Hippogryph mount

[Crl1981]

At lvl 2 we had an encounter with a caravan that included a hippogriff. Rather than my Paladin attacking it I rolled Animal Handling, and rolled a Nat 20. Working with my DM I am turning it into a Paladins mount. My Paladin spent his down time training it, after two levels of training, Paladin 4 now, I finally got to ride it. The DM and I agreed that the Hippogriff wasn’t sufficiently trained yet to be able to fly with a rider yet.

To keep the Hippogriff at least close to the power of the party the DM is allowing it to basically multiclass into fighter. The idea being that fewer of a fighter’s abilities would need to be changed.

A hippogriff starts with 3d10 hps, so when the party levels next it will be able to gain a fighter level, and thus lag behind the party by a level. The question is what would be the best options, Reverse-Cavalier or Brute? Thanks!

[Nidgit]

Considering that Cavalier is a tanking-focused subclass and you don't want your fragile friend dying, Brute would be the better option of the two.

That said, delaying your hippogriff by just one level will quickly make it into a DMPC or extra PC, which could very well through off the balance of the table. I would give it either delayed prgoression (gains 1 level for every 2 your party does) or a reduced set of features that just involve gaining HP, ASIs, and an occasional class feature similar to a Beastmaster's companion.

[Justin Sane]

Simpler way would be to add that specific hippogriff to the list of options on Find Steed.

[Unoriginal]

You have three levels before worrying about the subclass. See how your Paladin and the Hypogriff work together for a while, and decide then.