How would you advance a dragon cohort?

[molonel]

We have a character with an adult green dragon as a cohort, using the rules in Defenders of the Faith for dragon cohorts and mounts. The cohort has an undeniable coolness factor - "This is my dragon" - and there is no way the player would give him up. But oddly, the dragon is lagging behind and often in danger because he can't pierce better than +1 DR in combat, and his saves make him vulnerable.

We're almost to Epic levels, btw.

Are there any rules in d20 supplements or even in previous versions of the game that might give us a good mechanic for advancing the dragon through rituals? We're think perhaps of seeking a template, but advancing the dragon through ritual or magic seems like a rich story arc.

Someone told me once of a book called The Council of Wyrms, or something like that, which included rituals for advancing dragons through magic, but I haven't been able to track those rules down.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Magic items can help.

One of the Greater Magic Fang items can help the DR problem. A Collar of Resistance or the equivalent helps some with saves.

If it's a Green Dragon I'm guessing the character isn't a Paladin... Paladins have the advantage that they can Share Spells with their mount.

One thing about the metallics is that a lot of them get Polymorph Self abilities, which certainly helps when you want to bring your dragon on a dungeon crawl.

Note that Defenders of the Faith points out that when a dragon starts to be really overshadowed by its master, it will tend to want to leave (IDHTBIFOM, so I'm going from memory). There are a couple of options - one is to have the dragon take off, one is to advance it to the next age category somehow... but another possibility is to let it start taking class levels (with a fairly hefty ECL), gaining half XP like any other cohort.

-Hyp.

 

[Angcuru]

Unless you have several centuries to spare, i suggest giving it a few levels in something.

 

[LGodamus]

maybe it was on the cusp of its age catergory and just needs a nap to be toatally bad a$$???

or maybe he could take some sorceror levels?

 

[ph34r]

I also say advance it to a higher age category if the dragon is that far behind in power.

 

[geezerjoe]

Ask the question, which is more important not swapping out the current dragon or providing a monster cohort that is of the correct power level?

If you do NOT want to swap out the current dragon then you will have a tough time of it. A few well placed high level spells might allow the dragon to age on another plane with a different time refrence. Similarly you might simply advance the dragon one age catagory (which really just sucks "Oh yeah ... the dragon was just about to age one catagory ... how convienient.")

If you don't mind changing the cohort, the current dragon might decide that it's skin is really valuable and leave the character for a time. During that time another dragon, perhaps an older mate, might decided to "check out" this "worthy human (elf, dwarf, etc)". Also, you might switch out the dragon with a new cohort, giving the character a bonus to his/her leadership score.

These ideas are really longer worded versions of what everyone else has said, but I think it would be the way I might go.

l8r

Joe2Old