Whisper gnome+dire wolf+ pack of riding dogs

[Whisper rider]

Hey people.. First time poster!
So here's an idea, it just popped up in my head.. Its, as the title says..a small rider (whisper gnome), a dire wolf as a mount, and a pack of riding dogs.. Maybe they aid him in combat, or for ambushes.. So, anyone, can come up with ideas for getting this into an real build?
As i said it just popped up, so i got no specific builds in mind, im open to any ideas.. Thxs!

[Keld Denar]

A Dire Wolf is large, so one could accept up to a medium sized rider. I don't think there are any rules against having a smaller rider, so that works.

As far as an actual build...you could literally do this with ANYTHING, and just put ranks in Handle Animal. You could spend some of your cash on guard dogs and just train them. Likewise with the Dire Wolf. Unfortunately, they aren't gonna scale well. Wild Cohort (from the WotC website) will allow the Dire Wolf to scale to a certain degree, but it won't be available from level 1 because a Dire Wolf is an advanced companion.

So yea. You could do this with anything. Heck a straight Fighter 20 could actually pull off this concept, given that Fighters get Handle Animal as a class skill. Double heck, a COMMONER could pull this off.

So yea, what ELSE do you want to do? Mounted charge with a lance? Shoot a bow? Backstab people while they focus on your pets? Cast spells to turn all of your guard dogs into GIANT GUARD DOGS (caps for size emphasis!)?

Sky's the limit, Ears, sky's the limit!

EDIT: What books/sources available? What ECLs do you anticipate playing at (starting/ending)? Does your DM have any unusual house rules we need to know about? NEED MOAR DETAILS!

[Whisper rider]

Jaja thxs for such a fast reply... Hmm i really like the sound of back stabing people jaja... Hmm maybe, cam u tell me a little bit more about how to get the dire wolf... And how to make him scale better?

[Keld Denar]

Druid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm)7 would be the most straightforward way. You get one as a level-6 animal companion. Ranger8 with Natural Bond (CAdv IIRC) would be effectively a Druid 7 (8/2+3 =7) and could attract one.

Another option would be Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a), as I mentioned. You count as a Druid 3 levels lower already, so you wouldn't have access to a Dire Wolf until level 10, and then it would only be a regular Dire Wolf, and not advanced in any way. It would start advancing from that point on, though, and at ECL20 would have +6 HD (12 HD total), get +6 Natural Armor, and have +3 Dex/Str. Thats...still really fragile, but about the best you can do without spending character levels on Druid or Ranger.

According to Handle Animal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/handleAnimal.htm), you could "Rear from Wild" one with a DC 21 (15 + 6 HD) Handle Animal check. You'd have to FIND a pup (DM fiat), and then be able to reliably make the check. Luckily, you could take 10 on the check, I'd pretty sure, and there are a lot of synergy bonuses to be had. If you had 1 level of Ranger, 1 level of anything else, 5 ranks in Handle Animal, 5 ranks in Ride, you'd have a (5+2+4 = +11) to your check at level 2 with a 10 Cha, meaning that you could take 10 at level 2 to rear a Dire Wolf from a pup to be domesticated. From there, you just have to teach it the tricks you want, like attack or combat ride. It wouldn't scale though, but you'd have a freakin Dire Wolf, a 6 HD creature, at ECL2+, assuming your DM cooperated.