DM help for an NPC Paladin and Mount.

[Metahuman1]

Longstory Short, I'm running a 3.5 Gestalt Monster game. Good Monsters, you understand. (Don't judge me ok.)

Anyway, I had an idea for an NPC Drow Paladin Of Freedom with either Cleric or Crusader on the other side of the Gestalt, who would be someone the PC's would talk to and occasionally get help for for really, really large scale battles since there doing empire building, starting from scratch. I want to introduce her as a player on the same side as the PC's in a skirmish soonish.


I decided, since NPC and those don't have to worry most of the time about the same things PC's do, like room while Dungeon Delving, to make her a mounted combat specialist who Duel Weilds Lances, cause I recall that being mentioned in the Gary Gaygax memorial issue of Order Of The Stick Web Comic, and I thought that was a pretty neat sounding idea.


And then because I know my group would get a kick out of it and I decided I liked the imagery, I had a thought.

https://img00.deviantart.net/3589/i/2016/135/4/a/alternative_princess_luna_by_das_leben-da2jzis.png

What if she was riding a stand in for this character?

What I'm uncertain of, is how best to stat out this character. Does the playground have any help they can offer me on this matter? Thanks!

[Boggartbae]

Hrm. I'll admit that I don't really know who that is, but a giving a unicorn the winged template might be a good place to start.

[Metahuman1]

That is Princess Luna, of the 4th Gen My Little Pony Fame. (You've likely heard of it under the title of Friendship Is Magic.).

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, a good start would be knowing what sort of level you're dealing with.



It also must be said if you'e the DM and making stuff up, there's nothing stopping you just taking a unicorn, adding wings/ flight (pegasus speed with good/perfect maneouvrability would be a good start) (and since Ponies Have Superpowers, something in the region of +10-20 to Str) and then slapping x class levels on top. (I would say either sorcerer, cleric or - especially if you use Hyperconsciousness/Untapped Potential - some sort of psionics, maybe adding some at-will Psi-like abilities.)

[Alabenson]

I'd tend to second the above as far as it would strongly depend on how powerful you're looking to make the character.

Figuring out her power level from the show is a little tricky, but if you want to hew close to the show you'd be looking at a number of at will magical abilities such as teleport, telekinesis, and dream at minimum, and that's not even touching on her ability to raise and lower the moon.

[Metahuman1]

I'm leaning toward the pair being introduced at somewhere between 8th and 14th character level. Strong enough to be a force to be reckoned with, but not so strong as to reasonably be able to handle every problem for the PC's AND Handle what there dealing with on there own. Meaning social interactions and occasional Large Scale Battles (Like, armies going at it.) should be the only times they see them. There going to meet them during a minor skirmish between the Paladins faction and another group, whom both have potential depending on PC's choices to become either allies, or enemy's. (And yes, if there clever about it, they CAN get both factions. It's early enough in the game that they haven't really had time to cut off more then about 2 option paths, and the circumstances for doing so were in fact reasonable.).







I know there's nothing stopping me from just giving Unicorn MORETM, but I'm kinda hoping to find a way to make it work RAW just to get it into there heads that the system is cool cause it's versatile. Also because frankly, cool NPC's with powers that you can't hope to get within the rules can make Insufferable allies real fast in my experience. Comes off as very DMPC, which is the exact opposite of what I want. It's a sandbox game, I want them to feel like they still have real agency, not that the stupid Drow Paladin and her Stupid OP rules defying mount are gonna come for them if they start stepping out of line. I REALLY don't want to unintentionally send that message, but at the same time, I want them to meet and see and interact with cool people and things.