Piratecat said:
Here's the scoop. I'm looking for a small-sized (kobold?) neutral or evil riding specialist. He's going to be roughly 16th lvl and mounted on a fairly stupid horse-sized dragon. (He'll also be accompanied by an
intelligent horse-sized dragon, but not as a mount; that's a little too cheesy when it comes to using the ride skill.) I'd like to mine whatever synergies I can out of the pairing.
If you go with a Kobold, you can go with a smaller dragon than horse-sized. And regardless - flying mount, small rider ... that screams "mounted archery" in a BIG way.
One suggestion is: if you have or can borrow a copy of Unearthed Arcana, consider going with a VARIANT paladin (there's an LE and a CE version in there). A LE Paladin of Tyranny, mounted on his (bonded) Dragon cohort/mount and accopanied by another dragon ... *shudder* ...
Windrider, though a 3.0 product, is a good place to look for ANY mounted archetype.
If you weren't set on the "horse-sized dragon" schtick, I'd suggest a Ranger - withthe Archery combat style, and an ever-increasingly-tough mount ... but since you
are stuck on it, I can't add too much more to what's already been said, sad to say.
I strongly suggest, though, that you get the Draconomicon - if those are horse-sized SHADOW dragons, the PC's are in for a HECK of a fight, just based on THEM. Heh (their breath weapon inflicts negative levels, bwahaha).