Ok so a wizard and fighter in my party took the time to create a demos magen. They want to train it to be a better fighter. The idea is that its base stats are enough to take fighter levels, it's smart enough to take fighter levels, so can it take fighter levels if it trains and fights with the party? They're even willing to sacrifice exp. I'm leaning to yes but I wanted additional opinions.
This situation is really within the realm of DM’s fiat and homebrew: there isn’t really a wrong decision, as it’s up to you as the DM.
It might however be worth taking a look at the rules for Sidekicks in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. They let you apply a simplified character levelling structure to a Monster statblock, so that you can have a creature join the party and gain in power as the party levels up. You choose between three Sidekick “classes”: Expert, Spellcaster and Warrior. The Warrior class is essentially a simplified Fighter.
The intention of their design is that the Sidekick should remain strong enough to hold their own alongside the party without regularly outshining the PCs and without being too complicated to run. However, please note that Tasha’s advises that they are intended for Creatures of CR 1/2 or below, and I see that the demos magen is a CR2 Construct. We have actually run a CR2 creature as a Warrior sidekick (a Giant Boar, called Bella), and it was fun, but the DM had to balance the encounters appropriately (she could face off against a couple of Dire Wolves on her own). If you chose to run the demos magen with Fighter levels, that will probably be more powerful still, so might give you some encounter balance headaches.
I don’t have access to Rime of the Frostmaiden to see the demos magen statblock, so I don’t know if there’d be any specific issues. The main general one is that a creature with Multiattack can’t use that with Extra Attack.
Ok so a wizard and fighter in my party took the time to create a demos magen. They want to train it to be a better fighter. The idea is that its base stats are enough to take fighter levels, it's smart enough to take fighter levels, so can it take fighter levels if it trains and fights with the party? They're even willing to sacrifice exp. I'm leaning to yes but I wanted additional opinions.
Rules as written no. (Only PCs take class levels). There is no default way to increase a monsters stats.
The important things (1) you don't want the Magen to be more powerful than the PCs. (2) Once the Magen is roughly equal to a PC in power they need to be treated like a PC for encounters. (3) What happens when the Magen dies/reaches 0 HP?
If you want to let them do it, I’d look at the sidekick rules in Tasha’s instead of as a full fighter, go with the warrior variant. By RAW, it can’t be made into one, but if you’re the DM, that doesn’t matter.
I agree with the above advice, but I’d also add, what does the party want to do with it? Is it meant to be out adventuring with them or do they leave it behind to guard their base, or stay with the horses when the party goes into the dungeon?
The second option can often be a good compromise, where they get to have their cool toy and it enhances the story, but it still doesn’t take away from the PCs.
Ok so a wizard and fighter in my party took the time to create a demos magen. They want to train it to be a better fighter. The idea is that its base stats are enough to take fighter levels, it's smart enough to take fighter levels, so can it take fighter levels if it trains and fights with the party? They're even willing to sacrifice exp. I'm leaning to yes but I wanted additional opinions.
Have a look at the Side Kick rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, that is the easiest way to allow them to "train" it and improve its abilities in a balanced way so it doesn't overshadow the rest of the party.
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Ok so a wizard and fighter in my party took the time to create a demos magen. They want to train it to be a better fighter. The idea is that its base stats are enough to take fighter levels, it's smart enough to take fighter levels, so can it take fighter levels if it trains and fights with the party? They're even willing to sacrifice exp. I'm leaning to yes but I wanted additional opinions.
This situation is really within the realm of DM’s fiat and homebrew: there isn’t really a wrong decision, as it’s up to you as the DM.
It might however be worth taking a look at the rules for Sidekicks in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. They let you apply a simplified character levelling structure to a Monster statblock, so that you can have a creature join the party and gain in power as the party levels up. You choose between three Sidekick “classes”: Expert, Spellcaster and Warrior. The Warrior class is essentially a simplified Fighter.
The intention of their design is that the Sidekick should remain strong enough to hold their own alongside the party without regularly outshining the PCs and without being too complicated to run. However, please note that Tasha’s advises that they are intended for Creatures of CR 1/2 or below, and I see that the demos magen is a CR2 Construct. We have actually run a CR2 creature as a Warrior sidekick (a Giant Boar, called Bella), and it was fun, but the DM had to balance the encounters appropriately (she could face off against a couple of Dire Wolves on her own). If you chose to run the demos magen with Fighter levels, that will probably be more powerful still, so might give you some encounter balance headaches.
I don’t have access to Rime of the Frostmaiden to see the demos magen statblock, so I don’t know if there’d be any specific issues. The main general one is that a creature with Multiattack can’t use that with Extra Attack.
Rules as written no. (Only PCs take class levels). There is no default way to increase a monsters stats.
The important things (1) you don't want the Magen to be more powerful than the PCs. (2) Once the Magen is roughly equal to a PC in power they need to be treated like a PC for encounters. (3) What happens when the Magen dies/reaches 0 HP?
If you want to let them do it, I’d look at the sidekick rules in Tasha’s instead of as a full fighter, go with the warrior variant. By RAW, it can’t be made into one, but if you’re the DM, that doesn’t matter.
I agree with the above advice, but I’d also add, what does the party want to do with it? Is it meant to be out adventuring with them or do they leave it behind to guard their base, or stay with the horses when the party goes into the dungeon?
The second option can often be a good compromise, where they get to have their cool toy and it enhances the story, but it still doesn’t take away from the PCs.
Have a look at the Side Kick rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, that is the easiest way to allow them to "train" it and improve its abilities in a balanced way so it doesn't overshadow the rest of the party.