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AnonymousD&Der
2011-02-03, 03:41 AM
I've totally become my DM's Partner (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon). He's been coming to me for ideas... and whenever I can't solve something, I come to you guys!

One of our Members wants to have a Dragon Familiar. Not too unreasonable, except that a Dragon, even a Wyrmling, is probably stronger than the rest of our group combined.

So, what would we have to do to justify him having a Wyrmling Dragon Familiar? What Features could be striped away or reduced at a fair rate, and by how much (hit dice, -definitely-, saves, no caster level, a little bit of movement speed in the air, weaker breath weapon, etc ) to make it a little Dragony Buddy rather than Godzilla-in-my-Pocket?

And all of this can most likely be handwaved by the Dragon being raised by a Humanoid rather than in the Wild with other Dragons, so long as it's not a rigged drop... just enough to make the Dragon not rigged itself.

Thanks!

*edit: I said Partner because Dragon would have been -far- too corny a joke to lead into this.... and he's Chaotic Good, so he wants a Copper Dragon.

Also, and the biggest reason this needs balancing, assuming we even allow the little leviathan, is that the party is 1st Level.

Zaydos
2011-02-03, 03:44 AM
You linked the homepage of TVtropes... why? I don't know which trope you were referencing :smalleek:

Now that that is out of the way. What level is the group?

Also what alignment is the character?

White dragons are only CR 1 (ECL is ~6) and Brass is also only ECL ~6.

rayne_dragon
2011-02-03, 03:47 AM
Would a Pseudodragon be good enough for him? I seem to recall you can get one by taking a feat and they tend to be draconic enough for most people. It also gives you an idea of what kind of power level would be appropriate for a toned-down dragon familiar.

Also: Pseudodragons totally rock. I have a cute stuffed animal dragon that I like to pretend is my pet Pseudodragon. RAWR!

Zaydos
2011-02-03, 04:23 AM
Would a Pseudodragon be good enough for him? I seem to recall you can get one by taking a feat and they tend to be draconic enough for most people. It also gives you an idea of what kind of power level would be appropriate for a toned-down dragon familiar.

Also: Pseudodragons totally rock. I have a cute stuffed animal dragon that I like to pretend is my pet Pseudodragon. RAWR!

Improved Familiar and a Caster Level of 7+ (or Sor/Wiz level it's a little unclear).

Dragon Familiar lets you get a full wyrmling as a familiar at 9th.

AnonymousD&Der
2011-02-03, 04:27 AM
I gotta figure out how to strip the dragon down so that it's weak enough to be fair at level 1... whether he takes the feats to earn it at higher levels or not, he wants to start with one now, and the DM agreed to grant him one if weakened a bit.... Just not sure how much to remove its stuffs....

Think I could average the stats of all of the basic available familiars and see where that would take me? 1d6 seems fair for a Breath Weapon, although I dunno if it should be free to shoot whatever Copper Dragons shoot every turn....

Zaydos
2011-02-03, 04:46 AM
Drakken Raven Familiar; except give it two front claws as well?

Make it a diminutive dragon (so smaller than any real wyrmling), use raven stats and say that at Lv 3 instead of getting deliver touch spells it can breath fire 1/hour.

LibraryOgre
2011-02-03, 11:50 AM
Don't know if such exists, but perhaps a Pseudodragon or dragon familiar, using some sort of Monster class?

Give him a 1HD wyrmling at 1st level, and have it slowly advance to the appropriate point as he gains in levels (staying 1-2 levels behind him, except at 1st)?

That would give him his pet dragon, without destroying the party from the outset.

EasilyAmused
2011-02-03, 01:48 PM
This may not be what the player is looking for, but my DM once solved a similar issue by giving the character a dragon egg. It hatched at the appropriate level for the familiar feats and until then made for awesome RP.
The egg had a healing aura and had a few other specials that made it familiar-esque.

The character started out good-aligned but gradually shifted toward evil as he leveled - by the time the dragon hatched it was no longer the metallic we were all expecting.

bokodasu
2011-02-03, 02:45 PM
I worked with my DM to make a playable pseudo-pseudodragon; basically it involved pseudodragon stats, flight, and nothing else. (i.e., no skills, attacks, poison...) Call it a baby pseudodragon, and when he can actually take the feats, give it its abilities and say it's grown up.