In a new campaign, one of my players is going to be a paladin connected to Bahamut. He also has the knight background.
I asked him: are you going to be mounted or on foot?, and this event leads to my following question. He likes to have a wyvern as a mount. I'm willing to allow this, but only at later levels. First he'll have to attend to the egg, and raise the little creature, protect it, and so on.
But, how would one handle it as a mount itself? I know the ranger has the beastmaster, with which he could learn the creature to attack, and the figther has cavalier, which will led him do more things while riding. Would I ignore the fighting mode of this wyvern and just use basic rules (player handbook) for riding a mount? It just seems a bit anti-climax though... As a DM I would prefer it if he could let the creature attack and roam with the party from tiny - small - medium - large. It would be ably to fight with the party, obeying his command, and ultimatly he would be able to fly with it. But this ignores all the options from the ranger/fighter class, and might make him overpowered, but it would be very cool...
How would you all handle this, and at which level would it be appropriate to let him fly it?
First he'll have to attend to the egg, and raise the little creature, protect it, and so on.
Bear in mind that the environmental requirements for the egg are important as well as being present at the hatch to bond the hatchling to the rider. Generally it's the first creature the hatchling sees and accepts food from. I Might suggest some Animal Handling things here of the very hard range.
I know the ranger has the beastmaster, with which he could learn the creature to attack, and the figther has cavalier, which will led him do more things while riding. Would I ignore the fighting mode of this wyvern and just use basic rules (player handbook) for riding a mount? It just seems a bit anti-climax though... As a DM I would prefer it if he could let the creature attack and roam with the party from tiny - small - medium - large. It would be ably to fight with the party, obeying his command, and ultimately he would be able to fly with it.
Sidekick is a good suggestion and is viable if the mount is acting alone on its own initiative under some direction from the rider or if the rider is rendered incapacitated. If the mount is ridden and acts on the rider's initiative, I might default back to the BM-Animal Companion subset. We want the rider to be the star, not the mount.
Paladin in question has access to a)Find Steed at 5th level, but won't have access to b)Find Greater Steed until 13th level. Option a) nets you a creature you can ride of no higher than CR1/4, I might suggest reskinning and reducing a Guard Drake to the appropriate CR to make them the Animal Companion variant. Option b) nets you the ability to fly, but with only a CR2 creature, which would then mean that you would have to reskin and CR reduce the Wyvern and then apply the Sidekick variant. In both cases there will be a lot (tons) of working, re-working, balancing and re-balancing.
It can be done, and once you become familiar with the process, it should happen easier at each level.
How would you all handle this, and at which level would it be appropriate to let him fly it?
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
This may be totally wrong for your game world but in my game world there's a culture that uses wyverns as mounts. If you can afford the price you can buy one "off the shelf". Unlike a warhorse, which costs hundreds of GP, a wyvern costs tens of thousands - the same sort of cost as a very rare magic item. Given that I let anyone with the money go and buy one and use it as a mount following the rules in the Players Handbook.
There's a few complications:
Wyverns are carnivores and cost a lot to feed
Very few places have decent stabling for Wyverns - most stables object to having a creature in there that looks like it'd eat the rest of the animals being cared in there
Wyverns can get quite fragile as the party levels up so the rider probably needs the Mounted Combat feat to keep them alive. A paladin rider would help with the bonus to saving throws. Also at high levels directing your wyvern mount to attack is probably a lot less effective than just smacking the foe with a weapon
As I said this may not be appropriate for your game but hopefully it'll give you some insight as to how it might work.
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In a new campaign, one of my players is going to be a paladin connected to Bahamut.
He also has the knight background.
I asked him: are you going to be mounted or on foot?, and this event leads to my following question.
He likes to have a wyvern as a mount. I'm willing to allow this, but only at later levels.
First he'll have to attend to the egg, and raise the little creature, protect it, and so on.
But, how would one handle it as a mount itself?
I know the ranger has the beastmaster, with which he could learn the creature to attack, and the figther has cavalier, which will led him do more things while riding.
Would I ignore the fighting mode of this wyvern and just use basic rules (player handbook) for riding a mount?
It just seems a bit anti-climax though...
As a DM I would prefer it if he could let the creature attack and roam with the party from tiny - small - medium - large.
It would be ably to fight with the party, obeying his command, and ultimatly he would be able to fly with it.
But this ignores all the options from the ranger/fighter class, and might make him overpowered, but it would be very cool...
How would you all handle this, and at which level would it be appropriate to let him fly it?
You could always have the wyvern as a sidekick to the party. There's even Unearthed Arcana on this for leveling them up https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/UA_Sidekicks.pdf
Bear in mind that the environmental requirements for the egg are important as well as being present at the hatch to bond the hatchling to the rider. Generally it's the first creature the hatchling sees and accepts food from. I Might suggest some Animal Handling things here of the very hard range.
Sidekick is a good suggestion and is viable if the mount is acting alone on its own initiative under some direction from the rider or if the rider is rendered incapacitated. If the mount is ridden and acts on the rider's initiative, I might default back to the BM-Animal Companion subset. We want the rider to be the star, not the mount.
Paladin in question has access to a)Find Steed at 5th level, but won't have access to b)Find Greater Steed until 13th level. Option a) nets you a creature you can ride of no higher than CR1/4, I might suggest reskinning and reducing a Guard Drake to the appropriate CR to make them the Animal Companion variant. Option b) nets you the ability to fly, but with only a CR2 creature, which would then mean that you would have to reskin and CR reduce the Wyvern and then apply the Sidekick variant. In both cases there will be a lot (tons) of working, re-working, balancing and re-balancing.
It can be done, and once you become familiar with the process, it should happen easier at each level.
(see level 13 explanation above)
my 2cp.
Have fun and good luck.
Edit: Sidekick Rules link added from TCoE
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
This may be totally wrong for your game world but in my game world there's a culture that uses wyverns as mounts. If you can afford the price you can buy one "off the shelf". Unlike a warhorse, which costs hundreds of GP, a wyvern costs tens of thousands - the same sort of cost as a very rare magic item. Given that I let anyone with the money go and buy one and use it as a mount following the rules in the Players Handbook.
There's a few complications:
As I said this may not be appropriate for your game but hopefully it'll give you some insight as to how it might work.