D&D 3E/3.5 Leadership mount intelligence 3.5e

[heymejack]

so dm's gonna let me use a cohort mount. only problem is, i want my mount to be the deinonychus, and it doesn't have the required intelligence of 5 or better to be a cohort. what can I do about this? the campaign is very dungeon based, so i want to be a halfling on a medium mount. gooood times.

paladin levels? but then stacking so much hit die on him, it starts to feel a bit munchkin-y. but 6 levels ( or 1 paladin, 2 wild plains outrider, cavalier, halfling outrider, and so on) but 6 total levels of things that get to count for paladin mounts gets me the int i need, and from there i can do whatever i want, the mount will level along with me. not too bad, as long as i get the right combo of stuff.

or maybe i just go straight into halfling outrider and give him a ____ of intelligence. he's already my mount, so of course he'd want to be my cohort once he's sentient. he loves me!

these are my best two ideas. the first one seems a lot more rules based, but i'd REALLY like to not have to take the paladin levels.

ideas?


i'm allowed core, spell compedium, MIC, the complete series, and the races of series. no tome o' battle.

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

What type of character are you looking to build? A halfling fighter or what? Based on those two I'd go outrider. It depends on what your character is and who he is. Unless your just doing hack and slash?

 

[heymejack]

he's a demon-hunting strongheart halfling ftr4/rngr4/wildplains outrider2/halfling outrider10. favored enemy evil outsiders. be nice if i could stack that somehow.

he uses both a bow and a lance, charging through for big melee hits and using the bow while circling around for another run. gloves of storing bow in one hand, lance in the other.

the feats are point blank, education, precise shot, mounted combat, knowledge devotion, mounted archery, ride by attack, wild cohort, power attack, spirited charge, improved mounted archery, and steadfast determination (his will is horrible, this lets him use con). plus track, rapid shot, and endurance, from ranger.

i want the raptor to be like a big dog, basically, gonna give him the combat riding training package, and then the hunting training package. he'll be the real tracker/hunter, with track, scent, and a good survival score. plus, he'll really love to play fetch. with the bones of slain demons. what other feats should he take?

 

[Persiflage]

Dude, just pay a Druid to Awaken your mount! It's a 5th-level spell with a 250XP cost, it shouldn't be too hard to find someone to do it, or even to buy a scroll and get someone to cast it via UMD or whatever.

You awaken a tree or animal to humanlike sentience. To succeed, you must make a Will save (DC 10 + the animal's current HD, or the HD the tree will have once awakened).


The awakened animal or tree is friendly toward you. You have no special empathy or connection with a creature you awaken, although it serves you in specific tasks or endeavors if you communicate your desires to it.


[snipped plant stuff]


An awakened animal gets 3d6 Intelligence, +1d3 Charisma, and +2 HD. Its type becomes magical beast (augmented animal). An awakened animal can't serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.
An awakened tree or animal can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any).
XP Cost: 250 XP.

One quick n' easy way to pull off your pint-sized Flintstone act, as requested

 

[heymejack]

wild cohort

while the extra hit die and the intelligent/charismatic mount are appealing, i think the dm will take more of a shine to the wild cohort feat. it's more what i want anyway, the awakened leadership cohort comes out better, but i don't mind, 15 hd plus improved evasion is plenty.

flavor wise, the big strong pet is more fun than the awakened cohort.

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

well. I would have suggests the same thing persiflage had said. have the druid do it. But i understand where you are coming from. from a Dm perspective if I had a player wanting something that badly I home brew a feet for him to take. Or perhaps create a special circumstance for you to "find" him. sorry i couldnt help more.

 

[heymejack]

yeah i mean it wouldn't be hard to homebrew, just say its modified leadership, but it only counts for the 1 cohort and he has to take levels in his racial hit die.

done.

but, the wotc version, wild cohort, is just as good.

DMs argument is that it's no fair for anyone to be able to take a feat that gives them more powerful animal companion than the ranger.

 

[ValhallaGH]

DMs argument is that it's no fair for anyone to be able to take a feat that gives them more powerful animal companion than the ranger.

So ... no one can take leadership? Or spend money to buy a Guard Dog?

Seriously, that ranger animal companion is weak. At 20th level you've got a measly 9 hit dice (or less) of companion. That's not nearly enough to survive anything level-appropriate, nor can it make a meaningful contribution to an encounter (combat or otherwise). As a level 14 Ranger you can have a Deinonychus animal companion, that's just a Deinonychus with the Link / Share Spells ability. At level 20 it's a pathetic 6 hit dice. Totally useless.

Explain this to your DM. He either needs to change his standard of measure (druid companion, maybe?) or improve the ranger's animal companion. Possibly both.

Good luck.

 

[heymejack]

heh yeah, should have said that really, but yes, leadership is not a part of our game. very early on, like the month 3.5 came out, we were doing pvp fights, 3 on 3, and one of our players showed up with 3 guys with leadership and stacked charisma. 3 vs 6. we've never allowed it since. i've always agreed that the getting a 2nd character thing is a little silly (except maybe in a very small game, say 2 players, then its better), but i've always wished i could use it for a mount.

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

Yeah I usually stop taking ranger at 5th or so i can use divine healing wands and such. unless the DM allows me to use either the non magic version of the Ranger or the modified ranger I made. Ranger is actually my favorite thing to play but after 5th level. Uhg. he gets nothing thats worth it. I would suggest to your DM the homebrew thing. It's easy and honestly you shuold be able to get the other party members on board with a freaking Dinosaur on their side. lol.

say, what's your allignment? you could always use it to immtemidate shop keepers into better prices...lol