Possible Cohort: Horned Felldrake

[Fangor the Fierce]

I am trying to come up with a unique Cohort. I was reading the Leadership/Cohort rules and found the Cohorts as Mounts option. Sure, the mount has to have an INT no less than 4, and I then went through the three monster manuals. I found a nice monster, in the Horned Felldrake. So, this is a question to pose and see if it's a viable option that others would support.

Horned Felldrake has 4HD, and no level adjustments. So, with a 9th level fighter, I should be able to get (max) a 7th level cohort. This would put the Felldrake at a possible 7HD. The entry on the Advancement chart for the Horned Felldrake says it is Large when 5-9HD. (It starts as Medium) This would solve the "Mount must be one size category larger than the rider" issue, as the rider would be Medium.

Questions:

1. With the advancement of the Horned Felldrake reading 1-4hd = Medium, and 5-9 Large, does that mean that it can not go above 9HD? Could I continue to advance the moneter past 9HD?

2. With advancing the Monster in HD, does the option still stand to advance it in any other ways, such as taking Class Levels? (Fighter or Barbarian)

3. The entry also states it speaks Draconic and Sylvan, I believe. With it being able to speak, and also be a cohort, would I be correct in assuming that it can make its own decisions at will? It's INT is 5, and WIS 12, so I am assuming that since the fighter took the leadership feat, and the monster is able to speak and comprehend things, I am not needing to hear the comment of "Did you make your Handle Animal check to make him do that?"

4. Are there any other Neutral Good aligned cohorts out there that would serve well as a mount? I found the Horned Felldrake an interesting concept, and one that I would be keen on trying. Has anyone heard of it being used or know of any other cohorts that I might have overlooked? I have ruled out Pegasus and Griffons.

Thanks

As an added comment, the fighter using this cohort is pretty large for a medium character, wields a spiked chain, and has loads of AoO's (4 per round). His feats are Combat Reflexes (4 AoO per round), Johtunbrud, Cosmopolitan-Tumble (tumble +14 now), Exotic Weapon Proficiency-Spiked Chain, Power Attack, Hold the Line, and Extra Rage (3 times per day).

Fighter 5 / Barbarian 2

He also speaks 11 languages...as I have decided to make him able to understand most anything thrown at us... and possibly intimidate them. Common, Giant, Terran, Gnoll, Gnome, Undercommon, Goblin, Draconic, Abyssal, Elven, and Ignan. (Intimidate +9)

Am I wasting my time with going for the Leadership Feat? It would actually help the group out, as we have a stronghold now, and with taking the leadership feat, I can also get followers to stay at the base, and tend to the upkeep of it and protection. (We already lost one stronghold due to not being there...)

 

[Rackhir]

1).9 HD max would be my reading of it. One doesn't expect guinea pigs to grow to elephant size after all.

2) I don't know, I think this is up to your DM. It should probably be an option in my opinion though.

3) Correct. Though Ride checks and such would still be necessary.

One elemement to consider if it can fly (I'm not familiar with that monster). Is that it is limited to a light load. You do get the benefits of it being a four legged creature (assuming it is one), with regards to weight capacity, but if it starts out as a medium creature that might not be so hot in any case.

As far as followers go, I'm not sure how much use they will be. They are unlikely to be able to stand up to any sort of serious attack, but if it's just a question of having someone there they can certainly do that. In any case unless you have a positively obscene charisma and a lot of other bonuses, you aren't going to have enough leadership points (on that DMG chart) to be able to attract a significant number of followers iirc.

 

[Gez]

1. With the advancement of the Horned Felldrake reading 1-4hd = Medium, and 5-9 Large, does that mean that it can not go above 9HD? Could I continue to advance the monster past 9HD?

If it could, it would be written so. Look at the true dragons or the Tarrasque or other creatures with advancement like "45+ HD (Colossal)".

So, no.

2. With advancing the Monster in HD, does the option still stand to advance it in any other ways, such as taking Class Levels? (Fighter or Barbarian)

Any creature with an Int of 3 or more and scores in Charisma and Wisdom can take levels in character classes.

Creature whose advancement is "By character class" means that this is their only possible source of advancement.

3. The entry also states it speaks Draconic and Sylvan, I believe. With it being able to speak, and also be a cohort, would I be correct in assuming that it can make its own decisions at will?

Any creature with a Charisma of 1 or more is able to to assert its own individuality, and thus makes its own decisions at will.

It's INT is 5, and WIS 12, so I am assuming that since the fighter took the leadership feat, and the monster is able to speak and comprehend things, I am not needing to hear the comment of "Did you make your Handle Animal check to make him do that?"

Especially considering Handle Animal doesn't work well on Dragons. A felldrake is not an animal.

4. Are there any other Neutral Good aligned cohorts out there that would serve well as a mount? I found the Horned Felldrake an interesting concept, and one that I would be keen on trying. Has anyone heard of it being used or know of any other cohorts that I might have overlooked? I have ruled out Pegasus and Griffons.

There are a lo of potential mounts. Depends on what you want. If you rules out pegasi and griffons because they're not exotic enough, you'll probably not be interested in the Asperi. There are sphinxes, shedu, lammasu, ki-rin, dragonnel, and shirokinukatsukami.

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Any creature with an Int of 3 or more and scores in Charisma and Wisdom can take levels in character classes.

I never knew that. Where exactly is that stated?

Creature whose advancement is "By character class" means that this is their only possible source of advancement.

Again, not known to me....

There are a lo of potential mounts. Depends on what you want. If you rules out pegasi and griffons because they're not exotic enough, you'll probably not be interested in the Asperi. There are sphinxes, shedu, lammasu, ki-rin, dragonnel, and shirokinukatsukami.

It's not that they are not 'exotic' enough for me, it's that I would not really be interested in those types of mounts like a flying horse, and the griffon. Although, the ability to fly out of danger would be a nice choice. It's that most of those types of creatures like Pegasus and Griffon I believe have certain HD and such that I would not be able to get them at level 9, whereas I would only be allowed a Level 7 cohort.

I will have to look up the entries you listed, as I read sphinxes, and those are too rare as well as Ki-Rin. I wanted something that could be a little believable. The Felldrakes are listed as good choices for guarding and protecting. I figured one would see the potential in the fighter, and choose to follow him and protect him.



Also, if I advanced this creature to 9HD, and then wanted to take a class of Fighter, would I then gain another D10 in Hit Points?

 

[Rackhir]

If a creature advances in a class it gains all the benefits of advancing in that class AFIK.

One thing that may throw a monkey wrench into your plans is that monster cohorts typically have a level adjustment, with regards to what level they count as for a cohort. For a griffon iirc it's a cr 4 creature, but a lvl 9 cohort (too high a LA in my opinion). So your drake depending on it's abilities might well have a LA of +3 or more. The griffon seems to get it's LA of +5 from the ability to Fly (fairly fast rate 80' iirc), Scent feat, fairly good HP and Ac and pounce ability.

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

If a creature advances in a class it gains all the benefits of advancing in that class AFIK.

One thing that may throw a monkey wrench into your plans is that monster cohorts typically have a level adjustment, with regards to what level they count as for a cohort. For a griffon iirc it's a cr 4 creature, but a lvl 9 cohort (too high a LA in my opinion). So your drake depending on it's abilities might well have a LA of +3 or more. The griffon seems to get it's LA of +5 from the ability to Fly (fairly fast rate 80' iirc), Scent feat, fairly good HP and Ac and pounce ability.

In this example, it raises one of the issues I am seeing. A griffon is actually a Lvl 10 Cohort. It has 7HD, and the entry for LA +3, (7+3=10) I now see that in the entry for info on Monster Stats, Level Adjustment is used for monsters that can be used as Player Characters or Cohorts. Makes me question if it restricts Cohort choices to only those with this (cohort) entry....

 

[Lasher Dragon]

So, how does one figure the "level" of a prospective monster cohort? Is it hit die + CR? Especially when the monster has no LA given.

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

So, how does one figure the "level" of a prospective monster cohort? Is it hit die + CR? Especially when the monster has no LA given.

It's HD plus Level Adjustment. CR is not taken into effect.