Wondermount (3.5e Optimized Character Build)
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Introduction[edit]
There are a number of ways to have a compatriot with your character. The most common are the druid's animal companion, the paladin's special mount, the wizard/sorcerer's familiar, and the Leadership feat's cohort. This build aims to maximize the effectiveness of such a compatriot. It stacks the benefits of a special mount with those of an animal companion onto a single creature (special companion).
The base concept of this build (and variants thereof) is known as supermount and ubermount and uses strongheart halfling paladin 5/beastmaster 2/wild plains outrider 3/halfling outrider 10. This build, wondermount, produces a more powerful "special companion" without using the wild plains outrider (Complete Adventurer), the halfling outrider (Complete Warrior), nor the paladin classes.
References[edit]
- Complete Adventurer (CAd): beastmaster (page 26), Devoted Tracker (page 108), Natural Bond (page 111)
- Draconomicon (Dra): Awaken Spell Resistance (page 67), Dragon Steed (page 105), dragons as special mounts game rule information (page 139)
- Dragon Magazine #317 (Dr317): ranger knight of Furyondy (page 68)
- Dragon Magazine #325 (Dr325): Holy Mount (page 62)
- Frostburn (FB): Winter's Mount (page 50)
- Monster Manual: celestial creature template, Flyby Attack, gold dragon, Improved Multiattack, Multiattack, Wingover
- Player's Handbook: The rest...
Game Rule Components[edit]
Progression[edit]
Starting Ability Scores (Before Racial Adjustments): This build uses the elite ability score array: Str 8, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 13. All ability score increases are dumped into Wis. As far as ability scores are concerned, Cha is the only ability required for this build in order to qualify for Dragon SteedDra. It must be at least 13 at ECL 17th (character level 15th).
Race (Templates): Celestial human; this build works with any race that satisfies the following: has a +0 level adjustment, gets a bonus feat at first level, and can have the celestial template applied to the race.
Starting Racial Traits (of note): Bonus feat, smite evil 1/day
| ECL | Class/HD/LA | Base Attack Bonus |
Saving Throws | Feats | Class Features | Special | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort | Ref | Will | ||||||
| 1st | Druid | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Mounted CombatB, Trample | Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy | |
| 2nd | Celestial Creature LA | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Smite evil 1/day, darkvision 60 ft. | ||
| 3rd | Celestial Creature LA | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Resistance to acid 5, cold 5, and electricity 5, spell resistance 6 | ||
| 4th | Ranger | +1 | +4 | +2 | +2 | TrackB | Favored enemy: undead | Spell resistance 7 |
| 5th | Ranger | +2 | +5 | +3 | +2 | Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Two-Weapon FightingV | Combat style: two-weapon | Spell resistance 8 |
| 6th | Druid | +3 | +6 | +3 | +3 | Woodland stride | Damage reduction 5/magic, Spell resistance 9 | |
| 7th | Druid | +4 | +6 | +4 | +3 | Trackless step | Spell resistance 10 | |
| 8th | Druid | +5 | +7 | +4 | +4 | Natural BondCAd | Resist nature's lure | Spell resistance 11 |
| 9th | Ranger knight of FuryondyDr317 | +6 | +9 | +6 | +4 | Mounted track, special mount | Spell resistance 12 | |
| 10th | BeastmasterCAd | +7 | +11 | +8 | +4 | Animal companion, wild empathy | Resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and electricity 10, Spell resistance 13 | |
| 11th | Druid | +7 | +11 | +8 | +4 | Devoted TrackerCAd | Wild shape (1/day) | Spell resistance 14 |
| 12th | Druid | +8 | +12 | +9 | +5 | Wild shape (2/day) | Spell resistance 15 | |
| 13th | Druid | +9 | +12 | +9 | +5 | Wild shape (3/day) | Spell resistance 16 | |
| 14th | Druid | +10 | +13 | +9 | +6 | Holy MountDr325 | Wild shape (Large) | Damage reduction 10/magic, spell resistance 17 |
| 15th | Druid | +10 | +13 | +10 | +6 | Venom immunity | Spell resistance 18 | |
| 16th | Druid | +11 | +14 | +10 | +7 | Wild shape (4/day) | Spell resistance 19 | |
| 17th | Druid | +12 | +14 | +10 | +7 | Dragon SteedDra | Wild shape (Tiny) | Spell resistance 20 |
| 18th | Druid | +13 | +15 | +11 | +8 | Wild shape (plant) | Spell resistance 21 | |
| 19th | Druid | +13 | +15 | +11 | +8 | A thousand faces | Spell resistance 22 | |
| 20th | Druid | +14 | +16 | +11 | +9 | Winter's MountFB | Wild shape (5/day) | Spell resistance 23 |
Final Character Progression: Druid 14/ranger 2/ranger knight of Furyondy 1/beastmaster 1 with special mount 20/animal companion 21
Other Components[edit]
Special Companion Progression[edit]
Base Creature: Young gold dragon.
20th-Level Special Mount Benefits: +2 bonus hit dice, +4 natural armor increase, +1 Str increase, +2 racial Con increase, cold subtype, empathic link, improved evasion, share saving throws, share spells
21st-Level Animal Companion Benefits: +14 bonus hit dice, +14 natural armor increase, +7 Str and Dex increase, devotion, improved evasion, link, Multiattack, share spells
| HD | BAB | Saving Throws | NAB | Ability Scores | BW DC | Feats | Special Abilities | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort | Ref | Will | Str | Dex | Con | ||||||
| 14 | +14 | +9 | +9 | +9 | +13 | 25 | 10 | 17 | 20 | Alertness, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Wingover | 1 bite (2d6), 2 claws (1d8), 2 wings (1d6), 1 tail slap (1d8), alternate form, blindsense 60 ft., dragon traits, immunity to fire, sleep and paralysis, low-light vision ×4, darkvision 120 ft., spells (as 1st-level sorcerer), vulnerability to cold, water breathing, speed 60 ft., fly 200 ft. (poor), swim 60 ft., breath weapon (40 ft. cone 6d10 fire or 3 Str damage gas) |
| 16 | +16 | +10 | +10 | +10 | +17 | 26 | 10 | 19 | 22 | Leadership | Empathic link, immunity to cold, improved evasion, share saving throws, share spells |
| 30 | +30 | +17 | +17 | +17 | +31 | 33 | 17 | 19 | 29 | Awaken Spell ResistanceDra, Improved Multiattack, MultiattackB, <epic feat>, <epic feat>, <epic feat> | Devotion, link, spell resistance 30 |
Highlights[edit]
As stated above, this build combines the special mount and animal companion class features into one special companion. This is done by using the Devoted TrackerCAd feat. However, this feat has some prerequisites that need to be met: Track, smite evil, wild empathy. This feat was obviously intended for a paladin/ranger build (possibly paladin/beastmaster), but we're going to forego the paladin and satisfy the requirements in a different way. Track and wild empathy are easy to meet with just one level of druid. This build, however, uses a couple levels of ranger to meet this feat requirement along with another. Smite evil, however, is satisfied by applying the celestial creature template to our human.
So now we have an animal companion, we have Devoted Tracker, but we're still missing a class that grants a special mount. Again paladin is the obvious choice, however, we find that the ranger knight of FuryondyDr317 works even better! Not only does it grant special mount, but it stacks with levels of paladin (not useful to this build but worth noting), and it also gives the mount abilities as though the ranger knight were five levels higher. So immediately the special mount is treated as though the ranger knight is a level 6 paladin.
The next important piece of this build is the Holy MountDr347 feat. This lovely gem allows levels in a non-paladin divine spellcasting classes to stack for determining the abilities of a special mount. So every level of druid affects both the animal companion benefits and the special mount benefits. (There's a question as to whether or not two levels of ranger count towards levels in a spellcasting class, so this build errs on the side of "no".) Prior builds used the halfling outrider prestige class (Complete Warrior page 38) to accomplish dual advancement. With fourteen levels of druid it puts the special mount at 20th level.
The Natural Bond feat adds up to three levels of animal companion benefits (can't cause it to exceed the character level). So it covers the gaps in the animal companion progression due to the levels of ranger and ranger knight. This puts the effective druid level for the animal companion at 7th at character level 7th (ECL 9th).
The beastmaster class stacks for animal companion benefits and adds three more levels to boot (which can exceed character level). 11th for animal companion at character level 8th (ECL 10th).
From here it's nothing but ten more druid levels all the way to 18th level (ECL 20th) putting animal companion benefits at 21st level.
The Dragon Steed feat expands the creature options for special mounts to various dragon types including a limited set of true dragon types.
Munchkin-Size Me[edit]
Oddly enough, the sample gold dragon in the Monster Manual has the Leadership feat. If a 30-HD creature (such as the sample special companion) takes that feat, it should be able to get a celestial human druid 11/ranger 2/ranger knight of Furyondy 1/beastmaster 1 for a cohort...
Which in turn could have a very young gold dragon special companion with 25 HD...
Which in turn could take the Leadership feat and have a celestial human druid 11/ranger 2/ranger knight of Furyondy 1/beastmaster 1 for a cohort...
Which in turn could have a very young gold dragon special companion with 25 HD...
Which... well, you get the idea.
Side Notes[edit]
DM Counters[edit]
One adjustment is to not allow animal companion and special mount levels overlap. If gaining a level in a class can apply to both, the character must choose animal companion or special mount but not both.
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