A bit of help with my Cronenbergian pursuits in draconic symbiosis?

[.Drake]

So I'm playing a game of 3.5 as a kobold, thus a small-sized creature. One of my end-game goals for him is to symbiotically fuse with a dragon by using the Symbiotic Creature template in Savage Species (pg.131), which requires that the host be at least two size categories bigger than the guest. Originally, I had planned to use the Dragon Cohort feat at a high level, say level 15, to gain the services of a Large black dragon, and then to convince them to fuse through either coercion or diplomacy or friendship!.

However, I've since noticed that no matter how high your Leadership score is, the highest ECL dragon cohort you can attract can still only be Medium size, which disqualifies it from being the host in the symbiosis, and waiting for the dragon to age naturally is A) too slow, and B) would likely disqualify it from being a cohort.

What is the best way to acquire a draconic ally or cohort that is Large-sized or bigger? Alternatively, outside of Permanent Enlarge Person, what are other ways of increasing a dragon cohort's size permanently? And as a simple curiosity, how would permanent increases in size affect a dragon's natural size increases from aging?

[Inevitability]

You know that Symbiotic only works on animals, vermin, plants and humanoids, right? Dragons aren't any of those.

[.Drake]

Type requirements aren't an issue as my DM said he'd waive the type requirements for the template.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Well, there's the easy-but-less-satisfying way of simply casting a size-increasing or shape-changing spell on the dragon, or the hard-but-lactose-free way of taking care of it with a DM-approved quest.

If you were, say, a wizard (or sorcerer with a big spell list), you could take levels in Zhentarim Skymage (Lords of Darkness) to get a flying mount, which can be any flying creature with up to 1 + class level (up to 5) + CHA HD, so potentially into the 20s. Dragons are explicitly mentioned as an option (along with flying undead, fiends, and rocs, so the list is pretty broad). There is a large dragon with 10 HD (very young red), so a one-level dip and 26 charisma will get you there.

Zhentarim Skymage is not a bad prestige class - you need a whole bunch of things to enter (three bad feats), but you get most of them back by the end (four feats, some bad some good).

[daremetoidareyo]

Shrink yourself? Ring of reduction in lords of madness in the tsochar chapter. it's 20k gp, applies to all types and works until dispelled.

[Grod_The_Giant]

There's a web enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) giving kobolds the "slight build" ability, letting them function as one size smaller for many purposes. That might be enough to persuade your GM to allow it?

[daremetoidareyo]

There's a web enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) giving kobolds the "slight build" ability, letting them function as one size smaller for many purposes. That might be enough to persuade your GM to allow it?

That is a nice find. Off to figure out how to abuse the heck out of it.

[.Drake]

Well, there's the easy-but-less-satisfying way of simply casting a size-increasing or shape-changing spell on the dragon, or the hard-but-lactose-free way of taking care of it with a DM-approved quest.

This is looking to be the most apt option, but how does a size change from a spell interact with a dragon's natural aging? Is it simply additive? For example, would a juvenile dragon (Medium) with Enlarge Person or something similar to grow to Large size, grow to Huge size when it ages into a Young Adult?



There's a web enhancement giving kobolds the "slight build" ability, letting them function as one size smaller for many purposes. That might be enough to persuade your GM to allow it?

As a racial trait, would that require that I take the trait at character creation? I'm not sure how racial traits work mid-campaign.

[ExLibrisMortis]

This is looking to be the most apt option, but how does a size change from a spell interact with a dragon's natural aging? Is it simply additive? For example, would a juvenile dragon (Medium) with Enlarge Person or something similar to grow to Large size, grow to Huge size when it ages into a Young Adult?
Well, there's a few ways about it. I'm going to assume the change needs to be active all the time, and that proper magic items can be obtained to do that.

A permanent expansion (psionic power - enlarge person doesn't work on dragons, though reduce person works on a non-dragonwrought kobold, of course) would allow the dragon to grow normally, but it can be dispelled at any time, which may ruin the template (depending on the DM - by RAW, I don't think you can lose a template once applied, the game assumes template applications are one-way unless otherwise noted).

A polymorph any object is permanent naturally, can also be dispelled, and doesn't affect aging, I think. Dragon age categories are based on total age, that is, you get to be a great wyrm at 1200+ years, not after 200 years at wyrm age, so PAOing into a wyrm won't put you 1000 years closer to great wyrm (unless PAO can change actual age - YMMV on that one, it's not your standard stat, but it's not explicitly off-limits for PAO). If you use PAO, you might as well start with something weak (like a level 1 dragonwrought kobold commoner) instead of a medium-sized dragon.

Bestow curse can age a dragon, which may increase its size. Again, this is permanent, and though it's not dispellable, break enchantment will end the effect.

If you can get any of these as supernatural spell, you're golden - (Su) abilities can't be dispelled.

[.Drake]

Unfortunately psionics are banned in this campaign, so expansion is out of the question.


Thank you for the tips though! I think I have a fairly good idea of what I'm going to do now.