energy immunity (based on type).
4th (or maybe 7th)-level advancement: Size Medium; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite 1d8, 2 claws 1d6; Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2; Special Attacks breath weapon (30' cone or 60' line, 4d4 or 4d6 damage); Special Qualities blindsense 30'.
I wouldn't adjust HD or saves from those of a normal animal companion, but I'd probably allow it to have more skill points.
That's still pretty powerful, though, so it's something you might want to adjust--maybe require the dragon to take a feat for things like blindsense, breath weapon, or wing buffets. You also might want to adjust the mental ability scores up or down depending on what kind of dragon it is and how comfortable you are having a companion creature that's potentially smarter than most of the party.
Are you guys set on it being a true dragon, or are you comfortable with some sort of homebrewed dragon-cousin? If the latter, you could bring its power level down by eliminating the breath weapon
and blindsense, which would keep it from being too uber while still being cool.
There is an old OLD WOTC product called the draconomicon, and it had a prestige class that was centered around this EXACT concept, called the dracolyte. I can not find my copy, I'm sure it has been lost to time lol. But here is a link to the info anyway muh ha ha ha!
http://kahdnd.pbworks.com/w/page/5588855/Dracolyte
also see
http://www.realmshelps.net/cgi-bin/featbox.pl?feat=Dragon_Familiar
and
http://www.realmshelps.net/cgi-bin/featbox.pl?feat=Dragon_Cohort
These should at least give you a good starting point. I personally really like the Prestige Class, taking care of a dragon is a full time job!! lol
I've got the Draconomicon! I loved that book :)
Unfortunately, going by the Bestiary (appendix 6, p.316), the Dragon Cohort/Leadership option won't allow you to have a dragon companion until mid-to-high levels, which is likely not what she wants.
The Dragon Familiar option might work, but it would give her a wyrmling familiar, which might start out pretty badass but whose combat ability would not scale with level--it might be okay for the first few levels, but it would rapidly lose combat effectiveness as the characters level up and face higher-level-appropriate foes.
There's also this: The Genius Guide to the Dragonrider. I've got it and it looks good, but I haven't had a chance to play one yet.
The Dragonrider is pretty much focused on the dragon companion/mount, and has spellcasting similar to a Paladin or Ranger as opposed to a Magus, but it might have the feel your wife is going for--a fighter/mage with a dragon companion.
I would treat it like a Druid animal companion and consider the same rules the magus bladebound uses:
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At 3rd level, the bladebound magus’ gains a powerful sentient weapon called a black blade, whose weapon type is chosen by the magus (see sidebar). A magus with this class feature cannot take the familiar magus arcana, and cannot have a familiar of any kind, even from another class.
Instead of the normal arcane pool amount, the bladebound magus’s arcane pool has a number of points equal to 1/3 his level (minimum 1) plus his Intelligence bonus.
This ability changes the Arcane Pool class feature and replaces the magus arcana gained at 3rd level.
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Instead of a bound blade she is gaining a companion. Let her gain the companion at 3rd level to prevent another player doing a 1 level dip for a dragon....
Then you can maybe remove 1 later arcana to have it grow from small to medium, maybe level 12? 15?
-AK
Another suggestion, maybe instead of having it grow at a certain level, introduce a few new magus arcana.
Breath Weapon (when selected grants a breath weapon attack)
Growth (allows the companion to grow from small to med)
Attack (grant another natural attack-tail slap, wing buffet, etc)
Wings (let it start to fly)
Thick Hide (increase AC)
etc
You could put level requirements on some of those of course, so this way the dragon starts out weak but the character can invest in it as she chooses by selecting those arcana in place of normal ones.
-AK
Is this for a solo game or large group? If solo game, you could allow her to just use the eidilon & evolution pool for the summoner (but nothing else), but for leveling a "companion" instead. Example Eidolon:
Dragon
Source: Ultimate Magic
The eidolon appears to be a Medium dragon. Making a Small dragon eidolon creates a fairy dragon or pseudodragon. Large or Huge dragons can be created by exchanging one or more of the evolutions below for the large evolution.
26 points: Base Form quadruped; Primary Evolutions claws, tail, tail slap; Secondary Evolutions basic magic (any), blindsense, breath weapon, flight, frightful presence, immunity, magic attacks, minor magic (any), spell resistance, wing buffet.
I forget the name of the thing, but the bestiary has a lion/dragon hybrid creature that's suitable as an animal companion. Dragonne i think is it's name.
Ok, So, here is how you do this while keeping it realtively balanced. First purchase the above mention genius guide to the dragon rider mentioned above by wynterKnight. Its a great class on its own, but it is an excellent fit for specifically for what you want to do.
Next make note of the multiclass rules (page 5-6) specifically the part for the wizards familiar. You can give up a familiar you get to add your 'wizard' level -2 to your dragonrider's level for the purpose of their dragon.
Then one of her first 4 levels must be a dragon rider (first level if she wants to start with it). At 3rd magus level she takes the arcana for the familiar and uses the multiclass rules from the dragon rider so her magus level -2 is added to her dragon in place of the familiar. Now you have rules for a balanced dragon 'pet' working within the magus class.
Make note of the 'Focus' Rules in the Dragonrider product and make sure it plays into her choice of dragon. THe 'big' dragons (gold, silver red) are more powerful, but are more costly at lower levels in terms of actions. And especially if she wants a baby dragon, a brass or white dragon would be a good choice.
I forget the name of the thing, but the bestiary has a lion/dragon hybrid creature that's suitable as an animal companion. Dragonne i think is it's name.
Yeah, it's the dragonne. The rules for making it a companion were left out of the final product (at least on d20pfsrd.com), but in the bonus bestiary pdf (a free download) they have stats for it as an animal companion. I was looking it over last night while thinking of suggestions for Razorstorm, but it's still pretty powerful and not technically a dragon; you could probably reskin it as an actual dragon real easy, though.