Hello, I have a question about taking a monstrous cohort as a mount if I choose to have the leadership feat.
The only problem is is that my PC is a paladin build and is naturally lawful good in alignment. I was reading on the paladin classes page of paizo in the associates section and it clearly states, "A paladin may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful good."
I was reading through the known list of monstrous cohorts you can take though the leadership feat granted you have the leadership score and the appropriate level to take them as a cohort. For example I want to take Sleipnir as a monstrous cohort and use him as a mount to fight with.
The only problem with this is in the Bestiary it lists them as 'N Large magical beast' which means they have a neutral alignment.
Taking this at face value and I would say it is clearly impossible for a paladin to have a sleipnir as a monstrous cohort, but then I did some further reading and thinking about this.
On Paizo's monstrous cohort page it states "With the GM's approval, this cohort can be a similarly aligned monster rather than a humanoid with the appropriate number of class levels." And in sleipnir's bestiary it states "Sleipnirs are generally indifferent to most creatures, meaning they can be found serving as steeds to creatures of all alignments, from good to evil."
I know that paladins can take a mount with the divine bond special at level 5(but I want to use that for my weapon), but it is usually a pony or a heavy horse or approving the DM's approval can be something more exotic like a Pegasus or a griffin. But I was looking at the Bestiary entries for all these creatures and their alignments are different from lawful good. And normally if I were to make a regular npc cohort I would have to make him up from scratch and could have him be anything I wanted except he would have to be in the lawful good alignment.
Given this additional information could not my DM just come up with a scenario where I meet a sleipnir with a lawful good alignmnet and have similar stats and requirements as the regular one found in the Pathfinder bestiary. I am aware that sometimes groups can bend or even home brew certain things when it comes to their own pathfinder games and campaigns. I am just curious about what other people think of this.
|
Animals are always neutral because of their int of 1 or 2. The paladin mount gains int 6, but it makes no mention of alignment. Presumably the mount becomes LG as they gain alignment due to the paladin's class feature, but this is not stated.
I really doubt the "henchman" rule is meant to restrict them from taking their mount, so either they are allowed to have their mount be N due to being an animal, or the mount becomes LG. Either way, this same rule would apply to monstrous mounts equally well if they also have N alignment due to low intelligence.
Unfortunately, Griffin, Pegasus, and Sleipnir are all intelligent and non-LG by default, so you won't have precedent to stand on, but you may be able to convince your DM that you can find an LG example since the listed alignments are simply the norm rather than mandatory. Hard to argue that for pegasus since it's naturally CG, but easier for the naturall N Griffin and Sleipnir as being naturally N hints that there are no strong alignment predispositions.
TL;DR - If the mount is intelligen, it's up to your DM. If it's not, you should be fine despite the "no non-LG rule".
Animals are always neutral because of their int of 1 or 2. The paladin mount gains int 6, but it makes no mention of alignment. Presumably the mount becomes LG as they gain alignment due to the paladin's class feature, but this is not stated.
I really doubt the "henchman" rule is meant to restrict them from taking their mount, so either they are allowed to have their mount be N due to being an animal, or the mount becomes LG. Either way, this same rule would apply to monstrous mounts equally well if they also have N alignment due to low intelligence.
Unfortunately, Griffin, Pegasus, and Sleipnir are all intelligent and non-LG by default, so you won't have precedent to stand on, but you may be able to convince your DM that you can find an LG example since the listed alignments are simply the norm rather than mandatory. Hard to argue that for pegasus since it's naturally CG, but easier for the naturall N Griffin and Sleipnir as being naturally N hints that there are no strong alignment predispositions.
TL;DR - If the mount is intelligen, it's up to your DM. If it's not, you should be fine despite the "no non-LG rule".
The conclusion you came up with makes sense especially after I read this in the Bestiary index on paizo.
"Alignment, Size, and Type: While a monster's size and type remain constant (unless changed by the application of templates or other unusual modifiers), alignment is far more fluid. The alignments listed for each monster in this book represent the norm for those monsters—they can vary as you require them to in order to serve the needs of your campaign. Only in the case of relatively unintelligent monsters (creatures with an Intelligence of 2 or lower are almost never anything other than neutral) and planar monsters (outsiders with alignments other than those listed are unusual and typically outcasts from their kind) is the listed alignment relatively unchangeable."
If am reading this right, this supports my view that there can be a Sleipnir with a lawful good alignment. But as you said it is up to my DM to make the final verdict on this.