Paladin riding a lion (And not the Jesus allegorical kind)

[S_Grey]

In a game that I'm playing, my DM allowed me to use the mount substitutions in Defenders of the Faith and I took a dire lion.

So this cute little ball of fur and murder has been great so far, but recently my paladin has gone into a prestige class and I'm afraid my big lil' buddy is going to get left behind without his special mount advancement.

Is there any way I can get my furry fury friend to advance with me without taking more paladin levels?

[Urpriest]

In a game that I'm playing, my DM allowed me to use the mount substitutions in Defenders of the Faith and I took a dire lion.

So this cute little ball of fur and murder has been great so far, but recently my paladin has gone into a prestige class and I'm afraid my big lil' buddy is going to get left behind without his special mount advancement.

Is there any way I can get my furry fury friend to advance with me without taking more paladin levels?

While there are a few things you can get to stack with Paladin levels for mount advancement, they are pretty much all specific classes. There isn't a general method to get a mount to advance for a generic class.

[Flickerdart]

See if you can trade out the mount for an ACF, and pick up Wild Cohort for the lion. It'll be a little dumber, but might actually come out stronger than the Special Mount depending on when you stop advancing as a paladin (at 20th, it gets the benefits of +3 HD and AC, and +1 STR and DEX, which is better than what you get if you have fewer than 11 levels in Paladin).

[Slipperychicken]

I took a dire lion.


I approve of this character concept. Exotic mounts don't see enough use IMO.

Seconding Wild Cohort. Only thing I could think of to make the mount work without class-advancement.

[Coidzor]

While there are a few things you can get to stack with Paladin levels for mount advancement, they are pretty much all specific classes. There isn't a general method to get a mount to advance for a generic class.

Unless it's a divine casting class & the dragon magazine feat Holy Mount is on the table. That's about all I can think of.

[Fyermind]

seconding holy mount. That one is great.

Edit: ask for a homebrew of practiced mount or some such. There is natural bond for animal companions. There should be something similar for paladins right?

[ArcturusV]

Well, I think Leadership has an option for stacking with the Paladin Mount ability. Lose out 2 levels for doing it, but since Cohorts gain XP that can help soften the loss a bit.