Trying to figure out the new rules

[Mighty Veil]

I'm new to PF, and am getting ready to run a first game of it (using a 3.5 adventure). I'll be the DM and will be running a monster NPC, in this case it's a Very Young Brass Dragon, with no wings.

I know how 3.5 would handle such a character's EL (-1 EL due to no wings, than plus the remainder to its HD). PF doesn't use EL/ECL. I've read its CR as "ECL" rule, and just want to confirm that in PF you use the CR as the ECL for monster NPCs.

However; I've noticed under special mounts that a young dragon is CR +8. Should this rule be used also for a dragon NPC, and if so, should the +8 be reduced due to the dragon being Very Young?

 

[TheNovaLord]

in the scope of the adventure, does its ECL matter?

is it going to be a PC at some point?

i dunno, maybe your getting to complex from the off

 

[Perram]

In Pathfinder you would use the monsters CR as it's level, yes. The equivalent of its ECL.

Keep in mind, though, that Pathfinder doesn't really suggest the use of monsters as PCs and the system isn't designed around it, so you may need to be careful with any monsters as PCs.

For the dragons exact stats you would have to build a Very Young dragon up from the beginning using the rules in the Dragon entry.

A very young gold dragon would be CR 9, sized medium, and have 10d12 HP, a very very powerful companion NPC indeed!


EDIT: Sorry, see you said Brass Dragon now. It would be CR 5, sized small, and have 6d12 HP, still rather powerful.

 

[Anguish]

I've been working on playtesting a homebrew PC class that grants a full-blooded dragon companion. So far, treating this like the Leadership feat seems to be working reasonably if you interpret the dragon's CR as it's level. So, if the average party level is 11th, a CR9 dragon is working out to not be over-powered. And so on.

 

[Disquisition]

The rules on using monsters as PCs are here. However, I'm going to have to agree with Perram in that this could easily get out of hand. Personally, I'd use a druid's animal companion as a template for about how powerful a pet should be at a given level rather than going by Leadership.