Levelling up Mounts

[Pelthain]

Hi everyone. A while ago my GM and I were wondering how I would go about getting a mount (a griffon, in fact) and if there were any rules if you're not playing a class that would normally get a mount. The closest I can find without multiclassing is the leadership feat, but how would that work?

He wrote me finding a griffon's egg into the story (it's mother was dead but I stopped a triceratops from desecrating her corpse, if you want to know), and I know about approximate hatching times etc, but will it level up with me when it eventually grows? What about Hit Dice, saves, and skill ranks etc? Should I take a class level in druid or something? Thanks.

[Captain Zoom]

Pelthain wrote:

Hi everyone. A while ago my GM and I were wondering how I would go about getting a mount (a griffon, in fact) and if there were any rules if you're not playing a class that would normally get a mount. The closest I can find without multiclassing is the leadership feat, but how would that work?

He wrote me finding a griffon's egg into the story (it's mother was dead but I stopped a triceratops from desecrating her corpse, if you want to know), and I know about approximate hatching times etc, but will it level up with me when it eventually grows? What about Hit Dice, saves, and skill ranks etc? Should I take a class level in druid or something? Thanks.

You could take the feats Nature Soul, Animal Ally, and Boon Companion to get a full animal companion, then use it as a mount.

You could be a 4th level Cavalier to get Expert Trainer, then take the Horsemaster feat, to get a mount that levels with you (even if you leave the Cavalier class).

[Arcturus24]

I believe griffons have INT 5, so you could talk your GM into giving the griffon class levels (sort of like a humanoid partner NPC). Besides that, I think leadership allows you to add class levels to monsters if they earn enough xp and it doesn't exceed leadership's level cap. Finally, the feat Monstrous Mount can give you a griffon animal companion, though you need a paladin's bonded mount, a ranger's hunter's bond or a cavalier's mount for that (unless your DM allows monstrous mount to work with animal ally (gives you ranger's animal companion, needs a feat, effective druid level = character level - 3).
That said, if you go monstrous mount via a class feature (i.e. Not animal ally), avoid taking more than four levels in a class that doesn't improve the companion, as that will severely hamper the companion. You can bridge those four levels with the feat boon companion, which improves a companion by four levels (up to character level).
Anyway, hope this helped and you'll be flying a griffon soon!

[Noir le Lotus]

Easiest way, if you don't have a class with mount or animal companion, is leadership with a monstrous cohort :

Worg is lvl 5, Giant Eagle & Pegasus are lvl 6, Griffon is lvl 8, etc ...

[Azoriel]

As Arcturus24 says, leadership is the best way to do this. According to the entry in leadership, a standard griffon (5 HD) counts as an 8 HD cohort; whenever your griffon gets a class level, the effective level goes up by one. (So after one level of fighter, the griffon counts as a 9 HD cohort and so on.)

I would strongly recommend against the animal companion/cavalier mount route. A griffon is not a legal choice for any of those options; if you looked up the rules for animal ally, druid animal companion, or cavalier mount, you'll see that griffon is not listed as a legal option for any of those abilities. One could make it legal by taking the monstrous mount feat, but then you'll have a non-flying griffon mount. Even with monstrous mount mastery, you'd only be flying a half-speed, which wouldn't be the case if you simply went with leadership and didn't pay through the teeth in feats and (potentially) class levels.

[Storm Sorcerer Arcturus]

Dotting, for obvious reasons!