No Man's Land (Recruitment Closed... Sort of)

[Jemal]

Well, I suppose some of us mages could take the "Repair" spells, Or at least a wand of it, for those like me who have limited spell choice.

 

[Jemal]

Thanks Jemal, knew I would forget something. I'll put that in and post him in the gallery.

Oh, but one thing.. He counts as 14 HD for dragon size, stats, age, Skills, and Feats. (the 2 bonus Paladin mount HD only count for HP, Bab, saves, and level-based effects that target him)

 

[Avalon®]

[sblock= Insight]May I suggest using instead of the leadership feat, which may carry the unnecessary baggage of followers, the mentor feat from DMG 2. It allows you to gain an apprentice that becomes your cohort once he reaches 5th level.[/sblock]

 

[moritheil]

Rathan - Yes, but they take up domain slots. Or you can just go with Divine metamagic . . .

[sblock=Insight] - Moritheil pointed out something I've missed completely... Magic Circle's will completely screw you up, they prevent mental control. I'd completely missed that w/ regard to the ghost+cohort strat.
As for the Practiced spellcaster, I completely forgot about your HD lack, sry. I guess you'll have to stick to the buff/heal strat, and throw in blade barriers every once in a while?
Also, w/ regards to Nightsticks, they do have to be held to function, so it's a move action to draw one from a pouch(Assuming you have a belt pouch full of just nightsticks, or a bag of holding)
[/sblock]

[sblock]The nightsticks are best used with a Heward's haversack (I can't remember if they make it a free action to draw. Anyone have the text?)[/sblock]

As for saves, I usually consider save=Lvl is adequate, lvl+5 = 'good'. Lvl+10 = excellent.
At epic, it goes up about 2/lvl. (thus a 'good' save at lvl 25 would be about 35, whereas at lvl 20 it's ~25)

According to that, Ichiru has one adequate, one good, and one excellent save, but doing the math on what can be thrown at us, I feel he's rather inadequate.

Necro-Kinder - A Young Gold Dragon Special Mount should have a +17 Nat armour, 16 HD, Improved Evasion, and Share Spells.
Also, you must provide (Give) your dragon a 14,000 GP hoard (not gear, hoard)

Posting my char. to the Rogue's Gallery now.

FWIW, I was joking about tweaking my char as a result of that post (though I might have to for saves, per my earlier discussion.) Still, it's pretty impressive that this mount is basically something I might shapechange into.

 

[moritheil]

How are cohorts handled? Are their stats rolled?

I've been thinking that I might get one since I'm the only one on boat 3, and that way Ichiru would have someone to talk to (his bear is loyal, but not a great conversationalist.)

 

[Jemal]

Avalon - True, but nothing in Leadership says you HAVE TO have Followers. They're just 'available.' Heck, if he wanted he could just say that they're running a cult/church back home. Plus, the Follower is 3 levels higher, and I believe there was another downside to the Mentor thing, but can't remember what...

[sblock]The nightsticks are best used with a Heward's haversack (I can't remember if they make it a free action to draw. Anyone have the text?)[/sblock]

Hewards is a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

According to that, Ichiru has one adequate, one good, and one excellent save, but doing the math on what can be thrown at us, I feel he's rather inadequate.

My 'twinkie' character's saves would all be between adequate and good, according to this system...
Well, those numbers are assuming that you'll be facing opponents built off of similar rules to yourself, but not 'twinked'. The Avg spell at lvl 20-24 has a DC of about 20+spell level.
As for Monster abilities, look no further than the Red Dragon. A Very Old(CR 21) has B.Weapon DC 33, Frightful Presence DC 31. Adequate save(20) gets the Reflex about 40%, the Fear about 50%. Good(25) is 65%/75%, Excellent needs a 2 to fail the Reflex, nat 1 to fail fear.
Other Examples of monster DC's :
Balor(CR20) - Death Throes DC 30, Dominate Monster DC 27, Implosion DC 27
Titan(CR21) - Chain Lightning DC23, Meteor Swarm DC 26.
LVL 20 Vampire (CR22) - Dominate DC ~30-34.
Tarrasque(CR20) - Frightful Presence DC 36.
ELH: Mu Spore(CR21) - Spore Cough DC 36.
ELH: Paragon Mind Flayer(CR23) - Mind Blast DC 38, Psionics DC 34+spell level (again proving Paragon=godly)

So the numbers do work, ASSUMING your not fighting anything too high above you... Maybe I should start doubling at lvl 18 instead of lvl 21.. Meaning my revised list of adequate/good/excellent at lvl 20 would be :
23/28/33.

FWIW, I was joking about tweaking my char as a result of that post (though I might have to for saves, per my earlier discussion.) Still, it's pretty impressive that this mount is basically something I might shapechange into.

Yeah, Dragons are much more powerful as Paladin Special Mounts than as Cohorts or PC's, for some reason... Though keep in mind that that is a big part of the class (the special mount), and one of his feats, + 14,000 GP.
I think you're exagerating a LITTLE, though.. A simple lvl 4 Polymorph gets you a 15HD creature(Practically the equivalent of his mount), wheras Shapechange is better in every aspect.. PLUS, your own buffs, spellcasting, and the ability to change to whatever form is needed as a free action 1/round...
BTW, I love shapechange, so here's a small list I compiled of useful forms(and this is just the MM, and not even all of it) :
[sblock=Shapechange]
AVORAL - True Seeing, Fear Aura(DC 13 + Cha)
BEHOLDER - Antimagic Cone + Eye rays (DC 15+cha)
BLINK DOG - D-Door 1/round as free action, Blink(free action)
BODAK - Death Gaze (DC 14+Cha) @ will.
DRAGON - Breath Weapon, Frightful Presence, SR, Blindsense, Keen Senses, Flight, High Str/Con.
12 HEADED HYDRA - Fast Healing 22, 12 jets of flame,3d6 fire/cold each (DC 16+con mod)
SOLAR - Regen 15, DR 15/Epic and Evil, darkvision, immunity(acid, cold, petrification), Electricity/Fire Resist 10, SR 32, Tongues, Protective Aura, STR28, Dex20, Con20.
WILL-O-WISP. Natural invisibility. Great fly speed. Touch electric attack, and best of all...immune to ALL MAGIC except Magic Missile.
[/sblock]

 

[Shayuri]

Don't forget the humble Willow Wisp. Natural invisibility. Great fly speed. Touch electric attack, and best of all...immune to ALL MAGIC except Magic Missile.

Woot!

...almost enough to make me want my shapechanger after all.

I am revamping my ninja's gear a bit. I'll post as soon as I'm done.

 

[Darimaus]

moritheil - Cohort's will have standard NPC gold for their level, as well as 28 point buy stats.

Looking good so far guys. Keep it coming. Three more days until characters are due.

 

[Insight]

[sblock=Insight] - Moritheil pointed out something I've missed completely... Magic Circle's will completely screw you up, they prevent mental control. I'd completely missed that w/ regard to the ghost+cohort strat.
As for the Practiced spellcaster, I completely forgot about your HD lack, sry. I guess you'll have to stick to the buff/heal strat, and throw in blade barriers every once in a while?
Also, w/ regards to Nightsticks, they do have to be held to function, so it's a move action to draw one from a pouch(Assuming you have a belt pouch full of just nightsticks, or a bag of holding)
[/sblock]

[sblock]It appears that spells such as Protection from Evil pretty much destroy my ability to control people. That's pretty lame. A 1st level spell. Pfft. This is going to cause me to reconsider this character, since I've put a lot of thought and effort into bumping the ability to control people. They are all going to either have this already turned on, or going to cast it as soon as I am noticed. So either I try to dispel the protection (not likely since my caster level sucks), or not use the ability at all. Neither are good options.[/sblock]

 

[Necro_Kinder]

Got my character fixed up and posted.