Feasability of having dragon wyrmling in a solo party?

[dreaded_beast]

I'm running a solo-campaign for a 5th level character (4 Monk 1 Sorcerer). NPCs the PC has adventured with in the past consist of a Human Cleric 2, Human Wizard 1, and 2 Goblins: Rogue 3 and Fighter 3.

Currently, the PC mainly has been adventuring with the 2 Goblins, although I may add the Cleric on a more regular basis.

Anyway, a few sessions ago, the PC discovered a draconic egg, which she hopes to hatch and have the pseudodragon inside become her familiar. Since this is a solo-campaign, I'm going to bend the rules a bit, and not have her have to get the Improved Familiar feat. She expressed interest in having a pseudodragon as a familiar after I explained what a familiar was and showed her the possible choices.

However, I am toying with the idea of suprising her with a "true" dragon egg instead. I was thinking about making it a red dragon egg.

In my campaign, I am ruling that creatures are not necessarily born "evil", it is mainly due to how they were raised, the alignment of their parents, and the society they lived in, although they will naturally be more predisposed to an "evil" alignment if "evil" is in their alignment description.

I am envisioning her being shocked at discovering she has a true dragon on her hands instead of a pseduodragon. In addition, I will give her hints that she may be able to change the red wyrmling's alignment if she treats and raises it in a "good" fashion.

I believe that the "balancing" factor is that for the entire campaign, the wyrmling may never grow beyond wyrmling status, since I think wyrmlings take many many years to get to the next age category.

However, I am not sure how unbalancing it would be to have a red wyrmling as a nearly permanent member of the party. Based on the following: this is a solo-campaign, the group composition, and balance, does anyone have suggestions/advice on how to handle this or if this is even feasible?

I want the campaign to still be "balanced" and I don't want the red wyrmling to make combat encounters too easy.

On another note, whenever the PC has been through an encounter, I split the experience points equally among the PC and the NPCs. How would this change if there was a red wyrmling in the party? I was also toying with the idea of advancing the red wyrmling an age category if it accumulated enough "experience" or just giving the red wyrmling a character class.

So any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Umbran]

Much of this depends - is that wyrmling goign to actually be a familiar, or just an NPC that hangs around? Familiars don't take class levels, and don't get a share of XP. They advance as the PCs advance. Dragon wyrmlings are, IMHO, too buff to be familiars without spending feats.

A red dragon wyrmling, by the book, has 7d12 for hit dice. If this is a familiar, it's either going to be a really buff familiar, or it is going to take a big hit in the hit-point department. More importatly, by the book they start as medium sized critters. Presumably, they coome from really big eggs. I doubt you could expect a character to confuse a red dragon egg for a pseudodragon egg...

Black, white, brass, and copper dragons start at Tiny size, and would probably be more consistent with what she thinks she has. They still have multiple d12 for hit dice, so you've still got the hit point problem if it is goign to actually be a familiar.

That all, of course, if you decide to follow the book. Your player, not having read the book, can be told about anything you like. But sticking with the book is a good way to keep things consistent. Presumably, if she starts trying to raise a dragon from a hatchling, she's going to do a whole lot of research on dragons. So you'll want to work hard at keeping your story straight.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Much of this depends - is that wyrmling goign to actually be a familiar, or just an NPC that hangs around? Familiars don't take class levels, and don't get a share of XP. They advance as the PCs advance. Dragon wyrmlings are, IMHO, too buff to be familiars without spending feats.

A red dragon wyrmling, by the book, has 7d12 for hit dice. If this is a familiar, it's either going to be a really buff familiar, or it is going to take a big hit in the hit-point department. More importatly, by the book they start as medium sized critters. Presumably, they coome from really big eggs. I doubt you could expect a character to confuse a red dragon egg for a pseudodragon egg...

Black, white, brass, and copper dragons start at Tiny size, and would probably be more consistent with what she thinks she has. They still have multiple d12 for hit dice, so you've still got the hit point problem if it is goign to actually be a familiar.

That all, of course, if you decide to follow the book. Your player, not having read the book, can be told about anything you like. But sticking with the book is a good way to keep things consistent. Presumably, if she starts trying to raise a dragon from a hatchling, she's going to do a whole lot of research on dragons. So you'll want to work hard at keeping your story straight.

Great points! Thanks!

I guess I should have read the MM a bit more thorougly in regards to the size of the egg for a red dragon. I've already been dropping hints that the only way to hatch the egg is to get an exteremly high source of heat, like that of a volcano or river of lava. I have no idea if this is true or not for red dragons, but I thought it would add a nice flavor touch.

For the size of the egg, I guess once my player has found the appropriate heat source, I could say something like the egg sucks in all the heat and grows to the correct size for a red dragon egg.

Good point about the red wyrmling suffering a hit point loss by becoming a familiar. Do you think that would be a "balancing factor" or it would be negligible in light of all the other abilities a red wyrmling receives?

 

[Kai Lord]

However, I am toying with the idea of suprising her with a "true" dragon egg instead. I was thinking about making it a red dragon egg.

In my campaign, I am ruling that creatures are not necessarily born "evil", it is mainly due to how they were raised, the alignment of their parents, and the society they lived in...

...and how generous their caretakers are with Baby Ruths.

 

[Dakkareth]

Take a look at the crs of a red dragon in various age categories ... it shouldn't be too far removed from the average level of the party. So if a wyrmling is still too powerful, take a few HD away and drop other powers accordingly so it is not overpowering. Then as the general party level increases it could gain back its hd and powers and maybe earn class levels later.

As for the mechanics ... I'd say it started out as some kind of animal companion or simple 'pet' for the first months or years (in which it will be of limited use for combat anyway). Once it's intelligence and power has risen to a certain point, the character has to take the leadership feat to take the dragon as cohort - from this point on it progresses just like a normal cohort gaining class levels or other powers.

 

[smetzger]

It could be a 1/2 Red dragon Psuedo Dragon

 

[dreaded_beast]

Any other suggestions or comments would be helpful

 

[CCamfield]

Why not go with brass? It's true that it would remove tension about whether the wyrmling would grow up mean or not, but if that isn't your focus, it's a heat & fire oriented dragon which as a wyrmling would be smaller than a red. Making the egg grow in the presence of fire seems cheesy to me.

Note that it doesn't take quite "many many" years for a wyrmling to reach the next age stage - but it does take 6.

A brass dragon wyrmling ought to be pretty easy to balance since the MM describes them running away when faced with real danger. That combined with their talkativeness could make for a very funny sidekick character. Their ability to eat anything when necessary could also be funny at times. ("Where are my boots?" "Uh, well, I got hungry during the night...")

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I've already been dropping hints that the only way to hatch the egg is to get an exteremly high source of heat, like that of a volcano or river of lava. I have no idea if this is true or not for red dragons, but I thought it would add a nice flavor touch.

Give her a white dragon egg and require her to get some Brown Mold to create the cold needed for it to hatch.

I thought about letting Calcyrix (the white dragon wyrmling in Sunless Citadel) become a party member since I played him up quite a bit in his desire to get revenge on the kobolds and his need to be free. Heck, we had a HUGE party argument on whether it was the proper thing to do to take the dragon back to the kobold when obviously the dragon didn't want to go. Sure it would involve breaking their word to the kobolds but was it the right thing to do? Anyway, that campaign came to an end when I discovered the Midnight setting but someday I may have to dust it off again.

 

[silentspace]

blah blah blah... someone else already said what I was about to say