Dragon Turtle as a paladin mount

[the Blue Morpho]

I'm in a Pirate campaign and I'd like to have a mount that can work both on land and in water (the water part especially since I'm taking the full five levels of Knight of the Pearl) and nothing screams rule of cool more than a Dragon Turtle to me. This works especially for the character since he has a connection to dragon kind.

We are level 13 and allowed full retraining. I heard somewhere (the DMG maybe?) that an *unusual* mount's CR can be no less than 3 lower than the character's level (4 for a flying mount). Does this mean a Dragon Turtle with a CR 9 works?

If not, how can I make it work? I'm hoping to avoid taking a feat like leadership or Dragon Cohort and more hoping for a variant from a legitimate source, similiar to the sixth level Planar Paladin substitution or Dragon Magic's Drakkensteed Mount.

[Fouredged Sword]

That dragon is just plain dangerous. I would allow it with the dragon cohort feat, but without some form of feat tax. It has 12 Hd and steam breath that deals 12d6 damage to an area.

That being said, cool idea. Ask your DM. The dragon mount feat(draconomicon I think?) is also a likely bet for a way to get one.

[Waker]

The feat that Fouredged Sword refers to is the Dragon Steed feat. It specifies that you gain a Dragonne, but later gives rules for gaining the service of a true dragon, same with Dragon Cohort. Those rules are kinda silly and make no mention of anything other than true dragons. You can ask your DM if you would be allowed a Dragon Turtle.

[the Blue Morpho]

What I really don't get is why there are no rules for young Dragon Turtles in any of the books-- and this DM is a stickler for RAW, so unless there's something else out there that can allow it, Dragon Cohort might be my only option.

In which case, I'm a little confused as to how the math works for the feat. My leadership score is my level, 13, plus my charisma mod, +4, which equals 17. the table in the Draconomicon says that a Dragon Turtle's ECL is 17, but with the Dragon Cohort Feat, it states that you can treat the ECL as 3 lower, making it's ECL 14.

Does that mean, with Dragon Cohort, I qualify for the DT? or is there something I am missing that would make it so I have to wait until my 15th level feat?

[Waker]

Well, unless my reading of this is mistaken, taking the Dragon Cohort feat would lower the Dragon Turtles ECL to 14. Because of the rules of attracting a cohort, you would need to be at least 16 level due to the requirements that a cohort must be at least two levels lower than you (pg 106 DMG).

[the Blue Morpho]

That might work. Thanks for looking all that over. I figure I can take the feat at 15 and wait for it's benefit to kick-in at the next level.

Since I'm using a feat to get the DT, I'll probably use the Paladin class feature to get a flying mount. From what I see, the options are Giant Eagle, Giant Owl, and Dire Bat. Before the retraining, my character was a Druid with a Seagull for an animal companion. I'm thinking the stats for a Giant Eagle (with RP fluff of the eagle drinking a funky potion) would be the closest thing. Unless there's some stats floating around out there for Giant Seagull that I haven't seen?

[Waker]

The closest I can get to a Giant Seagull would be applying the Titanic (MMII) template to an Albatross (Stormwrack) but that bumps it's CR to 13. The rules for mounts on pg 204 of the DMG state that an unusual flying mount must be at least 4 CR less than the ECL of the rider, so you'd have to be 17 to ride it.
If someone else can find a different template to increase size, that might be the solution.

[Jarian]

There's a Dragonhawk in an Eberron book somewhere (Five Nations, I think?), and I believe it has rules for being an animal companion or mount in there with it. It's probably pretty close to what you're looking for.