Dragon-like Mount?

[Aust Nailo]

I'm not that familiar with the creatures of D&D and I am looking for a dragon-like mount. Something like the Wyvern Rider from the Fire Emblem games.


Here is the best reference link I could find:

http://gameboy.ign.com/dor/objects/4...art_heath.html

[2xMachina]

Hmm, Draconomicon lets you ride dragons. You can also choose Wyverns I think.

[Beorn080]

You could take a Wyvern, capture it, permanently reduce its intelligence to two, then train it. It's a DC 25 check at that point.

[AslanCross]

Dragon Magic has the Drakkensteed, which looks more like a dragon than even a wyvern, and is the size of a horse. Since it's CR 3, it's easy enough to get at even low levels.

You could take a Wyvern, capture it, permanently reduce its intelligence to two, then train it. It's a DC 25 check at that point.

Actually, the Wyvern is of the dragon type. The DC to train such a creature is 60+HD.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#handleAnimal

The Drakkensteed is an animal (dragonblood). As such, it has the standard handle animal check while still being draconic.

[Fizban]

The Drakkensteed and it's counterpart, the Dragonnel from Draconomicon, have wacky stats and pictures. The Drakkensteed pretty much sucks: it has the slowest fly speed of any normal flying mount I've seen, and despite the picture having wicked awesome claws, can only use a bite attack. It looks more draconic than the Dragonnel, but it has the animal type. The only good things about it are a higher strength than most flying mounts, and a trample attack (that of course has to be used on the ground). I do like that it's int 2 means it can be domesticated like any other animal, but as a flying mount it really sucks. Hippogriffs have same hit dice, nearly twice the flight speed, better maneuverability, and a lower CR while being plenty trainable, so they only thing is has going for them is the "OMG Dragon" factor. Which they fail to live up to.

The Dragonnel has the dragon type, despite it's picture looking like some sort of low polygon count yellow horse/ram/zebra thing rather than a dragon. It has two claw attacks from it's... hooves. But then for stats, it has a 90'/average flight speed, which is better than a griffon and only a tiny bit slower than a hippogriff, as well as 6 hit dice (making it tougher than a Pegasus), and then a roar ability that will never make much of a difference.

So, my suggestion? Take the Dragonnel stats, beef up the strength to 23, drop the bite damage to 1d8, change it's Improved Initiative feat into Wingover, and use the picture from the Drakkensteed. This will give you a mount stronger and tougher than a Pegasus with a competitive flight speed and maneuverability. I don't think this really makes it tough enough to change it's CR or anything, so Paladin could still get one for free at 9th level by reducing his "effective mount level" by 4, or at full power with the Dragon Steed feat. Other characters could also get one by taking Dragon Steed (which would not get any more powerful), Leadership (which would count as a level 9 cohort), or Dragon Cohort (which would reduce it's "cohort level" to 6).

Dragon Cohort (from Draconomicon) is generally the best way to get a dragon mount, since it reduces the effective cohort level enough to offset the level adjustment that they usually have. As you level up, your cohort levels up, so your mount gets better as you do and can even take levels in nifty melee classes. A dragon can do a lot with extra feats or martial maneuvers. It might be a little wonky roleplaying-wise, but as a bonus you could later dimiss your old Dragonnel and search out an Elemental Drake for increased natural amor and stats, special damage and/or breath weapons, and special movement modes. The feat mentions a specific table, but even though the table doesn't include the Dragonnel or Elemental Drakes I think you should be able to use them: they have listed level adjustments, and since the table has the Wyvern, it should have their other "cheap dragon" the Dragonnel.

Edit v: Wyverns are ECL 12 according to Draconomicon, which is hard to swallow even with the Dragon Cohort feat (I'm pretty sure it's the poison pushing it that high). That's why they made Dragonnels, which would have been great except for the horrible picture really. I would link the picture, but then you would just use the Drakkensteed, in all it's not-badass-enough-ness.

[ericgrau]

Wyvern might work as a cohort with leadership, similar to other flying mounts. He's not any better as a mount than a griffon, but he does much more damage so maybe make him LA 4 instead of 3. Or maybe you could figure out a gp cost to pay a trainer to rear one. It's 8500 gp for a griffon, for example.

[Beorn080]

Actually, the Wyvern is of the dragon type. The DC to train such a creature is 60+HD.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#handleAnimal

I noticed that. However, in the general usage of the skill, it merely states that you can train non animals at a +5 to the DC check. Specifically,

Special

You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do.

Which is why I said to whack it with some ability damage. I'm not sure what the ruling is on that, since the epic checks make no mention of ability scores, while the standard check makes no mention of limitations other then 1-2 Int.

[Aust Nailo]

Thank you that Drakkensteed is exactly what I was looking for, and I will look into Fizban's suggestions to power it up a bit as well.

[AslanCross]

I noticed that. However, in the general usage of the skill, it merely states that you can train non animals at a +5 to the DC check. Specifically,

Special

You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do.

Which is why I said to whack it with some ability damage. I'm not sure what the ruling is on that, since the epic checks make no mention of ability scores, while the standard check makes no mention of limitations other then 1-2 Int.

Well, I guess that both do not necessarily conflict. Of course, permanently Int-draining the Wyvern is going to be really difficult.