As the title, I just recently saw the beast rider archetype for cavalier, and thought to myself: I can remake my old 2e beast rider (dire wolf) character! This was back in the Greyhawk days, and he came from the land of the Wolf Nomads.
All was great until I saw that the dire wolf was not ever on the list of valid companions. Wolves are, and they do become large at 7th, so it's a poor substitute, but even dinosaurs made the list!
I'm not that great at homebrew, so could anyone suggest what I should do to add the dire wolf to the list, and what adjustments should be made?
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Wolf turns into dire wolf at level 7. Notice how it embiggens?
What stat changes to the Wolf stat block would you suggest for the Dire Wolf?
I believe he wants a wolf mount that he can ride at lower levels. I redlined a horse for just such a purpose once, taking away its natural attacks (hoof & bite) and replaced them with a large wolf's bite (i believe 1d8+1.5x STR)
Wolf turns into dire wolf at level 7. Notice how it embiggens?
For starters, the numbers aren't right, so no, a Large Wolf does not equal a dire wolf. Also, yeah, it would be nice to not go about half to a third of his career on a non-wolf mount.
Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
7th-Level Advancement
Size Large; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4.
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 13 (2d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +2 (1d6+1 plus trip)
Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 14 (18 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Perception +8, Stealth +6, Survival +1 (+5 scent tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent
AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, –1 size)
hp 37 (5d8+15)
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +2
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +7 (1d8+6 plus trip)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Str 19, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +3; CMB +8; CMD 20 (24 vs. trip)
Feats Run, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Perception +10, Stealth +3, Survival +1 (+5 scent tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent
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If you add the level based benefits to the wolf companion, it is actually easily *stronger* than a Dire Wolf at 7th level when it goes Large.
I believe there is a cavalier ability/archetype that lets an ACmp 'grow up' at 4th instead of 7th. If a home game, a feat that does the same would make sense.
In 3,5m dire wolves were valid druid companions at 7th level. In Pathfinder, the wolf companion becomes large-sized at 7th level. The only real differences between the large-sized wolf companion and a dire wolf that the companion has 2 less Dexterity, and 4 less charisma. But the large-sized wolf does get an additional +1 to its natural armor, +2 to its Constitution, and +2 Strength.
Since the lower dexteirty (-1 to AC) and the higher natural armor balance out, the only real drawback is the -4 charisma. As there is really no use whatsoever for the wolf companion to need charisma, the large-sized wolf companion is better then a dire wolf.
The absolute best solution would be to do what Dank Grimwolf suggested - take a horse, remove its natural attacks (hooves and bite), and replace it with a 1d8 bite attack and just call it a wolf (a Riding Wolf).
I believe he wants a wolf mount that he can ride at lower levels. I redlined a horse for just such a purpose once, taking away its natural attacks (hoof & bite) and replaced them with a large wolf's bite (i believe 1d8+1.5x STR)
That's a good suggestion. At 7th level, you could replace its stats with the Large wolf, which *is* the dire wolf. Animal companions don't map exactly to the animal writeups, by design. Just take the traits you want your "dire wolf" to have.
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All was great until I saw that the dire wolf was not ever on the list of valid companions. Wolves are, and they do become large at 7th, so it's a poor substitute, but even dinosaurs made the list!
For starters, the numbers aren't right, so no, a Large Wolf does not equal a dire wolf.
Well, most of the dinosaur ACs don't ever "equal" actual dinosaurs - I reskinned my druid's triceratops companion as a zuniceratops because the AC triceratops never gets to Huge size like a normal triceratops would (though the ability scores were pretty close at high levels). Tempestorm's bear and the tyrannosaur are also smaller as ACs than the actual animals. Level 7 wolf AC is relatively close to a dire wolf even if it's not an exact match.
The fact that a cavalier's mount must be rideable from level 1 is annoying, though. If you want to ride a wolf at level 1, reskin the horse as suggested above.
The horse reskin seems like the most viable option. I can always have it be in a "semi-trained" state where it hasn't quite learned all the fighting techniques (like trip) until later.
As I said, I'm not looking to have an unbalanced mount a low levels, just wanted to keep as true to the original concept as possible.