So our GM has told us that as a reward later down the road in our Evil campaign that each of us players will be getting a mount; it will be mostly used for travel between common areas, though I'm suspecting there will be encounters where it may become threatened by death, so I'm hoping to get a mount that's both somewhat intelligent, decent in combat, and can fly (cool concepts are a plus also). It might not be too strong, since it will have to fit to our size (meaning Large sized mounts only).
Since I am a Fighter, and the setting which my character came from had Wyverns as a fair commonplace, my first thought was a Wyvern mount. He was a trained combatant in a country whose strongest battalions were Wyvern Riders, and although he mainly excelled at footsoldier combat, he still has the required training to at least perform in combat while on a Wyvern. So flavorwise, I'm covered here.
It seems like a great choice, but I'm not too sure. I mean, it flies, it has decent saves for its hit dice, it's (somewhat) intelligent and sentient [about as smart as our Barbarian right now], has a lot of attacks; Fly-By Attack is great for it to make attacks without being threatened via movement, good Perception, Poison effects, scent, but I may be missing something from another mount that may be much better than the Wyvern.
Is there another mount that I should take over the Wyvern, or is it good enough? (Before you ask, we are 10th Level.)
i think, if i could get a mount, non-for combat, but only for roleplaying and travelling, i will not choose a Wyvern XD!
Wyvern mounts have a very nice dark lord vibe. Not quite as good as an actual dragon...but definitely a step in the right direction.
To be fair, I'm not too worried about the Wyvern trying to kill me. Based on average stats, I have a very good Fortitude Save, meaning its Poison won't do much crap to me, and in order for it to actually hit me, it needs to roll a 20. And that's not including me being able to Fight Defensively, or my CMD which is a fair bit higher. So it's no real threat or problem to find one and take it for myself.
I'm also not concerned about the flavor, since as I've stated, Wyverns are commonplace from where he originated; since there were battalions whom were nothing but Wyvernriders, and he was trained as a soldier there, it's not out-of-place for him to acquire one.(The King of the country whom my character originates from has an actual Dragon for a mount, though it was experimented on, drugged with all sorts of crazy stuff, "domesticated," and basically twisted the sentient Dragon into a mindless beast. My character doesn't know that, of course.)
I'm more worried about whether I should use something that's a fair bit stronger so as to not have it get shot down in a matter of seconds or if this is really the best mount I could have. (Or if it is plausible, if there is a method to make it a stronger-than-normal Wyvern so as to keep it from being useless while playing the campaign.)
It's not a bad idea; considering we're not on the same continent anymore, and the landscape contains all sorts of different (even though similar) creatures, it's not out of the question to make it a Drake mount.
But then it boils down to what kind of Drakes I can pick...