I have a player that wants to take the Monstrous Mount - Feat for his level 5 druid in our skulls and shackles game, but he wants to reskin a Hippocampus as a Large shark. Any suggestions on how I should alter the starting/4th/and master steps. I was thinking of changing its base bite attack to d6 with it increasing one step each level marker.
Statwise I think hippocampus is perfect as is. Except maybe take away the land speed, and increase the swim speed by 20.
I mean the shark already exists, and the hippocampus' stats are pretty similar to a shark already in terms of what it gets. Why doesn't he just go with the shark that is presented? It becomes large at 4th level anyways, and then you have a large shark.
The hippocampus gain a tail slap and some extra speed at the cost of an additional feat, but there just isn't a huge difference between the hippocampus and shark mechanically.
Statwise I think hippocampus is perfect as is. Except maybe take away the land speed, and increase the swim speed by 20.
I mean the shark already exists, and the hippocampus' stats are pretty similar to a shark already in terms of what it gets. Why doesn't he just go with the shark that is presented? It becomes large at 4th level anyways, and then you have a large shark.
The hippocampus gain a tail slap and some extra speed at the cost of an additional feat, but there just isn't a huge difference between the hippocampus and shark mechanically.
An Animal companion shark only becomes a medium creature at level 4, not a large creature. He wants to ride it.
An Animal companion shark only becomes a medium creature at level 4, not a large creature. He wants to ride it.Statwise I think hippocampus is perfect as is. Except maybe take away the land speed, and increase the swim speed by 20.
I mean the shark already exists, and the hippocampus' stats are pretty similar to a shark already in terms of what it gets. Why doesn't he just go with the shark that is presented? It becomes large at 4th level anyways, and then you have a large shark.
The hippocampus gain a tail slap and some extra speed at the cost of an additional feat, but there just isn't a huge difference between the hippocampus and shark mechanically.
Hmmm...I must've looked down at the snake to see it became large. Seems odd the shark doesn't grow to large size category, it also seems odd that it starts as small. Well then...yeah I'd leave the hippocampus exactly as is except lose the landspeed and increase the swim speed. It will end up with a high swim speed with the additional increase that the hippocampus normally gets, but it's nothing outrageous. Seems like the best solution to me, otherwise it's already similar enough to the shark that it seems like it's at the correct power level and everything.
Alternatively, you could let him cast animal growth permanently on the shark when he gets the spell. It would cost a little for permanency and isn't normally on the list (of spells to use with permanency) but might be reasonable to allow. He would however have to wait until 7th level to gain access to 5th level spells to be able to pull it off. *And buy a scroll of permanency.
The thing that gets me is the Charisma score of 11, I was thinking of decreasing it and putting the points into its constitution. THoughts?
The thing that gets me is the Charisma score of 11, I was thinking of decreasing it and putting the points into its constitution. THoughts?
A shark is menancing, it's fine. Charisma represents "force of personality" as a sort of abstract concept. It's fine. Increasing con and dropping cha is too good in my opinion, it's giving the companion something it needs (more health) for nothing (it's not going to be using cha for anything realistically). To me the best way to handle it is keeping as much as possible the same (as the original creature) and imagining a shark instead of a horse with a fish tail.
The only thing that really breaks it is that sharks can't walk on land, even slowly so it shouldn't have a land movement speed. To compensate slightly faster swim speed isn't a big deal, and losing the land speed could hurt more than being faster in water helps.
Strictly speaking, when doing this sort of thing the option should never be better than the base options.
*Also, don't miss my edit to my first post.