Dealing with Gryphons: DMPC, or just PC?

[Aard_Rinn]

Hey!

So I'm looking to start a new game of 3.5 in my campaign world. The basic premise is this: One of the groups in the world is the Abbarati Riders, a group of Gryphon and other aerial-creature mounted people - I was wondering how to RP this with PCs. I want the mounts to be more than just class features, but actual characters; Gryphons are as smart as humans, IG, so I was thinking maybe have the players control two PCs, a human and a gryphon, and then make a homebrew Abbarati Gryphon LA0 race; I was wondering if anyone had experience with this. Pegasi and Celestial Mounts, the other two options, are easy enough, since rules for that are existing, and they really are pretty much just smart horses, but I can't quite get around gryphs...

The other option I was thinking of are:

Have all mounts be intellegent PCs, statted independantly from the humanoids, and everybody RPs two characters, or

Have Gryphons be DMPCs, and just put up with the extra work.

[Fouredged Sword]

I would let the players play both, and have the gryphons at half the players level or take half their HD as racial HD.

This will let the players build mount / character synergy while keeping the rider the main focus of the game.

[Fax Celestis]

Why don't you ask your players what they'd prefer?

Also you might want to look at the Aglarondan Griffonrider PrC in Unapproachable East.