Class for pseudodragon cohort

[Efrate]

Hello giant. My group is about to hit 12 and our favored soul wants to take dragon cohort for a pseudodragon. Since with dragon cohort thats ecl 1, what are some good classes that would be useful but not overshadow the rest of the part. Its a very low op group all things considered.

Favored soul, focusing on some buffs and a bit of utility, no DMM or any metamagic.
Malconvoker with a bound Eryrines, most optimal but far from anything really strong.
Uber-charger barbarian who wants to stay barbarian and be a big dumb orc and who only powerattacks occasionally.
Swashbuckler/dervish who just wants to play a better non-drow Drizzt (which honestly isn't hard).

She doesn't want to deal with another entire spell list, so most pure casters are out, but its a lot of class levels to work with. She easily caps leadership bonus non-cheese, so ECL 10 is the goal, which means 9 class levels cause dragon cohort is cool.

My thoughts went to marshal and warlock, giving more static buffs to save actions, plus pseudo-pounce for dervish with marshal, or warlock for a bit of blastiness, UMD, and ultility, or DragonFire Adept for much more blastiness and to make it a "real" dragon. I considered a bard but I think thats too many spells for her, she hates choosing her own let alone an entire other list, and I do not want it to horribly outshine the rest of the party.

I'd prefer to stay away from setting specific stuff, so no FR/ECS/Ravenloft/etc. Also no pathfinder please.

I am also wondering, does she need to give it a horde like a paladin's draconic mount does? Its not an issue if so but I am unclear.

Thanks as always.

[Nifft]

The SRD pseudodragon entry has "Treasure: None", so I think you can skip the hoard.

A pseudodragon has 2 HD and LA +3, so I think a mere 5 class levels would put it at ECL 10.

What can you do with 2 HD + 5 class levels?

- Dragonfire Adept is a great idea. At level 5, the cohort would have access to Fire, Cold, and Slow. In terms of feats, Entangling Exhalation makes the fire and cold damage much more tactically interesting, even at low damage, and thanks to the low damage it's not going to outshine anyone. Another good feat choice might be Draconic Aura: Vigor (at 6 HD).

- Bard is not a full caster, and with Dragonfire Inspiration your little friend can buff the party to significant levels. Also having a singing lizard on your shoulder is a really cute image.

- Scout improves fly speed and fly-by attack damage, which may keep your friend relatively safe. (Hint: take Fly-By Attack.) This is mostly a utility option.

- Barbarian is not a serious idea. But it could be hilarious.

- Druid at level 5 would give some healing & utility spells, plus the ability to wild shape into an animal for the purpose of disguise.

[Efrate]

Dragon cohort gives it an ECL of 1. Set to 1, not +1, so it gets 9 levels unless I am mistaking something since you treat it as 3 levels lower. If I am mistaken and it goes to ECL +1 its still with the RHD 7 class levels, but I think since its like the leadership chart, its what the ECL is not ECL bonus. Clarification?

[DrMotives]

Marshall 2 / Paladin 3 doesn't sound bad for a support character. That build avoids spellcasting completely, and if you want to keep it that way you can go into a martial-based PrC after that.
If you want to be funny and don't mind low-op, don't do barbarian. Do Knight instead. You can have a housecat sized creature issuing challenges to enemies. Then combine that with aura of fear, which Draconomicon has 2 versions of. One, you could get a weaker version keyed to RHD. Or, you could get the stronger version keyed to ranks in intimidate.

[Nifft]

Dragon cohort gives it an ECL of 1. Set to 1, not +1, so it gets 9 levels unless I am mistaking something since you treat it as 3 levels lower. If I am mistaken and it goes to ECL +1 its still with the RHD 7 class levels, but I think since its like the leadership chart, its what the ECL is not ECL bonus. Clarification?

Draconic Leadership is probably more specific than the general HD + LA rules, so if it says your companion gets an ECL of 1, then yeah, you get 9 character levels stacked on top of that.

This opens things up a bunch.

- Dragonfire Adept 9 - Breath weapon 5d6, 4 invocations (2 least / 2 lesser), and only 1 level away from having a much larger breath weapon area.

- Binder 9 - even without Improved Binding, the pseudodragon would have access to 2 vestiges of up to 4th level, and that means access to Astaroth, the Unjustly Fallen. When your dragon binds Astaroth, it picks a free Item Creation feat for the duration of the binding. That means you have incredible downtime versatility.

- Bard 9 - Inspire Courage +2 (base), and Inspire Greatness. Plus some spells. Just pick spells that are either Inspire Courage buffs, or party-wide buffs, or healing. You also get a nice singing shoulder lizard.

[KillianHawkeye]

Personally, I think that Rogue really fits well for a pseudodragon. Extra stealth skills compliment their small size and general sneakiness, and Sneak Attack works well with natural weapons. You could give it Sleight of Hand so it can pick peoples' pockets, and don't forget Search and Appraise so it can find the shiniest objects!

[Jowgen]

I second the Dragonfire Adept.

A flying debuffer with all-day utility invocations. Stays out of trouble, makes combat easier, and comes with a varity of common-problem solutions so your party doesn't have to invest resources in them. Also, maxing out its Consititution could give your party access to free Sleep poisons with decent DCs (provided your DM lets you use the DotU poison harvesting rules).

[Crake]

Dragon cohort gives it an ECL of 1. Set to 1, not +1, so it gets 9 levels unless I am mistaking something since you treat it as 3 levels lower. If I am mistaken and it goes to ECL +1 its still with the RHD 7 class levels, but I think since its like the leadership chart, its what the ECL is not ECL bonus. Clarification?

Actually, it sets a pseudodragon's ECL to 2, because the table in the draconomicon is wrong about it's starting ECL. With 2 HD and 3 LA, it's base ECL is 5, dropped to 2 after dragon cohort, so it would in fact get 8 levels, not 9.

[Efrate]

8 Levels is fine, still enough to get a decent bit of oomph. I wondered about that because I was pretty sure it was 2RHD plus 3 but was AFB and didn't notice the ECL it till like the 3rd time I looked at the SRD.

Good ideas, I love the idea of a paladin/marshall/knight with knightly training a few times though, especailly because the PC is a gnome and her method of travelling is on the barbarians shoulder. The image of a double mount mini knight throwing out challenges and stuff is hilarious, just getting reach is an issue so it can actually threaten without moving into someone's space. Are there any one handed small weapons with reach? Because it could double-hand stuff. I don't think she will do it but the image in my mind is hilarious.

[Fouredged Sword]

A lance is a reach weapon that can be wielded one handed when mounted.

[Jack_Simth]

8 Levels is fine, still enough to get a decent bit of oomph. I wondered about that because I was pretty sure it was 2RHD plus 3 but was AFB and didn't notice the ECL it till like the 3rd time I looked at the SRD.

Good ideas, I love the idea of a paladin/marshall/knight with knightly training a few times though, especailly because the PC is a gnome and her method of travelling is on the barbarians shoulder. The image of a double mount mini knight throwing out challenges and stuff is hilarious, just getting reach is an issue so it can actually threaten without moving into someone's space. Are there any one handed small weapons with reach? Because it could double-hand stuff. I don't think she will do it but the image in my mind is hilarious.

Keep in mind, a Pseudodragon's tail has reach as one size larger - so Tiny -> Small, and Small can attack adjacent opponents.