Dragonrider, Mounted Archer

[Lanfear]

Hello,

we are going to start with the "Age of Worms" soon, and i´m currently looking for my new char i will play in this campaign. Our group has an arcane caster, a cleric and a melee damagedealer of some kind currently. As i´m looking for something exotic, i thinking about playing a halfling halfdragon (silver) riding on a medium sized dragon (silver) and doing some ranged damage.

I talked to my dungeon master, and i can use the halfling bonus to ranged attacks instead to slings and thrown weapons.

i thought about taking 5 paladin levels and go for the dragon steed feat (we count character levels instead of paladin levels, if the char is focused on the mount). this way i will get a very young silver dragon with about lvl14, and a young silver dragon with about lvl19.

has anyone an idea how i can improve the character concept?
i dont want to take too much different classes, maybe i will just write an own prestige class for this char.

does anyone has some ideas or additions for me?

 

[Elethiomel]

If you use the Dragon Steed feat to replace your special mount with a dragon, only classes that advance the Paladin's special mount will advance your steed, and you have to have a total of 9 such levels just to get the dragonnel.

I suggest using the Dragon Cohort feat instead, advancing the dragon as a cohort rather than as a steed. This will require further negotiations with the dragon, of course (you're not giving up a special bond with a celestial creature, just asking to ride on its back for basically no reason but your winning personality) but you won't need to take paladin levels.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Prestige class: Halfling Outrider from Complete Warrior. Awesome class, and adds to paladin level for mount.

 

[Dragonwriter]

I would suggest the Dragonrider Prestige Class from the Draconomicon (naturally). Get the dragon steed through Dragon Cohort (same book), rather than Dragon Steed feat. Negates Paladin, as said by Elethiomel.

I would have to say (through experience), be careful of that half-dragon template. Age of Worms is known to be harsh, and the lack of 3 levels of HP and bonuses will hurt a lot.

 

[Lanfear]

i´ve read through the dragonrider, but halfling outrider suits very well.
so i´m going to take halfling halfdragon, lvl4 ranger, lvl5 paladin, 10 lvl halfling outrider.

next thing is, the weapon.
as far as i read through the books, crossbows are not eglible to compete with a composite longbow when it comes to firing with rapid shot, full attacks and so on.
does anyone know a way to get a heay crossbow to the same level a composite longbow is working on? (feat would be ok, enchantment would be bad way ^^) i know there is the repeating crossbow, but with its clipsize of 5 bolts, i have to reload every turn after another.

I would use a heavy crossbow because of its style (remembering me a bit to the hippogryph rider of Warcraft 3, i though back when i saw them first that a crossbow would be cool on them), but if its cripple my damage to half and i have to sacrifice on too much feats and enchantments to compensate for it, i just stick to the composite longbow.

thank you for the help so far

 

[Elethiomel]

Well, the question here is whether the Rapid Reload feat and the Quick Loading enchantment stacks. Quick Loading is found in the Magic Item Compendium and provides a 100-bolt extradimensional quiver. Wording: "[R]eloading a quick loading heavy crossbow is a move action.". Rapid Reload is found in the PHB. Wording: "The time required for you to reload your chosen type of crossbow is reduced to a (...) move action (for a heavy crossbow)."
Both of these specify move->free for the crossbows that come with a move-action reload time as standard.

I do not think there exists, in WotC published material, a feat that will further reduce the reload time of a heavy crossbow - so this is AFAIK your only option, even though you stated you did not want enchantments.

Also note that mount survivability will go down with every non-paladin, non-halfling outrider level you take if you go for the special mount solution. Though I do agree Halfling Outrider is a good solution for your concept, you might also want to look at some alternate class features. Dragon Magazine #349, page 93 has a "Smiting Arrow" variant that lets you exchange your Heavy Armor and Shield proficiencies to use Smite Evil at 30' range, for example.

Also, look at the various class-feature stacking feats in Complete Scoundrel. It's possible to speak to your GM about them to see if you can introduce a feat that allows you to stack ranger and paladin levels for favoured enemy and special mount progression, for instance. The ranger animal companion feature would be a reasonable sacrifice here, if one is needed.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I assume you're taking the paladin/ranger multiclass feat (iirc, it stacks either the mount, companion, or both progressions)? I'm glad you like outrider, it's one of those classes I've still yet to play but want to. However, I have to echo what others have said. The LA of half-dragon will bite you. Hard. Not only for you personally, but it's 3 lost levels for mount advancement, which is significant when your projections don't even have you with a dragon until the mid teens in level. There are other options to be draconic or dragon-blooded without the template, if you were after the flavor more than the specific mechanical benefits.

EDIT: Yeah, you must be getting the multiclass feat (Devoted Tracker, C.Adventurer). From crystalkeep:
"Your Paladin and Ranger levels stack to determine your Smite damage and Wild Empathy.
If you have both the Special Mount and an Animal Companion ability, you may designate your mount as
your companion, granting it both sets of bonuses.
You may multiclass between Paladin and Ranger freely (alignment and XP penalties still apply as normal)."

Pretty nice. I should check the exact wording of Outrider. I know it allowed level stacking for companion OR mount, not entirely sure if it'd stack for BOTH. But if it did...that'd be one kick-ass mount.

 

[Lanfear]

there are a few things we handle in our on way...
the halfdragon levels dont count against my paladin mount when it comes to the dragon mount. next is, i do only pay 2 level for the halfdragon. as far as i read the outrider (english is not my mother language), it stacks with ranger, druid and paladin.

my main problem is now, how do i get the yound silver dragon. leadership is a way, but its a bit unclear.

it is stated, that a paladin can get a flying mount which is 4 lvl under his own level, and there is an example of a lvl8 paladin who gets a griffon (7HD, CR4).
with this, the paladin should be able to get a yound silver dragon with lvl9, as the yound silver has a CR of 5.

the leadership states, that a char can attract a cohort. leadership score is lvl+cha. with charisma 20 i would have a leadership score of 25, which allows me to attract cohort with max lvl17. a yound silver has 13HD, LA +5. thats ECL of 18. if i want to take it as a mount, i have to add minimun +2ECL for the paladin mount qualities. so it would be ECL20, three level higher than i can attract.

stupid books.

 

[Elethiomel]

I suggest you take a look at the tables available under Dragon Steed in Draconomicon. They detail at what effective paladin level what mounts are available to you.

 

[Wolf72]

weapon idea: repeating crossbow ... or several that you just pick from a special sling on your mount. You could have 3 different repeating crossbows, each loaded with a different type of ammo.

mounts: how about applying half-dragon template to another creature? ... Pegasus, griffon, hippogriff, spider eater (that would cool and wierd!) ... how about a wyvern (go the mean and cranky route, not evil).

other mounts ... apply the template to any other large quadruped, horse for example. Or lion (and end up with a pseudo-dragonne).

other dragon types (for template too) might be cool ... a Li Lung (earth dragon) or half-earth dragon.