Q regarding alternate paladin mount: the dire wolf

[FreeTheSlaves]

One of my players has presented to me his desire to have a dire wolf mount. Okay, I thumb through DotF and find a 1 level delayed progression, then I look at the dire wolf compared to a heavy warhorse.

Wtf?

Even taking into account the 1 level delay, the dire wolf is one huge called mount. The 8hd & 27str has alarm bells ringing.

2 questions:
- is there any 3.5 updates that someone could point me towards?
- & if no, has the dire wolf been (roughly) balanced in your campaign?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Darren Ravenshaw]

In 3.5 the Dire Wolf has 6 Hit Dice and a Strength of 25.

Still more powerful then a Heavy Warhorse but toned down a bit.

Personally I would allow a Dire Wolf as a mount at 7th level, but
treat the Paladin(The character is a Paladin?) as two levels lower for determining the mounts progression.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Oh, I was looking at the modified stats (and got the str wrong).

I was sort of leaning that way but now that I've thought on it, the investment cost of waiting a level has me believe that the dire wolf is actually in between level 6 & 7.

As it is not overpowering, I am thinking that the 1 level delay is acceptable and I'll store away the knowledge that this paladin's power has crept a half level.