New Campaign character

[waffleology]

So my last campaign did not pan out so my buddy and I got into another group from a friend he knows. Now as far as my buddy knows their is not any restrictions on race but that is not confirmed as of yet. My idea hear and I am gonna see if this slides by is to be a dragon rider class from the dragonomicon. Maybe wishful thinking on my part, but hey can blame a guy for trying. the question I pose to you guys is to try and smooth this out what kinda dragon hatchling should I ask for obviously I am not gonna go for a gold drag thats just pushing it over the top, but maybe a metal drag or a lesser chromatic one. Also what race do you think would be a good match because I am kinda go for a story with this guy making up my own order he comes from and what not

[Hirax]

Read the section on silver dragons in the Draconomicon, they're the best candidates to be part of an adventuring party.

[waffleology]

cool thanks yea like i said in my post i dont know if im gonna be able to pass this off but fi i pick a drag that isnt overly powerful then he might let it slide

[Flickerdart]

Gold is not a great choice - they have lots of HD, meaning that they'll grow slowly. Unless you have a couple hundred years of downtime, your best bet is to pick up a dragon through Dragon Steed (using Paladin to enter Dragonrider) and then stacking classes that boost your mount's effective level in order to grab bigger dragons (the good old Supermount tricks). I suggest a Small race, so that you can ride a Medium dragon.

What do you hope to get out of Dragonrider though? It's not that great a class, and those five levels could be used to take something else that would actually progress the level of your mount.

[waffleology]

its more taking the class out of boredom lol I dont know the config of the group and for some reason that class came to me off the top of my head. I guess really then what im looking for is something that uses a mount, but and I guess this might sound odd I didnt want a plain old horse if that makes any sense something more exotic is what I was looking for the dragon rider was really the only thing I could come up with omw to class with my buddy lol

[Hirax]

3 levels of prestige paladin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigePaladin) is enough to get you a hippogriff. The Dungeon Master's guide has a list of alterniative mounts, and hippogriffs are on it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd say a Steel Dragon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20040328a) would be your best choice, Dragons of Faerun puts its level adjustment at Wyrmling +2, Very Young +3, Young +4, Juvenile +4. Consider taking Dragon Cohort from the Draconomicon, you'd be able to get a Young Steel Dragon at level 11, which a small size character could ride. Steel dragons are one of the most fitting to use the Loredrake archtype from Dragons of Eberron, so it would get +2 levels to its already considerable Sorcerer spellcasting ability. As you level up it should take Abjurant Champion levels rather than advancing its age, as there would be less benefit in advancing it to Juvenile.

As for your race, maybe use Dragonborn from Races of the Dragon. It would need to be applied to a small-size race to use that as a mount, and your strongest choice would be a Water Halfling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater). Dragonborn would remove everything but your ability score adjustments, size, and movement modes, so you'd still get the swim speed and after the Dragonborn ability adjustments you'd be at Str -2, Con +4. You could use the Heart aspect for a breath attack and get Entangling Exhalation, and then you and your mount could fly by and both breathe on opponents. The Wings aspect would also be useful in case you ever fall off.

Dragons hit Young at 16 years, and Juvenile at 26 years, and Halflings typically begin at 1st level at around 25-35 years depending on class. You could say that the character and the dragon were childhood friends, especially since from wyrmling it can take humanoid form indefinitely (according to Dragons of Faerun).

[Flickerdart]

Dragonrider gives you very few benefits regarding riding dragons, though. Consider Cavalier (CWar), Skylord (BoED) or Wildrider (Masters of the Wild) - they all advance your mount, and also do other stuff.
The easiest way to jack up your mount's level is Halfling Outrider:
Paladin 5/ Beast Master 1/ Wild Plains Outrider 3/Halfling Outrider 10 with Devoted Tracker gets a mount appropriate for a 35th level Paladin, which combined with Dragon Steed should give you an actually useful dragon to ride.

[waffleology]

ahhhhh nice nice thanks for that man steel dragon seems cool yea as far as the story goes i was leading towards some type of order kinda like a paladin order to were kinda like you said I was matched up with my dragon at birth and have been training with him every since

[waffleology]

ohhh nice I didnt even know about those other classes thanks for posting those ill look them up really what is the better of those in your opinion??

[Hirax]

Beast master doesn't advance special mounts, it advances animal companions. If it were meant to advance mounts, it would probably have been written like wild plains outrider, which is in the same book.

[Flickerdart]

Beast master doesn't advance special mounts, it advances animal companions. If it were meant to advance mounts, it would probably have been written like wild plains outrider, which is in the same book.
Which is why I said Devoted Tracker.

[waffleology]

I dont know what level we are starting at im guessing low what class am I gonna start out as the pally?

[Hirax]

That doesn't work like you think it does, it basically makes your pet a gestalt companion//mount, it doesn't get you to an effective mount level of 35.

[waffleology]

yea and I dont need anything that ridiculous im doing about half story fluff and half character so I am not looking to pull out every trick in the book just need a decent character thats not gonna be a drain on my group and is fun to play

[waffleology]

what does the BoED stand for so i can find the skylord class

[TurtleKing]

Book of Exalted Deeds.

[waffleology]

ahhhh gotcha thanks

[Flickerdart]

That doesn't work like you think it does, it basically makes your pet a gestalt companion//mount, it doesn't get you to an effective mount level of 35.
What. No.

"The mount gains all the benefits of being both your special mount and your animal companion." So it gets the shinies from being an 18th level paladin's mount (+8 HD, +10 NA, +4 STR plus special qualities) and a 17th level druid's animal companion (+10 HD, +10 NA, +6 STR/DEX plus special qualities), minus a bunch of levels for the Paladin for being a dragon.

The feat even has an example paladin/ranger in it, who gets benefits exactly in the way I described - added to one another.

waffleology: Problem with just having a random dragon is that it's going to have really crappy HP. The standard 20th level Paladin will have but a Young Gold Dragon as a mount - which has 133 HP (read: something like twice as low as your own), +20 to-hit (read: has nearly fallen off the RNG) and a 6d10 breath weapon with a DC20 reflex save (read: worthless). His saves also suck - even with a good save, he has only a ~25% chance of passing against any random Balor, and none at all against a level-appropriate enemy spellcaster (10 base, 9th level spell, 34 Intelligence = dragon only passes on a 20).
At lower levels? This is even worse, since you won't have the wealth to shore up your dragon's feebleness. You get your first dragon through Dragon Steed at 12th level, a gold wyrmling with 68 HP, which isn't much at even that level. Using Dragon Cohort, you can enjoy a copper wyrmling at level 9 - but it's got 37 HP, and nothing going for it. And things don't really get better.

[Hirax]

Both of us understand the stats of the creature involved, I think we're just labeling it differently. You initially said a mount appropriate for a 35th level paladin mount, which isn't what this is, otherwise it would have an int of 12. I like my gestalt label for it more. Not to split hairs or anything. :smallbiggrin:

edit: also, wild plains outrider explicitly doesn't advance companion AND mount, so the creature would either be mount15//companion17 or mount18//companion14

[Flickerdart]

Natural Bond tops up the Companion level, of course.

[waffleology]

ok flicker i should have told you i havent played in awhile i dont mean to be a pain in the ass lol but could you go over what your last post.

[Major]

I think Dragonlance had a Dragon Rider class that actually gave you a dragon. I'm not at the books at the moment though.

Edit: Not sure how good it is though.

[waffleology]

yea im trying to just getting something with a good mount, but i really dont wana take paladin as a starting class because i hate being lawful good lol but i might have to

[Hirax]

Unearthed Arcana has variant paladins you might consider. They're specifically made to be chaotic good, lawful evil, and chaotic evil.