Dragons as Cohorts

[Trainz]

My DM gave to a fellow player a Dragon cohort. Now, the Dragon's stats are abissmally low (he's very small and young), and he's about as useful as ice on a barbecue right now. Basically, his only use is to say "look, I have a dragon !" and that's that.

The whole party will die of old age before the dragon becomes useful for something else than fetching the newspaper. Can the dragon pick up character levels then so that it can advance as a regular cohort ?

 

[Ovinomancer]

Don't see why not.

 

[Trainz]

A question to those who have the Draconomicon or whatever ressource that gives this information:

What is the LA of a Wyrmling Bronze Dragon, and what is the LA of a Very Young Bronze Dragon ?

 

[Epametheus]

I don't have the Draconomicon handy, but my quick answer would be LA for a baby dragon = HD+4 or so (flight, multiple attacks, natural armor, breath weapon). According to Savage Species,a wyrmling is ECL 10 and a very young is ECL 13.

The fact that a wyrmling dragon with an ECL of 9-11 will be complete garbage compared to a L9-11 PC is irrelevant, since the LA is meant to be a deterrent.

 

[Derren]

Epametheus is basically right except with somantics.

The LA of a Bronze Dragon is +4 so the ECL of a wyrmling is +10 and of a very young is +13. Yes, that is very weak (Dragons generally are rather week when used as PCs and Cohorts).

Not that the LA for dragons is not always +4 like Epametheus suggested.

And of course dragon can take class levels and it would be sensible for the dragon to do that to keep up with the maximum Cohort ECL the player can have.
Also he might be interested in teh Draconic Cohort feat, which lowers the ECL of dragons by 3 for Cohort purposes.

 

[mikebr99]

A question to those who have the Draconomicon or whatever ressource that gives this information:

What is the LA of a Wyrmling Bronze Dragon, and what is the LA of a Very Young Bronze Dragon ?

Bronze
Age Cat. HD LA Base ECL
0 Wyrmling 6 +4 10
2 " 7 +4 11
4 " 8 +4 12
6 very young 9 +4 13
8 " 9 +5 14
10 " 10 +5 15
12 " 11 +5 16
14 " 11 +6 17


Hope this helps... formatting sucks... but what are you gonna do?


P.S. Get the leadership guy to planeshift with his cohort to the alternate PM where AD&D still exists... and go ghost hunting!


Mike

 

[Trainz]

blarg

 

[Trainz]

Epametheus is basically right except with somantics.

The LA of a Bronze Dragon is +4 so the ECL of a wyrmling is +10 and of a very young is +13. Yes, that is very weak (Dragons generally are rather week when used as PCs and Cohorts).

Wow. There is no way in our campaign that this dragon will ever be able to get character levels. It's already higher then it's master. And it will advance an age category in one year.

That is utter mynock crap. There is no way that you can justify a wyrmling bronze being ECL 10. A single 5th level character can wipe the floor with it. Which is why in our game the dragon stays in the back very far from melee, and will intervene in a fight once in a blue moon. Even when it does so, it often comes damn close to be bantha poodoo.

The DM was nice enough to propose to the player to forget about it and let him retrospectively switch Leadership with a different feat, but the player insisted on keeping the dragon. He thinks it's cool. I told him it wasn't worth it. The dragon already had to be resurrected once.

Fine. Let's see how "cool" he finds his darn dragon when we make him pay for those resurrects with him getting firewood, sharpening our weapons, preparing our camp food, shining our boots, and submitting to other un-Eric's-grandma'-friendly little chores...

 

[Epametheus]

Dragons have high ECLs mainly to discourage dragons from being PCs or cohorts in the first place. They aren't quite as bad as the assorted creatures with ECLs that are almost double their actual HD, but they're still pretty bad.

Though if its only a couple HD behind your party, it shouldn't be doing that badly..

 

[Derren]

Why isn't the dragon allowed to take class levels? That they can is official, just look at various Wyrms of the North or the existance of Dragon PRCs.

Also, start viewing the Wyrmling dragon more like a familiar than a cohort (A wizard is actually able to take a wyrmling bronze familiar at 11th level).

Also, start giving the dragon the treasure for its ECL. That will help.