DMing Question.

[Lunarambling]

Hey folks. I am about to run a campaign for a group of players that I have played with for years. They are not so big on optimizing, but, for story reasons, and because they hate building characters, they will all be playing pregenerated pcs of a moderate level of optimization. I have gotten suggestions from them as to the sort of characters they would like and someone mentioned wanting to play a character that rides a Blink Dog and basically "Nightcrawlers" around the field on dog back tearing into their enemies. This sounded fun, so I have tried to make a character with that sort of a feel. To do so, I found the Crinti Shadow Marauder. It works well, and is mount centered, however, it doesn't actually help you with having a mount.

So, the question:

Would it be too strong to allow the Crinti Shadow Marauder to progress Animal Companion or Special Mount progression?

It seems that most of the other mount centric classes progress the mount, but this one doesn't. It would suck to basically travel with a bunch of horses so when your horse dies every other combat that you can just use a new one, and I think it is better flavor to have a bonded mount that is empowered by your ability. Is this likely to be an issue?

[Vorpal_Bunny]

The Wild Cohort Feat could help, as it provides a scaling companion based on character level.  Alternatively, Leadership can get you a Blink Dog IIRC.

VB

[Cyrocloud]

1 level of Beast Heart Adept from dungeonscape will also get you a blink dog.

[Lunarambling]

I am aware of the options for Wild Cohort, Leadership, and BHA. Again though, with BHA, if they CSM doesn't progress companion, then you end up with a frail partner that is going to be getting killed on a regular basis.

Basically, I am trying to determine if letting Crinti Shadow Marauder advance companions/mounts 1 for 1, would make it too powerful?

[kitep]

It doesn't sound to me like advancing the blink dog would be overpowering, except for perhaps the "commands others of his kind" and the guy winds up with an army of blink dogs.  Though to be honest, by the time he gets that, a normal blink dog shouldn't be much of a threat to the enemies he'll be facing.

[Lunarambling]

Well, the idea is that it frees it up so that he doesn't HAVE to ride a Blink Dog, because Crinti SM gives the ability to effectively do the Blink Dog's DD ability, so he could actually choose basically any animal instead. Which would be better since Blink Dogs are intelligent and territorial and such and I had issues seeing one leaving his pack to go off with these random humans, elves, etc. Especially since such a Dog would be special among his kind, which means he would likely be a pack leader or whatever, and so would be unlikely to forsake his kin for others.

[Jackinthegreen]

If the campaign isn't likely to allow ubermounts then allowing CSM to progress a mount or other animal companion would be a nice addition that shouldn't be overpowered, unless you have someone in the party who is woefully behind on doing damage or otherwise being useful.

[ketaro]

Well, the idea is that it frees it up so that he doesn't HAVE to ride a Blink Dog, because Crinti SM gives the ability to effectively do the Blink Dog's DD ability, so he could actually choose basically any animal instead. Which would be better since Blink Dogs are intelligent and territorial and such and I had issues seeing one leaving his pack to go off with these random humans, elves, etc. Especially since such a Dog would be special among his kind, which means he would likely be a pack leader or whatever, and so would be unlikely to forsake his kin for others.

Could be a Blink Dog that lost it's pack. Nothing says your cohorts/followers/intelligent pets can't have subplots too

[Iainuki]

The main danger to balance from Crinti shadow marauder is people abusing shadow pounce's RAW to get multiple full attacks a round.  As long as you disallow that, shadow pounce only gives melee characters mobility, that's not going to break the game, and without multiple full attacks Crinti shadow marauder isn't an imbalancing PrC, so adding mount/companion advancement shouldn't break anything.

[Nunkuruji]

If it's not particularly an optimization game, I'd just say just let him take the Blink Dog with Leadership and advance it as such. Should be good and simple enough.

Since Dimension Door from the Blink Dog won't carry the player, the player needs a fairly reliable way to use CSMs Shadow Ride ability. Darkness/Deeper/Widened is a reasonable way to go, wand or spell capable from their other levels. Furthermore, then you as the DM and other players need to deal with darkness/shadowy illumination rules on a regular basis.