Drakkensteed Animal Companion

[Siberys]

Crossposting from the Paizo boards...

A player in my Kingmaker game is running a mounted barbarian, and his standard warhorse is starting to get to be a greater hindrance than a boon; he's going for the alternate feature in the APG that allows for a mount animal companion, but he doesn't like the horse. He found the 3.x Drakkensteed (from Dragon Magic), and asked that I update it. They'd be a reasonable fit for the Greenbelt, ecologically, and he was talking about making Drakkensteeds the state animal or heraldic symbol or something. All in all, very fitting, so I agreed.

Monster stat conversion was easy. What I'm most concerned about is the Animal Companion block, below; how does it look? Is it balanced?

Starting Statistics: Size Large; Speed 50 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor); AC +4 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8); Ability Scores Str 17, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 10; Special Qualities combat trained, dragonblood, lowlight vision, weak flier.

7th-Level Advancement: AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (2d6); Ability Scores Str +2, Dex +2, Con +2; Special Qualities trample (1d8), lose weak flier.

Dragonblood (Ex) For the purposes of effects related to type, a Drakkensteed counts as a dragon.
Weak Flier (Ex) Lesser drakkensteed cannot fly while mounted.

Thanks!

 

[Varthol]

Re

It seems pretty nice to me, I don't think that it would ever get overpowered or underpowered, although... the weak flier trait is a BIG buzzkill...

At a certain level (or the monster's HD) it should be able to carry the guy around while flying...

 

[GlassEye]

It seems a bit strong to me (compare to the Rhino and Horse companions; it's closer in power to the Rhino). Unfortunately the change I would make (Size: Medium; become Large at 7th level) would more than likely invalidate it for your game's barbarian.

On the other hand, the value gained in roleplay and world development certainly seems worth the small power boost.

 

[Siberys]

At a certain level (or the monster's HD) it should be able to carry the guy around while flying...

It can. It loses weak flier at 7th level.

As for strength, I figured it'd be on the high end, but as long as it's not TOO good, things should be fine.

Out of curiosity, in relation to the Rhino, how would you rate it? Stronger? Weaker? I was comparing to the Roc and the Horse while I was writing it up...

 

[GlassEye]

Compared to the Rhino I think Drakkensteed is close but a little better than the starting Rhino. After the 7th level advancement it is a little harder to judge; rhino has better stats, attacks are about the same, but the Drakkensteed gains flight.

Roc is even better for comparison. I didn't notice it when I was looking for companions. I think the Drakkensteed stacks up pretty well against the Roc (evenly, I mean). If I had noticed roc I probably wouldn't have posted the comment that I did earlier.